Becoming Acquainted with Alternative Cancer Therapies

I first became interested in reversing cancer naturally nearly twelve years ago when my mother's best friend was dying of cancer.  I scoured every piece of literature in a mad frenzy to learn what I could.  I knew there had to be a way and I wish I had this information to help my mother's friend.  It was too late for her.  I,  however, was so intrigued by what I was learning that I kept on reading.  I first became acquainted with Dr. Richard Schulze in this search.  I learned about Harry Hoxsey and Rene Caisse.  I learned about Dr. Lorraine Day, MD, who reversed her breast cancer.  I then heard Charlotte Gerson speak at Danny Vierra's Health and Healing Crusade.  Ann Wigmore is also an admirable pioneer in this arena.  Concurrently, I also learned that the A.M.A. and the F.D.A. have a sordid history of suppressing such therapies.  Imagine how many lives could have been spared such pain and loss if alternative therapies been allowed to flourish.  It's so heartbreaking!  For those new to this blog, if you want to know why these therapies are not on the evening news, then please read through my cancer file.  Scroll down to the end and work backward (oldest to most recent).

One of my more recent sources of information is Chris Wark's blog.  If you know anyone fighting cancer, please refer them to his blog.  I felt like I hit the jackpot when I heard about it through Wade Lightheart's newsletter (raw foodist Canadian bodybuilder).  I love the work he is doing to raise awareness about reversing cancer without chemotherapy or radiation. Chris Wark's latest blog post is just as good as the last one.  He interviews Carl Helvie who is the author of You Can Beat Lung Cancer. 

Events

In Chris Wark's interview with Carl Helvie he mentions a site and event that you should know about called annieappleseedproject.org.  The event is titled Evidence Based Complementary and Alternative Cancer Therapies Conference 2013.  It takes place in West Palm Beach, Florida, Thursday, February 28 to March 2.  If you can't travel to the event, you can livestream it for a fee. 

If you happen to be in Sacramento , California, March 1-3, you can attend a Natural Remedies and Raw Foods Workshop free of charge with Danny and Charmaine Vierra.  Danny is incredibly well versed in the art of healing naturally.  I truly admire the work he is doing in this regard. At his health and healing crusades he has had such notable guests such as Dr Schulze, Charlotte Gerson, Dr. John McDougall and Dr. Robert O. Young. 

I will be attending Dr. Michael Greger's lecture "The Role of Diet in Preventing, Treating and Reversing the Fifteen Leading Causes of Death" at Great Sage restaurant in Clarksville, Maryland, on Monday, February 25, from 7:00 to 8:30 pm. Hope to see you there!

Enjoy the Journey!

The Importance of Sleep

Updates

I received an email from Chris Wark which I wanted to share with you.  In this post he interviews filmmaker Ian Jacklin.  Ian recently launched his new film and site icurecancer.com. This guy is amazing!  He had me chuckling because of how he spoke in regards to the issue.  He absolutely does not mince words or tiptoe around a topic to avoid offending anyone. He brazenly lays it out flat and calls what he sees like it really is.  Please do watch the interview.  It is fifty minutes long.  If you don't have time to watch the whole thing, then at least watch the trailer to the film.  Excellent!

The Importance of Sleep

Sleep is one of the simple pleasure of life.  I love to sink into my pillow and enjoy drifting off to slumber. Doesn't everyone? Sleep is also crucial for good health. Our bodies go into repair mode while we sleep. They regenerate and repair damaged tissue and detoxify. We generate "feel-good" hormones that help to regulate our mood and reduce stress.  If you are watching what you eat and exercising, then guess when you lose weight?  The answer is while you sleep. After one bad night of sleep I look in the mirror and swear I look much older.  My energy gets sapped and my fuse shortens considerably. I covet a good night's sleep more than chocolate and that's saying a lot!

I wanted to share some tips and tidbits of information to focus on the importance of sleep, what we can do to enhance it and, hopefully, encourage you to determine to make it a priority.

