If there's one thing I've learned over the last couple of years of doing this little feature, it's that there are a couple of kinds of woo. Actually, there are certainly more than a couple, but pretty much all woo can be divided into a couple of types. The first time is where the woo is based on no science at all, but rather mysticism or some other religious or "spiritual" force. This may or may not be combined with the physical or with some sort of scientific or pseudoscientific explanations to justify it, but at its very heart the woo far more religion than science. Then, there's another type of woo that is actually based on some science. The problem, of course, is that it takes a bit of science and just goes completely off the rails with it. This usually takes the form of making wild extrapolations from known science that aren't justified, although it can certainly take other forms as well, as in burying the recipient in "science-y" sounding jargon that is impressive to those without a scientific background (the vast majority of people) but that anyone with a bit of knowledge in the relevant field or even just a bit of critical thinking skills that allows him to notice contradictions and logical fallacies can recognize it for what it is.
This week's installment takes this latter sort of woo to a whole new level. Basically, it takes a relatively banal observation and cranks up the woo to 11 (not unlike the level to which the Stupid-O-Meter is frequently cranked by Jenny McCarthy). One reason I appreciate it is that it even rather makes an oblique kind of extrapolation from what we as surgeons do already, namely radiofrequency ablation. What's not to like?
Unless you're a patient being treated with this stuff, of course.
The treatment modality is called "GEMM therapy." Naturally, as I did, I'm sure you want to know what, exactly, GEMM therapy is:
GEMM (Generatore Elettro Magnetico Modulato) is a state of the art therapeutic device generating specially modulated, low power (0.25 watt) radio waves.With these radio waves GEMM directly communicates with the target proteins in the cells who are responsible for regulating biological processes.
This direct communication enables GEMM to provide significant therapeutic benefits for a wide range of diseases and medical conditions.
GEMM's therapeutic waves are at the target protein's precisely calculated specific resonant frequency in order to give orders to stop, modify or reverse the malfunctioning processes.
Whoa! It sounds really science-y, doesn't it? Who knew that such low power radio waves could be used to cure so many diseases? Certainly not me. This would be revolutionary if it were true. After all, radiofrequency ablation of tumors routinely uses power in the range of 150 watts, more than 600 times the level of what GEMM claims to use. Clearly, we surgeons have been hitting tumors with a thermonuclear blast rather than a smart bomb. Oddly enough, radiofrequency ablation generally is not curative and is in fact usually used in the case of tumors in the liver (and a few other places) that either can't be resected surgically or for patients who are just not in good enough shape to handle major surgery. Wouldn't it be lovely to use such incredibly low power? Of course it would. Do you want to know more? Of course you do. Certainly I did; in particular I wanted to know the scientific rationale that would lead the seller of the GEMM therapy to make such extravagant claims. First, the findings of a scientist named Irena Cosic are invoked to describe the resonant frequency model of protein-protein interactions. I'm not a protein chemist, but a perusal of PubMed only turned up 29 articles, including some by Professor Cosic, in particular this one, which explores whether protein function can be modified by an applied electromagnetic radiation of defined frequency in a range of infrared, visible and ultraviolet light. Oddly enough, there is nothing about radiowaves in there. So apparently resonant recognition is science, and I wonder how Professor Cosic would feel about her work being appropriated to justify woo like this:
Considerable experimental evidence today points to the possibility of modulating biological functions and structures in a controlled way by applying electromagnetic fields.
This phenomenon has been observed and used by Dr Gorgun since the 1970s when he made his key discovery of calculating the resonant frequency of any given molecule per the "Method of Gorgun".
The "method of Gorgun"? Gee, there's no problem with this guy's ego, is there? I do have to admit that the name has a rather nice ring to it in a B-movie, science-fiction, evil mad scientist sort of way: "Submit or suffer the method of Gorgun!" Geek that I am, I'm a sucker for that sort of stuff. I picture the guy living in the side of a mountain on a deserted island, with hordes of underlings and uniformed bodyguards working for him, you know, kind of like a James Bond villain. But what is this method? Dr. Gorgun is only too happy to explain:
GEMM is based on the principle of applying the precisely determined electromagnetic fields to the target proteins at the selected resonant frequency to regulate the malfunctioning biological process in a controlled fashion.
A comprehensive description of the method and its effects on neoplastic cells is provided in Dr Gorgun's article "Studies on the Interaction Between Electromagnetic Fields and Living Matter Neoplastic Cell Culture" appeared at the Journal of Frontier Perspectives.
Looking at this paper, I noticed one thing right away. All the guy did was to apply radiofrequency energy to a bunch of tumor cell lines at a power level of 0.25 W and then make a bunch of observations. The first thing that came to mind is that, if this guy is right, perhaps we shouldn't be worried about cancer from cell phones at all. After all, cell phones emit around 0.6 W, and scientists have trouble finding much in the way of nonthermal biological effects at that power, and yet here's Dr. Gorgun claiming to find cell necrosis, ultrastructural changes, and mitochondrial degeneration, among other changes. Maybe on the basis of his studies we should encourage everyone to use their cell phones constantly, so that they can bathe their cranium in the healing energy. Sadly, the pictures of cells that he has published don't look all that impressive, and no functional studies are presented (although there sure is a lot of speculation over hypotheses based on this rather thin gruel). He also can't seem to make up his mind whether he's seeing necrosis or apoptosis. If the latter, it's pretty easy to verify with studies such as caspase activation, PARP cleavage, or other indications of activation of apoptosis.
