“Of the minerals inside the cell, all are vitally important, but magnesium has a role that permits perpetuity of function, and the lack of it will impact a cell’s efficiency and duration of its useful life,” says Fereydoon Batmanghelidj, author of Obesity, Cancer & Depression: Their Common Cause & Natural Cure.

Magnesium, the fourth most abundant mineral in the body, is required for more than 300 biochemical reactions in the body. Of the total body magnesium, 50 percent is found in the bone and the other 50 percent is found in the body tissues and organs.

Magnesium helps maintain normal muscle and nerve function, strong bones, a healthy immune system, regulating blood sugars, promote healthy blood pressure and helps the body keep the heart’s rhythm steady. Through studies, it has been shown that this essential element plays an essential role in managing hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and now cancer.

Magnesium has an effect on overall cell physiology that cannot be equalled by anything else in the world of medicine. Deficiency of this mineral causes the body to accumulate toxins, degenerate quickly and premature aging. Because we live in a time of high toxicity this essential mineral it essential for the survival of our cells that are constantly being faced with heavy metals.

To be able to understand how a deficiency of magnesium can increase the risk of cancer we have to understand exactly what cancer is. On an ongoing basis the cells in our body become old, die and are replaced with new cells. When the genetic material in the cell gets damaged or changes, this process goes wrong, producing mutations that affect the production and division of normal cells. This causes the cells not to die as they should and the body keeps producing new cells it does not need. A tumor or growth is then formed by all the extra cells.

Therefore when the body is affected by environmental factors, a diet lacking essential minerals and vitamins, molecules in the body lose electrons and become free radicals. These free radicals attack healthy cells to take back electrons damaging even more cells.

Research in Poland has shown that the inadequacy of magnesium and antioxidants are important risk factors in predisposing to leukemia. Research has also shown that many cancer patients when tested are in a state of hypomagnesemia.

Because magnesium is essential in so many body functions, anything that weakens this process poses a threat to the health of our cells. The deficiency of this mineral can cause our cells to calcify. Magnesium can be called the rejuvenation mineral because it prevents the calcification of organs and tissues in the body.

Good sources of this essential mineral are green vegetables because of their content of chlorophyll. The center of the chlorophyll molecule contains magnesium. Other sources are legumes, nuts and seeds, whole and unrefined grains. Tap water can also be a source if the water is “hard”, meaning it naturally contains minerals.

Extracellular growth factors are proteins that control mammalian cell proliferation and/or differentiation through the binding of receptors on cell surfaces to initiate a cascade of events. Many growth factors dictate the balance between proliferation and cell death within organs. For normal cells to remain viable, they require stimulation from growth factors. However, when cells become transformed and tumorigenic, this requirement is circumvented as their growth and survival pathways have become hyperactivated by oncogenes, thereby freeing them from the need for exogenous growth factor signals.

DNA damage through environmental factors, which mutate DNA, and inherited genetic mutations have been shown to be involved in the production of oncogenes that lead to cell transformation and ultimately cancer. Oncogenes arise through several mechanisms.

(1) DNA rearrangements, the most common mutation as seen in the translocation of c-myc to sites where it is over-expressed, bcr-abl fusion as in the case of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) or proteins may be truncated making them constitutively active.

(2) Gene amplification.

(3) Point mutations, e.g. mutations at position 12 and 61 in ras making it constitutively active.

(4) Integration of viral DNA next to a proto-oncogene.

Through these processes, normal cellular genes may be inappropriately expressed resulting in loss of control over the cell-cycle then cell transformation. Oncogenes encode proteins involved in cell-cycle control or have high homology with TK growth factor receptors (e.g. v-fms, v-ros, v-sis, v-erb B), and may code for factors involved at all the important mitogenic stages. Another important oncogene src (non-receptor TK) has sequence homology with EGFR and is able to activate over 50 distinct substrates through its TK. Permanent activation/over-expression of scr has been identified in many cancers. While many of these oncogenes are membrane associated, myc, myb and fos act on transcription in the nucleus. Unlike myc and ras, many oncogenes are tissue-specific and their role in cancer development and progression has been the source of targets for cancer therapeutics, since different oncogenes act at different stages. In addition to gain of function mutations mentioned, loss of function mutations particularly with genes that carryout DNA-repair, and tumour suppressors such as the retinoblastoma protein – pRB, p53, phosphatase and tensin homolog – PTEN, BRACA etc. also give rise to cancers. PTEN is mutated in many cancers as it dephosphorylates PIP3 in PI3K/PKB signalling controlling cell proliferation and apoptosis. Similarly, p53, which coordinates signals to determine whether or not a cell goes through the cell-cycle or is destroyed, is frequently mutated in many cancers. Mutations in genes accounting for more than 1% of the human genome contribute to cancer, which makes these genes attractive targets for drug development.