What Steps to Take If You Do Find Yourself Diagnosed with Cancer
by Heidi Stevenson
On this very difficult and emotional subject, Gaia Health wants to make clear that there are no easy answers. The first reality of life is that each one will end. Cancer is merely one way it happens. Life also ends by heart attacks, infections, accidents, and a host of other ways. No one can promise a cure. Nonetheless, there are things that may help when cancer strikes too early.
First Step
The first thing to do when a cancer diagnosis, or suspicion of one, is made is try to relax. Yes, that sounds absurd, but the reality is that a cancer diagnosis isn't a death sentence. Take the time to look at your options, and under no circumstances allow anyone to stampede you into making a rash decision. Remember the by-words of Gaia Health:
If you've read previous articles in this series, then you know that everyone has cancer. Yours is different because it hasn't been handled by your immune system—yet. Therefore, what you most need is to give your body's system of defenses a boost. It's run-down. Overworked. Stressed—just like you're feeling right now.
Chemotherapy and radiation treatments do severe damage to your immune system, so your chances of succombing to something else are greatly increased. If you do decide to accept mainstream medical methods, do everything you can to strengthen your body's ability to heal. Read The Best Tips for Avoiding Cancer and follow the suggestions. The same things that help strengthen your immune system before a cancer diagnosis will do so after it.
Options
There are alternatives to mainstream medicine's approach of cutting it out and then bombarding it (and you) with radiation or, more commonly now, chemotherapy. First, though, are the things that you should be doing, no matter what other approach you choose:
- Cancer is often a disease of emotional suppression. If you have suppressed your feelings, then facing them may be the key to resolving your cancer. No, this isn't easy to do; emotions are suppressed because they're difficult to face. It's important to accept that no emotion is bad. Only suppressing them is harmful. You aren't a bad person for feeling something. If you feel like killing someone, no harm is done. Only acting on it is harmful or bad. Feeling that way is normal and human. If you can accept this concept and truly address it, you'll be giving yourself a huge advantage in overcoming cancer.
- Juicing is a remarkably powerful tool in fighting cancer. The simple reason is that juicing raw veggies and fruits provides concentrated and easily digested nutrients in far larger and better balanced quantities than anything else, thus providing the tools needed to heal.
- Detoxification, the process of removing toxins and poisons, can help heal cancer. We know that many cancers are triggered or aggravated by substances that either do not belong in the body for any reason, such as mercury, and toxins, byproducts from normal cell metabolism, that the body has been unable to remove. Clearing them from your body allows your immune system to focus on the chore of eliminating cancer.
- Exercise! Yes, that's right. Exercising is necessary to bring yourself to peak health. It offers another benefit, which can be critical in fighting cancer. It produces endorphins, which make you feel good emotionally. Your mental state can be critical in the healing process.
All of these are variations on the same theme: Get healthy. Detoxify and get as much good nutrition as possible. In a general sense, these are not options. They are must-dos. There are, though, optional alternative treatments that you may wish to try. Here are three that Gaia Health considers worth seriously considering:
- Amygdalin/Laetrile/Vitamin B17: This is one of the most controversial alternative cancer treatments. Read Apricot Pits to Treat and Prevent Cancer to learn more about it.
- Sodium Bicarbonate: This is a new entry into the alternative cancer treatment arena. The theory behind it, that cancer is the body's attempt to contain a fungal infection, is backed by strong evidence. For more on this treatment, see Is Cancer a Response to a Fungal Infection?.
- Vitamin C Megadoses: It's impossible to get enough vitamin C orally to treat cancer. However, when applied intravenously, good effects have been noted. This does, of course, require a physician's application. It is most assuredly worth looking into.
- Heat/Fever Treatments: Studies have shown that the body's ability to fight cancer with fever is effective. Unfortunately, fevers are generally suppressed when they occur in conjunction with chemotherapy. Gaia Health will soon discuss heat and fever treatments for cancer.
- Homeopathy: The most controversial of therapies, homeopathy's approach is, first, to listen to and observe the patient—to attempt to learn about that person's state, rather than to focus on the disease itself. Each person is an individual, akin to Gaia Health's by-words above, and not simply a body with a diseased part. After a case has been carefully taken, the homeopathist decides what remedy, of the thousands available, best suits that person.
- Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM): TCM utilizes a combination of acupuncture, Chinese herbs, and other techniques in its treatments. The methods of analysis are distinctly different from western medicine. However, the goal is to help the body achieve balance and strengthen the immune system.
- Herbs: Treating cancer with herbs is a tricky business, but it's rather absurd for mainstream medicine to pooh-pooh it. Finding the so-called "active" element in a plant, then extracting and processing it, is a major area of effort in oncology research. What's missed in these efforts is that a plant is not merely a single chemical, and it most certainly isn't processed outside the digestive system. Evidence shows that the synergy of all the elements of a plant is required to achieve its full benefits. The trouble is that plants can be both beneficial and poisonous. Gaia Health's recommendation for those who wish to try herbs is to see a qualified herbologist.
Methods that rely on a belief system or an innate talent, such as laying on of hands or prayer, are very personal. Gaia Health views them as things that provide support. As such, they may be helpful for some people. However, no good documentation exists to demonstrate their efficacy or lack of it, especially in people who do not adhere to the same belief system. Therefore, no recommendations are made regarding them.
The Upshot
To get a diagnosis of cancer is a life-changing event. It needn't, though, be a terrible thing. It can be a wake-up call, a notice that something is wrong and has been wrong for a long time. It's your opportunity to change your life for the better. Stop. Take a look at your life. What's wrong and, just as important, what's right? Take steps to make yourself healthy, including coming to grips with your emotional life.
Follow the ideas outlined here and you'll greatly increase your chances of achieving something better than survival—you may find your way to a new and improved life.
