Unfortunately, the fact is that the number of people who are suffering from cancer is constantly growing, so it is not unusual for modern people to ask themselves what they would do in case they were diagnosed with cancer. On top of that, most people know someone who had to deal with cancer.
When someone mentions cancer we usually think about utilizing modern, conventional medicine, but many studies (and practical examples) have shown that this type of medicine is not very efficient when it comes to cancer. While it is true that doctors can cut it, burn it and poison it with the help of radiation, drugs, and surgery, it is also true that most doctors cannot actually identify and cure the cause that leads to this disease in the first place.
If we take a close look at how conventional medicine works we will notice that this medicine is all about giving names to diseases according to their location in the body, their geography, and specialty. It is far better to name diseases according to their pathways, mechanisms, and of course – causes.
For instance, doctors diagnose people with brain cancer, kidney, or heart disease which clearly states which body part is affected, but we don’t anything about the cause itself.
So, instead of focusing on the name of the disease and the medicines we can use to heal the disease, we should focus on the direct cause. Which factors contributed to the emergence of the disease?
This is the reason why many people prefer so-called functional medicine over modern medicine. With the help of functional medicine, people are able to find the factors that contribute to the emergence and spread of the disease.
Thanks to this specific type of medicine you can learn how to eliminate the conditions that lead to situations like this.
How does Functional Medicine Look at Cancer?
Functional medicine allows both practitioners and patients to bring back the system into a completely healthy state by working together and identifying the causes of disease. This is a very popular diagnosis model that is tailored to the requirements of each patient. In this way, patients can handle, cure, and prevent diseases.
Many people compare functional medicine practitioners to soil farmers. Their job is to make healthy and fertile soil which ultimately protects the crops from weeds and pests. If the soil is healthy, the disease can’t thrive.
If you ask a functional medicine doctor what they think about cancer and its treatment they will definitely say that patients need radiation therapies and other commonly used methods of treating cancer, but they will also recommend taking some other steps that will lead to the elimination of cancer and prevention too.
The main reason why cancer occurs in the first place is the improper balance in the body. The fact is that there is a huge number of people that have tumors and they still don’t know about their condition. The good news is that each of us can take some actions that will stop these tumors from growing.
We must view diseases in a different way, other than simply categorizing them into diseases affecting specific body parts and organs. Functional medicine views every disease as a problem in the system and that’s why our main focus should be placed on treatment of the system, not just the signs or symptoms. We must find the cause, not the disease itself. If we accept this view we will look at diseases with different eyes.
So, the way we label cancer is not directly related to cancer’s origins which means that when there are two people suffering from the same type of cancer like liver cancer, for example, they might have two different diseases depending on the cause. In other words, they need a different treatment approach. If you know the name of the disease, you know only one small thing about the problem because you don’t know the causes or what actions you should take.
Labeling tumors depending on the location in the body, like colon, breast, liver, lung, and brain cancer, keep our focus out of the important things for treatment like the mechanisms, causes, and pathways related to specific cancer. What is even worse is that we don’t know anything about the symptoms that may show in the sufferer. This means that two people that have completely different cancers (different body parts) might share the same cause. Of course, two people that have cancer in the same body part may be suffering from different causes.
Our main focus should be analysis and examination of the body and determining the cause.
Creating and Maintaining a Healthy Soil
There are many things that can trigger the emergence of cancer. Scientific studies have confirmed that things like physical activity, eating habits, emotions, thoughts, and environment affect the formation, growth, and spread of cancer.
A diet that misses all the important nutrients, physical inactivity, heavy metals, and pollutants in the environment are some of the things that lead to cancer. So, is it possible that a change in the diet (healthy diet), regular exercise, positive thinking, and emotions, and detox could lead to the prevention of cancer?
To put it simply, work on the soil, not the crops. Each of us can improve immune function with the help of lifestyle and dietary changes. We can also support the detoxification process in our body in order to help our body eliminate the consequences of eating too many sugars and refined carbs.
Additionally, each of us can change the way the genes are expressed thanks to the change in the inputs that handle that expression – nutrients, diet, toxins, phytonutrients, stress, anxiety, and other things that lead to inflammation. Another important thing is to think about useful things, not some negative and useless things which will ultimately lead to more motivating emotions. This is something that will definitely result in more fertile ground.
5 Actions to Reduce Cancer Emergence and Growth
The occurrence of cancer is a direct result of the imbalance in the body which results in the inability of our immune system to eliminate tumors. Luckily, each of us can do different things to prevent the formation or growth of cancer and in case you are already diagnosed with cancer, you should know that you can do many things to make your body a hostile environment for cancer.
