My mother was diagnosed with a particularly agressive forms of Uterine cancer on her ovaries, which only 7 weeks after being removed by surgery had grown back to the same size (large grapefruit, or two fists held together). So in December of 2012 my wife and I made a fast dash to my native New Zealand for what we thought would be a last Christmas and a farewell to my mother. But first I loaded her up with information about Cancer…

Before leaving I compiled a list of the best alternative and complementary cancer advice I could find on the internet from my favourite sources. (Dr Mercola and Dr Lam were the main sites)

She didn’t follow even half of the advice, but she chose a few and really stuck to them. While we were with her we cooked her healthy vegetarian food from fresh produce, filled with yummy super foods.

The main things she chose to do where:

No sugar or alcohol (right through the festive season, not an easy feat)

She stopped microwaving her coffee and tea (a weird practice that people of a certain generation seem to do all the time?)

She added frozen and grated lemons to EVERYTHING she ate (something to do with getting all of the nutrients, this came from a friend, not me)

But I think the most important thing she decided, was that she wasn’t ready to die yet! That it was worth fighting to life, it was worth having goals and plans beyond the next Chemo session… To me this was the single most important factor in her survival thus far (it’s now April of 2013, and she is still fighting!)

Update: As of October 2017 my mum is still alive and well, she has had over 100 chemo treatments, but went on to a drug trial working with Immunotherapy… Her tumour is much smaller than it was and has shrunk dramatically over the course of the immunotherapy treatments 🙂

My original email to her with information about Cancer is below:

Nutrition and diet advice for you to beat the beastie!

Hello Mumbo, I hope you’re feeling ok after the treatment…

So here is my quick digest of do’s and don’ts and also a bunch of links for further reading at the bottom…

These are taken from Dr Mercola (mercola.com) and Dr Lam (drlam.com) If I find more I will send it through to you, but for now this should keep you going for quite a while. I wouldn’t change anything you’re doing with the doctors, but

Cut out GMO foods

Eat Organic wherever possible

Cut out Sugars, artificial sweeteners and preservatives etc in food – or basically eat a natural whole-food diet

Cut out instant coffee (I know you love your coffee, but who knows what process they put that stuff through to get it to dissolve like that… drink organic ground coffee if you have to)

replace black/english tea with green tea, Matcha Green tea if it’s available – high in antioxidants!

Start taking Vitamin D3 supplements – oral spray is the best way to get it into your body quickly – can take with calcium too (don’t take D2 or cod liver oil)

Safe sun exposure over large parts of your body is the best way to get Vit D, but only until the skin turns the lightest pink

Might not be helpful at the moment, but keeping strong muscles is a good way to reduce the risk… a little late info perhaps…

Another important supplement is curcumin, which effectively addresses inflammation and has potent anti-cancer properties.

Apparently you should get your home checked for Radon gas (which comes from underground…) it’s easy to block it out…

Avoid non-stick cookware and stain resistant fabrics…

Check out your personal products (skin care, soaps and cosmetics) – Some of the most common culprits to avoid include SLS, parabens, phthalates, antibacterials, musks, 1,4-dioxane, mineral oil and petrolatum, hydroquinone, nano particles, formaldehyde and formaldehyde-producing ingredients.

Avoid canned foods and foods in plastic package and containers – they contain a chemical called BPA, which isn’t good for us. Eat traditionally fermented foods to help break the BPA down and lower absorption in the intestines, as well as containing health bacteria.

Get rid of all of the chemical cleaners, use soap and water or 3% hydrogen peroxide and vinegar

Use Green building materials… there are lots of harmful chemicals in paint, varnish etc, get low or no VOC paints (Volatile Organic Compounds)

Don’t put chemicals on your garden if you’re going to eat the produce…

Sleep in complete darkness, or wear an eye shade – get rid of night lights, block street lights getting in through the window, cover clock radios with lights, don’t turn the light on when you go to the toilet in the night etc

Eat Onions and Garlic! Often!

Take Calcium Carbonate and Magnesium (30-60 minutes before meals or 60-120 minutes after, so as not to reduce effectiveness of digestion)

Proper exercise is important! See the link below

Take mega doses of Vitamin C daily!

Over 5,000 studies have been conducted on vitamin C, and here is the general parameter on a daily intake basis:

· Prevention of scurvy – 35 mg

· Low Dose – Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) – 80 mg

· General well being: 100-300 mg

· Anti-aging Dose: 300 – 2,000 mg

· High Dose – 2,000 – 10,000 mg (where cancer cells are killed and normal cells are spared)

· Very High Dose – for Active cancer treatment alone or as adjunct to conventional treatment: 5 gram to 50 grams (by mouth and IV)

· Toxic Dose – where cancer calls and normal cells are both killed. There is no established toxic dose.

