Dr. Duckworth On: Cancer/Report from Johns Hopkins

Why this blog?

Perhaps because my 68th birthday is upon me and my own health issues command attention; perhaps, because in the past couple of years friends have had to face serious cancer issues including terminal; perhaps, because I have been called upon, for years, to assist people coping with a cancer diagnosis.

They have sought acupuncture and meridian therapy as an adjunct to chemotherapy and radiation; they have sought help dealing with the side effects of those therapies; they have sought my medicine as an alternative to modern medicine’s offerings.

Modern medicine is a system of fixing what is broken, very mechanical. Surgeons need to cut and internists need to write prescriptions. Preventive medicine is quite a new concept to the contemporary medical practitioner. Nutritional studies are not part of the medical curriculum. Health is not studied, disease is.

Consumers want to know, want to be involved in their own health care and are constantly asking “What can I do? What should I be eating? What are the alternatives?

For practitioners of Far-Eastern medicine and other natural medicine modalities, the answers often include diet and the elimination of harmful ingestible stuff (that which is harmful by its nature, e.g. sugar, can not be labeled ‘food’), acid/alkalinity balance, herbal medicine, nutritional supplements, poultices, attitude adjustment, addressing digestive issues, strengthening the immune system, etc. The focus being the individual, not the treatment.

Perhaps we are entering into an “Age of Enlightenment” but there certainly has been a paradigm shift and the MD’s are beginning to look outside of their own constructed boxes.

I was recently informed by two friends who are themselves dealing with cancer issues that Johns Hopkins Medical School Hospital has finally acknowledged that there are very legitimate alternatives to treating cancer.

After years of telling people chemotherapy is the only way to try (‘try’ being the operative word) to eliminate cancer, Johns Hopkins is finally starting to tell folk there is an alternative way.

Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins:

1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.

2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person's lifetime.

3 When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.

4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.

5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.

6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastrointestinal tract, etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.

7. Radiation, while destroying cancer cells, also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.

8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However, prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.

9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.

10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.

11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it the foods it needs to multiply..

*CANCER CELLS FEED ON:

a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses, but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in color. Better alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea salt.

b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk cancer cells are being starved.

c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.

d. A diet of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruit helps the body regain an alkaline environment. [including ume’ concentrate in your diet is very powerful for assisting the body to regain an alkaline environment. Editor’s note]. About 20% can be from cooked food including dry beans, peas and lentils. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).

e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high levels of caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer fighting properties. However, if you are receiving chemotherapy, avoid green tea. Water: best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.

12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines becomes putrefied and leads to more toxic buildup.

13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat, more enzymes are free to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.

14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the body’s own killer cells to destroy cancer cells.. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.

15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, un-forgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.

16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily and deep breathing help to get more oxygen to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.

IMPORTANT:

1. No plastic containers in microwave.

2. No water bottles in the freezer.

3. No plastic wrap in the microwave.

Johns Hopkins has recently sent this information out in its newsletters. This information is being circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as well.

Dioxin chemicals cause cancer, especially breast cancer. Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies. Don't freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this releases dioxins from the plastic. Recently, Dr. Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at Castle Hospital, was on a TV program to explain this health hazard. He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us. He said that we should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers. This especially applies to foods that contain fat. He said that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body. Instead, he recommends using glass, such as Corning Ware, Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating food. You get the same results, only without the dioxin. So such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and soups, etc., should be removed from the container and heated in something else. Paper isn't bad but you don't know what is in the paper. It's just safer to use tempered glass, Corning Ware, etc. He reminded us that awhile ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away from foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.

Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap, such as Saran, is just as dangerous when placed over foods to be cooked in the microwave. As the food is nuked, the high heat causes poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food. Cover food with a paper towel instead.

This is an article that should be sent to anyone important in your life.