http://home.ezezine.com/221/221-2010.08.08.07.00.archive.html
Every Sunday morning I receive a great little blog from Freni Gurd, of Vancouver, BC. Today she wrote about toxins in beauty products and ways to avoid them.
Think about this: when you take something by mouth, the liver has the opportunity to detoxify it, but when you put it directly on your skin, it goes straight to the bloodstream without filtering. Many of today's products interfere with hormones, or behave similarly to estrogen, causing all sorts of bodily havoc.
There are better products out there, and you can even make some of your own if you wish, but first you need to be aware of what to look out for. And, by the way, take a magnifier to the store, because the ingredient lists are often miniscule.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Five
Yesterday a friend emailed after learning I'm here in Arizona for alternative cancer therapy. She mentioned the importance of stress in cancer and other modern ailments. It's true, modern stresses are the kind that stay with us, that don't go away after the tiger fails to catch us. Instead of a short-lived burst, our stresses go on and on. We meet one deadline only to be faced with the next one.
I haven't talked about this, but An Oasis of Healing is about the most stress-free place I've ever been. If the therapies weren't specifically aimed at healing, especially cancer, it would be a lot like spending time at a spa. Yesterday was typical.
My day began at 8 with yoga. Since the morning was mild, Amber, our positive, smiling, and lovely instructor, placed the mats on the shady grass so we could connect with Mother Earth a bit. We breathe and do our positions at an easy pace, and everybody is encouraged to do only what they are able. No lotus position for most of us. Amber asks each of us to set our intention for the day, perhaps healing or loving or whatever feels right. It sets the tone for a day of healing, positive energy, reflecting on the divine within, and feeling the love of God in nature around us.
After getting off to this positive start, Dr. Lodi held a class, one of an ongoing series about the human body, what makes it work, what gums up the works, and how to heal ourselves and never need to see another doctor. Hmmm, I wonder if that means I'll be able to cancel my expensive health insurance...
His focus was on the heart, and he talked about cholesterol and how most doctors see it as a sort of enemy. Yet cholesterol is made in our livers because it is required for life. It is an integral structural part of every cell in our bodies. Without it we would perish. When the body is working perfectly, cholesterol never becomes a problem. Yet doctors by the thousands prescribe Lipitor and other statin drugs to lower cholesterol without ever once questioning what is really causing the problem with clogged arteries in the first place.
He talked about how these drugs destroy Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), a substance also required for life. In Japan, he pointed out, when a doctor prescribes a cholesterol-lowering drug, he or she also prescribes CoQ10. When the levels of this coenzyme go too low, muscle breakdown occurs, and it is often irreversible. And guess what, folks? The heart is a muscle! So, while you think the drug you're taking is going to help your heart, it is actually leading to your demise.
Dr Lodi also pointed out that there is no research showing that taking these drugs lengthens life. Indeed, there is research which shows they not only do not lengthen life, but that people taking them die more often from cancer and violent deaths. Yet they are blithely prescribed by the tons to unsuspecting patients all over the Western world.
None of this was news to me, but I imagine it was to some of the other patients in the audience.
Next I went for a session with Dana, our acupuncturist, who mostly works on side effects and other issues we at the clinic may have. I've had only one side effect from the treatments. As part of the IPT, they give us a drug to fight inflammation. A side effect is waking after a few hours and being unable to go back to sleep. So Dana placed a needle or two to help with sleeping, others for the chronic itching, which I've experienced my entire life, and a few others for various odds and ends. I went peacefully off to sleep while the needles did their energetic magic.
Off next to see Kathleen, who does Structural Integration. I was wide awake for this session, which can hurt briefly, but then releases the body structure from incorrect forms it has taken on over years of bad postural and other habits. I'd never heard of this therapy before coming here, but when I described it to Dave he grew excited to tell me about 12 sessions of SOMA, a similar practice, he had had years ago. "I can show you before and after pictures!" he enthused. It's true, I could see differences in my body alignment after the first session. Everybody loves the results of this work. Structural Integration grew out of the original Rolfing, but Kathleen explained that it has evolved beyond the original work of Rolf.
