I have been a cancer patient since 2006 when my bladder cancer was detected and removed by surgery. Since then I have followed the established protocol with controls every 6 months, which hopefully confirmed that the situation was controlled back in 2006.
From 2006 up to nowadays I tried to inform myself about this health condition, by reading many books, e-books, reports, websites and talking to other people. This blog will try to help those who may want to follow the same path as I did, that of being more informed, and hopefully reduce their time in getting that information.
By any means does the information that I will post in this blog try to replace any medical care, or even try to suggest what you should do, in case you have cancer. Any conclusions that I draw on the following blogs, based on what I have read, always refer to what I would do, never to what you should do. You have to decide on your own, based on your particular situation, I will just try to help by increasing your awareness of this serious health situation, by presenting the many alternatives there are in dealing with cancer.
I wish to you reader and potential cancer patient the best possible outcome and recovery from your illness.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Cancer Information - 02 - General Information
There are a myriad of cancer treatments available. We could grossly aggregate them into three different labels - conventional treatments, alternative treatments and integrative, this last one trying to mix the best of both.
Unfortunately every group works alone and depreciates the other. No group is impartial in the sense that they all have financial interests in helping you. Surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, or hormone therapies can be more expensive than most alternative therapies (depending on countries and their health systems), so when someone tries to convince you that a conventional treatment is the only route, and the rest is just snake oil, that doctor may be convinced on what he is saying, but the fact is that he probably knows little about alternative or complementary protocols. The same applies to alternative therapies, most of them detract conventional therapies, attacking the harmful side effects (sometimes fatal) and promoting their success rates that no one can verify.
What I tried to do and I will do if I have to opt again, is to decide the best therapy or therapies that applies to my particular case, getting the most possible information and talking to as many doctors and therapists as possible, before I take my own decision.
Generally speaking I would try to restrict the use of conventional therapies to surgery and possibly to low dose chemotherapy if required, when this conventional therapy is the one that provides the best possible outcome to a cancer situation. In my case, cancer was confined within my bladder, although it had already expanded to the bladder muscle, so removing this organ was the safest possible treatment, although by trying alternative treatments I could have saved my bladder. This is one of those situations that you have to take your own decisions, myself I opted for safety by allowing a surgeon to remove the bladder, and a few other adjacent organs.
Cancer is a serious health hazard as everyone knows, taking the right decisions at the right time, sometimes are crucial for one's survival. It is a health situation that should mobilize you 100 percent, mobilize your attention and action. It is the time that you should take care of yourself, with the right kind of mental attitude.
Unfortunately every group works alone and depreciates the other. No group is impartial in the sense that they all have financial interests in helping you. Surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, or hormone therapies can be more expensive than most alternative therapies (depending on countries and their health systems), so when someone tries to convince you that a conventional treatment is the only route, and the rest is just snake oil, that doctor may be convinced on what he is saying, but the fact is that he probably knows little about alternative or complementary protocols. The same applies to alternative therapies, most of them detract conventional therapies, attacking the harmful side effects (sometimes fatal) and promoting their success rates that no one can verify.
What I tried to do and I will do if I have to opt again, is to decide the best therapy or therapies that applies to my particular case, getting the most possible information and talking to as many doctors and therapists as possible, before I take my own decision.
Generally speaking I would try to restrict the use of conventional therapies to surgery and possibly to low dose chemotherapy if required, when this conventional therapy is the one that provides the best possible outcome to a cancer situation. In my case, cancer was confined within my bladder, although it had already expanded to the bladder muscle, so removing this organ was the safest possible treatment, although by trying alternative treatments I could have saved my bladder. This is one of those situations that you have to take your own decisions, myself I opted for safety by allowing a surgeon to remove the bladder, and a few other adjacent organs.
Cancer is a serious health hazard as everyone knows, taking the right decisions at the right time, sometimes are crucial for one's survival. It is a health situation that should mobilize you 100 percent, mobilize your attention and action. It is the time that you should take care of yourself, with the right kind of mental attitude.
