Having tools to
effectively address the emotional trauma caused by a cancer diagnosis
is an important first step. The Emotional Freedom Techniques is
noninvasive and easy to learn, and can be done just about anywhere, at
any time
When faced with
a cancer diagnosis, consider finding a qualified holistic cancer
treatment expert that can help guide you through the options. Resources
are included
In order for
holistic cancer treatment to work, it needs to be done first. Once
you’ve done chemo or extensive radiation, your chances of remission
through alternative methods are slim, as the damage done is too great
Foundational
basics of many holistic cancer treatment plans include nutritional
ketosis, intermittent fasting and vitamin D optimization. Other helpful
adjuncts include hyperbaric oxygen, cryotherapy, exercise,
detoxification and avoiding toxic exposures of all kinds
When speaking
to someone who is suffering, don’t try to relate to their suffering by
comparing it to something you’ve experienced, don’t offer solutions and
treatment strategies unless asked, and don’t tell them their suffering
has some greater purpose. Instead, make yourself available, be present
with them and let them express how they feel about their diagnosis
Approximately 1,663 people will die today from cancer in the United States.1
This is criminal since cancer is a relatively new disease and would
rarely occur if you were healthy. The time to use natural medicine,
ideally, is before you are diagnosed, but certainly when you are
diagnosed.
If you are motivated by fear and run to conventional physicians,
they implement therapies like chemo and radiation that will compromise
your immune system, which ultimately is responsible for controlling the
cancer. Even if they are successful, these approaches will typically
kill you from another disease a few years later.
An estimated 1,762,450 Americans are expected to be diagnosed with cancer in 2019.2
The mere words, “You have cancer” is a traumatic blow that can paralyze
even the most resilient among us. Panic can easily set in, which has
its own ramifications for health and well-being.
Interestingly, most say they thought they were healthy up until they
received their cancer diagnosis. However, common sense will tell you
that’s impossible. Cancer, like many other diseases, does not manifest
until you’re about 80% of the way down the proverbial hole.
Most cancers take years, and some even decades, to progress to the
point of being diagnosable. As noted by Dr. Nasha Winters, a
naturopathic physician who specializes in cancer treatment, cancer is a
res ipsa loquitur factor, meaning “the facts speak for themselves.”
In other words, you, in some way, were not leading a healthy
lifestyle — or you simply failed to counteract the inevitable toxic
exposures we’re all subject to in today’s modern world.
Proactive Measures Can Pay Dividends
Unfortunately, conventional medicine pays little attention to actual
prevention of cancer, and few doctors are properly trained in
evaluating lab tests that can provide early indications that a problem
is brewing, even though such tests are readily available.
In “The Metabolic Approach to Cancer Treatment,”
Winters reviews several oft-ignored lab tests that can give you a nice
overview of how your immune system is doing, and whether you might be
at risk for cancer or other chronic disease.
Dr. Leigh Erin Connealy also covers this important topic in “The Cancer Revolution: A Groundbreaking Program to Reverse and Prevent Cancer,” which is also the title of her book.
Even if you believe yourself to be in decent health, finding a
doctor who can help you assess your risk and provide guidance on how to
optimize your health would be an ideal scenario. But what do you do
if you’ve already been diagnosed with cancer? That’s the focus of this
particular article, although most of the recommendations apply equally
to both prevention and treatment.
Addressing Your Emotions
Getting a cancer diagnosis is bound to throw anyone for a loop.
Having tools to effectively address the emotional trauma is an
important first step. One of my favorite tools for this is the
Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT).
It’s noninvasive and easy to learn, and can be done just about
anywhere, at any time. In the video above, Julie Schiffman demonstrates
how to tap for the emotional (and physical) stress associated with a
breast cancer diagnosis.
When faced with a cancer diagnosis, it’s easy to panic and lose
sight of the big picture. Most people immediately start on conventional
treatment, which typically involves chemotherapy, radiation and/or
surgery.
