Nearly half of all Americans will be diagnosed with cancer during their lifetime [1]. On top of that, we all have a 21% chance of dying from cancer [2]. These are scary figures. But if you are part of the lucky half without cancer (yet), here are nine natural tips to prevent it in the future.
How to Prevent Cancer
One of my favorite phrases is ?the best defense is no offense.? I strongly believe in doing everything we can to promote good health instead of waiting to fight the bad health. There are two basic principles needed to boost health: give the body what it needs and help it discard what it doesn?t need. Get rid of the bad stuff, take in the good stuff.
The first step must be to rid the body of what is hindering its good health. Detoxification is key in this, as you can clean out the body to remove or reduce any ?bad stuff.? However, if you truly want to get rid of something, the most important idea to do is to stop exposure. For example, Betty hoards garbage in her apartment. In order to stop the habit, Betty needs to first stop hoarding. Only then can she focus on removing the garbage. Or if a person has mercury poisoning, the first thing they need to do is to stop eating tuna. Otherwise any sort of detoxification is useless?the poison is still coming in.
1. Avoid Heavy Metals Exposure Like Lead and Mercury
Vitamin D is very important in cancer defense. Lead interferes with vitamin D metabolism. Struggling to keep vitamin D levels up is common, due to lead interfering. Lead can come from food, household materials or paint. There was an article in the New England Journal of Medicine about a man who got severe lead poisoning from drinking his coffee out of an Italian glazed mug and stirring it with an antique Russian cloisonn? spoon, both which had lead content. He had symptoms of anemia, severe abdominal pain, joint pains, abnormal liver function, nausea and shortness of breath [3]. Lucky for him, these symptoms happened before the lead was able to cause cancer.
Mercury is found in many fish. As I explained in last week?s newsletter, bioaccumulation prevents fish from being able to detoxify themselves. The more small fish a larger fish eats, the more mercury he accumulates. Unfortunately, the delicious tuna fish is one of the highest sources of mercury.
2. Stay Away From Processed Food.
Basically, anything from a box is probably not going to be good for you. Try to avoid processed meat like sausage, hot dogs or lunch meat that have sodium nitrate in them. Soda pop is going to have a plethora of chemicals that have been scientifically shown to feed cancer cells, especially if you?re drinking aspartame (the artificial sweetener in diet drinks) [4]. High fructose corn syrup, which increased in use 1000% from 1970 to 1990, helps develop pancreatic cancer [5]. It is snuck into many everyday foods, like condiments, sauces or salad dressings, dairy products, jam and pickles. When you go to the grocery store, make sure to read all of the labels. If you don?t know what an ingredient is, don?t buy it. It?s as simple as that.
3. Cut Out Gluten and Grains.
The paleo diet may be considered just ?one of those fads,? but the fact of the matter is that gluten and grains might not be good for anyone?s digestive system, whether they have celiac disease or not. Grains were not a part of our natural diet thousands of years ago, before agriculture was invented. Grains contain carbohydrates that can harm the endocrine system, create weight gain and promote yeast overgrowth. To top it off, a study published in the Cancer Epidemiology journal discovered that women who regularly consumed refined carbohydrates had a 220 percent increase in breast cancer.
Gluten, a protein found in many grains like wheat, cannot be not digested properly. It often causes inflammation in the gut, preventing the proper absorption of food, shutting down cognitive functions, and allowing toxins and bacteria to leak into the bloodstream from holes in the gut that it creates.
4. Try to Eat As Much Natural or Raw Food As Possible.
As soon as food is heated up to 114 or 115 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, the configuration of food molecules especially proteins might change and most vitamins are cooked out. Raw produce will benefit your body much more than cooked or boiled produce if your digestive system is working properly. The same goes for protein. When protein isn?t heated it has a certain structure. Our digestive enzymes depend on this structure. Cooked, the configuration is changed and we have to digest it differently. It?s like a wax sculpture of a person. In the right temperature, it may look like a perfect replica of a human. But add a little too much heat and the structure melts into nothing.
It?s best to eat organic, natural food. Buy meat that was grass fed and organic, and try finding locally grown organic produce. The US Environmental Protection Agency reports that 90 percent of fungicides, 60 percent of herbicides and 30 percent of insecticides are carcinogenic. Although the USDA claims this is safe, there is an abundance of research that says otherwise. If you can?t afford all organic food, make sure you know which conventionally grown foods will contain the most pesticides: apples, peaches, celery, grapes, spinach and bell peppers [6].
5. Get Enough Nutrients.
Vitamin D is one of the the most important nutritional factor in cancer defense. Government usually recommends 600 units a day. But of course, this should be monitored carefully by a physician?some patients take 600 units a day and their vitamin D levels are still low. In my opinion, we should be going for optimum levels, not normal levels. Our ?normal? is calculated by our sick population.
Taking turmeric supplements or adding it to food is great for a natural cancer prevention because it?s anti-inflammatory.
Fish oil is also a great tool, containing a lot of omega-3 fatty acids, which are anti-inflammatory.The bottom line is that consuming sufficient amounts of nutrients is a brilliant way to prevent cancer and other chronic ailments.
