I had pancreatic cancer. I have written about it here, and here, and here, and I have gotten some nice responses from those articles. I recently was asked to share my methodology for beating cancer since I did not use radiation or chemotherapy, and now I present that article to you. I am extremely anti-chemo and radiation and I believe that it does more to kill people than to save them. There are exceptions, of course, but I have witnessed people getting sicker and sicker after these so-called treatments, and I do not understand why people allow doctors to talk them into doing it. Well, I guess I do; it is fear. My own oncologist used fear to try to convince me to go the chemo and radiation route, but I refused, and I am healthier now than I have ever been.
After I beat cancer, and after each check up, I tend to get full of myself and talk as if I am indestructible and immortal. I had a very dear old friend lose her battle with cancer last week, and that has sucked all the bravado out of me. I have never thought that I was better or smarter than anyone else; just proud of myself for beating what is known as the “silent killer.”
Pancreatic cancer is known as the silent killer because the pancreas is hidden deep inside of us, and by the time that people feel its symptoms, it is often too late to treat.
That is the conventional wisdom offered by the American Medical Society (AMA), but I think that is wrong. It is never too late to treat. If you treat your body with whole foods and various supplements, then your body will be more receptive to healing itself naturally rather than perishing from a bombardment of deadly chemicals that reduce your immune system to its lowest levels, thus creating a perfect environment for cancer to thrive.
I would like to stop here for a second and offer a caveat: What I write here is based on my own research from various books and websites. I am critical of the AMA’s protocol for treating cancer, but I am not anti-medicine or anti-science. I love science, and I consider myself a sort of scientist (soft science, if you will), but still trained in critical thinking and the scientific method. I always say, “If I’m having a heart attack, don’t send me to an acupuncturist; send me to the ER, STAT!”
My problem with science in this case is that I believe that science is way behind in the field of fighting cancer. I say that because it is focused on new synthetic drugs and not on nutrition as a method of curing cancer. It is as if the mainstream scientific community thinks that anything to do with nutrition and alternative medicines is whacko-hippy stuff, and not worth their time.
Likewise, there are plenty of self-appointed health gurus who offer what they believe to be conclusive evidence of their miracle cures without any substantial methodology to support their claims. We hear about these people all the time and we berate them and label them as quacks. However, nobody ever stands up to mainstream science.
Just because mainstream science refuses to acknowledge any alternative protocol does not mean that alternative medicines are bunk. It only means that science has its collective head up its ass on this matter!
I am not trying to be a guru in any way, nor am I trying to debunk science as a whole; I only want to share my own success story, and try to offer evidence to how my methodology worked.
Anyway, enough with the caveats. I already wrote about my experiences with getting sick, discovering the cancer, and having surgery in that first article. This new article focuses more on how I started the healing process while I was still sick, and how and why I stayed healthy.
This is a long article, so I will offer the short attention-spanned an outline so they may walk away at any time.
1. First Steps – Ph Balance
A. Cut out refined foods
B. Juice
C. Go organic whenever possible
D. Cut out coffee, sodas, alcohol
E. Raw Foods and No Meats
2. Next Steps
A. Juice, juice, and more juice
B. Cruciferous Veggies
C. Graviola and Essiac Tea
3. Once You Start to Feel Better
A. Exercise
B. Bikram Yoga
There was a seven-week period from when I was diagnosed to the day I had surgery. During that time, there was uncertainty everywhere. We did not know if the mass on the head of my pancreas was malignant; we could not do a biopsy, due to the position of the mass; since it was a specialty surgery, we could not find the right surgeon under my insurance plan; and finally, my insurance seemed to stall the process at every turn.
I decided early on that I would take matters into my own hands. I started doing research on pancreatic cancer, and alternative methods of healing. My former-wife, fresh from a recent break-up and with nothing else to do with her time, had already been on a living foods diet and started making food for me and teaching me how to prepare my own meals and staples. Her mother, an avid scholar of alternative medicines—especially for cancers—provided me with supplements and teas that she learned were known cancer cures (in many cases).
