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Off Target in the War on Cancer

unhealthy lifestyleThe U.S. war on cancer has been fought for almost four decades now, since it was officially launched in 1971. It may be time to admit that the effort has often targeted the wrong enemies and used the wrong weapons.

Throughout the industrial world, the war on cancer remains focused on commercially fueled efforts to develop drugs and technologies that can find and treat the disease. But this struggle essentially ignores most of the things known to cause cancer, such as tobacco, radiation, benzene, asbestos, solvents, and some drugs and hormones. Many modern cancer-causing agents, such as gasoline exhaust, pesticides and other air pollutants, are simply deemed the inevitable price of progress.

Most cancer is not born, but made. Both public health and social justice demand a greater focus on the causes of cancer, rather than treatment. But the FDA and EPA often lack the authority and resources to monitor and control tobacco smoke, asbestos, and the cancer-causing agents in food, water and everyday products. Under antiquated laws, chemical and radiation hazards are examined one at a time, if at all. Of the nearly 80,000 chemicals regularly bought and sold today, fewer than 10 percent have been tested for their capacity to cause cancer or do other damage.

No matter how much efforts to treat cancer may advance, the best way to reduce cancer's toll is to keep people from getting it in the first place -- something that is being largely ignored by the modern cancer-fighting enterprise.

Sources:

Dr. Mercola''s Comments Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Over 1.4 million new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in 2008, according to the American Cancer Society. Yet, almost all of the media attention, the charitable “walks,” and certainly the drug-companies’ dollars are focused on finding a treatment or a “cure.”

The “cure” in the eyes of modern medicine involves varying degrees of toxic chemicals, chemotherapy, and radiation -- some of the very same things that cause cancer to begin with. Rarely is the idea of real cancer prevention spoken about, and that is the point that Devra Davis, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health and director the Center for Environmental Oncology, is trying to make in the article above.

Despite nearly four decades of work directly dedicated to stopping cancer, this disease is still regarded as a mysterious gremlin that claims victims at random. In reality, though, the major causes of cancer are no longer a mystery, and neither are the routes of prevention.

Getting Serious About Cancer Prevention

There’s a lot of talk about genetics and family history when it comes to cancer, as though it’s predetermined from the day you are born whether or not you will get this disease. Aside from instilling unnecessary fear in many people, this mode of thinking leaves you powerless to do anything but sit and wait to get sick.

In reality, your genes have very little to do with your likelihood of getting any disease. Your genes are merely storage facilities, and they have no intelligence whatsoever. What IS important, however, is the expression of your genes and the stimulus that actually causes your DNA to replicate proteins..

According to the field of epigenetics -- a fascinating field you can explore in this video if you’re not yet familiar with it -- the power of your own thoughts can affect the expression of your genes -- and even potentially cure cancer and other diseases.

Along with your thoughts and emotions (and let’s not forget your stress levels), your lifestyle choices also influence the expression of your genes.

A study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences recently proved this point with some amazing data. The study involved men with prostate cancer who declined surgery, hormonal therapy, or radiation and instead participated in an intensive nutrition and lifestyle intervention while undergoing careful surveillance for tumor progression.

The men made changes in their diets, exercised moderately, used stress management techniques and also participated in a psychosocial support group, and these changes influenced the expression of hundreds of genes. Specifically:

• Some of the changes positively impacted genes that help fight cancer
• Other changes helped turn off genes that promote cancer development

Even the American Cancer Society states that “one-third of all cancer deaths are related to diet and activity factors,” and this study helps show in a concrete form why that might be.

Conventional medicine makes it seem as though getting cancer is akin to choosing the short straw -- it’s all fairly random and there’s nothing you can do. Well, there are always exceptions when someone in seemingly perfect health gets cancer (like Lance Armstrong), but when that happens there is usually a serious, underlying emotional element present.

The bottom line here is that there’s a lot you can do to lower your chances of getting cancer -- you and your family CAN take control of your health.

