Dr. Johanna Budwig, 1908-2003, was the German biochemist and physicist, licensed pharmacist and health practitioner who developed the Budwig Protocol or Budwig Diet. At the beginning of her career, she was a senior researcher on fats and oils as well as pharmaceuticals for the German Government.

She developed new and precise scientific methods, the first of their kind, to identify differences between saturated and unsaturated fats. She was also the first researcher to determine and differentiate the key essential fatty acids, linoleic [omega 6] and linolenic [omega 3].

Dr. Budwig identified the damaging effects of hydrogenated and other denatured fats upon human health and discovered the powerfully healing nature of cold-pressed, liquid flaxseed oil on various degenerative diseases, including cancer. She showed that highly unsaturated flaxseed oil contains electrons and essential fatty acids that can revitalize cells, heal the cell membrane and improve oxygen absorption.

She discovered and proved that the adhesive capacity of sulfurated proteins (found in quark and cottage cheese) bond with highly unsaturated flaxseed oil to render the oil water soluble – making flaxseed oil much more easily absorbed and effectively used by the body’s cells. Additionally important, once bonded with the sulphurated proteins, flaxseed oil becomes bioavailable to the tiniest capillaries, which may have become blocked by damaging, saturated fats.

Dr. Otto Warburg, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1931 for his research on cellular respiration, explained: “The growth of cancer cells is initiated by a relative lack of oxygen. Cancer cannot live in an oxygen-rich environment.” Yet, Warburg was unable to find a way to restore oxygen to the cells.

Twenty-one years later, in a paper entitled “On Fat Biology V. Paper Chromatography of Blood Lipoids, the Tumour Problem and Fat Research,” Dr. Budwig wrote, “It is basically proven that highly unsaturated fatty acids are the heretofore undiscovered decisive factor in respiratory enzyme function, i.e. constitute the second part of the ‘equation’ that nobelist Otto Warburg had been unable to find.”

In 1952, Dr. Budwig developed her Oil-Protein-Diet which was able to revitalize the cells through oxygenation as a result of highly unsaturated flaxseed oil combined with quark or cottage cheese along with a healthy vegetarian diet. Additional elements of her plan include sun therapy and practices for the reduction of damaging stress. This plan proved to be very successful in treating cancer as well as variety of additional illnesses. Dr. Budwig worked with many terminal cancer patients. Her rate of success was over 90%.

Throughout her career, she gave lectures and authored a number of books in German with three of her titles being translated into English:

• FlaxOil As A True Aid Against Arthritis, Heart Infarction, Cancer, And Other Diseases,
• The Oil Protein Diet Cookbook
• Cancer – The Problem and The Solution [1999]

Dr. Budwig was a vegetarian and continued working with patients in Germany well into her 90s, from the 1950’s through 2002. She wrote her final book in 1999. She was healthy and mentally sharp. One letter from a patient who met with her in October, 2000, commented on her energy and vitality, saying she looked and seemed much younger than her age.

In 2002, she fell and broke some bones which led to hospitalization and later a nursing home where she passed away in May, 2003. She left an amazing gift of knowledge for all who are fortunate enough to learn about it and embrace it.