My plan was to heal myself from the inside out. Instead of killing all the cells in the area of the cancer, like with chemo and radiation, I chose to replenish all of those same cells with a living foods diet. The basic premise of using nutrition to destroy cancer is that one must raise their pH balance to a much higher alkaline level. Cancer thrives in a low, acidic, blood pH. Things like sugars, alcohol, cooked meat, stress, and tannins from wine and coffee all contribute to lowering a person’s blood pH. Raw, living foods like dark leafy greens, sprouted seeds, nuts, and legumes, and fresh fruits all contribute to raising a person’s blood pH. I still use this chart as a guide.
Ironically, lemons and other citrus, while acidic, actually process as an alkaline once digested, and are very important for raising ones pH. Want a quick way to raise your pH? Just squeeze some fresh lemon juice into your drinking water several times a day.
Anyway, the first thing I did when I discovered that I was sick was to eliminate as many processed foods from my diet as possible. That meant pre-packaged meals (frozen pizzas, frozen taquitos, etc…), and anything with refined sugars or high-fructose corn syrup. I learned from my own studies that cancer LOVES sugar. Refined sugars and corn syrups do not process efficiently in your body and can remain there indefinitely. Unrefined whole cane sugar, or beet sugar, or brown rice syrup are less refined, and the body can process them better. Putting refined sugars and corn syrups into your body gives the cancer a generous food supply.
I think that the only refined foods I still ate at the time were breads and cereals. I basically lived off tomato and avocado sandwiches and granola. It was the only thing my poor stomach could handle at the time. However, the bread I ate was made from organic sprouted wheat, and the cereal I ate was organic granola. I had stopped drinking cow’s milk years before this, and was already drinking organic almond milk, but at this time, I started making my own raw milk from sprouted almonds.
The benefits to raw sprouted nuts, seeds, and legumes, is that these items contain enzyme inhibitors which prevent them from sprouting prematurely. Here is another good explanation of that process that you can read. With soaked almonds, I am getting the fully intended nutritional value of those almonds. In addition to almond milk, I used sprouted almonds and cashews to make a variety of what they call in the Raw Foods world as “cheezes” and “patés.”
The next steps I took were to cut out alcohol and coffee. I felt like crap at this time anyway, so it was not hard for me to stop. Months later, after my surgery and recovery period, I decided to continue my abstinence from these delicious liquids because I wanted to continue keeping my pH levels high. Now, more than two years after my surgery, I still have not had any coffee, even though I did finally have a couple of mild cocktails this past New Years Eve, and then not since.
I had already begun a living foods diet regimen where I was eating roughly 70% raw and 30% cooked and processed. My research led me to several websites regarding beating cancer naturally, and they all recommended juicing. Even scientists agree that fruit and vegetable juices are good for preventing cancer, even if they say nothing about using juice to cure your existing cancer.
It is important to make the distinction that freshly juiced vegetables and fruits are the better option than store bought juices that have added sugars and have been pasteurized. I own my own juicer, and have put it to good use over these past two-and-a-half years.
My favorite juice cocktails are blends of fruits and vegetables. Here is where things get a bit contentious. Some folks will tell you to never blend fruits and veggies because their respective properties can cancel out their benefits. I, personally, think that this is hogwash. I typically make a blend of beet, carrot, and apple or pear juices. When I was sick, I put every beneficial vegetable and fruit that I could find through my juicers. I even drank Brussels sprouts and red cabbage juices. Dear God, that was awful, but let me explain why I did that to myself.
Here is a picture of my son politely declining my offer to share my spinach/carrot/Brussels sprouts juice.
Cabbages and Brussels sprouts are part of a group called cruciferous vegetables. These vegetables are highly sulfurous and rich in phytochemicals, both of which help to raise pH levels and to repair cell damage by carcinogens. I learned that these particular vegetables could actually help to shrink my tumor, and so I drank them down.
