There is no word in the English language that strikes a deeper fear into our souls like the word cancer. The main cause of this fear is that we harbor a feeling of helplessness when it comes to this deadly disease.

It is as if we have all been thrown into a cruel game of roulette where our number can be called at any time with seemingly no rhyme or reason. The cruelty of the game is realized when our number is called and we are then forced to come face to face with our own mortality!

So, to deal with this horror without paralyzing our every day lives, we simply keep our fingers crossed and hope that our number, or the number of someone we hold dear, never gets called.

The question that then begs to be answered is whether you as an individual can effectively do something to reduce your risk of ever having to hear the phrase, “You have cancer!”

Before this question can be answered with any authority, we have to determine the answers to a few additional questions. The first is, “What causes cancer?”; the second is, “Can I do anything about the cause?”; and the third is, “How do I know that any changes I make will have any beneficial effect towards lowering my risk of getting cancer?”.

The first question is by far the hardest to answer with any strong level of confidence. Doctors will tell you that few cases of cancer can be traced to a definite causative factor. Examples of identifying definite causative factors include people who were exposed to asbestos or chemicals like Agent Orange. The vast majority of cases are put into the category of etiology unknown. In medical terms this means we simply do not know with any certainty the cause of the condition.

In answering the question of “What causes cancer?”, I suggest to you that the lack of a single factor in most cases strongly suggests that the cause is multi-factorial. In other words, many factors determine the eventual expression of cancer in your body including the exposure to toxins in the environment (including air, water, and food supplies), the amount of time you endure these exposures, and the inability of your body to deal with the insult of these exposures. Put more simply, how your body reacts to the bad things in your surrounding environment plays an important role in whether or not you will eventually develop cancer.

To complicate matters further, the toxins you are exposed to are many and varied and the reaction you have to the exposures will be unique to your specific bag of chemistry. That is why one person can be affected by something while another in the same environment may not. This has to do with your unique genetic make-up that may cause you to be more susceptible to the mutation of your cells into what we call cancer.

So if it is in our genes, we have no choice but to hope our number never gets called since we cannot change our genetic make-up. WRONG! Although you cannot change your genes, you can change their expressions. One of my favorite sayings is, “Your genes load the gun, but the environment pulls the trigger.” Your genes express themselves depending on the signals they get from your body. The signals your body gives are strongly influenced by the environment in which you live. To a certain extent, you can control the environment around you which gives you the power to be preventative when it comes to cancer!

Thus, the major cause of cancer is not the bad luck of the draw determined by some unknown factor. The major cause of cancer is the influence of the toxic environment on your unique set of genes. Keep in mind that I said the “major” cause, not the only cause. Others include poor nutrition, constant exposure to stress, pathogen infections, and other poor living habits. The most critical factor, though, is environmental toxic exposures. This includes chemicals, drugs, pesticides, food additives, trans fatty acids, and many more.

The next question to answer is, “Can you do anything about the cause?” The answer is encouragingly, yes! You can easily and significantly reduce your exposure to toxins in many ways. You can also give your body what it needs to deal with the constant exposures it has to endure.

The first step is to be mindful of what you put on and in your body. There is no rocket science here. Use common sense. Change your diet to include natural cancer fighting vegetables and fruits. This includes the cruciferous family of vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbages. It includes the dark leafy vegetables and any dark berries.

Decrease the amounts of chemical laden processed foods including those with aspartame (NutraSweet®) and trans-fatty acids (partially hydrogenated oils). You may be horrified by how many foods you eat on a regular basis have these poisons in them. Reduce your intake of red meats and simple carbohydrate (sugar) foods (sweets, breads, pastas). When at all possible, try to eat certified organic fruits and vegetables to reduce your exposure to pesticides. This is especially true for peanut butters and raisins.

Try not to spray chemicals into your air or onto your body. This includes all air fresheners and many candles. It also included many perfumes and cleaners.

The bottom line is that you should be mindful of what you expose your body to on a daily basis. You can do this without becoming paranoid or annoying to those around you. Simply make the effort! The problem is that we live in a society that is motivated to do something out of our daily norm only when we absolutely have to. Being told that you may die is one of those good motivators. I encourage you to take steps right now for your sake and that of your loved ones.

In addition to reducing your toxic exposures, you should support your body’s natural ability to get rid of these toxins. It is impossible to get rid of all exposures, so your body is constantly being asked to perform this function.

We know that people who eat good quantities of fresh fruits and vegetables have lower risks for many diseases, including cancer. One of the reasons for this is that these foods supply your body with the things needed for your body to detoxify toxins.

I also strongly advocate performing a good body detoxification protocol. This includes both digestive cleanses and internal body detoxifications. I cannot emphasis how important proper digestion is for proper health. Read “Digestion And Health: The connection to disease development” for more information. For more information on performing a proper digestive cleanse or detoxification protocol go to those links from the home page of ZN.com.

