This morning in the New York Times, I saw this article:

Advances Elusive In The Long Drive to Cure Cancer

Apparently, the death rates for cancer have only improved 5% since 1950. FIVE PERCENT. For flu and pneumonia? 58%. And why is this?

What seems to be the most obvious reason is that the research is hampered by the unwillingness to lose money on “risky” research – also known as innovative research (thinking-outside-the-box-kind of research). So instead, the research goes down less risky avenues, the kind that have a medication give someone a few more weeks, or months, but isn’t curing anything.

That 5% improvement is a bit of an ass-kicker to read – I know a lot of people are in some illusion that we do better healing cancer these days, but the statistics are not supporting that. And every day in our office, it’s a concern for people. And every day (or nearly) I talk about things people don’t know:

Did you know that you have per day, on average, cancer 50-85 times? Yes, that’s right – got cancer… ooops! Gone! Wait! Here again! Oh, gone again… What has our body deal with it, day in and day out, is how healthy it is. Our immune system has to be able to not be distracted by too much, and also have the elements it needs to fight it. What we’ve seen is there are typically 4 areas that, when they’re out of balance, can lead to a state of imbalance where cancer can take hold.

• Hormonal imbalances
• Toxic overload
• Emotional imbalances
• Nutritional deficiencies

To be honest, all of us have some of these. But how many people are actually aggressively dealing with them? Not many. Most people are sitting around, waiting for the diagnosis. It runs in their family, so they feel doomed. Hey, I don’t know if I won’t get it – my mom had it, and her sister died of it, but I’m not going down without a fight. This is what I would do, and DO do, to better my odds:

• I eat very little sugar, and definitely reduced carbs. What do you think cancer cells, with their crazy metabolism, want to eat? Sugar! But most people only change their diet AFTER the diagnosis. There are studies at Johns Hopkins and Duke University that show a direct link to how sugar increases tumor growth.
• I would make sure my hormones were balanced. There are very accurate tests now to see what’s what, and I would include seeing how my adrenals are working. We do this in the office all the time, and it’s a bit alarming at the results we see…I would also deal with stress very proactively. Again, most people only make lifestyle changes when the bad news shows up.
• I do a Cleanse 2-3 times a year to get as many toxins out of my system as possible.
• There are a variety of nutritional deficiencies that run RAMPANT in society – Vitamin D is just one of them, and that’s a big anti-cancer fighter, but only with help from other nutrients. And again, it helps to take these things BEFORE the diagnosis – afterwards is a whole other deal.
• I exercise. Regularly.
• I deal with my emotional baggage. Regularly.
• I fork over the money and eat organic veggies and natural meat and eggs from happy chickens. Who knows what’s in/on the other stuff, and I don’t want to take any chances.

I kind of laugh when I have patients who think they’re taking a lot of stuff – they haven’t seen what we take ;-) But I heard chemo’s much worse so I’ll deal. So yeah, I’d talk to a professional and see what there is you could do to improve your odds. No, I don’t know if it’s not in my future either. But I’m also not going to wait to see what happens before I do something about it.

You shouldn’t either.