All of these objections, of course, pale in comparison to the single biggest knock against this stuff: It's all cell culture! Where are the animal models? Even if Dr. Gorgun observed exactly what he said he observed (and if he has why hasn't anyone else observed anything so seemingly dramatic?), he's looking at nothing other than a bunch of cells on a dish, and, worse, he hasn't even done even the most basic molecular or biochemical studies to determine whether what he claims to be occurring is, in fact, occurring.
But what about this journal, this Journal of Frontier Perspectives? I had never heard of it before. It turns out that it's based at Temple University; sadly, it also turns out that Temple has an institute called the Center for Frontier Sciences (CFS) that is every bit as buried in woo as the now-defunct (and unlamented by anyone but woo-meisters) Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) Institute. Martin Gardner wrote a devastating article about CFS for the Skeptical Inquirer ten years ago and described the publications in this journal thusly:
Its periodical Frontier Perspectives, issued twice a year, has grown to more than eighty pages. I had not seen a copy until physicist C. Alan Bruns, at Franklin and Mitchell College, in Lancaster, sent a copy of Vol. 7, No. 1, 1998, to CSICOP's office, which in turn forwarded it to me.
Reading through its pages I could hardly believe my eyes. I had expected the magazine to be concerned with such outstanding frontiers as superstring theory, the nature of dark matter, the genetic origins of altruism, how organic molecules fold so rapidly, speculations about a "multiverse" in which endless universes, each with a unique set of laws, explode into reality, or supercomputers operating with quantum mechanics.
The "frontiers" covered in this peculiar journal are nothing of the sort. They are reports on research so far removed from reputable science that it is no wonder academic journals refuse such papers. Let me quickly review a few topics that dominate the Fall/Winter 1998 issue of this magazine.
Homeopathy is one of the center's favorite "frontiers." I don't need to remind SI readers that this is the nineteenth-century crank contention that certain substances, diluted to a degree that no molecules of the substance remain, have great potency in curing an enormous variety of ailments. Because homeopathic remedies consist of nothing but distilled water, it becomes necessary for its defenders to assume that, in some mysterious manner totally unknown to chemists, the water retains a "memory" of its vanished substances.
Cyril Smith, a British electrical engineer, writing on "Is a Living System a Macroscopic Quantum System?", relates "homeopathic potencies" to the Earth's electromagnetic fields that cause dowsing rods to turn. The Center obviously regards the ancient art of water witching as another of today's science "frontiers." In 1989 it sponsored a conference on dowsing, chaired by Terry Ross, identified as a "well-known dowser."
Well, alright! Homeopathy and dowsing, two of the hoary old men of the woo brigade, woo so potent that it will live forever. Long after I'm nothing more than a crumbling skeleton, there will be homeopaths and dowsers. I wish it were otherwise, but the human mind's capacity for self-deception is insatiable. But that's not all that goes on at the CFS. Alt-med, the study of Tarot readings, and even U.F.O.s, complete with alien abductions, have been credulously "researched" there. I simply had had no idea of the power of the concentrated woo in Philadelphia. Now that PEAR is no more, I'm afraid CFS will just take up the slack.
But back to Dr. Gorgun and, because it's my area of expertise, cancer. Apparently, GEMM therapy can cure incurable cancer:
Dr Gorgun has been successfully treating cancer patients for over 30 years with GEMM Therapy. Hundreds of terminal cancer patients who have been given no hope by orthodox medicine have been cured or their conditions have been significantly improved by GEMM Therapy.
GEMM device is sending precisely calculated therapeutic radio waves to the cancer cells for manipulating the sensitivity of the malfunctioning glycoproteinic sensors in the mitochondrial membrane. The treatment forces the cell to stop continuous ATP production that normally results in rapid mitosis that leads to cancer.
When the ATP production is halted, without energy to carry out the normal activities, the cell quickly goes into necrosis, the cell death. In well differentiated cell type tumors that are normally less aggressive, the ATP production does not stop completely but barely enough to keep the cell in a vegetative state. Later most of the tumors of this type has been calcified and remain quite over a very long period.
Good God, the man appears to be abusing poor Otto Warburg? Will poor Warburg never cease to have his work abused by pseudoscientists? He's probably rolling over in his grave--nay, spinning--at all the abuse of his work by woo-loving pseudoscientists! Of course, if it were that easy to stop cancer cells from producing ATP, wouldn't you think that scientists would be doing it already? After all, they've been zapping cells with electricity, X-rays, and radiowaves ever since they first figured out how to grow them in cell culture! I guess we scientists must all be that stupid. Or we must lack Dr. Gorgun's unique scientific vision. Or something.
Naturally, Dr. Gorgun has all sorts of anecdotes that supposedly show that GEMM therapy has cured glioblastoma, breast cancer, and retroperitoneal sarcoma, but, as is always the case, there is insufficient documentation to tell whether there is anything to these anecdotes or not. Indeed, the second breast cancer (G.B.) case is particularly silly. The "pretreatment" photo shows a close-up of a fungating breast cancer; the "post-treatment" photo shows the breast from a different angle in a darker photo. To me, the two don't really look significantly different, but the caption over the first one characterizes the tumor deposits in the skin as "necrotic tissues pouring away from the breast following the GEMM Therapy application." What it looks like to me is nothing more than the unfortunately run-of-the-mill fungating and bleeding breast cancer deposits.
