Hippocrates is widely acclaimed today as the “Father of Medicine”. M.D.s take the Hippocratic Oath when they are about to enter medical practice. We all know the name, but who was the man?

Hippocrates was a physician born in 460 B.C. on the Greek island of Cos. He had an investigative mind and disproved the common beliefs of the day – despite strong opposition from the governing authorities who sentenced him, as a young man, to 20 years in prison. Rejecting superstition, religion, and magic, he taught that disease is caused by transgression of the laws of Nature, that medicine can only be practiced scientifically, based on facts, observation and study. Believing that the body must be treated as a whole and not just a series of parts, he was the first physician to use diet, fresh air, medicinal waters, herbs and exercise in the treatment of disease – and with outstanding success.

Hippocrates accurately described disease symptoms and was the first physician to catalogue the symptoms of pneumonia, as well as epilepsy in children. He was the first to categorize illnesses as acute, chronic, endemic or epidemic, noting that there were individual differences in the severity of disease symptoms and that some individuals were better able to cope with their condition than others. He was also the first physician to hold the belief that thoughts, ideas, and feelings come from the brain and not the heart as others of his time believed.

After years traveling throughout Greece treating the full range of human ailments, Hippocrates founded a medical school on Cos to teach his ideas. This revolutionized medicine in the ancient world, establishing it as a discipline, a respected profession, apart from fields like philosophy or religion that it had traditionally been associated with.

He compiled a list of 400 herbs that he found curative, half of which are still used by herbalists today. Regarding medicine as an art that must be practiced with the utmost integrity and openness to new ideas, he developed an Oath of Medical Ethics for physicians to follow. Today a modernized version of the Hippocratic Oath is administered in the graduating ceremonies of most Western medical schools, serving as an ethical guide to the professional life of the medical doctor.

Though Hippocrates is honored as the “Father of Medicine,” if he were living today, no doubt he would be labeled a Naturopath, and, most likely, he would be disregarded or limited in his work by those who now claim him as their patron saint and swear to the oath that bares his name.

Hippocrates, in his own words:

• Everyone has a doctor in him or her; we just have to help it in its work. The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well. Our food should be our medicine. Our medicine should be our food.
• Any man who is intelligent must, on considering that health is of the utmost value to human beings, have the personal understanding necessary to help himself in diseases, and be able to understand and to judge what physicians say and what they administer to his body, being versed in each of these matters to a degree reasonable for a layman.
• If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.
• It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know what sort of disease a person has.
• That which is used – develops. That which is not used wastes away.
• About medications that are drunk or applied to wounds, it is worth learning from everyone; for people do not discover these by reasoning but by chance, and experts not more than laymen.
• A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings, and learn how by his own thought to derive benefit from his illnesses.
• Through seven figures come sensations for a man; there is hearing for sounds, sight for the visible, nostril for smell, tongue for pleasant or unpleasant tastes, mouth for speech, body for touch, passages outwards and inwards for hot or cold breath. Through these come knowledge or lack of it.

Original article from http://www.rethinkingcancer.org/

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

For a cancer patient, yoga helps in releasing stress and improving sleeping patterns. Yoga is a physical, mental and spiritual discipline. According to the definition in Wikipedia, the individual who practices yoga works to attain the state of having a perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while they’re meditating on the Supersoul.

How I Went from Cancer Patient to Ironman Triathletebit.ly/Ln1O25

— Dianne Burnett (@DianneBurnett) July 4, 2012

Just how and when did Yoga started?

Nobody can tell when Yoga started, but it’s without doubt Yoga is literally written in history. People found many stone carvings in the Indus Valley that was approximately 5000 years old. The stones have the figures of Yoga positions which were drawn on the discovered stones.

The tradition of Yoga has always been passed on individually from many teachers to their students engaging in practical demonstrations. The formal techniques that are now being applied by many students are believed to be an assortment of experiences by a lot of individuals many years ago.

The eight well known steps of classical yoga are the following:

1. Yama which means restraint, to refrain from violence, lying, stealing, and the likes.
2. Niyama is observance
3. Asana is physical exercises
4. Pranayama is a breathing method
5. Pratyahara is the form of preparation for meditation and described as withdrawal of the mind from the senses
6. Dharana means concentration, the ability to hold the mind on one object for a specified time.
7. Dhyana is meditation, the ability to focus on one thing that is indefinite.
8. Samadhi which means absorption

Yoga arrived in the United States in the late 1800s but it wasn’t practiced mainstream until 1960s.

Yoga as an alternative cancer treatment

Yoga is a mixture of stretching exercises and deep breathing. In a yoga class, you’ll be placing yourself and your body in various positions which demands bending, twisting of the body and stretching. The main benefit it brings to cancer patients is it gives short term stress relief and long-term stress management benefits. An individual who has cancer is usually stressed in many ways.

a. They could be thinking too much of their disease that they can’t do the things that they would like to do. Which made them emotionally stressed.
b. They could also be physically stressed as a result of pain
c. Lastly, spiritually stress because they might be questioning why these things are happening to them. Asking why God permitted this kind of disease to enter their bodies.

Yoga quiets the mind; the practitioner or patient becomes aware of his emotions and understands to substitute negative thoughts to positive or neutral ones. However, for yoga to be effective, research indicates cancer patients must take part in yoga 2 to 7 times weekly. It’s known to help improve sleep and reduce the fatigue our body amasses everyday of our lives.

Those are just a few of the benefits of yoga for cancer patients. Even so, your doctor’s advice is also required. Yoga is a superb option for everyone not only to people who have cancer. Check out the following article included in a series of alternative cancer treatments.

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Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

Tai Chi is a traditional Chinese body and mind relaxation exercise which consists of 108 intricate exercise sequences carried out in a slow and relaxed manner for a duration of 30 minutes. Tai Chi, when translated to English language, is “The Supreme Ultimate Force”. It is additionally another Chinese concept of Yin Yang.

Benefits of Tai Chi
The advantages of Tai Chi are nearly as good as Yoga. It calms the nerves, tones the muscles and levels out one’s internal energy. Research also show that a person who practices Tai Chi may even delay his or her aging process. It also helps maintain your agility and enhance the functions of your internal organs.

Just how and where did Tai Chi start?
Tai Chi is an ancient Chinese martial art which has many variations. People are not certain when Tai Chi began but stories say that it was used during the early 20th century. People have two different reasons why they want to do Tai Chi, 1 is simply to alleviate stress and the other, as a form of martial arts or self-defense.

Tai Chi started out as a health exercise in China. It was initially taught as a style of martial art and longevity exercise. It’s also known as a preventive and wellness workout for those individuals who are into this practice.

Nowadays, there are a lot of people are practicing Tai Chi. There is no doubt that many would love to do this, that’s why it is also recognized an alternative cancer treatment that is available and can be tried by everybody.

Tai Chi as an alternative cancer treatment
As we have examined, Tai Chi is a type of exercise that requires gentle movements and deep breathing. It’s nearly as good as yoga, but the difference is with yoga, it will need you to perform some stretching plus it focuses on physical and spiritual relaxation.

Tai Chi is another form of alternative cancer treatment in a manner that it helps cancer patients relieve their stress and helps someone to have a wonderful sleeping pattern. Cancer patients are always stressed out; a few of the reasons might include the stress of thinking about the pain that cancer brings, or it may be also the stress because of the therapies they are undergoing or the stress about the costs for the treatments and so forth. Tai Chi is one alternative cancer treatment that can be put to use by anyone.

You will find lots of people who’re against alternative treatments and we can’t blame them. They might think why they need to take the risk of practicing these alternative treatments when they can just as easily go to a doctor and ask for their help. We ought to also remember that everyone has different body frames in addition to dna, and whatever works well for others might not work well with you.

Tai Chi is usually safe. Its slow motions call for great physical strength and it can easily be adapted to your own ability. Again, you will probably find this intriguing and exciting but your healing will constantly depend on how well your body adjusts and maximizes its capabilities to get rid of the ailments you might have inside your body.

By Paula Jimenez

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Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

I have come to view cancer as I view all conditions that deviate from optimal functioning, the only real definition of health.  A tumor is a biochemical relationship between blood vessels, connective tissue and malignant (mutated, anaerobic cells).  These three tissue types “talk” to each other and provide mutual support for their maintenance, which is why I have never found it useful to send a blood sample to Greece or Germany where they evaluate the genetic capabilities of circulating tumor cells in an effort to elucidate potential “treatment” options from chemotherapy to natural substances.  It overlooks the epigenetic phenomena and the cytokine relationship between the three tissues.If one were to look at the cytokines and interleukins being secreted by a tumor and a healing wound, they would be found to be the same.  Both produce pro-angiogenic cytokines and tissue proliferation cytokines.

Cancer has been referred to the, “the wound that wouldn’t heal”. These cytokine are all in the inflammatory family, which demonstrates that “cancer” is just one of the many endpoints of chronic inflammation.  Eating only living plant material results in a human biochemical condition, which completely and effectively keep the inflammatory/anti-inflammatory ratio in a harmonic resonance that is necessary for optimal functioning.Inflammation is how the body heals and is the fundamental pathology in all “disease”.

For this reason, going to “war” against “cancer” is an attempt to eliminate what the body is doing to maintain homeostasis is completely antithetical to healing and indicates that allopathy should be put on the shelf forever and under the heading of one of humanities greatest failures.  The underlying premise is that health is impossible and disease is inevitable.  This is so ingrained into our collective psyches that we buy insurance and prepare for disease our whole lives instead of preparing for a life of sustained vigor and a robust old age, well into a second or third century.  This only seems ridiculous because we have come to accept morbidity as normal and premature aging and death as normal.

The truth is that the scientists who study aging (MDs, PhDs, NMDs) cannot explain why it is that we die so young.  It is not “written” into our genes.

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Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

Although breast cancer is currently a pandemic (world wide epidemic) and is thought to be different from colon cancer or pancreatic cancer or lymphomas, etc…, they are all the same in that they are cells and tissues that are adapting to toxic overloads in the body.  It is when oxygen is no longer able to be used by the body in energy production to “burn” glucose (sugar = fuel), for energy that the tissue and cells adapt by changing there internal mechanisms into a “default” mode of energy production called glycolysis or fermentation.  That is when the changes that are required the energy producing functions of the cells result in changes in shape and relative sizes of the organelles (little organs within cells).  It is these morphological (shape and size) changes that are identified under a microscope by a pathologist to diagnoses” (name) the process, “cancer”.

In summary, these apparently different cancers are merely different cells in the body undergoing certain changes to adapt to there new requirements for survival.  In effect, then….all cancers are the same, which is why a single term, “cancer” is used to describe them.

If one understands this, they do not become fearful that they have a “rare” cancer or an unusual cancer or an untreatable cancer….all cancers are basically the same process occurring in different parts of the body.  This is like the changes one sees in the skin whether it is a burn, for example, on the hand, the breast, the back, the face, etc…IT IS THE SAME PROCESS and therefore requires the same approach to deal with it or alleviate it.

Thomas Lodi, MD
Internal Medicine
Homeopathic Physician
Metabolic Medicine
Integrative Oncology
Certified Nutrition Specialist

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Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

The debate is over!  Humans are anatomically and physiologically designed to eat only plant food. Homo sapiens (humans) are classified broadly as land mammals and more specifically as tailless primates.  Our closest cousins, gorillas, bononobos and chimps eat predominantly plant material with a few insects here and there.  Chimps will, on occasion eat flesh foods but is it more “ceremonial” to demonstrate territorial claims and celebrate won skirmishes with other tribes, but this is rare.

Furthermore, the China Study by T. Colin Campbell, PhD, a professor emeritus from Cornell University whose career has been dedicated, in large part, to protein consumption and its’ effect on humans has clearly demonstrated what the effect animal protein has on the health and wellbeing of humans.  His thirty-five years of NIH granted research and studies performed by others elsewhere demonstrate a clear causal (cause and effect) relationship between the consumption of animal protein and cancer, cardiovascular disease and other chronic conditions found only in humans and domesticated animals fed the human version of “food” rather than what these would consume naturally, out of instinct, had they not been domesticated and left without the choice of what to eat.

If one were to clear away the biases which configure their mind, and hence color and frame its’ perceptions, and engage in a thorough investigation of the subject of human nutrition, it becomes utterly clear that we thrive on plant foods to the degree that robust health is the norm and this phantom, called disease is only the body attempting to maintain balance.

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Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

The word “cancer” was translated by Celsus (28 BC – 50 AD) from the Greek term, “carcinos”.  Hippocrates first developed the word, “carcinos” to describe growths and chronic ulcers and it is not known if what he was describing at that time is the same as what we now call ‘cancer’.

But, “cancer”, like all diagnoses are only names of processes that the body is undergoing to maintain balance and health (homeostasis).  In fact, the chemicals (cytokines) produced by “cancer” and the chemicals produced by healing wounds are basically the same; they stimulate new blood vessel growth (angiogenisis) and tissue proliferation.  That’s a really good and necessary process for healing wounds but it’s not so good if it is a tumor or other forms of cancer.

This is the reason why “cancer” has previously been referred to as, “the wound that wouldn’t heal”.  The only reason that a wound will not heal is if whatever caused the wound to occur in the first place continues to occur or if the body is too overwhelmed to heal because of a lack of energy and raw materials (nutrients) to replace old cells and build new ones OR if there are too many different “attacks” on the body from trauma, poisoning and other environmental conditions.

Clearly, what we call, “cancer” then, is our body’s extraordinary effort to keep us alive.  In fact, all that the body ever does is attempt to maintain balance and function.  With this in mind, one realizes that to “go to war against cancer” is to go to war against our body’s attempt to resolve a problem.  It really makes no sense and, in fact, it is also clear that this method of dealing with cancer is based on the false premise (belief) that “cancer” is a “thing” that is in our body and that we must “kill” it.

What really must happen is that we must eliminate the reasons that are causing the body to go through these processes, provide the appropriate nutrition and eliminate tumor(s) in such a way that we don’t harm the body’s ability to heal.

Thomas Lodi, MD
Internal Medicine
Homeopathic Physician
Metabolic Medicine
Integrative Oncology
Certified Nutrition Specialist

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Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

Part 1, It will provide you with the information you need to accurately assess the risks and benefits of any treatment and speak intelligently to your doctor about such treatments. There is also a section on the ‘Cancer Industry’ which explains the history behind cancer treatments, the suppression of alternative treatments and why chemotherapy, radiation and surgery are the only treatments available to mainstream medicine.

Part 2, Healing Cancer, shows how cancer can be successfully healed with dietary treatments and natural supplementation. It explains common misconceptions about cancer, shows how diets designed to fight cancer are more successful than conventional treatments, discusses startling cancer research findings with T. Colin Campbell (The China Study) and has interviews with people who have reversed cancers using diet. It also discusses supplementation and why attitude is important in reversing not only cancer, but any disease.

Participants include: T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. (The China Study), Brian Clement, Ph.D. (Hippocrates Health Institute), Brenda Cobb (The Living Foods Institute), Mirea Ellis (The Kushi Institute), Charlotte Gerson (The Gerson Institute), Matt Lederman, M.D. (Transition to Health, Inc.), Thomas Lodi, M.D. (An Oasis of Healing), John A. McDougall, M.D. )Dr. McDougall’s Health & Medical Center), and many more…

Now on Netflix
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Healing_Cancer/70095421?trkid=912834

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

Although both animal-based foods and plant-based foods in totality may have the same macro-nutrients and even some of the same micro-nutrients, they do differ in both composition and structure. With that being said, it must be understood that there are no nutrients found in animal-based foods that cannot be better obtained from plant-based foods.For example, animal fats are all solid at room temperature due to the fact that they are saturated, e.g. they contain no double-bonds hence their melting points are much higher requiring greater amounts of heat to liquefy them.
Humans, however require specific types of fats, called omega fats (double bonded), which are double-bonded at either the third or sixth carbon atom from the end of the fatty acid. These double-bonded (unsaturated) fatty acids have much lower melting points and therefore are in a liquid form at room temperature.Stearic acid (animals) and oleic acid (olive oil), for example differ only in that oleic acid has a double bond at the nine position and it’s melting point is 4 degrees of centigrade while stearic acid, also an 18 carbon fatty acid, has no double bonds (saturated) and has a melting point of 67 degrees of centigrade. Quite a difference when you consider that normal body temperature is 37 degrees of centigrade!The omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are considered essential, which means that the human body cannot synthesize them and therefore they must be obtained through diet.  Their respective roles in metabolism are fundamentally essential to life and they are produced only by plants.  Animals are not capable of producing unsaturated fats.Similarly, animal proteins are carcinogenic while plant proteins, even in excess are not carcinogenic, as Dr. T. Colin Campbell, PhD was able to prove unequivocally through a multitude of studies over a thirty-year period in the Philippines and in China.All carbohydrates are produced by plants, all anti-oxidants are produced by plants, vitamins are produced by either plants or bacteria found in soil or which inhabit the gastrointestinal tract and minerals (earth) are incorporated into plants and made bio-available to animals.A plant-based diet could include animal products such as certain secretions from mammals that have come to make up the dairy industry however these substances contain certain proteins, such as casein, which fuel cancer growth. In fact, as Dr Campbell stated, casein has been proven to be the “most carcinogenic compound ever discovered.”

A vegan diet is a purely plant-based diet, that excludes products derived from animals such as eggs, milk and perhaps other secretions, which may be unique to certain cultures.  The results of this diet from womb to tomb include but are not limited to extreme mental clarity, a delightful requirement to move about and expend energy (exercise), a happy disposition and continence, compassion, rapid learning and recall, satisfying sleep, absence of degenerative diseases, rapid healing from trauma, a strong desire and ability for sexual activity well into advanced age and an exceedingly long life,  unless severe trauma intervenes.With these advantages resulting from adherence to biological laws, how did this even become an issue and how on earth did it become controversial.

