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125: Beyond Chemotherapy: How Plant Extracts Are Targeting Cancer at Its Root | Sylvie Beljanski
00:36:49
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- [00:00]
Sylvie Beljanski
When my father died, at the funerals, a lot of people came to me, said, you know, without your father, I would not be here. I would not have been able to walk my daughter down the aisle. I would never have been able to play without my. With my grandchildren. I really, really felt that. I mean, those little plant extracts were changing, touching lives so beyond everything I could imagine.
- [00:32]
Healing Strong Podcast Host
You're listening to the I Am Healing Strong podcast, a part of the Healing Strong organization, the number one network of holistic cancer support groups in the world. Each week, we bring you stories of hope, real stories that will encourage you as you navigate your way on your own journey to health. Now, here's your host, stage four cancer thriver, Jim Mann.
- [00:58]
Jim Mann
I am excited and honored to talk to someone who is way smarter than me. Of course, it doesn't take a lot to find these people, but I've heard recently about Sylvie Belchensky and all the things that she is involved in. She's a French lawyer, health advocate for holistic medicine, author of the Winning the World Cancer, which I'm pretty sure I have that book around here somewhere. Founder and president of the Beljansky Foundation. You're CEO of a company that has supplements and skin care, am I right?
- [01:34]
Sylvie Beljanski
Absolutely. Maison Belzinsky.
- [01:36]
Jim Mann
Oh, yes. And of course you do a conference. You also do your own podcast, and the list actually goes on further, but that will take up the whole podcast. So I thought let's just get into it because we'll have all these links on the podcast.
- [01:50]
Sylvie Beljanski
Anyway, thank you for having me. I'm delighted to have the opportunity to join you.
- [01:55]
Jim Mann
First of all, I want to talk about the research you're doing. And with breast cancer, you know a lot about your foundation. But just in case people were just being introduced to you, give us a little synopsis of your background. Like your dad, he was on to something huge, and the government didn't like it.
- [02:13]
Sylvie Beljanski
Yes. So, indeed, I mean, my father was. Mirko Belchonsky was a PhD in molecular biology. He was working at the Pasteur Institute, which is a kind of French equivalent of nih. And he was one of the first scientists to look at the environment as a cause and also as a solution to cancer. And that was really new back in the 80s, because at the time, the. The double helix of Watson and Creek has just been discovered. And the bright future of medicine was all about genes and genetic medicine and coming up with new drugs that will affect the genes and so on. My father said, uh, if it was all genetic, there would be a stable number of Cancer. But the fact that we are seeing a growing number of cancer means there is something probably in the environment that is triggering the genes and may induce some modification at the level of the DNA. And he went on further by making the observation that there is a fundamental difference between cancer DNA, healthy DNA. And you observe that difference, whether you are looking at plants, animals, humans. A cancer cell has its DNA which are the double helix have open. The two strands are not well kept together anymore. The hydrogen bonds which are supposed to keep together the two strands of the DNA have broken. And then because the strands are not well kept together, they have those big loops. And my father had the idea to measure the amount of light going through those big loops. And he made the correlation between the size of the loops, the destabilization of the DNA and the rate of synthesis, increased rate of synthesis of those cells. So increased rate of synthesis, meaning cells dividing faster. And that's a hallmark of cancer. So he was able to test from there screen some molecules that would induce this destabilization of the DNA that he was able to measure through the light. And then he had knew what kind of products were able to induce cancer. And then he used the test in a reversed way to see if there would be in the environment some molecules that would do the opposite, selectively recognize this destabilized DNA, those big loops, and prevent their duplication selectively, without any effect, unhealthy DNA. And he was able to find two plant extracts able to do just that. So those plant extracts, they are able to recognize cancer cells wherever the cells are located. You stop thinking in terms of melanoma, prostate, ovaries, breast, it doesn't matter anymore. They recognize those cells whose DNA has been modified, is open wide and prevent the duplication, kill those cells, induce apoptosis, that's a technical word. And they do not touch healthy cells. And when you look under the microscope, you can see because those plant extracts are naturally fluorescent. You see, they penetrate those wide open DNA of those cancer cells and they stay outside of the healthy cells. And it's really like a bright halo of fluorescence that stay outside the healthy cells without penetrating them. So that means no toxicity and no side effect to healthy cells. So it kind of one fits all, actually protocol for killing cancer cells. And my father became extremely successful back in the 80s 90s with number of French doctors who were using that successfully on all of their cancer patients. And in the 90s, Francois Mitterrand, the French president, was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. And he was already very sick at the beginning of his second term, things have been kept secret. The disease had been kept secret during the first term, but now, second term, they were unable to keep it secret any longer. So the president, I mean, the cancer had spread everywhere. And these official doctors said, well, he's not going to finish his second term. We are going to put him on the morphine and he is. We are going to prepare the country for early elections. But Mitterra Demistras, who knew of a good doctor, was using very successfully my father's products. And Mitterra started to take the products and very visibly, because he was a president, he started to get better and better. And then that's where the press, the media started to a lot of questions. And of course, the fact that some natural little compounds could do well and better than official medicine, I mean, did not sit well with pharmaceutical companies and with political class also, which is funded by pharmaceutical companies. So after Mitterrand finally passed away, he was able to finish his second term. But after he finally passed away, the French army, a sweat team, was sent to my father's laboratory to destroy everything, arrest him, arrest my mom, arrest all the doctors, the scientists, the pharmacists who were working with him. And yeah, total destruction of the research. It was barbarians putting fire to knowledge, man, that's incredible.
