I AM HealingStrong
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I AM HealingStrong
125: Beyond Chemotherapy: How Plant Extracts Are Targeting Cancer at Its Root | Sylvie Beljanski
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What happens when a breakthrough cancer discovery threatens the pharmaceutical industry?
In this episode, we sit down with Sylvie Beljanski, daughter of renowned French molecular biologist Dr. Mirko Beljanski, whose pioneering research at the Pasteur Institute in the 1980s identified plant extracts capable of targeting and destroying cancer cells, without harming healthy ones.
She shares the remarkable science behind her father's work on destabilized DNA, the shocking government raid that destroyed his laboratory after President Mitterrand's recovery, and her decades-long mission to carry his research forward through the Beljanski Foundation.
From Columbia University clinical trials to groundbreaking studies on cancer stem cells, this conversation covers the cutting edge of integrative oncology and offers hope, practical advice, and a reminder that healing is possible even when conventional medicine falls short.
HealingStrong's mission is to educate, equip and empower our group leaders and group participants through their journey with cancer or other chronic illnesses, and know there is HOPE. We bring this hope through educational materials, webinars, guest speakers, conferences, community small group support and more.
Please take advantage of our FREE resources below to help you along your health and healing journey:
Holistic Curriculum - Participant Guide
Website: healingstrong.org
When my father died ,at the funerals ,a lot of people came to me, said, 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. Yeah. I really felt that, those little plant extracts were.
Changing, touching lives. So beyond everything I could imagine. You are 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.
Jim: To help. Now, here's your host, stage four Cancer Thriver Jim Mann. I am excited and honored to talk to someone who is. Way smarter than me. [00:01:00] Of course, it doesn't take a lot to find these people, but I've heard recently about Sylvie Beljanski and all the things that she is involved in. She's a French lawyer, a 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 Beljanski Foundation. You're CEO of a company that has, supplements in, in skincare. Am I right? Absolutely. Meki. 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 'cause we'll have all these links on the podcast.
Anyway, thank you for having me. I'm delighted to have the opportunity to join you. First of all, I wanna talk about the research you're doing in with breast cancer. A lot about your foundation, but just in case people were just being introduced to you, give us a little [00:02:00] synopsis of your background. Like your dad, he was onto something huge and the government didn't like it.
Sylvie: Yes. So indeed, my father was, Mirko. Beljanski was a PhD in molecular biology. He was working at the Pastor 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 CO and also as a solution. To cancer. And that was really new back in the eighties because at the time 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 Uhuh. If it was all genetic, there would be a stable number of cancer. But the fact that we are seeing a [00:03:00] growing number of cancer, I mean there is something probably in the environment that is triggering the genes and may induce.
But if some modification at the level of the DNA and, it 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, cancer cell. Has its DNA, which are the double elix, have opened.
The two strengths are not well kept together anymore. The hydrogen bonds which are supposed to keep together, the two strengths of the DNA have broken. And then so because the strengths are not well, kept together, they have those big loops. And my father had the idea to measure the amount of light going through [00:04:00] 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. Increased risk of synthesis, meaning cells dividing faster, and that's a hallmark of cancer. He was able to test from there screen in some molecules that would induce this dis civilization of the DNA that he was able to measure through the light. And, then he had knew what kind of products were in 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 [00:05:00] selectively without any effect on health CDNA. And he was able to find, two plant extracts able to do just that.
So those plant extracts, they are able to recognize concert cells wherever the cells are located. You stop thinking in terms of melanoma. Prostate varies breast, it doesn't matter anymore. They recognize those cells whose DNA has been modified is open wide and prevent, the duplication kills those cells.
Induce apoptosis as a technical word. And, they do not touch lc 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 [00:06:00] a bright hello of, 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 one fits all actually. Protocol for killing cancer cells. And my father became extremely successful back in the eighties, nineties, with number of French doctors who were using that successfully on all of their cancer patients.
And in the nineties. Fran, the French president was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer, and he was already very sick, at the beginning of his second term. This. 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, any longer.