Every hour of sleep you get before midnight is worth two afterward.  We produce human growth hormones as well as mood enhancing hormones in the hours of sleep before midnight. I suffered from depression the first year of each of my children's lives.  I felt like I was living in a dark cave those years.  I attribute that to a lack of sleep.  Not a fun time for me. 

Sleep in a dark room.

Women who work the night shift are at a much higher risk for breast cancer than those who work day shifts. Somehow exposure to light at night and other lifestyle factors are what trigger breast cancer for some women.  The quality of my  sleep is always better if I can address this.  There is one type of nighttime light that is an exception to this rule.  What kind of light does not trigger cancer?  Moonlight, of course!  If you are jet lagged and need to fall into your regular circadian rhythm of sleep, spend time walking in the sun - especially at sunrise and sunset.

Guard your sleep time and space.

Guard your sleep time like your life depended on it because... it actually can.  Driving while sleepy is tantamount to drunk driving in my opinion. My Dad and I are prone to insomnia.  It can be absolutely awful! If your mate is a night owl and you are dealing with insomnia, send him/her to sleep in another room if they go to bed later than you.    

Clear your sleeping area of work related items, electromagnetic radiation and clutter. Create a sleep sanctuary. At the very least, remove most if not all electromagnetic radiation. Too many people set their cell phones on their nightstands and then wonder why they can't sleep well. Unplug lamps, phones or anything that needs to be powered electrically. Televisions and their cables need insulation to avoid interference from radio air waves. It disrupts the picture quality and creates "snow" otherwise. These same air waves are interacting with our bodies' biochemistry. Such unnatural interactions are bound not to produce healthful outcomes.

One last thing to try in this category is to use natural bedding. Many people love the new car smell, not realizing that they are breathing in chemicals. New carpeting, furniture, mattresses, etc. emit chemical vapors that are harmful to the human body. Some even speculate that Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is linked to chemicals emitted by crib mattresses.

Consider grounding while sleeping.

This topic is an entire post in itself which I hope to do next time. Suffice it to say that the antidote to air wave/electromagnetic radiation is grounding/earthing. It may sound like crazy quackery until you see the studies. Amazing! I will expound upon this further in my next post. For now, view this clip from the Longevity Now Conferences. It is well worth the time to watch - it is so good. I have been grounding while sleeping for several months now. I barely experience lactic acid soreness from weight training  anymore and I do sleep much more soundly.

Go to sleep on an empty stomach.

I think that Americans have their meals planned all wrong. Quantity and timing can mean everything in terms of getting enough sleep and even weight loss. Most Americans have a light breakfast, medium quantity for lunch and a heavy dinner. Try switching this around. Have a heavier breakfast, keep lunch the same and enjoy a light dinner. You can consider even skipping a meal. The best meal to skip would be dinner. If you can't skip dinner, try having your dinner no later than 5 p.m. When you go to bed with an empty stomach your body will not have the burden of digestion while sleeping. I feel horrible if I ever go to sleep with a full stomach. I even have nightmares. If you are exercising, you're body can also go more easily into fat burning mode during sleep if you haven't eaten a meal late at night. Try it for a week and see what happens. I derive this information from the longest lived people on the planet. They typically eat only two meals a day or just have a light dinner.

Avoid stimulating foods or drinks before bedtime.

Also avoid concentrated raw nutrition such as superfoods, juiced fruits and vegetables. Believe me, they'll keep you awake. Instead of caffeinated beverages or chocolate, consider more relaxing drinks like chamomile tea. Foods with vitamin B6 help to enhance sleep. Valerian root works marginally well for me when I'm dealing with insomnia. It may work better for you. Alcohol may help in the process of falling asleep but it interferes with the body falling into  deeper levels of sleep.

Walk in the sun.

Sleeping at night is improved by a darker room, but it is also helped by spending time in the sun during the day. This is one sure-fire way of helping me have a solid night of rest. I have noticed that after a full day at an amusement park I sleep incredibly well. This happens because sunshine exposure helps the body to produce more melatonin. There are so many good reasons to spend time in the sunshine - from fighting the common cold to cancer. Consider a vitamin D supplement during the winter months. Unfortunately we cannot receive enough vitamin D from the sun during the winter months if we live in the northern part of the United States. 