Cancer Information - 03 - Detecting Cancer
When one should suspect that might have cancer? If you find a lump or nodule anywhere in the body, that was not there before; if you have a health condition that does not go away - for instance, in my case I had bladder complaints for four years, no one suspected of cancer but me; if you have a protruded black spot on your skin.
The conventional methods of cancer detection are CT scans, MRIs, PET scans, cancer blood markers, and biopsies. Alternative methods of detecting cancer are termography, AMAS blood test, and HCG urine test, also known as Navarro urine test, as it was created by Dr. Navarro of Philippines.
The best cancer prognostic is always achieved when cancer is detected as early as possible. Cancer progress from stage I to stage IV, from a confined small tumor to a full blown systemic cancer, where cancer cells flow freely on the blood, creating secondary tumors (metastases) anywhere in the body.
You can get further information on the alternative cancer detection methods at the following websites:
AMAS blood test - Oncolab - http://www.oncolabinc.com/
Navarro urine test - Navarro Medical Clinic - http://www.navarromedicalclinic.com/
Termography - try to find a good practitioner, this is a very sensitive test, and no conclusions should be drawn based on a single exam. You need at least two or three exams, spaced in time, to evaluate a possible trend and any suspicious inflammation area. This test only locates areas in your body where temperature is more elevated. It can be a temporary situation, and in most cases it is just an inflammation area. Cancer can only be concluded with other exams.
All the other mentioned tests are generally known, so I will present no information on them.
The conventional methods of cancer detection are CT scans, MRIs, PET scans, cancer blood markers, and biopsies. Alternative methods of detecting cancer are termography, AMAS blood test, and HCG urine test, also known as Navarro urine test, as it was created by Dr. Navarro of Philippines.
The best cancer prognostic is always achieved when cancer is detected as early as possible. Cancer progress from stage I to stage IV, from a confined small tumor to a full blown systemic cancer, where cancer cells flow freely on the blood, creating secondary tumors (metastases) anywhere in the body.
You can get further information on the alternative cancer detection methods at the following websites:
AMAS blood test - Oncolab - http://www.oncolabinc.com/
Navarro urine test - Navarro Medical Clinic - http://www.navarromedicalclinic.com/
Termography - try to find a good practitioner, this is a very sensitive test, and no conclusions should be drawn based on a single exam. You need at least two or three exams, spaced in time, to evaluate a possible trend and any suspicious inflammation area. This test only locates areas in your body where temperature is more elevated. It can be a temporary situation, and in most cases it is just an inflammation area. Cancer can only be concluded with other exams.
All the other mentioned tests are generally known, so I will present no information on them.
Cancer Information - 04 - How Do You Get Cancer In First Place
Cancer is a cell division process that got out of control. When, for example, you get a wound due to a fall or sport injury or you burn an area of your body, the body regenerates the afflicted area by growing new rapid division cells to replace those affected, and this process stops when recovery is complete.
This process of renovation and restoration is started and stopped in many parts of your body, due to other less visible injuries. They can be caused by the environment, the food you eat, the air you breathe, the cosmetic products you use, your lifestyle habits, stress, and many other factors. All these processes of cell restoration occur within inflammatory processes. Chronic inflammation is the general culprit of cancer. When you combine a chronic inflammation process, like for example in a long time smoker, with an event that lowers your immunity for some time, like for instance a death in a family or a rather litigious divorce, you may have the combined cocktail for cancer causation. This is the most common occurrence of cancer, a mix of long term inflammation process with an emotional trauma that lowers your immunity and leaves the inflammatory process out of control, allowing uncontrolled growth of rapid dividing cells, also known as cancer cells.
Other possible causes are specific chemical or product causation. It is the case of heavy metals, asbestos and many other health hazards. In my case, I believe my bladder cancer was caused by the removal of my dental mercury amalgams without any special procedures as it should have been done. Mercury vapors probably entered my blood flow, and later were excreted by the bladder. That mercury attached to the bladder walls, causing an inflammatory process that subsequently evolved to a cancer tumor.
