Defeat Cancer (17 page)

Similarly, it’s important for practitioners to be in a supportive environment where they can work in a collaborative spirit with colleagues. This isn’t easy to achieve in today’s world, but we have managed to do this at the EuroMed Foundation in Phoenix. We regularly discuss our patients and stimulate one another to develop treatment plans that will produce the best outcomes for them.

My experience is that most oncologists are good people who care for their patients. Yet they aren’t open to alternative treatments because of the “group think” factor which dictates that things must be done a certain way. This has blinded most from thinking outside of the box and asking inquisitive and open-minded questions, and has prevented them from being true scientists. This “group think” mentality is backed by a lot of money that goes into research and therapies. Good science doesn’t mean double-blind studies. If a treatment keeps a patient alive for four months, is that good science? At our clinic, we aim to keep our patients alive for twenty years.

Besides the lack of scientific curiosity and thinking, some oncologists fear losing their professional status, and social and economic pressures cause them to pause before going beyond a certain boundary in their practice of medicine. We have had many patients who were supposed to die but who instead returned to their oncologists alive and thriving. When this happens, most oncologists don’t ask their patients what they did in order to get well, and they don’t explore their situations more. An attitude of inquiry should be present in a scientific mind, but in general, it’s very lacking in modern oncology and modern medicine.

If I had cancer, I would want people around me who were compassionate towards my experience and who would be willing to help me work through my fears. I would want to be surrounded by people who would encourage me to look at all of my treatment options, but who wouldn’t pressure me to go in any particular direction, and who would instead encourage me to do my research and think things through. I would like to be around others who would encourage me to laugh, and who would ask me questions about my life such as: Who am I? Who am I intimate with? How do I feel about this cancer?

When people with cancer have others around them who can encourage them to look at their fears and express what they are going through, and support them in making wise treatment decisions, this takes them out of a state of sympathetic dominance, or a fear-based “fight or flight” response. Thinking from the heart is important. When we think mostly out of our heads, which we all do, our thoughts are almost always fear-based. When people with cancer have family members who pressure them and say things like, “You must go here, and do this or that therapy,” it makes them anxious. Helping them to rest and laugh, or doing things like preparing meals for them and taking them to their therapies, is a better way to support them.

People who become proactive about their health have a much better chance at healing from cancer. Part of the answer to the question of who heals also involves looking at the “cancer personality.” People with a “cancer personality” are often described as having a history of a lack of closeness with one or both parents, which results later in life in a lack of closeness with other people. That in itself provides a big clue about who might have an easier time healing. Some people have noticed that better outcomes happen when practitioners
can help their patients resolve the conflicts that they carry about their mothers and fathers.

I can sometimes see in people’s eyes, very early on during their visits with me, whether they are depressed. If so, I may try to help them build a support system, prescribe St. John’s Wort, (which is an herb that aids in healing depression), or use combinations of amino acids to heal the brain. I may also suggest that they work with a practitioner who is trained in conflict resolution, or color therapy. People that I know who have healed their cancers or who have done well over the long term, are those who have taken charge of their emotional healing and moved beyond a fear state. They have resolved their anger and grief, so that even if they were in great pain initially, they learned to work with that pain and are now doing well.

There’s a certain inner quality about people who heal. Almost all of them have some kind of support system. They really work on resolving their conflicts, or they let us work with them to help them do this. They realize that they must make significant and transformative changes to their lives and lifestyles. They know that in order to heal, they must take a break from their “normal” lives. They are the kind of people who can say, “I accept that I have this cancer, and I’m going to work with it, because I know that I can get well again and move on with my life in a better way.” They need to have a good reason to live.

When people can do all of these things, their confidence builds. They want to live, not just survive, and are willing to do whatever it takes in order to accomplish that. They stay focused and don’t give in to their fears. They know that their job is to stick with the program, find people they trust to spend time with, and do whatever it takes to get better. Healing happens when they find other people who can support them in getting better, and when they find the will within themselves to heal. It takes courage to do this.