That completed my morning, so I went in for my IV of vitamin C - 100 grams - which, in such high doses, kills cancer cells, but without the side effects of drugs.
Every day is like this, with many other therapies throughout the week, all designed to help us improve immune function, kill cancer cells, relax and balance our bodies, minds and spirits, grow stronger, healthier, whole.
The atmosphere at the clinic is always relaxed, positive, and kind. Every aspect is for our healing.
This morning I awoke earlier than I wished, so I simply lay in bed peacefully, reflecting on the blessings of being here, listening to desert rain on the skylight, and an occasional clap of thunder. I turned off the air conditioning and opened all the doors to refreshing outside air. The Canada geese on the little lake outside the condo were honking in joy at the cooler morning. I can't remember ever being so relaxed.
Peace and blessings to you all.
I haven't talked about this, but An Oasis of Healing is about the most stress-free place I've ever been. If the therapies weren't specifically aimed at healing, especially cancer, it would be a lot like spending time at a spa. Yesterday was typical.
My day began at 8 with yoga. Since the morning was mild, Amber, our positive, smiling, and lovely instructor, placed the mats on the shady grass so we could connect with Mother Earth a bit. We breathe and do our positions at an easy pace, and everybody is encouraged to do only what they are able. No lotus position for most of us. Amber asks each of us to set our intention for the day, perhaps healing or loving or whatever feels right. It sets the tone for a day of healing, positive energy, reflecting on the divine within, and feeling the love of God in nature around us.
After getting off to this positive start, Dr. Lodi held a class, one of an ongoing series about the human body, what makes it work, what gums up the works, and how to heal ourselves and never need to see another doctor. Hmmm, I wonder if that means I'll be able to cancel my expensive health insurance...
His focus was on the heart, and he talked about cholesterol and how most doctors see it as a sort of enemy. Yet cholesterol is made in our livers because it is required for life. It is an integral structural part of every cell in our bodies. Without it we would perish. When the body is working perfectly, cholesterol never becomes a problem. Yet doctors by the thousands prescribe Lipitor and other statin drugs to lower cholesterol without ever once questioning what is really causing the problem with clogged arteries in the first place.
He talked about how these drugs destroy Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), a substance also required for life. In Japan, he pointed out, when a doctor prescribes a cholesterol-lowering drug, he or she also prescribes CoQ10. When the levels of this coenzyme go too low, muscle breakdown occurs, and it is often irreversible. And guess what, folks? The heart is a muscle! So, while you think the drug you're taking is going to help your heart, it is actually leading to your demise.
Dr Lodi also pointed out that there is no research showing that taking these drugs lengthens life. Indeed, there is research which shows they not only do not lengthen life, but that people taking them die more often from cancer and violent deaths. Yet they are blithely prescribed by the tons to unsuspecting patients all over the Western world.
None of this was news to me, but I imagine it was to some of the other patients in the audience.
Next I went for a session with Dana, our acupuncturist, who mostly works on side effects and other issues we at the clinic may have. I've had only one side effect from the treatments. As part of the IPT, they give us a drug to fight inflammation. A side effect is waking after a few hours and being unable to go back to sleep. So Dana placed a needle or two to help with sleeping, others for the chronic itching, which I've experienced my entire life, and a few others for various odds and ends. I went peacefully off to sleep while the needles did their energetic magic.
Off next to see Kathleen, who does Structural Integration. I was wide awake for this session, which can hurt briefly, but then releases the body structure from incorrect forms it has taken on over years of bad postural and other habits. I'd never heard of this therapy before coming here, but when I described it to Dave he grew excited to tell me about 12 sessions of SOMA, a similar practice, he had had years ago. "I can show you before and after pictures!" he enthused. It's true, I could see differences in my body alignment after the first session. Everybody loves the results of this work. Structural Integration grew out of the original Rolfing, but Kathleen explained that it has evolved beyond the original work of Rolf.
That completed my morning, so I went in for my IV of vitamin C - 100 grams - which, in such high doses, kills cancer cells, but without the side effects of drugs.
