my road to recovery sharing some great information
The other day I was given a pamphlet written by a breast cancer survivor. She's a wonderful writer, and the information in her document is very helpful. I'm going to add it here so that those reading this blog as cancer patients might use some of the information or just keep it handy. I think there are some great ideas here, and all of her suggestions are well-documented:
vitamins nutrition supplements
Cancer: A Dozen Things to Do Right Now
Hi, my name is Nancy. I was diagnosed with cancer at age 46.vitamins nutrition supplements Stunned but hopeful, I had surgery and started chemotherapy. Convinced that I was in serious danger, I quit chemo after two treatments. At that time I knew I had to make changes in my way of life¡ªI didn¡¯t want to go through another cancer ordeal. I read everything I could find on preventing or curing cancer.vitamins nutrition supplements It took me over a year to learn what I know now. I made many changes in my diet and lifestyle. It¡¯s been over 12 years since, and my last checkup was cancer-free. Just as important, I am in better health now than I ever have been.vitamins nutrition supplements I rarely have the sinus headaches which have plagued me since my college days. And I have almost no colds, sore throats, or sinus infections¡ªa real change for me. I want to give you a shortcut¡ªI want to share what I learned with you so that you can help yourself as I did.
vitamins nutrition supplements
(Note: This information is not intended as a cure for cancer or a substitute for professional medical care. If you have cancer or suspect you have cancer, contact your doctor or other medical professional as soon as possible.)
vitamins nutrition supplements
1. Eat 9-10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Emphasize colorful vegetables¡ªbright orange carrots, dark green leafy greens (spinach, mustard greens, parsley),vitamins nutrition supplements broccoli, red tomatoes, sweet potatoes, purple or red grapes (instead of pale green), sweet green or red peppers. The more color,vitamins nutrition supplements the more helpful compounds the foods have. Eat them raw as much as possible¡ªraw fruits and vegetables have enzymes which help the body digest them. Cooking destroys enzymes forcing the body to produce the enzymes necessary to digest food. Stress! Raw fruits and vegetables are the key to regaining health. Green supplements like Kyo-Green (available in health food stores or from mail-order vitamin catalogs) are also helpful. I personally prefer eating my greens in salad! Hint: Eat fruits alone for breakfast.vitamins nutrition supplements Have a large salad with lunch. Have another large salad and cooked vegetables with supper. Keep a snack plate of raw vegetables (baby carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumber slices,vitamins nutrition supplements sliced raw beets, avocado slices, radishes, tomato slices) in the refrigerator for in between meals. Put some in a snack bag to bring with to work.
vitamins nutrition supplements
2. Don¡¯t eat sugar in any form. ¡°Cancer cells are sugar feeders,¡± according to Patrick Quillin (Beating Cancer with Nutrition,vitamins nutrition supplements 42). I had a severe sweet tooth before my cancer diagnosis¡ªit was not unusual for me to eat a dozen cookies at one sitting. Quillin says that giving in to cravings for sugary foods is "like throwing gasoline on a spark" for cancer patients (42). Now I try to indulge only on major holidays and then I eat only 2 or 3 cookies. I have found that the longer I go without, the easier it is to stop eating sweets.vitamins nutrition supplements Ask family and friends to help by not tempting you. Read labels on bread, crackers, peanut butter, cereal and bottled fruit juice. Sugar might be in the form of sucrose,vitamins nutrition supplements dextrose, maltose, fructose or corn syrup. Eat honey and molasses in tiny amounts; they do have some nutrition.
vitamins nutrition supplements
3. Stop eating trans fat. Trans fat describes all fats that have been altered by heat or processing. Research shows that corn oil, safflower oil,vitamins nutrition supplements margarine, all heat-processed oils are bad for the body. The worst are hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats, used in many, many processed foods. Read labels to avoid these two monsters! Andrew Weil (Spontaneous Healing) recommends using olive oil liberally in the diet but make sure it is Extra Virgin (cold-pressed).vitamins nutrition supplements Instead of margarine, use small amounts of butter or make "Better Butter" by Patrick Quillin's recipe: "Blend equal parts of olive oil and softened butter" (144).
