Anti-Cancer - the book and the basics

One thing that really stands out to me is that there is serious evidence that some foodstuffs are as potent in stemming cancer growth as the most expensive and newest of the chemotherapies we get offered ..

BUT the big drug companies will not waste time doing the double-bind tests on humans to prove it, cos there is no profit in it .. so you can choose to accept the national patterns and experiments on mice as proof enough, and take on board his advice, or not ..

One thing for sure, there is nothing odd or unnatural, or even very expensive about what he recommends, like drinking green tea, eating turmeric and other foods like raspberries and cabbage. It certainly will not do me any harm.

MORE of Dr S-'s underlying principles

Anti-cancer a new way of life, Dr David Servan Schreiber
Something about the way of life in the West in recent years has facilitated a rise in cancers which can be called an epidemic.

Studies of various sorts concur that genetics contributes no more 15% to mortalities from cancer, we have to be less fatalistic about it, and learn to protect ourselves by making adjustments to our way of life.

Dr S-S does not say do not use medical remedies, he says ADD the learning in this book to the medical model to enhance the benefits of those treatments. He’s not a quack and he is not trying to sell us more than the book I’ve already bought!

You have to mobilise your body’s vital functions to fight the disease in all three of these dimensions: food, environment and brain.
Cancer … what makes it?
The first part of the book presents a new view of the mechanisms of cancer. He focuses on three key factors for the speed or delay of tumour growth which can be affected by diet.
1. the role of the immune system
2. the inflammatory mechanisms underlying the growth of tumours.
3. blocking tumour growth by preventing them from establishing their own blood supply.

The first step, using diet to tackle cancer, works on all three of these aspects.
In addition we need to look to:
· our environment and limiting our exposure to the carcinogens in our daily lives,
· the brain - psychology that can promote or restrain the biology of cancer growth.

Cancer Cells – three levels of deviance!
1. Cancer cells lose the obligation to DIE after a certain number of divisions … so they can proliferate.
2. They also secrete poison which inflames the surrounding tissues and stimulates the tumour’s expansion.
3. They requisition new blood cells to fuel their expansion (angiogensis)

These are the tumour’s three main methods of expansion. Defeating tumours needs to work on all three levels.
1. By mobilising the immune system to kill off the rogue cells
2. Using anti-inflamtories to stem expansion
3. Stopping the angiogenesis, so that blood vessels cannot expand to fuel the new tumour.

What feeds cancer?
page 75
Three major factors have disrupted our environment since WWII

· The addition of large quantities of highly refined sugar to our diet.
· Changes in the methods of rearing animals for food,
· Exposure to a large number of chemical products that didn’t exist pre 1940.

These are not minor changes and they are all implicated in the cancer epidemic. In pure science terms there is not “proof” but there is enough strong suggestion for those of us who want to care for our own health to take these links seriously.

What’s wrong the with Western diet?
Surveys show that today’s western diet gets 56% of its calories from three sources which were non-existant when our genes were developing:
· refined sugars
· bleached flour
· veg oils and trans fats.


These three, making up over ½ our intake, offer NO protein, vitamins, minerals or omega-3 fatty acids which we need to keep our bodies functioning. Just “fuel” and not very good fuel at that!

This is very important for the cancer-prevention plan. Otto Warburg (Nobel prize winning biologist) discovered that the metabolism of malignant tumours is largely dependent on glucose consumption. When we eat refined sugar / white flour etc – food with a HIGH glycemic index – blood levels of glucose rise rapidly. The body immediately releases insulin to enable the glucose to enter cells. The secretion of insulin is accompanied by IGF molecules, an insulin like growth factor whose role is to stimulate cell growth. In short sugar makes cells grow faster and both insulin and IGF promote inflammation which also stimulates growth, fertilizer for tumours.

Peaks of insulin and secretion of IGF stimulate cancer cell growth AND their capacity to invade neighbouring tissues. In mice it’s found that chemotherapy is less effective when insulin has been secreted.

A central plank of anyone’s anti-cancer diet has to be cutting back on refined sugar and wheat to reduce the amount of insulin and IGF in their blood. Diabetics are known to be at above-average risk for cancer, and all the scientific literature points in the same direction:
An anti-cancer diet is a LOW G-I diet.

I added this link just cos it looks interesting and along the lines I am following .. so I will save it look at in more detail later!
x

www.whfoods.com/

Yes, mum, I would say your basic diet is already pretty strong on anti-cancer elements, especially as you always cook from scratch and use a lot of fresh veg every day. It is probably a matter of tweaking a few things to add in a bit more of certain ones and cut out a few more of the dodgy things, that is all !

I understand your sense of being overwhelmed, mum. Though I am not sure if you are talking about reading it a couple of years ago or since you got ill yourself.

Your own cancer journey has been so quick, from diagnosis to remission you have been swept along, and it is actually quite normal for people to feel overwhelmed when their treatment is over. There is a kind of lull where you can let the fear seep in ... but really, there is no point now in dwelling on other scenarios that might have been worse.

Remember you can talk to me about it whenever you need to ...

It sometimes seems a bit weird to talk about any part of having cancer as "lucky" but you were "very lucky" that your treatment was so fast and that it had not spread at all. It is also "lucky" that you do no need to have any chemotherapy, apart from what you can take daily in your food.

In actual fact you have dealt with cancer remarkably well. It did not overwhelm you at the time, when you had to deal with it. You did not go into a big depression, you tackled it with amazing energy and resilience ...... you even went into your surgery SINGING a song on the way down to theatre, which has to be a first for positive attitudes!

Most of all, we both need to hold on to any good news that we have, and since both of us are in remission at the moment that seems like a good focus!

Hats off to you mum, lots of people who followed your story through my account on the Beating Bowel Cancer site have said I must get my strong attitudes from you, and I think they are right!




Love you lots

Suze

Hi Suze :-)

I just wanted to say a big thank you for all your help, it's most appreciated. I ordered the book for my daughter and it will be delivered tomorrow, ah the joys of on-line shopping :-) The information on your forum is very helpful too.

Best wishes
Roger