Alternative healers and clinics retain that dental issues are a possible cause of cancer. In fact most alternative clinics start their treatment by directing their patients to a biological dentist to check the patient's mouth. Any root canals (teeth where nerves were removed, becoming what they call "dead teeth"), and cavitations (bone areas where infected teeth were removed leaving the bone also infected) are extracted. Biological dentistry claims that root canals and cavitations are a source of pathological toxins like thioethers, capable of creating serious diseases like cancer.
I personally believe that the body has a threshold level of burden it can endure. Wrong diet, food allergies and intolerances, air pollution, electro-magnetic radiation, physical and mental stress (feeling drained), parasites and bad bacteria, chemical sensitivity (chemicals in food, cosmetics, tap water, etc.), they all add up to the burden I refer as our body can handle. When it is too much and for some time, disease will be the normal state under this situation. Under the right conditions - inflammation, cells deprived of enough oxygen to breathe - healthy cells can turn to cancer cells, where the main cell fuel is glucose. These are parasitic cells in our body, they accomplish no function, and in a progressive way they consume most of the energy resources we provide to our body, while normal healthy cells languish.
This process of renovation and restoration is started and stopped in many parts of your body, due to other less visible injuries. They can be caused by the environment, the food you eat, the air you breathe, the cosmetic products you use, your lifestyle habits, stress, and many other factors. All these processes of cell restoration occur within inflammatory processes. Chronic inflammation is the general culprit of cancer. When you combine a chronic inflammation process, like for example in a long time smoker, with an event that lowers your immunity for some time, like for instance a death in a family or a rather litigious divorce, you may have the combined cocktail for cancer causation. This is the most common occurrence of cancer, a mix of long term inflammation process with an emotional trauma that lowers your immunity and leaves the inflammatory process out of control, allowing uncontrolled growth of rapid dividing cells, also known as cancer cells.
Other possible causes are specific chemical or product causation. It is the case of heavy metals, asbestos and many other health hazards. In my case, I believe my bladder cancer was caused by the removal of my dental mercury amalgams without any special procedures as it should have been done. Mercury vapors probably entered my blood flow, and later were excreted by the bladder. That mercury attached to the bladder walls, causing an inflammatory process that subsequently evolved to a cancer tumor.
Alternative healers and clinics retain that dental issues are a possible cause of cancer. In fact most alternative clinics start their treatment by directing their patients to a biological dentist to check the patient's mouth. Any root canals (teeth where nerves were removed, becoming what they call "dead teeth"), and cavitations (bone areas where infected teeth were removed leaving the bone also infected) are extracted. Biological dentistry claims that root canals and cavitations are a source of pathological toxins like thioethers, capable of creating serious diseases like cancer.
I personally believe that the body has a threshold level of burden it can endure. Wrong diet, food allergies and intolerances, air pollution, electro-magnetic radiation, physical and mental stress (feeling drained), parasites and bad bacteria, chemical sensitivity (chemicals in food, cosmetics, tap water, etc.), they all add up to the burden I refer as our body can handle. When it is too much and for some time, disease will be the normal state under this situation. Under the right conditions - inflammation, cells deprived of enough oxygen to breathe - healthy cells can turn to cancer cells, where the main cell fuel is glucose. These are parasitic cells in our body, they accomplish no function, and in a progressive way they consume most of the energy resources we provide to our body, while normal healthy cells languish.
Cancer Information - 05 - How To Avoid Cancer
An anti-cancer strategy is based on a correct lifestyle, a healthful diet including organic fruits and vegetables, stress control, enough sleep, positive mental attitude (avoiding depression), moderate exercise, daily time spent outdoors with sunshine exposure, avoiding environmental and chemical hazards, and creating goals in your life that you have to fight for in order to achieve them.
A correct diet should include organic fruits and vegetables and possibly some meat and fish. Some animal proteins were found to promote cancer growth, as it is the case of casein, a milk protein. Animal protein is hard to digest and contribute to a more acidic state of your body. You can easily and cheaply test your saliva pH by buying pH strips and test your saliva at wake-up time.
