Without getting too technical, cancer is essentially the uncontrolled reproduction and growth of cells in the body. All of our body’s cells need to constantly reproduce for us to stay alive. Normally, our cells reproduce at the same rate that they die off. In cancer, a specific strain of cells (say, immune cells in the case of leukemia or skin cells in the case of skin cancer) starts to reproduce far too quickly and begins to harm the body. If left unchecked, this rouge cellular reproduction can damage vital organ systems and eventually lead to death.
 
            The uncontrolled cell reproduction of cancer is caused by mutations in DNA. Certain key genes control cell reproduction, and when these genes mutate, cancer can develop. Interestingly, these kinds of mutations happen all of the time. But normally our bodies are able to detect cells that have developed cancer causing mutations, and our immune system kills these cells off before they become dangerous. Cancers develop and grow to become diagnosable diseases when either there are too many mutations in the DNA for the body to keep up with, or if the immune system stops working properly.

When it comes to preventing cancer, the first point I like to emphasize is that cancer is not a natural disease. What I mean by this is that human beings living in a more natural way tend not to get cancer the way that we do here in America. Incidences of cancer are far lower in many hunter gatherer cultures and other “stone aged” peoples in spite of the fact that many of these people live longer than we do in America. What this means – from my perspective – is that a number of factors in the average American lifestyle put us at a higher risk for cancer. Some of the major variables that I believe place us at a higher risk for the development of many cancers are a high sugar diet, exposure to processed foods containing artificial hormones, preservatives and food dyes, exposure to heavy metals, a low fiber diet, and psychological stress.
 
Of course genetics play a role in cancer as well, but for the most parts, our genes do not spell out our fate. Some people certainly have a greater “genetic susceptibility” to breast cancer, or colon cancer, or other cancers. But all that this means (in most cases) is that these people have to be more careful about how they live their lives to reduce their risk of developing these cancers.
 
All healthy lifestyle practices likely help reduce our risk for cancer. There’s no substitute for eating a whole foods diet, engaging in regular intelligent exercise, getting plenty of sleep every night, and reducing psychological stress. This is the recipe for general life health, and it is the place to start when looking to reduce cancer risk as well. But I’d also like to highlight a few specific interventions that can help root out issues that I feel are major factors in cancer risk:

1. Avoid Exposure to Chemicals that Alter DNA like Plasticizers, Pesticides, Artificial Hormones, and Food Dyes as much as possible.
   • Avoid Exposure to Chemicals that Alter DNA like Plasticizers, Pesticides, Artificial Hormones, and Food Dyes as much as possible.
   • Avoiding pesticides, artificial hormones, and food dyes used to be a lot harder. All of these substances are banned from organic food, so if you’re buying anything with a USDA organic seal on it, it is guaranteed to be free of all of these chemicals. I try to buy all of my meat and dairy organic, and a lot of my produce as well. However, if cost is an issue, you can be selective about what you buy organic and what you buy commercial. Red meat, chicken and dairy are probably the three most important foods to buy organic.
   • Here is a list of some of produce items that tend to carry a lot of pesticide. It’s a good idea to buy organic when buying these foods whenever possible:
     • Berries
     • Cherries
     • Peaches
     • Bell Peppers
     • Celery
     • Spinach
     • Apples
     • Apricots
     • Cucumbers
2. Build and Maintain a Healthy Immune System by Detoxing, Eating Right, and Taking the Right Supplements
   • Good immune health is a critical part of lowering your cancer risk. One of the best ways to ensure good immune health is by limiting your exposure to heavy metals. Metals like mercury, led, and aluminum all sabotage immune function and make us more susceptible to all sorts of infections. A weakened immune system is also less able to surveil the body for cancer and nip cancerous growths in the bud. The primary sources of heavy metal exposure in most people’s lives are drinking tap water and eating fish like tuna, swordfish, orange roughy, shark, tilefish, marlin, grouper, bluefish, and mackerel. Drink filtered water and eat lower mercury fish like wild caught salmon, flounder, anchovies, mackerel, and trout.
   • A healthy diet full of plenty of produce and very little sugar and processed wheat is critical for immune health. Fruits and veggies are full of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients that help white blood cells do their jobs. Processed sugars, on the flip side, all suppress immune function. Flour acts a lot like sugar in the body, and also undermines the immune system.
   • Two simple, affordable supplements that can help tone up immune system function are vitamin C and Epicore. Vitamin C has a controversial history as an immune tonic, but when consumed in a natural form – say, with Rose Hips – many authorities agree that it helps. Epicore is a newer supplement with some very promising research behind it that I think is dynamite. I have used it myself, and have seldom felt that anything I have taken benefitted me so much.
3. Improve Your Gut Health with Diet, Probiotics, and Enzymes
   • Good gut health is critically important to reducing your risk of colon cancer. A high fiber diet rich in beans, truly whole grains like quinoa, and veggies like broccoli and greens is a great start. Digestive enzymes taken towards the end of meals also help improve gut health. Finally, adding probiotics to your supplement regimen can powerfully improve gut health in a matter of weeks. I believe that a healthy gut reduces your risk for other cancers as well by helping your immune system to function better and reducing the toxic burden on your body. Good health begins with gut health, so anything you do to make your gut healthier will pay dividends body-wide.
4. Learn to Really Deal with Your Emotions
   • The role of emotions in the development of cancer is just beginning to be understood, but there is little doubt that stress, depression, and other negative mood states increase cancer risk. Suppressed negative emotion is toxic to virtually every aspect of our physiology. We live in a culture that doesn’t place much value on dealing with emotions, and most people pay little or no attention to their emotions until something is seriously wrong. Yet our emotions are the single most powerful driving force in our lives. They lie at the heart of our desires, our motivations, and our fears. Positive emotion does wonders for the health of the body, and negative emotion – when not dealt with - tears the body apart. Learning to deal with your emotions takes time and a serious commitment, but if you are willing to commit yourself to emotional wellbeing it is one of the most powerful things you can do to reduce your risk of developing cancer and other chronic illnesses as well. I will be offering a class on emotional wellbeing starting in late August or September. Email me at info@vaughngray.com if you’d like to receive more information about it as registration opens.

All of these steps should help you reduce your risk of developing various forms of cancer and lead a generally healthier life. If you are dealing with cancer now, adopting some of these changes may well be worthwhile, but, as I said at the outset, it is critical to talk this over with your doctor. Here are some other things to look into if you or a loved one are dealing with cancer now.

Below are some of the most effective nutrition and other holistic strategies for dealing with cancer once it has manifested that I know of. Most – if not all – of these require professional supervision, and you will need to find a natural practitioner or holistic-minded MD to guide you. The biggest thing that I try to share with clients, friends, and family members who have been diagnosed with cancer is that a lot of people have found healing that their doctors would have called impossible. These cases have been documented in medical literature, and no one who has really studied the issue denies that sometimes seemingly miraculous recoveries take place. This said, such recoveries are rare. When they do happen, it is frequently after a dedicated personal search for a doctor or other practitioner and a strategy that really works for the individual. Diets like the “macrobiotic diet” (discussed below) that have proved a godsend for a few people with serious cancers then fail to work for most people in clinical trials.
 
I believe this is because cancer is a very individual thing. Even though millions of women are diagnosed with breast cancer, each case has a different history. In each woman, different genes have mutated, different toxins are present, and different stressors have run down each woman’s immune system. At the same time, each woman’s system has different bodily resources to call upon. Some women will have better liver health than others, and will be able to benefit more from drugs that might prove too toxic for others. Other women will have robust detox systems, and detox diets will help them more. You have to find a path that works for you, and this usually requires a fair bit of dedication and a willingness to educate yourself. Below are some strategies that I recommend looking into.

