DETOXIFYING THE BODY

Another common reason why cancer survivors choose to take vitamin and herbal supplements is to clear the body of toxins, such as pesticides, chemicals, heavy metals, bacteria, viruses, and parasites. While in many ways our world is cleaner than it has ever been, advances in technology have also replaced simple germs and bacteria with things like chemically engineered pesticides, heavy metals, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. These complex chemicals, which are now ever present in our environment, send confusing messages to the body, leading to dysregulation at best and disease at worst.

One healer who believes cancer patients need to detoxify their bodies of any lingering bacteria and viruses is a man named Dr. Katsunari Nishihara from Japan. Dr. Nishihara has a theory that there is no such thing as an autoimmune disease. Rather, he believes that diseases such as arthritis, lupus, and even cancers are the result of bacteria and viruses that have infiltrated healthy cells. Therefore, what may look like the body incorrectly attacking itself (as in the case of autoimmune diseases) or what may look like cells suddenly going "crazy" as they replicate uncontrollably (in the case of cancer) is, in Dr. Nishihara's opinion, an indication that cells have been infected with either a bacteria or a virus. According to his theory, the body sometimes recognizes this infiltration and therefore tires to attack the infected cells, which is what we see happening in autoimmune diseases when the body attacks itself. However, sometimes bacteria or viruses are very skilled at hiding within cells (i.e. putting up chemical masks), and therefore the immune system walks right past them. We know this is what happens with the HIV virus, and Dr. Nishihara believes this is also what happens with cancer.

Dr. Nishihara's theory has some merit to it, as scientists already know that the H. pylori bacteria leads to stomach cancer and the human papillomavirus (HPV) leads to cervical cancer. Therefore, it is not so extreme to think that other bacteria and viruses might lead to other cancers; in fact, many scientists already agree with Dr. Nishihara on this point (P.S. Moore and Y. Chang, 2010). What is most interesting is the way which he uses this theory to guide his treatment of cancer patients.

He believes that a slightly low core body temperature- which can be caused by either stress or lack of movement (e.g., sitting at a computer all day)- weakens our cells by damaging their mitochondria. This opens the door for bacteria and viruses to infiltrate the cell and cause it to become cancerous. More specifically, Dr. Nishihara believes that, in the case of cancer, bacteria that are supposed to stay confined to the digestive tract (called enterobacteria) find a way to migrate outside the intestinal walls and infect mitochondria-damaged cells elsewhere in the body.

As a result of this theory, Dr. Nishihara works backward: He first treats the infection in the cells by prescribing specific antibiotics or antivirals that are tailored to each cancer patient. Next, to keep the digestive tract as free of bacteria and viruses as possible, he prescribes a special prebiotic supplement that contains bifidus factor, which is a substance that promotes the growth of healthy intestinal flora. 


After prescribing this important prebiotic supplement, Dr. Nishihara tries to prevent the cancer from recurring by repairing the mitochondria in his patients' cells. To achieve this, he tries to raise their core body temperature by recommending they eat only hot foods, drink only warm liquids, practice deep breathing, reduce their stress, exercise regularly, and get plenty of sleep and sunlight. Dr. Nishihara also recommends that his patients breathe as much as possible through their noses, because he believes the nose is better at preventing bacteria from entering the body than the mouth is. With this multifaceted treatment approach, including the important supplement of bifidus factor to help detoxify the body, Dr. Nishihara has helped many of his cancer patients have radical remissions.

WHAT YOU BELIEVE DETERMINES HOW YOU LIVE

I wonder if any of you have been humming to this catchy tune "Me, Myself & I" by Bebe Rexha & G-Eazy.

The bridge goes like this:

Oh, it's just me, myself and I
Solo ride until I die
Cause I got me for life
(Got me for life, yeah)
Oh I don't need a hand to hold 
Even when the night is cold
I got that fire in my soul

This is my personal opinion and I don't mean to be a joy spoiler. If you feel happy listening to the tune and it entertains you, well, go ahead and enjoy it. But if you are like me, wondering what this tune is all about, then please stay on.

This song reflects a lifestyle that many young people choose to live today. If you live according to the lyrics of this song (you can google the rest of the lyrics), it will be a matter of time before you get depressed. Seriously.

Well it might sound cool and liberated when you are humming this tune in your 30's. Try singing it in your 60's, it WILL sound very depressing and lonely.