A correct diet should also contain both cooked food and raw food. Raw food, like fruits, vegetables, sprouts and nuts, contain enzymes that help digestion and have other healthy functions within the body, while some cooked food pushes pancreas into producing enzymes for digestion, which besides sugar control (by releasing insulin), represents another burden for this important organ. That's why it is important to reduce the consumption of high glycemic carbohydrates. Total abolition of cooked food may be wrong, because some foods can only be absorbed if cooked.
A better diet is also more based on protein (preferably from vegetable source) and healthy oils like omega-3 and omega-6, and less in carbohydrates, although all of them are required for the correct functioning of the body. A good source of omega-3 oils are flaxseed oil and krill oil, they are both better than fish oil. For maximum intake and absorption of flaxseed oil, search for the Budwig Protocol in the internet and how to prepare the quark cheese + flaxseed oil mix. One should also base his/her diet on food preparation and less on processed foods - foods that are packed and are on shelves of your local supermarket - because this type of food is usually prepared at high temperatures, may include several unhealthy ingredients and it is not fresh, being there sometimes for several months prior to consumption.
Any diet should be personalized, that is created by you. Only you can determine what food allergies or intolerances you have, you have to use an elimination diet without the most common offenders - dairy, cereals, pasta, bread, gluten, coffee, chocolate, citrus fruits - and then test reintroduce a suspicious food one each day. Be also very suspicious of foods that you consume every day, they may be the culprit of digestive related problems - foods like coffee, breakfast cereals, too much of a certain fruit, etc.
One should drink highly mineralized non-chlorinated water. There are no easy choices here; tap water, even filtered, may still contain heavy metals, chemicals and bacteria. Reverse osmosis filters remove most of the minerals from the water they filter. Water ionizers artificially create higher pH water, but use filtered tap water, so the problems with tap water remain. Bottled spring or mineral water has the problem of the plastic bottles where water is contained - plastics contain chemicals that have many health issues, plus the bottles are washed with strong detergents like caustic soda. The best would be drinking water from a spring, however this is not an option for most people including me. I opted to drink bottled water from a spring whose water is highly mineralized and with a naturally higher pH.
Stress control is very important, especially avoiding chronic stress, that will deplete your body of important ingredients, it will lower your immunity, making you more vulnerable to several diseases, including cancer, and may make you feel miserable. How do you control it? First by acknowledging its existence in first place, then actively and consciously counteracting it. Avoid working too many hours, make a pause regularly, pick up the phone standing up, and move regularly out of your seat (if you work in an office like me). The rest of stress control should be based on regular moderate exercise, like walking, swimming or cycling, yoga, dancing, listening to relaxing music, sleeping an adequate number of hours every day, etc. Don't rely on prescription pills to control your stress, it is an artificial and wrong way to do it. If you need an extra help, you may take supplements like 5-HTP, lemon balm, L-theanine or melatonin (the sleeping hormone).
Daily time outdoors with sunshine exposure, with some care during summertime, especially during noon hours, is very important for one to get an adequate amount of the important vitamin D in a natural way, plus the health benefits of sun rays with its large spectrum of various radiations. Being outside of a building, breathing air that has not circulated through air conducts, and receiving the sun rays are the way our bodies were built and developed through milennia. When I refer to sunshine exposure, I mean direct sunlight, with no sunglasses or sun protection cream. You just have to be careful to not overdo it; about half an hour to an hour per day is alright.
About environmental and chemical hazards avoidance, you have to think that everything that you eat, breathe or put over your body will get into your bloodstream and will affect your health, either in a positive or negative way. Be extremely careful with every cosmetic product you buy - most of them are full of potentially carcinogenic products - I am referring to soaps, colognes, hair shampoo, toothpastes, anti-prespirants and deodorants, skin creams of any type, etc. Anything that you put on your skin will be absorbed into your body, eventually going into the bloodstream, and reaching any part of your body. Check this website for evaluating any cosmetic product you may use: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/.
Preferring organic food to mainstream commercial food, is avoiding consuming pesticides, chemical fertilizers, hormones, genetically modified foods, food additives, most of them having the capability of creating inflammation and promoting cancer.