Top 12 Tips to Prevent Cancer

I believe you can VIRTUALLY ELIMINATE your risk of cancer and chronic disease, and radically improve your chances of recovering from cancer if you currently have it, by following these relatively simple risk reduction strategies.

  1. Reduce or eliminate your processed food, sugar and grain carbohydrate intake. Yes, this is even true for whole unprocessed organic grains, as they tend to rapidly break down and drive your insulin and leptin levels up, which is the last thing you need to have happening if you are seeking to resolve or prevent cancer.

  2. Control your fasting insulin and leptin levels. This is the end result, and can be easily monitored with the use of simple and relatively inexpensive blood tests.

  3. Normalize your ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fats by taking a high-quality krill oil and reducing your intake of most processed vegetable oils.

  4. Get regular exercise. One of the primary reasons exercise works is that it drives your insulin levels down. Controlling insulin levels is one of the most powerful ways to reduce your cancer risks.

  5. Normalize your vitamin D levels by getting plenty of sunlight exposure and consider careful supplementation when this is not possible. If you take oral vitamin D and have a cancer, it would be very prudent to monitor your vitamin D blood levels regularly.

  6. Get regular, good sleep.

  7. Eat according to your nutritional type. The potent anti-cancer effects of this principle are very much underappreciated. When we treat cancer patients in our clinic this is one of the most powerful anti-cancer strategies we have.

  8. Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins like pesticides, household chemical cleaners, synthetic air fresheners and air pollution.

  9. Limit your exposure and provide protection for yourself from radiation produced by cell phones, towers, base stations, and WiFi stations. 

  10. Avoid frying or charbroiling your food. Boil, poach or steam your foods instead.

  11. Have a tool to permanently reprogram the neurological short-circuiting that can activate cancer genes. Even the CDC states that 85 percent of disease is caused by emotions. It is likely that this factor may be more important than all the other physical ones listed here, so make sure this is addressed. My particular favorite tool for resolving emotional challenges, as you may know, is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). German New Medicine is another powerful tool.    

  12. Eat at least one-third of your food raw. Personally, my goal is 85% raw and I am usually able to achieve that.

Considering how important this issue is for nearly everyone you know, you might want to forward these tips to your friends and relatives. You can easily do this by using the “E-mail to a friend” button in the left-hand section of this page.


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Comment on This Article Community Comments (29)
 
 
Posted On Aug 21, 2008
While there is a profit to be made from cancer, there is more incentive (money) to be made from finding cures then there is from finding means of preventing it in the first place.

 
Aaltrude
Moderator User Moderator User, Joined On 4/2007
Aaltrude  
Replied

stoic
Apprentice User Apprentice User Joined On 3/2007
stoic  
 
Posted On Aug 22, 2008
Finding 'the cure' would be analogous to sterilizing all your breeder stock...but thats only because medicine/healthcare is cartelized, which is to say an artificial property construct - & trespassing is strictly prohibited....


Dquixote1217
Apprentice User Apprentice User Joined On 4/2007
Dquixote1217  
 
Posted On Sep 08, 2008

There is also precious little incentive in finding a cure for cancer or any other serious illness or chronic condition.  A patient cured is a patient lost and when your only market place is our bodies you cannot maintain and increase profits if you cure anything.  Better by far to have drugs and treatments that merely manage symptoms and promote further illness - which leads to still more drugs and treatments - so that by the time we are seniors we have a whole satchel full of medications and a calender full of check-ups, all in the name of profit.

And then there is also the question of whether or not any synthetic, unnatural isolate or other compound that is not present in nature will ever be anything but inimicable to the natural human body.

Insofar as ways to prevent and cure cancer, they already exist aplenty in nature - in many instances perhaps growing right under our noses or in our back yards.  The good Doc listed some excellent suggestions in his comments above - I like every one of them and think his Krill Oil, though not mentioned specifically is the very best source of Omega-3 to be found. But you will never see those cures in mainstream medicine because they are not patentable and thus not profitable.