The president, the cancer had spread everywhere and these. Official doctor said he is not [00:07:00] going to finish his second term. We are going to put him on the morphine and, he's, we are going to prepare the country for early elections. But Miter had a misre who knew of a good doctor, was using very successfully in my father's products, and Miter 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 let a lot of questions. And, of course the fact that some natural little compounds, could do well and better than, official medicine, did not sit well with pharmaceutical companies and, with, with political class also, which is funded by pharmaceutical companies.
After MI 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. Wow. His [00:08:00] team, asked, my mom asked, all the doctors the, as a pharmacist who were, working with him and,
yeah, a total destruction of the research. It was barbarian, putting fire to knowledge. Man, that's incredible. You think the government will be happy, but, money speaks pretty loud, doesn't it? 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 protect my father. The French government did not respect the normal due process.
They, never gave him his day in court. He is a let him. Odd for two years on the house arrest, it was totally despaired and sick. And, [00:09:00] 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, French environment would not.
Care to explain what they did, why they did it, whatever. Yeah. And, 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 Belgians Ski Foundation first. The first thing to do was, of course, to create a company to make the products available, right? And, to help people and then, use some of the products to, for the research. And, we were very lucky, over the years [00:10:00] to be able to.
Work with, Columbia University on prostate cancer with cancer 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 RNAs that help support the immune system and create a new generation of white blood cells and platelets.
So a lot of things very interesting. And we have been able to confirm as, we were able to, benefit at every stage of cancer, different stages of cancer. We were able also, to have a document, a synergy of action between chemotherapies and those little plant extracts. So people do not have to choose.
They can take both of them together and it'll work even better. And then, recently some things that my father could not. [00:11:00] Work and because nobody was speaking about that yet at the time, is cancer stem cells and cancer stem cells. It's a big new monument of cancer research. Because, they are,
part of the tumor. They are undifferentiated on unreal unique cancer cells. And, they are, sought to be able to resist chemotherapy and be eventually responsible for cancer metastasis, right? So you want to take care of those cells, from day one of, of the diagnosis. Unfortunately, chemotherapy.
Doesn't kill those cancer stem cells because they do not divide. They're still embryonic chemotherapy. Do not see them and do not destroy them. So the big question was how little plant extracts which are able to do so much are different kind of cancer, [00:12:00] different stages of cancer. Will they be able also to recognize and destroy cancer stem cells?
And we have done the research on, on ovarian and on pancreatic cancer stem cells at the, cancer, cancers, university Medical Center. They were very successful. Those publications are available, at the, on the website of the Belgian Ski Foundation, Belgian ski.org, and then. Last year we were able to fund this research on breast cancer stem cells.
So that's really important when you think that cancer, breast cancer is an, killer, number one for women who are diagnosed with cancer. So about 30% of those women will have a rec of cancer in. In five years after the diagno initial diagnosis, maybe there is a beyond. You have cancer, the worst thing to [00:13:00] 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 cerebral and then you live for years in the anxiety 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, if our little plant extracts with not toxicity, no side effects, could, eventually, kill cancer stem cell, breast cancer stem cells.
So we had at the cancer, it's not published yet. We met, we just received the raw data. So we had, two groups of mice, both were injected with those very nasty, breast cancer stem, human breast cancer stem cells. And, two groups. And, of course, both were injected [00:14:00] and, but we had the control group and the other group, received, for two weeks, extract, all that by, liquid.
It was diluted in some specific green tea that we call onco, onco t, and was also, put together identified by my father. And, the control group developed, of mice developed, big tumors right away. And the co, the treated group had, developed tumors, but much, much later.
And then the, their tumors were much smaller and then the mice would just had received, the breast cancer stem cell had plenty of metastasis. And the mice, with, we who had received the nasty, cells plus power and T at zero. Metastasis. Wow. Zero. So that's going to be published, next, and we are already, [00:15:00] try to find a new, research program on prostate cancer stem cells.
Of course, we do expect similar result, but you have to do the research. You can just speculate that it's going to work. Let me ask you something. I think I heard you say that. You come from a long line of scientists, what, five generations? Yeah. My, great grandmothers, my grandparents, my, my parents.