I just wanted to take a moment to say that healthful living is a journey of a lifetime. It is a journey in which you never arrive because if you do, you stop growing or learning. I am, by no means, a faultless example for health-promoting perfection. I do my absolute best and am learning just like everyone else. It may take a few months and sometimes years before I implement something I have learned. You sometimes need to let the information assimilate into your brain and mull around for a bit. The key is to never stop seeking and learning. Also, it's so important is to be kind to those in your circle. Nothing is more annoying than a sanctimonious, lecturing health nut. I believe in leading others by example and by inspiring others. Lecturing never works. Just some food for thought!

Enjoy the Journey!

My Story Of Healing

A Few Updates 

When I decided to do a post on reversing cancer naturally, I had no idea I would find so much information on the topic. Here is yet another article of a test which inadvertantly uncovered that chemotherapy makes cancer more aggressive.  Oops... wouldn't want to let that cat out of the bag!  Take the time to read it - very interesting!

I follow a site called nutritionfacts.org.  The man who heads it up is Dr. Michael Greger, MD.  One of his recent posts is Cancer-Proofing Your Body. Excellent article and video (Ex Vivo Cancer Proliferation video only 3 minutes long)

Recently, I walked into Roots, my health food store.  Just outside of the store was an easel advertising a health lecture with Dr. Michael Greger.  I just about fell off my rocker!  It will be held at my favorite restaurant Great Sage in Clarksville, MD.  The title of the class is, "The Role of Diet in Preventing, Treating and Reversing the Fifteen Leading Causes of Death"  It will take place Monday, February 25 from 7 to 8:30.  You know where I'll be!

 

My Roller Coaster Ride of Healing 

There are times when I don't particularly enjoy sharing things about myself. I don't mean sharing fun stories from my childhood or things of that sort. It's the more personal stuff that I find hard to share. However, I do go against my natural inclination to keep things private when I believe that what I share might benefit someone.  If I can inspire someone or help someone along in their quest for healing, then it's worth it to me.  This past August I took off on a road trip with my family across the country.  Little did I know that it would also take me on a roller coaster ride of emotions, crippling pain, frustration and finally, after some time, healing.  I endured this for four long months.  December is when I got better.   It has taken me a while to muster up the will to write this post.

When I go on vacation I find it difficult to eat as much raw food as I normally do at home.  In that case, I decide to eat as healthfully as possible and just eat what my family eats.  For the trip I kept a cooler of sandwich ingredients ready for meals on the go.  At our first stop in Michigan I began to notice a rash on my elbow.  Up until the trip I had been running trails in the woods and it looked like poison ivy, so I didn't give it much thought.  At about the same time I began to notice pain in my hip.  By the time we got to the Mall of America in Minneapolis, I was in so much pain I could barely even walk.  My husband had to push me around in a wheelchair at the mall.  I am very physically driven and being pushed in a wheelchair was quite unsettling for me.  I just chalked it up to my body being out of alignment.  I would simply make an appointment with my DNFT chiropractor when I returned home to fix the problem.

We got home, I made my appointment to see the chiropractor and I researched herbs that helped skin rashes.  Weeks passed and I couldn't fix the problem.  As a matter of fact, the rash continued to spread over my body.  By this time I was in tears and emotionally leveled.  This wasn't supposed to happen to me!  Not with the way I eat and live!  I went to the doctor to appease my mother.  As expected, I received a prescription for my skin which I just crumpled up and tossed.  I can be a rebellious patient when it comes to conventional medicine.  In desperation I began talking to friends about what I was dealing with.  Two friends helped me to figure out what I was dealing with and I can't even begin to express my gratitude for their help and intuitiveness.  The first is my friend Michelle Ross, the nutritionist I've mentioned before in this blog.   Second was my friend Bodil who is a nutritionally trained nurse practitioner.  Michelle mentioned to me that it sounded like it could be an auto-immune condition.  Those words took a few days to register in my brain but eventually a light bulb went off in my head.