Avoid fried foods, especially those from fast food restaurants. The oil in these places is used over and over and stays hot for long stretches of time.vitamins nutrition supplements A major source of free radicals! Experiment with other ways to cook your favorite fried foods. Many experts recommend eating salmon twice a week (or salmon, mackerel, or fresh tuna) to get the really good fat (essential fatty acids) that all cells in the body need. I eat a can of salmon at lunch twice a week with a good salad or a sliced tomato¡ªdelicious! Don't like the taste of fish? Take fish oil capsules. The softgels are easy to swallow and leave no aftertaste.vitamins nutrition supplements
4. Cut down on animal fats and proteins. We¡¯ve all heard that a diet high in animal protein and fat increases the risk of cancer and heart disease.vitamins nutrition supplements As Ross Pelton says, ¡°Flirt with vegetarianism¡± (Alternatives in Cancer Therapy). Vegetables heal, red meat can damage the body. So fill up on vegetables before eating meat to help you cut down on meat. Dried beans are a good meat substitute without the fat.vitamins nutrition supplements
You might feel like a friend of mine, ¡°If I had to give up meat, I¡¯d just as soon go ahead and die.¡± If so, you might benefit from the following tips on how to make eating meat less dangerous to your health:
vitamins nutrition supplements
a. Add a little soy flour (available in health food stores) to ground meat before cooking.
b. Microwave the meat for a short time (about 2 minutes) before frying or grilling it and drain off the juice.
vitamins nutrition supplements
c. Lower the burner (cooking temperature) and shorten the cooking time. Don't overcook it!
d. Marinate meats for at least 5 minutes before grilling. I use an oil and vinegar-based marinade seasoned with Worcestershire sauce,vitamins nutrition supplements mustard, and fresh, crushed garlic.
vitamins nutrition supplements
5. Don't get constipated! The colon and the kidneys are the organs that clean out the body. Imagine a brown scum on the inside of your sink or tub. Yuk! But scales of feces stick to the walls of the colon if a person suffers chronic constipation.These scales poison the body. Clean them away by keeping regular.vitamins nutrition supplements Eating 9-10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day will do a lot to keep the colon clean. So will drinking lots of healthy spring water. I also find that 3 stems of parsley eaten after dinner helps.
If you still have occasional constipation, don¡¯t make a habit of using laxatives.vitamins nutrition supplements Instead use enemas to clean out the colon. Fleet enemas are inexpensive and widely available. Anne Fr?hm used enemas in her fight against bone cancer. She gives detailed instructions on using enemas in A Cancer Battle Plan, pages 56-59.
vitamins nutrition supplements
6. Drink healthy! Drink 6-8 glasses of water a day to help the kidneys and colon purify your system. I prefer spring water because it contains trace minerals that might be removed from distilled water. Drink as little coffee as you can! If you drink tea,vitamins nutrition supplements make it green tea or taheebo tea (Pau d¡¯Arco tea¡ªrecognized by some as a cancer cure). Fresh fruit juices or vegetable juices are great! Fresh juices have enzymes in them¡ªbottled juices are dead!
7. Take vitamin and mineral supplements.vitamins nutrition supplements Many researchers and cancer survivors recommend taking supplements because it is hard to get all the vitamins and minerals we need in our food. Modern farming methods remove many of the minerals from the soil. Farmers replace only those elements which grow healthy plants, not those which grow healthy humans. I take the following supplements:
a.vitamins nutrition supplements Vitamin C¨Cnumber one supplement! Linus Pauling devoted a whole book to the effects of Vitamin C on cancer (Vitamin C and Cancer, co-authored with Ewan McCameron). He tells of many cures and remissions caused by vitamin C alone. Pauling recommends starting at 1000 mg a day and gradually increasing daily intake by 1000 mg each day until bowel movements get sloppy. Then reduce the dose by 1000 mg. Most of his patients took 10,vitamins nutrition supplements 000 mg a day or more. He recommends dividing the daily Vitamin C intake into 3 or more doses. Take it with plenty of water! He stresses never skipping a day and continuing the vitamin C for the rest of your life. I followed his instructions and I now take 5000 mg every day. One side effect I have noticed is that I almost never get those nasty sinus infections I was getting every 2 or 3 months before I started vitamin C! Vitamin C is easy to find; capsules are better than tablets if you can find them. A good mail order source is The Vitamin Shoppe (800/223-1216).vitamins nutrition supplements
b. Broad Spectrum Multi-vitamin¡ªI take Immunomax, an excellent multi-vitamin and mineral supplement recommended by Cancer Treatment Centers of America. It contains high amounts of trace minerals like selenium, zinc,vitamins nutrition supplements and copper which fight cancer. It has large amounts of the antioxidant vitamins (vitamins A and C), supplements known to fight free radicals which cause cancer. Also helpful in boosting the immune system are balanced amounts of the B vitamins. Immunomax is available from CNCAhealth.com or 800/490-8555.vitamins nutrition supplements Other good multi-supplements are available in health stores and from catalogs. Again, get capsules instead of tablets to make it easier for your body to absorb the vitamins.