Every day is like this, with many other therapies throughout the week, all designed to help us improve immune function, kill cancer cells, relax and balance our bodies, minds and spirits, grow stronger, healthier, whole.
The atmosphere at the clinic is always relaxed, positive, and kind. Every aspect is for our healing.
This morning I awoke earlier than I wished, so I simply lay in bed peacefully, reflecting on the blessings of being here, listening to desert rain on the skylight, and an occasional clap of thunder. I turned off the air conditioning and opened all the doors to refreshing outside air. The Canada geese on the little lake outside the condo were honking in joy at the cooler morning. I can't remember ever being so relaxed.
Peace and blessings to you all.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Four
The miracles I see unfolding at An Oasis of Healing are all science based and well researched. The methods simply aren't much used in the oncology world. It isn't that people get a good PET scan and blood work showing no tumor markers, then go home never to have to be concerned again about their cancer returning. What happens here goes far beyond simply doing everything possible to zap tumors.
There is solid research showing what kinds of diets, and even individual foods, promote cancer and which diets stop the body from making cancer. Every bite of food all of us eat, every drop we drink, either contributes to cancer formation and spread or helps heal us. At An Oasis, every morsel that passes our lips helps our bodies stop making cancer and promotes healing. We learn about this in classes from Dr. Lodi and from others on the staff.
Colleen, our chef, teaches us how to make healing foods delicious and appetizing in classes and demonstrations. We go home with easy recipes for the foods we've been eating. We learn where to shop and what kinds of foods to buy. At home on the weekends we practice our new knowledge and skills, preparing our own food, and during the week we are served delicious, healing meals and juices. We read books on the subject. We become totally dedicated to eating only healing foods in the future, to strengthen our immune systems, to enhance every aspect of body function, to remain well.
Yes, Dr Lodi uses chemotherapy. And yes, he does it differently, to minimize damage to the body and the immune system, while doing maximum damage to the tumors.
In standard chemotherapy the dosages are high, and the drugs travel freely throughout the body, wreaking havoc wherever they go. A small percentage of the drugs go to the cancers, but the greatest portion spreads throughout the system. Most chemotherapeutic drugs are designed to kill all rapidly growing cells, since cancer cells can grow fast. But your hair follicles also produce rapid growth, so they are killed and your hair falls out. Rapidly growing healthy cells in the mouth and throat also take a beating, and patients on chemo often suffer terribly from sores throughout the mouth and throat, making it hard for them to eat, just when the body needs all the nutrients it can get to keep going as best it can.
Blood cells can be terribly compromised, again, just when you most need them to do their jobs and aid your immunity. The immune system itself may be the worst casualty of standard chemo. The immune system is needed now more than ever to help rid the body of cancer. But instead, it becomes disabled, wiped out, unable to perform normal functions, and often opportunistic infection comes along to weaken and even kill a compromised patient.
Some manage to live through those hazards, only to suffer toxicity to the heart muscle, weakening them further when strength is most needed. Often the brain is affected, and sometimes the ensuing brain fog never lifts, even after the cancer has been dealt with as best it can be with those methods.
The differences at An Oasis of Healing are tremendous. Insulin Potentiation Therapy, or IPT, takes advantage of cancer's voracious appetite for sugar. Sugar feeds cancer. While other body cells thrive on oxygen, indeed, produce energy through oxidation, cancer grows and replicates through fermentation, and that fermentation cries out for sugar and refined starches like bread and cookies made from white flour. In fact, cancer's anatomy satisfies its sugar appetite easily, because it has 17 times as many receptors for insulin as normal body tissue, and insulin usually sucks the sugar right into the tumor. It's like feeding liver to a lion!
Cancer's bad habits make it vulnerable to low dose chemotherapy given when the blood sugar is low. So, on IPT days, we go into the clinic fasting and get a dose of insulin. The nurses carefully monitor the fall of our blood sugars and, when they are at the perfect level (definitely not a dangerous place of diabetic coma), they know the many insulin receptors on cancer cells are wide open and hungry, and they administer a dose of chemo, or a combination dose, amounting to 1/10 the standard dose. This smaller dose goes mostly to the cancer. Its' hungry cells lap up this poison, and the rest of the body is spared the toxic effects. If a patient hasn't had previous chemo at another center, they don't suffer the terrible side effects. No hair loss, nausea from poisoning the entire body, no brain fog or cardiac toxicity. The drugs are reserved primarily for the thing we are aiming at destroying: cancer cells.