In any case, if these anecdotes are truly as compelling as advertised, I have to ask the same question that I always ask: Why doesn't Dr. Gorgun publish them as case reports in a real peer-reviewed medical journal, instead of a woo-journal? If he has the goods and can really cure incurable cancers, then I would argue that he is morally and ethically obligated to do so, rather than using GEMM in a clinic to bilk--I mean treat--patients. This is one area where a randomized, double-blind clinical trial would not be necessary. If Dr. Gorgun could demonstrate well enough that peer reviewers believe him that GEMM therapy can indeed cure (or prolong the life so dramatically that historical controls are adequate for comparison of) patients with advanced, incurable malignancies, it would be a major breakthrough. If, for example, he could provide irrefutable evidence that he could cure five patients in a row with metastatic pancreatic cancer, researchers would be beating down his door to collaborate with him and figure out how this stuff works. He'd be a shoe-in for the Nobel Prize, and his device (pictured below) would appear in every oncology clinic and cancer center:
So why is Dr. Gorgun publishing questionable anecdotes on a website instead of claiming the fame and glory that a major cancer breakthrough would bring to him? Maybe he's just too busy with his many other research projects, such as remote sensing:
One of the most significant achievements of Dr. Gorgun is a technology he named GEFR "Gorgun Electromagnetic Fermion Resonance" for the Remote Sensing of Condensed Matter. Because it can remotely identify material, GEFR is totally different and superior to other remote sensing systems.
GEFR utilizes specially modulated very high frequency (in the GHz range) yet very lower power electromagnetic waves to scan the atomic model of any given material. The scanned information is than kept the GEFR's memory. GEFR afterwards can remotely search the same material at any defined territory. This high-end technology can be used to detect mines, explosives, drugs or any desired material from a distance. GEFR is an unmatched, breakthrough discovery in the remote sensing field.
What is it with this guy naming everything after himself? There isn't a huge ego there, is there? Or even a touch of megalomania? Whatever the case, Dr. Gorgun seems to be the Leonardo da Vinci of our day--at least if you believe his website. He can even produce safe nuclear energy from any material:
Normally nuclear reactions can take place from unstable atoms such as uranium as it is believed that it is almost impossible to break the extremely high energy nucleus of the stable atoms.
However by using his unique resonance approach Dr. Gorgun was able to resonate an ordinary material by sending special electromagnetic waves to a so called "material amplifier".
In the experiments done and recorded at the Galileo Avionica's Laboratory, the outcome was an immense 7 GigaWatt energy burst lasting for 2 nanoseconds.
I tell ya, this guy won't just put oncologists out of business. He'll put OPEC out of business.
Remember, though, how I mentioned how Dr. Gorgun's woo would be a natural fit with cell phone woo? Apparently Dr. Gorgun agrees:
By applying a very low cost apparatus to the antenna, Dr. Gorgun eliminates the dangerous emission around the antenna but paradoxically beyond a safe distance the electromagnetic signals continues to propagate at the desired level.
Another very interesting outcome is that the waves propagated from the protected antenna are spherical but not plenary i.e. 3-D instead of 2-D compared to the typical nude antenna.
I wonder how Dr. Gorgun pulled that off.
Personally, I think he's making a big mistake. I said before early in this piece that, if Dr. Gorgun's radio waves can kill cancer so completely dead while regenerating bone in osteoporosis or kidney in end stage renal failure, then he's missing a true chance to do good (and become fabulously wealthy). All he has to do is to work with cell phone companies to reconfigure their phones so that they work using a carrier wave that has the most beneficial shape (according to Dr. Gorgun's research, of course!) and market that. People use cell phones all the time; so they would be exposed for minutes to several hours a day to the healing beams of woo that only Dr. Gorgun can provide. Rates of cancer prevalence will plummet; no one will have osteoporosis anymore; and no one will need dialysis anymore. Billions upon billions of healthcare dollars will be saved, to the eternal gratitude of governments everywhere. I'm surprised he hasn't thought of it before.
There's no need for Dr. Gorgun to thank me for this idea, though. It's all for duty and humanity!
He probably sees phone companies as potential competitors to the Gorgun-Remote-Sensa-Phone he likely has in pre-production.
Suddenly, a quote from "Plan Nine From Outer Space" flashed unbidden to my mind:
"You see? You see? You're stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!"
"7 GigaWatt energy burst lasting for 2 nanoseconds"
One may wonder how he did not destroy himself, considering the fact that he was probably exposed to something similar to a nuclear bomb.
C'mon folks,
The good doctor has shared with me that his latest project is the "Gorgun Relativity Electro Ennervated Device - Enhanced" or GREED-E.
All for the good of humankind.
The burst was so short that nobody felt it.
7 GW [1] for 2 ns is a total of 14 Joules, or 14 Watt-seconds. That's a few [1] seconds of cellphone output.
[1] Not to be confused with the politician, who may be powerful but isn't necessarily bright.
[2] few: count on one hand.
7GigaWatts for 2 Nanoseconds. So . . . he produced an immense 14 joules?
7 billion watts for 2 billionth of a second = 14 watt-seconds = 14 joules.
One Joule, from the amusing Wiki example: the energy required to lift a small apple one metre straight up.
He's got part of a bushel there!
Gotta love that "lets add unit names to confuse people!" thing there...
