Living withStage IV Colon Cancer: a patient’s perspective
We are very fortunate to share a young man’s difficult journey living with Stage IV colon cancer. He was diagnosed when he was in his mid 30’s. He was working on his career and building a new family. He wasn’t having any symptoms and the diagnosis really hit him like a freight train.
He initially pursued the traditional treatments and has had multiple surgeries and multiple bouts of chemotherapy.
This young man is very pro-active with his health and has pursued several avenues beyond normal traditional treatment. While he is currently living with his stage IV colon cancer, he has a passion for survival. He is currently on the ketogenic diet and taking several supplements. He is feeling great right now.
His story is a great testimony and is divided into 3 parts. Please click on the links below to view each segment. This young man gave us his consent to use his information to possibly help someone else facing a similar situation.
Mr. Mike Lovell is a practicing Nutritional Consultant that has recently starting working in our clinic. He specializes in the science of Nutritional Balancing, helping the body function properly through diet, supplementation and lifestyle changes. We are excited to have him as our guest blogger today. If you have any questions or want more information, visit his website: http://wmlovell.wixsite.com/lovellnutrition
healthy eating by Mike Lovell
Nutrition in the Fight Against Cancer
When a person is told that they have cancer, the world around them seems to completely close in with a crushing weight. Pictures of chemo and radiation therapy effects on the body, come into full focus as you try to assimilate what you’ve been told. Most associate cancer with death, and with good reason. With all the “advances” in traditional medical treatment and billions of dollars spent on research, the death toll, even with the revision in survival statistics, has not improved significantly in the past 50 years. The purpose of this article will be to explain the importance of diet and nutrition in the fight against cancer applying the science of nutritional balancing
The first step in nutritional balancing is to determine what is necessary to strengthen your body’s defense system and improve energy levels. Accessing mineral levels and ratios allows us to determine the best dietary and supplemental approach to be successful in your battle against cancer. This information is provided by a soft tissue biopsy using hair. The results of the hair analysis is beneficial in knowing the type of diet your body requires and the supplements that will directly improve and impact your health.
I cannot stress enough the importance of the proper diet for your health and body’s ability to fight off the effects of cancer. When it comes to diet, most people do not eat very well. Our life style is built around convenience which translates to fast food. This comes in boxes that direct us to add water, peel back the cover on containers or poke a hole in the bag then stick in the microwave for 8 minutes; or we can just drive to virtually any corner of town and pick up a quick meal without ever leaving the car. This carries several significant liabilities when it comes to our nutritional needs.
Added sugar: The single largest source of calories for Americans comes from sugar—specifically high fructose corn syrup. According to a 300-year trend researched by Mercola:
The average person consumed about 4 pounds of sugar per year in 1700.
The average person consumed about 18 pounds of sugar per year in 1800.
Individual consumption had risen to 90 pounds of sugar per year in 1900.
In 2009 more than 50 percent of all Americans consume one-half pound of sugar PER DAY! That’s over 180 pounds of sugar in a year. (Mercola, 2010)
Added chemicals in the form of preservatives, coloring, artificial flavors, antibiotics and anticaking additives.
These are not found naturally in our food. This adds stress to our liver and kidneys trying to filter these out of the body. Without these organs functioning optimally, clearing medications and dead cancer cells create other concerns that diminish the success of the fight.
Many of these additives cause oxidative stress which over work the immune response.
Lack of nutrients in our foods:
Growers control appearance and growth rate of our food through artificial selection. This involves either controlled pollination, genetic engineering, or both, followed by artificial selection of progeny.
A landmark study on the topic by Donald Davis and his team of researchers from the University of Texas (UT) at Austin’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, was published in December 2004 in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. They studied U.S. Department of Agriculture nutritional data from both 1950 and 1999 for 43 different vegetables and fruits, finding “reliable declines” in the amount of protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin (vitamin B2) and vitamin C over the past half century. Davis and his colleagues chalk up this declining nutritional content to the preponderance of agricultural practices designed to improve traits (size, growth rate, pest resistance) other than nutrition. (Moss, n.d.)
Studies provide evidence of the dangers of sugar for those fighting cancer. They show that cancer cells require glucose (blood sugar) to survive. So, it stands to reason that if we eliminate sugar (starches and fructose included) from our diet that we can effectively limit the amount of available glucose to these cancer cells. This can weaken the cells, providing a greater opportunity for your chosen protocol to kill them.
Losing the nutritional value of our food creates another issue in our fight against cancer. The body requires a certain amount of nutrients (building blocks) to repair, maintain and sustain the many workings in the body. As these nutrients become less and less available, the body is forced to use what is available in the form of inferior replacement minerals. Liken yourself to a high-end automobile, like a Ferrari, trying to use Ford replacement parts. A good mechanic can make them fit but the performance will be dramatically affected. It won’t take long for things to start breaking down. The same can be said for the body, if we don’t provide the proper nutrition, we have a breakdown such as: auto-immune diseases, diabetes, cancer, etc. Truth be told, many of the protocols used to fight cancer depend on the bodies ability to sustain a constant attack against its healthy cells. If it’s depleted of the proper nutrients it won’t be able to repair damaged cells, further diminishing the health of the system. This also applies to those protocols that encourage the body to activate the immune functions in the system. If it doesn’t have the building blocks it can’t make the structure.
When fighting any type of medical condition, diet is important, and in the case of cancer, vital that your body operates at its most efficient level. By determining your dietary and supplemental needs through hair analysis, we can recommend the type of diet you should be eating such as low fat/high protein or high fat diets and the supplements necessary to improve nutritional balance. Once we know what you should be eating, we work on cleaning up the food you will be eating. This means buying fresh organic vegetables and meats according to your financial ability, drinking distilled water the first several months to aid in detoxification, and adding the type of fats that will strengthen the immune system.
Works Cited
Keith Brewer, P. (1984). The High pH Therapy for Cancer, Tests on Mice and Humans. Pharmacology Biochemistry & Behavior, 1-5.
Cori, C. F., & Cori, , G. (1925). THE CARBOHYDRATE METABOLISM OF TUMORS: I. THE FREE SUGAR, LACTIC ACID, AND GLYCOGEN CONTENT OF MALIGNANT TUMORS. The Journal of Biological Chemistry, 64, 11-22.
Mercola. (2010, April 20). Fructose: This Addictive Commonly Used Food Feeds Cancer Cells, Triggers Weight Gain, and Promotes Premature Aging. Retrieved October 18, 2014, from Mercola.com: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/04/20/sugar-dangers.aspx
Morgan, G., Ward, R., & Barton, M. (2004). The Contribution of Cytotoxic Chemotherapy to 5-year Survival in Adult Malignancies. Clinical Oncology, 549-560.
Moss, R. S. (n.d.). Dirt Poor: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? Retrieved from Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/soil-depletion-and-nutrition-loss/
National Cancer Institute. (n.d.). National Cancer Institiute SEER. Retrieved from SEER: https://seer.cancer.gov/