To get a better understanding of how the war on cancer was lost, I highly suggest Devra Davis's excellent book "The Secret History of the War on Cancer".

Other suggested reading:

"Hiding the Truth About Losing the War on Cancer"

"Modern Medicine versus Nature in Treating Cancer"

"A Natural Anti-Cancer Protocol"

All of which have been featured in many sites around the internet, including The American Chronicle, Natural News, the Crusador, etc. - but can all be viewed at this location:

www.tbyil.com/articles.htm

“Everyone should know that the ‘war on cancer’ is largely a fraud"

-Two time Nobel laureate Linus Pauling



KelleyEidem
Apprentice User Apprentice User Joined On 11/2007
KelleyEidem  
 
Posted On Sep 09, 2008

Ten years ago this month, I had Stage 4 cancer. I cured it in two weeks for $10.

I've recently started sharing it.

Here is what a woman wrote to me:

"First, congratulations to you for conquering the disease! I agree that you made the absolute right choice. I wanted to make sure and report back to you after having followed your protocol for two weeks. I am SO PLEASED to say that the (stabbing, knife piercing) pains in my right breast are completely gone, and so is the lump! Kelley, this is so exciting for me! God bless you and thank you, thank you!"

The best to you.

Kelley Eidem

Together we can cure cancer - one person at a time!



stevefukumoto
Novice User Novice User Joined On 1/2007
stevefukumoto  
 
Posted On Sep 12, 2008

i'm sorry.  our system works backwards.  there is no profit in truly having people healthy with the medical and financial structure we have here in the united states.  the doctors get paid money when people are sick.  there is no monetary gain or incentive to have cures.  we should be paying the doctor when we are well and when we get sick, the doctors don't get paid until we are well.  that is an called incentive!  then and only then will the cream rise to the top.  guaranteed, only the good ones will be in business (no on will employ a physician that can't keep you healthy, and that is exactly what the medical industry is, a business!


 
 
 
Posted On Aug 22, 2008
Actually, Aaltrude, I don't agree.  There is no profit in finding a cure-just keeping the status quo with more drug options fueling big pharma profits.  I believe there are natural cures such as herbs and strict diet for cancer.  Unfortunately there is no profit from them so they are banned by the FDA.  I cringe when misguided people are walking for the cure, volleying for the cure, etc because the biggest sponsors of these events are the drug companies like Astra Zenica, Merck, etc.

 
mama bear
Apprentice User Apprentice User, Joined On 6/2006
mama bear  
Replied

Aaltrude
Moderator User Moderator User Joined On 4/2007
Aaltrude  
 
Posted On Aug 22, 2008
Mama bear - I was referring to the "cures" that the pharmaceutical industry provides. The treatments they provide are lining the pockets of the greedy, hence they have every incentive to continue the research to provide this type of treatment rather than look for the causes and ways we can prevent cancer from developing in the first place.


FunRun
Apprentice User Apprentice User Joined On 7/2008
FunRun  
 
Posted On Aug 22, 2008
"I cringe when misguided people are walking for the cure, volleying for the cure"

I cringe with you.  The cancer culture may be creating more cancer than it cures. 

Sitting in the waiting room with my father's doctor as he underwent chemo she turned to me and asked, "Your father is a really nice guy isn't he." 

I told her that he was indeed a genuinely nice person. 

"Hum," she said.

"Hum, what?" I asked.  We had become pretty good friends over the past few weeks.  She was about my age.  She had confided that her father had the same cancer and had teared up when she spoke about it.

"Well, the doctors here, we've got this theory we don't really talk about with patients."  

"Oh yeah," I said, "What kind of theory?"

Without looking up from her hands she said, "That nice people get cancer.  Mean people don't."

My mind began to spin.  This was a physician, in fact one of the best in the nation, at the University of Pennsylvania hospital.  She was telling me that our mind and body are linked in ways far more complex that we want to believe.  In desperate situations like this we grasp for simple answers or, in the last ditch, unknowables.  Complex ideas like this one do not fit the bill.