Cheers,
Bagheera
to paraphrase Darth Vader: The woo is strong in this one.
If you spent 1 million dollars to produce a single watt second, would you then have a joule of great price?
You guys are making a big mistake. read his web page. He is a genius. When he was only 18
in 1968 and in high school, he not only invented an aritficial heart that operated without power, he was the LEAD SURGEON that implanted it. He also attended a prestigious British university, conveniently located in Pakistan, where he obtained a medical degree in 1978.
I defy you to name me another person who can be a lead surgeon ten years before getting a medical degree.
GEMM's therapeutic waves are at the target protein's precisely calculated specific resonant frequency in order to give orders to stop, modify or reverse the malfunctioning processes.
So, it's a remote control for tumors?
Does anyone have an opinion regarding the Cytotron therapy? This is an electromagnetic treatment with FM used to shrink tumors and cure osteo-arthritis?
It is really interesting to read this critical expert review from the PseudoExpert ORACt who has virtually no understanding of Molecular Physics, Electromagnetics and perhaps only a basic level Molecular Biology. I would strongly recommend you to try to not to discredit someone without adequate knowledge on a field that you had no understanding whatsoever.
I would be pleased to provide explanations for the issues where our PseudoExpert ORAC made his absurd comments:
Dr Gorgun's hypothesis on cancer has basically three major assumptions that are:
1- Cellular Communication is Electromagnetic in Nature
2- Mitochondria Plays the Key Role in Cancer and in Regulating Mitosis
3- Irreversibly Damaged Glycoproteins in Mitochondrial Membrane Initiates Cancer
First I will provide detailed information on these key propositions:
CELLULAR COMMUNICATION IS ELECTROMAGNETIC IN NATURE
It is estimated that the average human adult body contains about 70 trillion cells. Each human cell is also estimated to contain 100 Trillion atoms. A human cell contains several different compartments and a very complex structure.Generally the cellular processes within the cell are regulated by proteins that are involved in the cellular transactions. A protein is made up of smaller amino acid molecules. Their 3-dimensional folding is closely correlated to their functioning. A typical human cell contains an average of 8 Billion proteins made up of 10-20,000 different types. According to the established medical explanation all communication in the body is by biochemical means. Generally two complementary shaped proteins interact with each other per the key-lock or its modified induced fit model.
However there is a major problem with this model. The cell is an extremely crowded environment with 100 Trillion atoms and many different molecules and structures. So how is it possible for a protein to recognize and interact its target protein among 10,000 different types of proteins as there are 100 trillion atoms and 8 billion proteins inside this densely packed human cell. The classical explanation is the random collision model. This model states that all molecules in the cell continuously collides with each other and when the complementary shaped molecules make this collision they initiate a transaction per the key-lock or induced fit model described above.
However Dr Gorgun along with several other scientists, does not agree with these commonly believed classical explanations. According to him both the key-lock model and the random collisions hypothesis are seriously flawed and far from explaining the very delicate and smooth mechanism regulation cellular and bodily processes. Dr Gorgun hypothesized that the actual key-lock mechanism in the cellular processes are different, and depend on the specifically coded information on the electrostatic field around the molecules. This is comparable to the hotel key cards where the specifically coded information on the static magnetic field of the key card is used as a more sensitive and selective way compared to old type of key where the sensitivity and selectivity depends on the shape of the key. In the below pictures you can see an old type of key where the shape is determinant, a new type of hotel key card where the coded information on the magnetic stripe is determinant and finally a demonstration of the electrostatic field around a molecule where the cells are using to code the necessary information to regulate transactions.
Dr Gorgun also hypothesized that molecules such as proteins do not depend on random collisions to find each other. Instead they communicate via radio waves at specific resonant frequencies. All molecules are made up of atoms. Depending on the characteristics of the individual atoms and shape of the molecule they can act as a receiving and transmitting antenna. The structure and length of the molecules determines the specific resonant frequency it acts as an antenna.
There are several scientists who studied the effect of radio waves at specific frequencies on different molecules on the cells. One of the leading researchers in this field is Prof Irena Cosic who developed the Resonant Recognition Model -RRM- published a series of scientific articles pointing to the role of electromagnetic waves in cellular communication.
In her article namely "The effect of electromagnetic radiation (550 - 850 nm) on l-Lactate dehydrogenase kinetics" www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17575949 she had noted:
It has been shown in our previous research that all protein sequences with the common biological function have common frequency component in the distribution of free energy of electrons along the protein backbone. This characteristic frequency is related to the protein biological function as it was found in our previous investigations.). Furthermore, it was also shown that proteins and their targets have the same characteristic frequency in common. Thus, it can be postulated that RRM frequencies characterize not only a general function but also a recognition/interaction between the particular protein and its target at the distance. Thus, protein interactions can be considered as the resonant energy transfer between the interacting molecules. This energy can be transferred through oscillations of a physical field, possibly electromagnetic in nature.
Results reveal the LDH activity was modulated by the EMF exposures at the computationally predicted frequencies. The RRM concept presented provides new insights into proteins susceptibility to perturbation by electromagnetic radiation and possibility to program, predict, design and modify proteins and their bioactivity.
Her articles provides a list of selected RRM frequencies for different functional group of proteins and DNA Regulatory sequences. This is a very clear indication that proteins in the human body can communicate and interact at the specific resonant frequencies.