I drank various juice cocktails at least twice a day, at about 20 ounces at a time. I wanted to attack the tumor with as much nutrient goodness that I could. I also took Graviola pills and drank Essiac Tea. These two supplements have been known to actually attack the cancer and shrink tumors. Graviola and Essiac Tea are rather contentious; some sources claim that they both work wonders at shrinking tumors, while other sources claim that they either do nothing, or make tumors grow. Do your own research and come to your own conclusions, but here a hint for you; those that say that Graviola and Essiac Tea do not help with cancer are typically associated with the AMA.
Whatever their effects may be, I took Graviola, drank Essiac Tea, and gorged myself on juices and living foods. And here’s the result…
BY THE TIME I HAD MY SURGERY, MY TUMOR HAD SHRUNK ALMOST IN HALF!!!
When I was diagnosed, my tumor measured 2.7 centimeters. When they removed it during surgery, it was only 1.5 centimeters. My oncologist would later shrug it off and say, “These things sometimes shrink all on their own.” Oh really, Doc? I’d love to see those stats!
I truly believe that the heavy juicing and living foods diet shrunk my tumor. After my surgery, I continued this nutrition protocol and I believe that it is part of what has kept me clean and healthy now for two years.
I refused chemo and radiation after my surgery, mainly because I had done a ton of research which led me to believe that chemo and radiation do more to harm a person that to help them. Doctors never say that they will kill the cancer and cure the patient. Instead, they say that they will keep the cancer at bay and prolong the patient’s life. That is not good enough for me. My own surgeon, who had done the procedure over forty times, and can be considered an expert, told me that I might get another five years after the surgery. Not good enough!
My research had led me to testimonies of people who had taken natural approaches to healing their bodies rather than killing the cancer, and there are much higher survival rates than with those who have had chemo and radiation. Again, I realize that there are some exceptional cases of people living long and healthy lives after chemo and radiation, but I have found these cases to be rare.
The other reason why I refused chemo and radiation was that after the surgery, my margins were clean, and the cancer did not metastasize or even spread to the lymph nodes. I believe that much of that is due to all the juicing that I did, but also—and I’ll be frank—I was lucky as hell. I caught it early, before any serious damage could be done. Even if I did not catch it early, I still firmly believe that I could have cured myself with living foods and juicing. Looking back, I actually think that I did not need the surgery, since my tumor started to shrink dramatically already, but I am glad that I had it. I wanted that fucker out of me!
Once last thing to which I credit my lasting health is Bikram yoga. Really, any heavy exercise will do, but for me, it was all about the Bikram. This type of hot yoga makes you sweat all of the toxins and impurities out of your body. The poses are designed to actually wring out your organs like a wet towel and improve circulation throughout the body, which then supplies your entire body with fresh, oxygenated blood.
I hate exercise, and I always have. I cannot run, I dislike cycling, I get bored at the gym, and every piece of exercise equipment that I have bought for my home eventually became an expensive coat rack. However, when I discovered Bikram yoga, I found something that I immediately loved! I started it because I could barely move after eight weeks of recovery after the surgery, and I still do it. My 12-year old son does it with me, and he loves it, too. All that sweating just cleans you out. I recommend it to anyone.
Liam is much more bendy than I am.
If you look closely, you can see me praying for death—I mean, I love this!!
Okay, so that is my story to the best of my memory. I realize that some folks are going to cry, “Bullshit!” Whatever. This is what worked for me, and I believe that it can work for anyone. The first step to making it work for you is to not be afraid to be your own doctor. Do your own research, and find what makes the most sense to you. Do not simply do whatever your doctor recommends, unless you have done the research and believe that is the best course of action for you.
The second step is accepting that the protocol I described above requires a serious lifestyle change for most people. I realize that difficult for many people, but, in my mind, changing your lifestyle is a hell of a lot easier than going through chemo and radiation, or dying at a young age.
It just makes sense to me. Why try to kill cancer cells when you can replenish and revitalize those cells? Please note the language in that last sentence. When you kill cancer cells with chemo and radiation, you are also killing plenty of healthy cells, as well. Isn’t it better to nourish your body and revive the sick cells?
It's a Blog About Nothing 