Take Ten Steps for a Cancer-Free Life, Part I

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 by: Barbara L. Minton
Tags: cancer prevention, health news, Natural News

(NewsTarget) Cancer will be the number one killer in the world by the year 2010, overtaking the spot now held by heart disease, according to a recent report from Associated Press. International health experts foresee a doubling in the global rate of cancer deaths by 2030. Cancer diagnoses have been steadily rising around the globe and are expected to hit 12 million this year, with deaths from cancer logging in at 7 million. By 2030 this appalling toll will hit 27 million diagnoses and 17 million deaths. What can you do to make sure you are not among the gruesome statistics? Assuming you do not smoke or drink excessively, here is a list of the top 10 steps for avoiding cancer. Anyone who has had cancer can use these steps to prevent a recurrence.

Make high quality food a priority

The quality of the food supply is very poor, being grown in depleted soil, transported long distances, stored, processed, and packaged. There is very little nutrition left in such food. Yet high quality nutrients are required by the body to keep it free of cancer. Food is a lot more than just calories. It is the bedrock of the body's defense, so only the highest quality, most nutrient packed food should be eaten. High quality food is not about what tastes the best, but what will make you feel the best.

It is up to us to be as proactive as we can when dealing with what life has offered if we hope to retain our health. Eating locally and organically grown and produced food is the best way to get maximum nutrition. Since everyone does not have access to this kind of food, the next best thing is to make a commitment to eat whole foods that retain their integrity and have not been processed. Whole foods are things like apples, celery, potatoes and chicken legs, items that have not been altered from their natural state.

Food prepared at home is best because restaurant food is low on nutrition and high on toxic chemicals. But stay away from packaged foods and other products of food technology. They are processed, low on nutrients, and usually chocked full of chemicals. They have been created to benefit the food company that manufactures them, not the person who has to eat them. A plant based diet that places primary emphasis on vegetables and fruits eaten raw offers the highest level of cancer preventing compounds. A diet that places primary emphasis on processed carbohydrates like pancakes, bread, cake and snack foods offers the lowest level of cancer protection.

If avoiding cancer is the goal, eat the highest quality food that can be found and afforded. When times are though, think of an investment in high quality food as something that can never be taken from you, and will never lose its value. High quality food will enhance your looks and appeal to a much greater extent than a new outfit, hairdo or manicure. There is nothing that creates a radiant appearance like the glow of good health.

A diet that frequently includes known cancer fighting food is of tremendous value in the quest to remain cancer free. The Budwig protocol is the only well documented food cure for cancer. It consists of flax oil mixed with cottage cheese. Other known potent cancer fighters are berries, apples eaten with their seeds, almonds, Brazil nuts, broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables, green leafy vegetables, beans and other legumes, garlic, tea, grapes, red wine, avocados, and tomatoes. Most culinary herbs have cancer fighting properties so use them whenever possible. Turmeric, ginger, rosemary, cumin, and cayenne are among the richest in cancer fighting compounds.

Stay as chemically free as possible

When the body is chemicalized, the immune system is so busy dealing with the toxic chemical onslaught that it cannot do the jobs it was meant to do. One job of the immune system is to make sure the cancerous cells produced by the body every day are identified and eliminated before they can turn into a full blown cancer. The immune system perceives toxic chemicals as just what they are, foreign invaders that do not exist in nature. It responds by trying to oust these invaders from the body. While it is busy doing that, a few cancerous cells can slip by unnoticed and a cancer can begin.

We are living in a time of chemical assault like never before. Our food is full of chemicals, the air we breathe is polluted, and the water supply contains industrial waste and pharmaceutical residues. Our personal care and household products are a toxic chemical soup. Add to that the threat from electro magnetic fields (EMFS) such as produced by power lines, computers, cell phones and even electric alarm clocks, and the total environmental threat we deal with on a daily basis is mind boggling.

Anyone who has been on the standard American diet, taking prescription drugs, and using personal care and household products from traditional retail outlets has a huge store of toxins in the body that need to be eliminated before they can contribute to the development of cancer. This can be accomplished by practicing yoga and using the breathing techniques prescribed by yoga masters, or by deep tissue massage. For the first few times, each should be followed by a general purpose antioxidant supplement like R-Lipoic Acid, and the drinking of plenty of pure water. Both will flush out toxins. Cilantro juice is another way to flush out many toxins including heavy metals. Follow the juice with chlorella or IP6 to escort them from the body. There are many other detox formulas on the market.

