Cancer can be a terrifying diagnosis, filling you with dread and hopelessness. Don’t loose hope. When you know what cancer is and what your treatment options are, you are empowered to be a partner in your cancer care. When you learn about how to evaluate YOUR unique risk of pre-cancer activity, you will be empowered with the knowledge of which diets and lifestyle choices really matter for YOU.
What is cancer?
Cancer is an dysregulated growth of your own cells in your own body. That’s it. It is not something you catch like a cold. It is not something you can hide from or prevent by eating a handful of “super fruits” or whatever the latest fad is.
CANCER IS A WHOLE BODY DISEASE. If you want to treat cancer, if you want to prevent cancer, treat the whole body.
What makes a cancer grow: the terrain
In Endobiogeny the concept of terrain helps clarify our understanding of why cancers grow and how to reduce your risk of cancer. The terrain is how your genes form your body (your structure) and how they react to everyday events, the change of seasons, phases of life, infections, stresses, etc. In other words, terrain is the whole enchilada of who you are TODAY and how your body is FUNCTIONING.
In the popular press, we are told that diet and lifestyle are the way to prevent cancer. I have had vegetarians Pilates instructors with stage 4 cancer, and angry alcoholic who never get cancer. Remember when we said that cancer is “dysregulated growth of cells in your own body”? Do you know what manages the growth of everything in the body, healthy or cancerous? Hormones.
Hormone imbalances are the key to understanding and treating cancer.
Role of Hormones
Every cancer is “hormone dependent” because cancer depends on hormones to help it grow and spread throughout the body the same as your healthy cells do. Many hormones play a role in cancer growth, not just estrogens and progesterone. Testosterone, cortisol (our natural steroid), insulin (regulates blood sugar), and thyroid hormones all play a role too.
Endobiogeny is an approach to medicine that specializes in evaluating how hormones manage your body, including cancer-like conditions.
Toxins and Infections
Environmental toxins can play a role in certain cancers: heavy metals, phenols, plastic by-products, power lines, etc. can influence the development and growth of a cancer. Chronic, low-grade infections can also play a role in certain cancer.
From the standpoint of endobiogeny, toxins and infections are not the cause of cancer, but the instigator of cancer. Your hormonal response to the toxins is what ultimately protects you from or accelerates the development of cancer. It comes back to balancing your hormones.
Diet
Diet is important when it comes to cancer. A healthy diet may reduce the risk of cancer and an unhealthy diet may increase the risk, but it comes down to two factors: nutrients and hormones.
A healthy diet has nutrients that can boost your natural anti-cancer defenses. But, too many nutrients (especially in pill form) or the wrong nutrients for your body can actually increase your risk of cancer. For food to be digested, hormones are stimulated to aid in the break down, digestion and use of nutrients, so once again it comes down to balancing your hormones!
Lifestyle
Physical, mental and emotional stresses can stimulate changes in your hormones and your nervous system that favor the growth of a cancer. These relationships are complex and usually take decades to show their effects.
Cancer recurrence
Sometimes lightening strikes twice (or three times). Why do some people get cancer at all and why do some people get cancer repeatedly? Most people at some time in their lives have pre-cancer activity or early cancer activity that goes away due to natural defense factors guided by our hormones.
Sometimes, when a “perfect storm” of factors is present at the same time, the cancer grows to the point that you realize it is there. For example, a woman at 38 years of age is going through a shift in her hormonal balances and has a mild pre-cancer activity. She has a son who gets involved with drug use. At 39, her husband loses his job. In the spring, as she is turning 40, she develops breast cancer. Another woman at the same age with the same pre-cancer activity generates a good anti-cancer hormonal response and does not express cancer.
Some people have a cancer terrain, meaning that they hold for many decades cancer tendencies and minor events or no particular event but the passage of time will bring out the cancer again.
It’s important to remember that CANCER IS A WHOLE BODY DISEASE and to deal with cancer, we MUST treat the whole person: body, mind and emotions.
Endobiogenic approach to cancer
My approach to cancer is based on the approach of Endobiogeny.
3-step approach to evaluation:
- Get to know YOU and who you ARE and how you came to this diagnosis
- Do a careful physical exam to look for subtle clues related to the causes of cancer: hormonal, diet, lifestyle and toxins
- Do a detailed evaluation with one basic set of blood work called the Biology of functions that opens a window of understanding into your child’s unique strengths and areas that need support
3-step approach to treatment:
- A whole-person treatment with organic plant extracts, homeopathy, and other gentle therapies. Your will typically be on 3-5 supplements. That’s it.
- Simple strategies for healthy eating customized to YOUR body’s needs
- Simple lifestyle modifications to balance the nervous system
Cancer support treatments: Hyperbaric Oxygen
My approach to cancer care is not aggressive. It’s based on the wisdom of your body and treating the root cause of cancer growth. In addition to the general approach, studies have demonstrated that hyperbaric oxygen therapy may be beneficial in a number of ways.
Killing cancer cells: Oxygen is the enemy of cancer cells. Hyperbaric oxygen dramatically increases the concentration of oxygen in your cells. Your natural cancer killer cells, as well as chemotherapy and radiation therapy all work through a process called “oxidation” in which the natural healing power of oxygen helps dissolve cancer cells. Studies have shown that receiving hyperbaric oxygen therapy a few days before chemotherapy or radiation therapy can strengthen and protect healthy cells while priming cancer cells to be more susceptible to standard treatments.
Chemo Brain, or, Brain fog: After chemotherapy, may people complain of brain fog, or “chemo brain.” There is a specific hormonal imbalance that plays a role in chemo brain. It involves trouble using oxygen and sugar to make energy in the brain. Hyperbaric oxygen can help but reducing stress and improving oxygen concentrations in the brain.