The ACTIVE8 Programme
This article sets out to give you real pointers on how to create an Integrated cancer programme that is personal to you, and around your Doctor´s orthodox therapies. It comes in 8 steps and that´s why (to give it its full name) we call it the Active8 Integrated cancer therapies programme. Now you really can activate your cancer beating programme!

Please note Integrated Therapy programmes for cancer may also be called either ´Holistic´ or ´Integrative´ cancer programmes.

CANCERactive does not give advice, nor recommendations. We simply try to empower people to increase their personal odds of survival. We do this by helping you prepare your own personal Integrated Therapy Programme combining the best of the best therapies around your doctors’ orthodox treatments. Some individual therapies have been linked in research to increases in survival times of 50 per cent. Imagine if you used 5 or 6 such therapies! Some American experts believe building a package of acivities can increase your odds of survival by up to 60 per cent.

We provide information - research-evidenced information - on complementary and alternative therapies, not merely orthodox ones. We have a free quarterly magazine in over 520 UK hospitals, complementary cancer centres and health units in major libraries, and those articles end up here on this the largest Independent UK cancer charity web site.

Our unique approach is summarised in the Active8 programme, which follows below after a section on the Background need for cancer understanding. You can read the summary and find articles that develop each section in much more detail all over this CANCERactive site:

A) BACKGROUND: THE NEED FOR CANCER ‘UNDERSTANDING’

 i) Cancer Maintenance:

Firstly, we try to think what may have caused the cancer. The cause may still be maintaining it. This is especially important when the patient is under 60 years of age. Over 80 per cent of cancers occur in the over 65 age group. If you are younger than this it is very likely some toxin or something in your lifestyle or environment that has caused, and may well still be maintaining, the cancer. This is one of the reasons we have so much on cancer prevention on our web site – much more than all the other major UK cancer charities. Our home page on prevention can be found by clicking this link.

CANCERactive adopts the Precautionary Principle – namely, that where there is expert research alerting us to a possible cause, we pass those concerns on. It is your right to know, so that you can adjust your personal lifestyle accordingly. Consequently, we have significant sections on our web site on the threat of, for example, certain chemicals, pesticides, EMF’s and so on, which are barely covered by the other charities.

 ii) Next - all people with cancer need to appreciate the following  points:

           1.  Your cancer is as individual as you are. Modern medicine historically has not recognised this because it preferred one-size-fits-all treatments, for simplicity, if nothing else. This led in the UK to the concept of ‘Best Practice’. You get this disease; we treat you like this.

Chris Woollams has suggested since his daughter became ill in 2001 that "your cancer is as individual as you are". You can develop cancer in many ways. For example:

• Your cells might be subject to radiation, thus structurally changing the DNA
• Your cells might be subject to chemical toxins, which might alter the DNA in a different way with different toxins
• Your cells may be subject to the female hormone ‘oestrogen’ (either naturally occurring or introduced into the body synthetically. Oestrogen was declared a known cause of cancer in the early 1990’s by the National Cancer Institute in the USA . It fuels the fire of cancer. * One way it can do this is to increase the levels of sodium in your cells, reducing the levels of potassium and increasing their acidity. This ultimately results in lowered oxygen and energy inside the cell. This prevents repair genes working, whilst allowing the multiplication genes free-rein.
• Oestrogen can also stop stem cells becoming normal healthy cells, and keeping them in a rapidly dividing state.
• Excess sodium (salt) consumption, accompanied by too low a magnesium consumption (low consumption of greens, seeds, nuts, certain fruits) will also cause acidity, lowered oxygen and energy in cells.

Etc etc etc. So now, do you think your cancer is the same as the person’s who is sitting opposite you?

While Doctors might not agree, scientists now do. For example, if you have breast cancer the scientists now have half a dozen different drugs depending upon whether you are oestrogen positive (Tamoxifen, aromatase inhibitors), HER-2 positive (Herceptin), then one for stem cell cancers on the way and so on. The problem is that this work on segmented drugs has barely started for other cancers.

