Retired Yugoslavia-born astronomer Egon Beer, who has lived in Guadalajara for 27 years, gets up at 7 a.m. every morning and feeds the pigeons who visit his small patio before he settles into the routine that has been a fixture in his life for 41 years.
The 89-year-old sends letters — 8,500 of them, so far — on personal stationery headed “Egon Johannes Beer, Ph.D.” In these neat and reasoned letters, he explains to medical institutions a novel idea for non-toxic cancer treatment and encourages them to pursue research on the technique, which he has dubbed and registered as Cancer and Hibernation.
The technique, he says, destroys tumors in a matter of hours and is based on the well-established fact that malignant cells have unique characteristics: a highly accelerated metabolism and rapid rate of multiplication. Hibernation shuts down these processes, killing tumors in a matter of hours and without negative side effects such as those that follow from conventional treatments.
“Most people know bears hibernate,” Beer said, “But they think humans die if their body temperature and metabolism are lowered, as I suggest, to 27 degrees Centigrade. But I came to this idea of hibernation when I learned that, under anesthesia, neurological and cardiovascular patients are routinely put in a state of hibernation during surgery.”Another germ of his idea was a newspaper story he read in 1971 about the cure of kidney cancer in a baby at Lourdes, France.
“I have profound respect for miracles of faith, but I also thought there might be a practical explanation,” said Beer. Although he was not able to contact the baby’s mother, he read that she had bathed the baby continuously in the water of the Holy Spring and at night wrapped the baby in towels wet in the same water. In effect, Beer realized, she had reduced the baby’s body temperature over a period of many hours.
Although most cancer research is obviously proceeding in different directions, studies that corroborate Beer’s idea have been done in Japan, Europe and the United States, he points out. Some incorporate dietary calorie restriction, sometimes known as a ketogenic diet, which works along the same lines as induced hibernation, depriving tumors of nutrients.
“These studies were done on dogs, rats and mice and they were positive,” he said. He speculates that the treatment has been carried out on humans, but not publicized.
“Imagine a cancer patient in a hospital in deep sleep. Three hours later he or she is awakened, going home, cured of cancer without surgery, chemotherapy, radiation. Is it too good to be true? Let’s find out!”
Beer lived in the United States and had a career in industrial electronics before receiving a Ph.D. in astronomy and earth sciences in 2000. He speaks six languages, including two fluently — English and German. His office wall is covered with certificates from educational institutions and he is listed in reference books such as “Who’s Who in the World” and “500 Greatest Minds of the 21st Century.”
Still, his idea has not received more attention because “I’m not a known scientist.” Although his letters about a cancer cure have not received much positive response, neither has anyone refuted him, he says.
Beer remains philosophical, quoting a poem that appears the end of his 560-page autobiography — the best of life is to love and to be loved.