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Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

The war on cancer began with the National Cancer Act of 1971, a United States federal law. The act was intended “to amend the Public Health Service Act so as to strengthen the National Cancer Institute in order to more effectively carry out the national effort against cancer“. It was signed into law by then U.S. President Richard Nixon on December 23, 1971.
The “war on cancer” was declared around 40 years ago, billions of dollars have been spent on research and trillions of dollars on treatment.  In spite of this, we are witnessing an increase in both the incidence and death rate from cancer.  Obviously, not only are the causes of cancer not being addressed, but the concept of “war” against the “cancer” (the body) must be abandoned.

A seed requires fertile soil to sprout and to grow, mature, bear fruit and reproduce and, unfortunately at this time in the history of mankind,  the “seeds” of cancer are in abundance.  It is, therefore imperative to insure that one’s body is not “fertile ground”.  Cleansing the colon, eating a diet of fresh, organic vegetables, nuts, seeds and low glycemic fruit, along with plenty of sound sleep, regular exercise, hormone balancing, honest relationships and prayer/meditation are what turns the human body into an inhospitable host for the development and growth of cancer. Instead of this morbid consequence, what is produced, is a body in which health reigns supreme.

Alternative medicine methods are diverse in foundations & methodologies.

Acupuncture · Anthroposophic medicine ·Herbalism · Homeopathy · Naturopathy ·Orthopathy · Osteopathy/Chiropractic

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Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

When men dressed like Franciscan monks, wearing sandals and brown hooded robes belted with a rope, appeared in Kathleen O’Keefe-Kanavos’ dreams in 1999 and told her she had breast cancer, she didn’t ignore them although her recent mammogram, Pap smear and blood work had revealed no abnormalities.

Listening to her dreams, or what can better be described as nightmares, she badgered her doctors for different tests but instead was given three more mammograms and four blood tests over a four-month period. Still, no health issues were discovered. Her doctors repeatedly told her to go home, that she was healthy. While most of us might be happy to receive a clean bill of health, it was unsettling to O’Keefe-Kanavos because her nightly nightmares told her otherwise.

“I did want to believe (that I was healthy),” said O’Keefe-Kanavos, who today proudly calls herself a two-time breast cancer survivor. “But my guides were saying, ‘No, don’t even go there.’ ”

Neither her mother nor her mother’s doctor had been as diligent about the mother’s health. Her 80-year-old mother’s diarrhea was so severe that she couldn’t leave home. Her doctor’s solution was prescription drugs. The diarrhea continued for six months, during which time the doctor told her that she was free to change doctors if she didn’t agree with him.

“She was scared to change doctors,” O’Keefe-Kanavos said of her mother, who was like her best friend after growing up an only-child Army brat and changing schools frequently. “That generation worships their doctor.”

Eventually, there was blood in her mother’s stools. Severe colon cancer was detected and six months following surgery, her mother died.

With her mother’s passing having just occurred several months earlier, O’Keefe-Kanavos was determined not to be a sideline player with her own health care. She insisted to her doctor that further examinations were necessary to find her breast cancer.

“Not everyone has that much energy,” said the daughter who wouldn’t give up.

Dreams do come true

O’Keefe-Kanavos convinced her doctor, against his and his hospital’s policy, to perform exploratory surgery, which, to no surprise to O’Keefe-Kanavos, revealed Stage II breast cancer.

“You have to learn how to play the hospital policy game,” she advises. “Hospital policy is not made for the patient. It’s made to make sure the hospital gets their money. You can be complacent. You have to watch out for yourself.”

Four chemo treatments over as many months, 36 radiation treatments and oodles of doses of tamoxifen, which interferes with the activity of estrogen, later, MRIs showed her cancer was in remission after a year.

During that time, she used her dreams to decide which course of treatments to take and, against the wishes of her doctors, took high doses of vitamins to bolster her immune system, drank Kombucha tea to combat the shingles she developed due to the stress, juiced celery, carrots and other vegetables to pull the toxins out of her body and practiced Reiki. But still, that wasn’t enough.

“What I didn’t realize at the time is there are a percentage of women who the drugs stop working for after two years,” she said, “and unfortunately I was one of them.”

Doctors had stopped her periodic MRIs after no cancer was detected. Now back to mammograms, that test revealed no cancer either. Although she had blood tests every six months, she says her hormone levels were never checked. O’Keefe-Kanavos wanted to resume MRIs but was unable to get in to have that test done. Meanwhile, the nightmares with Franciscan monk-like men telling her she had breast cancer returned with a vengeance. She fought even harder for an MRI.

“I went up against the doctors (at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston) and had to be aggressive,” she said. “I said, ‘I am not letting go of your desk. I am going to scream like a two-year-old. You are going to have to call security to drag me out of here.’ ”

Finally they relented and she had an MRI. Almost exactly five years to the day after her initial diagnosis, she received startling news: Stage IV breast cancer. This time, a different chemotherapy was used to combat a different type of cancer and she was treated with radiation as well. While her Boston doctors wanted to do a lumpectomy, she preferred a double mastectomy and ended up going to New York to have the procedure done. Cancer in her other breast was detected following the double mastectomy, validating that O’Keefe-Kanavos had made the right decision.

Listening to your guide

By now a Reiki master, she continued practicing that Japanese technique, soaked in Epsom salt and baking soda, meditated nightly (and sometimes during the day) and drank a half a glass of red wine nightly, which she said counteracted the radiation and stimulated her salivary glands to allow her to eat. She applied aloe vera where she had radiation, crediting that for leaving her with nothing more than a sun burn while other women who didn’t use aloe vera were burned all the way through to their backs.

She credits incorporating a holistic approach into her mainstream treatment for being able to call herself a recurrent cancer survivor today.

“Obviously it was important or my guides would not have told me to do it,” she says of her treatment route. “We all have guides. We all have angels. Every single person on this earth has them. They just don’t listen to them. All you have to do is retrain yourself to remember your dream — open that door, pick up that phone and communicate with the other side.”

She used dream therapy as a treatment modality and worked one-on-one with a spiritual guide.

“The chances of your dream finding cancer once when the medical community has missed it is like winning the lottery,” she said. “To have it happen twice is like winning the lottery back-to-back. It just doesn’t happen.”

But it did to O’Keefe-Kanavos.

“We have a purpose,” she said. “We have a mission and my mine is to do exactly what I’m doing now, spread this information and teach doctors to listen to their patients. My story is a bridge story. It bridges holistic and conventional and that’s OK because there’s more than one way to skin a cancer. You have to find out what’s right for you.”
Kathleen O’Keefe-Kanavos authored three forthcoming books: SURVIVING CANCERLAND: The Psychic Aspects of Healing, SURVIVING RECURRENCE IN CANCERLAND: The Dream World & Healing and THRIVING AFTER SURVIVING CANCERLAND: Putting Our World Back Together Again. For more information, visit Surviving Cancerland.

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Kathleen O’Keefe-Kanavos videos:

The Day I Found Out Project

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

Survival is nothing new for Ethan Zohn. But with the return of his Hodgkin’s lymphoma the winner of Survivor Africa in 2001 faces a different challenge these days. He recently underwent a stem cell transplant from his brother and is hospitalized until his immune system is fully functional, which could be about five weeks.

Adult stem cells, essentially blank cells that can become another type cell in the body, can be used as a natural solution to replace and heal damaged tissues and cells in the body. For years they have been used successfully in human therapies.

“Today I leap into a healthy new body,” he wrote on Twitter. “Today is the start of the rest of my life. Thank you to my bro Lee & all who have supported me. Love!”
Always the competitor, Zohn is still showing his fighting spirit.

“Ethan asked the doctor what was the record time for getting out of here, so he wants to beat that,” Zohn’s longtime girlfriend Jenna Morasca told People.

“His doctor said there was no prize, and Ethan said, ‘Yes, there is. You’re going to tell the other patients that I made it out in three weeks.’”
Zohn, 38, was diagnosed with a severe form of Hodgkin’s lymphoma back in 2009.

“When you’re diagnosed with cancer, your first thought is, ‘S—, I’m going to die,’” he told the New York Daily News last October.

But that negative thought didn’t last long. Zohn is remaining positive throughout his latest battle. He and his girlfriend started a Twitter account @Ethansbubble, in reference to his hospital room, where visitors are allowed to visit from time to time.
“We don’t know who is actually writing the tweets, so it makes it really fun,” Morasca said of the account, which is open for their friends to write posts. “It’s all about thinking positively.”

For more about stem cell therapy.

Watch three stem cell success stories:

Survivor‘s Ethan Zohn: “Keeping up with the Kardashians is curing cancer!”

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

Pictured from left: Kym Gold, JVF Board member Dr. Janet Hranicky and JVF Founder Dianne Burnett

“We don’t want to wait until everyone in this room has cancer.”

Those were the words JVF Founder Dianne Burnett told the energetic and enthusiastic group of more than 30 men and women who gathered at her home Sunday to discuss plans for the inaugural Angel Heart Gala that will take place later this year to raise money for Joan Valentine – A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc.

The gala will feature a dinner, silent and live auctions and live entertainment. Burnett, Founder of the charity named after her mother who succumbed to esophageal cancer in 2010, announced that JVF will partner with Florida-based Hippocrates Health Institute and a portion of funds from the gala will go toward the two forces opening a holistic healing center on the Westside. The center, the name and scope of it to be announced later, will give Hippocrates a permanent presence on the West Coast.

Cindy Landon (left), Bobi Leonard and Rod Summers

Hippocrates has been the preeminent leader in the field of natural and complementary health care and education since 1956. Under the direction of Drs. Brian Clement and Anna Maria-Gahns-Clement, Hippocrates follows the philosophy that a vegan, living, enzyme-rich diet — complemented by exercise, positive thinking and non-invasive therapies — are integral to optimum health.

“After a year’s research for cancer wellness and preventative, I felt that Brian Clement and his team were the closest to my philosophy,” Burnett said later. “It’s more about the way you feel about yourself. It’s what you’re putting into your body without taking pharmaceutical drugs. I don’t think we always need to do that. For cardiovascular, diabetes and cancer we can reverse it with our nutrition and our mind, body and spirit.”

Dr. Sharyn Winters talks about being diagnosed with cancer 40 years ago and surviving.

JVF stresses that positive thinking is one of the keys to fighting diseases and illnesses. “Unfortunately the medical community does not appreciate how the person is feeling mentally has everything to do with the outcome,” Dr. Janet Hranicky, a member of the JVF Board, said to her fellow committee members.

JVF Board member Sharyn Wynters, ND, who has traveled to China multiple times, spoke about how doctors in that country are paid to keep people well. If too many residents in a village become ill, the doctor is asked to leave. It was the apropos lead-in to a Chinese proverb read by Burnett to the group:

“The superior doctor prevents sickness. The mediocre doctor attends to impending sickness. The inferior doctor treats actual sickness.”

Guests feasted on a vegan buffet by Monrose Catering Company

That’s the message: don’t wait until you’re sick to take care of yourself. Instead, take care of yourself everyday to avoid illness. Another way of doing that is by eating healthy. To show JVF practices what it preaches, guests at the luncheon feasted on a delectable vegan buffet consisting of eggplant stuffed with artichoke, quinoa, Israeli cous cous, risotto cakes topped with mushrooms and onion, fresh seasonal vegetables and mixed greens with walnuts from Monrose Catering Company.

Check back soon to learn more about the Angel Heart Gala, which promises to be memorable event.

Vibrant health is the most valuable asset we can ever have. Yet, we all know that good health does not just happen. Like all things of great value, it needs to be nurtured and cultivated with care. This process can be both confusing and intimidating — especially to those who rely solely on hearsay and public information. The Hippocrates Health Institute was created over five decades ago in response to this need. Over the years, we have developed the Life Transformation Program into the definitive blueprint for transitioning to a healthier lifestyle. Our doors are wide open to guests with a wide array of intentions, whether it be curing themselves of devastating disease or simply learning to take their good health to an uplifted level. Hippocrates guests come to realize that excellent health is not only possible, but also definite and achievable!

Who was Hippocrates?

Photos by Austin  Daniels Photography

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

Plans are underway for the inaugural Angel Heart Gala to raise money for Joan Valentine – A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. Dianne Burnett will host a luncheon at her Malibu home on Sunday, January 22 for committee members.

The gala will take place later this year and promises to be a memorable evening filled with delicious food, live entertainment and the auctioning of fabulous items from the worlds of entertainment, wellness, travel, dining, fashion and beauty.

Anyone interested in donating items or participating in the gala should send an email to gala@joanvalentinefoundation.org.

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

CLEANSING DETOX RETREAT

January 20, 21 & 22, 2012

Dr. Maoshing Ni is a Board member of Joan Valentine – A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. He is a doctor of Chinese medicine and an authority in anti-aging medicine. His Chinese medicine practice is called the Tao of Wellness in Santa Monica, California, where his patients have included physicians, Fortune 500 CEOs and celebrities.

Space is limited for his Cleansing Detox Retreat.

WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE?

The Cleansing and Detoxification Retreat is helpful for those wishing to change their habits and adopt a healthier lifestyle. It is very effective for people who feel constantly fatigued and for people who are trying to stop smoking, wean off drugs, lose weight, slow aging, prepare for pregnancy or reduce inflammatory conditions. Many participants have reported significant improvement in their symptoms and conditions after attending a three-day detoxification retreat.

CLEANSING CREATES WELL-BEING

Our body is automatically programmed to cleanse itself daily. However, with our fast-paced modern lifestyle and exposure to an increasing number of harmful and toxic substances, our body’s natural cleansing ability has become overworked and compromised. Many signs and symptoms attributed to stress are now being linked to exposure to harmful substances such as PCBs, pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, growth hormones, and mercury in food and liquids as well as dioxins and formaldehyde in the air. These substances most notably affect the healthy functioning of the liver and immune system.

Common symptoms of dysfunction in these systems include:

Fatigue, anxiety and depression
Allergies and frequent infections
Unexplained weight gain and difficulty losing or gaining weight
Joint pain and muscle weakness
Difficulty focusing and memory loss
Indigestion, constipation, diarrhea, gas and/or abdominal bloating
Skin rashes, skin eruptions and/or acne
Recurrent yeast/fungal infections
Rapid aging

Harmful and toxic substances from our chemically laden food and polluted environment have also become implicated as a leading cause of many serious illnesses such as:

Cancer
Degenerative diseases
Infertility, birth defects and genetic changes
To counter this growing situation, the doctors at
Tao of Wellness have developed a Cleansing and
Detoxification Program that is unique and highly
Useful in ridding the body of many harmful and
Toxic substances

“An amazing experience…I am looking forward to experiencing the lasting effects over the coming weeks and months.”

In designing the detox program, the doctors have drawn upon the centuries-old Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) principles to solve a modern problem. The detox program combines selected TCM techniques that work together synergistically such as: acupuncture, cupping, herbal medicine, dietary therapy, far-infrared sauna, tuina bodywork and chi gong.

“The treatments were wonderful. Each day I felt very refreshed. Definitely lost some weight and inches…”

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The Cleansing and Detoxification Program is scheduled as a three-day retreat at the Tao of Wellness or as a week-long program. The procedures used are designed to stimulate the release of harmful substances stored in the tissues and liver. Once the toxins are released into the circulatory system, it is important to remove them as soon as possible. This is why the chosen treatment modalities are so important.

ACUPUNCTURE

Acupuncture stimulates neurological, immunological, and endocrine responses beneficial to tissue cleansing and cell rejuvenation. It also stimulates the release of endorphins that reduce the pain and discomfort sometimes experienced when detoxifying and withdrawing from addictive substances such as alcohol, caffeine, drugs, nicotine and sugar.

“I feel an overall openness. My mental clarity is better and the fogginess has lifted.”

CHINESE HERBAL THERAPY

The proprietary herbal formulations focus on drawing the toxins directly out of the body through increased sweating, urination, and bowel movements. Some of the herbs directly support the filtering function of the liver and assist it in cleansing and promoting cell repair and cell regeneration.

DETOX DIET PROTOCOL

Dietary therapy plays a distinct and essential role in the detox program. The prescribed meal plan includes selected foods that cleanse the liver and intestinal tract and provide key nutrients such as all the vitamins and minerals necessary for optimal health.

FAR-INFRARED SAUNA

The heat and deep vibratory action of the sauna’s far-infrared energy also promotes the release of toxins through increased circulation and sweating. The far-infrared sauna differs from the conventional sauna in its ability to penetrate deeply beneath the superficial layers of the skin where toxins reside. Studies show that the infrared light waves help to rid the body of those toxins. The excreted toxins include: cholesterol, fat-soluble toxins, toxic heavy metals (such as mercury and aluminum), sulfuric acid, sodium, ammonia, and uric acid. The unusually high concentration of heavy metals and other fat-soluble toxins is not found in the sweat from normal exercise or a regular sauna.

“I feel refreshed, optimistic, and my knowledge of my body is improved. Though I’m lighter and calmer, I’m more energetic!”

CUPPING

Toxins often accumulate in the connective tissues creating blockages and impeding blood and fluid circulation. The strong suction action of the cupping stimulates blood and lymphatic fluid to flow near the skin’s surface and to key areas of the body for easy and direct release of toxins.

“Such a great weekend. The staff were so wonderful, and everything was so well organized. I felt at home here. Thank you for all the great attention.”

All quotations are testimonials from participants in a Tao of Wellness Cleansing and Detoxification Retreat.

To REGISTER, call 310-917-2200 ext. 221
or
CLICK HERE 

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

Hear the word melatonin and chances are you think it’s something to only help those who have problems sleeping. Truth be told, melatonin is a very powerful anti-inflammatory and can lower one’s risk of getting breast, lung and prostate cancer.

