Beating the Odds – Part One

By Marion Algier – Ask Marion – Cross-Posted at THITW

1600+ Americans die every day of Cancer. At the turn of the 20th Century 1 in 200 Americans developed Cancer… today (2015) 1 out of 3 Americans will have Cancer during their lifetime.

I have been blessed to have been amazingly healthy all my life. I was days short of turning 62-years-old, had never been in a hospital for anything related to myself and had probably only ever been to see a doctor 20 times in my entire life when I was diagnosed with Uterine Cancer. And although my father, who had been just as healthy all his life as I’ve been until he was stricken with Colon Cancer at age 62… and died at age 63, it never really occurred to me that I would ever have Cancer. After our dad died, the doctor told us that chances were very high that one of us 3 kids would develop Colon Cancer and it was something we should watch out for and be tested for. My brother died at age 21 so my sister and I jokingly said more than once, “Well, since Rick is no longer with us, let us hope that it would have been him that was destined to come down with the Cancer.”

After closing our business as a result of the tough economy, my husband and I had moved in with his 80 plus year old parents to get back on our feet and to help take care of them. Our better offer was to go to Connecticut and stay with my cousin and his wife, but my father-in-law was in late stage Alzheimer’s and his then 82-year-old wife was overwhelmed, suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis, had failing hearing, and as I call them, suffered from old-timers disease, an array of senior related conditions and ailments… if not predementia. After inheriting a substantial amount of money from their parents and a couple aunts, they made a number of unwise purchases and unguaranteed loans and then got scammed by a Jamaican ring that prays on the elderly and uninformed. Before anyone realized it, they not only bankrupted themselves but scavenged their grandchildren’s college funds as well as opened a reverse mortgage that they overdrew once the housing bubble burst, so their house was essentially gone too! I have been an unpaid caregiver for over two years in a stressful environment, and still am, and my architect husband an unpaid handyman and part-time caregiver while applying for and trying countless part-time and commission jobs that went nowhere and sometimes cost us money. Then he got a lead and went to truck driving school, a job you should be retiring from instead of starting at age 62, but it gave us medical coverage after 3-months.

I had known for several months that something was wrong; I was sick. But even though insurance companies can no longer deny you coverage due to pre-existing conditions, they can charge you high premiums because of them. So I waited to go to the doctor until I knew we had coverage and could go without having costly pre-existing condition fees. As it was we had a 12K yearly family co-pay.

On October 1st, a week before my 62nd birthday, I went to the local emergency room. On my 62nd birthday, I was diagnosed with stage 3 inoperable (because of the location of the tumor and the outliers from the tumor) Uterine Cancer. Since then it has appeared as both Uterine and/or Cervical Cancer on my paperwork. And from the looks in their eyes that day plus little innuendoes, I could see that nobody other than my husband and our new GP thought I was going beat the disease.

At some point you start feeling alone unless you make contact with other Cancer patients or Cancer survivors because nobody understands what the disease or the treatments are like unless they have gone through it. And even with a support group of family, friends and Cancer survivors, you get used to feeling both lonely and alone. Nobody really wants to hear about your ailments or challenges, especially not on a regular basis. For me it was probably worse because my husband got a job where he was gone weeks, sometimes nearly two months without coming home for usually only 4 or 5 days. He gave up being home for any of the major holidays including Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and even his birthday in order to be there for my chemo treatments. At first that seemed like a fair trade but after the first couple of treatments, the company stopped making the effort to get him home.

Video: How the American Cancer Society spins survival data

Natural Society: Recently, the results of a study claiming that most Cancers are caused by “bad luck” have been floating around in the mainstream media. This sounds like we should all just give up and accept our likely fates of cancer, chemo, and death, right? However, there is a mountain of evidence showing that cancer is in fact preventable, partly because tumor development is a bit too complex to be bad luck.

Most Cancers are “Beyond Your Control’ Due to Mutations

For many years, the “Mutational Theory” has been the dominant explanation for cancer’s origin. The story goes like this: accumulated mutation in all the right places lead to the affected cell going “crazy,” and instead of destroying itself after this damage, it grows out of control until vital processes are obstructed. Then, the heroic oncologists attempt to wage war against this monster with one or more of the standard trio of chemo, radiation, and surgery…with often disappointing results.

