The Health Blog

Anna is now aged thirty-eight, and has a lively sixteen-month-old daughter, Esme: it seems incredible that her first symptoms of breast cancer appeared when she was only twenty-two years old. Anna, a nurse, noticed a white discharge from one nipple and went to her doctor who sent her for a mammogram. The mammogram came back clear and she went away content that she was in the clear. But over the next few years she repeatedly went back to the doctor – she saw a total of five GP s – with a number of classic breast cancer symptoms: orange-peel skin, inverted nipple and a ‘fixed’ breast. She was repeatedly told that the original mammogram was clear and that she did not need to be referred to a specialist; even a follow-up mammogram was deemed unnecessary. It was also implied that because of her nursing background with all the cancer patients she had tended, Anna was developing slight hypochondria. Finally, she refused to leave the doctor’s surgery until she was referred on. Seven years after the first symptom, breast cancer was diagnosed. Anna had a mastectomy, followed by a very successful reconstruction with a silicone implant.     Anna’s backlash of anger when she went through the whole experience meant that she began over-eating and, inevitably, put on weight. She has calmed down now and her family’s eating habits are pretty good – mostly vegetarian or fish-based meals, lots of fruit and vegetables and organic food dominate the dining table.     When Anna’s daughter was born nobody could advise her on the likely problems associated with breast-feeding from one breast, and no literature was available. Finally, she consulted books on breast-feeding twins, had no problems, and continued feeding from her natural breast until her daughter was over one year old. It is astonishing that she was given quite worrying information along the way by well-meaning but misinformed people. It was suggested that there was a chance of passing on cancer in breast milk (you can’t) and that another pregnancy would be likely to increase the risk of recurrence of her breast cancer (the opposite is true).     One thing that Anna has learnt through all this is to listen to her own instincts and ignore advice which she believes to be fundamentally wrong. I came into contact with her when she wanted information to resolve a health problem her daughter was experiencing. A paediatrician had said it was definitely not linked to diet – but it was. A nine-month problem was resolved in a few days by a simple adjustment to her daughter’s diet. Anna now listens to her inner wisdom.*39\240\2*

If a certain chemical arrives on the scene at a critical moment of a fetus’ growth, then that particular function can be permanently compromised and impaired for life. Without testing for these toxins, a mother has no idea what might be poisoning her baby.
When it comes to breast cancer and other reproductive cancers, we now the seed that are planted during that tender womb time as well as the breast-feeding period can be
setting a course in motion. This could predispose girls to breast cancer as adults (and for boys, it’s prostate and testicular cancers). As mothers, we must be aware of these dangers so we can take all possible precautions to protect our unborn children. It is not an impossible task but it will take vigilance and commitment. But then again, our children deserve it.
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One class of chemicals called polybrominated flame-retar- ; dants (PBDEs) used in many different types of plastics and plastic-containing products are known thyroid disrupters that are both persistent and bio-accumulative. When they leach out of the plastics they quickly find their way into the biosphere. Since the 1970s, PBDEs have increased more than fifty- J fold in breast milk.
If breast milk were regulated like infant formula, it would commonly violate FDA levels for poisonous substances in food.
In spite of the contamination of breast milk, it is still considered by scientist’s and pediatricians to be the ideal food for infants. The present theory is that higher rates of chemical exposure from breast milk are less significant than the smaller amounts that come from in utero exposure. Even though more chemicals may be transferred to the nursing infant, exposure while in the womb is considered more potentially disrupting. Studies on breast milk unanimously agree that the benefits far outweigh the risks. Don’t ever give up on Mother Nature.
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OVERCOMING CANCER: FINDING YOUR INNER GUIDE TO HEALTHThe unconscious mind contains priceless resources that can be mobilized for personal growth and healing. Indeed, throughout the history of psychological study, theoreticians have proposed the existence of a “center” in the psyche that directs, regulates, and influences the course of an individual’s life.This “center” has been called by various names. Freud was the first to call it the unconscious—the source of instincts and drives that influence behavior and yet are largely outside conscious awareness. Jung gave a different quality to the essence of the unconscious, proposing that an individual was not only driven by the unconscious but also led by it to increased personal growth and a sense of well-being. Jung proposed that the center of a person’s psyche (which he called the self) also had a compensatory function. When a person was consciously fearful, for example, the self would attempt to provide him with the feelings of strength and courage required for dealing with the fearful situation at hand. Jung proposed that messages from the unconscious, or the self, were always conducive to the person’s well-being.The means by which the unconscious communicates with the conscious self is through feelings, dreams and intuitions Unfortunately, our culture seems to undervalue these messages We are taught to value external events and objects—behavior, our bodies, material things, the logical output of our minds— but not our internal environment. Therefore, we tend to ignore feelings, dreams, and intuitions frofl1 our internal self: which are attempting to provide us with resources to meet the demands of the external world.It has been hypothesized by several researchers that cancer patients may have been cut off from the resources of their unconscious processes. In our experience, many recovered patients have come to see their illness as, in part, a message to value and pay more attention to their  unconscious self rather than to the demands of others. In addition, many patients have described having had specific insights feelings, dreams or images which provided valuable guidance in their efforts to regain their health.The Inner Guide is a process we teach patients for tapping these rich inner resources of healing and strength. Visualizing your Inner Guide gives you access to the unconscious. It is a symbolic representation of aspects of the personality not normally available during conscious awareness. When you make contact with your Inner Guide—through a mental imagery process we will describe—you are connects with important mental resources from which you are usually cut off.The first major school of psychology to work with the Inner Guide as part of the therapeutic process was Jungian psychoanalysis. Jung reported that during meditation or reverie, spontaneous images sometimes formed that had an autonomous, life-of-their-own quality. In Jungian therapy, great emphasis is placed on establishing communication with these positive resources of the unconscious.One process used for permitting this communication with the Inner Guide is called a “guided daydream,” a form of mental imagery. Psychosynthesis, a recent psychotherapeutic process based on the work of Dr. Robert Assagiolli, also actively encourages the development of contact with the Inner Guide as part of a program of personal growth and discovery.For many people, the Inner Guide takes the form of a respected authority figure—a wise old man or woman, a doctor, a religious figure—with whom the patient is able to carry on an internal conversation, asking questions and hearing answers that seem to be wise beyond the individual’s conscious capacities.Furthermore, patients are often more responsive to insights achieved in consultation with their Inner Guides than they are to the observations of a group leader or a therapist. Because the Inner Guide is an aspect of their own personalities, relying on such a guide is a healthy step toward taking responsibility for their physical and psychological health.*63\347\2*