People are always looking to improve themselves and always wanting to know something that is really good for them but this is one that slips by people. Melatonin is a nutrient and hormone that is naturally produced by your pineal glands. It’s even produced in your intestinal tract a little bit. Its purpose is not to put you to sleep but to fight free radicals and inflammation.

Melatonin not only lowers the risk of neurological deterioration but also reduces significantly systemic inflammation. That means basically free radicals that are damaging cells long term start causing waxing and waning scar tissue and depending on the damaged cells, whether they want to become cancerous or toxic or inoperable. What happens is melatonin has a huge impact on reducing the damage done by free radicals as far as reducing them or lowering the risk of various types of systemic inflammation.

What’s also great about melatonin is it fights brain aging. It stops neurological deterioration. It protects lipids and proteins, which is critical with brain aging, and stops free radical damage, restores brain tissue and reduces brain inflammation.

Melatonin has the ability to strengthen  neurotransmitter capacity, help create electrical impulses and also redirect electricity to stimulate parts of the brian that have been inactive, in return bringing  better cell-to-cell communication.

So what does this mean? This means the possibilities for Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and brain cancers like glioblastoma are reduced. Melatonin lowers the risk of breast, lung and prostate cancer. Studies have shown a 34% reduction of these cancers in trials.

When people think of melatonin, they think between one and three milligrams are sufficient but 20 mg a day is really a great way for us to protect ourselves from all of the free radical issues, toxins and chemicals and all kinds of cell damage.

The usual suspects help you produce more melatonin: less stress, a balanced lifestyle, exercise — but not excessive exercise because if you wear down your adrenals you’re less likely to produce more melatonin. If you burn out your adrenals, you’ll actually use up your melatonin storage and have a harder time producing it so you don’t want to do excess exercise or excess living.

What I enjoy the most about melatonin as far as its benefits is it stops angiogenesis, or the formation of new blood vessels growing out of tumors. Angiogenesis is critical when it comes down to cancer and it’s that blood vessel growth that gets us into trouble.

And if that wasn’t enough, melatonin also prevents harmful forms of estrogen from stimulating cancer or cell growth.

With so many people still hurting in today’s economy, one of the plusses about melatonin is its affordability. You can buy 20 mg of melatonin a day for $11 a month. It comes in capsules and there are a multitude of brands available such as Pure Encapsulations, Thorne and Source Naturals.

You don’t want to take excessive amounts of melatonin.  You can get too much of everything. Anything between 5 and 20 mg of melatonin would be fine. There are very few side effects. Melatonin has been used for sick babies, including newborns with blood infections. That’s how non-evasive melatonin is.

Now that you’ve been awakened to the additional benefits of melatonin, don’t sleep on this useful information.

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

By Neal D. Barnard, MD
Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine
President of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, DC

Author of The Cancer Survivor’s Guide: Foods that help you fight back!

Dr. Neal D. Barnard appeared on Dr. Oz on January 5, 2012 and writes how people can lessen their chance of developing stomach cancer.

Stomach cancer strikes about one million people each year. It is especially common in other parts of the world – in Asia, in particular – and it was something we thought we did not have to worry about in the US. However, recent reports have uncovered a disturbing new trend – a surprising rise in stomach cancer rates among young people in the US.

Stomach cancer often goes undetected. There is no lump to feel and nothing that might show up on an X-ray. By the time it is found, usually with a look into the stomach through an endoscope, it can be very hard to treat.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that food choices can protect you. Some foods reduce the risk that stomach cancer could strike. Other foods are harmful, and we now know which ones they are.

Cancer-Fighting Foods

Citrus fruits. It’s no secret that oranges, tangerines and clementines bring us vitamin C; they are among the richest sources of this critical vitamin. Vitamin C does more than help you fight colds. It is also a cancer-fighter. Vitamin C knocks out free radicals, dangerous compounds that arise as a part of body metabolism. Just as cars produce exhaust and factory chimneys release smoke, the chemical reactions in your body produce free radicals that can damage DNA. And DNA damage is the first step in the cancer process. Vitamin C shields you, neutralizing free radicals as they form.

If you were thinking you might have to eat a bushel-full of oranges to protect yourself against cancer, it’s actually much simpler. Just one a day provides measurable benefit.

Citrus fruits also contain lesser-known nutrients, called flavonoids, that inhibit cancer cells from being able to invade your healthy body tissues. Flavonoids are not in the main part of the fruit – you’ll find them in the peel. Adding a little orange zest to your salad does not just make it pretty, it makes it healthier, too. So, citrus fruits help in two ways. Their vitamin C stops cancer from starting in the first place, and their flavonoids inhibit any existing cancer cells from harming you.

Carrots. That bright orange color seen in carrots is beta-carotene, a powerful antioxidant. It knocks out free radicals, just as vitamin C does. In fact, the two work as a team. Vitamin C patrols the blood stream, neutralizing free radicals it finds there, while beta-carotene guards the surface of each cell.

Sweet potatoes. These are also rich in beta-carotene, as you can see by their orange hue. But they have another secret ingredient called caffeic acid. No, it is not related to caffeine, coffee or cappuccinos. Caffeic acid cuts off the blood supply to growing tumors.

Allium vegetables. Garlic is an allium vegetable. Ditto for onions, shallots, leeks and scallions. As they sit in produce department bins, they have very little scent. But if you were to take a garlic clove and crush it on your cutting board, its intense aroma quickly emerges. That’s allicin. Allicin is a cancer fighter. It forms from natural compounds in the garlic plant that are separated from each other until it is crushed.

You do not have to eat the whole knob of garlic. Even a clove or two of garlic each day has health benefits. But be careful – crush the garlic first and wait about ten minutes before cooking it to allow the allicin to form. If you are impatient and cook it too soon after crushing, you’ll stop allicin formation prematurely.

Citrus fruits, carrots, sweet potatoes and vegetables from the garlic-family will go a long way toward helping you prevent stomach cancer. But there is even more you can do to protect yourself.

Harmful Foods to Avoid

Processed meat. Meats that are preserved by curing, smoking or the addition of nitrites are called “processed meats,” a group that includes sausage, bacon, ham, bologna, and, yes, even typical hot dogs. They are strongly linked to digestive-tract cancers, including stomach cancer.

While many doctors usually advise ”moderation,” many are now saying that we should avoid processed meats completely, because the evidence linking them to cancer is so convincing. This is especially true for children.

Salty foods. The body needs only a tiny amount of salt for normal body processes, but many of us get far more salt than we need. In excess, salty foods are linked to stomach cancer. Go easy on potato chips, cheese, salty canned products, and the salt shaker.

Helicobacter pylori. The last thing to avoid is not a food, but a bacteria called Helicobacter pylori (H pylori). This common bacteria can lead to gastritis and ulcers. Many people have it in North America and worldwide. Doctors can easily test you for H pylori, and if you have it, can knock it out with a short course of antibiotics.

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

The list of cancer fighting foods is long with things like mulberries, teas with flavonoids, cruciferous vegetables and ginger. But the most powerful anti-cancer tool comes from within, says the notable Dr. Valerie V. Hunt, best known for her pioneering research in the field of bioenergy.

The 95-year-old dynamo, a research scientist, author, lecturer and Professor Emeritus of Physiological Science at UCLA, recently visited the home of Dianne Burnett to talk about cancer and what she calls the new health paradigm.

“As long as we have to treat (cancer) with something extra, we’re on the wrong track,” Hunt says. “Certain things will help the body to withstand and handle cancer but it never cures cancer. Cancer is created by the human being from lacks in his energy field and his emotional orientation. That’s my premise.

“Some things are better than others because they improve the health of the person. And when the health of the person is better, they endure cancer better. But that does not cure them because nothing cures them. It is a self-induced problem related to energy fields.”

Bioenergy is also the expertise of Dr. Janet Hranicky, Founder and President of the American Health Institute and a member of the Board for Joan Valentine  - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. For 25 years she ran the longest-running Psychological Intervention Program for cancer in the world with Dr. O. Carl Simonton, a radiation oncologist best known for his pioneering insights and research in the field of psychosocial oncology.

Hranicky says, “Sometimes with these wonderful things, whether it be the mulberry or other marvelous things that we see that have come out of the jungles in different areas of the world, we will often see people improve and get better with their symptoms. And we will even see, from all clinical evidence, cancer go in remission and not even be picked up on any of the scans. But it doesn’t mean that the field has changed. If the field has not changed in this way of thinking, the person would still have a cancer field and that’s when we see a recurrence of disease often.

“It might be a year or two or three. The typical way to treat it has been to take the cancer out, to radiate the cancer, to use drugs to kill the cancer. While those can be very effective, what we know is there is not a not a shift in the field that Valerie is talking about. You’ve only short-termed cured it.”

That’s something Burnett knows all too well. When her mother, Joan Valentine, was diagnosed with esophageal cancer it basically came with a death sentence.

“They told my mother right from the beginning that she didn’t have a chance to go and get her stuff in order,” Burnett said. “You’re giving her radiation. You’re giving her chemo but you’re not giving her the hope and the chance for her to get better so she quickly declined and passed away nine months later.

“I was there every two weeks giving her that hope, and of course the family (was too) but when you’re seeing a doctor who she put all of her trust in is saying, ‘You don’t come back from Stage IV esophagus cancer,’ where is her hope and faith in getting better?

That, Hunt says, is why the responsibility falls upon the patient – not the doctors.

“When someone else is doing it for you, you’re not involved,” Hunt says. “You’re waiting on them to get it done. When you know you’re part and parcel of doing it, then it’s your responsibility and the doctors should say, ‘This is what we can do about it. You have to do this kind of thing.’ That’s an entirely different approach. When the doctors don’t do it and it doesn’t get better, what happens? Depression. They go downhill fast. But when there’s opportunity and there’s a little change, look what happens to a human being. As Jan said, responsibility now comes back to the human for their health. It comes back to them for assisting and that is the new medicine. That is the new health paradigm.”

(From left) Dr. Valerie Hunt, Dr. Janet Hranicky and JVF Founder Dianne Burnett discuss fighting cancer using one's spirit and energy.

Hranicky attends conferences around the country and notes that while there has been a shift in the desirable direction to substitute better, healthier external things to take and do than from the previous old model, people are still on an external-based platform and approach cancer with the thinking that something outside is going to change and cure them. She says it’s important to go back and re-educate the masses.

Burnett stresses that it is necessary to educate people to the benefits of alternative and integrative treatments that can help build their immune systems and not to rely solely on the poison of radiation and chemotherapy, surgery and drugs.

“More people will be living,” Hunt says. “More people will be happier and therefore that permeates the world that cancer is not death. Cancer is a process by which we are going to evolve.

“We have to start the education in elementary school so people assume responsibility for who they are. The new model of the human being gives us opportunities and capacities which we have never imagined. With those opportunities and capacities, we don’t ever have to have cancer. Ever. It starts early in life. It should be a part of all schooling. Not cancer, but what is the nature of the human being and what is our highest level and what is the greatest capacity that we have to live and to enjoy life and to experience the wonders of life. That’s the approach that we need in schools.”

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

Many of us grew up being told an apple a day keeps the doctor away and these days we’re told to eat certain berries because they’re loaded with antioxidants. As important as we’re told fruit is to our overall health, experts debate whether it works for or against people who are sick.

Dr. Brian Clement has spent more than three decades studying nutrition and natural health care. As co-director of Hippocrates Health Institute, the preeminent leader in the field of natural and complementary health care and education since 1956, recommends that those who participate in his Life Transformation Program decrease their fruit if they are sick. He made the decision more than 30 years ago when he removed all types of sugar, including carrot juice and beet juice, from the diets of four people who had cancer and allowed four other people  to have fructose so he could monitor the effects.

“We saw radical improvements in people (who were banned from having fructose) and people who were not getting well before started to get well,” he said.

After that, he was convinced that fruit didn’t have any place in the diet of sick people.

“When we first said this, can you imagine what a hard sell it was?” he asked. “We had to tell people, ‘You have to give up meat. You have to give up dairy. You have to give up cooked food and by the way you can’t eat fruit either when you’re sick.’

Yet Medical Medium Anthony William, who for over 20 years has devoted his life to helping people heal and overcome illness and disease, says fruit is a necessity because of the glucose. He’s says take fruit away from people and they will get their sugar elsewhere.

At a recent meeting at the home of Dianne Burnett, the two discussed the subject. Clement used to devour fruit but now describes himself as a recovering sugar addict and eats very little fruit. He recalled a chat on an airplane with a university professor whose expertise was horticulture and agriculture. The educator told him that the average fruit today has 30 times more sugar than the original fruit and that 85% of the fruits we eat today weren’t here 100 years ago. He learned that the Honeybell oranges he loves so much are a hybrid of tangerine and grapefruit. And he found out that his favorite apple has 50 times the amount of sugar that it originally had when it was sourer than a crab apple.

“When you’re healthy,” Clement says, “we’ve determined through a lot of studies, (that) up to 15% of your diet is ripe, organic fruit.”

The problem is fruit is not picked ripe because if it was then shipped it would spoil before it reached consumers. He says the only fruit that ripens after you take it from a plant or mother tree is a banana because of its enzymes. He cautions against eating fruit that is not ripe. “I believe it is worse for you than even the sugar because it sucks nutrients out of the bones and cell structure,” Clement says.
After what he calls 30 years of solid, evidential science, he is firm that there is no place for fruit in the diet of people who are ill. William disagrees though as their dialogue below shows, the two do concur on some things.

BC: You have to be a Nazi on this one. “You don’t touch fruit. You don’t look at fruit.”I even say, “You don’t even walk on the same side of the street as fruit.” People make all these stories that have no bearing on reality like if you mix greens with fruit, which you shouldn’t do to begin with, it balances it out. That’s not true. Sugar is sugar. You don’t evaporate the fructose that’s in there. … There is no difference between high fructose corn syrup and mango fructose – just higher amounts.

AW: When it’s separated there is no difference. When it’s in the fruit itself, everything changes. There’s something that happens that we can’t put science to. In my experience, if you take fruit away from someone they have to get their sugar somewhere. Where are they going to get it? If someone is sick, they need sugar because your heart runs on glucose. Your brain runs on glucose. It’s a tough call.

You have to go with grains. If you go with grains, you want them sprouted. It’s safer. Not everybody is going to do that all of the time. They are going to go for cooked grains. Cooked grains feed cancer, in my opinion, faster than any fruit will. But at the same time fruit is dangerous when you have too much fat in the blood. Brian’s right. Fruit will be a problem. If you’re sick, fruit could feed problems when fats are through the roof though. That’s when you get the insulin resistance. That’s when the oxygen is out of the blood. You’ve got your blood fat up high. You’re eating fruit. You put sugar and fat together you’ve got ice cream. (That’s) not good for you. You take the fat and bring it down and you can bring more fruit up. You’ve got to have a lot of plant protein though. But you’ve got to bring your fat down really low.

I notice that people with lupus, all of the different Epstein’s Barrs, shingle viruses, meningitis, chronic fatigue syndrome, MS, whatever they have, you take the fat down to the bottom – and that’s plant fat too – even avocado – then you can bring more fruit up. But someone is going to grab a cookie if you can’t get some sugar in there. You don’t want them grabbing a cookie so you want to grab some fruit so you keep the fat down. You get results from that. That’s when the results come, cancer included.

BC: You’ve got to be cautious if you give people one piece (of fruit). Where are they going to get ripened fruit? It’s non-existent. Are they going to stop at one piece of fruit? I know I wouldn’t have at one point. Lettuce has, if you eat adequate amounts, all of the amounts of glucose your body needs.

AW: Especially butter (lettuce). I put a lot of people on heads and heads of butter lettuce. They can get their fuel from that.

BC: Exactly. We can’t talk about the difference between biology and psychology. Psychology, all of us would eat sugar until …AW: The cows came home. Look at dairy. Look at lactose. People think they’re eating dairy products. They think they’re sugar-free. That’s amazing. If you’re eating dairy, you’re eating plenty of sugar.

What both men agree on is the need for all to eat healthy.

“Food is the greatest example of how much we care or do not care for ourselves,” Clements says. “It’s about self-worth and value. Food is just really a fuel. Just eat the right food and food doesn’t become an issue anymore. Then you go on to do the real work and have a life.”

Image: Pixomar / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

When it comes to her health, actress, anti-aging expert and best-selling author Suzanne Somers doesn’t hesitate to reject conventional treatments. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer 11 years ago she chose alternative therapies that stunned the mainstream medical community.  Once again, she’s taken the revolutionary route by undergoing an experimental procedure using her own stem cells and body fat to rebuild her withered breast.

Somers detailed her alternative journey and boasted about her quality of life to Dr. Oz on his show last Friday.

“Look at me,” she told Dr. Oz. “Eleven years later, I am so healthy. I’ve had this incredible quality of life all of these years.”

After she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000 it took about two days for her to recover from the shocking news.

“I woke up, looked at my husband and said, ‘I can handle this.’ And then it was like I went to war and I was going to do it my way,” she said.

And so she did. She was offered the standard of care: a lumpectomy, radiation, chemotherapy and after-care drugs and told to give up bioidentical hormones, which she refused to do despite her doctor telling her she would die if she didn’t. She believed keeping her hormones balanced would help her prevent a cancer recurrence following the lumpectomy.

But she did agree to radiation, which she was told would be a “walk in the park.” Hardly. She vomited daily throughout each day and spent much of the time curled in a fetal position. The radiation eventually left her with a “withered, nearly pancake breast on the right side (barely a B cup) and my full natural breast on the left side (a D cup),” she writes on her website.

“Here I am a sex symbol and I have one and one-third breasts,” she said to Dr. Oz. “…I could write a book, What They Don’t Tell You about Radiation.
After researching chemotherapy and being dissatisfied with its success rate, or lack thereof, she rejected that treatment. “Looking back, it was the best thing I ever did,” she said.

