How To Optimize Your Breast Cancer Outcomes

Isaac Eliaz, MD, MS, Lac

Yeah, thank you for the opportunity to talk about such an important topic. Cancer in general and breast cancer specifically. So I’m grateful. Thank you for inviting me.

Véronique Desaulniers, DC

Thank you for taking the time. So you published this book as of two years now? Has it been?

Isaac Eliaz, MD, MS, Lac

Yeah, almost two years.

Véronique Desaulniers, DC

Almost two years. Almost two years. The Survival Paradox. It continues to gain attention for presenting a radical paradigm shift in health and medicine. So, can you explain to our listeners what exactly is the survival paradox?

Isaac Eliaz, MD, MS, Lac

Of course, a lot of us are aware that inflammation drives acute and chronic diseases. But inflammation is really a response. What really drives illnesses, what drives inflammation is a survival paradox. And why is it a paradox? It’s a paradox, it’s a profound paradox because we are wired to survive. You, me, every person, and every cell in our body is wired to survive. And because it’s innate in us, it’s automated. The problem is that the mechanisms of survival have a very high cost. So it’s an automated mechanism because it can’t be controlled; it’s the autonomic nervous system, the sympathetic system. The sympathetic system responds by fighting which equates to inflammation or by flight, in fear, and in flight where you hide, you runaway, which more equates with creating a shield with hiding, with creating a microenvironment. Now, when it comes to a sympathetic response, we can reverse it easily in the beginning. If it has been going on for many years, as you know, and it has a higher cost by introducing parasympathetic responses by relaxing, by breathing, by sleeping well, and by doing calming exercises. And then it will reverse as we all know by it, we get, you know, we get very agitated and then we can relax. 

The problem is that this response would trigger a biochemical or survivor response. And once a biochemical response starts, it has devastating effects and the alarm doesn’t turn off. And it does it to certain alarms, survival paradox, and proteins what alarm means. And what’s amazing about them, I’m just coming off the research meeting. I’m doing research on sepsis and a small difference in these proteins will trigger a whole cascade of inflammation, which we all know now is the cytokine storm. And this, of course, is of great relevance in cancer, among other conditions. So for us, understanding this gives us the power to be aware of it. And when we are aware of the survival paradox and we can try to shift it. It will first of all help our functioning organs that we have better control. Over time, we hope it will shift also in the cancerous cell, in the cancerous tissue where the control is not as tight because it’s a very independent process. So in this sense, the survivor power addressing the survivor paradox, addressing the survivor paradox protein becomes an integrative and essential part of our cancer strategy, short-term, long-term prevention treatment, and in conjunction with whatever we are doing and we’ll talk more about it today.

Véronique Desaulniers, DC

All right. So when I was going through my second healing journey, I came across something called Galectin-3 and this was a whole, this opened up a whole new world for me to understand really the depth of inflammation and the biochemical reaction of that survival mode that we’re in. So, could we talk about Galectin-3 and its role in breast cancer?

Isaac Eliaz, MD, MS, Lac

Of course, I’ve been working on it for almost three decades. I’ll be happy to talk about it. Okay. So, Galectin-3 is a carbohydrate-binding protein. It’s a protein that binds to carbohydrates either oligosaccharides, small chains of sugar, glycoproteins, proteins with carbohydrates, or glycolipids. And what he does, it’s the shuttles. It drives them and brings them to the problematic tissue that is giving a signal. I’m in trouble so it can be initiated by trauma, emotional, psychological, physical, by toxins, by infections, by genetic predisposition, and of course, cancerous tissue, and the body’s trying to struggle with what to do with it. So, it’s Galectin-3 drives all these ligands to the tissue. It responds by creating inflammation, angiogenesis, and new blood growth. And it does it by creating a microenvironment for the cancer. So, this is actually something a lot in holistic naturopathy talked about for decades, but now we know what it is. So, a Galectin-3 is a single protein with a place where it binds a carbohydrate and once it binds, it creates a pentamer of five, and then five attaches to five and you create a lattice, a lattice formation, literally a coating. And now the cancer tissue is insulated, now it is a different microenvironment where naturally less oxygen is coming to. Where the receptors on the cell are actually changing and this stimulates the growth of cancer. This evades the immune system. So, the initial interesting case in Galectin-3 was in cancer with papers published in the Journal of National Cancer Institute in 1995. It’s like the number one preclinical journal oncology in the world. And it’s interesting, it’s a natural step but then we developed a natural substance called Modified Citrus Pectin. This is the pectin that you mentioned that they developed almost three decades ago now over 80 published papers. Exactly. But it took more than almost 30 years for us to finally publish a multicenter trial where we show, in this case, we studied prostate cancer, but it’s not specific for the prostate, very relevant for the breast. Where we showed in biochemical relapse over 18 months, a long time, 90% benefit, nine zero was just published in a very good journal, nutrient, and received a favorable article non-solicited out of the blue from ASCO post. Okay. Who would believe that the American Society of Cancer Oncology of, you know, of cancer, you know, of chemical oncology would actually publish an article on natural substances. It’s really that, as you said, is the importance of work that people like me do where we bridge the gaps. 

