A New Cancer Investigation Centre.....

Yet another 'Just around the corner' cancer announcements......

'The devastating changes that turn healthy tissue into cancer are to be investigated in the biggest centre of its kind in the NHS.

The laboratories at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) will use information in tumour DNA to help find the best "personalised" treatments.

Its director said this was not science fiction and would be day-to-day practice in the NHS within a decade.

The centre will also investigate how cancers become resistant to drugs.

The field of cancer research is moving rapidly away from defining a cancer by where it is in the body - one type of breast cancer can have more in common with an ovarian cancer than another cancer in the breast.'

So reports the BBC.   

The report went on to say...

'Instead scientists and doctors are looking deeper at what is going wrong inside cancerous cells - a tumour can have 100,000 genetic mutations and these alter over time.

One great challenge with cancer treatment is resistance. Promising drugs suddenly fail after a few months'


Well this is all very fine and noble but how many times and ways are there to keep looking at the tumour.  This is like looking at a broken leg and trying to understand why the bone broke and how the bone developed and may develop as it heals, but still the bones keep breaking because no one fixed the environmental cause - a broken path or removed the obstacle on the stairs that everyone trips over - pick any analogy you like.
Google the 'Town of Allopath' and the shortest little animation explains the big problem.

Now of course we all want that breakthrough in cancer 'cure' and of course the drug companies I'm sure can't wait to come up with another batch or drugs that the medical profession agree in this statement, have limited ability to work over time. So more and more drugs are not the answer when you are purely focusing on the tumour, no matter how specialised they seem.

The tumour is the bodies way of encapsulating the problem. What we need to do is to focus on the environment that the tumour has grown in.

No good keep looking at the plant to see why it died and never checking the soil.

We have to really stack the odds in our favour if we want good health, nothing is guaranteed, but the better the odds we give ourselves the healthier lives we lead for longer.

It is well known that cancer cells live better in bodies with less oxygen. They like acid bodies, and as most people walk around with very acidic systems, we are giving the cancer cells one of their most favourite conditions.
We can change that with an alkaline diet. Most of the western world has a very acid rich diet.

Cancer cells love sugar....there is a treatment for cancer which utilises this knowledge and starves the body, then injects glucose and a small dose of chemo - the cancer cells want that glucose, and suck it up quicker than healthy cells, taking the chemo to the cells also.

That is a clever way to treat it, less damage to healthy cells, but the point is we know then cancer cells love sugar and need it to thrive - cut its food source off then and don't forget the hidden sugars.

Again we have very sugar laden diets in the west.

Cancer cells die at 41 degrees C, so lets use the heat treatments that are out there.

Vitamin C - an incredibly toxic substance to cancer cells. So why are we not looking more closely at the injection of Vit C into the blood or into the tumour. These ideas are out there and being used, but not widespread.
Instead its the same old route and the numbers continue to grow.

We can look all we like at how tumours develop, but if we change the environment then we make it harder for them to grow and sustain.

If cancer has developed, something  has gone wrong, what ever you have done to that point needs to change.

The long term answer to health is not a pill.

Cancer cells  don't develop due to lack of pills.  The human body has not evolved with the knowledge that drugs will be needed.

We have tried drugs, investigating DNA coding/genetics , more drugs etc etc, but we haven't tried nutrition and environmental medicine.

Now why is that?

Are we all lazy and can't be bothered to make lifestyle changes?

Have we come to rely on the fact we can seemingly do as we please and a doctor will fix it?- well that doesn't happen, unless you want the same problem returning time and time again.

May be the answer to avoiding cancer and fixing it should it occur - doesn't need a great big centre at what cost, or more researchers or doctors or drug companies - may be each of us as individuals can do all of that for ourselves.

Your body is that 'centre' you are your own researcher, every time you shop, you can choose ingredients that will help you or you can choose those that won't and none of us need a medical degree to make that choice.
The internet is full of info - explore them yourself, look at the studies , lots of them.
After all, Dr's google things all the time, or they work on what drug companies tell them.

It's your health.  Cancer is not a disease that pops up over night and needs the A & E team, its a long term condition that has grown up over time, so start to get it into reverse and don't make it easy for it to develop.

Check in with your emotional body. Many cancers develop after emotional trauma - it's not easy living life, so do the things that make you happy, keep the thoughts positive. Exercise and relax. It can help hugely.

Breast Cancer - Breast Health Event

CICHealth are holding a Breast Health - Breast Cancer event.

Wednesday March 6^th 2013

From 7pm until 9.30pm at the Shelford Memorial Hall, Woollards Lane,

Great Shelford, Cambs

It is open to everyone and there will be four excellent speakers.