To help prevent a recurrence of cancer, she was injected with Iscador, which is extracted from mistletoe, for eight years. She also “ate as if my life depended on it” and still does. She grows her own food, buys organic and when she can’t get organic she loads up on antioxidants to kill free radicals.  She also continued taking her bioidentical hormones and opted against reconstruction because she didn’t want an implant.

“As an avid participant in anti-aging and alternative medicine, I instead searched for another option. I heard about Dr. Kotaro Yoshimura who has been performing stem cell breast reconstruction in Japan, but it was not legally available to women in this country. After years of research and international travel, I was able to assist a remarkable group of doctors in having an IRB (International Review Board) set up at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital in California. I considered going to Japan for the surgery, but I wanted to help open the door for women in America. I am proud to say I am the first person in this country to initiate the clinical trial for a stem cell breast reconstruction at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Joel Aronowitz (who trained with Yoshimura in Japan) was the lead surgeon, along with Dr. James Watson. This procedure used my own adult stem cells, harvested from my fat, then reinjected into my breast to “regrow” my breast to its original size. While I don’t yet have long-term results, I can say the initial results are nothing short of miraculous.”

If ever there was a poster child for alternative therapies and being in control of your own health, it is Somers, who says, “It is so wonderful for all people to know how your body works and to understand the fuel, which is in good nutrition, and to know the questions to ask when you are having any kind of procedure so that you can be in charge of your body because nobody will care as much about your body as you.”

Mistletoe Extract as Cancer Therapy

Benefits of Stem Cell Breast Reconstruction

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

By Dr. Mitchell Gaynor
Founder and President, Gaynor Integrative Oncology
Asst. Clinical Professor of Medicine, Weill-Cornell Medical College

Cancer is a scary diagnosis. There’s no doubt about that. Treatment is not just about removing the tumor and providing chemotherapy (although those are important aspects of healing cancer patients) – it’s about the whole patient. As an integrative oncologist, I emphasize treating the person and not just cancer. I incorporate conventional medicine using chemotherapy, monoclonal antibodies, and targeted therapies with nutritional forms of treatment to create unique therapeutic regimens for my patients.

Recently, Suzanne Somers appeared on The Dr. Oz Show to discuss the cancer treatments she used to treat her breast cancer. One of the adjuvant therapies she discussed was her use of mistletoe extract injections. Although it’s not FDA-approved in the US, it is used in some clinical research trials and occasionally prescribed in Europe by anthroposophic physicians.

Mistletoe: More than Holiday Décor

Mistletoe is a semiparasitic plant that receives it nourishment by growing on apple, birch, elm, maple, oak, pine and several other trees. The plant contains chlorophyll and is capable of undergoing photosynthesis. Its use extends far beyond being a symbol of an impromptu holiday kiss – it has medicinal purposes as well. It been used to treat medical conditions such as arthritis, epilepsy, hypertension, menopause and even cancer. Mistletoe has a plethora of medicinal applications that date back to Ancient Greece. However, it started to gain attention as a chemotherapeutic agent in the 1920s.

The Science Behind the Effects of Mistletoe

Cancer, in the simplest terms, is a group of cells that are unable to die like normal cells. Our cells go through a process called apoptosis, which means cell death. This is the checks and balances our body uses to remove old cells that may not be up to par. And without apoptosis, old cells, which are not at their optimal state, don’t function as well as new cell. This leads to impaired functions and systems can begin to fail in the body.

Phytonutrients, such as the extracts of mistletoe, have been shown to restore the capacity of cancer cells to die so that they don’t continue to grow unchecked. Laboratory studies have shown that mistletoe extracts are proapoptotic toward cancer cells, meaning that they promote cell death.

Mistletoe also revs up your immune system, a crucial, complex system of cells and organs that are necessary to fight infection and disease, which is important to prevent cancer. Because of its potential therapeutic effects, mistletoe has been categorized as a biologic response modifier, which refers to its ability to fuel the body’s immunologic response.

Unabated cell growth, however, is just one way that cancer cells grow. Another process called angiogenesis, which is the growth and supply of cells with new blood vessels, ensures that cancer cells are nourished. Mistletoe extracts have been shown to also target cancer cells by blocking the formation of new blood vessels. While many natural products have effects on cancer cells in a dish, this does not always mean efficacy in real life.

It’s What’s In (Not Who’s Under) the Mistletoe

Mistletoe is a widely researched complementary and alternative medicinal agent. The majority of the mistletoe extracts that are used to treat cancer in patients originate from Europe; they have a variety of brand names: Iscador (Iscar), Eurixor, Helixor, Isorel (Vysorel), Iscucin, Lektinol (Plenosol) and Abnoba-viscum.

Various factors influence the composition of mistletoe: its host tree; harvest season; mistletoe species; method used to obtain mistletoe extract (i.e. fermented vs. unfermented); and preparatory methods used by manufacturers.

Understanding how mistletoe may help to treat cancer starts with knowing what compounds make up the plant:

Alkaloids are mainly found in plants and some fungi. These are nitrogen-based substances that are found in products such as coffee and vincristine, which is also an anti-cancer drug.

Viscotoxins are small proteins synthesized by mistletoe that are proapoptotic (encouraging programmed cell death) and stimulates immunity.

Lectins produced by the mistletoe plant are glycoproteins, meaning it contains both sugars and proteins. This substance can bind outside of cells and trigger biochemical changes within the cells.

Studies on Mistletoe and Cancer

In Germany, the use of mistletoe is widespread as the bill is footed by the health-care system. German researchers performed a meta-analysis in which they reviewed the effects of Iscador, a commonly used form of mistletoe extract, on survival of cancer patients. The researchers reported that the data they examined showed a lower risk of mortality.¹

The increasing interest in using mistletoe extract to treat cancer has lead to more and more systematic reviews of human trials. Because it can be difficult to statistically pool these studies due to the varying methodologies, researchers implemented special criterion to include or exclude certain studies. After using eight databases to identify clinical trials in which mistletoe extract was used to treat cancer, one review conducted in 2003 concluded that there wasn’t substantive evidence to support the clinical efficacy of mistletoe extract in cancer treatment.

One of the criticisms of the data reviewed in this study pointed out that while mistletoe extracts have been show to stimulate the activity of molecules such as tumor necrosis factor alpha and interleukins (i.e. interleukins 1 and 6), which that have inhibitory effects on cancer cell growth and metastasis, the data mostly comes from preclinical trials and may not have the same effects on cancer patients in clinical trials.

Another study examined 16 men and women with pancreatic cancer. Because pancreatic cancer is resistant to chemotherapy and radiation, it is associated with a poor prognosis. The pancreatic cancer had metastasized (spread) to either the lymph nodes or other organs. The researchers reported that the subcutaneous administration of mistletoe did not change tumor growth; however, the plant extract did help to minimize quality of life concerns in the patients’ final months.³

Natural killer (NK) cells are white blood cells that make up your immune cells, and they are responsible for fighting foreign cells and cancer cells. Major surgery inhibits NK cell activity. The suppression of natural killer cells in cancer patients may lead to tumor cells spreading. In a clinical trial, the infusion of mistletoe before surgery was shown to prevent the inhibition of NK cell activity.

Mistletoe extract has also been shown to have some efficacy for superficial bladder cancer, and it was not associated with any side effects compared to the use of Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG)treatment, which is a commonly used, effective adjuvant treatment (BCG does have serious side effects).⁵ However, this study is small and the follow-up limited.

In a review of randomized and non-randomized control trials, the efficacy of a type of mistletoe extract called Viscum album was assessed to determine whether or not it improved on quality-of-life parameters in patients with cancer. The researchers reported that the plant improved on quality-of-life measures such as sleep, exhaustion, depression and anxiety; it also reduced the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

Limitations of Research

An Internet search using the phrase “mistletoe and cancer research” resulted in over 133,000 hits. There’s no doubt of a growing interest in the use of mistletoe as an adjuvant form of treatment for cancer. However, as you scour the Web for information on mistletoe and cancer, understand that not all research is created equally. It’s important to look out for red flags to determine the strength of research and the validity of the findings.

In all likelihood you’ll be reading about research findings through a secondary source such as a newspaper or health website. Here’s a quick list of items to keep in mind as you read news articles or websites:

• Where was the study published originally?
• Have there been human studies, or are the studies solely laboratory-based experiments?
• How was the clinical trial designed? An important clue to remember is that the gold standard is a double blind, randomized placebo-controlled trial?
• Is the population size small or large?
• Was the study limited to specific gender or socioeconomic factors?
• Is the research new information that needs to be replicated?

This should give you an idea of some basic things to consider. As you come across research that may be exciting and holds new promise, be sure to think about these questions.

Panacea for Cancer? Not So Fast.

The medical front on the use of mistletoe is not a united one. There are many reasons for this. Mistletoe extract has been used as an adjunct for  treating cancer because of the anticancer substances it’s composed of. European anthoposophic physicians often prescribe it, and various mistletoe extracts are also marketed. However, It is the variability in the preparation of the extract that also makes it difficult to interpret the clinical findings of studies because the relative proportions of the cancer-fighting constituents differs depending on what brand is used.

Based on review studies, the findings on the effects of mistletoe extract is a mixed bag of results because they include different study designs and variable plant extracts. And while most studies don’t report any serious side effects, other research has reported adverse effects, such as localized reactions at the site of injection, anaphylaxis, kidney failure and ulcerations.

While some studies suggest that mistletoe can slow or stop tumor growth and improve survival in cancer patients, the design of most of these studies are weak. Without strong methodology, research studies are more likely to produce positive results. Consequently, independent reviewers have largely failed to support the efficacy of mistletoe extract use in cancer because of insufficient evidence.

The verdict is still out on the efficacy of mistletoe extract and more solid research is needed to assess its use as an anticancer agent.

In the meantime, let me impart some advice that I share with my patients about health and cancer – the most overlooked of all modalities is what you eat. Because your genes can turn “on” and “off” cellular signals that lead to cancer, eating more natural foods like phytonutrients (plant-based foods) will help to promote turning on the right genes that will lead to a healthier you.

Over the last 30 years, I have studied the mechanism of hundreds of bioactive nutrients on cancer-related gene expression, as well as signaling proteins and transcription factors that also effect these genes. These nutrients have powerful effects on inflammation, hormone regulation, toxin metabolism, cell growth and angiogenesis – all at the level of our gene expression. In targeted nutritional program for my patients, I focus on several areas:

• Nutrients that lower the 3 main cancer promoters: AP-1, NF-kappa-B, and IGF.
• Nutrients that inhibit the main cancer promoting enzymes; tyrosine kinase, m-TOR, akt and COX-2.
• Nutrients that convert hormones that promote cancer to hormones that protect against cancer.
• Angio-preventative nutrients that inhibit angiogenesis.
• Anti-inflammatory nutrients.
• Reversing hyperinsulinemia through nutrition.
• Nutrients that facilitate apoptosis or programmed cell death, a process which cancer cells have lost.
• Detoxifying cancer-causing toxins with nutrients.

Glutathione, glycine, taurine, black raspberry, garlic, omega-3 and -9 fatty acids, fermented soy products, isohumalones from hops, and phytosterols are just a few of the nutrients which data show are essential for the above areas.

Bottom line: Mistletoe has not yet shown a level of efficacy for me to incorporate it in my armamentarium of bioactive nutrients for cancer.

References

1. Ostermann T, Raak C, Bussing A. Survival of cancer patients treated with mistletoe extract (Iscador): a systematic literature review. BMC Cancer. 2009;9(1):451.

2. Ernst E, Schmidt K, Steuer-Vogt MK. Mistletoe for cancer? International Journal of Cancer. 2003;107(2):262-267.

3. Friess H, Beger HG, Kunz J, Funk N, Schilling M, Buchler MW. Treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer with mistletoe: results of a pilot trial. Anticancer research. 1996;16(2):915-920.

4. Schink M, Tröger W, Dabidian A, et al. Mistletoe extract reduces the surgical suppression of natural killer cell activity in cancer patients. a randomized phase III trial. Forschende Komplementärmedizin/Research in Complementary Medicine. 2007;14(1):9-17.

5. ElsÄSser-Beile U, Leiber C, Wetterauer U, et al. Adjuvant Intravesical Treatment with a Standardized Mistletoe Extract to Prevent Recurrence of Superficial Urinary Bladder Cancer. Anticancer research. 2005;25(6C):4733-4736.

6. Kienle GS, Kiene H. Review Article: Influence of Viscum album L (European Mistletoe) Extracts on Quality of Life in Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review of Controlled Clinical Studies. Integrative Cancer Therapies. 2010;9(2):142-157.

7. Edzard E. Mistletoe as a treatment for cancer. BMJ. 2006;333.

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

By Joel A. Aronowitz, MD
Clinical Professor Plastic Surgery
USC Keck School of Medicine
Cedars Sinai Medical Center
University Stem Cell Center

Our fat tissue contains a lot more than just fat. It’s been known for many years that the fat that makes our jeans tight and skin loose contains large numbers of small cells with the potential to grow into many types of the tissue and play a central role in healing and regeneration. Only recently though have doctors been able to apply these exciting laboratory findings to help patients in clinical practice.

A study underway by doctors at the Breast Preservation Foundation in Los Angeles exemplifies this new trend in clinical use of Adipose Derived Stem Cell. Women in the study are offered use of their own stem cells to regrow their breast marred by prior surgery and even radiation to treat breast cancer.

Treatment of breast cancer usually involves removal of the tumor itself along with all or part of the surrounding normal breast to ensure that a complete removal is accomplished. After the surgery, the breast is frequently treated with radiation which further shrinks the breast and turns the soft breast tissue to a hard, woody texture. For years, the only options available to reconstruct the breast were highly invasive flap procedures such as the lat dorsi or TRAM flaps or an implant. The flaps require a donor site scar and extended healing, and implants are associated with the problems of any large foreign body. They are especially problematic after radiation treatment.

Stem cell treatment has the advantage of producing a natural regrowth of fat tissue within the breast, giving it a soft, natural appearance and feel using the woman’s own fat stored in the abdomen, hips and thighs. The Los Angeles study uses fat harvested with liposuction from the hip, abdomen or thighs. The fat, usually 400 to 600 cc, is treated in a special biologic laboratory right in the operating room to isolate the tiny stem cells from the larger mature adipocyte (fat) cells and other components in the lipoaspirate (obtained during liposuction). The process takes about 1.5 hours while the patient remains in the operating room. The tedious process involves a complex series of washings and high-speed centrifugations but no additional chemicals or growth factors are added to change the biology or genetics of the cells.

Almost a million cells on average are isolated from each 1 cc drop of liposuction fat. The stem cells are then added to additional lipoaspirate to inject into the disfigured breast. The stem-cell-enhanced fat grafts are placed with a blunt hollow needle in small aliquots so no surgical scars are placed on the treated breasts. Postoperative healing is usually limited to swelling and bruising both in the breast and the liposuction harvest area. Patients usually complain of more discomfort in the liposuction areas then the treated breast. Of course, no one complains about the improved contour of the hips and abdomen which comes with the needed liposuction; it’s an added bonus.

Improved breast size is immediate, but the improved skin quality and regeneration or regrowth of fat takes about 3 to 6 months as the larger fat cells that do not survive the transfer process are replaced by new tissue regenerated by the large numbers of tiny stem cells. Improvement in the texture, quality and skin color of the breast damaged by surgery and radiation begins immediately and begins to show clinically in about 2 months.

Women who have a breast damaged by breast cancer treatment, especially lumpectomy and radiation are generally good candidates for this treatment. The study requires a waiting period after cancer treatment, but some doctors feel that soon the treatment will be offered in concert with cancer treatment as there is no evidence that normal fat-derived stem cells interfere with treatment. Women seeking an alternative to breast enlargement with implants will be happy to know that this option is available to them as well. Stem-cell-enhanced fat grafting can produce about 1 to 2 cup sizes of enlargement on average and can be repeated every 3-4 months as long as sufficient donor fat is available.

Suzanne Somers’ alternative battle against breast cancer

Mistletoe Extract as Cancer Therapy

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

From the October 2011 issue of Life Extension

Iodine deficiency is rapidly emerging as a major risk factor for breast cancer.

Human breast tissue and breast milk contain higher concentrations of iodine than the thyroid gland itself, which contains just 30% of the body’s iodine stores. Breast tissue is rich in the same iodine-transporting proteins used by the thyroid gland to take up iodine from the blood.18,38 The evolutionary reasons for this are clear: iodine is essential to the developing newborn brain, so the mother’s body must have a direct means of supplying iodine to the nursing infant.

Iodine plays an important role in the health of women’s breast tissue. In the presence of chemicals and enzymes found in breast tissue, iodine has been shown to exert a powerful antioxidant effect equivalent to vitamin C. Iodine-deficient breast tissue exhibits chemical markers of elevated lipid peroxidation, one of the earliest factors in cancer development.

Iodine-deficient breast tissue also shows alterations in DNA and increases in estrogen receptor proteins.40 Coupled with iodine deficiency-induced increases in circulating estrogen levels, these changes can substantially increase the risk of breast cancer in women with low iodine levels. Iodine also helps regulate levels of the stress hormone cortisol and contributes to normal immune function. Abnormal cortisol levels and deficient immune function are significant contributors to the risks of breast cancer; women with fibrocystic breast disease may also suffer from elevated cortisol levels.

Taken together, these biological factors explain the well-known link between iodine deficiency and thyroid disease, thyroid cancer, and breast cancer, all of which predominate in postmenopausal women.The link between iodine consumption and breast cancer is most evident when you compare the Japanese and Western diets against cancer incidence.