Everybody is different, and every cancer is different. Some respond beautifully to one drug, while their cancers are actually fed by another. Yet most oncologists use a sort of cookbook approach, treating all of one type of cancer with drugs suggested by a manual. This doesn't allow for our innate biological individuality.
There are a very few labs in this big world that test cancer tissue and circulating blood to find out exactly which chemotherapeutic agents, or combinations of them, work best to kill an individual's cancer. The tests are expensive, but they can be life-saving when a patient isn't responding quickly enough to a drug routine.
Yesterday a patient at the clinic related his experience. His cancer is quite serious and advanced, and he was treated with chemo at home for a short while. The drug combination was killing him, and definitely not slowing down the growth of his tumors. When his doctor told him he had three weeks to live, he and his wife flew to Phoenix the next day. She pushed him in a wheelchair. Tumors on his liver pressed against his spine and the nerves to his legs, and that and his weakness made walking impossible.
At An Oasis, before being given any chemo, he received transfusions to help rebuild his compromised blood, which was weakened by both the cancer and the drugs. He was then started on an IPT routine and got some help. He's been here five weeks and can walk unaided a bit, or with a walker. He is stronger, and his spirit is very alive and strong, but his cancer wasn't responding quickly enough or sufficiently. So he had a biopsy last week to be examined by one of those rare labs, Rational Therapeutics, in Long Beach, California. The result? It turned out that one of the drugs he had been given in Canada was toxic to his tumors, but, when the second drug went into the mix, it cancelled the results of the effective drug!
Now his IPT only contains the effective drug, and his tumors should respond quickly. I'll let you know.
The third focus of treatment at An Oasis of Healing is the important rebuilding of our immune systems, to keep us strong when we go home. I've never heard of an oncologist who addressed this important function. I won't go into that now, but I will talk more about it in upcoming posts.
So for now, on a drizzly Sunday morning in Phoenix, I'll say goodbye and God bless you all.
There is solid research showing what kinds of diets, and even individual foods, promote cancer and which diets stop the body from making cancer. Every bite of food all of us eat, every drop we drink, either contributes to cancer formation and spread or helps heal us. At An Oasis, every morsel that passes our lips helps our bodies stop making cancer and promotes healing. We learn about this in classes from Dr. Lodi and from others on the staff.
Colleen, our chef, teaches us how to make healing foods delicious and appetizing in classes and demonstrations. We go home with easy recipes for the foods we've been eating. We learn where to shop and what kinds of foods to buy. At home on the weekends we practice our new knowledge and skills, preparing our own food, and during the week we are served delicious, healing meals and juices. We read books on the subject. We become totally dedicated to eating only healing foods in the future, to strengthen our immune systems, to enhance every aspect of body function, to remain well.
Yes, Dr Lodi uses chemotherapy. And yes, he does it differently, to minimize damage to the body and the immune system, while doing maximum damage to the tumors.
In standard chemotherapy the dosages are high, and the drugs travel freely throughout the body, wreaking havoc wherever they go. A small percentage of the drugs go to the cancers, but the greatest portion spreads throughout the system. Most chemotherapeutic drugs are designed to kill all rapidly growing cells, since cancer cells can grow fast. But your hair follicles also produce rapid growth, so they are killed and your hair falls out. Rapidly growing healthy cells in the mouth and throat also take a beating, and patients on chemo often suffer terribly from sores throughout the mouth and throat, making it hard for them to eat, just when the body needs all the nutrients it can get to keep going as best it can.
Blood cells can be terribly compromised, again, just when you most need them to do their jobs and aid your immunity. The immune system itself may be the worst casualty of standard chemo. The immune system is needed now more than ever to help rid the body of cancer. But instead, it becomes disabled, wiped out, unable to perform normal functions, and often opportunistic infection comes along to weaken and even kill a compromised patient.
