Cancer Prevention
I’ll start with the good news ~ At least half of all cancers are preventable!
Cancer is now a worldwide epidemic. According to Canadian health statistics in 2008, one in two men and over a third of women will get cancer, and one in four will die from it. It is the leading cause of death in Canada and the US. The saddest part is that these premature deaths are largely preventable.
Cancer is probably the biggest health challenge a person could face. I watched my grandmother, my best friend and my dog die from cancer; I witnessed my other grandmother deal with breast cancer and a decade later colon cancer, and in my practice I work with many who have the disease; some now exist only as a memory. Cancer is devastatingly painful, physically and emotionally, for those afflicted, and their loved ones. If you haven’t experienced this first hand yet, take a seat in the waiting room of a cancer treatment center and look at the faces of children, young adults and the elderly waiting with hope that radiation and chemical therapies will cure them. Isn’t it ironic that radiation and chemicals are both known carcinogens?
Cancer creates enormous expense for individuals and our health care system. The mainstream cancer establishment fails to see cancer from a broad perspective, instead focusing their funding on costly treatments, and very little to none of prevention. Since the 1960’s, independent researchers and activists have been calling our attention toward the relationship between cancer and the chemicals contaminating our environment. This awareness is even more urgent today with air, soil, water and bodily contamination at the spilling point.
The cancer risks from lifestyle factors such as smoking, obesity, alcohol, and diet have become fairly engrained in our minds. We also know that only 5% to 10% of cancers are hereditary. Why is it that people without these risk factors, newborn babies, domestic pets, and wild animals, get cancer at equally alarming rates? Could it be the 10,000 different chemicals in commercial use in everything from food production, cosmetics, to home furnishings? What about industrial pollutants and car exhaust? Or naturally occurring toxins such as radon and asbestos?
Cancer statistics and the state of our environment are alarming. By taking care of mother earth we take care of ourselves. Transform alarm into greater awareness and action. I have found some very useful and empowering resources over the years that I have shared below.
|
We have chemicals linked to cancer, both known carcinogens and suspected carcinogens, inside all the bodies of people who live in North America” – Sandra Steingraber
|
Herbal medicine has a role to play in cancer care as well as cancer prevention. Consult with a herbal practitioner who will customize a herbal program to meet your personal needs.
Here is my personal and professional herbal cancer prevention strategy:
· Incorporate regular cleansing and detoxification with herbs and diet into your lifestyle
· Add more herbs and spices to your diet, especially those such as turmeric, thyme, rosemary, sage and garlic which have proven anti-carcinogenic properties
· Use adaptogen herbs such as eleuthero, schisandra, withania and ginseng to better manage stresses of all kinds whether physical or emotional
· Support your immune system periodically with herbs such as astragulus, elderberry and adaptogens
· Replace some or all coffee and black tea with herbal and green teas, not only for pleasure, but for the vitality they bring
· Use herbal tonics to strengthen liver function i.e. milk thistle seeds, dandelion root, turmeric
· Correct chronic degenerative diseases by identifying the cause and using herbs to help restore health
· Remove allergens from the diet and home environment and use herbs to deal with the harmful effects of long term allergies
· Prevent and effectively treat viral infections with herbal medicines
· High consumption of fruits and vegetables reduces cancer risk. Eat at least 8-10 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables daily, ideally organic, seasonal and local
Check my workshop page for details on the Cancer Prevention Series, March 9 - April 27 2010
Resources:
Prevent Cancer Now – www.preventcancernow.ca
Not-for-profit Canadian movement dedicated to eliminating the preventable causes of cancer
Guide to Less Toxic Products – www.lesstoxicguide.ca
Published by the Environmental Health Association of Nova Scotia
Thorough examination of household products containing hazardous chemicals and lists alternatives
Environmental Working Group – www.ewg.org
Not-for-profit environmental research organization dedicating to improving public health and protecting the environment by reducing pollution in air, water and food.
Cancer – 101 Solutions to a Preventable Epidemic
Book written by Liz Armstrong, Guy Dauncey and Anne Wordsworth
In depth review of all known cancer promoters, very practical, can purchase via Prevent Cancer Now website and some book stores.
Herbal Medicine, Healing and Cancer – A Comprehensive Program for Prevention and Treatment
Book written by Donald Yance – nutritionist and herbalist specializing in cancer care
CLEANSING AND DETOXIFICATION
Who is strong? He that can conquer his bad habits. – Ben Franklin
We are bombarded daily with chemicals from our environment, our food and our inner metabolic processes. If the bucket isn’t emptied, eventually it will overflow and that overflow becomes disease and debility. Cleansing can be used to improve poor health, sustain good health, and boost over-all vitality and well-being.
Benefits of Cleansing
- Purification of the body
- Resolution of chronic, degenerative dis-eases
- Transition into more healthful eating patterns
- Good initiation into healthful weight loss, overcome emotional attachments to food
- Uplifting and energizing – clears mental, spiritual and physical forms of stagnation
- Aids spiritual practice
- Helps ease through seasonal transitions
Sources of toxins:
Exotoxins
- heavy minerals and metals such as lead, mercury
- industrial chemicals, pesticides, household cleaners, solvents etc.
- food additives, chemicals in soil absorbed by plants and animals
- cosmetics
- poor water supply, tap water
- environmental pollutants
- drug residue
- parasites and their excrement, other microbes
Endotoxins
- waste products, undigested materials, metabolic wastes
- toxic feelings: anger, fear, impatience, greed, hatred
- toxic thoughts: worry, criticism of self and others
Other
- unhealthy and excessive habits: smoking, drinking, drugs, irregularity, inactivity, sugar, coffee
A key feature of optimal health can be defined as total toxic load, which is equal to the total toxic exposure minus one’s ability to excrete those toxins. Total load is therefore an expression of many individual factors including exposure, skin absorption, respiratory and intestinal mucosa, subsequent biochemical transformation, and eventual elimination. The body has many elaborate systems in place to detoxify a wide range of substances. However, these systems vary considerably from person to person and are affected by environment, lifestyle, and genetic makeup.
THE 15 HOUR CLEANSE
Depending on when we eat supper, and when we first eat in the morning, we all fast for an average of ten hours while we sleep at night. This simple 15 hour cleanse stretches the fast out a bit longer and is good preparation for a longer cleanse later on. Complete your evening meal by 6 p.m. Make it a big, yummy raw salad with whatever combination of veggies you wish. Eat nothing else until 9 a.m. the next morning at which time you may eat fresh fruit. In between drink a cleansing herbal tea of dandelion root and leaves which gently stimulate the bowels, kidneys and liver. That’s it! This, like any cleanse, is easier on a weekend when there is leisure time to devote to health. Try making this a weekly event.
To receive the outline for my 3 week cleanse program, please send me an e-mail with your request. We can set up a clinic or phone consultation to organize your personalized cleanse.