Dr. William Bestermann is an internist and cardiovascular specialist who spent his career treating heart disease, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease, and who survived lymphoma himself. He founded the first ICU in Beaufort, South Carolina, ran 180 patients through the NIH's ACCORD diabetes trial, and has written about optimal medical therapy on Substack for six years.
His argument is that oxidative stress is the root cause of nearly every chronic disease, cancer included. Excess oxidant production plus weakened antioxidant defense produces inflammation, and inflammation is where cancer, heart disease, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and autoimmune disease all start. Antioxidant supplements like vitamin E were tested against this and failed. The drugs that actually work on the mechanism are ones most people already recognize: metformin, statins, losartan, and the newer diabetes drugs.
He also explains why he'd start treating at 130 over 80 rather than waiting, why abdominal fat is the largest gland in your body, and what a quadrillion oxidants per cigarette puff does to your DNA.
The practical piece: he names one study, the Steno-2 trial, that produced the best outcomes ever recorded in type 2 diabetes, and tells you to bring it to your doctor and ask for that standard of care by name.
Host Joelle Kaufman is a BRCA1 carrier, a triple-negative breast cancer survivor, and the host of Kicking Cancer's Ass.
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