Already though, scientists are seeing ‘traits’. Through their work on the genome, they observe that they will be able to do more accurate tests for what sort of cancer you have, and then be able to more accurately target a treatment, rather than throw the wrong drugs at you. They also believe they will see some people with breast, or colon, or prostate with the same background cause, and therefore the same possibility of one drug having an effect across cancers.

               2.    Cancer is rarely, if ever, caused by a single factor, anyway.  Occasionally some DIRECT factor causes your DNA to copy itself incorrectly (e.g. nuclear radiation) and you produce a full blown cancer cell. But this theory is old hat, and the likely hood rare.

Every day each of us makes about 200 pre-cancerous or rogue cells, simply through the process of living. Of course you can make matters worse by smoking or drinking excessively and so on. But in a healthy, young individual, with a fully active immune system these rogue cells are simply mopped up before they get going.

More often some direct factor stops messages from your DNA being sent out correctly, or at all. This is a bigger problem for the body, as it can result in deficiencies of essential enzymes or proteins and then things can go very wrong.

This is then all compounded if your immune system is weak. The fact is more often than not, a cancer is the result of an INDIRECT effect weakening the immune system and allowing a rogue cell through the defences, or the natural order to be incapacitated and unable to repair itself.

 Again, this is why at CANCERactive, we don’t just stop at looking at known ‘carcinogens’ as ‘causes’. We look at the factors that might seriously compromise your immune system and allow a rogue cell to take hold – For example, lack of sleep and lowered melatonin production.

                     3. Next, it is important to understand that cancer is a Multi-step process. Chris covers 17 in his book The Rainbow Diet (e.g. formation of a rogue cell, formation of blood vessels to tumours, the firing off of cells round the body etc etc). John Boik of MD Anderson says there are 20 stages. He has put certain foods, natural compounds and vitamins against each stage depending upon exactly what they are known to do in research. Both Chris and John believe that it is simply naive to believe that cancer can be cured by a single factor. A multi-step process demands a multi-step package of activities to defeat it.

Chris says, ‘Cancer is not a Cockroach to be trodden on, in one action. There will never be a single drug, a single vitamin, shark cartilage, whatever that can ‘cure’ a cancer. To believe so is simply naive’.

So, you need to build an effective all-embracing programme to tackle the various stages of cancer that you might have in your body. You may have 5, you may have 10, you may have 20. Obviously, if you catch a cancer early with your treatment programme you may ‘get away with’ a lesser package of activities. But to be safe, you need to assume the worse and to tackle them all.

                           4.  Finally, it is important to understand too that cancer is a disease – a weakening – of the whole body – it merely manifests itself in a certain area. For example, in cancer patients a blood sample usually shows signs of lowered oxygen (cancer cells thrive when oxygen levels fall. In fact, oxygen can kill cancer cells) and lowered levels of white cells (immune cells). Having an operation to cut out a cancerous lump does not remove the process of cancer and US research with colon cancer has recently proven this previously controversial theory to be true.

Thoroughness and cutting out the options is key to increasing survival. Some American experts believe that by building an Integrated Treatment Programme in this way, you can

increase your personal odds of survival by 60 per cent. Chris thinks more. ‘We have had people who had a parasite, people who had played with mercury when children, people who were living next to phone masts, people who just ate terribly, and they are all ‘survivors’ now, despite only being given a few months to live several years ago. It’s hard work but, after all, it is your life we are talking about!’ 

In total, you need to think about the possible ‘drivers’ of your cancer and do things to clean up and ‘refresh’ your whole body, nourishing it boosting your immune system and getting oxygen and energy back where it really matters.

