Happy Healthy YOU
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(A wellness column by Kelly Spencer: writer, life coach, yoga & meditation teacher, holistic healer and a mindful life enthusiast!)
Part 3
There seems to be a large body of evidence showing the lack of efficacy with conventional treatment options for cancer.
The data shows billions and billions of dollars are profited each year by the pharmaceutical companies. There also seems to conspiracy theories of alternative medicine being squashed, minimized and suppressed.
In the early 1970s, the “War on Cancer” was in full swing, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York was one of the world’s leading cancer research centers. Dr. Kanematsu Sugiura, a leading researcher, spent most of his career at Sloan Kettering, authoring more than 250 papers and receiving numerous awards, including the highest honors from the Japan Medical Association for outstanding contributions in cancer research.
While studying a drug called Laetrile, which was previously written off as “quack medicine,” Dr. Sugiura discovered Laetrile to have very positive effects in preventing the spread of malignant lung tumors in laboratory mice.
In control groups, which received only plain saline, the lung tumors spread in 80-90 per cent of the animals. But in those given Laetrile, the tumors spread in only 10-20 per cent.
In 1974, the findings were so positive that Sloan Kettering had signed off on clinical trials and praising its use. Then suddenly everything changed. The center began shifting their Laetrile experiments away from Dr. Sugiura to other scientists. But every time new experiments even hinted at a positive outcome, the research was scrapped.
But it appears that Sloan Kettering’s Board of Directors may have knowingly hid positive findings about Laetrile, also known as Amygdalin or Vitamin B-17 (not a real vitamin).
In 1974, Ralph Moss, a science writer, had just acquired his first big time writing job at Sloan Kettering’s public relations department. He soon found himself in the middle of the Amygdalin controversy and was not willing to hide the truth that his employer was veiling. He held a large and public press conference, then the next day he was fired and escorted to the door by armed personnel.
In 2013, Dr. Evengelos Michelakis, associate chair and medical researcher at the University of Alberta’s faculty of medicine and his team of researchers claimed to have discovered a cure for cancer, long after publishing his first findings on DCA in 2007 (results of a study about DCA (Dichloroacetate), stating that the agent showed promise in shrinking tumours in laboratory rats and human cell lines - human cells grown in a petri dish.) The University of Alberta’s research team did not receive any support from the medical industry.
It turns out that the rights to the DCA compound are not owned by any pharmaceutical company. This is a problem, as most of UA’s research on this issue has been publicly funded. They are currently working to secure more funding to continue their research and ongoing DCA clinical trials. Without industry support, it’s almost impossible to do anything with this research and infiltrate the health industry. Drug companies are not interested in drugs that won’t make them a profit and therefore this is not a prescribed option.
Even "The Canadian Cancer Society has concerns about Canadians with cancer seeking DCA because we don’t know enough about its risks and benefits.” (www.cancer.ca - News National 2013)
But they are okay with the risks and statistics of chemotherapy? Doesn’t really make sense to me.
There are ineffective conventional options and discouraged and seemingly inaccessible alternative options; so what is one to do?
Well there are ways to get holistic options if you look long enough and hard enough. The internet is a wonderful thing.
One example, Ontario Nurse Rene Caisse spent most of her career defending herself against the medical and government establishment. Essiac tea, given its name by Rene Caisse ("Caisse" spelt backwards), consists of four main herbs that grow in the wilderness of Ontario. The original formula is believed to have its roots from the native Canadian Ojibway Indians.
The four main herbs that make up Essiac are Burdock Root, Slippery Elm Inner Bark, Sheep Sorrel and Indian Rhubarb Root. Each herb, having powerful plant medicine such as Burdock Root (Arctium lappa), used traditionally to help reduce mucus, maintains a healthy gastrointestinal tract and stimulates a healthy immune response as a diuretic for water retention and to sweat out toxins through the skin. It has vitamin A and selenium to help reduce free radicals and its chromium content helps maintain normal blood sugar levels.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Nurse Caisse had the support of several doctors in both Canada and the USA and treated thousands with success, according to her notes. She was shut down by government several times over and believes the only reason she wasn’t thrown in jail, was her popularity and notoriety.
But let’s get to the preventative part. With statistics of one in three getting some form of cancer, prevention is the absolutely key, in my opinion.
Since changing my life drastically over the last 15 years, I can say with complete transparency that I have no illness or disease, I take zero medication and I have not had to go to a doctor or hospital as long as I can remember.
Here are some of my tips for holistic disease prevention:
Reduce / eliminate chemicals and toxins from your diet, personal products and home.
Reduce / eliminate processed sugar / artificial sweeteners. Sweeten foods with natural sources ie. local honey, maple syrup, stevia, cane sugar, coconut sugar.
Reduce / eliminate stress, worry and F.O.G. (fear, obligation, guilt).
Reduce / eliminate processed and prepared foods. Eat closest to source, natural foods and raw when possible.
Eat only foods that will spoil and eat them before they do.
Reduce dairy and meat quantity. Eliminate processed meats.
Eat chemical free meat & free-range/wild from sustainable, compassionate sources.
Eat organic and NON-GMO (non-genetically modified) whenever possible.
Meditate, practice mindfulness and mindful breathing.
Move your body, get in nature, take a class.
Deal with old hurts, forgive and heal.
Pay attention to your body, there is great wisdom within it.
Make your food or get from source your trust.
Grow your own organic vegetable and herb garden.
Eat more plant based: organic herbs, grains, lentils, beans, nuts, seeds, vegetables, fruit. Eat at least 8 -½ cups of produce a day and make sure one serving a day is cruciferous vegetables (cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, brussel sprouts, kale, radish).
“The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.”- Ann Wigmore
Each and every one of us has pre-cancerous cells in our body. These cells are eliminated by the natural processes of our immune system and body. How we live our life and the lifestyle choices we make can play a leading role in what those pre-cancerous cells do, what diseases advance or diminish and how healthy and happy our lives are lived.
There will be a “Cancer and Alternative Options” seminar and discussion open to the public Saturday, February 18th 2-4 p.m. If you would like to hear a different perspective for you or someone you love and hear about alternative options for prevention and treatment, please feel free to attend. Guest speaker is John MacDonald, a man that said “no thank you” to conventional treatment and 18 months later, his cancer is gone. To book a seat at any of these seminars, please call 519-688-1188 or email info@indigolounge.ca.