Yes. Yes. It's, when I growing up, it felt like a curse and I was like, no. I'm stopping girls. We are stopping here. I grew up seeing my my, my parents home being invaded. That's how I felt when I was right. A, 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, and then I, they were [00:16:00] going. Leaving us, I thought they were, 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. It was very generous and very nice and the flowing with love. But I felt that we did not have any family life. And when I growing up, I said, I will never. Never get involved into health. But, of course, as an adult, I recognize the beauty and the importance of my father's 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, it's in my life. I've been able to make a difference, touch so many people's lives and, and advance cancer research in bring solutions [00:17:00] even if it is small.
Because it's natural because there is not a lot of money involved, right? It's never gonna make any big pharmaceutical reach. So nobody's really interested. It makes a difference and, and do 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, 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. Yeah. I really felt that, those little plant extracts were changing, touching lives.
Jim: So beyond everything I could imagine. Yeah. It was good that you took the little detour and became a lawyer 'cause you're able to help out your dad during that time. But then you kinda got thrusted back into what they were doing anyway. But being a good daughter that you are, and I'm sure [00:18:00] 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. Yeah, that's what my mom was saying. Yeah. Yeah. And then also, it broke my heart when you talked about when he got sick and you were trying to, recreate what the government had destroyed at all his years of work and you just kinda ran outta time getting him his own medicine.
Sylvie: And, wow that. Yeah. The says everything. So he got sick and there was no more product available. Yeah. Wow. The product he has spent his life perfect perfecting, were no longer available to him when he needed him. It was for me, it was terrible to, yeah, to do that. I try to get them manufactured here in the States as quickly as possible, but there were several months of Gap, that's for sure.
Jim: Yeah. Wow. So now my, I'm a group leader in Healing Strong, by default. 'cause there, there wasn't one in my area, so I felt obligated since, I had cancer and I was, I had beat [00:19:00] cancer. You feel like you gotta give back. Obviously I can't give 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 wanna talk about it, but there is prostate cancer, for guys. Yeah. It's a number one for guys, unfortunately. Yeah. But right now we have all women who have breast cancer. So for them, they're, they would be very excited to hear your research in that, but, and I don't know how long it takes to get to, obviously it's going through all the trials and all that.
Sylvie: How long does something like that take before it's available for them? For treatment. So plant extracts are available as dietary supplements. Okay. And you cannot do research out of cair. You have to have products to make, to use them for re for research. And yes, the first thing I did was to, make the.
The plant extracts available as dietary re supplements and, and, so you, there are others why? There are two websites, the Beljanski Foundation, [00:20:00] doing research, not selling anything, and then Maison Beljanski with, the company, selling dietary supplements and, and not making any claims and not getting involved in cancer research.
Okay. I did notice something, for skincare and melanoma. Yes, abs. 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'll need a lot of nutrients to have a lot of energy to divide fast. And they will also use those blood vessels, to to spread towards the organs. What we have seen is that the golden [00:21:00] Gink Cobar. Which is totally different from the green Gink cobar, which is you find everywhere.
It's the same tree. But when you are vested in the fall, the change of color is actually a reflection of the change of chemistry. Of the leaf and you are extracting some something else. Okay, 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.
The blood supply. And then, the, I told you about the t that my father, had, the green extract that he had selected for the art, cancer, properties. And also we tested this t on different kind of cross cell lines, including. Including breast, liver, colon, and me, four lines of melanoma.
And we compare to ASTs and, indeed the, my, my [00:22:00] father's teeth were much more effective than, Lipton Co me or Bigga, to fight cancer cells. So we put, the idea with, skincare is to go beyond clean. There was a lot. There is a lot of now organic skincare, which is clean. It's not going to harm you.
But what about going beyond clean in choosing the skin with good stuff that are going to have anti properties and we can do that with a ginkgo. The tea, it's of course organic. It's, it's in glass jar, so there is no, plastic, le leaking into the cream. And, and cosmetics are designed to penetrate the skin in 26 second.
Because no one wants to have something crazy that's, yeah. Sticks on top of the skin you want. All the skincare is designed to penetrate fast, into the [00:23:00] skin. Then it goes into the blood vessel. Then it absorbs directly in the blood vessel. So if you have something toxic and bad in your skincare, the absorption rate will be even bigger than if you.
