“Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher. There is no time for negative energy during cancer. You need to be around people who inspire, challenge, and make you better.” Oprah Winfrey.
Cancer has become widespread in recent years. For every family, someone close is inflicted by this dreaded disease.
The disease is not only about the patient. It is about the family. Spouse, children, and everyone close to the patient is affected and involved in the process from diagnosis to treatment and recovery and life and disease thereafter. There is always a hanging sword of its relapse. Continued monitoring with tests becomes a way of life thereon.
This disease is also about the emotional health of everyone involved and it comes with a huge financial burden. Adequate health insurance, therefore, becomes absolutely mandatory.
The irony is medical science is yet unable to know the exact reasons for the onset of cancer. In the absence of symptoms, preventive tests are the only way to find out it early.
Apart from Watchful Waiting depending on the type and stage of Cancer, as per the American Cancer Society, usually, the conventional treatment options are;
- Surgery
- Radiology
- Chemotherapy
- Hormone Therapy
- Immunotherapy
- Targeted drug therapy
- Bone marrow transplant
- Cellular Therapy
Sometimes when the surgery is inevitable, post-surgery additional adjuvant therapy treatment are given to lessen the chance of your cancer coming back. These options are;
- Active Surveillance (Continues monitoring and evidence-based treatment)
- Radiology
- Chemotherapy
- Hormone Therapy
- Immunotherapy
- Targeted drug therapy
However, a whole lot of additional options are now available for the patients and their family members. This is a welcome sign as the cancer survivors and even doctors are writing books and sharing their practical knowledge about these non-conventional treatment options.
Though not usually recommended by Oncologists as these treatments are not yet approved by formal research, an unconventional approach in addition to the conventional approach can offer the best outcome.
The agenda of the patient and their family members are as under:
- Get rid of Cancer cells
- Avoid relapse
- Quality of life post-treatment
Perhaps unconventional approaches like Ayurveda, naturopathy, focussed diet, physical exercise, deep breathing exercise, change of lifestyle to healthy mind and body practices, and emotional therapy, all in all, make the body competent to boost immunity that fights any cell misbehaviors.
The benefits of unconventional treatments are;
- Boost immunity and the body’s response system
- Starves cancer cells, stops further growth
- Enhances impact of conventional treatment
- Reverse Cancer boosts the ecology of the body
- Mood enhancers that secrete good hormones and are good for mental wellbeing
Here are some of the relevant books written by doctors, survivors, and cancer coach for all patients diagnosed with Cancer and for their family members. Self-education about the disease and the treatment options would greatly enhance the power to deal with this deadly disease and instill confidence in unconventional treatments. This will surely complement conventional treatments.
Books written by doctors:
The author is an Oncologist at the MD Anderson Cancer Center one of the leading cancer hospitals in US. He recommends eating a good diet, staying a healthy weight, and other lifestyle interventions to keep cancer at bay. Citing case studies, Dr. Pant also suggests how patients diagnosed with and recovering from cancer can best manage their nutritional needs.
The author is a founder of the Radical Remission Project, and uncovers nine factors that can lead to a spontaneous remission from cancer—even after conventional medicine has failed. While getting her Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkley, Dr. Turner, a researcher, lecturer, and counselor in integrative oncology, was shocked to discover that no one was studying episodes of radical (or unexpected) remission—when people recover against all odds without the help of conventional medicine, or after conventional medicine has failed.
She was so fascinated by this kind of remission that she embarked on a ten-month trip around the world, traveling to ten different countries to interview fifty holistic healers and twenty radical remission cancer survivors about their healing practices and techniques. Her research continued by interviewing over 100 Radical Remission survivors and studying over 1000 of these cases. Her evidence presents nine common themes that she believes may help even terminal patients turn their lives around.
The author is a Neurosurgeon who discovered his own brain tumor in one of his own research projects. The book is about his own experience of dealing with Cancer. The book is translated into 35 languages and sold in close to fifty countries. More than a million copies are sold.
Excerpts from the book:
“In the past two years, research has also yielded new proofs, explanations and perspectives on how we can all learn to strengthen our health and improve our terrain by creating an anticancer biology within our body, and it has confirmed the importance of paying attention to how our emotions may affect the course of cancer.”
“There is one single, clear and emphatic message I’d like to send with this revised edition, it is that we must pay close attention to the mind-body connection, especially the negative impact of prolonged feelings of helplessness and despair. When left unattended, these feelings – not the stresses of life themselves – contribute to the inflammatory processes that can help cancer grow.”
“In a domain like oncology, two things are continually changing: conventional treatment and our knowledge of what each of us can do individually to reinforce the effect of these treatments.”
The following books are written by Cancer survivors:
In September 2020, a few weeks before my 48th birthday, the author was diagnosed with stage-3 genetic colon cancer. Against all odds, he took a leap of faith and decided to treat himself naturally, without destroying my body or my immune system. This book will teach you how he did it.
He writes,” We have become a pro-cancer society and our environment (internal and external) is both the cause of diseases and the key to our health. Most of what industrials sell us is carcinogenic, from the toxic processed food and food-by products, pesticides, food preservatives, antibiotics in our meat, plastic particles in our water, mercury in our fish, air, water, and soils pollution, stress, lack of physical activities, toxic relationships, overconsumption of medical drugs, over-vaccinations, hours of seating in front of a screen, and much more… Yes, we have become a sick and pro-cancer society. But the good news is, it is easy to make just a few changes to improve our health and our lives.”