Choosing to remain single for life does not mean the person is lonely. I have met people who are married but still feel painfully lonely. I have also seen single people who lead a very fulfilling life. You can be with many people everyday and having many friends and 'likes' in your Facebook yet you still feel terribly lonely. 

I once read somewhere that each of us is created with an emptiness in our souls that only the God who made it can fill it. Any attempts to put anything else inside that emptiness will result in a mismatch that you will inevitably sense. You will substitute one thing with another to fill that void but you will not feel complete until the God who created you fills this emptiness.

This feeling of emptiness and loneliness will lead to depression and physical diseases. This was mentioned in my previous post "The 4 pillars of Healing". Having a good relationship with God and with people is vital for inner healing and psychological well-being which then will positively influence the physical well-being.

Research has demonstrated that widowed men and women were two to four times more likely to die prematurely than those still married. For men over fifty-five, the death rate soared by 40% during the six months after the death of a wife. A famous study in Alameda County, California, found that marriage, close friendship, and voluntary membership in church or community organizations decreased the death rate from cancer, heart disease, and stroke, as well as the total mortality rate, for both men and women. The most socially isolated women in the community had a death rate almost three times as great as the most socially involved. More recent studies have demonstrated that men or women with heart disease are far more vulnerable to heart attack and death if they live alone, lack friends or family, or perceive a lack of emotional support from others. Women with early breast cancer have been found to live longer if they receive emotional support from close friends and family. (Leo Galland, The Four Pillars of Healing pg.87)

Back to the song, I don't know about you but I choose not to believe the lyrics because wrong believing will lead to wrong living and right believing will lead to right living.

I choose to believe what my God has promised in the Scriptures:

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you (Isaiah 41:10)

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want... He restores my soul...Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4) 

The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted him, and I am rescued and my heart is full of joy. (Psalm 28:7)

STRENGTHENING THE IMMUNE SYSTEM

You will be surprised if you have talked to cancer survivors and found that by far the most popular reason why they take vitamins and herbal supplements is to strengthen their body's own immune system so that it can find and remove cancer cells from the body.

This goes along with the underlying belief that, "To get rid of cancer, you must change the conditions under which it thrives." In other words, it is believed that cancer can grow and survive only in certain environment, such as one that is blocked with stagnant energy, lacking in oxygen, blood circulation and nutrients and also one that is filled with bacteria and viruses, and so on. Therefore, if you change the underlying conditions of the body, so those conditions become healthier, cancer cells will naturally die off.

The analogy of a moldy room is good to illustrate the point above. Imagine going into your room and finding mold everywhere, just as a surgeon sometimes opens up a person's body, only to find cancer everywhere. One strategy to get rid of the mold is to bleach the entire room, which will certainly kill the mold. This is similar to chemotherapy and radiation, which are both strong interventions that directly kill cancer cells. To continue the analogy, imagine that the bleach has worked and there is now no more mold left in your room- or no more cancer left in your body. Now your doctor says that all you can do is hope it never comes back.

The issue with this scenario is that the mold in your room is destined to grow back as long as the conditions under which mold thrives- such as darkness and dampness- are still present. However, if you were to bring UV lights into your room and constantly run a fan and dehumidifier, then the mold would not grow back. This is the idea behind "changing the conditions under which cancer thrives," and Cancer Care Management at DamaiMedic Klinik Kota Kinabalu helps patients to achieve that goal. The only catch is that the changes must be permanent, otherwise the minute you stop the fan, dehumidifier, or UV light, the old conditions will return and mold may once again grow. That is why patients need to make permanent changes to their lifestyles, in the hope to prevent cancer from ever growing again in their bodies.

HEALING CRISIS

We live in a high-tech world of bio nanotechnology today where stem cells and genetic engineering promise hope of curing chronic diseases and cancers. Many of us are skeptical that simply changing diet and activity level would have much effect on reversing diseases.

Most of us know that processed foods, smoking, alcohol, sleep deprivation, stress and lack of exercise is bad for health. But we still choose to live that way. Doing the right things for health seemed so hard for so many when it actually cost effective in the long run.

Losing health and treating diseases are expensive but most of us are on this path knowingly. Weird! We do what we do not want (living unhealthy), we want to do the good (live healthy), but we cannot do it. And we do the very thing that we do not want (living unhealthy) [Paraphrased from Rom 7:15-20]. This sounds like addiction! The same thinking and behavioral pattern occurs in all forms of addictions you name it; drugs, gambling, alcohol and sex. It seems like 'unhealthy living' is addictive. Why?