Since the passing of my father I have delved into the mind/body/cancer connection.  Some believe that the unconscious mind, by limiting circulation to certain areas, creates acceptable diseases to distract the conscious mind from confronting unresolved issues.  In the 70's the acceptable disease was ulcers, the 90's had back pain.  Now cancer is rising.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sarno


Aaltrude
Moderator User Moderator User Joined On 4/2007
Aaltrude  
 
Posted On Aug 22, 2008
Funrun - I have come across this comment before that it is the
agreeable people that get cancer as opposed to the ones that that will
question and are likely to disagree with the medical staff.


Rogway
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 6/2006
Rogway  
 
Posted On Aug 23, 2008
I totally agree wit you Aaltrude. Thoughts create matter. Especially if you allow others to plant that thought in your mind. Then it grows to whatever the sewer sews.


Pete3
Novice User Novice User Joined On 6/2006
Pete3  
 
Posted On Sep 09, 2008

FunRun, sorry to hear bout yer dad (mine passed recently too)...homoeopathy talks of things that psycho-neuro-immunology is starting to delve into - from memory, part of the carcinosinum "type" is the door-mat mentality ie. will always do what is asked, will always be super nice to those around etc.

as a practitioner i have oft talked to others about ppl with cancer being really nice, it's a "nice person disease" and i wonder more and more what always being nice might do to one's immune response? maybe it could become a bit of a "push over" too? how important are our boundaries in life not just interpersonally but immunologically? if one doesn't flare up to an external source of annoyance or injustice, will our little immune guys do the right thing upon coming accross malignancy internally?

it's fascinating a doc you talked to is wondering about it and she's not the only one...maybe it's not just the physical toxicity that is "better out than in" but the emotional too?


 
 
 
Posted On Aug 22, 2008
I never could get the whole article but...a little story.

I have studied closely a giant tumor on a man's neck. I have studied closely the big knots on my apple tree. They look about 95% identicle. The shape, little red knots. yellowish skin color the whole works. I was told my tree had a fungus.

I always have talked to my apple tree ever since it began to grow. I told it how pretty it is, I praised it, bragged on it an so on and it has flourished. Me and my apple tree are friends.

I can't recall ever having any problem with worms, no worms on or in those apples. Could the worms know that fungus might led to cancer as some reports I have read suggest and are smarter than the thousands of reserchers, scientist and all those putting up billions for more cancer research, or, since I am always nice to my apple tree, it is re-paying the favor by keeping the worms away, or is it trying to tell me something about fungus?

So, one day I mixed up some stuff and droped it on two of the biggest knots on my tree, and guess what, yep you're right, the knots began to dry up. I will watch and listen more to mother nature. True story.

 
Rogway
Savvy User Savvy User, Joined On 6/2006
Rogway  
 
 
 
Posted On Aug 23, 2008
For great info on cancer and alternative cures see www.cancertutor.com

 
Cheryl Rounds
Apprentice User Apprentice User, Joined On 10/2006
Cheryl Rounds  
Replied

Dquixote1217
Apprentice User Apprentice User Joined On 4/2007
Dquixote1217  
 
Posted On Sep 08, 2008

Webster Kehr really has an amazing site - it was one of the first places I turned to when I began to research natural health and alternative cancer treatments.

When you look at his site, be sure to take a look at the "Oleander" treatment.  It has truly amazing success in treating a wide variety of cancers.


 
 
 
Posted On Aug 25, 2008
Unfortunately all the money is spent is on finding a "cure" ie drugs, instead of healing, that is, restoring to health.
The media, by creating fear and stress pushes the idea of fighting your disease, and  when you see it as a battle, you become locked in.

Check out Friends With Cancer where they have a different attitude to healing and learn to focus on health.
  See  http://friendswithcancer.com.au

 
Nathan_203
Savvy User Savvy User, Joined On 4/2007
Nathan_203  
 
 
 
 
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