lungs had to be healthy enough to get me through a four-hour operation, plus hours in recovery. (I was taking the non-cortisone spray three times a day.) The cortisone improved my breathing, which got me through the surgery without any breathing complications. Even though I had an oncologist, I still had a lot of reading and exploring to do. No matter what the surgeon found, I would be treating my whole body in order to heal the physical terrain that produced two cancerous tumors in my left breast.
The six weeks between diagnosis and mastectomy were filled with learning about alternative treatment options. Conventional approaches were relatively straight forward—surgery, chemotherapy or radiation. I could put that aside while I read several books on alternative treatments. I discovered that the alternative experts have a very different philosophy about cancer than the conventional medical community.
The alternative medical community views cancer as a systemic disease, not just a cancer site. Cancer cells develop and interfere with normal cell reproduction, especially during the aging process. A compromised immune system cannot detect and destroy these developing cancer cells fast enough, and eventually they clump together to form a localized cancer.
Most medical practitioners and researchers agree that, in fact, we all probably have cancer cells developing in each of us all the time, but our bodies are able to dispose of them before they rage out of control. In other words, a healthy body can normally defend itself quite well against the development of cancer because it knows how to deal with these natural occurrences.
—Tanya Harter Pierce, MA, MFCC, Outsmart Your Cancer: Alternative Non-Toxic Treatments That Work (2009, p. 21)
Alternative doctors and other health care practitioners believe a breakdown in the systems of the body, particularly the immune system, allows the body to produce a cancer. Therefore, their treatments often focus on strengthening the immune system. A healthy immune system not only destroys developing cancer cells, but also kills cancer cells that have formed a tumor and/or have spread to other parts of the body. I began to understand that natural killer cells protect the body from getting cancer and also eliminate the cancer once it has taken up residence.
Conventional medicine is focused on naming diseases based on geography, body location, and specialty, instead of by the cause, mechanism, or pathway involved. Doctors say you have a liver, kidney, brain, or heart disease. But this approach to naming disease tells you nothing about the cause, and it is quickly becoming obsolete as we understand more about the mysteries of human biology…Functional medicine gives us a method for identifying the conditions in which disease arises and shows us how to begin changing those conditions.
— Blog Post by Dr. Mark Hyman November 6, 2010: Cancer; New Science on how to Prevent and Treat It—
A Report from TEDMED by Dr. Mark Hyman
Options: The Alternative Cancer Therapy Book by Richard Walters explains the underlying rationale, proposed actions, supportive evidence and the course of treatment for the many alternative approaches. It was a guiding light for me in 2000. However, Walters encouraged his readers to approach all traditional and alternative therapies, as well as remission and cure rates, with caution. His message was not what I wanted to hear. It left me longing for certainty in an uncertain world. I wanted to be guided to the right option for me.
After reading the book and being bombarded with so many options, I could not connect with one approach that felt right. Some of the approaches seemed to call for a commitment which I was not prepared to make, like totally changing my already restricted eating habits along with numerous coffee enemas every day. If I had stage IV cancer, I might have been more inclined to try some of the approaches that required drastic lifestyle changes. Or, perhaps, I was just being lazy or timid about my treatment. This whole process was pushing me against myself. I had to keep asking, “What are you willing to do to heal the cancer naturally?” And, “How much are you willing to spend?”
I learned that conventional treatments focus on destroying the tumor, and surgery has the highest survival rate. Their standard of care does not address or treat the underlying causes of the cancer. For example, what causes the systems of the body to break down in order for cells to produce cancer remains a mystery in mainstream medicine. In contrast, alternative treatment approaches address the tumor as a symptom. Their treatment aims at correcting the root causes of the disease, which include how the mind, emotions, body, spirit and environment affect the cells and genes. Lifestyle—which includes nutrition, stress, thoughts, emotions, toxic exposure and more, appears to influence whether the body produces cells that promote or prevent cancer. This empowers the patient to participate in the healing process and make lifestyle choices that contribute to cancer recovery.
Alternative and integrative health care providers address the whole picture. They focus on strengthening the body’s ability to destroy cancer cells, as well as eliminate the tumor through a variety of modalities.
Regardless of the new wisdom I gained while exploring the natural approaches to curing cancer, I stuck with my decision to have the left breast removed. I totally accepted and honored the message in my divinely inspired dream image. My body and soul spoke; I listened.
Throughout my research, I learned that many cancer patients who were pronounced “terminal”—dying within weeks or months, went on alternative treatment approaches and fully recovered. To my way of thinking, if it can happen to just one person, it becomes possible for others to outlive their prognosis. Even though the research was somewhat lacking at that time regarding alternative and integrative therapies, I was curious. The anecdotal stories of cancer remission got my attention and gave me hope. Today many books and studies are available for those who are willing to do the research to find them. Alternative treatment approaches offer non-toxic, non– invasive modalities that support the body’s ability to heal itself. I wanted to give them some credibility, even if the medical establishment did not. I began to understand the politics of cancer medicine and the conflict between conventional versus alternative. It was and still is filled with ignorance, fear and hostility from the medical power structure, including the drug companies, Food and Drug Administration and cancer foundations. The red flag question: What will happen to the billion-dollar cancer industry if cancer is eliminated?
What the Expert Says...
The Problem with Most Cancer Treatments
by Raymond Francis, MSc, Founder of Beyond Health International,
Author of Never Fear Cancer Again, Never Be Sick Again,
and Never Be Fat Again
Conventional cancer treatments are aimed at the wrong target. Surgery, radiation and chemotherapy may remove tumors, but they do nothing to address the true causes of the tumors. A tumor is merely a symptom—a product of the cancer process. Yet all the attention goes to the symptom. You can poison, slash and burn the symptom all you want, but unless you turn the cancer process off, you still have cancer and it will come back.
What we call cancer is actually a process that can only occur when certain conditions are present in