Japanese women consume a diet high in iodine-rich seaweed, which provides them with an iodine intake 25 times higher than the average American woman’s. Japanese women also have breast cancer rates roughly one-third of those found in American women, a difference that disappears in Japanese women who immigrate to the US, where they consume considerably less seaweed.

Studies of iodine therapy for breast cancer prevention are encouraging. Continuous iodine given to cancer-prone rats cut mammary tumor rates nearly 2.5-fold. Breast cancer cells avidly absorb iodine, which in turn suppresses tumor growth and causes cancer cell death. Added dietary iodine reduces the size of both benign and malignant breast tumors, an effect credited in part to iodine’s direct reduction of lipid peroxidation levels. Although the doses of iodine used in these studies are substantial, equivalent to 5,000 mcg daily, no toxic effects of iodine were observed, either on thyroid function or in other tissues.

Further benefits may be obtained by supplementing with selenium in addition to iodine; selenium is an essential cofactor in the enzymes used in thyroid and breast tissue to make optimal use of dietary iodine.In addition to its obvious role in preventing breast cancer, increased iodine intake may be important in mitigating another common, if less lethal, breast disorder—fibrocystic breast disease or FBD.

While harmless, fibrocystic breast disease is extremely common. It is found in at least 9% of all women who undergo biopsies, though the actual rate is probably much higher.18,59 Animal studies have shown that fibrocystic breast disease can be induced by depriving breast tissue of iodine.11,40,60 These changes can be reversed by iodine doses equivalent to 5,000 mcg per day in humans.

Women with fibrocystic breast disease obtain substantial relief from oral administration of iodine at doses of 3,000-6,000 mcg, with 65% achieving improvements according to their own and their physicians’ assessments.62 In those studies, only 33% of placebo recipients reported any benefit. No side effects were detected at any of the doses used.

It is becoming increasingly clear that iodine deficiency interferes with optimum breast health, and intake of levels far higher than the recommended dietary allowance of 150-290 mcg is required to achieve benefits. Daily amounts of 3,000-6,000 mcg may help relieve the symptoms of fibrocystic breast disease.

Iodine Protects Against Stomach Cancer

The thyroid gland, breast tissue, and portions of the digestive tract share similarities in that all of them contain a rich concentration of iodine. Stomach lining cells in particular concentrate iodine, capitalizing on its antioxidant effects.

This has led medical researchers to investigate whether iodine deficiency plays a role in cancers of the digestive tract. They found that people living in iodine-deficient areas of the world are not only prone to iodine-deficiency goiters, but also have higher rates of stomach cancers. Stomach cancer patients in a landlocked area of Iran were 2.5 times as likely to have severe iodine deficiency than control patients.

Gastric cancer is the most common cancer in parts of northeastern Turkey where iodine deficiency is common, and iodine levels in gastric cancer tissue were markedly lower than those in surrounding healthy tissue.

Increased iodine intake has been strongly correlated with a reduction in stomach cancer rates in recent years.

Summary

Iodine is critical to healthy thyroid function. Its deficiency can cause weight gain, low energy, depression, cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, and a variety of cancers. Yet rates of iodine deficiency have reached epidemic levels, increasing fourfold over the past 40 years. A startling 74% of normal, “healthy” adults may no longer be consuming sufficient quantities.Recent scientific analysis reveals that many commercial table salt brands now contain inadequate amounts of iodine. Emerging evidence points to the severe impact of low iodine on a wide range of health issues, including increased risks of breast cancer and fibrocystic breast diseases.

Full article and references

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

Medical Medium Anthony William and Joan Valentine Foundation Founder Dianne Burnett share ideas and thoughts about cancer at her Malibu home.

A meeting of the minds took place at the home of Dianne Burnett, where several experts with an average of 26 years of experience in the health care and cancer fields, gathered to share information pertaining to the latest advancements, their knowledge and ideas.

“We’re showing the new health care model,” said Dr. Janet Hranicky, who has led the longest running Psychological Intervention Program for cancer in the world. “We’re not waiting for somebody else to create it. We’re creating it altogether and to me that’s the exciting part about it. Instead of trying to change other organizations and create resistance, let’s go with the excitement of what we know.”

Dr. Hranicky spoke her thoughts to Medical Medium Anthony William, who for over 20 years has devoted his life to helping people heal and overcome illness and disease, Dr. Brian Clement, who has spent more than three decades studying nutrition and natural healthcare and is Co-Director at Hippocrates, and Burnett, the Founder of Joan Valentine,  A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc.

Dr. Steven Small, a pioneer in holistic health, was also on hand to present CyberSpace Professional, a device from Germany that can detect cancer and other diseases plus offer groundbreaking treatments.

“The reports I’ve gotten back from Germany is they’re treating all types of cancer with this device,” said Small, the machine’s only distributor in North America. “I’m like everybody else; I like to kick the tires.”

The device also does chakra therapy and meridian balancing. “The Germans like to say it’s like comparing a Ford to a Mercedes,” Small said, referring to similar machines that have become available over the years.

After Small told of CyberScan Professional’s abilities, Dr. Clement invited Small to West Palm Beach in April 2012 to demonstrate how the machine works to health care professionals.

“Our founder (Ann Wigmore) would be very proud of this (day),” said Clement, the Co-Director of Hippocrates Health Institute, a leader in the field of natural and complementary healthcare and education. Hippocrates is headquartered in West Palm Beach, Fla., and its philosophy is founded on the belief that a vegan, living, enzyme-rich diet — complemented by exercise, positive thinking and non-invasive therapies — are integral to optimum health.

“What we’re doing is revolutionizing methodologies in health care,” Clement said. “We literally have no reason to wait for everyone to create a new health care system. We’ve created the new health care system and in our case for more than half of a century we’ve done clinical research on hundreds of thousands of people.

“We’re bringing together what we know works, not speculation. We’re not testing. We’re not doing anything that hasn’t been substantially documented and proven with human beings – not on computer and not on profiles. When we combine the mind, electronic technology today, the diet that’s a pure diet that literally raises the bio frequency in the cell as well as rebuilds the biology of the cell there is no disease in the world that you cannot address. We’ve had tens of thousands of people reverse catastrophic diseases.

Dr. Brian Clement of Hippocrates Health Institute listens as Dr. Janet Hranicky makes her point about cancer.

The three questions to ask

Clement says he believes anyone who wants to get well today has the great potential to do so. He suggests they ask three basic questions to their health care professional:

• How much experience do you have as health care professional or doctor?
• How many people have you literally seen recover from diseases?
• Do you have a plan to watch me and help me for the rest of my life?

Hippocrates, Clement notes, counsels its graduates free of charge.

“There is no need to die from a disease,” Dr. Clement says. “A disease to me is a matter of you’ve given up in your life because you’re not happy. It’s a way to commit suicide without jumping off a bridge. So don’t let a disease bring you down. Bring yourself up so that you can conquer disease and that’s our objective.”

Burnett, who launched the foundation in honor of her mother after her mother’s diagnosis with esophageal cancer, told Dr. Clement, “I love that philosophy only because I had the experience with my mother of going to the top cancer center, Sloan-Kettering, in New York. “I remember appointment after appointment, we would show up. My mother would be a number and she would have to sit in an office, as ill as she was, going through an hour of questioning all of the time. She was always going through the same routine and wasn’t treated as a person. She was Joan Minerva and 100 questions time and time again.

“They would totally squash any feelings of hope that you were going to get better. They basically said, ‘Get yourself in order. The family needs to prepare’ and that was it from the first diagnosis.”

That’s one reason William, the medical medium, isn’t high on those places that are considered the best in their cities.

“If someone is going to go to a conventional physician,” William says, “sometimes I like them going to an old, conventional horse doctor in a country town way off in the distance and 85 years old. Sometimes that’s better off than being at the best medical center.”

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

When Kathryn Tatchell of Victoria, British Columbia was diagnosed with colon cancer in April 2007, she underwent surgery then turned to InspireHealth, a world leader in cancer care that uses an integrated approach combining nutrition, exercise, emotional and spiritual support with standard cancer treatments.
The cancer went away for three and a half years then resurfaced in her lungs. She opted for chemotherapy as she continued her complementary treatments through InspireHealth.

She and her daughter Georgia Graham, 24, recently traveled to Malibu to attend a week-long program put on by Hippocrates Health Institute, a leader in the field of natural and complementary health care and education, headquartered in West Palm Beach, Fla., and run by Brian Clement PhD, LNC and Anna Maria Gahns-Clement, PhD, LNC.

Kathryn shares her journey:

Five months after I had surgery in June 2007 to remove the tumor from the colon, I went to InspireHealth. I changed my diet and they put me on a regime of supplements and vitamins, which I took for well over a year. There was a little bit of spreading to the lymph nodes, maybe after a year and a half, but nothing that anybody felt had to be treated.

It wasn’t until last year, about three and a half years later, that it spread to the lungs. I had one six-month session of chemo last year but continued going to InspireHealth and taking lots of supplements and vitamins. I had acupuncture andmassages. I found the massages to be incredibly helpful with pain and overall wellness.

I was so healthy the whole time I was on chemo. I know I was exposed to so many bugs with four kids in the house. I never once got sick and I was the one with the compromised system.

I had heard about Hippocrates a few years ago. When I returned from Malibu I took the vitamins I bought from Hippocrates to InspireHealth and received approval from my doctor to take them. I’ve been taking more of the vitamins that Hippocrates recommend and phased my other ones out.  I had followed the program of what supplements to take while you’re on chemo from the book Life over Cancer written by by Dr. Keith I. Block of the Block Center.

One of the things they tell you at BC Cancer Agency’s Vancouver Island Centre is you are not allowed to take any vitamins or anything that is going to support your immune system. And you’re supposed to bring everything in and have the pharmacist approve it. It’s pretty upsetting for a lot of people who have been on a program of immune system support.

I took a lot of things to reduce inflammation. All of these things, which had been your friends, are suddenly your foe. It messes with your brain. At the same time, if you’re going to be on chemo, you don’t want to take something that is less effective. It’s very confusing for people and that’s why I followed the program from the Block Center. And I took multi-vitamins, which the pharmacists at the BC Cancer Agency’s Vancouver Island Centre wouldn’t have approved of anyway. It was a liquid one that was absorbed from the mucous membranes in your mouth.

Going raw and sticking to it

Hippocrates wanted me to go 100 percent raw. When I returned and told my oncologist I was expecting a bit of a fight because before I left she wanted to put me on chemo. But she was OK with me going raw. She said, “Let’s give it three months.”

Going 100 percent raw is quite a challenge to do and a lot to learn how to do it properly. I’ve stuck with juicing twice a day. I joined the local raw food group here and they have a monthly potluck dinner. I discovered there was no one doing 100 percent. They were doing 50 percent. I found it difficult to find support because it is challenging to be 100 percent raw.

I’m glad my daughter attending Hippocrates’ week-long program with me. She can understand what I’m trying to do. She’s eating a vegetarian diet and about 50 percent raw. She’s juicing once a day. But she’s about to move back to Vancouver.

On the bright side, I just connected with a woman, Samantha Young, whose son-in-law was the person who told me about Hippocrates a few years ago. She just moved here and she’s one of Hippocrates’ biggest success stories. It will be quite helpful for me to talk to someone who had cancer, who went to Hippocrates and followed their program and their cancer went away and stayed away.

Keeping the faith

Part of my challenge is holding the faith that it works. To come home and be in isolation, it’s hard to hold the faith.

My cancer has gotten worse despite all of my best efforts. I thought I was going to be better. I know I haven’t been as strict with the Hippocrates program, for example, as if I went to Florida for three weeks and followed the program.

I’m still taking in everything I learned from the week in Malibu. There was so much information in such a short amount of time. It takes a while to absorb it all. My daughter and I have been going back to our binders and reading things and listening to the lecturers that were recorded. When you’re changing habits, some of them you do right away and some you forget about.

One of the big hurdles is sourcing your vegetables. Juicing that much is a lot. I was lucky I was able to find a good source for the sprouts. I’ve tried a couple of times to grow sprouts and I haven’t been too successful. I think I can do some of the broccoli, radishes and alfalfa in a jar.

I’ve had some struggles on the raw food diet because I’m so small. I’m 5-foot-3 and was about 112 pounds. My weight dropped down to 90 lbs. I couldn’t afford to lose any weight. I was so worried about it and called Anna Maria at Hippocrates. She told me I should start eating some cooked food and get some weight back on. I’ve gained three pounds.

In addition to the diet, I’m going to have to look at doing some other things because I can’t let it get out of control. I don’t plan to go back to chemo. Over the weekend we had a mastermind session with my parents, fiancé and kids — my support group. We wrote down things that we could do. Everyone feels more of a part of it. It’s good for them to know where I’m at and what I’m thinking.

My daughter Georgia felt very frustrated because she moved back to Victoria from Vancouver last year when I went on chemo. She wanted to be here to help me. Now my numbers are back to where they were a year ago. I said, “You can’t just stay here feeling like you have to look after me. You have to get on with your life. You don’t have to stay here.” I love having her here and having the support. But I don’t want her to feel tied down. She’s 24. It was an emotional time.

Last month InspireHealth opened an office in Victoria where I live so I no longer have to make the journey to Vancouver.  It will have yoga classes and meditation. There’s a kitchen so it will have a nutrition component as well. InspireHealth is funded by the Canadian government and they’re going to be opening more around the country. It’s fantastic that the government is supporting integrative cancer care and that they’re realizing that there isn’t just one way of looking at things.

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

Swami Parthasarathy, an internationally eminent philosopher widely acclaimed as the greatest living exponent of Vedanta, has spoken at the Aspen Ideas Festival and  addressed leading institutions such as the World Economic Forum, The World Bank, NASA, and Harvard Business School. Recently, Swamiji, as he is popularly known as, shared words of wisdom at an intimate gathering at the Malibu home of Dianne Burnett, founder of Joan Valentine — A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc.

“Without having met him or attending any of our programs in the past, she offered her home to introduce Swamiji to her friends, which says a lot about Dianne,” said Joseph Emmett, who made the connection. Emmett, a native of Houston, recently relocated to Topanga after 15 years studying with Swamiji in India. “He speaks to huge audiences and at very high level. This is quite a rare event but maybe that’s Dianne’s karma.”

Vedanta is derived from two words Veda – Knowledge, and Anta – End. Vedanta means the end of knowledge. This ancient philosophy presents the eternal principles of life and living. It programmes a life of mental peace combined with dynamic action in the world. Equips one with clarity of intellect to deal with the challenges of life. Above all, it’s philosophy leads one to the ultimate goal of Self- Realization.

Swamiji, 84, was in the U.S. for his annual visit. He spoke to Dianne’s group and took questions, he answered a few questions for JoanValentineFoundation.org:

Q: You come here every year. What’s the biggest change you see with Americans, who are usually viewed as so materialistic?

A: I find them receiving the knowledge that I am imparting. I wouldn’t say there is much of a change. From the beginning they were receptive to the idea. In fact, I’ve been asked in India, “Why do you go and preach the philosophy in America? I say, “Why do you think it’s materialistic?” They say, Well, it’s all dollars and dollars and dollars.” I say, “Do you realize that no other currency in the world has what the dollar has ‘In God we trust?’ And you call that materialistic? No pound, no rupiah, no yen has it. They all trust in their currency. Americans trust in God.’ They are very active and dynamic people. I find them extremely open to ideas. There are no biases or prejudices. In other countries they are not so open and definitely not as dynamic as the Americans. That’s why I find that it’s a haven for the knowledge that I’m imparting in this country.

Q: Do you find that more Americans are visiting India?

A: That’s for a different reason. People from all over the world are coming for business purposes because they believe that India is progressing now.

Q: Aren’t more people going for spiritual reasons and visiting ashrams?

A: Because India is a land of spirituality and land of ashrams, when they come there they have to visit that. We don’t have Disneyland. We have ashrams. When we come here we visit Disneyland. When they go there they visit ashrams.Q: You don’t go to Disneyland, do you?A: The day before yesterday I went to Disneyland after 40 years. Probably my first visit somebody took me there. I’ve been here every year for 40 years. It was very unusual that I’m free for the day. It was wonderful. It’s an extraordinaire piece of art, which I admired.

Q: Did you get on all of the rides?

A: A few of them. I’m 84.

Q: You’re absolutely amazing. What’s your secret?

A: No worries of the past. No anxieties for the future. Everybody’s worried about what happened in the past and anxious about what’s going to happen in the future. If you can cut these two and live in the present, you don’t age. That applies to anybody. Some of the American children of my followers here ask their parents find out from Swami what cream he uses on his face. I don’t use any cream.

Q: Is living in the present one of the biggest challenges for people today?

A: It is. Worry and anxiety create fatigue. Work never tires you. I’ve been working constantly and have never taken a holiday. I’m not a model. It will happen to any one of you who don’t bother about the past or the future. That’s the secret. But it’s easier said than done. I can tell others but the question is how to do it. It’s a process. I’ve written 11 books.

Q: Do you mediate daily?

A: Not any more. I passed that stage. Meditation is not meant for an average person. It’s misconceived in this country and Western countries in general. I wouldn’t recommend mediation. It’s like jogging to an invalid. I jog three kilometers every day. I’ve been jogging all my life. If there’s an invalid suffering from heart problems or something else and you ask him to jog — jogging in a good exercise. The question is for whom? Similarly, meditation is meant for people who have calmed their minds and in that last stage they need mediation to get enlightenment. But you don’t start with meditation. It can harm you. No one has really understood the effects of meditation for the unprepared mind.When you’re calm, you meditate. You don’t meditate to get calmness.  You’re putting the cart before the horse. When your mind is calm then you’ll be able to meditate. That’s the last gateway to enlightenment, not before. I’ve trained hundreds of students. It’s a three-year course in India and none of them is fit for meditation. They are very advanced students compared to the average person but still they have to go a long way before they can sit down and meditate.