What about supplements? I am in favor of taking them, in fact I take a lot of them. Most today’s foods don't have the health properties of the past, even organic foods. Most soils are depleted of minerals, climate alterations, especially due to man intervention, may have a strong toll on food quality. Taking supplements is compensating for the present less nutritional food you get, and providing an extra health protection. It is important to locate a good supplement supplier, a certified one. InUSA
I take vitamins - E, D3, C, K complex, B (B6, B12 and Folic Acid); minerals - calcium, magnesium and potassium; antioxidants - green tea, ALA (Alpha Lipoic Acid), berry complex (blueberries, red berries, cranberries, etc.); anti-inflammation supplements such as MSM or boswella; detoxifying supplements such as milk thistle and artichoke; anti-cancer supplements such as curcumin, IP6, I3C + DIM, selenium, and a blend of the amino acids l-proline + l-lysine; immune enhancing supplements like beta-glucan or the chinese mushrooms reishi and maitake; metabolism enhancing supplements such as sea-iodine, CoenzymeQ10 (in ubiquinol form) or rhodiola; anti-aging supplements like resveratrol and PQQ, etc.
Supplements can be sold in many forms and versions, with different price tags. Some forms are better bioavailable than others, for instance, magnesium citrate is better absorbed than magnesium oxide, a cheaper form. In general, newer forms such as liposomal, liquid, or ionic suspended forms are better than the traditional capsules, tablets or softgels, but they are hard to find and more expensive. For example, vitamin C in liposomal form is almost equivalent to getting vitamin C intravenously, its absorption is 10 times higher than traditional capsules.
Finally, keeping your weight under control, and avoiding sugar in any forms, including lowering carbohydrates intake, such as pasta, bread, white rice or potatoes, which are digested to sugar, is an important anti-cancer strategy. Cancer cells rely more on sugar and much less on oxygen than normal healthy cells. Cancer cells absorb 16 times more sugar than normal cells, their metabolism is mainly anaerobic.
A correct diet should include organic fruits and vegetables and possibly some meat and fish. Some animal proteins were found to promote cancer growth, as it is the case of casein, a milk protein. Animal protein is hard to digest and contribute to a more acidic state of your body. You can easily and cheaply test your saliva pH by buying pH strips and test your saliva at wake-up time.
A correct diet should also contain both cooked food and raw food. Raw food, like fruits, vegetables, sprouts and nuts, contain enzymes that help digestion and have other healthy functions within the body, while some cooked food pushes pancreas into producing enzymes for digestion, which besides sugar control (by releasing insulin), represents another burden for this important organ. That's why it is important to reduce the consumption of high glycemic carbohydrates. Total abolition of cooked food may be wrong, because some foods can only be absorbed if cooked.
A better diet is also more based on protein (preferably from vegetable source) and healthy oils like omega-3 and omega-6, and less in carbohydrates, although all of them are required for the correct functioning of the body. A good source of omega-3 oils are flaxseed oil and krill oil, they are both better than fish oil. For maximum intake and absorption of flaxseed oil, search for the Budwig Protocol in the internet and how to prepare the quark cheese + flaxseed oil mix. One should also base his/her diet on food preparation and less on processed foods - foods that are packed and are on shelves of your local supermarket - because this type of food is usually prepared at high temperatures, may include several unhealthy ingredients and it is not fresh, being there sometimes for several months prior to consumption.
Any diet should be personalized, that is created by you. Only you can determine what food allergies or intolerances you have, you have to use an elimination diet without the most common offenders - dairy, cereals, pasta, bread, gluten, coffee, chocolate, citrus fruits - and then test reintroduce a suspicious food one each day. Be also very suspicious of foods that you consume every day, they may be the culprit of digestive related problems - foods like coffee, breakfast cereals, too much of a certain fruit, etc.
One should drink highly mineralized non-chlorinated water. There are no easy choices here; tap water, even filtered, may still contain heavy metals, chemicals and bacteria. Reverse osmosis filters remove most of the minerals from the water they filter. Water ionizers artificially create higher pH water, but use filtered tap water, so the problems with tap water remain. Bottled spring or mineral water has the problem of the plastic bottles where water is contained - plastics contain chemicals that have many health issues, plus the bottles are washed with strong detergents like caustic soda. The best would be drinking water from a spring, however this is not an option for most people including me. I opted to drink bottled water from a spring whose water is highly mineralized and with a naturally higher pH.
