The American Cancer Society goes on to say that:
“For most people, chemo brain effects happen quickly and only last a short time. Others have long-term mental changes. Usually the changes that patients notice are very subtle, and others around them may not even notice any changes at all. Still, the people who are having problems are well aware of the differences in their thinking. Many people do not tell their cancer care team about this problem until it affects their everyday life.”
Many cancer patients are embarrassed about chemo brain and try to cover up their forgetfulness and fuzzy thinking. At the heart of the matter is how the condition, temporary or not, can affect a patient's care. All too often, chemo brain will interfere with treatment because a patient forgets to take medications or gets confused about other aspects of treatment, including missing doctor appointments.
The need for a caregiver should be obvious, given the prevalence of chemo brain. Even a cancer patient who is not plagued with the extremes of this problem will have trouble remembering everything that has to be done during treatment, including the number and timing of medications, meetings with the oncologist and other medical specialists, getting scans and blood tests, fasting before certain examinations, filling prescriptions, and so on.
I believe that caregivers are a special breed of people, and their work is a spiritual practice. If a cancer patient is lucky, there will be a life-partner, family member, or friend who will be there to help. Assistance is necessary not only for the strictly medical reasons I mentioned, but also to keep track of the health-building program that augments chemotherapy. Without a trusted helper working side-by-side with the cancer patient, the healing journey will be long, arduous, and perilous. With the caregiver sharing the responsibility for recovery, that journey becomes a shared experience of combined intention, a comfort for each, and even a joy.
Adopting a Healing Lifestyle
And finally, before outlining the details of the program I have put together to help cancer patients and their caregivers, let me say something about a healthy lifestyle.
Cancer, like all life-threatening diseases, can be a wake-up call to live in a different way. Medical issues do not appear out of nowhere, even though they may seem to ambush and descend upon us at the least likely moment. The truth is we do much to bring about ill health on ourselves, whether consciously or unconsciously. The origins of cancer are myriad and often deeply mysterious, for the most part. But surely our lifestyle has much to do with our health and well-being.
When a diagnosis comes, many cancer patients will automatically go into denial about taking responsibility for their sickness. For some, the sentence of cancer—and it might even be a death sentence—has been levied upon them for no reason at all by an angry or capricious God, universe, force, or whatever. They see themselves as innocent victims of the disease, faultless for having contracted it.
More than 200 scientists under the auspices of the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) took five years to produce the most authoritative report we have on the role played by food, drink, obesity, and exercise in causing cancer. Their conclusion was that a third of cancers worldwide are caused by lifestyle choices—the quality of what we eat and how much or how little we exercise.
A study of nearly 45,000 sets of twins found that environment and lifestyle were stronger predictors than genetic factors when determining who might get prostate, colorectal and breast cancer.
A recent Cancer Research UK report found that 40% of cancers can be blamed on personal lifestyle. The study says that more than 100,000 cancers in Britain each year are caused by smoking, unhealthy diet (a lack of fruit and vegetables), misuse of alcohol, and being overweight.
In many cases, a cancer patient is indeed blameless in having created the situation that ended with a diseased body. Accidents, issues of heredity, or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time can cause cancer, notwithstanding precautions taken or preventions exercised. But, that said, we need to take responsibility for what we eat, drink, smoke, how we move and, in general, how we live our lives.
Admitting our own part in illness is the first step toward adopting a healthy lifestyle, one that is grounded in eating whole foods, drinking vitality-enhancing beverages, exercising regularly, and refraining from bad habits such as smoking, overworking, not getting enough sleep.
Working through this program requires a commitment to a healthy way of living. That can be done by owning up to how we have taken care of ourselves in the past and resolving to take better care now and in the future.
What follows is a practical way to augment the healing process begun by the oncologist and other specialists. Their job is to eradicate cancer cells using highly toxic chemicals. The job of the cancer patient and the caregiver is to pick up the process where that leaves off, using sensible eating plans, supplements, natural herbal powders, juices, and teas combined with detoxifications and exercise—all designed to build up the immune system, help lessen the debilitating side effects of chemotherapy, keep the cancer patient healthy and more energetic during treatment, and speed up the healing process.
My guide throughout is to work hand-in-hand with nature and with the body's own healing powers. This program is for anyone who has been diagnosed as having cancer, regardless of gender, type of cancer, or the stage of the disease.
As I have said before, anyone wanting to embark on this parallel journey of natural healing will need to check with the oncologist who prescribed chemotherapy. You may want to ask how much nutritional training the oncologist in charge of your healing has had. Knowing that can help you understand where the doctor's recommendations about diet and supplementation originate.
This is not only the usual disclaimer made in all matters pertaining to health and healing, it is also a caution for the cancer patient to be aware that certain foods or vitamins, minerals, or other supplements may counteract the effectiveness of the medical treatment. These cases are rare, but they can happen. Please practice due diligence and go the extra step to ensure that this program for healing is entirely successful.
PART TWO
The 5-Step Chemotherapy Diet Program
We must turn to nature itself, to the observations of the body in health and in disease to learn the truth.
Hippocrates
The Chemotherapy Diet
Here is a quick summary of the 5-step program I developed for cancer patients and their caregivers. I will go through each step and say why it is important. Then, the rest of this section will be devoted to the actual nuts-and-bolts of the diet—what to do, how to do it, when, and why.
Step 1: Change your thinking and develop an attitude focused on healing
Step 2: Detoxify to promote healing from the inside out
Step 3: Eat the best foods to create a healing chemistry in your body
Step 4: Supplement your diet correctly to support the healing momentum
Step 5: Exercise