- [09:01]
Jim Mann
You think the government will be happy, but money speaks pretty loud, doesn't it?
- [09:06]
Sylvie Beljanski
Exactly. Exactly. So I was a young lawyer at the time. My first reaction was to take my father's legal defense. The more I was looking at the file, the more it was evidence. It was about destruction, not bringing any evidence. It was not about evidence. It was about destroying evidence, actually, that the products were working. And I did my best to, to protect my father. The French government did not respect the normal due process. They never gave him his day in court. They let him rot for two years on the house arrest. He was totally despaired and sick. And eventually I took the case to the European Court of Human Rights because I could not get anything moving in the normal process in France. We won an unanimous decision because the French government would not care to explain what they did, why they did it, whatever. But after my father finally passed away, I realized that maybe the most important was not the legal fight, but to make sure that his discoveries, the work of his life, would continue to be available, would continue to help people, and that the research would be validated by other scientists. And that's why I started the Belzanski foundation first. I mean, the first thing to do was of course, to create the company to make the products available and to help people and then use some of the products for the research. And we were very lucky over the years to be able to work with Columbia University on prostate cancer, with Kansas University Medical center on pancreatic and ovarian cancer. We had a clinical trial on little fragments of RNA with Cancer Treatment Centers of America. Fragments of RNA that help support the immune system and create a new generation of of white blood cells and platelets. So a lot of things very, very interesting. And we have been able to confirm that we were able to benefit at every stage of cancer, different stages of cancer. We were able also to have document a synergy of action between chemotherapies and those little plant extracts. So people do not have to choose, but they can take both of them together and it will work even better. And then recently, some things that my father could not work on because nobody was speaking about that yet at the time is cancer stem cells. And cancer stem cells is a big new monument of cancer research because they are part of the tumor. They are undifferentiated embryonic cancer cells and they are thought to be able to resist chemotherapy and be eventually responsible for cancer metastasis. So you want to take care of those cells from day one of the diagnosis. Unfortunately, chemotherapy doesn't kill those cancer stem cells because they do not divide. They are still embryonic. Chemotherapy do not see them and do not destroy them. So the big question was our little plant extracts, which are able to do so much on different kind of cancer, different stages of cancer, will they be able also to recognize and destroy cancer stem cells? And we have done the research on ovarian and on pancreatic cancer stem cells at Kansas University Medical Center. We were very successful. Those publications are available on the website of the Belzansky Foundation Belzhansky.org and then last year we were able to fund this research on breast cancer stem cells. That's really important when you think that cancer, breast cancer is killer number one for women who are diagnosed with cancer. So about 30% of those women will have a recidive of cancer in five years after initial diagnosis. Maybe beyond you have cancer, the worst thing to hear is cancer came back after. After you are exhausted, after you have lost your hair, after surgery, after all the drama that comes with cancer. The fact that you are not done, it's not once and done, it's horrible. And then you live for years in the excites that it could come back. You don't know if it's going to come back. So it's absolutely horrible. So I felt it was most important to be able to have this study and see if our little plant extracts with no toxicity, no side effects, could eventually kill cancer stem cells. Breast cancer stem cells. So we had at the. It's not published yet. We just received the raw data. So we had two groups of mice, both were injected with those very nasty human breast cancer stem cells and two groups and of course both were injected, but we had the control group and the other group received for two weeks paupera revolfia extract, all that by liquid. It was diluted in some specific green tea that we call encoti and was also put together, identified by my father. And the control group of mice developed big tumors right away. And the treated group had developed tumors, but much, much later. And then their tumors were much smaller. And then the mice just had received the breast cancer stem cell, had plenty of metastasis. And the mice who had received the nasty cells plus the power of all nt at zero metastasis.