c. Vitamin E¨CVitamin E is a powerful antioxidant and free-radical scavenger (Pelton 65).vitamins nutrition supplements In fact, Vitamin E succinate is a "selective toxin": it can "kill cancer but not healthy tissue" (Quillin 113)! I want this ally on my side, so I take 400 IU a day in addition to the 300 IU I get in my multi-vitamin. Be sure to take natural vitamin E. Be careful¡ªtoo much vitamin E can be toxic, but "most research indicates that intakes up to 800 IU per day are perfectly safe" (Alternatives 71).vitamins nutrition supplements Amazingly, vitamin E improves some kinds of chemotherapy! Adriamycin given along with vitamin E is more effective than given by itself (Alternatives 69).
8.vitamins nutrition supplements Take garlic¡ªIt is a wonderful boost to the immune system. It was a shocker to me to learn that cancer happens because our immune systems break down! A healthy immune system recognizes and kills off cancer cells, preventing cancer. Eating a lot of raw fruits and vegetables increases immunity, as does taking antioxidants like vitamin C, beta-carotene,vitamins nutrition supplements and vitamin E. Garlic deserves special recognition, however, for its power to boost the immune system. Andrew Weil in Spontaneous Healing recommends taking garlic every day as a ¡°tonic,¡± an overall health booster.vitamins nutrition supplements
The cheapest way to take garlic is to eat one clove of raw garlic a day right before your largest meal. Slice it into small slices and swallow them like tablets. If you prefer garlic capsules, Kyolic garlic is highly recommended (A Cancer Battle Plan, 103-04).vitamins nutrition supplements Use the dosages on the bottle.
9. Take acidophilus or eat yogurt.vitamins nutrition supplements Acidophilus is a long, hard-to-pronounce word that is simply the name of the healthy bacteria in yogurt. It is the same bacteria which lives in the colon, sinuses, and other spots in the body. When these ¡°good¡± bacteria get scarce,vitamins nutrition supplements bad organisms like Candida take over. Then we get infections, yeast infections, and other problems. Keep a healthy balance in your system with plain yogurt, not sweetened.vitamins nutrition supplements Sugar promotes the growth of Candida. If you don¡¯t like the taste of plain yogurt, add fresh or frozen fruit. Or take acidophilus capsules, widely available in health food stores and mail order vitamin catalogs.
vitamins nutrition supplements
10. Exercise¡ªYes, I know¡ªyou don¡¯t feel like it! Neither did I when I first started my exercise program. Set small goals for yourself¡ªwalk around the block,vitamins nutrition supplements ride your bike to the end of the road and back, walk one lap around the mall¡ªand you¡¯ll soon find yourself moaning if you have to miss your exercise time. Aerobic exercise, like walking and biking (the easiest in my book!) helps clean out your body by stepping up circulation. The faster your blood circulates, the faster impurities are removed from the lungs,vitamins nutrition supplements the muscles, the entire body while healthy oxygen is delivered to all our tissues. It¡¯s like taking a bath on the inside! Andrew Weil in his very helpful book Spontaneous Healing suggests a walking program that builds to walking 45 minutes 5 days a week¡ªmy own personal goal. I am walking faster without having to push myself and can walk much farther in 45 minutes than I did a year ago. I find this 45 minutes a wonderful time to practice the next step: healthy daydreaming.
vitamins nutrition supplements
Practice visualization. I was thoroughly intimidated by this process when I first read about it until I realized that it simply means daydreaming. Not just any daydreaming, daydreaming that makes us into the persons we would most like to become. Getting Well Again is an entire book on the topic of daydreaming our way to health.vitamins nutrition supplements The authors give very specific instructions on visualizing killing cancer cells in very creative ways. They give the example of a patient who helped win his battle with cancer by imagining his cancer cells as big gray masses. He saw his own immune system as a group of sharks with big teeth that destroyed the cancer cells by eating them up! Your fantasies should be your own unique creations, expressions of your deepest desires. I practice visualization once a day for about 30 minutes during my walk, but you may find that you prefer twice-a-day sessions of 30 minutes each as recommended in Getting Well Again.vitamins nutrition supplements Don¡¯t underestimate the value of daydreaming!