One 2004 study of thousands of patients found that chemo is less than 10% effective at saving lives, contributing only 2.1-2.3% of the 5 year survival rate. This was deemed to be the upper limit of effectiveness.

More recently, it was reported that out of 54 cancer drugs released since 2004, three quarters of them did not extend life. Unfortunately, chemotherapy is often forced on young people who refuse it, such as in a recent case involving a Connecticut teenager, meaning it could be considered as a tool or form of oppression. Therefore, it’s wonderful that in actuality, cancer is not the result of chance or luck, as well as being unlikely; and the theories behind the development of cancer drugs are most likely incorrect.

In reality the even scarier part is that one of long term side effects of both chemotherapy and radiation therapy is causing a second unrelated Cancer in 5-years or less. And the more you get of either therapy the higher the percentage that you will get either a relapse or a new Cancer.

Read: 4 Cancer-Fighting Foods

What is the nature of a tumor? Tumors express organized behaviors including building their own blood supply; silencing some genes and activating others; secreting corrosive enzymes; altering their metabolism for low oxygen and high sugar, acidic environments; as well as removing surface proteins to escape the immune system.

A new theory, however, states that cancer is actually a highly efficient, pre-programmed stress response. According to the author’s research, cancer is an evolutionary throwback from a genetic “tool kit” over a billion years old that is normally buried dormant deep within the genome, called Metazoa 1.0.

Cells with the genetics of Metazoa 1.0 would have favored traits that enable them to survive a much harsher environment with features such as extremely low oxygen. The trait of incessant proliferation was the default state of these primitive cells, when simply not dying was the first priority of individual cells.

There was no tissue specialization that organisms could use to protect themselves, so genes providing extreme resilience against assault and creating a highly “selfish” form of behavior was necessary. While the mutation theory is partially true, genetic damage is responsible for unmasking a primitive set of genes instead of being solely responsible for tumor development.

Additionally, an analysis of gene expression patterns has indicated that when the level of oxygen decreases, the rate of glycolysis (a pathway of cellular energy production that does not require oxygen) increases, and this leads to a vicious cycle of accelerated tumor growth and further reductions in oxygen. The production of new blood vessels to ensure a supply of glucose only gives temporary breaks from this cycle.

The current understanding of this is that glycolysis is not only faster at generating energy when glucose is abundant, but also that glycolysis provides some of the raw materials needed for rapid cell proliferation. A key driver of this process was found to be reduced energy efficiency caused by factors such as hypoxia, which triggers a dramatically increased glucose uptake and a switch to glycolysis. This can also allow the tumor to select “positive” mutations such as those that upregulate Cancer promoting genes and silence or delete suppressor genes, no random mutations required.

Read: Little Known Chinese Herb and Iron Kill Crazy Amount of Cancer Cells

When seven cancer types were tested, expression of genes turned on only during replication increased as oxygen levels dropped. Therefore, cancer is not a time bomb or a result of bad luck, but instead caused by an ancient survival response to a toxic environment, unnatural diet and compromised immunity.

So what can we do to prevent Cancer, besides reducing excessive dietary sugar?

6 Tips for Preventing Cancer

1. Regular coffee consumption can reduce the incidence of some Cancers, but watch the acidity level of your body. Book: The Acid-Alkaline Food Guide – Second Edition: A Quick Reference to Foods & Their Efffect on pH Levels

2. A review from 2012 found that sun exposure may also lower the risk of Cancers such as breast, colon, and pancreatic cancer, because of vitamin D synthesis (getting burnt will remove the benefits) and prolonged or excessive sun exposure can cause skin Cancer.

3. A study of almost 24,000 participants showed that those taking antioxidant supplements from the beginning had a 48% reduced risk of cancer. This can mean that increased antioxidant intake from food or supplements can reduce cancer incidence, as many other studies show that certain foods high in antioxidants and other nutrients have the ability to protect against Cancer.

4. Quit smoking. Cigarette smoking, which depletes antioxidants, is responsible for a third of all Cancer deaths in many countries.

