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William Li
Against allopathy Alternative medicine |
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Clinically unproven |
Woo-meisters |
Potentially edible! Food woo |
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Fabulous food! |
Delectable diets! |
Bodacious bods! |
William Li is a woomeister who claims that we can eat our way out of cancer and other diseases using a practice he calls "angiogenesis therapy."
Angiogenesis
Angiogenesis is what happens when the body grows new blood vessels — it's really a thing, look it up in your freshman physiology text. The woo comes in when Li argues that "angiogenesis therapy" promotes the growth of new blood vessels in order to "to replenish the blood supply to chronic wounds to speed healing, and [prevent] unnecessary amputations."[1]
In reality, angiogenesis can make you worse if you have metastatic (malignant) cancer. When a tumor metastasizes in a new area of the body, it starts out tiny, but sends out signals telling the surrounding tissue to grow new blood vessels so that it can feed. Without angiogenesis, the new tumor can't grow bigger than a pin head. In fact, one cancer management therapy that's under serious study is the use of angiogenesis inhibitors such as thalidomide to prevent new blood vessels from forming.[2]