During this journey, I discovered the immune enhancing effects of blocking Galectin-3 with Modified Citrus Pectin. But I also discovered that when you block a Galectin-3 you attenuate inflammation and fibrosis, which now there’s a lot of research. And interestingly, that’s in the grants, they have to study sepsis and acute kidney injury but it’s very relevant for cancer. So when the cancer tissue is very isolated that we can do all the therapies in the world, they need to get to the right place and we can deliver it to the right place. A lot of the papers, including a lot of the research, including another paper in Jane C.I. from early 2000, which was specific for breast cancer when animal models they showed a dramatic decrease in the metastatic process. In aggressive women in non-hormonal and hormonal, but even in non-hormonal which is triple-negative it is tougher but also in direct relationship to reduction of angiogenesis, the effect of both the primary tumor and the metastatic process. 

So, addressing Galectin-3 becomes an essential part of an integrative strategy. And because of the nature of the benefit, it lends itself to be integrated with complementary methods and with conventional methods. So there’s a lot of data showing that blocking the Galectin-3 with modified citrus pectin will enhance treatments of different chemotherapy, of biological engines, and of immunotherapy. And really the reason is because we are empowering the body to get in touch with the tissue that became independent because cancer is an independent process. We know many people listening know they can have cancer and they are, will change their diet and lifestyle is they feel so much better yet the cancer is still growing. Right. It’s a very common issue. And one of the reasons that the communication between the body and the cancer tissue in the tumor is very hard to make is because of this insulation and isolation. Because this really goes back to the survival paradox and why, because we, and I’m rounding up a little bit, not a lot, a little bit, we are made from about 50 trillion cells. Not million, not billion, trillion. Okay. So million times 1000. These billion, billion times 1000. Each of these cells has close to 1 million reactions a second. I mean, it’s incomplete. And here we are, this miracle, you know and I being able to talk to each other with 50 trillion cells with all this reaction is a miracle. Why? Because we identify with the survival of the whole person, where one cell does its work and then it goes into apoptosis, letting, I mean, vacating the stage for the next cell. 

A cancer cell is a cell that decides that it doesn’t want to die. It wants to survive and as such, it doesn’t respond to apoptosis. It changes its metabolism and creates its own metabolic system, its own function unrelated to the body. It exploits the body. And from a psychological point of view, because I like to give personality to cells when the cell is self-identified with, I mean, you can say like we have our egos, the cell of the cancer has its own identification. We initially when it becomes strong and then there’s no blood supply, we become more aggressive. And then as such, we try to evade and wean the tissues around us, eventually killing the cancer itself and the person. So if we can switch this mechanism, every cancer cell has the potential to become a normal set because it was once a normal cell. And really the expression of an abnormal cell is metabolic, that there’s a phenotypic expression, the reasons for going there can be so many. That’s why addressing the survivor paradox and understanding that you are blocking Galectin-3 with MCP is essential. It’s important, but anything in our mind, in our lifestyle, in our environment that will move us away from a survival place to a place of harmony, of mutual support, we live in immediate effect on cancer, and that’s why we see so many studies that relate to this. And so the potential for healing through understanding this is amazing. It’s not easy, but it’s possible.

Véronique Desaulniers, DC

Very powerful. Yes. So, people often ask me why this particular modified citrus pectin because there are so many different kinds out there. But I’d like for you to explain.