Centering yourself with EFT, meditation or any other form of stress
relief that you find effective may help you calm down enough that you
might consider your alternatives. Most are indoctrinated to think
chemo, radiation and surgery are “givens,” when in fact there are now
many different kinds of alternatives.
Importantly, once you’ve done chemo or extensive radiation, your
chances of remission through alternative methods are slim, as the
damage done is too great. I’ve yet to talk to an expert in alternative
cancer treatments that does not agree with this statement.
In order for holistic treatment to work, it needs to be done first.
This in turn means you have to be brave enough, and not too panic
stricken, to explore your options and give them time to work before
jumping into the “cut, poison, burn” paradigm.
You may also find inspiration from Kate Bowler’s podcast,3
“Everything Happens.” Bowler, a cancer survivor, interviews a wide
range of individuals, talking to them about “what they’ve learned in
dark times.” Some discussions center around loss and grief, while
others tackle living with chronic illness.
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Finding Your Way
So, just what are your options? I’ve written many articles and
interviewed many alternative cancer specialists on this very issue. One
way to get started is to find a qualified expert that can help guide
you through the options.
Winters, for example, is a naturopathic physician who specializes in
consulting with clinicians who treat cancer patients. To engage her
services, your doctor will need to go to the doctor section on her
website, drnasha.com,4
to sign up for a consultation. There you can also find a free guide
describing the five steps Winters recommends taking when diagnosed with
cancer.
Hope4Cancer,5
which has integrative cancer treatment centers in Mexico, Colombia and
Thailand, also offers consultations, and will discuss treatment options
with your oncologist if desired.
You can learn more about these facilities in my interview with Hope4Cancer’s founder, Dr. Antonio Jimenez. Educational material can be found on Hope4Cancer.com,6 including a printable PDF7 summarizing the seven key principles of cancer therapy that Hope4Cancer is founded on.
A third helpful resource where you can find oncologists who are open
to holistic and integrative cancer treatments is the Best Answer for
Cancer Foundation.8 It's a hybrid nonprofit that services both integrative physicians and patients with cancer and other chronic disease.
Nutritional Basics
As you might expect, your diet not only can help prevent cancer from
developing in the first place, but is also an important piece of the
treatment puzzle. Overwhelmingly, the nutritional approach with the
strongest scientific support is time-restricted eating, which is
restricting your eating window to six to eight hours initially, and
eventually down to four hours.
This will help increase metabolic autophagy, lower your insulin
resistance, improve your sleep, radically increase your metabolic
flexibility, increase ketones, and improve your mitochondrial function —
especially if you add exercise in your fasting window.
In my experience, the vast majority of people are adapted to burning
carbs as their primary fuel, as opposed to burning fat. One of the
most effective strategies I know of to become a fat burner is to fast
for 16 to 18 hours each day.
Remember, cancer is a metabolic disease
rooted in mitochondrial dysfunction. In a nutshell, cancer cells burn
glucose, which generates far more reactive oxygen species than fat and
ketones. To burn fat, the cell must be healthy and normal. Cancer cells
cannot burn fat, so a high-fat, low-sugar diet essentially starves the
cancer while nourishing healthy cells.
To be clear, time-restricted eating and a ketogenic diet can safely
and easily be implemented even if you’re going through conventional
cancer treatment. In fact, it can actually make chemotherapy more
effective.
The ChemoThermia Oncology Center in Turkey, for example, specializes
in low-dose chemotherapy treatments for late-stage cancers, which are
in large part made possible through the implementation of a ketogenic
diet.
You can learn more about their general treatment protocol in “Metabolically Supported Therapies for the Improvement of Cancer Treatment.” Other strategies used at this cancer center include fasting, hyperthermia and hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
Why Nutritional Ketosis Is so Important
One of the leading researchers in this field is Thomas Seyfried, Ph.D. In my May 2019 interview with Seyfried,
he explains how the origin of cancer is damage to the respiratory
function of your mitochondria, triggering compensatory fermentation
that is run by oncogenes.