- [16:30]
Jim Mann
Wow.
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Sylvie Beljanski
So that's going to be published next and we are already trying to fund a new research program on prostate cancer stem cells. Of course we do expect a similar result. But you have to do the research. You cannot just speculate so that it's going to work.
- [16:52]
Jim Mann
Let me ask you something. I think I heard you say that you come from a long line of scientists, what, five generations?
- [16:59]
Sylvie Beljanski
Yeah, well, my great, great, great, great grandmother, my grandparents, my, my parents. Yes, yes. It's. When I, when I growing up, it felt like a curse. And I was like, no, I'm stopping curse, we are stopping here. I grew up seeing my, my parents. That's how I felt when I was, you know, a selfish teenager. That we were invaded all the time with people who were coming because they were sick, they were crying, they were getting all my parents attention. There was nothing left for me. And then as they were going, I mean leaving us, I thought we were done. And then they were coming back three months, four months later saying they were doing better. They were coming with flowers, with chocolates. I mean it was, it was very generous and very, very nice. And I mean the flowing with love. But I felt that we did not have any family life. And when growing up I said I will never, never get involved into, into health. But of course as an adult I recognize the beauty and the importance of my father work. And I have to say after 30 years of being of doing that, that I am extremely grateful for the opportunity which has been given to me to do something which is Bigger, actually, than my life. I've been able to make a difference, touch so many people's lives and advance cancer research in, bring solutions, even if it is small, because it's natural, because there is not a lot of money involved. It's never going to make any big pharmaceutical rich, so nobody's really, really interested. It makes a difference. And we have saved. It's fair to say we have saved so many lives. When my father died, at the funerals, a lot of people came to me, said, you know, without your father, I would not be here. I would not have been able to walk my daughter down the aisle. I would never have been able to play with my grandchildren. I really, really felt that. I mean, those little plant extracts were changing touching lives so beyond everything I could. I could imagine.
- [19:43]
Jim Mann
Yeah. It was good that you took the little detour and became a lawyer because you're able to help out your dad during that time. But then you kind of got thrusted back into what they were doing anyway. But being a good daughter that you are. And I'm sure he would be very proud of you. I didn't know him, but if I was your dad, I'd be very proud of you.
- [20:02]
Sylvie Beljanski
Yeah, that's what my mom was saying. Yeah.
- [20:05]
Jim Mann
Yeah. So. And it also broke my heart when you talked about when he got sick and you were trying to, you know, recreate what the government had destroyed, all his years of work, and you just kind of ran out of time getting him his own medicine.
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Sylvie Beljanski
Yeah.
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Jim Mann
And. Wow.
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Sylvie Beljanski
Yeah. Well, they sized everything. So he got. He got sick, and there was no more product available. I mean, the product he has spent his life perfect perfecting were no longer available to him when he needed him. It was kind of. For me, it was terrible to.
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Jim Mann
Yeah.
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Sylvie Beljanski
To do that. I tried to get them manufactured here in the states as quickly as possible, but there were several months of gap, that's for sure.
- [20:52]
Jim Mann
Wow. So now my. I'm a group leader in healing strong by default, because there wasn't one in my area. So I felt obligated since, you know, I had cancer and I was. I had beat cancer. So, you know, you feel like you got to give back. Obviously, I can't get back as big as you do. However, I can have a small little support group, and I'm the only guy there. Apparently, guys don't get cancer. I don't know what that's about or they don't want to talk about it,
- [21:19]
Sylvie Beljanski
you know, but there is prostate cancer. I mean, for guys, it's a number one for guys, unfortunately, yeah.
- [21:25]
Jim Mann
But right now we have all women who have breast cancer. So for them, they would be very excited to hear your research in that. And I don't know how long it takes to get to. I mean, obviously it's going through all the trials and all that. How long does something like that take before it's available for that, for treatment?
- [21:45]
Sylvie Beljanski
Well, plant extracts are available as dietary supplements.
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Jim Mann
Okay.
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Sylvie Beljanski
And I mean, you can do research out of, see, thin air. You have to have products to make to use them for research. And yes, the first thing I did was to make the plant extracts available as dietary supplements. That's why there are two websites. The Belzanski foundation doing research, not selling anything. And then Maison Belzansky with the company selling dietary supplements and not making any claims and not getting involved in cancer research.