B) THE Active8 PLAN

 1 CUTTING OUT THE DRIVERS

The odd thing is that most UK cancer charities have web sites that present little scientific information on causes. Yet the knowledge and information exists – sadly, you need to look abroad. So for Kidney cancer you will find that pain-killers, heavy metals like mercury and cadmium and certain chemicals like pesticides are implicated, not just ‘smoking’. For lung cancer, the traditional theory that you smoke so it’s your own fault is rapidly falling aside. Recent research from Canada showed that only one third of lung cancer patients had been near a cigarette, directly or indirectly, with growth, unexpectedly, coming in the younger female group. Oestrogen, especially synthetic oestrogens (you can get these from white can liners, nail polishes, perfumed products, plastic bottles etc) were implicated. But then Radon gas, diesel fumes, asbestos, formaldehyde and other particulate compounds are also known causes.

If you go to Your Cancer on the CANCERactive web site, in the overview sections you will always find a list of factors known to increase risk.

There is nothing to stop you resolving to cut smoking and excess alcohol out of your life, evaluate your use of pain-killers, antibiotics or even prescription drugs, move away from the electricity pylons, start using toxin free products, or go ‘organic’ today. This is all about creating ‘a new you’.

2 CLEANING UP YOUR LIVER AND BOOSTING YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM

i) Your Immune system and your liver

The liver is the largest detox organ in the body. Normally it is cleaning the blood, helping with fat and carbohydrate metabolism, clearing out dodgy bacteria and other unwanted microorganisms etc. But in cancer it always becomes Toxic – it fills with dead cells, fats and lactic acid (the by-product of a cancer cell’s energy production system). And then it has to cope with the poisons from the many drugs you are given!!

The fats and lactic acid can also collect around dead cells, bits of dead bacteria and parasites to form gallstones. 99.99 % of cancer patients have gallstones – up to 3,000 of them each the size of a grain of sand. They block the bile ducts away from the liver – and you need to unblock these if you want your liver – and your immune system – to work in tip top condition.

If the liver becomes ‘blocked’ you will create a ‘log-jam’ further debilitating the whole immune system all over the body. There is a very good LIVER FLUSH/detox using Epsom Salts, olive oil and a fruit juice like grapefruit; you should think seriously about using it. This can clean out all the gallstones and help to ‘unblock’ your whole immune system. I’m told (never having done it myself!!!) that it is well worth doing, and I really think you should do one a month for about three months. 

It is vitally important that all cancer patients ‘Love Their Liver’. If the liver gets blocked, the immune system weakens further, and it is harder to beat the cancer.

ii) Gerson

We are not advocating Gerson over any other Therapy here, just explaining the sort of things you need to think about in order to clean up your body.

The Gerson Therapy aims to use extreme dietary methods (an exclusive diet of organic fruits and vegetables in whole or juiced form) to restore the natural balance of the body. Michael Gearin-Tosh, the Oxford Don, used it to beat his MM. He started in the mid 90’s when there was little on offer in orthodox medicine that could do more than prolong a life by 18 months or so Beata Bishop beat her Melanoma in the same way. You can read their stories under Living Proof on our web site. The diet therapy aims to restore the natural balance of a cell by flooding it with potassium and magnesium rich foods. Thus it aims to get the power stations working normally again and they are the things that go wrong in a cancer.

It would also, by accident rather than design, help to kill off yeasts, neutralise the effects of parasites, increase mineral levels, help sleeping patterns etc etc

The Gerson Therapy also aims to detox you in its use of only organic foods, and the use of coffee enemas to help the liver discharge its toxins.  Coffee taken orally is a toxin, but when administered in the form of an enema, it dilates the bile ducts and helps discharge more bile and therefore more toxins into the alimentary canal. So they think it is important too.

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LIVER FLUSH

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 very big grapefruit – providing 3/4 cup of juice

4 tablespoons of Epsom Salts

3 Cups of water

Ornithine tablets

Preparation

Set aside 3 days of your life – although all reports so far are that the effects only last one morning

Day 1

Eat a no-fat breakfast and lunch

Eat and drink nothing after 2 pm

Mix the Epsom Salts in warm water then cool

6.00 pm drink a quarter of this Epsom Salts solution

8.00 pm drink a further quarter

10.00 Drink the juice/oil mixture through a straw before 10.15

Take 4 ornithine tablets to help you sleep

Retire immediately and massage your stomach gently

Sleep

Day 2

Upon waking but not before 7.00 am – take the third quarter of the Epsom Salts mix. Two hours later take the last quarter

Expect diarrhoea – many people report small green particles – these are gallstones – you can have up to 3,000 ‘grains of sand’ sized gallstones if you have cancer.