Emotions and attitude are more important factors in healing than finances. Many people don’t have a lot of money for treatments. That’s the reality today. But I’ve seen people attract funds when they really want to get well. Part of this involves them focusing more on the present, directing their resources towards therapies that will help them get better, and trusting that the future will take care of itself. I have discovered that, as a society, when we can change and shift internally, even in the face of adversity, we attract people and resources that we would not have otherwise attracted had we stayed stuck in fear.

The financial cost for treating advanced cancer is estimated to be close to $500,000 per patient. Many of these costs are hidden from patients because third parties, either government or private (such as insurance companies) pay for them, although increasingly, more people with cancer are incurring these costs and are declaring bankruptcy for medical reasons. As a society, I think we can do better with cancer treatment, and achieve not only better outcomes but also significantly lowered costs, if we adopt the approaches outlined in this chapter. That means incorporating the principles and practices of integrative cancer care into mainstream medicine, and by encouraging people with cancer to be proactive and responsible for their own lives.

If you have cancer, and can find the right treatment path to take, there is great reason to believe that you will have a good outcome. This either means seeing your cancer disappear, or living well with your cancer for many years. Find the practitioners who are right for you and form a team that will help you to get better. If you don’t have cancer, take positive preventative steps by working with an integrative or holistic practitioner.

Treatments within integrative oncology have much to offer. It’s my hope that these successful, intelligent, scientific, and common sense approaches will gain wider acceptance within conventional oncology,
as well as within the worlds of business and government, in the same way that they are gaining acceptance within the public mind.

Be involved and proactive in your life, decide that you are going to improve and heal, and be willing to do the work required to attain these goals. Keep your heart open and your mind receptive. Discover a fuller life.

EuroMed Foundation

34975 N. North Valley Parkway, Bldg. 6, Suite 138

Phoenix, Arizona 85086

Phone: (602) 404-0400

Fax: (602) 404-0403

www.euro-med.us

Pine Tree Clinic for

Comprehensive Medicine

843 Miller Valley Road, Ste. 204

Prescott, Arizona 85301

(928) 778-3500

(928) 717-0712 fax

www.pinetreeclinic.com

Colleen Huber, NMD, is a naturopathic medical doctor and primary care physician who currently practices in Tempe, Arizona. Dr. Huber focuses on herbal and environmental medicine, nutrition, and intravenous therapies. She received her naturopathic medical degree from Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine. Dr. Huber has published numerous articles in Dr. Joseph Mercola’s biweekly natural health newsletter,
eHealthy News You Can Use,
as well as in other publications, including
The Lancet
.

Dr. Huber’s clinic has worked extensively with over 120 cancer patients. She and her staff have spent countless hours with every single patient. Dr. Huber is a founding member and Secretary of the Naturopathic Oncology Research Institute.

Cancer is a growth in the body that’s outside of the body’s control and which operates on its own agenda. It’s unique among other
tissues in that it doesn’t recognize itself as part of the body. Every normal tissue acts cooperatively with the rest of the body, but not cancer. It will grow, invade and metastasize, as it takes everything that it needs from the body to do that. And all at the body’s expense.

A number of things contribute to the development of cancer. The most well-identified causes of cancer, in the scientific literature, are genetic instability and DNA damage. The cause of DNA damage has been traced most reliably to environmental toxins and radiation, but a diet void of nutrients and high in refined carbohydrates and poor quality fats, such as hydrogenated fats, also damages DNA. Trans-fatty acids, for example, have been known to alter DNA. So it’s not necessarily just about industrial toxins, but also denatured food. There’s a lot more cancer today than there was 50 years ago, as the quality of food deteriorates.

The treatments that I do at my clinic are multi-faceted. There’s a popular delusion among oncologists and practitioners of natural medicine that cancer can be fought with one well-chosen substance. Nothing could be further from the truth. Many agents are needed to fight cancer, primarily because it arises after several normal mechanisms in the body have broken down. Cancer preys on the body in numerous ways simultaneously, and no single agent, whether chemotherapeutic or natural, has yet been found to have enough anti-neoplastic (cancer-killing) effects to reverse all of those abnormalities in all patients and be “the cure” for cancer.