1. Macrobiotic Diets
   Macrobiotics is a nutritional philosophy that emphasizes grains and vegetables and restricts the consumption of processed foods. Macrobiotic diets have been extensively studied as a cancer therapy with some promising results. You can read about Macrobiotics on Wikipedia, or contact the Kushi institute for more information. http://www.kushiinstitute.org/
2. Detox Diets
   There are numerous anecdotal reports of people who have found various degrees of success incorporating detoxification regimens into their cancer management strategies. If you’d like to learn more about detox, I recommend The Seven Day Detox Miracle by Peter Bennett, Sara Faye, and Stephen Barrie. There is also a newer book out specifically on detox practices as they relate to cancer called “Detox Revolution : A Powerful New Program for Boosting Your Body's Ability to Fight Cancer and Other Diseases” by Thomas J. Slaga. I specialize in supervising detox programs as well, and would be happy to help you.
3. Vegan Diets
   Vegan diets (strict vegetarian) can sometimes help the body deal with a variety of ailments. “Eat to Live” by Dr Joel Fuhrman is an excellent resource for learning more about vegan diets. You don’t necessarily need to become vegan forever for a vegan diet to help you deal with your illness. Frequently several months to a year or two on a strict vegan diet is enough to make a profound change in your body.
4. LifeWaves Exercise Program
   This is a radical exercise program designed to improve health by strengthening the body’s natural rhythms. It’s had some promising preliminary results in the treatment of a variety of conditions. It was developed by a brilliant and highly controversial MD named Irving Dardik. If you Google his name, you will find a lot of glowing praise and a lot of damning accusation. I believe that there is real benefit in the programs that he offers. They are not a miracle cure for anything, but they do seem to provide real therapeutic benefits.  You can get more information about the LifeWaves program at http://lifewaves.com/Why_Exercise.html
5. Mind-Body Medicine
   If you are very open minded, and the idea of using your mind to help your body be healthier doesn’t strike you as too outlandish, I recommend you begin exploring the world of mind body medicine by reading a book called Ask and it is Given by Ester and Jerry Hicks. It’s not specifically about dealing with disease, but it is a surprisingly practical introduction to using your mind to change your life. A lot of the content in this book is “out there” and if you tend towards skepticism, don’t read it. The core message is powerful and the practices the book outlines are highly worthwhile, but it is easy to get thrown off by the metaphysical content.
6. Spiritual Therapies
   Some people find benefit in spiritual therapies as well. Perhaps it is all just placebo effect, but perhaps not. If you are open to the idea of spiritual therapy, I recommend contacting a therapist named Jennifer Ward. Her website iswww.jenuinehealing.com/ This is also very out in left field, so I recommend avoiding this if you’re skeptical.

Whether you are looking to prevent cancer or you are dealing with cancer now, one thing holds true. The better your basic state of physical and emotional health, the better your body does everything. This includes preventing the development of cancer and fighting it if it has developed. Almost all doctors 30 years ago would have told you that exercise and nutrition had nothing to do with cancer, and that the way you lived your life didn’t affect your cancer risk, and couldn’t help you deal with cancer if you had it. Many doctors are now realizing that this is insane. An unhealthy body cannot fight or prevent cancer effectively, and no one would deny that the choices we make everyday about how to eat, exercise, and live powerfully affect our health. And so of course they affect our risk for developing cancer as well, as well as the resilience of our body once cancer has developed.

Give yourself the gift of good health. Commit to eating a little bit better, exercising a little bit smarter, sleeping a bit more, and maybe opening up to learning about and dealing with the emotional side of your life. If nothing else, it will improve your basic level of health and vitality. And it may well tip the balance that keeps you healthy in your favor.

As always, email me with any questions or comments, and please don’t hesitate to set up a free 20 minute session for yourself or someone you love if cancer is affecting your life.

Be Well –

Vaughn
MA, CHC