You can repeat every two weeks – this flush was devised by Dr William Kelley as part of his cancer treatment in the USA.

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iii) Strengthening the liver

Boldo tea, dandelion and artichoke will all help increase bile flow and remove toxins

Milk Thistle, and soya lecithin will help de-fat and strengthen your liver, as will the proper intake of magnesium (It is the basis of Epsom Salts).

Vitamin K: This vitamin has a miniscule RDA set at about 65 micrograms to aid blood clotting - Researchers at Washington and Tokyo Universities have shown it helps reduce the effects of cancer in the liver and in 6 cases out of 30, to stop it completely. Vitamin K is found in ‘greens’.  The problem is that the vitamin needs beneficial bacteria in your intestine to release it from your greens. Any chemo drugs will have killed most of those off. The alternative is to so supplement with vitamin K (5 times the RDA is the level being used in research – although it has been found to be safe up to 500 times RDA). And, eat your greens with lots of beneficial bacteria supplements.

iv) Detoxification

By detoxification, I do not mean those liquid herbal mixes you get from chemist stores. I mean natural compounds that have been shown in quality research to bind to toxins and help remove them from the body.

 1) Chlorella, selenium, beneficial bacteria and lignans

Without going into all the detail, Selenium is known to help displace heavy metals from cells. Zinc can do much the same with the prostate (the prostate is a known store of zinc in men, and heavy metals like cadmium have been associated with the disease).

There is research that Chlorella (which is a natural green algae food) can also bind to heavy metals and toxins.

Clinical trials have shown that certain strains of beneficial bacteria can bind with chlorella and plant lignans (in whole plant foods) and then to oestrogenic, nitrosamine and heavy metal toxins to remove them from the body – this includes chemical toxins.

2) Indole 3 Carbinol (I3C)

This natural compound can also prevent the action of certain chemical toxins, and even dangerous dioxins, on cells in the body – I3C is found in greens and broccoli. Hoechst are trying to patent I3C right now – it is so good at doing this. It can prevent the action of the aggressive form of oestrogen, oestradiol, and also denature it – in the USA it has been described as ‘better than Tamoxifen’.

v) Rebooting your immune system

Drugs, and surgery and antibiotics can deplete your energy, your white cells, the red cells and the intestinal beneficial bacteria. All cancer patients need to take action in this area. You can, of course, take the usual antioxidant vitamins like C, and E but research shows these only really effective if all natural and complete (i.e. vitamin C as, say, rose hip powder, or vitamin E containing all 4 tocopherols and all 4 tocotrienolsin a natural form.

But a better way of boosting your immune system according to American research from MD Anderson and others (including clinical trials) is to use natural compounds such as resveratrol, turmeric (curcumin) and grape seed extract.

Probably best of all are herbs at doing this. In particular Cat’s Claw, and Essiac (a herbal mix). Echinacea (but only take it for 6 -8 weeks as it thins the blood) is also very potent. All prompt more T-, B- lymphocytes, NK cells etc. However, one herb Chris believes strongly in is Astragalus, which has been shown at the MD Anderson Centre in Texas to be an excellent helper in the cancer fight by boosting the white cells significantly and at the same time ‘sticking’ to the rogue cells so that the immune cells can ‘identify’ them better – often cancer cells hide from the immune system. MD Anderson have stated that it can double survival times.