For additional information in this topic you can visit Prof Mae Wan Ho 's article The Real Bioinformatics Revolution : Proteins and Nucleic Acids Singing to One Another?( www.i-sis.org.uk/TheRealBioinformaticsRevolution.php ) appeared in the Institute for Science in Society Portal.
Another significant study which provides additional evidence that cells can communicate by means of radio waves was published by the Italian Nuclear Physicist Prof Emilio Del Giudice ( www.stockexchangeofvisions.org/speaker.php?id=12 ) et al in 1989 with the title "Magnetic Flux Quantization and Josephson Behaviour in Living Systems" ( http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/1402-4896/40/6/017/ ) . Prof Emilio Del Giudice has been a very close friend of Dr Gorgun and had a very detiled reference appreciating his level of excellence in treatment with electromagnetic waves.
Pictures appeared in study clearly demonstrates the effect that during the mitosis the yeast cell Saccaromyces Cerevisiae was emitting a radio frequency signal centering around 7.0 MHz as recorded by the spectrum analyzer.
There are numerous other studies demonstrating the interaction between electromagnetic waves and living matter. Over 10,000 such studies are accessible at the EMF Portal ( www.emf-portal.de/ ).
As a summary Dr Gorgun states that all living systems heavily depend on radio waves to regulate biological transactions. For transmitting several commands to numerous parts of the system at the same time the central command system (such as brain) transmits radio signals that are received by the receiving antennas that are tuned to the very specific resonant frequency. Individual proteins also recognize their target protein counterparts at a distance and make the interactions by electromagnetic means. Very frequently also several other atoms and molecules such as Ca ions, hormones, enzymes, etc are used to carry messages around the body. Such messages are coded on the surrounding electrostatic field of the messenger molecules and decoded when they interact with their targets to initiate the relevant transaction.
According to Dr Gorgun the reason why such an enormous flow of radio waves cannot be sensed by current sensing systems is due to the fact that instead of high energy containing electric photons, the radio waves used in molecular communication is primarily managed by tens of millions of times less energy containing magnetic photons. The concept of magnetic monopoles (an isolated north or south magnetic pole) was first hypothesized by one of the founders of Quantum Physics Theory, the Nobel Laureate Paul Dirac and magnetic photons also were first hypothesized by another Nobel Laureate in Physics Dr Abdus Salam. Despite the common agreement among theoretical physicists that magnetic monopoles/photons, yet no scientists were experimentally able to demonstrate their existence.
In the 1970s Dr Gorgun developed a technique to isolate the magnetic photons from an electromagnetic wave and amplify them through resonance which he named the "Gorgun Principle" By the means of magnetic photons that are used in nature to carry information he developed a way to interact with molecules in their native resonant frequency language.
Dr Gorgun applied Magnetic Photons (which I believe is totally out of the field of ORAC) to other fields especially advanced Remote Sensing Technologies namely GEFR, during the contracted research he had done for the leading Italian Defense Electronics Company Galileo Avionica ( www.selex-sas.com/SelexSAS/EN/index.sdo )
Together with Dr Gorgun I have submitted a paper to be presented on the upcoming SPIE Europe Defense & Security which has been accepted per the following confirmatory letter:
On behalf of the chairs for the upcoming "Electro-Optical Remote Sensing, Photonic Technologies, and Applications II" conference it is my pleasure to confirm the acceptance of your submission, "GEFR remote sensing and identification technology based on magnetic photon waves." This conference is part of the SPIE Symposium on Optics/Photonics in Security & Defence which will be held 15-18 September 2008 in Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom.
Unlike PseudoExpert ORAC the people from SPIE are real experts on their field, it is a very serious conference and they were not trying make fun of Dr Gorgun like the PseudoExpert ORAC.
The following link provides details to our paper http://spie.org//app/program/index.cfm?fuseaction=conferencedetail&expo…
PseudoExpert ORAC made the following comment to criticize Dr Gorgun:
Good God, the man appears to be abusing poor Otto Warburg? Will poor Warburg never cease to have his work abused by pseudoscientists? He's probably rolling over in his grave--nay, spinning--at all the abuse of his work by woo-loving pseudoscientists!
I would recommend him to read the following section and hope he will try to understand a little bit about it. May be it is the time for the medical community to have a more skeptical look at Warburg's hypothesis instead of giving him a blank cheque
Now below you can find Dr Gorgun's point of view:
MITOCHONDRIA PLAYS THE KEY ROLE IN CANCER AND IN REGULATING MITOSIS
The mitochondria is the organelle responsible for most of the energy production of the cells in the form of ATP (adenosine triphosphate). The cells use glucose as a fuel to obtain energy. The cells can convert glucose to ATP either in the cytoplasm with a process called glycolysis generating 2 ATP molecules, or they can utilize the mitochondria with a mechanism called Krebs Cycle where 2 + 34 ATP molecules are produced.
For more than 70 years most cancer researchers heavily depend on the Warburg's Hypothesis which was postulated by the Nobel laureate Otto Heinrich Warburg in 1924. He hypothesized that cancer, malignant growth, and tumor growth are caused by the fact that tumor cells mainly generate ATP by non-oxidative breakdown of glucose or glycolysis. This is in contrast to "healthy" cells which mainly generate energy from oxidative breakdown of pyruvate. Pyruvate is an end-product of glycolysis, and is oxidized within the mitochondria. Hence and according to Warburg, cancer should be interpreted as a mitochondrial dysfunction. Warburg reported a fundamental difference between normal and cancerous cells to be the ratio of glycolysis to respiration; this observation is also known as the Warburg effect. Many researchers took this information as granted and believed that the mitochondria has a limited effect in mitosis and become dysfunctional in cancer.