When we are pleasuring ourselves with 'unhealthy living', we are oblivious to the end results of sickness and eventually death because it feels so good that we do not want to stop if there is no reason to do so. A sudden change to 'healthy living' would cause displeasure, pain and discomfort that we want to immediately revert back to the pleasuring sensations and maintain the status quo of 'unhealthy living'. This is what we call, "HEALING CRISIS".

When the body experiences dramatic symptoms of cleansing as a result of improved organ function and immune efficiency, it is referred to as a healing crisis-"healing" because it expels toxins and brings about improvement in health, "crisis" because the symptoms associated with toxic removal can be dramatic.

The symptoms of the healing crisis are the same as those of a disease crisis (illness). For this reason, the healing crisis is greatly misunderstood and often believed to be an illness that must be treated to restore health. The healing crisis is a positive event, a sign of improving health. Unfortunately, many people mistakenly view it as a disease crisis. One is the result of the body overcoming disease, while the other is the result of the body succumbing to disease.

The Body's Power to Heal
All natural methods of healing are based on the concept that the body is capable of curing just about any illness if it is given the opportunity- that is, if negative influences such as environmental toxins, emotional stress, malnutrition and etc. are removed.

The body has an amazing capacity to heal itself. When we get a cut, tear a muscle or get bacterial infection, the body immediately goes to work to repair the damage. We develop symptoms (fever, mucus discharge, coughing, vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue, etc.) to fight and remove harmful substances. The body knows what to do in every case.

When an injury or localized infection occurs, the body quickly initiates an inflammation response, an important part of the healing process. Inflammation is a process by which blood circulation in a particular area is greatly increased. This allows for the rapid influx of defending white blood cells into the affected area, Damaged cells are removed, along with any infectious organisms that may be present. Healthy cells in the area are stimulated to quickly begin multiplying to replace the damaged cells removed by the white blood cells. This way, the injured or damaged parts of the body are healed.

Similarly, cancerous or degenerative cells are also removed. All of us have cancerous cells in our bodies. The reason we all do not develop cancer is because the immune cells quickly remove these cancer cells before they become too big.

When the immune system is overworked or when nutrients essential for the production of healthy white blood cells are lacking in our diets, our immune system cannot adequately do its job, sickness and diseases results. If the white blood cells are just barely able to keep daily toxins and pathogenic invaders in check, poisons are easily trapped in tissues and build up over time. These poisons can disrupt normal cellular activity, causing degeneration and further burdening the immune system. Good diet and lifestyle choices are the keys to maintaining a strong immune system.

Treating Symptoms
Treating symptoms is easy, convenient for patients and good business for physicians because of the rapid turn over. But is this how healing is supposed to be?

Symptoms are not the cause of the disease; they are only the body's response to it. Suppressing or masking the symptoms will not cure the disease. Taking a pain killer will not cure a headache, it only numbs the nerves so that the pain is not felt. The cause of the headache remains. Taking cough medicine does not cure chest colds. Sleeping pills will not cure insomnia. Antidepressants will not cure depression. Cortisone steroid will not cure arthritis. Anti-hypertension will not cure hypertension. When the cause of the problem is not removed, medications must be used regularly to suppress symptoms. This is the current healthcare (or rather sickness-orientated) system unfortunately. Removing the symptoms brings about a false sense of well-being and perpetuates the attitude of getting a quick fix to solve medical problems. Drugs provide quick relief to many symptoms of illness but don't do a thing about curing the problem.

Drugs by their very nature are toxic to the body and add to the toxic body's load, often making health worse. All drugs have side effects! Natural healing methods focus on the cause of the problem and so their effects on symptoms are not as dramatically noticeable as drugs. When used properly, natural methods cause no adverse side effects, nor do they load the body with harmful toxins.

Symptoms associated with common illnesses are part of the body's natural cleansing process. When our bodies become dangerously overloaded with toxins, our immune systems weaken and we become vulnerable to infectious organisms. When we become sick, our body is telling us to rest so it can focus its healing energies on housecleaning (detoxification). Symptoms of sickness- runny nose, fever, diarrhea, nausea, sneezing, coughing, loss of appetite, etc.- are all process of cleansing.

The symptoms we often regard as sickness are are in fact the protective mechanism that keeps us healthy and alive. There is always an underlying cause for every symptom. That should prompt the physician to investigate further. Sometimes doctors know the causative pathogen and treat specifically and sometimes doctors do not know what is the cause and the empirical treatment approach is adopted.