Finally if lack of sleep, or irregular sleeping habits due to night shift work, or just excessive late nights are a concern, you could benefit from Melatonin supplementation. This antioxidant is also a hormone which balances both oestrogen and Insulin like Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1). Both these last two hormones are implicated in cancer and IARC, the International Cancer Agency is considering dubbing lack of sleep ‘carcinogenic’. If it does that it will have to do the same for Electrical Magnetic Frequencies (EMF’s) as certain of them also deplete Melatonin levels too. The good news is you can supplement, by getting personal supplies of the hormone Melatonin from America, or asking your Doctor for it. Or taking Asphalia a natural plant substance which does the same job according to research.

3 PARASITES

You wouldn’t have a parasite, would you?

Cancer Research UK have stated that 15 – 20 per cent of cancers might be caused by viruses. Viruses are parasites and as such drain the body of nourishment, whilst simultaneously weakening your cells and immune system. Some parasites even produce carcinogenic by-products, for example Aflatoxin B.

Parasites do not have to be three feet long. Microscopic parasites come in the water system in some parts of the world. You can also get them from sushi or unwashed fruit, or kissing. The problem is that medical tests often don’t pick them up as you have to specify the parasite to be looked for. (Vega testing is a bit more reliable).

Viruses are linked to a number of cancers from cervical to liver.

Then bacteria like Helicobacter pylori are linked to stomach cancer and acid reflux which lies behind some oesophageal cancers.

But the most common UK parasite is an excess of Candida Albicans (to women that is thrush and cystitis; to men, yellow toe nails and bloating/wind). Towards the end of her life Chris sent his daughter for extensive blood tests. They showed a serious fungi infection in the brain. The American medical journal ‘Contemporay Oncology’ in 1993 stated that people with cancer having chemotherapy did not die from these cancers ‘but finally succumbed to an infestation of candida albicans (common yeasts). Our Western lives of antibiotics and drugs kill the good bacteria that should eat them up in our bodies every night. We don’t eat garlic, or chillis, or cinnamon that can kill them. We’ve stopped eating wild honey or herbs such as oregano. And once in the blood stream yeasts change to fungi that produce an alcohol type by-product and can reduce the oxygen around cells.

75 per cent of Western adults have excessive yeasts. Still think you don’t have a parasite?

But goldenseal will kill Helicobacter pylori, Wormwood will help kill most parasites, along with herbs such as slippery elm (try Neways’ Parafree) and Pau D’arco, cinnamon, caprylic acid and garlic will take care of yeasts (try anti-candi from Holland and Barratt). All should be topped up with a multistrain Robotic (try Neways Advanced Probiotic, or Prebio 7 from Lloyds the Chemist). A good immune system will keep almost all parasites, including viruses, at bay.

And a strict no-alcohol, no-sugar, no-cows’ dairy diet is essential.

4 BUILDING A DIETARY PROGRAMME

You may think of going ‘organic’. But not everything needs to be organic – some foods are sprayed more while others actually retain more pesticides than others, so not everything needs to be expensive! For more on this see my book ‘Rainbow Diet’

• 12 most contaminated – apples red peppers, celery, cherries, nectarines, peaches, pears, potatoes, spinach, strawberries
• 12 least – asparagus, avocados, bananas, broccoli, cauliflower, kiwi, mangoes, onions, papaya, pineapples, peas, sweetcorn.

  But the main guidelines are:

• Increase your potassium and magnesium levels whilst decreasing your intake of sodium (salt).
• Reduce your intake of fats and proteins and greatly increase levels of vegetables and fruits.
• Eat 5/6 small meals a day, not one or two big ones.
• Everything fresh (no processed/prepacked foods), whole foods, never put carbohydrates and protein on the same plate, never microwave just steam, grill, lightly boil or eat raw.
• Also avoid sugar, caffeine, refined carbohydrates AND all COWS’ DAIRY.

