Cancer is a Systemic Disease
   by James Occhiogrosso, N.D.

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Clients often ask me about herbs or foods that can cure or prevent cancer. It is always hard for me to answer without some sort of lengthy explanation. Everyone, including medical researchers, has been looking for the “magic bullet” that will conclusively cause cancer cells to “self destruct.” But since some of the best minds of the world have been working on this problem for many, many years, perhaps we need to fact the possibility that no such substance exists. Nutrition and Herbology are not sciences that can be precisely defined. We cannot say that taking 500 mg a day of “substance A” can prevent cancer. And likewise, we cannot say that it will not.

There are many natural substances that have anti-cancerous properties. Taken together, prudent vitamin and mineral supplementation, and some selected herbal remedies, can help reduce your risk of acquiring cancer, or help folks that already have cancer better manage their disease and treatment. With the addition of a healthy diet and a good lifestyle, it is possible to maintain good health well into one’s eight or ninth decade.

For many years, the public has been led to believe that cancer is a disease that starts in one place in the body, and, if left untreated, may progress to other places. This theory was formulated in the late 19th century by a Dr. Halsted, the inventor of the radical mastectomy for breast cancer. Many people, including some medical practitioners, still accept this as the unvarnished truth. The key words in the first sentence above are “if left untreated.” They imply that treatment, (typically surgery), unequivocally “cures” the cancer. In this scenario, chemotherapy after surgery is used to kill remaining microscopic cancer cells, rendering the patient back to a position of being cancer-free. Statistics show this paradigm to be untrue.

In the latter part of the last century, many medical professionals came to realize that this solitary tumor growth theory was wrong and that cancer is a systemic disease that is—in many cases—preventable by proper diet, nutrition and lifestyle. Unfortunately, the public still has yet to accept this concept.

The first thought of virtually anyone on receiving a cancer diagnosis is how to get rid of it. They want their doctors to tell them that they can “cure” them with surgery, chemotherapy, radiation or some combination of the three. Then they want fast action to get the cancer out of their body and be “cured.” This simplistic approach typically results in treatment that reduces or delays their cancer, but rarely “cures” it. Surgery and radiation can remove or reduce the size of the tumor, and chemotherapy may destroy some cancer cells, but no current treatment exists to alter conditions in the body that allowed that cancer to grow in the first place.

Until the prevailing thought accepts that only the body’s immune system can “cure” cancer, it seems we are doomed to continually repeat past mistakes. Anyone receiving a cancer diagnosis should be aware that while medical treatment can help, it rarely guarantees a cure. Thinking otherwise arises from a false belief that technology can cure anything. Unfortunately, people treated for cancer are rarely advised about natural techniques that may help increase their immune function and reduce their chance of cancer recurrence. Among these techniques are the use of many vitamin supplements, immune enhancing herbs like Astragalus, Cat’s Claw and Pau D Arco, immune building foods like mushrooms and garlic, vitamin D enhancement through sunlight exposure and supplementation, exercise, and dietary changes.

Our bodies produce cancer cells constantly. If one’s immune system is working properly, rogue cancer cells are destroyed before they have a chance to grow into a tumor. A cancer diagnosis represents a significant failure of one’s immune system. Cancer prevention and cure thus revolves around reestablishing a healthy immune system. This does not exclude medical treatment of the cancer. Unfortunately, many folks take the medical treatment to be a conclusive cure. After treatment, they continue to maintain their previous poor nutritional status, and low immune function, thus dooming them to repeating the past.

Anyone that has been treated for cancer or has a history of poor immune function should make appropriate nutritional and lifestyle changes to prevent further illness. Simply continuing on the same path is foolhardy! I believe strongly that with lifestyle changes and the right nutritional and herbal supplements, you can change conditions in your body that cause cancer, thus reducing your risk of recurrence or a new cancer diagnosis.