In 1970s Dr Gorgun hypothesized that it is the Mitochondria plays a key role in mitosis and certain damages to the mitochondria which causes it to malfunction (to overproduce ATP) will trigger the premature, uncontrolled cell division which is called cancer. This is an apparent contradiction to the Warburg's hypothesis. However several new studies provided clear evidence that, the long held belief of the Warburg effect could be wrong. In the next page you can find some published studies regarding the role of glycolysis and mitochondria in cancer.
Cancer metabolism: facts, fantasy, and fiction ( http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=15414963 ) Biochemical and biophysical research communications 2004, vol. 313, no3, pp. 459-465 Zu X, Guppy M
The concept of a glycolytic cancer cell was introduced by Warburg over 70 years ago. This perception has since become the rationale that drives a considerable proportion of basic research on cancer, and it influences the current strategies for the diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of cancer. Here we review the data from the last 40 years on this issue. We conclude that there is no evidence that cancer cells are inherently glycolytic, but that some tumours might indeed be glycolytic in vivo as a result of their hypoxic environment.
Contribution by different fuels and metabolic pathways to the total ATP turnover of proliferating MCF-7 breast cancer cells ( http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1222574&blobtype=… ) The Biochemical Journal 2002 May 15;364(Pt 1):309-15 Guppy M, Leedman P, Zu X,
For the past 70 years the dominant perception of cancer metabolism has been that it is fuelled mainly by glucose (via aerobic glycolysis) and glutamine. Consequently, investigations into the diagnosis, treatment and the basic metabolism of cancer cells have been directed by this perception. However, the data on cancer metabolism are equivocal, and in this study we have sought to clarify the issue. Using an innovative system we have measured the total ATP turnover of the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line, the contributions to this turnover by oxidative and glycolytic ATP production and the contributions to the oxidative component by glucose, lactate, glutamine, palmitate and oleate. The total ATP turnover over approx. 5 days was 26.8 lmol of ATP[10( cellsâ" [ hâ". ATP production was 80% oxidative and 20% glycolytic. Contributions to the oxidative component were approx. 10% glucose, 14% glutamine, 7% palmitate, 4% oleate and 65% from unidentified sources. The contribution by glucose (glycolysis and oxidation) to total ATP turnover was 28.8%, glutamine contributed 10.7% and glucose and glutamine combined contributed 40%. Glucose and glutamine are significant fuels, but they account for less than half of the total ATP turnover. The contribution of aerobic glycolysis is not different from that in a variety of other non-transformed cell types.
Cancer's sweet tooth ( http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1535610806001498 ) Cancer Cell , Volume 9 , Issue 6 , Pages 419 - 420 T . Bui , C . Thompson
Even in the presence of an adequate oxygen supply, many tumors metabolize the majority of the glucose they take up through glycolysis. It has been a long-held belief that this glycolytic phenotype is due to cancer-specific defects in mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation. In this issue of Cancer Cell, Fantin et al. now report that most tumor cells have a substantial reserve capacity to produce ATP by oxidative phosphorylation when glycolysis is suppressed. These new data add to mounting evidence that the high rate of glycolysis exhibited by most tumors is required to support cell growth rather than to compensate for defect(s) in mitochondrial function.
Mitocans: mitochondrial targeted anti-cancer drugs as improved therapies and related patent documents ( http://lib.bioinfo.pl/pmid:18221044 ) Recent Patents Anticancer Drug Discov. 2006 Nov ;1 (3):327-46 Ralph SJ, Low P, Dong L
Mitochondria are proving to be worthy targets for activating specific killing of cancer cells in tumors and a diverse range of mitochondrial targeted drugs are currently in clinical trial to determine their effectiveness as anti-cancer therapies. The mechanism of action of mitochondrial targeted anti-cancer drugs relies on their ability to disrupt the energy producing systems of cancer cell mitochondria, leading to increased reactive oxygen species and activation of the mitochondrial dependent cell death signaling pathways inside cancer cells. We propose that this emerging class of drugs be called "mitocans", a term that reflects their mitochondrial targeting and anti-cancer roles. However, it is clear from the present studies that mitocans offer great potential as effective and exciting new developments in cancer therapy, providing direct activation of cancer cell death by mitochondrial mediated apoptosis and that this complements the other pathways by which existing treatments kill cancer cells. Undoubtedly, mitocans will become an integral part of modern weaponry in the fight to eliminate cancer.