To survive, the cancer cells must use fermentation, and the two most
available fermentable fuels in the cancer microenvironment are glucose
and glutamine (one of the most common amino acids found in proteins).
For this reason, targeting glucose and glutamine is a crucial
component of cancer treatment. The simplest approach is to bring the
patient into therapeutic ketosis, and then strategically target the
availability of glucose and glutamine.
Seyfried’s research also sheds much-needed light on how metastatic
cancer works, and thus its treatment. According to Seyfried, a
metastatic cancer cell is essentially a hybrid mix of a macrophage (an
immune system cell) and a dysregulated stem cell.
Macrophages are part of our primary defense system against bacterial
infections. They live both in the bloodstream and in tissues, and can
go anywhere in the body. When an injury or infection occurs, they
immediately move in to protect the tissue.
In the case of metastatic cancer cells, their dysregulated energy
and function make them proliferate out of control, spreading
unpredictably through the body. Like normal macrophages, metastatic
cancer cells are also able to survive in hypoxic environments, which is
why most angiogenic therapies are ineffective against metastatic
cancer. Seyfried’s research suggests that by strategically targeting
glutamine, you can effectively kill these metastatic cancer cells.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and Cryotherapy
Another component that we’re starting to see more and more of in
holistic cancer treatment programs is the addition of hyperbaric oxygen
therapy. As mentioned, it’s one of the adjunct therapies used at The
ChemoThermia Oncology Center in Turkey.
In 2015, Seyfried and Dominic D'Agostino, Ph.D., another cancer-is-metabolic-disease researcher,9 published a paper10 demonstrating a phenomenal synergy between a ketogenic diet and the use of hyperbaric oxygen for metastasized cancers.
Another oft-ignored alternative discussed in Connealy’s book, “The
Cancer Revolution: A Groundbreaking Program to Reverse and Prevent
Cancer,” is cryotherapy, which is where you freeze the cancer cells.
Cryotherapy typically works well for breast cancer.
In our interview (hyperlinked above), Connealy recounts treating
9-centimeter breast tumors with cryotherapy in combination with a
cocktail of low-dose chemo and hypodermic mistletoe, successfully
eliminating the tumor in a single month.
Vitamin D Optimization Is Essential
Optimizing your vitamin D
is another foundational move that you should consider regardless of
the type of cancer treatment you’re opting for. Research shows most
cancers occur in people with a vitamin D blood level between 10 and 40
nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL), and the optimal level for cancer
protection has been identified as being between 60 and 80 ng/mL.
Generally speaking, research11
has shown that once you reach a minimum serum vitamin D level of 40
ng/mL, your risk for cancer diminishes by 67%, compared to having a
level of 20 ng/ml or less. Several studies also show that higher
vitamin D levels are protective against breast cancer specifically.
A 2005 study12
showed women with vitamin D levels above 60 ng/mL have an 83% lower
risk of breast cancer than those below 20 ng/mL. I cannot think of any
other strategy that can offer that kind of risk reduction.
A pooled analysis13
published in June 2018 of two randomized trials and a prospective
cohort study came to a near-identical conclusion. Mirroring the 2005
findings, women with vitamin D levels at or above 60 ng/mL had an 82%
lower incidence rate of breast cancer than those with levels of 20
ng/mL or less.
Vitamin D also increases your chances of surviving cancer,14,15,16,17
and evidence suggests adding vitamin D to the conventional treatment
for cancer can boost the effectiveness of conventional cancer
treatment.18
GrassrootsHealth makes testing easy by offering an inexpensive vitamin D testing kit as part of its consumer-sponsored research. You also have the option of getting both your vitamin D and omega-3 index tested.
By signing up, you are helping further vital health research that
can help millions in coming years. (All revenues from these kits go
directly to GrassrootsHealth. I make no profit from these kits and only
provide them as a service of convenience to my readers.)