Eat something bad. If you eat something bad you are designed, with the intestine, colon, gut, liver, to process all that and eliminate most of it. But if it's you absorb by skincare, then it will go directly to the bloodstream and then it is in your body. Creating a skincare that would be actually bring to the body to bring to the blood some art cancer properties with some project, which was dear to my heart.
Jim: Wow. So you're not doing too much. I understand. Maybe you ever take a vacation? 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. [00:24:00] Yes, I understand that. Now, the conference that there was a conference you had just past April, is that every year.
Sylvie: Yeah, we try to do every 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 20, 20 speakers, three days, about 400 people who came last, last time was in Austin, Texas.
The first one was in, Jacksonville, Florida. Okay. We are looking into south, California for the third one. Probably in June 26. Stay tuned for. Saves the data. And, yes it's a way to to get everybody that all the exos experts together and share our knowledge and, and share also with the people who are concerned with cancer.
Interested open to the idea of an [00:25:00] integrative approach and want to learn more. Yeah, I think it's where, you ran across Healing Strong. I think they had a, table. Absolutely. So what you are doing at Healing Strong is really extraordinary and, and providing all this information, to, to so many people.
Jim: I absolutely love it. I love the idea. Yeah. And, and when, Susie asked me to, to stay in touch, and she sent me a really lovely little note, I was of course delighted. It's crazy 'cause his group, you're bringing together people that are fighting cancer and they're like extremely happy.
Sylvie: It's like we're at Disney World or something. I thought, why are y'all so happy you're fighting cancer? But it's just, getting together with people that are fighting the same kind of fight. It's just something about they just feel encouraged. There are solutions because there are results, because we see the opportunity to help and, yeah.
Jim: And that's what is so feels make us feel so good about what we are doing. Yeah. So before I [00:26:00] 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.
Sylvie: It 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? What's the next step? What will you say to somebody like that, other than just. Calm down. 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 new thing from regularly, like one new thing, one 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. [00:27:00] Sick. Are you living in a house full of mold or things like that?
Near, the gas station or is there a, a very visible cause of toxicity in your immediate environment then? Are they, is there, something in your relationships that are. With your surrounding and with or with yourself, which makes you sick. Some people, will not forgive themselves or something, and they would rather literally kill themselves and Yeah, 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 [00:28:00] many toxic things, as possible from your life. What are you eating?
What are you drinking? 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, right? You have to be honest. Some people they love actually secretly the idea of being sick because suddenly they get attention.
Some suddenly people are asking them how they are doing. Yeah. Rather than ignoring them and get, taking them for granted. You have to be very honest with yourself and then make those choices, which are proper. For you and not, of course. 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, [00:29:00] some things are, will work for some people, some will not work for other people. Meditating also, it's, if you can. Calm down, it's good. But if you. Just cannot take the time to edit it.
And don't kill yourself about that. Learn as much as possible. And for the treatments, see at least two or three doctors that don't follow the first one. Get second opinion. Ask questions, download, 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 side effects? Do you have something else on drugs? If you have a doctor who doesn't want to, he speak about nutrition. If you have a doctor who is telling you, oh, it doesn't matter.
Jim: It doesn't make any difference, it means that [00:30:00] he's not. Considering seeing you for a long time, right? Yeah. 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. Excellent advice. And of course we have all this stuff in the podcast.
Sylvie: It's written out so you don't have to worry about spelling, but obviously your website is be jansky.org and there's a lot of words on that. Yeah there's so much information. And then if you want get to the products it's macal. Be jensky.com. Yes. And I have written a book, which is called Winning the War on Cancer, the Epic Journey towards a Natural Cure.
It's reads like a novel. It has received a lot of, prizes actually. It's the easy read for everybody. At the end of the book, you have learned a lot about cancer and, I, if your, listeners are interested, I would be happy to, provide a free chapter to everybody and also [00:31:00] to, we have, free health coaching.
Jim: If you interested also give you, a promo code to attend, one of our health coaching. And, just to follow up. Wow you're a wonderful person, Sylvie. Thank you. Thank you for what you do and you just spread hope. 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 it out and yeah keep hope.
That's the most important. Yes. Alright, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very much. 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 the confidence to take control of your healing journey, knowing that God will guide you on this path.
Healing Strong is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to connect support. And educate individuals [00:32:00] 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 local or online group. And 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 $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.
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