It is relatively easy to find personal care, cosmetic, and household products that are free of toxic chemicals. Non-toxic products can be easily ordered on line and shipped to your home. Install a water purification system, preferably one that uses reverse osmosis to get the toxins out of your drinking water and the water in which you bathe. These are also available online. Let fresh air into your home or workplace whenever possible. Use houseplants to keep the air in your environment free of pollutants. One medium sized houseplant for every 100 square foot of space should do the trick. Larger plants provide even more natural air cleaning.

Do the best you can to rid your environment of EMFs. For starters, never sit with a laptop computer on your lap. Get rid of those old style televisions and computer monitors that emit huge amounts of radiation. Throw out your microwave. If you aren't buying packaged processed foods, you won't need it. For a quick heating device, get an inexpensive toaster oven. Move the alarm clock from next to the bed to across the room. Do not use a cell phone unless you have to, and then use it only with a headset or in the speakerphone mode. Never carry electronic gadgetry mounted on your body.

Learn to read labels. If you do not recognize the ingredients as compounds that occur in nature, do not buy the product.

Keeping yourself and your family as free of toxins as possible requires a new way of thinking and approaching life. One of the first priorities for making a purchase should be how much the product will add to the quest for a long and healthy life. When thoughts go in this direction you will begin to see how people are being manipulated and used by many of the large corporations. Producers that make products containing toxic chemicals are showing no regard for their customer's health or the well being of their families. They will use people however then can to enrich their bottom lines. As people become aware of this, their criteria for a purchase evolves to the point where they naturally purchase only products that will enhance their health.

Run away from prescription and over-the-counter drugs

Socrates said, "Let food be thy medicine and let medicine be thy food". If he were alive today he would probably be appalled by a society that is tightly in the grip of pharmaceutical companies. These companies sell patented toxic chemicals that do little or nothing to keep people well and healthy on any sustained basis. Their products mask symptoms that should be given attention. Symptoms are a wake up call that something is wrong. They need to be traced back to their cause, so the cause can be addressed and corrected, not covered up and ignored.

Whether it is a prescribed medication or an over-the-counter drug, the affect on the body is the same as with the toxic chemicals in food and other products. Drugs are lab created and do not exist in nature. If you put a drug into your body, your immune system has to deal with it as though it too is a foreign invader. Drugs raise the level of toxicity in the body and must be detoxified by a liver already stressed from trying to deal with the high level of environmental toxins.

No one gets better taking pharmaceuticals, and there is no healing. The side effects that are produced by one drug frequently lead to more prescriptions for more drugs in what becomes a vicious cycle. If people take enough drugs their bodies become chemical waste dumps where cancer can easily flourish. The reliance on drugs has diverted attention from the real issue, which is how to care for ourselves and keep ourselves healthy. Once people become truly health conscious, they resent the drug companies because they know that these companies do not have people's best interest at heart with the products they sell. They are just like the companies that make chemicalized foods, trying to get people's money without given anything of value in return. People who have wised up to the harmful effects of patent medicines see the constant barrage of commercials for drugs as blatant manipulation and brainwashing.

There are natural alternatives to drugs that do not just mask symptoms but actually produce healing. There is an abundance of natural compounds that can keep people in good health. These substances leave the immune systems and liver strong and able to provide protection from cancer.

Keep your gut healthy and happy

People have trouble with their stomachs and digestive tracts and write it off as an inevitable result of stress or aging. Yet many natural healers say death begins in the gut, a statement that underscores how vital the health of the gut is for overall well being. When the gut is not healthy, food cannot be properly processed and assimilated into the body, leaving people unable to have access to the wealth of nutrients that high quality food provides. Since it is these nutrients that provide protection from cancer, it becomes imperative that gut health be a priority in any anti-cancer effort.

The deterioration of the digestive system occurs over a period of years and can be signaled by sounds of a thunderstorm coming from the gut. Other symptoms include headaches, increased susceptibility to infection, gas, bloating, constipation, indigestion, and falling energy levels. Failure to address declining gut function creates an opportunity for cancer and other degenerative diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue, lupus, arthritis, and psoriasis. Many chronic diseases start with gut deterioration.