11. Find others to talk to. I made many friends during my cancer ordeal,vitamins nutrition supplements people who were having the same tests, surgeries, chemotherapy, and endless doctors¡¯ appointments as I was. I found that talking to others in my situation helped me to deal with my own fears and disappointments. It delighted me to pass along tips that helped me; it helped me to get information from others about how they were dealing with their cancer treatments.vitamins nutrition supplements If you find no one speaks to you, take the initiative and ask others about themselves. The friendships you form may help heal you; they will certainly help sustain you emotionally. Ross Pelton in Alternative Cancer Therapies devotes a whole chapter to support groups, pointing out that research shows that people in these groups live longer than those without such support.
vitamins nutrition supplements
12. Renew your spiritual life. I had let my spiritual life lapse badly before I was diagnosed with cancer.vitamins nutrition supplements I had spent most of my time working and shopping. I found little time to read the Bible (my favorite spiritual source) or to pray. Even if you have been spiritually faithful, you may find help in spending more time in prayer, praying with friends, or reading spiritual books.vitamins nutrition supplements Memorize a favorite Psalm or other Bible verse to help you at tense moments¡ªwhile preparing for surgery, while waiting for chemotherapy, or while sitting in the doctor¡¯s office. I personally prefer Psalm 34, since I identify with the ¡°just man¡± in verse 20 who has many troubles but "out of them all the Lord delivers him" (New American Bible). Whatever your faith,vitamins nutrition supplements renew it!
Sources:
vitamins nutrition supplements
1. Beating Cancer with Nutrition by Patrick Quillin with Noreen Quillin
Excellent source book/keep it on hand to refer back to time and again/contains recipes/don¡¯t be thrown off by the technical information in this wonderful resource¡ªread the parts you are interested in and leave the rest. Comes with a CD.
2.vitamins nutrition supplements A Cancer Battle Plan by Anne and Dave Fr?hm
Anne tells how she used nutrition, supplements, enemas, and other therapies to recover from terminal breast-to-bone cancer/very inspirational/ also very practical¡ªcontains loads of specific advice on what supplements to take, diet advice,vitamins nutrition supplements recipes/a must-read for every cancer patient.
3. Alternatives in Cancer Therapy by Ross Pelton and Lee Overholser
Extensive discussion of 27 therapies which do not involve chemotherapy or radiation/many of these therapies make good additions to chemotherapy or radiation/very specific¡ªends each chapter with dosages, discussions of possible side effects and toxicity/includes all the well-known cancer therapies as well as little-known ones /good resource book.vitamins nutrition supplements
4. Vitamin C and Cancer by Linus Pauling and Cameron McEwan
Recounts Pauling and McEwan¡¯s studies on the effects of large doses of vitamin C on cancer/many amazing case studies are cited/gives specific recommendations and dosages for taking large doses of vitamin C to cure cancer.
5.vitamins nutrition supplements Nutrition and Cancer Prevention. Edited by Ronald R. Watson and Siraj I. Mufti.
Very professional and thorough study of how to prevent cancer with nutrition.vitamins nutrition supplements Some chapters are very technical and difficult to read for the non-scientist, but very informative as a whole.
6. Getting Well Again by Carl Simonton, M.vitamins nutrition supplements C., Stephanie Matthews-Simonton, and James Creighton.
Source of visualization therapy,vitamins nutrition supplements very detailed, very helpful.
I hope these suggestions help you or your loved one in the battle against cancer. Above all, remember that you can make a real difference in your fight against cancer.vitamins nutrition supplements Resolve to learn everything you can about curing yourself. Make really good, healthy changes in your diet; start a walking program; visualize yourself as a healthy, vibrant person who makes a difference in our world. By taking charge, you can save your life.