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Jim Mann
Okay. I did notice something for skin care and melanoma.
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Sylvie Beljanski
Yes, absolutely, absolutely. And we have done some research with that. Melanoma. Melanoma cells create a lot of angiogenin. Angiogenin is an enzyme that allows cancer cells to create new blood vessels. And those blood vessels are going to be used by cancer cells both to bring to them a lot of nutrients, because they need a lot of nutrients to have a lot of energy to divide fast. And they will also use those blood vessels to spread to other organs. So what we have seen is that the golden gingko biloba. Golden gingko biloba, which is totally different from the green Gingko biloba which you find everywhere. It is the same tree, but when you harvest it in the fall, the change of color is actually a reflection of the change of chemistry of the leaf and you are extracting something else. So the extract of the golden leaf is able to inhibit angiogenin. So you starve cancer cells and you are able to prevent them to spread because you are cutting the blood supply. And then I told you about the tea that my father had, green extracts that he had selected for their anti cancer properties. And also we tested this tea on different kind of cancer cell lines, including breast, liver, colon and four lines of melanoma. And we compared to other teas and indeed my father's teas were much more effective than Lipton, Cosme or Bigelow to fight cancer cells. So we put the idea with skin care is to go beyond clean. There was a lot. There is a lot of organic skin care which is clean. It's not going to harm you. But what about going beyond clean? Infusing the skin with good stuff that are going to have anti cancer properties. And we can do that with the gingko and the tea. It's of course organic. It's in glass jars so there is no plastic leaking into the cream. And cosmetics are designed to penetrate the skin in 26 second because no one wants to have something crazy that you know, sticks on top of the. Of the skin you want. All the skin care is designed to penetrate fast into the skin, then it goes into the blood vessel, then it absorbs directly in the blood vessels. So if you have something toxic and bad in your skincare, well, the absorption rate will be even bigger than if you eat something bad. Bad. If you eat something bad. You are designed with intestine, colon, gut, liver to process all that and eliminate most of it. But if you absorb by skin care, then it will go directly to the bloodstream and then it is in your body. So creating a skincare that would be actually bring to the body, bring to the blood some anti cancer properties was some project which was dear to my heart.
- [26:30]
Jim Mann
Wow. So you're not doing too much. I understand. Maybe. You ever take a vacation?
- [26:38]
Sylvie Beljanski
Well, you know, I am invited to speak here and there and that's my vacation because after that I'm tired. I don't want to travel anymore.
- [26:49]
Jim Mann
Yes, I understand that. Now the conference that there was a conference you had just past April, is that every year?
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Sylvie Beljanski
Yeah, we tried to do every year, year and a half. Yes, yes. So we had this big conference now we started that to create a community within the integrative. Integrative practitioners community. And we had like 20 speakers, three days, about 400 people who came. Last time was in Austin, Texas. The first one was in Jacksonville, Florida. We are looking into South California for the third one, probably in June 26th. Stay tuned for the Save the date. And yes, it's a way to get everybody that all the exos experts together and share our knowledge and share also with the people who are concerned with cancer. Interested, open to the idea of an integrative approach and want to learn more.
- [28:03]
Jim Mann
Yeah, I think it's where you ran across Healing Strong. I think they had a.
- [28:08]
Sylvie Beljanski
So what you are doing at Healing Strong is really, really extraordinary and. And providing all this information to so many people. I absolutely love it. I love the idea. And when Suzy asked me to stay in touch and she sent me a really lovely little note, I was of course delighted.
- [28:35]
Jim Mann
It's crazy because his group, I mean you're bringing together people that are fighting cancer and they're like extremely happy. It's like we're at Disney World or something. I thought, why are you all so happy you're fighting cancer? But it's just, you know, getting together with people that are kind of fighting the same kind of fight. It's just something about. They just feel encouraged our solutions, because
- [28:55]
Sylvie Beljanski
there are reasons, because we see the opportunity to help and. And that's what is so make us feel so good about what we are doing.
- [29:04]
Jim Mann
Yeah. So before I let you go, because you are a busy woman, but there are a lot of people listening to this that have just gotten their diagnosis. And you know how that there's a lot of things happening outside of chemo and all the traditional stuff that sounds so promising. And I believe it is especially yours, of course. But it is also very overwhelming when you think, oh, what path do I take? You know, what's the next step? What would you say to somebody like that other than just calm down.
