May 30

Otto Warburg

On May 24, 2013 after receiving an email from Jack Stagman about what doctors say about alkaline water, I was prompted to do more research about Otto Warburg. I knew Warburg had won the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1931 for discovering the primary cause of cancer – cancer grows in oxygen deprived acidic tissue.

What I didn’t know is that Warburg was mentored by Albert Einstein and that he was regarded as one of the 20th century’s leading biochemists.

Here are some excerpts about Warburg from Wikipedia

Otto Heinrich Warburg
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Heinrich_Warburg

Otto Heinrich Warburg (October 8, 1883 – August 1, 1970), son of physicist Emil Warburg, was a German physiologist, medical doctor and Nobel laureate. He served as an officer in the elite Ulan (cavalry regiment) during the First World War, and won the Iron Cross (1st Class) for bravery. Warburg was one of the 20th century’s leading biochemists.[1] He won the Nobel Prize of 1931. In total, he was nominated an unprecedented three times for the Nobel prize for three separate achievements.

Warburg’s father, Emil Warburg, was a member of the illustrious Warburg family of Altona, who had converted to Christianity reportedly after a disagreement with his Conservative Jewish parents. His mother was the daughter of a Protestant family of bankers and civil servants from Baden.

A lifelong equestrian, he served as an officer in the elite Uhlans (cavalry) on the front during the First World War, where he won the Iron Cross. Warburg later credited this experience with affording him invaluable insights into “real life” outside the confines of academia. Towards the end of the war, when the outcome was unmistakable, Albert Einstein, who had been a friend of Warburg’s father Emil, wrote Warburg at the behest of friends, asking him to leave the army and return to academia, since it would be a tragedy for the world to lose his talents. Einstein and Warburg later became friends, and Einstein’s work in physics had great influence on Otto’s biochemical research.[citation needed]

Cancer, above all other diseases, has countless secondary causes. But, even for cancer, there is only one prime cause. Summarized in a few words, the prime cause of cancer is the replacement of the respiration of oxygen in normal body cells by a fermentation of sugar. – Otto H. Warburg, [10]

[The Prime Cause and Prevention of Cancer by Otto H. Warburg]

Warburg also wrote about oxygen’s relationship to the pH of cancer cells’ internal environments. Since fermentation was a major metabolic pathway of cancer cells, Warburg reported cancer cells maintain a lower pH, as low as 6.0, due to lactic acid production and elevated CO2. He firmly believed there was a direct relationship between pH and oxygen.

When frustrated by the lack of acceptance of his ideas, Warburg was known to quote an aphorism he attributed to Max Planck: Science progresses not because scientists change their minds, but rather because scientists attached to erroneous views die, and are replaced.[14]

Seemingly utterly convinced of the accuracy of his conclusions, Warburg expressed dismay at the “continual discovery of cancer agents and cancer viruses” which he expected to “hinder necessary preventative measures and thereby become responsible for cancer cases”.[15]

In his later years, Warburg was convinced that illness resulted from pollution; this caused him to become a bit of a health advocate.