Q: Any final words you’d like to share?

A: I’ve been telling people to serve and sacrifice is the secret of peaceful life. The secret of harmony in the world is to learn to serve and sacrifice.  A meets B. He must think in terms of “Can I be of some service?” When I come here, I don’t know you all. I must have the spirit of serving and sharing not what can I get out of you. That’s a very negative approach to life. That’s what I tell my colleagues, friends and listeners – learn to sacrifice and that’s the best thing that you can do.

Swami Parthasarathy (left), Dianne Burnett and Joseph Emmett

Swami Parthasarathy with his group and Dianne Burnett

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

Heavy metal poisoning isn’t in the news as often it should be due to the amount of people unknowingly affected by it. Spirit tells me that mercury and aluminum poisoning is on the rise and has reached epidemic levels.

Heavy metals are like a hidden, behind-the-scenes instigator and that’s not being acknowledged to the point it should be. The difference between 20 years ago and now is huge but people are often misdiagnosed and told they have another malady.

Heavy metal poisoning is the toxic accumulation of heavy metals in the soft tissues of the body. The reason it has increased so much is due to pesticides, herbicides and pollutants as well as fish being worse than ever for mercury, pollutants and solvents.

Also, there are heavy metals and solvents that come out of the treated wood of lawn furniture that are absorbed right into your skin.  Arsenic is one. Let’s say you decide to do a little project and want to sand some wood down or restore some antique furniture. Because treated wood, stain and old paint can havearsenic and/or lead in it, it can get into your system.

Aluminum from aluminum cans is another avenue. A lot of out gassing occurs, especially when somebody is outside with a can of soda and it warms up in the sun. Spirit tells me that oxidationcan occur from the oils in your hand touching the aluminum can.

No, we can’t encase ourselves in a bubble and hide from it all but we can be a little bit more aware, especially when it comes to what we eat. Tuna and swordfish are high in mercury and contain some arsenic. One thing you don’t want to do is eat tuna out of a can. During the packaging and pasteurizing of aluminum cans, the heat causes the aluminum to release and absorb right into the fish.

Heavy metals are in the air in general thanks in part to the amount of exhaust fumes traveling around. They are in the air because of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides. There are solvents in toxic cleaners. Therefore, we can get exposed rather easily.

Symptoms

Some of the symptoms to be on the lookout for are sleeplessness, sleep disorders and restless leg syndrome, which is huge, right now. That’s when you have to keep on shifting and moving your legs throughout the night.  You can’t get comfortable. Sometimes you have pain or cramps in your legs. Then insomnia occurs.
But people don’t know what is causing this. Women get blamed and hormones are picked on. They’re told they need hormone therapy meanwhile they could have mercury or aluminum poisoning that is causing hot flashes.

Staying focused is another symptom. What I’ve learned from working with women for over 20 years and what Spirit tells me allows me to find the true cause for why some women complain to me about severe brain fog. Brain fog many times is heavy metal poisoning due to aluminum and mercury and this rolls into Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Ways to avoid

Adding more greens in your diet can help detoxify these heavy metals. Blue green algae, spirulina and cilantro are excellent ways to accomplish this.

Cilantro combats heavy metals in the body.

Spirit recommends doing a cilantro cleanse a couple of days out of every month. You can eat what you normally eat so if it is grass fed beef, free range chicken or eggs, or if you’re a vegetarian, whatever you’re eating is fine but incorporate one bunch of cilantro a day in your diet for a couple of days. You can chop it up and put it in salads, have it in your guacamole or put it on pizza. Cilantro can pull more mercury out and even some mercury and aluminum out of the brain. Spirit tells me that cilantro has a natural ability to cross the blood brain barrier.

It’s a powerful way to help the situation with extra heavy metals. When they start building up, they get trapped in the body’s system and this turns into problems that are blamed on women’s hormones.

Another way to lessen your risk of heavy metal poisoning is avoiding drinking out of aluminum cans and eating food out of aluminum cans if you can.
Garlic is a great heavy metal remover so add more garlic in the diet. If you’re going to have a brioche, put some garlic in there. If you’re going to roast a chicken, roast some garlic in it.

Seaweed: friend or foe?

There’s a lot of controversy to seaweed. Seaweed has heavy metals in it because it’s floating around in the oceans but at the same time there are people who say you need the seaweeds and other people who say it is bad for you.

But Spirit says the seaweed works and it is good for you because it holds onto metal as it enters into your body. As it digests in the body and goes through the intestinal tract, it doesn’t release the heavy metals. In fact it absorbs more metal so more aluminum is eliminated from your system. And then it passes through.

Nori is packaged and sold in sheets.

I recommend that seaweed be eaten two or three times a week. Everybody is different. Maybe someone doesn’t do well with seaweed for some other reason. With seaweed you get the iodine that helps balance the thyroid and that alone can reduce symptoms that are also blamed on hormones such as night sweats, hot flashes, irritabilities and highs and lows. It’s the heavy metals that are behind a lot of that. Packaged nori, dulse, which many people say taste like bacon, kelp and sea lettuce are some of the types of seaweed that I suggest.

People should also be aware that heavy metals build up overtime in a fish. The larger the fish, the more metal it will have and the older the fish the more concentrated it will be in its oils.

The effects on cancer

Heavy metals can play a great role in cancer. Cancer looks for heavy metals like nickel, copper and aluminum uses them as fuel. Cancer opens up its pores and vessels and draws in mercury.  It’s a food source and it’s looking for foods that are also holding on to that metal. Metal is attracted to cancer and cancer is attracted to metal and that’s what Spirit has always told me. I think it’s starting to be talked about.

This is how it works. Good minerals in food actually help defend the body against cancer so cancer does not want those minerals. If you’re eating an apple and you have trace minerals of zinc or you’re eating a Brazilian nut and have trace minerals of selenium or if you’re eating a piece of chicken and it has some phosphorous in it, or a little bit of manganese in it, cancer doesn’t want those minerals. It’s a whole different kind of attraction.

Anthony William is a Medical Medium and Consultant for Joan Valentine — A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc.

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

MALIBU FILM FESTIVAL, SPONSORED BY JOAN VALENTINE FOUNDATION

Joan Valentine, A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc., is proud to sponsor the 12th Annual Malibu International Film Festival, taking place October 6-8, 2011 at the Hollywood Theaters Malibu and Malibu Lumber Yard. For more information, visit malibufilmfestival.com

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

Wouldn’t you like to know if the foods you eat are made with genetically modified ingredients? It seems like a no-brainer yet not everyone agrees. GMOs, or Genetically Modified Organisms, are combining the genes of separate organisms to engineer a new one using DNA technology — and are a hot topic these days. Some GM foods include maize, soybean, oilseed rape (canola), chicory, squash, potato, pineapple and strawberries. GM foods may provide greater resistance to pests and viruses, higher nutritional value and longer shelf life. However, their safety, potential risks and ethical concerns are still being debated.

Regardless of whether you are for or against GMOs we have a right to know what is in our foods. That’s why the Right2Know March, which starts on October 1 at the United Nations in New York City and ends at the White House on October 16 (World Food Day), is so important. The 313-mile march is to demand that genetically engineered foods be labeled in the United States as they are in Europe and Japan. Currently, there is no legislation in Congress to label GMOs. However, there is an initiative campaign underway in California, which is always ahead of the healthy food curve, to get the labeling of genetically modified foods on the state ballot in 2012. Visit LabelGMOs.org for more information.

Foods certified as organic or biodynamic should not contain any GM ingredients, according to industry guidelines. According to LabelGMOs.org, what does labeling mean for you and your family?

Proponents claim that genetically modified (GM) crops:

• are safe to eat and more nutritious
• benefit the environment
• reduce use of herbicides and insecticides
• increase crop yields, thereby helping farmers and solving the food crisis
• create a more affluent, stable economy
• are just an extension of natural breeding, and have no risks different from naturally bred crops.

However, a large and growing body of scientific research and on-the-ground experience indicate that GMOs fail to live up to these claims. Instead, GM crops:

• can be toxic, allergenic or less nutritious than their natural counterparts
• can disrupt the ecosystem, damage vulnerable wild plant and animal populations and harm biodiversity
• increase chemical inputs (pesticides, herbicides) over the long term
• deliver yields that are no better, and often worse, than conventional crops
• cause or exacerbate a range of social and economic problems
• are laboratory-made and, once released, harmful GMOs cannot be recalled from the environment.

The scientifically demonstrated risks and clear absence of real benefits have led experts to see GM as a clumsy, outdated technology. They present risks that we need not incur, given the availability of effective, scientifically proven, energy-efficient and safe ways of meeting current and future global food needs.

This paper presents the key scientific evidence – 114 research studies and other authoritative documents – documenting the limitations and risks of GM crops and the many safer, more effective alternatives available today.

To download the paper.

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

If you’re wondering if Food Day is October 16 or October 24, you’re not alone.

October 16, 2011 is World Food Day, which the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations celebrates  each year on October 16, the day on which the Organization was founded in 1945. And October 24, 2011 is Food Day that  focuses on the United States. When it comes to eating right, there are never enough days to bring attention to the cause so the more the merrier. In the end, what we put in our body can result in how it treats us when battling maladies such as cancer.

Of course there are instances when the healthiest people in the world are victimized by cancer but sometimes how well they have taken care of their bodies up to that point helps determine their fate. The earlier we can teach children the importance of eating well and proper nutrition, the better. And that’s why we should recognize Food Day.

Food Day seeks to bring together Americans from all walks of life—parents, teachers, and students; health professionals, community organizers, and local officials; chefs, school lunch providers, and eaters of all stripes—to push for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way. It works with people around the country to create thousands of events in homes, schools, churches, farmers markets, city halls, and state capitals. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) are the Honorary Co-Chairs for Food Day 2011, and the day is sponsored by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the nonprofit watchdog group that has led successful fights for food labeling, better nutrition, and safer food since 1971.

The six Food Day principles

• Reduce diet-related disease by promoting safe, healthy foods

• Support sustainable farms & limit subsidies to big agribusiness

• Expand access to food and alleviate hunger

• Protect the environment & animals by reforming factory farms

• Promote health by curbing junk-food marketing to kids

•  Support fair conditions for food and farm workers

According to the Food Day website:

The foods we enjoy should promote, not undermine, our good health. Most Americans feast on salty, overly processed packaged foods; high-calorie sugary drinks that pack on pounds and rot teeth; and fast-food meals made of white bread, fatty factory-farmed meat, French fries, and more soda still. Such junky diets promote obesity and tooth decay, as well as diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, and cancer. As many as several hundred thousand Americans die prematurely every year due to what we eat, with medical costs running well over $100 billion.
Some facts:

• Two-thirds of American adults and one-third of children are overweight or obese.

A healthy diet can lower blood pressure, cholesterol levels, blood sugar, and prevent everything from tooth decay and obesity to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer.

• Americans now spend well over $30 billion a year just on drugs to treat heart disease and high blood pressure. Heart surgery costs another $25 billion.

• Cutting sodium (mostly from salt) consumption in half could save upwards of 100,000 lives per year.

• Eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and very low in saturated fat and cholesterol, can be highly effective in treating heart disease.

It’s time to eat real! As health experts now recognize, the best diets consist largely of vegetables, fruit, beans, and whole grains, along with some seafood, low-fat dairy products, and poultry. That kind of diet has lots of fiber, vitamins, and minerals, but little sodium and saturated and trans fats. Whether the cuisine is classic Mediterranean, Asian, vegetarian, or American, healthy diets could lead to longer, healthier, happier lives for almost everyone.

Moreover, diet can even be an extremely effective and delicious way to treat diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease. Indeed, a low-fat, almost-vegetarian diet can actually reverse heart disease, stripping away the gunk that injures arteries, and treat type 2 diabetes. Also, consuming less sodium (mostly from salt) and more fruits and vegetables helps keep blood vessels supple and blood pressure down. Surely, a really healthful diet—from salads to low-sodium lentil soup to whole wheat pasta primavera—is far more enjoyable and cheaper than undergoing surgery to have an artery reamed out or replaced.

Ordinary sugar and high-fructose corn syrup make up one-sixth of the average American’s calorie intake. Half of all added sugars come to us in the form of “liquid candy”: soft drinks, fruit drinks, sports drinks, and iced teas. And it is those sugary drinks that pose the biggest risk of weight gain, because they don’t seem to curb appetite as much as do solid foods. In fact, the one food or beverage that has been demonstrated to promote weight gain is non-diet soft drinks.

Each of us needs to make an effort to choose a healthy diet, even though that might mean changing life-long eating habits. Many of today’s adults grew up watching junk-food commercials and eating fatty, salty meals at fast-food restaurants. Back then, few people were talking about good nutrition. In the process, many people did not learn how to cook, other than putting a box into the microwave oven. Now, the medical community, the federal government, and even large parts of the food industry agree that we’ve got to go down a different road. While changing our eating habits may be momentarily jarring, a smaller waistline, healthier arteries, and greater vitality are worth the effort.

So it’s time to cut out (or down on) the junk and replace it with the good stuff:

• Plan snacks and meals around fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat milk and yogurt, fish, and lean poultry. Use one of those cookbooks on your shelf to try out a new, healthy recipe. If you fill up on the good stuff, you won’t be tempted so much by the bad.

• At the grocery store, switch from whole or 2% milk to 1% or fat-free, and switch from white bread and white rice to whole wheat bread and brown rice. Tap water, seltzer water, flavored unsweetened water, and even diet sodas are better for you than sugary soft drinks. Use Nutrition Facts labels to help you choose healthier packaged-food products—but you’d be best off skipping whole aisles of the supermarket.

• At restaurants, don’t be tempted by the huge portions. Share an entrée with a friend, ask the server to wrap up half for lunch tomorrow, skip dessert…or eat at home! Thanks to new laws, calorie labeling has come to fast food and other chain restaurants in some locales and will be going nationwide in 2012—that should be a big help when choosing what to order.

And, don’t forget to exercise, starting with pushing away the plate when you’re full!

While we can choose healthier diets on our own, doing so would be a lot easier if we got more help from government health agencies and companies. The Federal Trade Commission should be stopping deceptive advertisements, and the Food and Drug Administration should be stopping deceptive labels. The FDA should also require simplified nutrition information on the fronts of food packages, limit sodium in packaged foods, and get artificial trans fat—gram for gram, the most harmful kind of fat—totally out of food.

Some food manufacturers are, if only hesitantly, getting on the nutrition bandwagon. Campbell, Frito-Lay, General Mills, and other companies are getting rid of trans fat and lowering sodium. Whole grains are getting a bit easier to find in the bread, pasta, and rice aisles. But there’s a long way to go, and a lot of the less-harmful processed foods still are made with dyes, white flour, and plenty of sugar.

Every employer should make sure that the foods in the cafeteria and vending machines are healthy. A few employers, such as the huge Cleveland Clinic, are removing sodas and other junk foods from their vending machines and cafeterias, posting calorie information in cafeterias, and providing space for a weekly farmers market. Health insurance companies should encourage doctors to inform heart patients that a healthy diet and more exercise are often the smartest way to treat heart disease. And health departments at all levels of government should mount community-wide campaigns aimed at reducing consumption of soft drinks, meat, and cheese; increasing consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables; and consuming fewer salty foods.

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

Yoga instructor Tari Prinster is a seven-year cancer survivor

The positive impact yoga has on our bodies is one of the reasons it is practiced by more than 20 million people in the United States. Yoga can also be useful to those battling cancer.

That’s just one of the terrific messages in Yogawoman, a new, inspirational and empowering feature documentary narrated by Academy Award nominee Annette Bening that details yoga’s impact on females’ health, fitness, emotional well-being and personal growth.

Tara Prinster, a yoga teacher in New York, is among those featured. She admits she started yoga late in life for “vanity” reasons once she noticed she started to hunch like her mother and grandmother had. Five years later, she relied heavily on yoga once she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She practiced yoga daily and says she felt good in spite of the chemotherapy treatment. She went on to develop a yoga program to support the physical and emotional challenges that cancer survivors face and talks about cancer in class.

Prinster, now 66 and a seven-year cancer survivor, points to how yoga heals and says, “Everything that we do in yoga enhances the lymphatic flow and therefore enhances the immune system.”

In Yogawoman, we also hear from Dr. Sara Gottfried, a Harvard-trained gynecologist, who synthesizes the best of western medicine with natural therapies at the Gottfried Integrative Medical Center in Oakland, Calif.

“If I could get my patients to do yoga regularly, I wouldn’t need to practice as much as I do,” she says. “It gets you into a place of hormonal balance, emotional fulfillment. It prevents depressions. It prevents anxiety. It helps you sleep better.”

Filmmaker Kate Clere McIntyre takes us outside of yoga studios and into cancer clinics, African villages, prisons and urban streets to show the positive benefits of yoga. In the documentary, which is available on DVD at yogawoman.tv and Amazon, yoga is presented as being something only men took part in at its inception thousands of years ago. Today, over 20 million people in the United States practice yoga and of those, 85% are women who take part in rich and poor communities, hospitals, prisons, schools, etc.

The film shows females of all ages – from young girls to 95 – and in various locations, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Tennessee, Detroit, London, Germany, Tokyo, Italy, Kenya, Uganda, Sydney, New Zealand, and of course India, the birthplace of yoga.Depression, anorexia, cancer and anxiety are just a few of the maladies those interviewed on camera talk about yoga combating. Boldface names in the yoga community, such as Patricia Walden, Shiva Rea, Seane Corn, Shannon Gahhon, Cyndi Lee and Elena Brower, share their words of wisdom and experience as we hear how yoga is beneficial during pregnancy, aging and youth.