Isaac Eliaz, MD, MS, Lac

And for me, it’s nice to actually sold the company. It’s not mine anymore, but I’m definitely, I’m touched to the work I’ve done. I’m now doing some other very exciting stuff, but because this is a specific structure and this we know works, all the studies, all the patterns, all the 80 studies over 80 now where we’re done specifically on this one and you know, you’re not dealing with this a nutritional supplement for flu. You are dealing with a nutritional supplement for an oncological condition that has substantiation. You know, in fact, ASCO is correct, use the brand name. You know, I know you remember I maybe I’m almost sure. So obviously now most of the research on pectisol is not sponsored. It’s done by researchers who look at this body of research as a lot of interest in Galectin-3. I want people to understand it’s not like an esoteric protein. It has over 10,000 published papers. Okay, my NHA grants our removal of Galectin-3 through therapeutic apparatus in order to treat sepsis and save people’s lives. You know, so obviously then I added my second grant already, it’s a large grant. So there is interest, there’s a lot of interest in Galectin-3 and I think it’s just starting and it’s exciting for me, took only three decades, you know, but still patience is always a virtue but this is why. So, it makes no sense to use something which is not substantiated. When you have something which is substantiated, where there’s a high-quality where it’s reproduced and that’s really, really why it needed to be used. And we really have to understand when we talk about Galectin-3, we are not the only ones who use Galectin-3. The cancer cell also uses Galectin-3 as part of its survival paradox, a survival mechanism.

The coronavirus, the spike protein is practically identical to Galectin-3. The survival mechanism for every living person with Galectin-3 it does, that when excreted by the cancer environment it evades the immune system. It’s amazing. It increases PDL1 and it will prevent immunotherapy, for example, such as PDL1 inhibitors from working. And there is actually data on this. So again, in the philosophical mechanism, it’s basically isolating the system but it also would shut down natural killer cells. They will stop excreting cytokines and when you block Galectin-3 they will get reactivated. So, it has a very important role in cancer. That’s why I started my journey with Galectin-3. I am now focused more on the intensive care unit. Somebody who had never worked in a hospital bed and becoming an expert in sepsis because I have a possible solution for it. And the 11 million people die every year from sepsis. But as we do this, you know, my heart, my interest, I’m you know, I’m integrative cancer guy for decades, from the late 80s. So it’s very important to understand this because it become a basis and for some people, it’s dramatic. For some people, it’s not dramatic but for some people, it’s not but it almost always will have a benefit. And for some people, and we know it from our prostate cancer study with studies, we have a very smart oncologist with the leading urological oncologist in Israel. And he noticed this. Some patients will respond right away. You will see the PSA doubling time extent, and the growth stopping. Some people will take six, to eight months until the change happens. So it’s something you need to have patience with. But it should be part of our strategy.

Véronique Desaulniers, DC

Agreed. Very interesting. So you mentioned something new that you’re working on right now. It’s a clinical treatment for cancer called Therapeutic Apheresis. So explain to us a little bit about that therapy and what it does.

Isaac Eliaz, MD, MS, Lac

So, Therapeutic Apheresis is a well-established process but not so popular in the United States and a little bit misunderstood. Where you selectively remove something that you want to remove from the plasma, from the fluids part of the blood without removing everything compared to total plasma exchange, which is often called Therapeutic Apheresis. It’s not where you throw away the plasma and put in fluid and it’s a harsher treatment because you lose your protein, you lose your nourishment. And what happens? In The United States, the one column that is approved is more we remove oxidized lipids and inflammatory compounds in growth factors. By removing this you are first, you are attenuating the fire that drives the cancer. You also remove a lot of toxins because they are fat-soluble but you also allow whatever treatment you are doing to reach that tissue. So it’s a treatment that is done in general. For example, in the unfortunate stage where people are terminal patients without normal treatments, you will see a clear prolongation of life and improvement in quality because the people are not inflamed and it also will enhance chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and immunotherapy. So we integrated it into our, it’s more of a high-tech approach and not available for everyone. They are really, I mean, I’m practically the only person who does it in the United States. Not to be confused with IBU, which is popular. It’s not that, it’s Therapeutic Apheresis.

Véronique Desaulniers, DC

So the ability to be able to get that treatment then is that only people would have to go to your clinic to have that done?

Isaac Eliaz, MD, MS, Lac

Right now, yes. If you come to I mean, to my medical clinic. And also there are very specific times when it’s essential, for example, post-radiation therapy to prevent long-term side effects. People with other factors that are disrupting their ability to heal like mycotoxins, heavy metals, and environmental toxins, it will really clear them up. And then you integrate it with your regular program. So, we often work in conjunction with integrative doctors who deal with cancer where the patient comes specifically for this treatment while they get their daily care or ongoing care wherever they are. So most of our patients fly from out of town.

