Organic Germanium (GE-132) in Treatment of Human Disease
By Candace Roberts
The belated discovery of the biologic value of Bis–Beta Carboxyethyl Germanium Sesquioxide, Dr. Kazuhiko Asai’s “Organic germanium Complex”, now called Ge-132, is a landmark development in the field of nutritional and metabolic medicine.
Clinical trials using Organic Germanium at Dr. Asai’s Research Institute and Clinic in Tokyo, Japan, produced results that were anecdotally impressive, numberous patient case histories and standard blood chemistry parameters were followed from many patients with a broad range of diseases and symptomatologies. These people were treated with Dr. Asai’s Organic Germanium at dosages ranging from as low as 50mg to as high as 3000mg (3grams) per day.
Liver dysfunctions, chronic hepatitis, and various types of cancer (including leukemia were just a few of the difficult diseases that responded well to Organic Germanium (1); diseases of the eye, including cataracts, often responded quickly and dramatically. Organic Germanium frequently produced excellent results when given to hypertensive patients and proved surprisingly effective at normalizing blood pressure in spontaneously hypertensive rats (11). Heart disease responded well to dosages as high as infarction and angina pectoris, and Reynard’s disease responded well to dosages as high as 1400mg per day (1). Similar health benefits were also reported in people with mercury, cadmium, and other toxic, heavy metal poisoning.
Organic Germanium has also been found to be an impressive immuno-stimulant. In controlled studies, Organic Germanium has demonstrated marked anti-tumor immune-depressed animals (12, 21, 27,28). These immunostimulatnt effects were achieved with oral dosages and no harmful side effects were noted.
Controlled Laboratory Studies Confirm Organic Germanium’s “Immuno-Stimulant Effects”
Experimental findings also suggest strongly that Organic Germanium can be assigned to a family of compounds capable of normalizing immune responses in organisms with impaired immune function. In addiction, these are reports (14, 15) which describe its ability to enhance NR lymphocytes’ (natural killer cells) activity in healthy human subjects. Studies on immune suppressed animals and on patients with malignancies or rheumatoid arthritis suggest that Organic Germanium restores the normal function of T lymphocytes, B lymphocytes, antibody dependent T-cell killing activity, natural killer cell activity, and increases the numbers of antibody-forming cells, although not enhancing these beyond levels considered normal (13, 21, 23, 24). Anti-tumor effects of Organic Germanium were reported from studies on mice with Lewis lung carcinoma, chemically induced sarcomas, and leukemias (17,18, 24).
Organic Germanium Has Analgesic Properties
The analgesic (pain-killing) effect of Asai’s Organic Germanium was recorded early during its clinical use. Organic Germanium whether administered orally or intravenously, clearly enhanced morphine-induced analgesia (25). It was suggested that Organic Germanium may activate dopaminergic or serotoninergic neurons in analgesic pathways, and/or stimulate the release of endogenous enkephalins or endorphins (our natural pain-killers).
Organic Germanium-A Landmark Development in Nutritional and Metabolic Medicine
The apparent versatility of Organic Germanium in normalizing health and alleviating major human diseases suggests that it acts at a fundamental level of life function. The known biological and clinical effects of Organic Germanium are consistent with Dr. Asai’s suggestion that it can, at least partially, substitute for or supplement oxygenation in tissues; this is a critical contribution to maintenance of health and prevention of disease (26). Organic Germanium’s unique chemical structure may strongly attract and absorb (“delocalize”) electrons. In this manner, it may facilitate of oxygen as and “electron sink” essential for energy-yielding electron transfer processes (29). In cells which cannot utilize oxygen (for example, cancer cells in solid tumors which appear to be oxygen-sensitive), it is predictable that Organic Germanium’s presence as and “oxygen-catalyst” could have deleterious effects on malignant cells and may, therefore, demonstrate therapeutic value (30).
The fact that Organic Germanium has immuno stimulationg effects is not surprising since it has known efficacy as an oxygenation enhancer, and oxygen plays a pivotal role in immune functions (26). This breakthrough in understanding of the rule of Organic Germanium stems from Dr. Asai’s initial finding that Organic Germanium occurs in high concentrations in medicinal plants. It thus appears that Dr. Asai identified one of the main active principles responsible for the therapeutic action of many age old, natural remedies.
Dr. Asai did not regard Organic Germanium as a drag. He stated, “I would rather call it a health-giving substance – it restores health to those afflicted with disease and sustains health in those who are healthy…Where body cells lack oxygen, indispensable to life, a gradual decline in function is inevitable and the fire of life will reduce until it is extinguished”(1).
Organic Germanium Is Essentially “Non Toxic”
Initial acute and chronic toxicity studies were conducted by Dr. Asai and his co-worker using his Organic Germanium Complex or biscarboxyethylgermanium sesquioxide. The Organic Germanium was fed to various species of experimental animals in high doses, equivalent to several grams per day for a human. The compound was found to be essentially nontoxic even at the highest dosages (1).
Additional toxicological and pharmacokinetic studies have revealed that is of low toxicity. An equivalent in humans of many grams per day of “Organic Germanium”, the pure Asai material (9, 10), produced no observable toxicity in laboratory animals.
Chemistry of Germanium
The element germanium (Ge), atomic number 32, atomic weight 72.6, tends to pack into a lattice-like structure and displays the electrical conductivity of a semi-conductor. Since the elements of similar atomic number are biologically-essential trace elements (e.g. selenium), germanium may also play an essential role in human nutrition and metabolism.
Germanium occurs naturally in peat and coal deposits, apparently having accumulated to levels as high as 10 ppm from the remains of once-living organisms (1).
In its appearance, germanium is like a metal, although technically it is classified as a semi metal. Chemically, it resembles silicon in its behavior as a semiconductor – its electrical conductivity varies with temperature, pressure, and bioelectric charge gradients. In the 1950s and 1960s, a number of researchers (2-8) investigated the biological activity of germanium and its occurrence in biomaterials. From these early studies, it became generally accepted that germanium has little know biological significance. However, more recent reports by Dr. Asai and his colleagues indicate that germanium occurs in high concentrations in certain medicinal plants and that its organic derivative appears to have significant clinical efficacy. This new information has reopened the question of germanium’s biological essentiality (1).
The research and clinical work by Dr. Asai is summarized in his book Miracle Cure: Organic Germanium (1). The concentrations of germanium he found in foods and other biomaterials range from 0.1 to 1ppm, corresponding to 0.1-1.0 microgram of germanium per gram of food material. Singe humans consume about 2 pounds of food per day (wet weight), adults might expect to consume 100 to 1000 micrograms (1 milligram) of germanium per day. Dr. Asai reported that the levels of germanium in medicinal plants range as high as 2000ppm (roughly 1000 milligrams per pound). These findings by Dr. Asai have sparked considerable renewed interest in the nutritional and health promoting effects of this Organic Germanium Complex.