Finally, how can you be sure that lowering your toxic exposures, improving your diet, and detoxifcation will be of any real benefit to you and will potentially protect you from cancer? Although logic and my heart tell me that there will be a benefit from following this course of living, the honest answer is that there are no guarantees. No one can tell you with complete confidence that you will not get cancer if you do these things. This is the reason why most people will not make the sustained effort needed to keep toxic exposures to a minimum. This is why people continue to eat horrible diets and this is why people will not make the effort and spend the time and money on performing detoxification protocols.

To those with this negative mindset, I say you keep on exposing yourself to all of these chemicals, drinking diet drinks, eating processed foods, and do not inconvenience yourself in any way to change your lifestyle. I will choose to reduce my toxic exposures, eat a diet higher in fresh fruits and vegetables, and perform good detoxification protocols.

I like my odds much better than yours!

What If I Already Have Cancer?

I will not give you lists of supplements used in the treatment of cancer in this section. My goal is to provide you with guidelines regarding the decision making process of what supplements to take for cancer. If you have questions about your specific situation, please feel free to email me.

The typical person who has been diagnosed with cancer will want to do anything and everything possible to “beat” this disease. Although not true in every case, people with cancer will typically take or do anything that they have been convinced will help their situation. Rarely, though, are they convinced by the science backing a potential treating agent. The fact is that the science behind the majority of supplements is lacking at best, or non-supportive, at worst.

This creates a situation where cancer patients are convinced by other means. The fact is that people are usually convinced by testimonials. Testimonials are kind of like a sworn statement from some other cancer patient who supposedly took something and their cancer regressed or disappeared. People are typically trusting, especially when they need something to be true. This gives the testimonial a lot of persuasive power and produces a situation in which the cancer-afflicted person is very vulnerable. The fear is that they will then be taken advantage of for someone else’s financial gain. Unfortunately, this happens more times than most would like to admit.

Due to the lack of scientific support, coupled with the potential for fraud, the medical community tends to not support natural means of treating cancer. Actually, they usually give a pretty negative answer when asked about alternative means. They feel that you are wasting your time and money or they fear some possible negative effect of taking these substances. This can be very discouraging for a person seeking to find a way to help themselves survive the ordeal they are about to face. This negative attitude may even cause them to not try any natural supplements.

You have to know that the reason why most cancer doctors do not endorse natural treatments has NOTHING to do with their expert evaluation of these options. It has much more to do with bias and not doing anything outside of their paradigm. A patient of mine was recently told that we did not know whether the supplements I suggested for her were dangerous. Yet, he suggested chemotherapy and radiation! Two of the worst poisons used in medicine were O.K., but he was worried about the safety of natural supplements. I encouraged her to ask her doctor to give her studies supporting his concerns, as I had given her a number which supported the use of these supplements in her case. Of course, he could not. His opinion was based on bias and lack of knowledge in utilizing anything outside of his medicine training.

How, then, do you determine which end of the spectrum to believe when looking at some natural things to take for cancer; miraculous cure or complete fraud? Let me give you a couple of guidelines to help you make the issue a little clearer than mud.

The first point to remember is that there is NO cancer cure that we know of within either traditional or natural medicine. Again, there is NO cancer cure. So, the first guideline is to realize that there is no supplement that will magically purge your body of cancer. In other words, do not worry that you will take, or miss out on taking, something that will become your saving grace. Look for a protocol that makes sense, not any one product.

The second guideline is to keep an open mind. We need to acknowledge that there are people who have had their cancer disappear using natural supplements. Natural supplements can be very effective at fighting cancer. Sounds like a confusing contradiction, doesn’t it? There is no cure, but people have been cured.

Let me clarify my point. Each of us is a unique bag of chemistry interacting with the environment around us. Because of this, something that may be helpful to one may not work for another. So, there is no single or combination of supplements that will cure cancer for everyone. There are, however, supplements and combinations of supplements that show promise in the treatment of cancer. The trick is in finding the ones that make the most sense for your unique make-up.

This leads to the third guideline in seeking the most potent cancer-treating regimen. Mostly ignore testimonials in your pursuit of treatment. This is hard because testimonials stir our emotions causing logic to take a back seat in decision-making. You can overcome the need for testimonials by asking two questions of a potential treatment. The first is how does the supplement specifically affect cancer. This is the, “why does it work”, question.

Sometimes, this cannot be answered so, the second question is why do you believe the supplement does what you say it does? The answer to this question should be supported by the available scientific studies. It is a misconception that none of these things have been studied. There are a number of studies out there that support the use of many natural supplements for cancer treatment. If the answer is only supported by moving testimonials, beware and be skeptical!

More than likely, you are going to need help, not only answering these questions, but also in making the decision of what regimen to follow. I encourage you to use as many sources as possible. One good source is PubMed which gives you access to all peer reviewed scientific studies. You can get to this site by typing in PubMed in your search engine. You will then be able to search the literature by the name of the supplement and cancer for information on studies supporting their use. May God bless you.