1. Avoid salt/sodium (hidden in a variety of processed and prepared foods). So no dried meats, soya sauce, Chinese food, tinned food, sausages, bacon, crisps/peanuts, processed foods, prepared meals, white bread, packet breakfast cereals). 
2. Cut out sugar/glucose and white refined rubbish. Eat whole grains and low glycaemic index foods. Plenty of fresh vegetables. And two helpings of fruit – but only on a two-hour empty stomach (e.g. First thing in the morning).
3. Eat lots of oily fish, use garlic (fresh) and ginger; and sip (never just drink it) aloe vera (contains salicylin as in aspirin) first thing in the morning. All calm potential inflammation, a precursor to many cancers.
4. Increase your polysaccharide/glycoprotein intake. (There have been 4 Nobel Prizes on ‘glycoproteins’ in the last 10 years).   Drink Aloe Vera or Noni juice and simply eat more apples, pears, onions, garlic, whole oats, whole brown rice, curcumin/turmeric and Japanese medicinal mushrooms.
5. Boost potassium, magnesium and calcium foods. (e.g. green vegetables, fresh nuts, pulses like lentils and chick peas (hummus), bananas, green leaves, whole grains, brown whole rice, apricots (dried or fresh), jacket potatoes But NOT microwaved.
6. Eat more ‘greens’ – supplement with vitamin K and Indole 3 Carbinol if you cannot eat good amounts, or cannot process them as chemo has killed off your beneficial bacteria.
7. Avoid dairy completely. The Karolinska Institute amongst others has epidemiology studies on the links between cows’ milk consumption and heightened cancer risk. Try a little soya milk, or rice milk
8. Increase your consumption pulses like lentils, chick peas, kidney beans.
9. Many people advise people with cancer to cut down on or cut out all red meat*.
10. No glucose – no fizzy soft drinks, chocolate. And temporarily no alcohol.
11. Drink 4 cups of green tea per day – there is clear research on the benefits with cancer.
12. Drink clean water - glass bottled water from mountains/natural sources.

* NB.  Basically most experts in the UK recommend cutting red meat from the diet because they ‘look East’ at the Chinese etc and see low levels of cancer. But it is well documented that there are at least 4 biochemical ‘types’ of human and that some of these may thrive on meat. Yes, it is also true, however, that these types are in the minority in the West. See The Rainbow Diet – and how it can help you beat cancer’ for more details.

5 SUPPLEMENTS

We believe in taking NATURAL supplements not synthetic ones whenever possible.

a) To Reboot your immune system – and cut out possible yeasts/parasites

• Take Astragalus, Essiac, Echinacea, Cat’s Claw for 6-8 weeks
• Take a range of probiotic strains – e.g. Prebiota 7 from Lloyd’s pharmacies or  Neways advanced probiotic, acidophilus/bifidus – you need at least 6-10 strains covering bifidobacteria, L.casei, L. shirota, L.immunitas at least, and about 8 billion in total
• Take a course of Neways parafree, plus wormwood
• Take a course of Anti-Candi (from Holland and Barratt) including cinnamon and oregano

b) Next take the things that will clean your body (and liver) up

• Chlorella; and selenium (200 micrograms)
• Milk thistle, dandelion, soya lecithin
• Magnesium
• Try the liver flush outlined above.

 c) Take the best anti-cancer agents

• Indole 3 carbinol, vitamin D3, long-chain omega 3 (i.e. Fish oils), vitamin K, complete/total vitamin E (alpha, beta, gamma and delta tocopherol and tocotrienol varieties), resveratrol, grape seed extract, curcumin.
• General quality vitamin and mineral supplement (minerals especially important).
• Zinc (15mgs). And natural vitamin C with bioflavonoids – 2 gms. (4x 500 mgs across day)
• Coenzyme Q10 – 50 mgs per day max (no added effect over this level, and it takes 3 months to establish a benefit)
• Melatonin – synthetic from the US . Take no more than 3-6 mgs per day. Or natural Asphalia.
• Take pancreatic enzymes e.g. trypsin and chymotrypsin.

This may seem a lot of pills – Catherine took 23 a day. In the USA the top man at helping people beat cancer, with diet therapies tailored to their biochemistry and cancer condition, is Dr Nicholas Gonzalez in New York and he has people taking 130 per day. He does have clinical trials to verify his approach and does outperform the orthodox alternative treatment.