Some manage to live through those hazards, only to suffer toxicity to the heart muscle, weakening them further when strength is most needed. Often the brain is affected, and sometimes the ensuing brain fog never lifts, even after the cancer has been dealt with as best it can be with those methods.
The differences at An Oasis of Healing are tremendous. Insulin Potentiation Therapy, or IPT, takes advantage of cancer's voracious appetite for sugar. Sugar feeds cancer. While other body cells thrive on oxygen, indeed, produce energy through oxidation, cancer grows and replicates through fermentation, and that fermentation cries out for sugar and refined starches like bread and cookies made from white flour. In fact, cancer's anatomy satisfies its sugar appetite easily, because it has 17 times as many receptors for insulin as normal body tissue, and insulin usually sucks the sugar right into the tumor. It's like feeding liver to a lion!
Cancer's bad habits make it vulnerable to low dose chemotherapy given when the blood sugar is low. So, on IPT days, we go into the clinic fasting and get a dose of insulin. The nurses carefully monitor the fall of our blood sugars and, when they are at the perfect level (definitely not a dangerous place of diabetic coma), they know the many insulin receptors on cancer cells are wide open and hungry, and they administer a dose of chemo, or a combination dose, amounting to 1/10 the standard dose. This smaller dose goes mostly to the cancer. Its' hungry cells lap up this poison, and the rest of the body is spared the toxic effects. If a patient hasn't had previous chemo at another center, they don't suffer the terrible side effects. No hair loss, nausea from poisoning the entire body, no brain fog or cardiac toxicity. The drugs are reserved primarily for the thing we are aiming at destroying: cancer cells.
Everybody is different, and every cancer is different. Some respond beautifully to one drug, while their cancers are actually fed by another. Yet most oncologists use a sort of cookbook approach, treating all of one type of cancer with drugs suggested by a manual. This doesn't allow for our innate biological individuality.
There are a very few labs in this big world that test cancer tissue and circulating blood to find out exactly which chemotherapeutic agents, or combinations of them, work best to kill an individual's cancer. The tests are expensive, but they can be life-saving when a patient isn't responding quickly enough to a drug routine.
Yesterday a patient at the clinic related his experience. His cancer is quite serious and advanced, and he was treated with chemo at home for a short while. The drug combination was killing him, and definitely not slowing down the growth of his tumors. When his doctor told him he had three weeks to live, he and his wife flew to Phoenix the next day. She pushed him in a wheelchair. Tumors on his liver pressed against his spine and the nerves to his legs, and that and his weakness made walking impossible.
At An Oasis, before being given any chemo, he received transfusions to help rebuild his compromised blood, which was weakened by both the cancer and the drugs. He was then started on an IPT routine and got some help. He's been here five weeks and can walk unaided a bit, or with a walker. He is stronger, and his spirit is very alive and strong, but his cancer wasn't responding quickly enough or sufficiently. So he had a biopsy last week to be examined by one of those rare labs, Rational Therapeutics, in Long Beach, California. The result? It turned out that one of the drugs he had been given in Canada was toxic to his tumors, but, when the second drug went into the mix, it cancelled the results of the effective drug!
Now his IPT only contains the effective drug, and his tumors should respond quickly. I'll let you know.
The third focus of treatment at An Oasis of Healing is the important rebuilding of our immune systems, to keep us strong when we go home. I've never heard of an oncologist who addressed this important function. I won't go into that now, but I will talk more about it in upcoming posts.
So for now, on a drizzly Sunday morning in Phoenix, I'll say goodbye and God bless you all.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Three
It rained in the desert yesterday afternoon and this morning. And with the rain came cooler weather, a welcome reprieve. And humidity! I've noticed far more humidity almost every day here than I ever do at home in the moss-draped regions of the country. But the clouds sped away, followed by the hot July sun, and my car once again turned into a blast furnace.