We have.....

Dr Nina Bailey from the Igennus nutrition company in Cambridge, who will talk on the link of ‘Breast Cancer and Dietary Fat’ and reducing inflammation in the body.

Mr Bill Bradford from Meditherm, who will be demonstrating how Thermography is a safe way of detecting breast problems.

Mr David Stevens, author of the 'Every Woman's Guide to Vital Breast Health' book, will be speaking about his success in treating women with breast cancer and what we can all do to help ourselves maintain healthy breast tissue.

A local nurse will also be there to talk about self examination of the breasts.

Further details on our website www.cichealth.org.uk

Refreshments included midway and a chance to chat to our speakers

Entry for the event is just £10 in advance or £12 on the night. To book your place either email us at cambconf@gmail.com or call Maddy Tel 01223 572316  or Sarah Tel 01223 514601 or Mob 07508031269

Retirement Collection for the ‘Yes to Life’ charity

Yes to Life offers support to people with cancer who want to take a proactive role in their treatment. Yes to Life helps open up choices, and supports people in finding a way forward that is right for them.

When 2 Worlds Collide

The External Environment 

V

Our Internal Environment

When these two worlds collide we need an equal match.

Is our internal environment keeping pace with our external one?

How Important Is It To Have A Label?

Do we need to give illnesses a name?

There is a belief held by some that cancer doesn't exist.  I have had this view expressed to me several times in the last few months and especially when we were preparing for the cancer convention. One group of people thought they couldn't spread the information about that event, as they firmly believed that cancer doesn't exist.

Now the reasons behind some of this thinking are a little conspiratorial for me, but the concept of it not existing is a good one, but that concept then is not just limited to cancer.

What we do know for sure is that people get sick, some get so sick their physical body can no longer cope and they die.

We can see & log the symptoms displayed during the illness and clients/patients report how they feel and the effects they experience.

We can even test to see if the body is producing too much of something or not enough of something according to the parameters set for what we are told, is 'correct functioning' which of course would be someone who is symptom free and feeling well and balanced for that individual.
Thyroxine for example, too much or too little and a certain set of symptoms may manifest to varying degrees.

We know that our bodies need certain levels of vitamins and minerals, so we can test for those too, again the levels needed are those that give that individual correct functioning and the feeling of wellness, health and vitality

With the technology we have available at present, we can establish damage or inflammation in the body.

These factors are then grouped together and are named.

So we have characteristics combined with certain measurables and the recognising of this by some Dr perhaps leads and has led, to this to be defined by a name, perhaps after the Dr himself or a characteristic of the disease.

We are of course people of verbal/written communication and want to share our knowledge thankfully, so a definition is needed. It helps keep us all in the same ball park.

I say ballpark because along with a defined criteria for the now named condition, there are of course variables on the edge of that and we would perhaps liken the effect of those on how severe the illness presents, but as long as the patient ticks most of the already defined boxes, they can have a diagnosis of their condition and they are then labelled as having what ever the illness has been called.

Well its a starting point for anyone treating that person to begin from. It leads you down a certain route of medication or other treatments that have been shown to help the symptoms that others similar to themselves have displayed.

Pharmaceutical companies produce drugs specific for certain symptoms and again a prescribing practitioner will rightly look to one batch of drugs opposed to another.

Naturopathic practitioners will do the same, certain herbs, oils, remedies, etc have, over the course of time, shown to be effective in addressing certain symptoms will perhaps be those first considered.

All of the above is what happens every time you consult a health professional when you are not well. In some way I am merely stating the obvious, but I do so to make this point.

We name illness to help us treat it or its symptoms.

To our bodies, it is just a series of things that have gone wrong. This, that and the other are no longer working properly and have resulted in a set of symptoms.

It doesn't care what we call it. So yes, cancer or any other name is just that - a name!

What our bodies are more interested in is fixing the root cause and that might be the bit we can't define or include in that 'tick box' list that leads to the named diagnosis.
I am tempted here to write 'route cause'

We get sick for a variety of reasons. Take stress as one of them. Stress causes inflammation in the body, inflammation can lead to a variety of health problems, it could manifest in all sorts of ways depending on the individual at the time.

So I can see why people take a view that diseases on one level don't exist, in the named form we give them, but we must all accept that the factors that start ill health do and it is these elements that are more important in addressing than just symptom treating.
These are often as individual as the person that suffers the resulting symptoms, so if you put that aspect into the equation of illness definition, you would have at least 7 billion definitions every time.