Stress control is very important, especially avoiding chronic stress, that will deplete your body of important ingredients, it will lower your immunity, making you more vulnerable to several diseases, including cancer, and may make you feel miserable. How do you control it? First by acknowledging its existence in first place, then actively and consciously counteracting it. Avoid working too many hours, make a pause regularly, pick up the phone standing up, and move regularly out of your seat (if you work in an office like me). The rest of stress control should be based on regular moderate exercise, like walking, swimming or cycling, yoga, dancing, listening to relaxing music, sleeping an adequate number of hours every day, etc. Don't rely on prescription pills to control your stress, it is an artificial and wrong way to do it. If you need an extra help, you may take supplements like 5-HTP, lemon balm, L-theanine or melatonin (the sleeping hormone).
Daily time outdoors with sunshine exposure, with some care during summertime, especially during noon hours, is very important for one to get an adequate amount of the important vitamin D in a natural way, plus the health benefits of sun rays with its large spectrum of various radiations. Being outside of a building, breathing air that has not circulated through air conducts, and receiving the sun rays are the way our bodies were built and developed through milennia. When I refer to sunshine exposure, I mean direct sunlight, with no sunglasses or sun protection cream. You just have to be careful to not overdo it; about half an hour to an hour per day is alright.
About environmental and chemical hazards avoidance, you have to think that everything that you eat, breathe or put over your body will get into your bloodstream and will affect your health, either in a positive or negative way. Be extremely careful with every cosmetic product you buy - most of them are full of potentially carcinogenic products - I am referring to soaps, colognes, hair shampoo, toothpastes, anti-prespirants and deodorants, skin creams of any type, etc. Anything that you put on your skin will be absorbed into your body, eventually going into the bloodstream, and reaching any part of your body. Check this website for evaluating any cosmetic product you may use: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/.
Preferring organic food to mainstream commercial food, is avoiding consuming pesticides, chemical fertilizers, hormones, genetically modified foods, food additives, most of them having the capability of creating inflammation and promoting cancer.
What about supplements? I am in favor of taking them, in fact I take a lot of them. Most today’s foods don't have the health properties of the past, even organic foods. Most soils are depleted of minerals, climate alterations, especially due to man intervention, may have a strong toll on food quality. Taking supplements is compensating for the present less nutritional food you get, and providing an extra health protection. It is important to locate a good supplement supplier, a certified one. In
I take vitamins - E, D3, C, K complex, B (B6, B12 and Folic Acid); minerals - calcium, magnesium and potassium; antioxidants - green tea, ALA (Alpha Lipoic Acid), berry complex (blueberries, red berries, cranberries, etc.); anti-inflammation supplements such as MSM or boswella; detoxifying supplements such as milk thistle and artichoke; anti-cancer supplements such as curcumin, IP6, I3C + DIM, selenium, and a blend of the amino acids l-proline + l-lysine; immune enhancing supplements like beta-glucan or the chinese mushrooms reishi and maitake; metabolism enhancing supplements such as sea-iodine, CoenzymeQ10 (in ubiquinol form) or rhodiola; anti-aging supplements like resveratrol and PQQ, etc.
Supplements can be sold in many forms and versions, with different price tags. Some forms are better bioavailable than others, for instance, magnesium citrate is better absorbed than magnesium oxide, a cheaper form. In general, newer forms such as liposomal, liquid, or ionic suspended forms are better than the traditional capsules, tablets or softgels, but they are hard to find and more expensive. For example, vitamin C in liposomal form is almost equivalent to getting vitamin C intravenously, its absorption is 10 times higher than traditional capsules.
Finally, keeping your weight under control, and avoiding sugar in any forms, including lowering carbohydrates intake, such as pasta, bread, white rice or potatoes, which are digested to sugar, is an important anti-cancer strategy. Cancer cells rely more on sugar and much less on oxygen than normal healthy cells. Cancer cells absorb 16 times more sugar than normal cells, their metabolism is mainly anaerobic.
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