5. Reduce or eliminate, if possible, the use of pharmaceutical drugs. Statins, the contraceptive pill and many others are associated with a higher risk of Cancer.

6. Interestingly, cannabis smoking is associated with a 45% reduced risk of bladder cancer and a 47-62% reduced rate of head and neck cancer, regardless of whether or not they had been infected with HPV. And using hemp oils increases the survival success rate of treatments like chemo and radiation by 25%.

Despite what the mainstream media tries to make people believe, Cancer is indeed preventable and not caused by “bad luck.” This is good news, because not only are Cancer and its conventional treatments very debilitating and distressing, but they hinder control over one’s life – which is a natural psychological need, as described by the self-determination theory.

So what can you do if you are diagnosed with Cancer?

After you are diagnosed:

Take control of your destiny.

Do your homework.

Question the treatments the doctors suggest.

Look for alternatives.

Add natural cures and aids to the traditional western medical treatments even if you decide to go that route.

Have a back-up plan.

Keep your attitude up.

Cut your stress.

Pray.

Be positive.

Stay out of the doldrums and away from pity parties as much as possible.

Surround yourself with things that make you happy… pets, photos, music, etc.

Limit your exposure and dealings (as much as you can) to negative people and situations.

Make plans for the future.

Because my husband was gone regularly through my entire chemo treatment time, and my father-in-law was in the late stages of Alzheimer’s at home and died during the first four months of my treatment, I had no choice but to rely on myself for my attitude, to do my own research and to be prepared for any and all side effects from the treatments… as well as soldiering on to do whatever was needed at home to take care of my inlaws, cook, clean and keep a house that had been neglected until we arrived going. I even worked about 10-hours per week through most of that time, kept up my outside and volunteer committments and cooked the holiday dinners for family and friends throughout my treatments.

I think I did a pretty good job through the chemo process and with each check-up my oncologist was shocked at my progress.

But with every chemo treatment, each bit of knowledge I collected and the daily stress plus wear and tear on my body, the long term worries and side effect realities became heavier. It is not the short term side effects that matter, but those that could develop for 5 or more years after both chemo and radiation treatments that are the true worry!

I never questioned that I would beat my Cancer

I prayed and talked to God daily, throughout the day, in a positive manner; thanking Him for curing me and making me completely Cancer free.

I moved 600 photos that made me happy onto my phone and kept adding to it.

Our four furkids, a Chihuahua and three Chiweenies, never left my side.

I visualized my tumor and the outlying ribbons shrinking and being gone daily.

I only ever allowed myself one 10-minute pity party.

I drank a teaspoon of baking soda in water every morning, sometimes twice a day and then added trace minerals.

I ingested 4 squirts of food grade hydrogen peroxide daily.

I used the oxygen machine provided by hospice for my father-in-law every evening for 5 to 10 minutes and inhaled the pure oxygen.

I got a vitamin B Complex shot weekly.

I took vitamins, iron, probiotics, krill oil and phytoplankton daily.

I researched every option from hemp oils and immunotherapy to alternative health centers like Sanoviv.

I added things like raw sauerkraut fermented naturally with whey, extra protein and more organic veggies, fruit and smaller amounts of organic/wild meat and fish to my diet.

Sources:

Time

Experimental treatment uses immune system to fight Cancer – Immunotherpy coming to US in 2015

Breakthrough! Have The Israelis Developed A Cure For Cancer?

A Natural Herb That Fights Cancer, or Chemotherapy for Your Sick Pet… Which Would You Choose?

This New Drug Appears to Cause Cancer Cells to Self-Destruct

How to Starve the Cancer Out of Your Body

America’s Drug Story and the Rockefeller Empire

Books

The Ultimate Anti-Cancer Cookbook: A Cookbook and Eating Plan Developed by a Late-Stage Cancer Survivor with 225 Delicious Recipes for Everyday Meals, Using Everyday Foods

The Acid-Alkaline Food Guide – Second Edition: A Quick Reference to Foods & Their Efffect on pH Levels

Radical Remission: Surviving Cancer Against All Odds