6. Find and Fix Any Infections.
It has been known for a long time that infections can cause cancer. Serious viruses like human papilloma viruses (HPV) can cause cervical cancer, Hepatitis B and C virus can cause liver cancer, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) can cause lymphoma, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can cause the immune system to crash, allowing cancer to flourish [7]. In industrialized countries, 6 out of every 100 cancer deaths was caused by an infectious agent [8].
Smaller infections might also be linked to cancer. One chronic source of infection is the sinuses. The teeth are another underrated source of infection?root canals have the potential to cause dangerous infections. Bacteria (like Helicobacter pylori) and parasites (like schistosomiasis) can also be responsible for certain cancers [8]. If you are suspicious that you may have any sort of infection, see a physician immediately.
7. If You Are Overweight, Lose Weight.
I know, I know, it may not seem as simple and easy as that. But as the American Society of Clinical Oncology puts it, ?Obesity is quickly overtaking tobacco as the leading preventable cause of cancer? [9]. Obese people are much more likely to develop and die from cancer. It is more difficult for the body to fight it off with the extra fat tissue. This is because fat tissue is linked to inflammation and this is linked to cancer [10]. That?s why it is vital to lose weight to decrease the likelihoods of getting cancer. If you?re not sure how to go about losing weight safely, make an appointment; I can help you through this difficult process to make sure everything stays healthy.
8. Sleep Like You Don?t Have Electricity.
Sleep is important in two ways?the amount you get and the hours at which you get it. In other words, sleeping from 1 am to 5 am is not going to cut it. Since our bodies do their restoration and repairs while we sleep, we need an appropriate amount of sleep in order to stay healthy. For most people, seven to eight hours a night is enough for the body to restore itself. The time you sleep matters as well because the internal clock works with a circadian cadence. We were made to go to sleep with the sun and wake up with the daylight. And as you may have read in the newsletter last week, messing with this internal clock can be directly linked to cancer.One of the best cancer prevention tips that I can bring to you is to time yourself and improving your sleeping patterns.
9. Of Course, Quit Smoking?
Nearly half a million people die every year from smoking or secondhand smoke. Another 8.6 million have to live with a serious disease that was caused by tobacco [11]. Removing this toxin is the most effective way to prevent cancer. While the process of quitting is not easy, there are now many easily accessible programs, books and sites made specifically to help.
Seek Alternative Treatment Only if You Don?t Have Cancer
Before you go, we need to discuss cancer care itself. There are basically two groups of people: those who already have cancer and those who don?t have it (and don?t want to get it in the future). The medical approaches to these two groups are totally different.
If somebody has cancer already, he or she most likely needs to use the conventional treatments. Normally, I promote any natural methods and ways to prevent cancer I can, but if someone already has cancer, it?s a time bomb. The clock is ticking. As far as I know, the only good alternative treatment option is supplementing chemotherapy drugs with Insulin Potentiation Therapy (IPT). That?s when insulin is given to open up the cancer cells and potentiate the chemo, so that the amount of drugs can be lessened significantly. But to rely solely on other alternative treatments to heal the cancer is absolutely not the right way to go.
Here?s why. When someone has cancer, his or her immune system is completely worn down. Working with natural methods, the immune system takes a long time to repair. I found this out firsthand when I was a resident after medical school. I had an average immune system and often got sick. I set a goal to get it into optimum shape. Even though my immune system wasn?t crashing (like it would be if I had cancer), it still took me nearly five years to fix it. What I?m trying to get across is that you can?t fix the immune system in one day?and a faster method is needed to beat an aggressive cancer. Cancer patients don?t have five years to spare. They may not even have five months. That?s why traditional treatments or IPT are the way to go. They can synthetically destroy the cancer cells.
When someone doesn?t have cancer, they can rely on natural methods as preventative measures. However, the conventional screening procedures must be followed. Most people think they don?t have cancer. That very well may be. But unless you are screened traditionally, you don?t know for sure. Even if everything else in your life is done naturally or alternatively, conventional screening shouldn?t be omitted.
As with all of my written advice, see a physician before taking any drastic measures by yourself. If you?re interested in preventing cancer and living as long as you can, make an appointment today. We can talk about all of your options for wellness, not illness. I strive to get to the bottom of my patients? issues so that we can find and fix the problems before they cause more damage.
1. http://seer.cancer.gov/csr/1975_2011/results_merged/topic_lifetime_risk…
2. http://seer.cancer.gov/csr/1975_2011/browse_csr.php?sectionSEL=1&pageSE…;
3. http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMx140033
4. http://www.naturalnews.com/039970_cancer_junk_food_carcinogens.html
5. http://www.cancer.ucla.edu/index.aspx?recordid=385&page=644
6. http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/list.php
7. http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/cid/documents/webcontent/002782-pdf.pd…;
8. http://www.who.int/cancer/prevention/en/
9. http://www.asco.org/practice-research/obesity-and-cancer
10. http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2013/02/01/feeling-the-heat-the…
11. http://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/resources/publications/aag/osh.htm