DIET AND CANCER: CHEMICAL ADDITIVES AND COOKINGThere are in foods many substances which, when tested in the laboratory can cause alteration in D N A. These include natural materials like tannins, which are found in tea, hydrazines, which are found in mushrooms, anatoxin from mould contamination, nitrates and nitrosamines, which are found in smoked food as well as meats and fish, the organic chemicals which ire produced by high-temperature cooking or heating meat, and the many environmental pollutants, pesticides and drugs used in animal husbandry. We do not know that they cause cancer in man but perhaps the most important link under investigation is between nitrates and nitrosamines, which arc found in certain smoked and cooked foods, and cancer in the stomach. The most reassuring response to this suggested link is that there is a steady downward fall in the incidence of stomach cancer in the West, although it is not clear whether this is related to change in cooking and dietary habits. It would be a brave person who would suggest that we should cut tea and mushrooms out of our diets completely!One particular feature of ‘diet’ which is clearly associated with cancer is the chewing of betel-nut in oriental nations. This habit consists of chewing on a quid of betel leaves, areca nuts, catechu and lime, often with tobacco added. This habit is associated with cancers of the mouth due not only to tobacco but also the other elements of the quid.*62\194\4*

I’ll explain here what the lymph system is, because it is important in understanding cancer. When you get a sore throat you may get swollen, painful lumps in your neck. These are lymph nodes (also called lymph glands). Normally they are smaller than a pea and quite soft. There is a network of these nodes throughout your body, and they are all connected to each other by very fine channels (or vessels). Eventually, all these channels join into one which empties its contents into the bloodstream at a point just behind the inner end of your left collarbone.

The job of the lymph system is to drain all excess fluid from your tissues and to filter out any unwanted material. So, with your sore throat, the germs go through the lymph channels to the nearest lymph nodes in your neck. There they are filtered out and white blood cells get to work on them and destroy them. In the process the node gets bigger, harder and painful.

In the same way, lymph nodes will filter out and trap cancer cells which come to them through the lymph channels. The nodes actually form part of your immune system and so have cells in them which ‘recognise’ the cancer cells as dangerous. If only a few cells come through, they can be completely destroyed. If there are too many for the node to handle, they survive, and grow to form a hard, but usually painless, lump. This is a type of secondary growth and it, in turn, can release cancer cells to travel either through more lymph channels or the blood to other parts of the body.

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Arginine

Alfalfa, almonds, beef, carob, cashews, celery, cheese, coconut, eggs, garlic, ginseng, grains, leeks, lettuce, meats, milk, nuts, peanuts, peas, pecans, soy beans, wakame, walnuts, wheat germ and whole wheat.

Glutamine

Beef, celery, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cottage cheese, dandelion greens, meat, milk, most protein sources, papaya, pork, poultry, raw parsley, raw spinach, ricotta cheese and rolled oats.

Glutathione

Carrots, cysteine supplementation, as glutathione can be made in the body from cysteine, garlic, glutamic acid and glycine, grapefruit, meats, spinach, tomatoes and plant and animal tissue.

Histidine

Bananas, cauliflower, chicken, cottage cheese, egg, fish, meat, pork, rice, rye, wheat and wheatgerm.

Methionine

Bananas, beans, beef, brazil nuts, cottage cheese, chicken, eggs, fish, garlic, legumes, liver, onions, pork, pumpkin seeds, sardines, soybeans and yogurt.

Good Sources of Dietary Fibre

Apple pectin, bran, dates, figs, guar gums, apples, fruits, oatbran, pears, prunes, psyllium seeds or husks, raw salad vegetables and wholegrain cereals.

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