A healthy protective system and process of detoxification such as fever, urination, opening bowels, sweating, coughing, sneezing, tearing, pimples and boil eruptions are always on standby mode to 'cleanse' the body. These symptoms becomes a 'disease' when the process FAILS to rid the body of the offending agents and toxins. As the result, these symptoms persist and affect more systems until it overwhelms the whole person. That is what we commonly regard as being sick.

Therefore it is crucial for us to understand the distinction between a healing crisis and a disease crisis for appropriate action to be taken.

To put in simply:

DISEASE CRISIS is the process associated with illness and the body's efforts to remove disease-causing agents and restore health. If the body is weak and unable to overcome illness, death or permanent disability may result. In a disease crisis, the body is struggling to remove toxic levels of poisons and microbial infestation in an effort just to survive.

 

HEALING CRISIS is the process associated with heightened cleansing and cellular rebuilding. It is a sign of improving health and results in better health as disease-causing factors are removed. Healing crisis only occurs to the degree at which the body can tolerate without injury and therefore will not cause harm.

The 4 Pillars of Healing

Ancient system of healing approach sickness as a problem of balance and relationship, the result of disharmony between the sick person and his environment rather than the product of specific disease.

Similarly, Hippocratic tradition constitutes detailed clinical observation and an attempt to cultivate techniques of healing that work in concert with the forces of nature, restoring to the body its natural harmony of function. The Hippocratic  physician cared not about the disease but about the patient as the a whole, striving "to know what man is in relation to food, drink, occupation and which effect each of these has on the other." Dietetics was the cornerstone of Hippocratic therapy. The Hippocratic approach dominated Western medicine for almost two thousand years.

The disease process is not caused by the microbe alone. In the case of tuberculosis, people who are infected with the bacteria do not always develop the disease. When the immune system is strong, the bacteria is imprisoned by the white blood cells. The tubercle is not a product of the bacteria, but a defense thrown up by the host. When immunity falters, the bacteria escape. Impairment of the host's immunity is as important for the development of tuberculosis as is the microbe itself.

The physician's task was to support the body's natural healing processes. Signs of sickness is not the manifestation of the disease but the manifestation of the body's attempt to heal itself.

Medicine was about disease, not about health or longevity, and the physician's task was to discover, in life, through physical signs, what organic lesions were present in the patient's body.

Rudolf Virchow, Germany's "Pope of Pathology", established the cell as the ultimate unit of sturcture and function in the body and initiated the movement that traced sickness to cellular dysfunction. However, Virchow resisted the temptation to localize disease within the cell and believes that the social conditions under which patients lived to be more important determinants of health than the tissue changes he saw through the microscope,

Louis Pasteur, the father of microbiology, demonstrated that the conditions of life, not the microbe alone, are the cause of disease with his chicken experiment. Both chickens were injected with the deadly anthrax bacteria. One bird exposed to cold temperature before infection (died), another kept at warm temperature (lived).

Functional Medicine aims to restore the balance between the sick person and his environment. It is not merely suppression of disease. Functional medicine strives to improve the physiological, emotional, cognitive and/or physical function of individuals, sick or well. Restoration or enhancement of health is the aim. The principles that guide the restoration of health are different from the principles that guide the suppression of disease.

Disease suppression therapies have a role to play in medical care, but their importance has been exaggerated.

The 4 Pillars for the Restoration of Health:

1) RELATIONSHIP: social support is linked to health and mortality. Satisfying relationship may buffer the impact of stress, lowering the levels of chemical mediators, decreasing the strain on mind and body. The rewards of friendship may include an increase in self esteem and with it a boost to perceived self-efficacy. A high level of self-efficacy improves an individual's ability to cope with symptoms, adopt healthful habits, and cooperate with medical treatment.

2) DIET and regulation of the daily cycle of rest and exercise.

3) ENVIRONMENTAL hygiene: a major determinant of health and sickness.

4) DETOXIFICATION: The supply of enviromental toxins, chemical and microbial, appears endless.

The human body has many natural defenses against environmental toxicity. These include:-

• The constant shedding of the skin and the lining of the gastrointestinal tract, which slowly dispels environmental toxins from the body.
• The activity of protective immune response that limit the attachment of toxins to the surfaces of the lungs or the gastrointestinal tract.
• Enzymes systems in the liver that destroy toxins and prepare them for excretion in the bile or the urine.
• Enzymes that repair damaged cells and promote healing.

