SHEPHERDS
Why didn`t the shepherds get cancer?
- a proposed explanation.
The best known shepherds are they who went to find the newborn Son of God, Jesus Christ. Their journey changed the course of history. They found what was to become the centre and the goal; the heavenly communion with Christ. Shepherds seemed to be the chosen ones from an early stage. In the jews` exodus from Egypt, they played a crucial role, and both Moses and King David were shepherds before they got chosen as leaders.
In this society, cancer was rare. Why? In accordance to the immune surveillance theory, I will try to give an explanation. (I see ammonia as a counterpart to nitrogen oxide - a known immune response mediator).
In cancer, the genome goes “wild”. In the highly proliferating cancer cells, it is in vast abundance and scattered around. The rapidly dividing cells` genome lies open for transcription and replication, and is an easy target.
Now and then such cellular changes occur. To ward them off, one need a stuff that chops up the cancer genome. One such stuff could be ammonia. It`s a gaseous by-product in the bacterial breakdown of urine, especially sheep`s urine. Its odor is well-known. And the shepherds breathe in a lot. Ammonia‘s reaction with water is basic:
NH3 + H2O = NH4+ + HO-
The interior of cancer cells tends to be alkaline due to accumulation of lactate, ion channel efflux of H+, and due to consumption of H+ in excessive fatty acid synthesis. Less H+ gives more HO- and this drives the equilibrium to the left.
Ammonia diffuses directly through cell membranes and soakes the whole tissue. The body wards off this molecule by aminotransferases and by the urea cycle in the liver. DNA, with its densely stacked nitrogenous bases G + C and A + T, is somehow condensed and possesses hydrogen bonding between the bases (between N, O and H atoms).
My assumption is that DNA is vulnerable for ammonia, especially in alkaline cancer cells. NH3 will disturb (break) the hydrogen bonding between the nitrogenous bases and unzip the DNA strands. (Like dissolves like; the related molecule urea is used in laboratories to split dsDNA). Hence, the fragile cancer cells in mitosis will be the first to be destroyed when systemic ammonia is present. This could be an explanation for the low cancer incidence among the shepherds. Although NH3 is a toxic molecule, to breathe in a sheepfold, or over an open bottle of household ammonia, for that matter, is not that hazardous. This seems strange, but for God is nothing impossible, and he can use the strangest ways to fully elaborate his love for humankind.
Written by:
Ottar Stensvold
Molde
Norway
PS! See these links about ammonia`s selective destruction of the cancerous Jurkat cells and the cancerous HeLa cells:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18642273
http://www.springerlink.com/content/p055268176kk0547/
Nasser G Haghighat, Monica M Oblinger and D W McCandless:
"When C6-glioma cells were exposed to 15 mM ammonium chloride, we observed major cell death (only 32% cell survival relative to control) within 72 h."
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/8504569_Cytoprotective_Effect_of_Estrogen_on_Ammonium_Chloride-Treated_C6-Glioma_Cells
Ammonia converts glutamate to glutamine by the enzyme glutamine synthase. This incorporation of ammonia (in its NH4+ form) into glutamate occurs especially in the brain. The reaction may deplete the body`s glutamate stores, and this can be unfortunate since glutamate is a central excitatory neurotransmitter, which also can be converted to the inhibitory neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyrate (GABA). Glutamate may be replenished by eating monosodium glutamate (MSG), the common spice.
SvarSlettCancer incidence among farmers exposed to lindane while sheep dipping.
SvarSlettRafnsson V. Scand J Work Environ Health. 2006.
Show full citation
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to determine whether site-specific cancer incidence among farmers exposed to the insecticide lindane (g-hexachlorocyclohexane) while dipping sheep differs from that of the general population in Iceland.
METHODS: Cohorts of 7882 men and 429 women, who, according to records on sheep dipping, were sheep owners, were followed from 1962 to 2003 in the Cancer Registry for cancer incidence. The observed number of cancers was compared with expected values, calculated on the basis of person-years of risk and cancer incidence in the general population of Iceland.
RESULTS: For men the standardized incidence ratio (SIR) for all cancer sites was 0.79, with a 95% confidence interval (95% CI) of 0.76-0.83. For both the men and the women a significantly increased risk for lip cancer was found, with SIR of 1.50 (95% CI 1.08-2.04) and 9.09 (95% CI 1.02-32.82), respectively. The SIR for several cancer sites were lower than unity for both the men and women. Examples were cancers of the colon, rectum, pancreas, stomach, lungs, kidney, bladder, and brain and nervous system.
CONCLUSIONS: The decreased risk of most cancers among these sheep farmers agrees with findings reported previously among farmers from other countries, as well as in Iceland. Cancer of the lip was the only cancer type in significant excess among both genders, and the stomach cancer rates were near unity, but, in previous studies on Icelandic farmers, an increase had been found for stomach cancer. The site-specific cancer incidence for sheep-dipping farmers did not differ substantially from that of the general population.
PMID 16804620 [Indexed for MEDLINE]
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/16804620/
Cancer incidence among Icelandic farmers 1977-1987.
SvarSlettGunnarsdóttir H, et al. Scand J Soc Med. 1991.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/1796249/?i=6&from=/16804620/related
Approximately 30% bovine lymphocytes were killed by ammonia in medium during 72 hours of incubation:
SvarSletthttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6232755/
The relatively high AT-content (around 59%) in the human genome facilitates cleavage by ammonia due to weak interbase bonding.
SvarSletthttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GC-content
"The lymphatic ducts empty the lymph into your subclavian veins. These veins, located below your collarbone, join to form the superior vena cava. The vena cava returns clean lymphatic fluid to your bloodstream."
SvarSletthttps://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/21897-lymphatic-capillaries#:~:text=The%20lymphatic%20ducts%20empty%20the,lymphatic%20fluid%20to%20your%20bloodstream.
https://images.app.goo.gl/W9Bzh2tQDrrE7JqV7
Lung blood is full of lymphocytes and they should be easily targeted by inhaled ammonia when they are cancerous!
Slett