Defeat Cancer (53 page)

We also recommend that people with cancer avoid sugar. Cancer cells have twenty times more glucose (sugar) receptors on the surface of their membranes than normal cells, which means that they proliferate when fed sugar. Ideally, cancer patients should follow a diet similar to that of diabetics, and avoid all sugars. Instead,
they should use natural sweeteners like Stevia. They can also have a little honey but not much, as it’s important for them to keep their blood sugar low.

We sometimes give our patients Metformin, which is the most commonly prescribed diabetes drug in the world, because it reduces the body’s blood sugar levels, and inhibits a hormone called insulinlike growth factor-1 (IGF-1) which plays a crucial role in cancer growth. In June 2010, I met a researcher at the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago, who gives her cancer patients three tablets of Metformin, in doses of 500 mg per day, and seemingly without complications. However, I think this dose is a bit high for people who don’t have diabetes, so at our clinic, we prescribe our patients just two tablets per day, which should be taken only with meals, and have seen some excellent clinical results at this dosing.

It’s important for sugar addicts to understand this message, because most of the sugar that people consume feeds cancer cells. For every glucose molecule that enters a cancer cell, two molecules of ATP (the energy currency of the cells’ mitochondria) are produced in the cancer cell. If the same molecule of glucose is burned in a normal cell, it produces 36 molecules of ATP. This means that eighteen times more energy is produced in a normal cell from a single glucose molecule than what would be produced in a cancer cell from a single glucose molecule. Since cancer cells require copious amounts of glucose to function, they steal all that they can from the body so that little is left over for the normal cells. This is the main reason why cancer patients are tired, lose weight, and suffer from other symptoms.

People with cancer should get their energy from the sugar that comes from complex carbohydrates, including grains and vegetables, as well as some fruits. I don’t believe that they necessarily need to be vegetarians, although studies have shown vegetarian diets to be the most ideal for people with cancer. In a major study that was done in Heidelberg in 1992, researchers tracked 2000 vegetarians for ten years, and found that they had 50 percent less
cancer and cardiac conditions than the general population. In another study that was done in Britain in 1998, researchers tracked 11,000 vegetarians, and found that they had a 40 percent lower mortality rate from cancer than the general population. In yet another study, 7,500 Seventh-day Adventists, (who don’t eat pork and who generally eat less meat than most people), had dramatically lower levels of cancer than the general population.

Cancer patients should do three things to improve their chances for recovery. First, they should seek to attain a good quality of life that has purpose and meaning. Secondly, they should adhere to a cancer-fighting diet (as described in the previous section), and thirdly, they should exercise.

People with cancer should pursue activities that they can look forward to doing every day, and have things that they feel good about in their daily lives. It’s also important for them to have hobbies that they really enjoy. We have witnessed, time and again, beneficial results in cancer patients who pursue hobbies. In 1984, we had a fourteen-year old female patient with brain cancer whose tumor had grown into her brain stem. Her doctors told her that she had between one and two months to live. In the meantime, she developed a hobby out of collecting key rings, which turned out to be a very important, purposeful activity for her. She didn’t die, and when she came back to visit our clinic in 1996, she told me that she had compiled around 2,200 key rings. She came back again in 2007, and by that time, had 8,400 key rings. She was proud of her collection of key rings; it gave her a sense of purpose, and she is still alive today, 26 years after being given a terminal cancer diagnosis.

Another patient of mine had lung metastases from kidney cancer. She came to our clinic in 1981, at the age of 56. The oncologists in the hospitals couldn’t help her, so she came to see us and we gave her mistletoe injections as part of her therapy. Every time I saw her at the clinic while she was doing treatments, she was writing poems and festive songs. After three weeks of therapy here, her metastases
were gone completely and she’s still alive and well today. At 86 years of age, she still writes. I cite these examples to illustrate how important it is for cancer patients to partake in and focus on meaningful activities.

Several studies on cancer and exercise have proven that exercise is of utmost importance when fighting cancer. At Humlegaarden, we have always emphasized this to our patients. The exercise program that they do must be tailored to their health and overall condition; it’s not necessary that they run a marathon! What matters most is continuity, whether they walk, jog, lift weights, play soccer, or do any other type of physical activity. We witness over and over again that patients who exercise have a far better quality of life, more energy, and better results from their treatments.

Exercise is the most important therapy for cancer, in my opinion. Cancer patients don’t die from cancer or from the size of their tumors. If all of a patient’s tumor tissue were placed on a table, it would weigh perhaps only a kilogram (2.2 pounds) or less, and might amount to the size of a fist. So how is it possible for a person to die from something so small? The answer is: because cancer is an energy vampire! It steals energy from people, so that they become increasingly tired, and finally end up bedridden. They die from fatigue, which is the most common cancer symptom.

A nurse with ovarian cancer, who was born in 1938, did chemotherapy for four or five years prior to coming to our clinic in 2001. When we saw her, her tumor marker (CA-125) levels were around 3,800 (A healthy person would have a tumor marker level of less than 30). Her situation was dire, and conventional doctors could do nothing to help her, so I gave her mistletoe injections. She also began to run two miles or ride her bicycle every other day. That was ten years ago, and I sincerely believe that her daily exercise regimen is the single most important reason why she’s still doing well today. Her last CA-125 was 7. Over the last ten years, she has maintained a healthy lifestyle, and continued with her daily exercise regimen.