Bening is a longtime advocate of yoga.“Yoga started in acting school for me, now it serves me in my life,” the actress said. “I think you need yoga more as you get older. As well as just being good exercise, you’re dealing with different body issues and the cycles of life.”

Narrator Annette Bening with Yogawoman director Kate Clere McIntyre

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

Integrative Medicine Program’s 7th Workshop for Acupuncturists, Massage Therapists, and Yoga Teachers
July 27-29, 2011
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
8th Floor Conference Center
Cancer Prevention Building
1155 Pressler Street, Houston, Texas

Goal
Persons touched by cancer may enhance their quality of life through the safe and effective delivery of massage, acupuncture, and yoga which complement conventional cancer treatments with a focus on physical, mind-spirit, and social well-being. These treatment modalities can be successfully and safely integrated with conventional medical care when delivered by trained professionals to improve outcomes for cancer patients.

Purpose
This course will provide licensed massage therapists, licensed acupuncturists, and trained yoga teachers an overview of evidence-based practice in cancer care. Topics of recent research findings, recommendations for treating common side-effects, ethical issues, safety issues and case presentations will be presented.

Target Audience
This program should be of interest to licensed acupuncturists, licensed massage therapists, and yoga teachers.

Educational Methods
• Lectures
• Question-and-Answer Sessions
• Panel Discussions
• Demonstrations

Educational Objectives

Upon completion of this course licensed acupuncturists should be able to:
• Explain Complementary and Integrative Medicine and its role in patients with cancer.
• Discuss psychosocial issues common to patients undergoing cancer treatment.
• Discuss communication techniques for interacting with other healthcare professionals.
• Discuss five oncology treatments and five side effects.
• Explain the benefits, indications, precautions, and contraindications of acupuncture for the oncology patient.
• Discuss recent research findings related to the use of acupuncture in cancer care.
• Explain how to develop safe, evidence-based treatment plans for common side-effects of cancer therapy.
• Discuss ethical concerns related to acupuncture treatment when caring for cancer patients.
• Discuss safety issues related to the use of herbs among cancer patients.
• Discuss safety issues related to the use of tui na among cancer patients.
Upon completion of this course licensed massage therapists should be able to:
• Explain Complementary and Integrative Medicine and its role with patients with cancer.
• Discuss psychosocial issues common to patients undergoing cancer treatment.
• Discuss communication techniques for interacting with other healthcare professionals.
• Discuss five oncology treatments and five side effects.
• Explain the benefits, indications, precautions, and contraindications of massage for the oncology patient.
• Discuss recent research findings related to the use of massage in cancer care.
• Explain how to develop safe, evidence-based treatment plans for common side-effects of cancer treatment.
• Explain and dispel the issues raised by the traditional massage contraindication for cancer.
• Describe common massage adjustments for surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.
• Perform an assessment for massage and formulate a treatment plan for a client with cancer.
• Perform medical charting and documentation.
Upon completion of this course yoga teachers should be able to:
• Explain Complementary and Integrative Medicine and its role in patients with cancer.
• Discuss psychosocial issues common to patients undergoing cancer treatment.
• Discuss communication techniques for interacting with other healthcare professionals.
• Discuss five oncology treatments and five side effects.
• Explain the benefits, indications, precautions, and contraindications of yoga for the oncology patient.
• Discuss recent research findings related to the use of yoga in cancer care.
• Explain how to develop safe, evidence-based treatment plans for common side-effects of cancer therapy.
• Discuss ethical concerns when teaching yoga to cancer patients in groups and individual sessions.
• Describe yoga practice modifications for the client with lymphedema or at risk for lymphedema.
• Discuss the role spirituality plays in coping with cancer.
• Discuss four Asian nutrition and lifestyle traditions that support well-being.

Evaluation
A course evaluation form will provide participants with the opportunity to comment on the value of the program content to their practice decisions, performance improvement activities, or possible impact on patient health status. Participants will also have the opportunity to comment on any perceived commercial bias in the presentations as well as to identify future educational topics.

Accreditation/Credit Designation
Licensed Massage Therapists
This course has been planned and implemented in accordance with the policies of the Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS) and National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCTMB).

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (UTMDACC) is approved by the Texas Department of State Health Services (license #CE1056) and by the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCTMB license #450586-08) to provide continuing massage therapy education for licensed massage therapists.

UTMDACC designates this live activity for 19.5 hours of massage therapy continuing education as authorized by the Texas Department of State Health Services and the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork.

Satisfactory completion: Attendees securing Continuing Education credits must attend all sessions and complete an evaluation form in order to receive a certificate of completion. These certificates will be mailed after the conference. Partial credit of individual sessions is not available.

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

My Personal Testimony
A. L. Roberts

In April of 1983, I became very ill.  After being tested and x-rayed by my own doctor and a specialist, I was told I had cancer.  I was immediately sent to a San Francisco hospital where I was extensively tested and x-rayed.  I received the same diagnosis and the cancer had progressed and enveloped the lining of my right lung.

Several doctors reviewed my case.  A few days later I was told there was no treatment for the type of cancer I had.  I insisted that I be released from the hospital with appointments to return.

My first return appointment was on May 17, 1983.  I wasn’t any better and was taking pills for pain.  My next appointment was on June 14, 1983.  more tests and x-rays were made.  At this time the pills had to be increased for the severe pain I was in.  My doctor told me that several doctors evaluated my case and didn’t think I had over 6 months to live.  But (he) didn’t think I had that long.  He said if I had anything to do, I had better get it done.  During this conversation I asked the name of my type of cancer.  He said one way to remember it easily is it’s the same type Steve McQueen died of, and that it is a very fast acting cancer.  I told the doctor that I was going to attempt to treat myself through nutrition or any other method I could find.  He said sure, anything.

It wasn’t until the first week of July 1983, while visiting a friend that I learned about Taheebo tea.  His wife heard that i only had a short time to live.  She told me she had something that would cure me in 30 days.  I had my doubts that this would help me, but I was willing to try anything.  I came home and immediately started taking Taheebo, Chaparral and Red Clover teas.  (Taheebo is also known as Ipe Roxo and Purple Lapacho.)  Ipe Roxo is the brand that I drank.  I found it to be the finest quality available.  (Be careful as there are some brands on the market that won’t help you.)

Within 24 hours I had no more pain.  A few days later after taking the teas and being on my own nutritious diet, I began having excessive bowel movements which lasted about 2 and a half days.  I immediately started feeling much better.  I was sure the cancer had gone but I had no way of being sure until my next scheduled appointment.

By August 2, 1983, I had been taking the 3 teas for 3 weeks and 2 days.  More tests and x-rays were taken to find out how far the cancer had progressed.  The doctor and several other doctors found that i no longer had cancer.  My lung was clear.  My amazed doctor asked me what I had done to cure myself.  When I told him of the teas, he cautioned me not to continue taking them.  But I continued anyway.

On November 1, 1983, I had my last checkup, and had no more cancer.  I have told several people with cancer about these teas along with my nutritious diet.  Several people that had terminal cancer tried this and were well in a very short period of time.  I feel that the combination of the 3 teas and eating nutritious foods is what healed my body.

When I first learned of Taheebo, I found it wasn’t readily available and no one seemed to know of the tea and its benefits.  That’s why I have taken it upon myself to let people know about my experience.  I’m glad now there was no treatment available through my doctors because I didn’t have to go through the debilitating chemotherapy, radiation and surgery that would have disfigured and damaged my body.

What follows is the course that I took.

I always drank Ipe Roxo and the other teas on an empty stomach if possible.  I kept the Ipe Roxo prepared in the refrigerator and reheated it one cup at a time.  I DID NOT USE A MICROWAVE OVEN AT ANY TIME.  Brewing instructions are below.

ESSENTIAL HERBAL TEA SCHEDULE
30 minutes before Breakfast – 1 cup Chaparral
1 hour, 30 minutes after Breakfast – 1 cup Ipe Roxo
30 minutes before Lunch – 1 cup Ipe Roxo
1 hour 30 minutes after Lunch – 1 cup Ipe Roxo
30 minutes before Dinner – 1 cup Ipe Roxo
Just before Bed – 1 cup Red Clover

I wasn’t able to eat most of the time, I felt I needed the best nutrition possible.  I eliminated unnecessary foods and concentrated on only foods that would give my body the nutrition it needed to keep what little strength I had left.

PLEASE NOTE:  All cooked foods were STEAMED, BROILED OR BAKED.  I ate NO red meats or fried foods of any kind.  I DID NOT drink coffee, milk or soft drinks.  I drank at least one glass of fruit juice with each meal.  (Mainly apple juice.)  I DID NOT eat or drink citrus fruits.  I sweetened my teas and foods with honey NOT sugar.  I ate 7 grain bread.

I kept a salad prepared in the refrigerator.  Many times I had no appetite so I ate at least the salad.  I ate small portions of the other foods as often as possible.  In my salad I used fresh, raw, grated vegetables and fruits.  I used more carrots and cabbage than the other vegetables.  I added a small amount of mayonnaise for consistency.  (Plain unsweetened yogurt may be used in place of mayonnaise.)  If fresh fruits and vegetables were not available, I used frozen foods.  I only used canned pineapple (drained).

I USED THE FOLLOWING TO PREPARE MY SALAD
(All of these foods were grated into each salad.)
carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, turnips, raisins, apples, peaches, pineapples (drained)

FOR BREAKFAST I CHOSE FROM THESE FOODS
Oatmeal or Oat Bran, Cream of Wheat, Eggs boiled or poached (if desired, only on occasion)

FOR LUNCH AND DINNER I CHOSE FROM THESE FOODS
MEATS – chicken, turkey, fish, (white meat only)
VEGETABLES – red potatoes, brown rice, carrots, turnips, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage,            Brussels sprouts, asparagus
FRUITS – raisins, apples, pineapple (drained), peaches, pears, prunes, cherries

I chose from any 3 or 4 of these foods for each meal.  I ate portions of meat at least 2 to 5 times per week.  I ate portions of ALL the foods listed for 30 days or longer if necessary.  I did not eat any other foods.  I found out later that these foods have cancer fighting agents in them.

TO BREW IPE ROXO (TAHEEBO) TEA:
Use a covered container made of stainless steel, corning ware, glass or porcelain.  Do not use aluminum.  Add 1 quart of distilled or pure water and bring to a boil. Add 1 heaping tablespoon of the Inner Bark.  Simmer for 10 minutes, turn off heat and let stand 20 minutes.  Strain into a glass container and store in refrigerator.

Take 8 oz. at least 4 times a day, at least 30 minutes before meals.  If you wake during the night, drink an additional 8 oz.  The terminally ill sometimes choose to use it stronger and more often if time is of the essence.  (Double the strength).

TAHEEBO IS THE INNER BARK OF A TREE NATIVE TO SOUTH AMERICA.  I DID NOT USE IPE ROXO HERBAL TEA IN CAPSULE FORM OR IN TEA BAG FORM.  Do not use a coffee maker of any kind.  Brewing time cannot be reduced as therapeutic nutrients are obtained during this 30 minute process.

CHAPARRAL AND RED CLOVER TEAS:
To prepare Chaparral and Red Clover Teas, follow the instructions found on the package.  I used Chaparral and Red Clover in tea bag form only.

I SUPPLEMENTED MY DIET WITH THESE VITAMINS
1 – 500 mg. Vitamin C with Rose Hips (twice a day)
1 – 10,000 I.U. Vitamin A
1 – 30 mg. Zinc tablet
1 – Kelp tablet

During the past two and a half years since I have cured myself of cancer, I have read and researched many articles concerning Taheebo Tea.  I’ve learned that South American doctors discovered this tea through ancient Indian tribes who have used Taheebo for thousands of years and have had great success in treating the following maladies:

Anemia, Arteriosclerosis, Arthritis, Asthma, Bronchitis, Cancer, Colitis, Cystitis, Diabetes, Eczema, Fistulas, Gastritis, Gonorrhea, Hemorrhages, Hernias, Hodgkins disease, Infections, Leukemia, Liver ailments, Lupus, Nephritis, Osteomyelitis, Parkinson’s disease, Pain Reliever, Polyps, Prostatitis, Psoriasis, Pyorrhea, Rheumatism, Ringworm, Skin cancer, Spleen infections, Syphilis, Ulcers, Varicose Veins, Wounds.

I feel better than I have in years.  My wife and I drink about 2 cups Taheebo each day.  Neither of us have had to see a doctor since my cancer was cured.  Many friends drink this also and haven’t had the need to see a doctor.  Some have used Taheebo tea for some of the above mentioned maladies and they too have had great success especially for cancer and arthritis.

I have also learned that you can eat all you want of these foods and lose weight without losing your strength.  People who drink the tea for seven days before scheduled surgery seem to suffer no staff infections and the healing is much faster.  This diet seems to make our metabolism work properly and will also make you gain weight if needed.

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

April 20th, 2010 – by: David Servan-Schreiber, M.D., Ph.D.
My friend and colleague Richard Béliveau, Ph.D. one of the world’s leading researcher in the effects of foods on cancer biochemistry, was so struck by the results of the Bofetta study that I discussed in my last blog that he sent me his reaction, which I’d like to share with you. According to Dr. Béliveau, although we know that consumption of copious amounts of certain specific fruits and vegetables reduces the risk of developing different types of cancer, this protective effect is not systematically linked to all plant products. I completely agree with his reasoning.

We’ve known for many years that consuming copious amounts of certain specific fruits and vegetables reduces our risk of developing various types of cancer. But a recent study reminds us that this protective effect is not linked to all fruit and vegetables. Some foods contain larger amounts of anticancer molecules. Thus we need to be attentive to our choices.

Lifestyle and Cancer:

Cancer is not a disease whose origin is principally genetic, as many people continue to believe. It is a pathology that is closely linked to a range of lifestyle factors, particularly smoking and obesity (which stems from our sedentary habits and our dietary choices). Several studies have shown a direct link between the regular consumption of certain fruits and vegetables and a reduction in risk of developing various types of cancer.

Protective studies showing links between consumption of specific foods and the incidence of cancer in human populations:

FoodsParticipantsCancer TypeRisk Reduction
Cruciferous vegetables47,909
4,309
29,361Bladder
Lung
Prostate50%
30%
50%
Tomatoes47,365Prostate25%
Citrus Fruit521,457Stomach, Esophagus25%
Leafy greens (Dietary Folic Acid)81,922
11,699Pancreas
Breast (post-menopause)75%
44%
Lignans (flax seeds and others)58,049Breast (post-menopause , estrogen-receptor +)28%
Carrots470,802Head and neck46%
Apples, pears, plums470,802Head and neck38%
Green Tea69,710Colorectal57%
Vegetable oils & Nuts (Dietary tocopherols) 295,344Prostate32%
Vitamin D / Calcium10,578Breast (pre-menopause)35%
Source: Béliveau, Gingras, Blaslyk, Eating Well, Living Well: An Everyday Guide for Optimum Health

It’s particularly important to specifically include these in our diet, because not all fruits and vegetables share the same potential for active prevention against cancer. There are major differences in their levels of anticancer components. In some cases the phytochemical components that provide the greatest cancer-preventing activity are present only in a few, very specific fruits and vegetables. For example, the isoflavones of soy, the resveratrol of grapes, the curcumin of turmeric, the isothiocyanates and indoles of broccoli and the catechins of green tea are all anticancer molecules whose distribution among plants is extremely restricted.

In other words, even though all fruits and vegetables are an integral part of a balanced diet, only some of them can truly influence the risk of cancer.

Quality, Not Quantity

The importance of including these foods in our diet is fully illustrated by results of studies that examine the global risk of cancer according to the total quantity of fruit and vegetables consumed, without regard for specific types. For example, a study of more than 100,000 American health professions did not establish that total consumption of fruit and vegetables was linked to a reduction in the risk of cancer (1). However, within this same population researchers have observed a significant reduction in the risk of bladder cancer in men who consumed large amounts of cruciferous vegetables (2), and a significant reduction in the risk of prostate cancer following regular consumption of tomato-based products (3). A European study of 400,000 people has just produced similar results. Total consumption of fruit and vegetables is not associated with a significant reduction in the total risk of cancer (4). However, results previously obtained from this same population show that certain fruits (particularly citrus fruit) considerably reduce the risk of stomach cancer (5).

These observations indicate that the development of various types of cancer is modulated differently by the specifics of the fruits and vegetables consumed, rather than by the quantity of overall consumption. This is very important, because in the United States fully half the fruit and vegetables consumed are relatively poor in protective impact (potatoes, iceberg lettuce, canned tomatoes), while the per capita consumption of plants rich in anticancer molecules — such as cruciferous vegetables — is barely 1 %. Increased consumption of foods that contain high amounts of anticancer molecules (cabbage family, garlic family, green tea, small fruit, citrus fruit, tomatoes and carrots), and which are thus able to target several distinct processes essential to the growth of cancer cells, is absolutely essential in order to reduce significantly the risk of certain cancers.

All fruits and vegetables are excellent for overall health. They protect, for example, against cardio-vascular disease. But in the case of cancer, we continue to emphasize that their protective effects are specific to certain fruits and vegetables

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

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 nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, but also to environmental, food and lifestyle factors.

5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet to eat more adequately and healthy, 4-5 times/day and by 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 with the foods it needs to multiply.

*CANCER CELLS FEED ON:
a. 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 other meat, like chicken. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.

d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. 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 caffeine Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer fighting properties. 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 it frees more enzymes 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 bodies 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 down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.

1. No plastic containers in micro.
2. No water bottles in freezer.
3. No plastic wrap in microwave..

Johns Hopkins has recently sent this 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 a while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.

Please share this with your whole email list…

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.

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

Posted by: admin on: January 17 2011

Since inception of Dr. Kelley’s site in the year 2000, one of our focuses has been on the poisonous use of Fluoride in our drinking water. Dr. Kelley’s history with (and against) fluoridation of our drinking water in America, is widely noted, and because of it, we continue to warn our readers of said dangers.