The Apple Does Not Fall Far from the Tree 

My father was obsessive about fitness and in his prime was running up to 70 miles a week.  His running came to a screeching halt when he began to have symptoms of a certain condition - he was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. This type of arthritis affects the joints as well as the skin.  I also discovered that this type of arthritis runs in my father's family.  Bingo!  My Dad is taking medication for his conditions and is doing well.  (I attribute his uncommonly healthful condition to his clean diet, juicing and green smoothies.  The doctors are baffled at how well he is doing.)  Being the person that I am, I wanted to avoid the medications at all cost.  I made an appointment to see my friend, the nurse practitioner.  She ran blood work for me and told me to go on an elimination diet. I asked her if she thought I would need to go on medication.  I wanted to see how she responded.  Her answer was the most melodious sound to my ears, "That is up to you!"  I felt so empowered by both of my friends to pursue my healing without drugs.

My diet was stripped down to the basics:   She put me on 100% organic rice and some vegetables.  Every three days I would reintroduce another food into my diet.  To make a long story short I have had to eliminate certain foods from my diet.  I can no longer have gluten in my diet.  All the gluten in my sandwiches on my trip probably triggered my condition.  Also, I had my cheat meals at church potlucks which I'm sure contain GMO's.  GMO's are ultimately responsible for so many autoimmune conditions and food sensitivities.  I have become allergic to certain nuts.  As long as I can be strict with my diet, I do not feel any symptoms.  My skin which was so raw, bloody and paper-like from scratching so much is soft again and completely healed.  My hips that caused me so much pain, are no longer causing me trouble.  It has been months since I was running and have resorted to spin classes to maintain fitness. (I'm looking into getting a mountain bike just like my dad did when he dealt with his arthritis.) I have recently been getting back on the treadmill and  I haven't had the horrible recurrence of pain.  I've lost a lot of stamina but, thank God I can walk without pain and even run a little!  (I am very tentative in regards to running, but I feel like I just might be able to return to my trails again.)

A New Way to Eat
 

It has been such a challenge readjusting my diet and finding equilibrium that is right for me.  For a couple of years I had been eating 90 to 95% raw.  I can no longer maintain that.  In speaking with Michelle Ross, she said that some people can thrive on a 100% raw diet, but not everyone can.  She says it is excellent for the purpose of reversing chronic disease, but then you have to reevaluate and readjust.  My goal is maintaining alkilinity and so I now am eating 75 to 80% raw and have added some more cooked food back into my diet.  Since doing this I noticed that my energy levels have shot through the roof.

This whole experience has been very humbling for me.  I struggled so much with feelings of failure.  I also felt a responsibility for being honest with my readers.  I would much rather disclose the truth than try to save face.  Pay attention to the cues your body is telling you.  Use your symptoms as a guide and don't mask them with medication.  Find a naturopath, nutritionist or a nutritionally trained doctor/health practitioner!  (The standard four hours of archaic nutrition most doctors get doesn't count for me)  Be relentless until you fully arrive at the health you want to have.  Easier said than done, I know. But yes, it can be done! I plan to do a cleanse using products from Dr. Schulze.  I want to see how my body will respond.  His cleanses are powerful for restoring optimal health.  (Check out his latest blog post)  I'll be sure to let you know how that goes!

Enjoy the Journey!

How I Stop The Flu Dead In It's Tracks

There is so much talk about the flu these days I thought I should put in my two cents about dealing with it.  I do not get the flu shot.  I was required to once many years ago by an employer.  Guess what?  I got the flu regardless.  I think the whole concept is absolutely ridiculous!  Where do they get the idea that they can predict what these microorganisms are going to do?  They mutate.  Flu shots are nothing but guessing what the new flu strain is going to be.  That's like a shot in the dark!  There is also a list of suspect ingredients that really should raise eyebrows.  I could go on and on about this.  If you want to read more, read this article by Dr. Mercola or this one from natural news. Lastly, take a look at this excellent article, it's a must read!

I got an email about Pierce Morgan this morning which I thought was funny. He got the flu shot live with Dr. Oz and got sick 10 days later.  Check it out here. It's one thing if Big Pharma wants to have flu shots available. It's quite another when the government mandates it.  That's a scary thought. The producers of The Greater Good documentary film, are trying to raise awareness of possible new regulations that may affect residents of Idaho.