A very recent study dated 25 April 2008 provided new insights into the mitochondria's role in cell division. Yeast shows what drives cells to divide ( http://microbiologybytes.wordpress.com/2008/04/25/yeast-shows-what-driv… )
Mitochondria have been found to also be the driver with regard to cell division, according to a group of biochemists who say this discovery could play a large role in finding cures for many human diseases. The scientists studied yeast cells and found that mitochondria, which generate 90 percent of the cell's energy, can be the deciding factor behind how fast cells divide. The finding by Michael Polymenis and Mary Bryk and their research groups is published today in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics. The finding changes the traditional view of the mitochondrion from an "energy depot" at the service of its larger cellular host to a "command center" that directs cell division. The researchers used regular baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) - commonly used in bread, wine and beer making - because many of the yeast cell's processes are similar to those in human cells. From unicellular yeast to complex mammals, the process is the same. The job of a cell is to divide and grow. Metabolism takes in "food" and turns it into fuel and building blocks for DNA replication and gene expression. But when these processes falter, diseases can result. Too much cell division too quickly, for example, is typical of cancerous cells. Conversely, poor metabolism - stemming from mitochondrial deficiencies - is at the root of damage to various organs such as the brain, heart, skeletal muscles, and liver. All of the body processes that require a lot of energy are impacted by this, and at least 1 in every 4,000 people worldwide suffer from mitochondrial deficiencies that result in problems with normal development, motor control, vision, hearing, or liver and kidney function. Alternatively, there are times when speeding cell division might be useful as with wound healing and plant or crop production. If we can understand the basic pathway that regulates cell division, we can think of ways to tweak the different steps in that path with therapeutics to help people who have problems with these high-energy organs. The research showed that when a yeast cell's mitochondria decided to "turn on the switch," the cell's nucleus, which carries most of the genetic material, received the message and cell division began. So now we need to connect that link. We need to understand how and when the mitochondria send the message. If we know how the message is sent, we might be able to control it.
An Increase in Mitochondrial DNA Promotes Nuclear DNA Replication in Yeast. 2008 PLoS Genetics 4(4) http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info…
Blank HM, Li C, Mueller JE, Bogomolnaya LM, Bryk M, Polymenis M
Coordination between cellular metabolism and DNA replication determines when cells initiate division. It has been assumed that metabolism only plays a permissive role in cell division. While blocking metabolism arrests cell division, it is not known whether an up-regulation of metabolic reactions accelerates cell cycle transitions. Here, we show that increasing the amount of mitochondrial DNA accelerates overall cell proliferation and promotes nuclear DNA replication, in a nutrientdependent manner. The Sir2p NAD+-dependent de-acetylase antagonizes this mitochondrial role. We found that cells with increased mitochondrial DNA have reduced Sir2p levels bound at origins of DNA replication in the nucleus, accompanied with increased levels of K9, K14-acetylated histone H3 at those origins. Our results demonstrate an active role of mitochondrial processes in the control of cell division. They also suggest that cellular metabolism may impact on chromatin modifications to regulate the activity of origins of DNA replication.
And here is Dr Gorgun's third proposition:
IRREVERSIBLY DAMAGED GLYCOPROTEINS IN MITOCHONDRIAL MEMBRANE INITIATES CANCER
Glycosylation is the process or result of addition of saccharides to proteins and lipids. The end products are Glycoproteins, that are proteins that contain oligosaccharide chains (glycans) covalently attached to their polypeptide side-chains. Glycoproteins are often attached to membranes, where they play an important role in cell-cell and nucleus-organelle interaction, communication and recognition. Below is an illustration of glycoproteins in the cell membrane with antenna like glycan chains.
Membrane Glycoproteins respond to the messages they obtain from environment and they initiate special functions based on the external stimuli they received. A universal feature of all cancer cells is that they have damage to the delicate structure of their glycoproteins. There are several published studies in this field.
Glycosylation defining cancer malignancy: New wine in an old bottle ( http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/99/16/10231 ) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences PNAS | August 6, 2002 | vol. 99 | no. 16 | 10231-10233 Hakomori S
Aberrant glycosylation occurs in essentially all types of experimental and human cancers, as has been observed for over 35 years, and many glycosyl epitopes constitute tumor-associated antigens. A long-standing debate is whether aberrant glycosylation is a result or a cause of cancer. Many recent studies indicate that some, if not all, aberrant glycosylation is a result of initial oncogenic transformation, as well as a key event in induction of invasion and metastasis. Glycosylation promoting or inhibiting tumor cell invasion and metastasis is of crucial importance in current cancer research. Nevertheless, this area of study has received little attention from most cell biologists involved in cancer research, mainly because structural and functional concepts of glycosylation in cancer are more difficult to understand than the functional role of certain proteins and their genes in defining cancer cell phenotypes. Glycosylation appears to be considered ''in the shade'' of more popular topics such as oncogenes and antioncogenes, apoptosis, angiogenesis, growth factor receptors, integrin and caderin function, etc., despite the fact that aberrant glycosylation profoundly affects all of these processes.
Dr Gorgun hypothesized that the glycan chains of the glycoproteins that are commonly named as antenna indeed acts like an antenna and they respond to radio waves at the selective resonant frequencies determined by their structure and length. The following study also provides evidence that glycoproteins can detect and respond to electric fields and that their mass is a critical parameter.
Glycoproteins bound to ion channels mediate detection of electric fields: a proposed mechanism and supporting evidence ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17315160 ) Bioelectromagnetics. 2007 Jul;28(5):379-85 Kolomytkin OV, Dunn S, Hart FX, Frilot C , Marino AA.