6 EXERCISE

People who take exercise get less cancers. And cancer patients who take exercise survive longer (Bristol University/CRUK). In May 2006 a major US medical journal - Integrative Cancer Therapies - showed that breast cancer patients taking 30 minutes light exercise EACH day, had 50 per cent less mortality. These results and conclusions have recently been repeated by several universities and cancer centres.

It is really important that people with cancer try to achieve two simple things via exercise

                            1 To move their lymph every morning – The lymph is twice the volume of blood in the body. Its job is to clear away toxins from cells. At night when you sleep, your lymph stops movement too. In the morning there is only one way to get it flowing and expel these toxins – you need to move it. The biggest area of lymph is the Thoracic duct, across your chest – so simple stretching is no bad way to start the day. Yoga, a swim or Tai chi would be better. Very deep breathing exercises will help too. Deep breathing is a part of Chinese cancer therapy.

                               2 To get more anti-cancer oxygen into the blood system – Oxygen is the enemy of the cancer cell. People who smoke, or are depressed for example, have lowered oxygen levels and more cancers.  People who exercise have increased oxygen levels and less depression.

People who exercise also perspire more and breathe out more thus completing the toxins travels via the lymph and blood stream to the outside world.

To repeat: ‘Exercise’ does not have to be extreme in any way. All the latest research runs counter to exercise stereotypes (e.g. the Government’s recommendation of 20 minutes three times per week). A 2006 research study from Philadelphia showed 50 per cent less mortality in the group who did 20 minutes walking every day, over the group who did none.

US research from Seattle, for example, showed huge benefits even for beginners in yoga, in terms of reducing levels of cortisol, (the stress hormone you get from your personal problems) and increasing ‘happy’ endorphins, plus moving out the toxins from the tissues.

So – can you build a varied daily programme? Some days speed walking, some days yoga, some days swimming, or pilates? Why not learn something new? Meet new friends and have fun.

7 BODY ENERGY

The subject of Body Energy sends extremist UK Medical Experts into fits of apoplexy shouting ‘quackery’ but it really shouldn’t any more.

NASA has shown conclusively that each of us is surrounded by ‘body energy’ which moves inwards to strengthen our internal organs. When people have an illness – such as cancer – almost certainly their body energy is low or missing in that part of their body.

As a result acupuncture has been approved for general usage in the USA, and even in the NHS. In November and December 2008 we reported on clinical trials on acupuncture – in one case it beat the drug prescribed for nausea in cancer patients.

Then there’s yoga, which is increasingly well studied by Universities in North America. A gentle form of yoga with meditation is excellent for developing posture, allowing a proper energy flow around the body and leading to meditation which can add to the calming effects. There are even clinical trials on the benefits of meditation too, especially prior to surgery as it reduces blood loss.

The National Cancer Institute in the USA has over 30 pages on ‘Energy Therapies’ on its web site.

People with illnesses must restore the balance of their body energy and try to remove blockages of flow. Generally we would add three considerations:

1) Diagnosis: For example: Kirlian ‘photos’ can be very analytical. Iridology can also be very helpful at identifying problems. Reflexology is very relaxing and can also be used to identify problems if the practitioner is any good.

2) Energy rebalancing: Ways to start rebuilding your body energy include acupuncture, or cranial osteopathy Reiki and kineisiology are two others. Always work with a Reiki Master, and in all cases work with someone who is experienced in cancer, ideally your cancer.

3) Relaxation techniques can balance your energy too. A hands-on-healer can be extremely helpful; they can be very inspiring. Aromatherapy, and massage can also help.

Try to follow your own programme that you are happiest with and can stick to We have a complete ‘kiddies guide’ to all these therapies on our web site – under Therapies - Complementary and Alternative. We don’t advise on Therapists (places that CANCERactive works with such as the Breast Cancer Haven do actually have their own).