- [29:38]
Sylvie Beljanski
Yeah. Educate yourself and see what resonates well with you. You are not going to do everything and everything at once. Try to learn as much as possible. Pick one you think from regularly, like one using once a week to add to what you are doing. Try to first calm down and try to make a clear analysis of what maybe could make you sick. Are you living in a house full of mold or things like that near gas station? Is there, I mean, a very visible cause of toxicity in your immediate environment? Then is there something in your relationships that are with your surrounding and with or with yourself which makes you sick? I mean, some people would not forgive themselves for something and they would rather literally kill themselves by becoming sick rather than being able to move beyond. And I mean, you have to make a very honest assessment of what is making you sick. Try to address those things and then choose little by little some new lifestyle that will allow you to remove as many toxic things as possible from your life. What are you eating? What are you drinking? I mean, we all know that sodas and processed food, all that is inducing sickness. And so if you want. Do you want to get better? Not everybody wants to get better. I mean, you have to be honest. Some people, they love actually secretly the idea of being sick because suddenly they get attention. Suddenly people are asking them how they are doing rather than ignoring them and taking them for granted. You have to be very, very honest with yourself and then make the choices which are proper for you and not, I mean, of course, I mean, I'm speaking of sugary drinks and processed food that's for everybody. Trying to eliminate that as much as possible is Good for everybody. But then there are some things, like dieting, juicing. Some things are, I mean, will work for some people, some will not work for other people. Meditating also, I mean, it's. If you can calm down, it's good. But if you just cannot take the time to meditate, don't kill yourself about that. I mean, learn as much as possible. And for the treatments, see at least two or three doctors. Don't follow the first one. Get second opinion, ask questions, download some publications. That's why on the website we made them available to all. You can bring them to your doctor. You can start to have a conversation. Doctor, what about the side effects of chemotherapy? What can I do to minimize those side effects? Do you have something else than drugs? If you have a doctor who doesn't want to speak about nutrition, if you have a doctor who is telling you, oh, it doesn't matter, it doesn't make any difference. It means that he is not considering seeing you for a long time. So, I mean, go see somebody else, get different opinions. See if there is a doctor you feel good about, you can trust and adhere to the protocol.
- [33:48]
Jim Mann
Excellent, excellent advice. And of course, we have all this stuff in the podcast. It's written out so you don't have to worry about spelling. But obviously your, Your website is beljansky.org and there's a lot of words on that. Yeah, there's so much information. And then if you want to get to the products, It's. It's Maison Billjinsky.com.
- [34:07]
Sylvie Beljanski
yes. And I have written a book which is called Winning the War on Cancer, the Epic Journey Towards a Natural Cure. It reads like a novel. It has received a lot of prizes, actually. It's an easy read for everybody. But at the end of the book, you have learned a lot about cancer. And if your listeners are interested, I mean, I would be happy to provide a free chapter to everybody and also to. We have free health coaching. So if, I mean, you are interested, also give you a promo code to attend one of our health coaching. And just to follow up, wow, you're,
- [34:51]
Jim Mann
you're a wonderful person, Sylvie.
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Sylvie Beljanski
Thank you.
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Jim Mann
Thank you for what you do. And you just kind of spread hope. And even before you take any of the products or anything like that, it just seems very hopeful, knowing stuff like that is out there. And there are people that are a lot smarter than some of us and are figuring, figuring it out and keep hope.
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Sylvie Beljanski
That's the most important.
- [35:13]
Jim Mann
Yes. All right, well, thank you so much.
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Sylvie Beljanski
Thank you. Thank you very much.
- [35:18]
Healing Strong Podcast Host
You've been listening to the I Am Healing Strong podcast, a part of the Healing Strong organization. We hope you found encouragement in this episode as well as as the confidence to take control of your healing journey, knowing that God will guide you on this path. Healing Strong is a non profit organization whose mission is to connect, support and educate individuals facing cancer and other diseases through strategies that help to rebuild the body, renew the soul and refresh the spirit. It costs nothing to be a part of a link, local or online group. You can do that by going to our website@healingstrong.org and finding a group near you or an online group or start your own. Your choice. While you're there, take a look around at all the free resources. Though the resources and groups are free, we encourage you to join our membership program at 25 or 60 $75 a month. This helps us to be able to reach more people with hope and encouragement and that also comes with some extra perks as well. So check it out. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give us a five star rating. Leave an encouraging comment and help us spread the word. We'll see you next week with another story on the I Am Healing Strong podcast.