(Recommend to take 2000 to 10,000 mg per day… Dr Lam offers a consultation via email depending on your particular case: http://www.drlam.com/askme.asp)

Build your Immune system: Take cats claw, Oliver leaf extract, Fish Oils, Mstletoe (aka Iscador treatment – involved subcutaneous injections, do more research on this yourself perhaps?), Miatake, Shitaki and Reishi Mushroom extracts, and super mushroom Agaricus Blazei Murill(ABM). Also take Gotu Kola (a herb that has anti-inflamatory benefits amongst others)

When the Treatment is Worse than the Disease…

Perhaps more importantly, most conventional cancer treatments tend to add insult to injury by doing more harm than good — a fact that has been largely swept under the rug by the medical industry.

Meanwhile, the real culprits—the underlying causes—are completely ignored, and that is, I believe, the root of the problem. The cancer industry has become a massive for-profit business that is doing everything in its power to maintain the status quo. It is, quite simply, not interested in truly reducing cancer rates; it’s interested in treating cancer. From that perspective, the more cancer cases the better…

Information about Cancer – Winning the War Against Cancer Begins with Your Personal Choices

You can do a lot, right now, to significantly decrease your cancer risk. Even the conservative American Cancer Society states that one-third of cancer deaths are linked to poor diet, physical inactivity, and carrying excess weight. So making the following healthy lifestyle changes can go a very long way toward ending the failure-streak and becoming one less statistic in this war against cancer:

1. Normalize your vitamin D levels with safe amounts of sun exposure. This works primarily by optimizing your vitamin D level. Ideally, monitor your vitamin D levels throughout the year.

2. Control your insulin levels by limiting your intake of processed foods and sugars/fructose as much as possible.

3. Get appropriate amounts of animal-based omega-3 fats.

4. Get appropriate exercise. One of the primary reasons exercise works is that it drives your insulin levels down. Controlling insulin levels is one of the most powerful ways to reduce your cancer risks.

5. Eat according to your nutritional type. The potent anti-cancer effects of this principle are very much underappreciated. When we treat cancer patients in our clinic this is one of the most powerful anti-cancer strategies we have.

6. Have a tool to permanently erase the neurological short-circuiting that can activate cancer genes. Even the CDC states that 85 percent of disease is caused by emotions. It is likely that this factor may be more important than all the other physical ones listed here, so make sure this is addressed. My particular favorite tool for this purpose, as you may know, is the Emotional Freedom Technique.

7. Only 25 percent of people eat enough vegetables, so by all means eat as many vegetables as you are comfortable with. Ideally, they should be fresh and organic. Cruciferous vegetables in particular have been identified as having potent anti-cancer properties. Remember that carb nutritional types may need up to 300 percent more vegetables than protein nutritional types.

8. Maintain an ideal body weight.

9. Get enough high-quality sleep.

10. Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins like pesticides, household chemical cleaners, synthetic air freshenersand air pollution.

11. Reduce your use of cell phones and other wireless technologies, and implement as many safety strategies as possibleif/when you cannot avoid their use.

12. Boil, poach or steam your foods, rather than frying or charbroiling them.

13. Avoid BPA, phthalates and other xenoestrogens.

14. Watch your iron levels.

15. Make sure you’re not iodine deficient

READ THESE FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT CANCER – CARRY ON FIGHTING CANCER!

VIT D INFO** http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/03/11/is-vitamin-d-the-silver-bullet-for-cancer.aspx

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/06/13/What-Surprising-Exercise-Cuts-Your-Cancer-Risk-by-40-Percent.aspx

More Vit D info http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/06/11/New-Model-Of-Cancer-Development-Vitamin-D-is-the-Key.aspx

7 slides of things to eliminate in your home and life http://articles.mercola.com/sites/mercola/slider/cancer-proof-slider.html

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/01/02/sleep-in-darkness.aspx

Interesting info about the increase in cancer predicted over the next 20 odd years http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/12/19/why-are-cancer-cases-rising-by-nearly-50-in-the-next-20-years.aspx

Info on 12 top tips to reducing cancer http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/10/15/mayo-clinic-finds-massive-fraud-in-cancer-research.aspx

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2006/11/28/onions-and-garlic-protect-you-from-cancer.aspx

More Vit D info http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/08/06/why-we-dont-have-a-cure-for-cancer-yet-or-do-we.aspx

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/01/02/colon-cancer-and-calcium.aspx

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2005/04/13/cancer-risk-part-one.aspx

This is important Re: Exercise** http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2012/09/21/exercise-helps-cancer-patients.aspx

AntiOxidants are important** http://www.drlam.com/articles/cancer_and_antioxidants.asp

Build your immunity** http://www.drlam.com/articles/cancer_and_immunity.asp

http://www.drlam.com/blog/category/cancer/

Eat an Alkaline diet