Dartmouth University wrote in 2001:
In a recent article in the journal NeuroToxicology, a research team led by Roger D. Masters, Dartmouth College Research Professor and Nelson A. Rockefeller Professor of Government Emeritus, reports evidence that public drinking water treated with sodium silicofluoride or fluosilicic acid, known as silicofluorides (SiFs), is linked to higher uptake of lead in children.
Sodium fluoride, first added to public drinking water in 1945, is now used in less than 10% of fluoridation systems nationwide, according to the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) 1992 Fluoridation Census. Instead, SiF’s are now used to treat drinking water delivered to 140 million people. While sodium fluoride was tested on animals and approved for human consumption, the same cannot be said for SiFs.

Masters and his collaborator Myron J. Coplan, a consulting chemical engineer, formerly Vice President of Albany International Corporation, led the team that has now studied the blood lead levels in over 400,000 children in three different samples. In each case, they found a significant link between SiF-treated water and elevated blood lead levels.
“We should stop using silicofluorides in our public water supply until we know what they do,” said Masters. Officials at the Environmental Protection Agency have told Masters and Coplan that the EPA has no information on health effects of chronic ingestion of SiF-treated water.

Also requiring further examination is German research that shows SiFs inhibit cholinesterase, an enzyme that plays an important role in regulating neurotransmitters.

“If SiFs are cholinesterase inhibitors, this means that SiFs have effects like the chemical agents linked to Gulf War Syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome and other puzzling conditions that plague millions of Americans,” said Masters. “We need a better understanding of how SiFs behave chemically and physiologically.”

Here is Masters’ scientific paper on SiFs (also called “fluosilicic acid” and “fluorosilicic acid“).
Where does this compound come from?

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Toxicology Program, reported in 2001:
Sodium hexafluorosilicate is produced by treating fluorosilicic acid with sodium hydroxide, sodium carbonate, or sodium chloride; alkalinity is adjusted to avoid the release of the fluoride. Fluorosilicic acid is mainly produced as a byproduct of the manufacture of phosphate fertilizers where phosphate rock is treated with sulfuric acid.

The major use of sodium hexafluorosilicate and fluorosilicic acid is as fluoridation agents for drinking water.

According to the U.S. U.S. Geological Survey:
An estimated 40,000 tons of fluorosilicic acid (equivalent to about 70,000 tons of 92% fluorspar) was recovered from phosphoric acid plants processing phosphate rock. Fluorosilicic acid was used primarily in water fluoridation, either directly or after processing into sodium silicofluoride.

The USGS also noted in a 2000 report:
Fluorosilicic acid is a byproduct of the phosphate fertilizer industry and is not manufactured for itself alone …
In other words, even though neither the EPA or any other government agency has studied the effects of long-term ingestion of fluorosilicic acid, it is being used instead of sodium fluoride because it is cheaper.

As Edward Urbansky from the EPA’s Office of Research and Development, National Risk management Research Laboratory, Water Supply and Water Resources Division wrote in 2002:
The most common fluoridating agents used by American waterworks are sodium fluoride (NaF), hexafluorosilicic acid (H2SiF6), and sodium hexafluorosilicate (Na2SiF6) as shown in Figure 1.14 Although 25% of the utilities reported using NaF, this corresponds to only 9.2% of the U.S. population drinking fluoride-supplemented tap water. … The cost savings in using fluorosilicates result in large systems using those additives instead.

In the United States, the primary sources of fluoridating agents are rocky mineral deposits containing mixtures of fluorite and apatite; the fluoridating agent itself is produced as a byproduct of phosphate fertilizer manufacture.
The EPA is aware of papers positing links between fluoridation agents and lead in the bloodstream or challenging the accepted chemistry. To truly investigate such hypotheses, better chemical knowledge of the speciation is required.

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

December 29, 2010
By Beverly Hills Times Magazine

The day we met…two strangers; by the time the interview was finished …fast friends. Burnett is a warrior—my kind of woman—actually every woman’s kind of woman.

She inspires with her talent, offers encouragement with her wisdom, and maybe most important, she is an advocate for spiritual growth and change.

As she says, moving forward requires that we overcome our fears to face what isn’t working, and then do something positive with it.

No doubt Burnett has had her share of dark times with a high-profile divorce from a well-known reality show producer. But as she tells her story, it’s clear that she not only came out stronger, but emerged more certain of who she is as a woman, mother (she has two sons), and she inspires us to never give up on our dreams.

Now more than ever she is determined to help other women overcome challenges and move forward to new beginnings. One of her new beginnings was going from blonde to brunette.

ST: Some events inspired you to make certain changes… explain.
“A lot of changes were taking place in my life (she recently she lost her mother to cancer, a devastating blow that prompted her to start a non-profit, education and preventative cancer research foundation in her mother’s name: Joan Valentine-A Foundation for Natural Cures). I think most women going through a difficult period, emerge, look in the mirror and decide to re-do something about themselves to reflect the change they feel inside.” Born of humble beginnings in a modest suburb of Long Island, she got a first hand look at the true meaning of faith and determination from her mother. Burnett’s mother worked multiple jobs to make ends meet, and independently raised four children on her own. Looking back, she credits her mother for instilling in her a strong work ethic and the determination to move through adversity. Those values heavily influenced her determination to excel at every stage of her life.

ST: Growing up what lessons did you learn from your mother?“She worked three jobs to keep us going. There were times when it was so bad that she almost lost the house we lived in, but then some how things would pull through and we would be okay. I remember so many things she did to make our lives better.” Burnett has produced TV, theater, and film projects; acted on TV and in theater, and she has been involved in many philanthropic endeavors that are close to her heart. She recently completed an autobiographical book, The Road to Reality, which charts her existential quest through life so far.

ST: All women have a different story—then again it seems we all have the same story.
“Our lives take many turns through heartache, disappointment, regret, growth and change. That’s another reason I decided to chronicle my journey. It’s an intimate look at my own life, but I believe that other women will relate to these experiences as well. That’s how we learn; by experiencing the journey, failures and success of others. That’s why it is so important that women stick together and help one another. The Road to Reality is about women’s empowerment, a journey through self-realization and awareness of inner strength.
As if Burnett doesn’t have enough projects on her plate, she will soon launch TheOtherSide.com, a unique social networking site combining the best of Twitter and Facebook. She has brilliantly tapped into the cyberspace connection offering members around the globe a people-to-people interactive hub filled with tools to nourish the mind, body and soul.

“TheOtherSide.com is like having your very own inspirational team: a community of alternative medicine practitioners, psychics, mediums, forward thinkers, and astrologers with a running debate on all worldly topics. There are interactive discussion rooms for members to share views and it serves as a bulletin board of national and international events of interest to the community. TheOtherSide.com empowers people by offering wisdom and enlightenment.”
Burnett supports many organizations; one being Children Mending Hearts, of which she is a board member, among several others. “All of my projects are important, but the Joan Valentine-A Foundation for Natural Cures is a top priority. Cancer affects many people, and too often treatment options are limited; people don’t know where to turn. I went down this path with my mother during her illness. Not many choices were given to us, but options do exist that we don’t know about.”

For additional information or get involved in the Joan Valentine Foundation: www.DianneBurnett.com.
Visit: www.TheOtherSide.com to learn more about the incredible networking opportunities and how to become a member; the site launches in January.

Also on www.DianneBurnett.com you can learn about Burnett’s book, The Road to Reality.

If you’re interested in The Joan Valentine-A Foundation for Natural Cures and becoming a sponsor at its First Annual Charity Benefit this summer, check in with Burnett’s web-site for updated information.
“Our lives take many turns through heartache, disappointment, regret, and ultimately growth and change. That’s another reason I decided to chronicle my journey… It’s an intimate look at my own life, but I believe other women will relate to these experiences as well.”

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

Dianne Burnett’s new foundation will raise money and awareness for preventative and integrative cancer treatments.

The Malibu home of actor, producer, author and philanthropist Dianne Burnett played host on Wednesday to a luncheon for the top names from the field of integrated medicine, which combines conventional medical treatments with alternative approaches. It was a gathering for those involved in the recently formed Joan Valentine- A Foundation for Natural Cures. They are planning for a major event in the spring that will raise money and awareness for preventative and integrative cancer treatments.

The foundation was formed in 2009 when Burnett’s mother, Joan Valentine, was battling esophageal cancer. She was by her mother’s side until her mother died on April 20 of last year. “We’re all touched by cancer in some way—through a loved one or friend,” Burnett said. “When my mother got it, it was just a blow. [The cancer] was in her esophagus, in a hard-to-reach place, and was already Stage 4. We were all told it was a death sentence. Even so, the [doctors proceeded with] chemotherapy and radiation, and this went on for 10 months.”

Burnett said the foundation will “build awareness that there are other approaches” to treating cancer. It will also raise money to conduct scientific studies of promising new cancer treatments that are unlikely to be pursued by pharmaceutical companies.

The luncheon included people from various backgrounds, including a local psychiatrist that specializes in helping cancer patients and a person with a doctorate in nutrition who scours the earth for indigenous plants with medical value.

“The typical medical model doesn’t offer everything people need to be well,” said Dr. Gabriel Cora of Miami Shores, Fla. Cora has a medical degree and an MBA. She integrates traditional and alternative medicines in her practice.

Burton Goldberg, author of 18 books on alternative medicine, said pharmaceutical companies, the FDA and even many physicians have little interest in exploring, studying or recommending alternative approaches. They prefer, he said, to stick with the status quo.

Goldberg keeps up with cutting-edge cancer treatments and methodologies that include alternative ways to administer chemotherapy and radiation, genetic testing and even changes to diet. Dr. Janet Hranicky is a pioneer in psychoneuroimmunology, or PNI, which involves studying the emotional impact of treatments on cancer patients. She said it has been proven that a positive attitude helps the immune system.

“It is important for a patient to look forward to getting better, improve their will to live, be able to see their cancer as a challenge and strengthen their belief that they can get well,” Hranicky said. She co-directs a psychological intervention program for cancer patients. Hranicky also trains other physicians and nurses and is developing “standard of care” guidelines for mind/body medicine and cancer.

Misty Woodward attended the luncheon as a representative for the Washington D.C.-based nonprofit Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine, which includes “doctors and laypersons working together for compassionate research [without animal testing] and plant-based diets.”

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

The first step to cooking healthy is to stock your kitchen with a variety of foods that you can throw together for healthy meals in a hurry. Keep these foods on hand for fast meals on busy nights.

In the cupboard
• Beans: black, pinto, kidney, chickpeas, lentils, refried
• Rice: brown, long grain, rice mixes
• Pasta: whole wheat, spaghetti, fettucini, penne, bowtie, ramen noodles
• Other grains: couscous, orzo, cornmeal, whole wheat crackers, bread sticks, bread crumbs
• Onions
• Canned tomatoes: diced, whole, seasoned, sun-dried, sauce, salsa
• Canned vegetable: mixed vegetables, green beans, mushrooms
• Canned and dried fruits: applesauce, cranberries
• Sauces: pasta, pizza, tomato
• Soups: canned soups, broth and bouillon and dried soup mixes
• Meats: canned tuna, salmon, minced clams, and chicken
• Peanut butter
• Evaporated milk
• Vinegars: cider, red and white wine, balsamic
• Your favorite herbs and spices
• Oils: olive, canola, peanut, and non-fat cooking spray

In the refrigerator
• Vegetables and fruits
• 100% vegetable and fruit juices
• Reduced-fat milk and yogurt (without added sugar)
• Reduced-fat cheeses: Cheddar, mozzarella, Swiss, Monterey Jack, cottage, Parmesan
• Reduced-fat sour cream and cream cheese
• Whole wheat and corn tortillas
• Eggs
• Minced garlic
• Sauces: Worcestershire, soy, teriyaki, and chili
• Ketchup and mustard (spicy and Dijon)
• Salad dressings with olive oil or reduced fat

In the freezer
• Frozen vegetables, fruits, and 100% juices
• Frozen chopped onions and chopped green pepper
• Breads: whole grain breads, dinner rolls, English muffins, bagels
• Meats: chicken breast, ground turkey breast, extra lean hamburger
• Fish: red snapper, salmon, orange roughy, cod, flounder, sole
• Frozen yogurt or fruit sorbet

Whole grains vs. refined grains
A whole grain is made up of three parts: the bran, endosperm and germ. Refined grains are made from the endosperm. Because the bran and germ contain much of the vitamins, minerals and all of the fiber found in grains, whole grains have more fiber and nutrients than refined (or processed) grains. Shoot for at least 3 servings of whole grain foods each day.

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

Esophageal cancer occurs in the tube that carries food from the mouth to the stomach. Although survival rates have improved over the years, esophageal cancer is usually diagnosed when it has advanced and is more difficult to treat.
According to the American Cancer Society, about 16,470 Americans will be diagnosed with esophageal cancer, and about 14,280 deaths will result from the disease, which affects men three to four times more often than women and 50% more African Americans than Caucasians. Populations in certain regions of the world experience a much higher incidence of esophageal cancer than those in the United States.

Types of Esophageal Cancer
Squamous cell carcinoma occurs in the cells lining the esophagus. This type of esophageal cancer is more common in African-Americans.
Adenocarcinoma occurs in glandular tissue, most often in the lower part of the esophagus near the stomach. It is the most common type of esophageal cancer. Adenocarcinomas are more common among Caucasians.

Esophageal Cancer Symptoms
Esophageal cancer symptoms of are often not evident during its early stages. Even though symptoms may not mean cancer, people should consider contacting a doctor when experiencing the following symptoms:
• Difficulty swallowing (dysphagia)
• Pain, pressure or burning in the throat or chest
• Weight loss
• Vomiting
• Hoarseness
• Persistent hiccups
• Chronic cough

Risk Factors
• Long-term history of smoking
• Consumption of alcohol, especially when combined with smoking
• Barrett’s Esophagus: a condition in which chronic acid reflux causes changes in the cells lining the lower esophagus, increasing the risk of adenocarcinoma
• Achalasia: a disease in which the esophagus fails to move food into the stomach properly
• Tylosis: a rare, inherited disorder that causes excess skin to grow on the soles of the feet and palms and has a near 100% chance of developing into esophageal cancer
• Esophageal webs: flaps of tissue that protrude into the esophagus, making swallowing difficult
• Lye or other caustic substances: when ingested, such substances can cause scarring that may progress to cancer years later

Diagnosis
Diagnosing esophageal cancer can be done in various ways, including:
X-rays of the gastrointestinal tract.
Esophagoscopy: a thin tube is inserted into the mouth to examine the inside of the esophagus. This procedure can also be used to collect cell samples from the stomach for analysis.
CT scans are used after a positive diagnosis to determine the extent, or spread of the cancer.

Treatment
Treatment for esophageal cancer depends on the stage.
Surgery is the most common treatment for esophageal cancer. There are two surgical techniques:

Esophagectomy: The cancerous portions of the esophagus and neighboring lymph nodes are removed.

Radical esophagectomy: The entire esophagus and the top portion of the stomach are removed.
Chemotherapy, the use of drugs to kill cancer cells, is most often combined with radiation therapy.

Photodynamic therapy: laser-sensitive chemicals are injected into the tumor site. A laser beam then targets the chemicals to destroy the tumor.

Cancer is a journey that no one needs to take alone. There are many forms of support to help you through every stage: diagnosis, treatment and survivorship. Whether you meet with other cancer survivors like yourself, use complementary therapies or individual coping mechanisms, support is available. Listed below are just some of the ways to find help and hope.

Getting together with other cancer patients in a support group is a valuable coping tool. Support groups are usually focused on a single disease or topic, such as breast cancer survivors or people coping with life-changing side effects from their cancer or cancer therapy. These groups allow participants to meet others like themselves and seek strength from each other. Most major cities and cancer hospitals offer support groups that meet weekly or monthly. There are also dozens of online support Web sites or message boards for those who may not have access to a traditional meeting.

Complementary Therapies
Complementary therapies are used in conjunction with cancer treatment, in an effort to reduce treatment side effects, ease depression and anxiety and help cancer patients take their mind off the negative aspects of their situation. Complementary therapies may include mind-body exercises like yoga, Tai Chi and Qi gong; visualization or guided imagery; using art or music as therapy and self-expression and traditional Eastern medicine such as acupuncture.
Find complementary therapies at MD Anderson

Physical Activity
Staying physically active as much as possible during cancer treatment has many positive benefits. Physical activity stimulates the release of endorphins, a hormone that helps elevate mood, as well as decreasing feelings of fatigue.
Exercises for cancer patients can range from simple stretches done in the bed or chair, to more active pursuits such as walking or light gardening work. However, it’s important not to push yourself too hard. Check with your doctor before attempting any physical activity to make sure you are up to it.

Journaling/Blogging
Many people find it helpful to keep a journal of their cancer treatment experience. It may be as simple as recording symptoms and side effects into a notebook, or may include personal emotions and opinions about what they may be going through. Journals can be private, like a diary, or shared with loved ones and even strangers.

Increasingly, people are turning to the Internet to share their cancer journey with the world at large and to seek out others with similar experiences. Many cancer patients have begun their own Web log, or “blog” to publicize their battle with cancer. Twitter, a mini-blogging technology that limits posts to 140 characters, has also proven to be a helpful tool for cancer patients to keep friends updated and reach out to others.

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

The Malibu home of actor, producer, author and philanthropist Dianne Burnett played host on Wednesday to a luncheon for the top names from the field of integrated medicine, which combines conventional medical treatments with alternative approaches. It was a gathering for those involved in the recently formed Joan Valentine- A Foundation for Natural Cures. They are planning for a major event in the spring that will raise money and awareness for preventative and integrative cancer treatments.

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Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.