The author a Chartered Physiotherapist was diagnosed with Cervical cancer when in 1999 she was 30. The book is about how she survived with her own research and diet. The forward is written by Dr. George W. Yu, Clinical Professor of Urological and Pelvic Cancer Surgery, George Washington University Medical Center, Aegis Medical and Research Associates, and President of the George W. Yu Foundation for Nutrition & Health.
Excerpts from the book:
“With the advent of better detection methods (MRI, PET scans) that showed chemotherapy and radiotherapy shrinking tumours quickly, the mainstream continues to be sold on the somatic theory. It’s a rash decision, fed by panic and the hunger for quick results. In the mad dash to get rid of a tumour, the patient is over-treated with high levels of either chemotherapy, radiotherapy or targeted therapies. This approach is doomed to fail – it only makes the patient more resistant to future treatment.
Focusing on the DNA does not affect the cancer ‘stem cell’. Cancer returns harder and more aggressively than before. The cancer mutates and eventually becomes resistant to these ‘targeted’ treatments. Treating the cancer metabolism, on the other hand, alongside targeted approaches, will reach the stem cell and offer the real opportunity for a cure. But these treatments are much slower, taking many months. The patient and the oncologist will both need patience.”
The author was diagnosed with stage IIIc colon cancer in 2003. After surgery, he opted out of chemo and used nutrition and natural therapies to heal. Today he is healthy, strong, and cancer-free.
The book is about his own battle with dealing with cancer and surviving. This book could be an inspiring read.
From her treatment in the US and the wonderful care provided by the oncologists there to how she rebuilt her life once she returned home, the book takes us on an emotional roller-coaster ride through her many fears and struggles and shows how she eventually came out triumphant. Through her journey, she unravels cancer for us and inspires us to not buckle under its fear, but emerge alive, kicking, and victorious.
A book by a Cancer Nutrition Coach:
The author is a Certified Cancer Nutrition Coach. Her mother was diagnosed with endometrial cancer and her father with prostate cancer. She used the approach mentioned in the book
Excerpts:
“This is the primary difference between holistic and nutritional cancer treatment and Western medicine. The holistic nutritional treatment uses natural antioxidants and oxygenation techniques to start repairing the cells damaged by cancer and create an environment inside the body where cancer cells cannot survive. When this starts happening, there are no side effects of reactivating the body’s own ability to heal itself. This is achieved via nourishing the cells and immune system with antioxidants available in plant-based foods as well as in balancing the mind and body with stress reduction techniques.
However, this is not true of Western medicine therapies. Every single Western treatment is categorically listed to have side effects where there is damage to the immune system by suppressing it, and there is a load on the liver and kidneys. Doctors are aware of this and they patiently explain to patients that there will be side effects. Many patients also develop a compromised digestive system from the side effects of these treatments.”
“Regarding cancer, if Western medicine could cure cancer for everyone, why would it recur? When doctors declare some patients cancer-free, at least 50 percent of those cases come back with a cancer recurrence. Why does it come back? Because of lifestyle triggers! And that is where the general cancer treatment philosophy is flawed.
When doctors discharge you from hospital, a large number of them don’t give you a guide sheet on ways to avoid recurrence. Most of them may not give you detailed advice about any particular diet to follow after the treatment to recover faster or to reduce the chances of recurrence. If over 70 percent of cancers are triggered by lifestyle, shouldn’t the treatment focus on the triggers? Shouldn’t correction of lifestyle be the first level of treatment given to prevent and cure cancer?”
The books for knowing more about Cancer:
In The Cancer Code, Dr. Jason Fung offers a revolutionary new understanding of this invasive, often fatal disease – what it is, how it manifests, and why it is so challenging to treat. He also identifies the medical community’s many missteps in cancer research – in particular, its focus on genetics, or what he terms the ‘seed’ of cancer, at the expense of examining the ‘soil,’ or the conditions under which cancer flourishes.
In this accessible read, Dr. Fung provides a new paradigm for dealing with cancer, with recommendations for what we can do to create a hostile soil for this dangerous seed. One such strategy is intermittent fasting, which reduces blood glucose, lowering insulin levels. Another, eliminating the intake of insulin-stimulating foods, such as sugar and refined carbohydrates.
For hundreds of years, cancer has been portrayed as a foreign invader we’ve been powerless to stop. By reshaping our view of cancer as an internal uprising of our own healthy cells, we can begin to take back control. The seed of cancer may exist in all of us, but the power to change the soil is in our hands.
In this book, Siddhartha Mukherjee, doctor, researcher, and award-winning science writer, acquaints the readers with the biography of Cancer. He provides a fascinating glimpse into the future of cancer treatments and a brilliant new perspective on the way doctors, scientists, philosophers, and lay people have observed and understood the human body for millennia.
Cancer treatment is now a combination of doctors’ and patients’ own self-education to support conventional treatment to work effectively without many side effects.
These books are relevant to self-educate and take charge of your body and disease. These practices are our responsibility over and above what doctors are doing on their part. Both together can-do wonders to fight the big C in your life.
“Cancer is just a chapter in our lives and not the whole story.” Allie Moreno
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