In 1938, the cancer scientist and researcher Paul Gerhardt Seeger, M.D., disclosed that the real culprit of the cancerous degeneration of a cell is traced from from the damage of a special respiratory enzyme, cytochrome oxidase. In other words, cancer in the cell is attributed to the disruption of oxygen usage, or cell respiration.
Dr. Seeger fulfilled experimentations with hundreds of histo-chemical procedures in the Department of Cell and Virus Research in the Robert Koch Institute of Berlin, Germany. Later findings at Humbolt University in Berlin in 1956, after approximately ten years of work at Charite Hospital, confirmed his earlier research results of 1938. What Dr. Seeger discovered was that inactivation or damage of the enzyme cytochrome oxidase triggers a malfunction of the metabolism in the early phases of the generation of energy in the mitochondria.
Mitochondria accomplish their function of generating energy through an oxygen intensive process called oxidative phosphorylation. Resulting from a series of biochemical reactions, carbohydrates, fats, and proteins are chopped down into smaller units. Carbon dioxide and hydrogen are discharged in the process. The carbon dioxide, a form of toxic waste, is rapidly discarded. The hydrogen ion is taken by the electron transport chain, eventually meeting up with molecular oxygen to form water. The energy sourced out from our food components is then saved in the form of a universal energy molecule called adenosine-triphosphate (ATP).
When the enzyme cytochrome oxidase is inactivated or extinguished, excess hydrogen accumulates in the cell since oxidative phosphorylation comes to a stop. The cell still needs energy, however, and is forced to shift over to a less efficient way of energy synthesis taking place in the area around cytoplasm. This paves the way for the transformation of only about 20% of the possible energy that could be supplied, and only about 1/5 of possible ATP storage. Less energy is generated for the cell's usage, and less energy is stored.
With the cell's main sources of energy, syntheses now greatly diminished, laying down the foundation for cancerous degeneration. Any problems involving the operation and functioning of the mitochondria have a negative effect on all energy-requiring functions of our body. More than just the cell in which the malfunctioning mitochondria is located can be affected, the lowered vitality can affect other organs, or even the entire body.