The mechanism by which animals detect weak electric and magnetic fields has not yet been elucidated. We propose that transduction of an electric field (E) occurs at the apical membrane of a specialized cell as a consequence of an interaction between the field and glycoproteins bound to the gates of ion channels. According to the model, a glycoprotein mass (M) could control the gates of ion channels, where M > 1.4 x 10(-18)/E, resulting in a signal of sufficient strength to overcome thermal noise. Using the electroreceptor organ of Kryptopterus as a mathematical and experimental model, we showed that at the frequency of maximum sensitivity (10 Hz), fields as low as 2 microV/m could be detected, and that the observation could be explained if a glycoprotein mass of 0.7 x 10(-12) kg (a sphere 11 microm in diameter) were bound to channel gates. Antibodies against apical membrane structures in Kryptopterus blocked field transduction, which was consistent with the proposal that it occurred at the membrane surface. Although the target of the field was hypothesized to be an ion channel, the proposed mechanism can easily be extended to include other kinds of membrane proteins.
DR GORGUN's HYPOTHESIZED MECHANISM ON CANCER AND MITOSIS CONTROL
There are several factors such as genetic disorders, free radical damage, ionizing radiation etc. that may damage the delicate glycan structure of the glycoprotein sensors at the membranes of mitochondria. The chromosomes, following the messages received as a result of the variations of potential in the cytoplasmic membrane, activate through electromechanical effects the emission of radio messages by the genes that regulate cell dynamics for normal cell functions or for the mitochondrial activities for ATP production. Under normal circumstances these sensors respond to radio messages from the genes in the nucleus at a specific frequency to regulate ATP production in the mitochondria. When the glycan chains of the glycoprotein sensors are irreversibly damaged (chains are broken and reduced in size) their impedance are lowered, antenna characteristics are changed thus they can no longer discriminate between the signals they obtain from the environment and almost continuously trigger ATP production in the mitochondria. The cancer cell would therefore go into a premature, forced mitosis due to the excess production of ATP. This forced, premature mitosis will trigger further damage to the structures and control mechanisms in the cell.
To correct this problem static magnetic fields and square wave pulsed electric fields from the GEMM device are used to act on the mitochondrial membrane, which will put the damaged glycoprotein sensors in a repair mode and increase their impedance through the lengthening of their glycan chains. A pulsed electromagnetic field in phase with the electrical signal is used to interfere with the communications between the genes and the protoplasmic glycoprotein complexes involved in the promotion of cell mitosis.
It is thought that the impedance of the mitochondrial membrane sensors to the messages coming from the genes increases with the electromagnetic GEMM treatment but this effect is different depending on the initial glycoprotein structures and the impedance increases much higher for more malignant tumor cells (the highest impedance for undifferentiated tumor cells). This is related to a greater alteration of the sensors of the undifferentiated tumors and therefore to their greater predisposition to the bond with glycan chains. The undifferentiated cancer cells, because of the high impedance induced on the mitochondrial membrane by the electromagnetic treatment, stop producing ATP and therefore enter into apoptosis initiated necrosis.
The effect of the GEMM treatment on the differentiated tumor cells are different and the glycoprotein sensors of such cells will have an impedance level which is still sensitive to some messages coming from the chromosomes promoting the normal production of ATP, so although these cells will not enter into mitosis; they continue to live in a quiescent state (vegetative form of life).
The normal cells are not influenced by the electromagnetic treatment as the impedance of their mitochondrial sensors is not modified and remain sensitive to messages that arrive from the chromosomes for the activation of the ATP synthesis.
THE GEMM DEVICE
GEMM generates Magnetic Photon Waves at the desired frequency, modulation and amplitude as required for the treatment. The radio waves used in the treatment are in the AM frequency (kilohertz) range. The typical output power of the antenna is 0.25 Watts. The system is programmed individually depending on the patient's various parameters. Patients need to lay down the treatment beds during treatment sessions that generally lasts around 30 minute. There are typically 5 sessions per week and the treatment duration may last between 1-4 months depending on the condition of the patient and the size, location and histopathology of the tumor.
The application is extremely safe. No thermal or ionizing radiation is involved. Gamma Ray or X-Ray used in standard Radiotherapy applications utilizes very high frequency electromagnetic waves that contains photons having energy levels of approximately 100,000 Electron Volts. Also the Radio Frequency Ablation that has been compared with GEMM Therapy by our PseudoExpert ORAC which again utilizes high frequency and high energy to destroy the tumors. GEMM Device operates at the AM frequency (kilohertz) range and a corresponding electric photon has an average of 0,00000001 electron volts. As noted earlier GEMM device utilizes the so-called magnetic photons with millions of times of less energy per photon corresponding to the electric photon at the same frequency. Therefore almost no energy is applied to the tumor but the radio waves are only used to regulate the processes by triggering interactions at the specific resonant frequencies. This is why it is impossible for the PseudoExpert ORAC who has no understanding of Electromagnetics and of course has no understanding of Molecular Physics to determine why GEMM Device with only 0.25 Watts output can have such a huge effect on tissues.
Additionally during the treatment a separate radio signal is transmitted from the GEMM device that will block the glycolysis mechanism, a preferred method utilized for the cancer cells to compensate for the energy requirements when needed. The combined approach will practically block all available energy sources for the cancer cell.
There are numerous reference letters issued by renown experts who had first hand evidence of Dr Gorgun's Work, not PseudoExperts like ORAC.
My e-mail address is sozavar@gmail.com and I would be pleased to provide any additional information and documentation regarding Dr Gorgun's works in the field of Medicine and other areas where he applied the concept of Magnetic Photons.
Unfortunately this great scientist has passed away on the 7th of June 2008 and he wouldn't be in a position to challenge Pseudoscientists such as ORAC, himself.
Best Regards,
Samil Ozavar