Véronique Desaulniers, DC

So how many treatments are recommended for this?

Isaac Eliaz, MD, MS, Lac

So usually the minimum is two treatments.

Véronique Desaulniers, DC

Oh, that’s it?

Isaac Eliaz, MD, MS, Lac

Yeah. I mean, it’s not like things will, eventually the inflammation will come back. But as you reduce inflammation, the body can recalibrate. So, especially to, I don’t listen to, the reason is when you clear the blood from inflammatory compounds, the tissue now feel that it can dump. It’s like the water when it’s clean enough. It can throw away the toxins from the tissue and you need to get to the tissue. And the only time we do one time is when people will come specifically before treatment, like they will get it in the afternoon and the next day they do immunotherapy or chemotherapy or they are just about to start radiation therapy. In this sense, we want to make the body optimal. And people have to understand it’s a question of timing. Timing is sometimes overlooked in integrative oncology. We are excited about this supplement or that supplement, but it’s the timing of it. So, if you can, if we can get the body to be more optimal to respond to a treatment let’s say we are using a certain conventional treatment or whatever it is non-conventional and we are expecting to have a 20% response, let’s say. And now is the body’s optimal you get a 60% response. Now that the person has less tumor burden, naturally, there’s less inflammation, right? So timing is very important, especially if people have to fly out of town. Definitely. And we have become doing it and being a pioneer in this. You know, some people call it the term called the disruptor. I don’t like it, but you disrupt the regular way so I’m always, they call me the disruptor in the industry, and I’m talking about the biggest, this company I work with in this sense we’ve become very experienced because we’re doing it for so many thousands of patients by now, thousands of treatments, we can really make it very efficient. So it’s more cost-effective. It doesn’t have to be repeated. But for certain people, I mean, sometimes we have very aggressive cancers that people just come to the area and they do it regularly. Yeah, definitely.

Véronique Desaulniers, DC

Wonderful. Wonderful. All right. So let’s shift a little bit. In your book, you talk a lot about healing the story behind the cancer. We know that there’s always an emotional aspect to the development of cancer. So, what’s been your experience about really reaching the heart of the patient to understand what the root cause of the cancer is, especially for breast cancer?

Isaac Eliaz, MD, MS, Lac

I’m smiling because this is my life’s journey and this is really my patient. It’s my third act. I mean, my 60 now. So, I’m highly trained in meditation. When I say highly trained, I spent 20 years, two to three months a year in the mountains, and 10 years half-day retreat. I studied, and trained, and treated the greatest meditation and masters in the Himalayas for many, many years. So I have like, you know, now I think about 50 years of meditation experience. So I’ve learned a little I mean, I figured out a few things and seeing and learning the most esoteric practices and having certain insights about them during these retreats. I have I think I’ve expressed it to the outside world is the term open heart medicine, and it’s about shifting from our head to our heart. And of course, it’s a topic by itself almost. I was most concerned about opening it in a few minutes, but the idea is that our heart physiologically is our greatest healer. So when we connect with our heart and the reason is that every cell in our body, their survival response is selfish, they want to get not nourished with good things, right? They throw out what they don’t want through their membranes and organs do the same. 

The only organ in the body whose survival is to serve others is the heart. The heart survives by taking all the junk from all the organs with the venous system. And instead of getting stuck like in the head, in thoughts or the organs, I take this or I take that. It takes it with open arms. You know, it doesn’t matter where the blood comes from. It came from the brain, it came from the kidney. The heart gets it and instead of struggling, it connects with the universe, with the breath. And then it gives it clean blood without discrimination. All the stiff organ, he just gives it everywhere. And the first organ that gets nourished after the heart gives its blood and it relaxes is the heart itself through the coronary arteries. So the heart nourishes itself in order to nourish others and it is part of nourishing others. So it really, it really is the biggest way to counteract and to heal, not to counteract but to transform this survival paradox into love, compassion, and infinite healing. And so that’s one part that it’s interesting. It’s something that I have made this unique connection. And I said, well, why wasn’t anyone else talking about it? But when we connect it to its physiology we have to understand that we have to bring the quality of the heart into every cell in the body. Every cell is independent. It has its own personality and the cancer cell is going to be resisted and it’s going to be resistant because of its story. It can be fear, it can be trauma, it can be toxin, it can be epigenetic, and it can be so many different things. So the trick is to project the infinite healing quality of the heart into our tissue. And that’s really the secret part of open for open heart medicine. Know that they keep it secret, but it’s different than regular meditation, very different. And it almost requires a face-to-face. 

