100 Perks of Having Cancer: Plus 100 Health Tips for Surviving It (58 page)

away from packing lunches and helping with homework; away from all of

the humdrum duties of running a household. A vacation? Yeah, that’s how

I chose to see it when I began my radiation therapy in late February. I was

“zapped” every weekday for five weeks. Since the nearest hospital that offers

this treatment was more than 200 miles away, I was forced to leave my small

town and move to the city for the duration of my treatments. I wondered,

Whatever shall I do with myself for the next five weeks without my loveable kiddies

and furry critter?
(I would still see them on the weekends.) Here’s what I was

thinking:

●
take up yoga

●
go to the movies

●
dine out at nice restaurants

●
visit a spa

●
hang out at my favorite bookstore

●
shop for some new workout clothes

●
walk in the park

●
visit a museum

●
go to the flea market

●
take in a dinner theater

I figured that would take care of the first week at least.

I 239 J

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Each of my radiation treatments lasted about fifteen minutes, including

getting me situated on the table. I made good use of that valuable time by

using a visualization process that I had read about on CNN News. At the

time, David Seidler had just won an Oscar for best original screenplay for

The King’s Speech.
Six years earlier, Seidler had been diagnosed with bladder

cancer. He attributes his survival to the use of his vivid imagination to visu-

alize his cancer away! Whether or not the mind-body connection is strong

enough to actually cure cancer is a topic that has been hotly debated for

years. While there are many proponents of the mind-body connection, there

are also many studies that show that it does not work. Seidler didn’t care

about the studies. He was convinced that he actually visualized away his

bladder cancer.

Like Seidler, I didn’t get all caught up in the studies. If one person says

he cured his cancer through use of visualization, then that’s all the proof I

needed to give it a try. After all, what did I have to lose? So while that radi-

ation was being beamed into my body, I visualized it as a golden, healing

light. As this light entered my body, I imagined it making my healthy cells

glow with vibrant health, while any remaining cancer cells shriveled up and

disappeared. Imagine that!

Visualization is a great tool to add to your arsenal of cancer-

fighting techniques. Whether or not it is proven to cure cancer

is debatable. However, it HAS been proven to reduce stress

and improve quality of life. What do you have to lose?

HEALTH TIP #59

Multivitamins . . . What Do You Have to Lose?

T
here are a boatload of studies that look at whether taking a multivitamin

is worth it or not. But just like there is not one health routine that works

for everyone, the same is true with multivitamins. The benefits depend on

what kind of vitamin you take and your overall lifestyle. The latest (October

Perk #59: A Five-Week Vacation

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2012) study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health,

involved 15,000 men followed for ten years to look at cancer prevention.

The study showed an 8 to 12 percent decrease in overall cancer incidence

in those taking a daily multivitamin. So there may be some truth to the

value of a multivitamin. But before you go out and buy a big warehouse-

sized bottle, there are some things to know. Remember, vitamins are just

puzzle pieces that complete a nutritional picture. The vitamin itself can’t

do anything. It needs proper overall nutrition and hydration to perform.

Food Vitamins Are Better Than Pill Vitamins

You could not survive on just water and multivitamins to live as they have

no nutritional value. They must be used in conjunction with a healthy diet.

The vitamins and minerals found in food seem to provide different benefits

than just the vitamin pills alone. Vitamin A–rich foods are healthier and

have more overall cancer prevention benefits than eating vitamin A poor

foods along with popping a vitamin A pill.

You Still Need to Eat Healthy

Just because you can get 100 percent of your vitamin intake all in one shot

does not mean you can fill the rest of the day with chips and candy. Because

your healthy diet works in conjunction with the vitamins, your diet has

more of an effect on your risk reduction than just taking a vitamin ever will.

Avoid the Megadoses

Look for vitamins that contain 100 percent of the recommended daily

allowance (RDA) or less. High doses of the fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E,

and K) can do more harm than good when the dose is too high. Vitamin

D is proving to be an exception to that rule, as daily recommendation doses

are 600 mg/day, but cancer risk reduction doses can be up to 2,000 mg/day

depending on what your blood levels are.

Break It Up

Water-soluble vitamins like C and the Bs, along with minerals, are most

beneficial when they are available to your body’s cells all day. But the fact

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100 Perks of Having Cancer

that they are water-soluble means they aren’t stored and they wash out of

your body and down the toilet in a few hours. Breaking vitamin pills in half

and taking half in the morning and half in the afternoon provides better

availability to your system and a more efficient use of your pill.

Vitamins Are Not Replacements for Healthy Habits

Until they come out with an exercise pill, you can’t omit your exercise

because you took your vitamin. Sorry.

You Don’t “Need” a Vitamin Pill

If you eat a healthy, balanced, plant-based diet, you are

Look at multivitamins

getting everything you need. Just because there are studies

as an insurance policy.

that show increased benefit here or there, the bottom line

But realize there are far

is, you are an individual and only you know if a multi -

more important things

vitamin is necessary. On the flip side, they certainly can’t

you should be doing

hurt when taken properly, but you may still need addi-

for your health.

tional extra vitamin D and plant-based calcium based on

your health history.

Perk #60

Families United

W
hile at the cancer clinic awaiting one

of my radiation treatments, I had the

pleasure of meeting a lovely woman whose

positive attitude shone through despite her

stage-4 diagnosis. Somehow the conversation

came around to my blog, and she was kind

enough to share a perk with me. Sitting in a

wheelchair with her mother by her side, she

beamed as she told me about her three chil-

dren and about how cancer seemed to bring

her whole family closer together. As ugly as

cancer is, I thought, it is beautiful how fami-

lies unite in time of need.

My biggest fear when I learned that I had

cancer was that my children might be left

without a mother. This fear was magnified

for Ben, as he is my youngest, he has autism,

and his family spans two continents. My

Ben with his British sister, Faye (left),

two older children, Kaitlyn and Donovan, are

and his Canadian sister, Kaitlyn (right).