At least seven events must happen in the body before cancer can occur, so when formulating a treatment protocol for my patients, I take into account and address all of the ways in which cancer has attacked their bodies in order to reverse those events and thereby, their diseases.

Following are the seven events which lead to cancer and some of the solutions that I use in my practice to address them. These seven
events were first identified by cancer writer John Boik, who has a PhD in Biomedical Sciences and a Master’s degree in Oriental Medicine, among other credentials.

1. Genetic instability and DNA damage
   are some of the first problems that allow cancer to develop in the body. Medical research has shown Essiac tea to be beneficial for correcting and reversing this damage. It’s one of the oldest natural treatments for cancer and has helped many hundreds of people. It was developed by a Canadian nurse, René Caisse, together with the Ojibwe people of Canada. It’s a combination of four herbs: burdock root (Arctium lappa), Turkish rhubarb (Rheum palmatum), sheep sorrel (Rumex acetosella), and slippery elm inner bark (Ulmus fulva). Later versions of Essiac use additional herbs that have pro-estrogenic effects which have been linked to breast tissue proliferation, so I don’t recommend those altered formulas. Essiac has been found to have cytotoxic effects specifically against neoplastic cells (cancerous cells), which means it doesn’t damage normal cells. It protects against DNA damage and seems to keep cancer from proliferating, so I include it my protocols. It’s time-consuming to make, but it can also be purchased in various prepared forms from the health food store.
   
2. Altered genetic expression
   produces proteins that either facilitate or don’t prevent cancer, and which result from DNA damage. Substances that are known to reverse gene expression include: dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) (which can be administered intravenously), turmeric, and astragalus.
   
3. Abnormal cell signal transduction
   starts with a signal to a receptor, and ends with a change in cell function which allows cancer cells to grow through self-stimulation, rather than depending on growth factors from other cells. (Author’s note: Cell signal transduction refers to the relaying of molecular or physical signals from a cell’s exterior to its intracellular response mechanisms). Research suggests that abnormal cell signal
   transduction can be corrected with alkalinizing agents, such as sodium bicarbonate, the benefits of which have been described by Tullio Simoncini, MD, an oncologist from Rome. Sodium bicarbonate isn’t well-appreciated in the medical community, but it’s very effective. I also use other alkalinizing agents in my practice.
   
4. Abnormal cell to cell communication
   sets a tumor apart from its neighboring cells by allowing cancerous cells to act in the best interests of the tumor rather than the body, and ignore the body’s needs. Medical literature shows that Vitamin D improves cell to cell communication.
   
5. Angiogenesis
   is the creation of new blood vessels from preexisting vessels. These blood vessels feed the tumor and allow it to hoard disproportionately large amounts of nutrients. Vitamin D is helpful for preventing this, as is avoiding copper intake. Copper can be a problem for patients with cancer, and is a mineral that I don’t use because it’s implicated in angiogenesis. I allow slight copper deficiencies to develop in my patients, but not to dangerously low levels.
   
6. Invasion and metastasis of the cancer
   results not only from the aggressive nature of the tumor, but also the low integrity and too friable (crumbly) nature of the surrounding normal tissue and basement membranes. (Basement membrane refers to a thin sheet of fibers that lines the cavities and surfaces of the organs, including the skin). Vitamin C controls the metastasis and invasion of cancer into different parts of the body in a variety of ways. It’s cytotoxic; that is, it kills cancer cells (how it does this is described later in the chapter), and also strengthens and rebuilds the body’s collagen. The latter is necessary for maintaining tissue integrity so that the cancer can’t push through the tissue, reach down, dig in, and establish itself in new places in the body as it grabs onto new blood vessels. Turmeric is also good at preventing cancer invasion and metastasis.
   
7. Immune system evasion
   occurs when cancer camouflages itself and hides from the immune system, while disabling some of its functions. Vitamin A can help to restore immune recognition, as can Vitamin D, although the role of Vitamin A in immune recognition remains under-appreciated among cancer practitioners.