Ideally, if we maintain the alkilinity of our bodies by eating 75-80% raw foods, we will have strong immune systems and be able to stay healthy. Nonetheless, life sometimes does not allow for it.  I sometimes get so busy that I can let my diet slip temporarily.  If I've indulged in too much sugar on my cheat meal or cheat day I can feel my immunity drop. (I have to be honest - it sometimes happens, folks, especially around the holidays.)  Then I begin to feel that tickle in my throat or a headache comes on.  When that happens, this is what I do to stop the dreaded flu right in its tracks.

Grapefruit, garlic and hydrotherapy are your friends in stifling the flu.  Here are some of the benefits of using grapefruit.  Garlic is excellent as well. Read an article here about the benefits.  In a previous post about cancer I mentioned that hydrotherapy can help your body develop more white blood cells.  It helps to stimulate your immune system.

Grapefruit-Garlic Tea and Hydrotherapy: 

I place in a small pot two or three grapefruits washed and quartered, skin and all. Then I add 6 or more cloves of garlic. (If ambitious, go with an entire head of garlic.) Fill the pot with enough filtered water to cover the grapefruit and garlic.  Bring the water to a boil.  Once boiling, turn down the temp and allow this to simmer for ten to fifteen minutes. (While preparing the tea, I prepare a hot bath as well.)  I drink the water as a tea and do not eat the grapefruit or garlic.  Sometimes I add a little lime juice and honey.  Then I get into the hot bath.  The water is as hot as I can stand it without burning my skin.  Once in the bath I drink the tea.  This process creates an artificial fever.  I try to stay in the bath as long as I can - about fifteen minutes.  Once done with my tea and hot bath, I take a cool shower.  (This hydrotherapy method is powerful!  Do not underestimate it!)  After all this, I go straight to a warm bed for a good night's sleep.  By the next morning, I feel so much better.  My husband has experience as a hydrotherapist from the time he worked in the NEWSTART (TM) lifestyle program at the Weimar Center of Health and Education in California.  I used to ignore him when he told me to do this hydro routine.  I would get sick and he wouldn't.   I have since wised up and now go through this routine myself. Attending the Natural Remedies Seminar at Andrews University has reinforced this concept in my mind.  One note of caution: hydrotherapy is not recommended for all people.   Please look at this list of contraindications found here. And here is  a site that gives instructions on how to use hydro at home.

I recently dined with an acquaintance who told me that she has daily been surrounded by sick people coughing in her presence.  She had no choice but to be in the same environment with these sick people.  So she wisely did some things to beef up her immune system. She ate two raw garlic cloves a day.  She also had a routine of having a greens supplement (similar to Dr. Schulze' Superfood) and took a daily dose of turmeric and oregano in pill form.  Despite the fact that everyone was hacking around her, she did not get sick. In that regard, here is an an article from Natural News that discusses the foods that fight the flu.

If you are already in the full throes of influenza, consider a juice fast.  Boost your immunity with echinacea.  I highly recommend Dr. Schulze' products. His herbs are pure, concentrated  and highly effective.  Read here for one of his articles on the flu.  Consider his products for boosting your immune system.  Call Dr. Schulze and ask for a catalog.  They may possibly also send you the CD "Get Well" for no extra cost.  

Need more evidence to reinforce your faith in natural methods when dealing with the flu? Here is an article which mentions that vitamins can help in curtailing duration of the flu. 

A future post:

I plan to do a post on natural remedies.  A raw food, plant based diet can reverse all manner of chronic conditions that are deemed incurable.  But, would you know what to do if you could not access a hospital in an emergency?  Just a look at Hurricane Sandy and Katrina and it is easy to see how hospitals can very quickly become overwhelmed.  I believe everyone should build a collection of books on herbs and natural remedies.  I think everyone should at least learn the basics of healing naturally and possibly grow some medicinal herbs.  Our forefathers knew what to do, what herbs to take or what methods to employ.  I strongly believe that having a basic knowledge of natural healing may one day come in very handy for you and your family.

Enjoy the Journey!