Cancer Takes Too Many of Us

Today I am a little bit sad. . .as well as a little bit mad.

Yesterday afternoon, a woman I know and respect from church, who served as my Mentor Mom in a Mother’s ministry group, lost her lifemate and husband of 47 years to liver cancer that had spread to his lungs.  Today I grieve with her and her family, and I’m also mad at cancer.  As Christians, we know that to be “away from the body” is to be “at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8), so I hope and pray that John’s family is rejoicing today that he is out of pain and dancing with Jesus!  But in honor of him and the battle he fought against a disease that ravaged his body, I thought it would be appropriate to highlight a few things from a phenomenal book I am just finishing up.

It is a book called Knockout, by Suzanne Somers (yes, Chrissy from Three’s Company).  She is a breast cancer survivor and has made it a life mission to inform herself about everything there is to know about cancer and its prevention.  Knockout is an excellent (cannot stress that enough) and resourceful book in which Somers interviews a dozen or so doctors and nutritionists who are curing cancer, treating patients to “manage” their cancer (live symptom free for decades) and teaching the average layperson simple things they can do to prevent cancer in the first place.  

One of the doctor’s that she interviews is Dr. Russell Blaylock, with whom I was thoroughly impressed.  Of all the things he reveals in this book, some quite shocking, these were some of the most informative:  

1.  Prostate and breast cancers are being overdiagnosed.  “If you look at a woman age fifty, about 40 to 45 percent of them will have breast cancer cells in their ducts.  Most of them will never get breast cancer, or at least it won’t spread.  The same thing is true for prostate cancer.”  He goes on to say something even more shocking.  “By overdiagnosing, they improve their statistics.  It makes it look like the war on cancer has made headway, when in truth they haven’t made any headway.  And then these poor patients go through all this hell” (p. 149). 

2.  Mammograms may be increasing one’s risk of breast cancer–because of the radiation, as well as the fact that “every time they squash it (the breast during a mammogram), the cells are pushed out into the lymphatic system and also the blood vessels, and you are more likely to cause metastases” (p.151).

3.  “Cancer is fueled by sugar,” yet “some of the biggest cancer centers in the world tell their patients to eat sugars. . .so they don’t lose weight” (p. 155).

4.  Some of the things that can help prevent cancer:  folic acid, addressing chronic inflammation, glutathione, melatonin, vitamin D3, omega-3, tumeric, flavonoids

The most disturbing information to me that was revealed in this book is the underlying belief from many of these doctors that chemotherapy and radiation do very little (or nothing) for most cancers, and that it is just the “standard of care” given, even though alternative treatments exists and are working.  Why are they not being used in mainstream medicine to a noteable degree?  Another shock–there is a massive amount of money flowing to medical centers through funding from pharmaceutical companies and a massive amount of money to be made in chemotherapy.  “The government and the pharmaceutical companies are making billions of dollars off the improper treatment of cancers” (p. 156). 

Dr. Blaylock’s website, which includes a wealth of information, appears here.

Another chapter which I found invaluable is one in which Ms. Somers interviews her own personal nutritionist, Cristiana Paul, M.S.  She has created a resource, and it is reprinted in Knockout, that outlines nine interventions for cancer–nine ways to intervene and interrupt the path of a cancer cell before it becomes destructive.  I am thrilled at this information and will be referring to it often for my own health and that of my family.  What I appreciate is that these are things any one of us can do, and can do easily, and they are the same types of things that promote good health in other ways as well.  She addresses the importance of drinking water, of getting adequate protein and fiber, of detoxifying our bodies, enhancing our immune system, supplementing with various vitamins, and more.  You can find Ms. Paul’s website here. 

This book is filled with astounding (and supported) claims that make a whole lot of sense to me, the average reader interested in nutrition.  I highly recommend it.  And to all of those who are struggling with cancer, or know and love someone who is, you are in my thoughts and prayers today as I honor a man whom many termed their “best friend” and a strong man of faith.