The four pounds of bacteria that live in the gut are the backbone of the immune system. They are our unpaid personal bodyguards, willing to go to war against aberrant cells, bacteria, viruses, pathogens and foreign invaders to defend us. They also help out with digestion and make sure nutrients are absorbed so they can be used by the body to keep it healthy.

One of the worst things that can happen to ruin the happy relationship between people and their bacteria is antibiotics. They kill off the bodyguards along with the enemies, leaving no defense against unfriendly bacteria that would like to inhabit the intestinal tract. After a round of antibiotics, it is essential to take probiotics to reestablish friendly bacteria in the gut. Kefir, a culture that can be started in any kind of milk including coconut milk, offers powerful protection to the gut and as a result, to the entire body. Kefir culture is available online.

Even if no antibiotics have been taken, the herd of friendly bacteria in the gut can become depleted to the point where it can no longer do what it is meant to do. Pesticides in food are lethal to intestinal bacteria. Even if the skins of fruits and vegetables are well washed, pesticides remain because they work systemically and will be contained in the body of the produce. Chlorine is meant to kill bacteria in water and will kill off the bacteria in the gut as well. Eventually the gut becomes so depleted that it will be as though antiobiotics have been taken even if they have not. When this happens, unfriendly microorganisms are free to set up shop in the digestive tract.

Probiotics are friendly bacteria similar to the bacteria found in the guts of breastfed infants who have been provided this natural protection against many diseases by their mothers. Almost every supplement company sells probiotics in capsule form. Although they don't work as well as kefir at restoring depleted levels of bacteria, they are good for maintenance of a healthy digestive system. Yogurt will also help preserve the health of the digestive tract once it has been established, but it won't do much to help repopulate a digestive tract after antibiotic use or years of general neglect.

Restore declining hormones to optimal levels

For women and for men, achieving and maintaining hormonal balance is probably the single greatest intervention that can be taken to preserve health. Hormonal decline can start as early as the late 20's for women and the mid 30's for men. It is an opening door that leads to aging and degenerative diseases like cancer. While women and men have their hormones in abundance and in balance, they are vital, vibrant and reproductive. Nature has a use for them and wants to keep them around. When hormones decline and are not replaced, a powerful message is sent to nature saying these people are no longer necessary in the great scheme of life.

Hormones control mental and physical well being. Energy level, metabolism, brain functioning, skeletal integrity, mood, motivation, and zest for life are orchestrated by the hormones. All the hormones work together to keep us healthy and functioning at our best. If one hormone is not up to par, repercussions will manifest through all the body systems. If people do not feel well and at their best a large part of the time, chances are pretty good that at least one hormone is not at the level it should be. If they have trouble sleeping, feel depressed, gain weight without increasing food intake, have low energy during some part of the day, or have lost interest in sex or cannot perform, their hormone levels are probably declining and out of balance. For anyone who already has cancer or any other degenerative disease, hormonal imbalance is almost a sure thing. Until hormones are replenished and balanced, real sustainable recovery will be impossible.

The only way to achieve hormone balance is with bioidentical hormone replacement that restores hormone levels to where they were at the prime of life. Teenagers and people in their early 20's usually feel good and energetic most of the time. They do not have cancer. This is because they have a full complement of balanced hormones.

Achieving this level of hormonal balance and the vibrant health, joy of living and freedom from worrying about cancer and other diseases that goes with it, requires the help of a physician trained in anti-aging medicine or hormone balancing. Many traditional doctors have never heard of bioidentical hormones or if they have, they will advise their patients not to use them because they are not drugs. Since many bioidentical hormones are made at compounding pharmacies, this is a good place to start the search for hormone balance. Ask who they recommend.

Find additional information about the wonderful benefits of kefir at https://www.naturalnews.com/024477.html

Find additional information about the Budwig protocol at
https://www.naturalnews.com/024339.html and

https://www.naturalnews.com/024719.html

Statistical information from
http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1608306/...

About the author

Barbara is a school psychologist, a published author in the area of personal finance, a breast cancer survivor using "alternative" treatments, a born existentialist, and a student of nature and all things natural.