1. Get Rid of Sugar
Cancer tends to spread and grow with the help of sugar and sugar can also lead to diabesity. Modern people take about 145 pounds of flour and 150 pounds of sugar every year. More than 1.7 billion people from all over the world are affected by diabesity. This condition will have a serious impact on the health of 50% of Americans by 2020. So, the first thing you should do to prevent and/or handle cancer is to manage levels of insulin in the body with the help of a diet packed with fiber, whole, raw foods and getting rid of processed, rich in sugar, insulin-increasing food.
According to Dr. Dean Ornish, people who have switched to this type of diet have experienced positive effects in more than 500 genes that handle cancer. They were able to turn off the genes that lead to cancer or turn on the genes that prevent cancer. This is something that we can’t expect from any known medication.
2. Stop Food Sensitivities
According to a scientific study published in the reputed Journal of the American Medical Association, undiagnosed sensitivity to gluten increases the chances of fatalities by 40 to 70% – in most cases by leading to cancer or heart disease. This means that only this mechanism puts more than 20 million people in the US at risk for cancer, obesity, and heart attack. Food sensitivities and food allergies are usually caused by gluten and dairy. By keeping these ingredients out from your menu, you will be able to heal the inflammation that occurs in the guts and the body itself.
3. Inflammation Reduction
If there is one thing that chronic diseases like cancer have in common that’s inflammation. As a matter of fact, uncontrolled inflammation leads to insulin resistance, which is the main factor in chronic diseases together with allergy and autoimmunity. What is even worse is that resistance to insulin leads to even greater inflammation and destroys our systems. In addition to the removal of food sensitivities including dairy and gluten and getting rid of sugar, people should consume more foods that have anti-inflammatory properties like flaxseeds and wild fish.
4. Promote Gut Health
There are many cases in which cancer starts in the gut. Of course, we are not talking only about colon cancer. Doctors are focused on finding the connection between the gut microbiome and the formation of prostate and breast cancer. In addition to the removal of inflammatory food from your daily menu, you can also add prebiotics, probiotics, and a larger amount of phytonutrients like curcumin to your diet in order to promote gut health.
5. Bring Down Exposure to Toxic Substances
A newborn baby has more than 280 chemicals in the umbilical cord blood. The vast majority of them are neurotoxic. Some of the chemicals in which newborn babies are in touch include bisphenol, pesticides, phthalates, and various heavy metals including arsenic, lead, and mercury. We all know how dangerous these compounds can be – they can bring a lot of damages to the nervous system and they significantly boost the chances of developing cancer. Latest studies have shown that these toxic substances can also lead to obesity. What each of us can do is learning more about environmental toxins and you can do this by visiting the EWG (Environmental Working Group) website.
Change the Way You Are Thinking to Change the Immune System
There is no doubt that this extra strategy is often ignored, but the truth is that it is equally important. Modern science has finally confirmed what people have felt and thought for many centuries – the way we eat, the way we live, our emotions, and the way we use our bodies is much more important than our genes. There is a huge number of ways in which we can fight r prevent cancer. Regular physical activity, managing stress, and following a healthy sleep routine are some of the ways to achieve this.
What is truly important is to find out what is good for you and to create a plan based on your knowledge. It is the best idea to consult a functional medicine doctor.
Final Thoughts
It doesn’t really matter if you were diagnosed with some type of cancer or you know someone who was diagnosed with cancer, what is important is to change your mindset and avoid fear.
Most people are waiting for the day when scientists will present the cure for cancer, but the truth is that there are many things that we can do now that can prevent or help us fight cancer.
Doctors are realizing that the causes for the same type of cancer can be different and that sometimes the same cause can result in different cancers. Some doctors are using this knowledge to create personalized therapies for patients and Dr. Patrick Soon-Shioing from California is a good example. Practicing this approach together with some other technologies and findings and relying on functional medicine is giving hope to thousands of people around the globe.
There is no doubt that dealing with cancer is difficult, but the fact is that we can prevent this disease. Try to follow a different approach and never lose hope.
We know that the majority of people who are reading this article have dealt with cancer or know someone who was or still is dealing with cancer. We encourage you to change your diet, lifestyle, physical activity, and other factors that affect your body and its ability to cope with vicious diseases like cancer.
Via Dr.Hyman | Mayo Clinic