All women are also encouraged to enroll in the Breast Cancer Prevention project,19
to track your vitamin D level and help prevent an initial cancer
occurrence, or, if you’ve already had it, to help prevent a recurrence.
Other Cancer Treatment Recommendations
As discussed in “Metabolically Supported Therapies for the
Improvement of Cancer Treatment” (hyperlinked above), clinical evidence
from the ChemoThermia Oncology Center in Turkey shows nutritional
ketosis and fasting can radically improve treatment outcomes and
minimize the need for chemotherapy, even in advanced-stage and hard to
treat cancer cases.
Other strategies, aside from those already discussed, that can help
minimize your cancer risk and improve your outcome if added to a
comprehensive cancer treatment plan include the following:
Sauna — Detoxification is another
crucial component. Most of us are inundated with thousands of toxins
each day, many of which have carcinogenic potential. One of the
simplest and perhaps safest ways is to use a low-EMF, infrared sauna
coupled with a near-infrared light, as your skin is a major organ of
elimination.
Cancer cells also have a harder time surviving in high
temperatures. I strongly believe that near-infrared, not
far-infrared, saunas are the best out there and highly recommend the
sauna space sauna.
Exercise — One of the primary reasons exercise works is that it drives insulin resistance down. One of the most recent studies20
looking at exercise for cancer was published online August 5, 2019.
It found that women who exercised and lost weight had more favorable
breast cancer biomarker profiles than those who exercised but lost no
weight.
Minimize your exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF), including both wireless technologies and household wiring — To learn more about how EMFs affect your health, see “The Harmful Effects of EMFs Explained.”
Get eight hours of high-quality sleep each night to optimize your melatonin production —
Melatonin (a hormone with antioxidant and anticancer activity) both
inhibits the proliferation of cancer cells and triggers cancer cell
apoptosis (self-destruction). It also interferes with the new blood
supply tumors required for their rapid growth (angiogenesis).
Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins like pesticides, household chemical cleaners, synthetic air fresheners and air pollution.
Boil, poach or steam your foods,
rather than frying or charbroiling them to avoid the creation of
acrylamide, a known carcinogen. Avoid all processed meats for the
same reason.
How to Speak to Someone Who Has Received a Cancer Diagnosis
Last but not least, some advice for friends and family of those who
have received a diagnosis of cancer or some other chronic disease. It
can be very difficult to talk about a devastating diagnosis, both for
the patient and those around them.
A July 2019 article21
in The Atlantic addresses this sensitive issue. Taylor Lorenz tells the
story of Kate Bowler, a 35-year-old historian and author. Bowler’s
cancer diagnosis came like a lightning bolt from a clear-blue sky.
In 2015, she sought treatment for stomach pain. It turned out to be
Stage 4 colon cancer, and she was given less than a year to live. The
podcast I mentioned earlier, “Everything Happens,”22 was an outgrowth of her journey.
Despite a grim diagnosis, Bowler survived. Today, four years later,
her focus has shifted to educating people about how to support people in
the midst of their suffering. Her own experiences taught her a lot
about this, and many of the things people say turn out to be less than
helpful. For example, Bowler suggests that when speaking to someone who
is suffering:
Don’t try to relate to their suffering — While
this may sound odd, the way we experience suffering is uniquely our own,
so hearing stories about someone else’s situation typically isn’t
helpful. It also shifts the focus away from the patient, making it
instead about you.
Don’t offer solutions and treatment strategies unless asked.
Don’t tell them their suffering is “part of God’s master plan” or has some greater purpose —
Randomness happens. Sometimes it’s just bad luck. Sometimes, a tragic
story will have a happy ending, but it’s not guaranteed.
Make yourself available and just be present — Lorenz writes,23
“Bowler had friends who faded away from her life after her diagnosis
because they didn’t know how to confront her tragedy. But the type of
person she found most helpful when she was at her lowest, she said, was
someone who just ‘shows up, doesn’t ask for anything, and just knits
in front of you.”’
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