I've had great news this week. My PET scan showed the tumors in the breast and the lymph node beginning to break up and disintegrate. And it showed no cancer anywhere else in my body. Following the PET scan I received a 25 gram dose of IV vitamin C, which mitigates the damaging radiation from the scan. Did you know that one PET scan (or 10 mammograms) have the same amount of radiation as people received at Hiroshima when we dropped the atom bomb! I can't find the research at the moment, but I read recently that a large percentage of breast cancers are caused by the radiation from mammograms. When I come across that information again I'll post it. So what are you thinking now about that annual mammogram?
Today I came across a book of patient testimonials on leaving An Oasis of Healing. One struck me as especially valuable for anyone facing cancer, wanting an alternative treatment, but uncertain about what method to use in overcoming it. It was from a man who, following an accident, had damage that subsequently caused bladder cancer. He was active, athletic, fit and strong when the accident happened, and, some time later, following surgery to remove the tumors, he was weak, weary, and a very sick man. His oncologist told him he would continue to have bladder tumors and would probably need more surgery every six months or so. When he asked how to prevent this scenario, the doctor coldly told him he could cut his nuts off!
This man was an engineer and had a background in research, so he began looking for a better answer. First he read all about his type of cancer, what caused it, what promoted it, how it spread, and what alternative therapies helped it. Then he went searching for doctors who used those therapies that had a track record of success. After a thorough search he found An Oasis of Healing and Dr. Lodi. He said it was the only clinic he had found that used all the therapies proven to be successful in healing cancer. He came here, stayed a few weeks, and went home cancer free. And, even better, he learned how to stop making cancer through diet. He went home to resume life, not to await a series of surgeries and eventually a younger than necessary demise as the cancer would have spread to the stomach and beyond.
I want to tell the world about people like this man and others. Cancer is epidemic and it is both preventable and curable, but the methods most doctors use too often fail the patient, or even kill the patient. It is a travesty that successful, proven, nontoxic methods of healing cancer are never used, indeed, are little known about, by the vast majority of oncologists. If there is ever going to be change, it must come from the demands of people who know there are alternatives that work. Believe me, change won't come from the lucrative cancer industry.
I've had great news this week. My PET scan showed the tumors in the breast and the lymph node beginning to break up and disintegrate. And it showed no cancer anywhere else in my body. Following the PET scan I received a 25 gram dose of IV vitamin C, which mitigates the damaging radiation from the scan. Did you know that one PET scan (or 10 mammograms) have the same amount of radiation as people received at Hiroshima when we dropped the atom bomb! I can't find the research at the moment, but I read recently that a large percentage of breast cancers are caused by the radiation from mammograms. When I come across that information again I'll post it. So what are you thinking now about that annual mammogram?
Today I came across a book of patient testimonials on leaving An Oasis of Healing. One struck me as especially valuable for anyone facing cancer, wanting an alternative treatment, but uncertain about what method to use in overcoming it. It was from a man who, following an accident, had damage that subsequently caused bladder cancer. He was active, athletic, fit and strong when the accident happened, and, some time later, following surgery to remove the tumors, he was weak, weary, and a very sick man. His oncologist told him he would continue to have bladder tumors and would probably need more surgery every six months or so. When he asked how to prevent this scenario, the doctor coldly told him he could cut his nuts off!
This man was an engineer and had a background in research, so he began looking for a better answer. First he read all about his type of cancer, what caused it, what promoted it, how it spread, and what alternative therapies helped it. Then he went searching for doctors who used those therapies that had a track record of success. After a thorough search he found An Oasis of Healing and Dr. Lodi. He said it was the only clinic he had found that used all the therapies proven to be successful in healing cancer. He came here, stayed a few weeks, and went home cancer free. And, even better, he learned how to stop making cancer through diet. He went home to resume life, not to await a series of surgeries and eventually a younger than necessary demise as the cancer would have spread to the stomach and beyond.
I want to tell the world about people like this man and others. Cancer is epidemic and it is both preventable and curable, but the methods most doctors use too often fail the patient, or even kill the patient. It is a travesty that successful, proven, nontoxic methods of healing cancer are never used, indeed, are little known about, by the vast majority of oncologists. If there is ever going to be change, it must come from the demands of people who know there are alternatives that work. Believe me, change won't come from the lucrative cancer industry.