Not possible to work in a clinical definition/understanding way, but an extremely important part in the 'getting well' aspect of addressing the root/route cause.

So we think we have seen this set of symptoms before but have we seen this cause before or this accumulation of causes and do we know what that cause is?

Address the cause and you have a far better chance of gaining health, no matter what anyone wants to call your dis-ease.


When we name a disease, all sorts of predictions of its path quickly follow and set in our minds, often generating a fear, cancer being one of those, MS, another perhaps. That fear is never helpful to healing. We need only desire.....the desire to get well and the desire to change that root/route.

So don't let a 'name' engender fear, after all your body has no concept of a diagnosis, just things that need you to do your best to address its ill-ease.

How Can You Make Complementary Medicine Your Career?

Whichever your chosen discipline under this vast umbrella is, it is a good idea to start with a Diploma in Anatomy and Physiology. It can also help to study Pathology at Diploma level also.

It is a good grounding and some courses will combine these alongside the teaching of the actual therapy as well.

To practice any therapy commercially, you need at least a diploma level and be sure that it is a ‘level 3’ or above course . Level 4 being degree standard.

In the UK, you can study courses that are known as VTCT, which is a vocational training organisation, City and Guilds or ITEC. 

There are also independent training schools and as long as their courses are recognised as matching the National Occupational Standard guidelines, you will know they are of good quality. 

That said, some private courses and training centres are also excellent and it is best to make sure that if you go down this track, that you can get insurance to practice, which the training establishment should have ensured.

In the beginning like many subjects, a strong desire to learn and a passion for the subject is a good start. Some colleges may ask for a certain number of exams, but as most of these courses are for adults, life experience counts for a lot.

Some disciplines take 2-3 years of study, others 1 year and then advancements on top of that. Once qualified in one major modality, shorter courses are available.

Getting a recommendation of a place of study is good or the name of a tutor you would like to study under and find out their lineage.

After all, the establishment may have a fine set up, but it is the knowledge of the tutor and their experience in teaching and perhaps more importantly that of their practical application and successes in treating that will be passed on to you. So make sure your tutor has plenty of hands on experience and has not just become classroom bound.

http://www.askimo.com/pages/PlayVideo.aspx?vid=2666

Can Complementary Medicine Alleviate The Symptoms Of Chemotherapy?

If you are taking a chemotherapy route, then it is worth considering what herbal remedies can support the liver as it copes with the toxicity of the chemo drugs and what you can do to support the healthy cells as many chemo drugs attack all cells indiscriminately including the healthy ones.

Milk Thistle can help support the liver

It is important to support the digestive tract as well. Herbalism, homeopathy, nutrition are considerations. Slippery elm is certainly one to consider. One should always consult an expert on the subject and one that has supported people through such an illness in the past. It is all about informed choice so you know what your options are and what success there has been.

http://www.askimo.com/pages/PlayVideo.aspx?vid=2665

Can Complementary Medicine Be Used As A Primary Treatment For Cancer?

In my view, we are not treating the cancer, we are treating the person.

If you are an adult, you are free to choose whatever route you feel appropriate and there are many well documented cases that show those following only a complementary route to treat themselves get better. 

Some people will opt for a totally complementary therapeutic route and will use just the scanning/screening from the health service; others will take only the conventional chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgical route.

Many though, seek to combine both. No matter what a therapists personal view on this is, we would seek to support that person in whatever form they want their treatment to take.

It is more important that the client/patient is happy with their decision as trust in whoever is treating you is shown to be a big part in its success.

If you are a child of course, a recent case in the uk has highlighted that it is not as simple as a parent making the decision on the treatment of their child, but this can be and has been challenged in the courts if the medical establishment wishes to and if they see it as in the child’s best interest, regardless of parental view on health.

Many oncology units offer complementary therapy treatments to help with the stress of coping with the illness and of course this is very important to help people relax as much as possible. These are usually in the form of aromatherapy and reflexology, but it’s a start. At least people are no longer told that massage can spread cancer, which was once the belief of the medical establishment and an enigma to those that practised it.

A complementary medical route will tend to engage the person in improving their own health and addressing the reasons the problem occurred.

It of course is crucial to look at diet and nutrition, and work involving Vit C in treating cancer is also worth looking at, Vit D levels as another factor.

Alkalising the body and the use of oxygen would also help. Cancer thrives in acid bodies and the vast majority of cancers do not like a good oxygenated systems. So exercise and nutrition along with whatever therapy is your chosen one to help you to relax and promote health in your body, surely has to be considered whatever route you take.