Cancer And Mind-body Healing

What Does it Mean to Have Cancer?
Cancer occurs following a disruption in the lifecycle of human cells. Instead of following the normal process of being born, living out their purpose, and apoptosis or cell death, cancer cells tend to live on. They begin to multiply and form tumors that can obstruct the body's vital organs. This situation robs nutrients from the surrounding healthy cells which, in turn, will lead to depletion in the host.
How do medical practitioners deal with cancer? It depends on two points of view. Orthodox or conventional medicine sees cancer as a chance occurrence that is a product of genetic mutations, so it focuses primarily on killing cancer cells. On the other hand, unorthodox or non-traditional medicine sees the disease as arising from metabolic imbalances caused by lifestyle choices, so that it focuses on restoring the patients inner biological environment to the state it was when the disease was non-existent.
Conventional cancer treatments such as radiation therapy, chemotherapy, surgery, et cetera are generally identified with the first approach. Treatments such as dietary and lifestyle changes, psychological programs, and nutritional supplementation, on the other hand, are generally used for the latter approach.
Employing conventional cancer treatments is also called waging war on cancer because the foremost goal is to eradicate cancer cells or force them into remission. Though some will point out that these treatments are probably worse than what they are treating, most medical practitioners agree that they do have their uses. For instance, they can be effective in curbing the proliferation of fast-growing cancers or in treating diffuse blood cancers.
Since non-conventional medicine views cancer as a systemic disease, afflictions that have the common attribute of uncontrolled cellular proliferation, they point out that implementing a "whole body" treatment program is the only approach that will, more than likely, lead to a long-term cure for cancer.
Somebody who has been diagnosed with cancer will probably be presented with the first option initially, i.e., conventional orthodox treatments. Remember, however, that it is neither the only option available nor the best option there is.
How to deal with a cancer diagnosis.
The first thing to do is to not let panic set in. Cancer is NOT a death sentence. People get cured of cancer. Remember that even in the face of the bleakest prognosis, the oncologist is still only making an intelligent guess based on data from conventional treatment methodologies.
You need to gather the following information: the cancer type that you have; the stage it is in; has it metastasized; what treatments there are and their success rates; what alternative treatments are there; the dietary, lifestyle, and psychological changes that are required.
Of primary importance is to get a treatment program that is tailored to your requirements, and to find the right health practitioner to implement that program of treatment.
Second: Read books. Visit the Internet. Get as much additional information as you can on the topic. Do not rely only on information coming from your doctor.
The following books provide alternative views on cancer: The China Study by T. Colin Campbell, Cancer the full menu by Rolf Gordon, Healing Cancer by Simon Kelly and Enrida Kelly, Cancer Is Not A Disease by Andreas Mortiz, Alternatives in Cancer Therapy: The Complete Guide to Non-Traditional Treatments by Ross Pelton and Lee Overholser, Anticancer: A New Way of Life by David Servan-Schreiber, Winning the War on Cancer by Mark Sircus, and Everything You Need To Know To Help You Beat Cancer by Chris Woolams.
Since the Internet is full of both information and misinformation, be careful when getting information from it. A sage advice is to visit only the established sites and avoid sites that offer instant cures. Cancer is a disease that takes time to manifest. The cure will not occur instantly.
Time to decide on a course of action. You have four options:
Go solely for orthodox treatments. Generally, this option is the one chosen by individuals who prefer to leave health matters to the discretion of their doctors.
Go for a combination of both treatment types. These are individuals who want the best of both worlds. It might also be because they have a very aggressive form of cancer that must first be rapidly reduced in number.
Go exclusively for alternative treatments. These people have done their research, found the success rate of conventional treatments wanting, and have decided that they have a better chance pursuing alternative approaches.
Go for no treatment at all. Going for this option could mean that the individual is: in complete denial, with a very slowly-developing type of cancer, has a cancer type that cannot be treated with any current means available, or is too old or frail to go through the treatment process.
The course of treatment will be decided based on an individual's present condition, temperament, belief systems, and existing social support structure.
Treating cancer is also not a matter of the more treatments, the better. Remember that going for a combination of orthodox and unorthodox treatments will mean chemotherapy or radiotherapy, treatment modalities that are known to contribute to the death of the patient.
I will try to examine how mind-body healing can help cancer patients in my next posts.