Two
Doing Cancer Differently
An Oasis of Healing is an amazing place. It is simply crawling with Canadians, who can’t find an alternative like this at home, apparently. The two toughest cases are from Toronto, and family members have been shuttling back and forth, staying a week or so, then going home and someone else coming. These are people who really do need someone here to help them. Yet, they are strong in spirit and they know this is the best chance they have – certainly better than the death sentence given them by their own doctors back home.
Abba, a Lebanese Canadian, is tiny, gentle, strong and accepting of what is, or whatever will come. She told me, “It is all good. Whatever happens, it is all good.” Her husband, four daughters, and her mom and dad have been with her this week. The daughters are little clones of her, especially the oldest, who is 19. The youngest is only six. All have wildly curly black hair and an exotic beauty. She wears a scarf, not because she lost her hair, but because she is Muslim. She sits with her legs curled under her 82 pound body, seemingly at peace. They discovered a tumor on her pancreas when she went in for surgery to correct what they thought was a hernia.
Her dad and daughters come to the early morning yoga class. When we did an exercise called Stirring the Pot, Dad, who grew up in a village in the old country, was reminded of binding and tying wheat sheaves with a hand-operated machine when he was a boy. And, of course, they cut the wheat by hand, using a scythe. They didn’t have a lot of cancer in his village, where everybody grew their own food and ate it fresh, and nobody sprayed poisons on their crops and gardens. And of course, they worked hard in the sunshine to earn their dinner, while making lots of vitamin D – an important cancer preventive.
Another Canadian, Martie, lives far to the north in British Columbia, in the small town of Ft Nelson, where she works as a bookkeeper in an oil-driven economy. She had a bit of chemo at home after they told her she was terminal. She is having a tougher time than some, because of the toxicity of the drugs, and her hair is slowly coming back in. Still, she remains cheerful and positive, and is improving, with a couple of glitches that will go away. She can’t wait to get away from the Arizona heat. There’s nothing like it in Ft Nelson, BC.
Being here with such people, so much sicker than me, is a humbling experience as I watch them and listen to their positive comments and see them accepting what comes, giving their bodies the best chance possible to cure their cancers. After all, the only real cure for cancer is a strong immune system, and everything they are doing is aimed at strengthening theirs. It is rewarding to see incremental improvements, to share the joy of a good blood test or positive PET scan.
The most exciting news came late today, when Recita finally had her appointment with Dr. Lodi and found her PET scan came back clear of cancer. Recita grew up in Argentina, but moved to Houston as a young woman, married there and has lived there ever since. She, too, is tiny, slim, and has a lively, spicy Latin personality and heavy accent. She feels her highs and lows strongly, and she was positively beaming when she came to tell us all. She has been here five weeks and her husband is driving over to pick her up Friday. The breast cancer that returned two years after mastectomy has been conquered, and she has learned how not to continue producing cancer.
Last Friday Tatiana, from Russia, flew off to London, also with a positive PET scan, and then on to meet her husband in Paris for the flight home to Moscow. She struggled with English, and I found her courageous and strong, to come to such a foreign situation alone. Tatiana and her husband, if I understood correctly, have a publishing company that publishes books about the arts. They recently spent months on one for the queen of Sweden. Tatiana will be back in a month for some follow-up treatment.
As for me, I’m doing great. I enjoy the peace and tranquility of my simple life. Since the center prepares most of my food, there is little work for me to do. I have various therapies all day six days weekly. Yesterday I began my 10-day (or maybe 2 week) juice feast. This is a period of intensive detoxing by drinking only fresh green veggie juices, which are surprisingly good.
Today started with EWOT (exercise with oxygen therapy), which is riding an exercise bicycle for 30 minutes while breathing lots of oxygen through a mask hooked to an oxygen concentrator or generator. Next it was into the sauna to sweat out toxins, followed by massage. Then it was time for the IV – a mixed, but low, dose of chemotherapies. While still on the IV, I had a session of colon hydrotherapy. Then, back to the recliner in the IV room, to finish and fall asleep for a good nap before driving back to the condo.