8 MENTAL STATE

A person’s mind is a big factor in illness – far more than your doctors can even begin to understand. Go to our web site and read ‘The Fourth Pillar of Cancer’ under ‘Treatments’ and you will understand.  

1) Many of the Therapies listed on our web site in our ‘kiddies guide’ have no Clinical Trials to support them, nor even a research study. Just a lot of people who enjoyed their course of ‘Indian Head Massage’ or ‘Reflexology’.

And who is to say that enjoying something, reducing your stress of cancer, reducing the physical side effects of nausea and the like, or just generally improving your quality of life is not a benefit. After all, how are you really ever going to quantify ‘improved quality of life’. Sometimes people who have lost a loved one years before simply like to be touched – Hands on Healing is calming, reassuring and may well have supportatitive body energy affects. When scientists try to do research some shout ‘placebo’ effect – this is science speak for ‘It’s all in your mind’. To which we say ‘good; be happy; enjoy’.

A couple of years back one American hospital monitored all the cancer patients on admission and found that ‘those with a God’ (not merely those who ticked the religion box) lived on average Up to SEVEN times longer, than expected. How are you ever going to conduct scientific research on that?

2) People who get cancer are often the nicest people; but they rush round trying to fit everything in, trying to please everyone else. Of course they can’t.  Someone always criticises.  Someone is always dis-satisfied.  You can’t please all the people all the time – you put yourself last when sometimes you need to put yourself first.

Cancer patients often ‘serve’ other people – they allow others to take their energy.

Cancer patients often get frustrated or feel guilty. They don’t make time for themselves; to eat properly, relax, to do exercise regularly, or rebuild their energy. They often end up frustrated in their jobs because they don’t like to criticise or complain.

Cancer patients often internalise more and more, and don’t have anyone to get things ‘off their chest to’ or even to shout at – because they don’t shout!

Does any of this sound familiar?

The most importing thing a cancer [patient can do is to realise that they are not addressing a cancer and its effects. They are trying to mend a life – their whole life.

Take a check on yourself. How important are you to yourself, to your young kids. Enjoy what God has given you. Then ask yourself what you do for fun? What makes you laugh out loud? Do you go to shows. cinema, sports events? Do you play the sports you used to? Do you get to the mountains, and out in the fresh air?

3) Then try this: Clear your brain – cut all the negative things from your life and focus on the positive, simple things you enjoy most. Do not put up with anybody who criticises you, tries to put you down, inhibits you or makes you feel guilty. It really is time to make a few decisions – to work out who and what are the ‘forces of light’ and who/what are the ‘forces of darkness’. Take time for yourself. Decide what is important and what isn’t. You must be at least aware that you should not just push yourself back into the old, pre-cancer routine

4) Get a piece of paper – list 3-5 things that cause you grief, people/things/events on the left. Then list 3-5 things that you really love doing on the right – things that make you laugh, that ‘reward’ you’, that nourish your soul. At the bottom in a box write down three things you want to do with your life before you die. Put the piece of paper on the fridge door – start cutting out the things on the left – doing the things on the right and planning to do the things in the box.

Many people with cancer say to me that it has made them realise what is important in their life. Don’t accept shit from anyone – people or things – don’t do things that make you feel unhappy, or where you compromise your beliefs. Walk away if you have to.

IN SUMMARY

No one said beating cancer was easy. It built up in your body over a number of years, so why would you expect to clear it out of your body in less?

But you can do it. You don’t just have to believe us. The Dana Farber Institute in the USA reported in 2007 from their research that cancer could be reversed and, even in severe cases where toxins had damaged the DNA and this damage could not be reversed, the effects of cancer and the malignancy could be nullified and managed by a planned programme.

At CANCERactive our aim is to help people beat cancer. For us that means

• Empowering people to take charge of their situation through comprehensive and easy-to-understand information.
• Urging caution where possible causes are identified; helping to reduce their effects when they are cancer ‘drivers’.
• Helping people build integrated therapy programmes to increase their personal odds of survival.

With CANCERactive you no longer need be a statistic.

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