Traditional approaches to detoxification are fasting, purging, and herbal remedies to "cleanse" the intestinal tract.

Elie Metchnikoff (Noble Prize winner for Medicine in 1908) was the first modern scientist to study the notion of intestinal toxicity. He theorized that intestinal bacteria cause senility and degenerative disease by producing toxic chemicals called ptomaines, which are absorbed into the body. He advocated yogurt with "friendly" bacteria called Lactobacilli, would inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria.

Toxins that enter the body from the intestinal tract are directly transported to the liver, which is the chief site for detoxifying enzymes in the body. Strategies for supporting and directing liver detoxification will offer great potential as innovative treatments.

To maintain or regain your own health, understand and actively support the Four Pillars of Healing:

• Nurture relationships with others. Commit some time each day to give your undivided attention to a friend or family member.

• Involve yourself in a group activity that is meaningful to you and enjoyable.

• Eat regular meals with people you care about. Avoid snacks or meals in front of the television. Especially avoid the salty high-fat snack food.

• Exercise regularly with at least moderate intensity for thirty minutes a day or more. Brisk walking is a good start. Do it with a friend.

• Get enough sleep at night so that you can awaken without an alarm clock.

• Reserve 15 minutes or more for quiet, focused relaxation every day.

• Become aware of the environmental hazards in your community and your job.

• Keep to a minimum your use of alcohol and drugs, including medical drugs.

• Consume a nutritious diet that is rich in "detox" vegetables like broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, avocado, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage, and in nuts and seeds. Add sea vegetables and green onions as condiments.

(Adapted from Leo Galland's "The Four Pillars of Healing")

Facts & Figures about Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is a major global health problem and the leading cause of death among women of all ethnic backgrounds. Each year, an estimated 1.6 million new cases are diagnosed worldwide. In Malaysia, breast cancer is the most common cancer where 1 in 19 Malaysian women will be diagnosed with breast cancer by the age of 85. Around 4000 women are diagnosed each year and it occurs mostly in women aged between 35 and 60 with 40% affected aged below 50. Although rare, men can also develop breast cancer.

Sources:

• Cancer Facts & Figures 2014, American Cancer Society. Atlanta, Georgia, 2014
• National Cancer Registry of Malaysia 2005-2007.

Status of Cancer in Malaysia

Cancer is increasing in incidence and today, it would seem that each of us knows at least a friend or a family member that has been affected by cancer. Based on the latest Health Facts 2013 released by Ministry of Health (MoH) Malaysia, cancer is one of the top ten causes of hospitalisation and one of the top five causes of death in both MoH and private hospitals. The salient truth is that cancer has overtaken hearth disease as the number one killer this year (2014).

Although the USA death toll from cancer has declined for 2 decades, cancer deaths continue to rise globally according to the annual cancer statistics report from the American Cancer Society – largely due to effective treatment and with an increasing population ceasing smoking in stark contrast to the rest of the world.

In Malaysia, the incidence of cancer increased from 32,000 new cases in 2008 to about 37,000 in 2012 (approx 100 new cases per day!). Mortality due to cancer stood at 20,100 deaths in 2008 and has increased to 21,700 deaths in 2012, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Globocan of the World Health Organisation (WHO). More than 50% of Malaysian Malay men smoke, more than 30% Malaysians are obese, yet we still do not take screening and prevention seriously.

• 15% of Malaysian population will get cancer before 75 years old.
• 9% of Malaysian population will die from cancers before 75 years old.

Cancer Statistics in Malaysia (2012)



Sources:

• Health Facts 2013, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Health Informatics Centre Planning Division, July 2013.
• GLOBOCAN 2012 v1.0, Cancer Incidence and Mortality Worldwide: IARC CancerBase No. 11, Ferlay J, Soerjomataram I, Ervik M, Dikshit R, Eser S, Mathers C, Rebelo M, Parkin DM, Forman D, Bray, F, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
• National Cancer Registry Report, Malaysia Cancer Statistics – Data and Figure 2007, Ariffin OZ, Saleha IT, Ministry of Health, Malaysia, 2011.
• Global Trends, Cancer and High Drug Prices, Khor M, Third World Network Mar 2014.

*Head and neck cancer includes cancer incidences for nasopharynx, larynx, tongue, mouth, nose&sinuses, salivary gland, hypopharynx, other oralpharynx, tonsil, pharynx unspecified and lip.