Only two days after the first dose of chemo, I began feeling changes in the tumor. Dr Lodi said, “Cancer is hard. When it begins to break up and degrade it becomes softer and more diffuse.” That seems to be happening already. Because of the low dose, and the way the drugs are targeted at the tumor, there are far fewer side effects. No nausea, no hair loss, nothing noticeable – at least so far, and nothing expected. The nurses check my blood weekly or more often for signs of anything that shouldn’t be happening, watch closely and test blood sugar to make sure it drops to just the right number, so the insulin receptors on the tumor will open wide and invite in the toxic medicines. Did you know that tumors, which ferment on sugar, have 17 times the number of insulin receptors of normal tissue? That’s why this therapy works miracles.
I will be forever grateful to Sheri Bade, a woman I’ve never met or talked with, who is lending me her lovely home to live in while she cools it on the Oregon coast. And I thank Fran Kelly for brokering the deal.
Enough. I hope you’re all well and happy, and that if you ever need a place like this one, you won’t hesitate to come here. But please, if you can, time it for winter!
One
July 22, 2010
In February I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer - one that doesn't respond to hormone therapies. The doctors wanted to do the works - chemo, mastectomy, radiation. After much thought and research, I found I simply could not do those things. At some point I may agree to a mastectomy, but not yet. Instead, I have embarked on a journey of alternative healing, and I feel confident it will be successful. But I also know that, even if it is not, maintaining a high quality of life is more important to me than one that may be a few months longer while I'm sick and miserable because of treatments. I know that many have lived a long while following breast cancer treatments. But when you look at the statistics, it becomes evident that they have survived not only the cancer, but the treatments as well. They have my deepest respect and prayers for their continued health. But they have taken a path I simply cannot.
There is much wrong with our illness care system today, much of that stemming from the power that drug and insurance companies and the FDA wield over doctors, hospitals, and treatments, making it almost impossible for doctors to do anything innovative, or even to use very successful treatments that are common in Europe and other parts of the world. I won't go into that now, but I will touch on it in future updates.
Last Thursday I flew from cool Olympia into a pizza oven otherwise called Phoenix, Arizona. The temperature that day was 115. It hasn't cooled a whole lot since. But that doesn't matter, since I'm simply existing in an air conditioned world and only step outside to go from car to clinic to condo. Today I wished I'd had pot holders for the steering wheel. Linda, you warned me! I’m saving the little bands they use to hold gauze against the exit wound from removing IV needles to use to crochet pot holders! Right!
There has to be a very good reason for going to Airzona in July, and this is it: An Oasis of Healing, or, if you want to check it out, www.anoasisofhealing.com. This clinic uses many well-researched and successful therapies to heal cancer, often cancers that mainstream medicine has given up on. I'll tell you about some of the therapies, and how they relate to healing cancer, as I experience them.
I'd also like to tell you about some of the other patients, if they are willing to let me share something of their stories. We all have a story, don't we? For now, suffice it to say, I've met patients from Toronto, Ft. Nelson, BC, Maryland, North Dakota, Chandler, AZ, and Russia. There are others I haven't talked with yet. Some have completed their therapies and only come in occasionally for follow-up. When I look around, I appear healthier than most, because many of them have been treated for a little while by the typical therapies, until they realized that the treatments would kill them before the cancer had the chance. Several have very serious cancers, cancers that are almost always fatal, and they appear to be getting better.
One man was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma in March, and subsequently lost 50 pounds. Now he appears almost skeletal, except his liver, which has several palpable tumors. When he arrived three weeks ago he was in a wheelchair. Today I watched him walk into the therapy center with just a little support from his dad. He has 2- and 4-year-olds at home and his devoted wife is with him.
The four young daughters of another Canadian patient flew in yesterday, so happy to see their mom. This morning they were at yoga class, the six-year-old basking in the pleasure of sitting out on the lawn doing poses, and getting a little extra attention from the teacher, her older sisters and grandpa joining in the fun.
This looks like a place where miracles happen. I hope you'll enjoy the stories of people who remain hopeful and positive, who visit, joke and nap while getting IV treatments, people who are truly living one day at a time, seeing the good in life and understanding poignantly that we are all in God’s hands.
With love to all,
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