If patients walk, run, swim, or bike the same distance every day, they can control their energy levels better, even if the distance that they run or walk isn’t significant. But the activity that they do has to be measurable and consistent. That’s the secret to success. For instance, if they are going to run, then it should be the same distance daily, and it should be done at regular intervals. Of course, not everyone with cancer is able to walk or run two miles daily. Maybe they can only walk for ten minutes. That’s okay, as long as they are consistent with the exercise.

Also, exercise is the most important tumor marker there is. By evaluating their energy levels daily, people with cancer can obtain feedback from their bodies, which will let them know whether or not they are doing okay with their treatments. That is one reason why exercise is so important.

The other reason why exercise is so important is because it stimulates the immune system, and is even directly cytotoxic to cancer cells. Much research on the effects of exercise in people with cancer has demonstrated it to be the most important, non-specific cancer treatment that there is.

In 1978, a German cancer patient went into surgery, but was found to be inoperable, because his cancer was so advanced. After the operation, he was sent home to die by conventional oncologists. He bought an exercise bike, and started biking. Seventeen years later, I read a story in a German newspaper that stated he had just biked across the USA!

In 1975, I met the famous German sports and cancer physician, Ernst van Aaken, who wrote several books about cancer and exercise. He believed that all people with cancer should aim to increase their heart rate through aerobic exercise to at least 132 beats per minute, for 30 minutes daily. Today, doctors and researchers at all of the major cancer conferences around the world present studies demonstrating the beneficial effects that exercise has upon cancer.
In one study, a researcher in Berlin sent ten or fifteen breast cancer patients to southern France to do a 7-800 km walk. The results of the study proved that the walk had demonstrable, positive effects upon the patients’ cancers. Other studies on cancer and exercise can be found by doing a Google search on the Internet.

Most cancer patients, however, find many excuses not to exercise, out of pure ignorance of the important positive biochemical processes that happen in the body while doing it.

Even if people with cancer only walk 25 meters (or 82 feet) every day, I believe that this can make a difference. It’s the discipline to do it every day that matters. If people don’t make excuses for why they can’t exercise, and just do it, it’s the best thing that they can do to heal themselves.

Infections in the sinuses, mouth and tonsils can cause immune problems and compromise recovery from cancer, and should therefore be treated. In 1978, I attended a three-day conference in Munich with doctors and dentists who were studying the phenomenon of foci, or localized areas of infection in the body, which weaken the immune system and create toxins that get sent out into the bloodstream. These infections are most commonly found in the teeth, and especially, in root canals. Root canals create cavitations and obstructions in the mouth, and bacteria reside and produce toxins there. Subsequently, these infections and toxins spread to the rest of the body.

Also, if people with cancer have dental amalgams, they must get them removed for the best chance at recovery, or if they want to remain healthy once their cancers are in remission. These fillings contain high amounts of toxic mercury which poison the body. A dentist from Colorado once came to Denmark and presented a lecture which demonstrated the detrimental effects of amalgams upon white blood cell counts in cancer patients. Three patients with
leukemia and dental amalgams initially had white blood cell counts between 60,000-70,000, but when they had their amalgams taken out, their lab values normalized.

In summary, focal infections in the tonsils, teeth, or sinuses must be treated, and root canals must be removed. People with cancer may also need to have their tonsils taken out, if they are severely infected. Treating these issues is one of the most important things that people with cancer can do to assist with their recovery.

You (the cancer patient) must always nourish hope in your heart, even if you are given very bad news from your oncologist. Many patients have survived with cancer for many years, even after having been given a death sentence.

Humlebæk Strandvej 11

DK - 3050 Humlebæk

Tel.: (+45) 49 13 24 65

Fax: (+45) 49 13 44 98

Website:
www.humlegaarden.com

Email:
[email protected]

Connie Strasheim is a medical researcher and writer who has experienced the hardships of chronic illness firsthand through her seven-year battle with Lyme disease and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. She is the author of three other books, including:

The Lyme Disease Survival Guide: Physical, Lifestyle and Emotional Strategies for Healing
(available from
www.LymeInsights.com
or
www.LymeBook.com
)

Insights Into Lyme Disease Treatment: Thirteen Lyme-Literate Health Care Practitioners Share Their Healing Strategies
(available from
www.LymeInsights.com
or
www.LymeBook.com
)

Healing Chronic Illness: By His Spirit, Through His Resources
(available from
www.HealingChronicIllness.org
)

Ms. Strasheim’s second Lyme disease book,
Insights Into Lyme Disease Treatment
, has been a bestseller within the Lyme disease community since its release in September, 2009.

In addition to writing books on medicine and spiritual healing, Connie maintains a blog on chronic illness and Lyme disease, which can be accessed here:
www.Lymebytes.Blogspot.com
. She also leads a bi-monthly prayer conference call group for the chronically ill across the United States.

Prior to becoming a medical researcher, she was a medical interpreter for Spanish-speaking patients, as well as Spanish instructor, novelist and flight attendant for United Airlines. Her travels to over fifty countries on six continents have provided her with broad and unique perspectives on healing, and life.

Press inquiries can be made to the publisher, BioMed Publishing Group, in South Lake Tahoe, CA, by calling (530) 573-0190 or by emailing us at:
[email protected]
.

Books and DVDs on Cancer & Related Topics

To order online:
www.cancerbooksource.com/store

To order by phone: (530) 573-0190