And I actually wrote a whole book about it, decided in Hebrew, and then the COVID happened. So I put it on hold. I decided to write it in English. I just have to find it time, hopefully, in two years. But that’s my passion and this is why I am going to offer, you know, a seven-day meditation sequence in 2024 for free for four people. And I’m doing my first in-person meditation and healing retreat with open heart medicine. I did it a lot in Israel for over a decade. Thousands of people. And I’m going to do it. Actually, I’m going to do it in my favorite place, it’s the big island of Hawaii on September 17, 2024, and we are limiting it. Usually, my retreats are very big, with hundreds of people and we are limiting to 60 to 70 people. And there you can experience what happens. It’s really remarkable. So it’s remarkable for people with fibromyalgia and fatigue and pain. But we often have cancer patients. Well, really, you see the markers going down over a few days because we integrate dietary cleansing and the healing environment and supportive environment. And with a very intense process where the understanding of how our mind and how it works from a meditative point of view. And it has nothing to do with a belief system. Reality is reality. And the one truth about reality is that it’s impermanent. It changes all the time. 

What it is survival paradox is not accepting that things change. That everything it expresses itself has to end. And when we don’t want to do it, that’s survival. We hold on to it. And this contraction is what changes our health and traumas will do it, an emotional problem in psychology, in toxicity, and epigenetics. In the end, the role of the healer is not to tell people what they see, is to allow the person to see themselves, to experience it themselves. And because the heart never stops giving and everything changes all the time, naturally, and logically and we know it from quantum mechanics, anything and everything is possible. And that’s why not everyone will be a miracle but anyone can be a miracle and this starts with understanding the survival paradox. A deeper part of a survival paradox which in the book I just hinted at the end of the book. It’s kind of an introduction, but it’s a book I recommend people to read because it will take you through the journey very practical for cancer, because most of the stories are about cancer and protocol, etc. And we understand that we do it on a physiological level by blocking this nasty protein, and we do it in our lifestyle by shifting our environment. And it’s very important in cancer and when and it’s a lot of the ways that you approach it. When you do this multifaceted approach, then you need less of the heroic, unaffordable treatments because there is brilliance in the simplicity.

But real simplicity doesn’t come because we don’t know really. Simplicity doesn’t come because we didn’t learn. I’ve read a lot of stuff for many decades and so do you When we are ready to unlearn, to let go of getting stuck in concept and really tuning with a different level. And as long as we are caught in the survival paradox in this construction then anything and everything is possible. And it’s interesting, this is a recording that is going to air whenever the summit airs. And this is the third day of the war in Israel. And I’m Israeli and my family is in danger and it’s scary. And what happened there is terrible. But yet when I talk my heart is opened to everyone, not because I’m amazing, just because I’m connected to this quality and I’m trained in it. So, this is a quality we have to bring at times of difficulty, right? It’s easy to be relaxed and happy when everything is going well. I mean, you know, it’s all well, right? So, that’s why I really love your approach. And so there is a lot to it. The beauty here in this talk and in general is it we have this continuum from a very simple blockage of a protein which is essential to putting the lifestyle, like having good hydration so the tissues can connect to each other. Just simple things, like sleeping in a dark room and exercising regularly and then affecting the mind through meditation and through exercises that affect the mind, yoga, and qigong. Then into it, we integrate a sophisticated supplement program which works dynamically with other things that we are doing. And in the background, we keep blocking Galectin-3 all the time. That’s something we do all the time.

Véronique Desaulniers, DC

So powerful and so touching. I love the open heart medicine. Can’t wait to get your new book.

Isaac Eliaz, MD, MS, Lac

Yeah, I know, but I really have. I mean, I’ve never written in another language, but I have to upgrade it.

Véronique Desaulniers, DC

So. Sure. All right, Dr. Isaac, thank you so much for your time and your expertise. It’s always great to be with you. So, until next time and we will see you. So this is Dr. V, Bye-bye.