Saturday, April 10, 2010

Big bad Cancer

Last night my husband & I had dinner at one of our favorite organic vegan/vegetarian restaurants close to our home. On the other side of the parking lot is a fairly small but nice well maintained park. It is known as The Bloch Cancer Park and is dedicated to those living with & who have passed away from canser (I spell it wrong on purpose).There are informative & inspiring facts and words on plaques along the walkway of he park. My husband wanted to go over and walk last night so we did. We were the only ones walking there and it is in a very popular & busy area of town. What struck me was people don't even want to be in this park which is lovely because it is the cancer park. That is how stigmatized the illness is. Now honestly I cannot say that we chose to spend time there before canser became a part of our lives but I used to live across the street from it when I was in college and before it underwent renovation and I did go over there and hang out sometimes. Canser is so scary and has been portrayed as the "Jason" of serious illnesses. Certain death, no hope,etc. The conventional treatments are horrific in and of themselves...much more scary in my opinion, than the illness itself. One thing I know without a doubt about canser is that we as a whole are misinformed and uneducated about something that happens normally in the human body several times during our lifetime. "It is believed that the average person gets cancer 6 times a year. Their immune system destroys the cancer cells, and they know nothing about it. Occasionally,something comes along to depress the immune system, which allows these malignant cells to get a foothold and multiply. When the immune system recovers, the cancer is already too well established and they have a detectable case of cancer." Richard and Annette Bloch. These two are not doctors or scientist but a wife and "terminal" cancer survivor. These facts can be found when reading most anything on understanding cancer. This fact alone comes to my mind when people say things like I don't have cancer so I don't need to worry about it or it will not happen to me or why do you eat like your husband, what do you do all these things for? I don't want to be a canser patient & I understand how canser works as much as I am able. I understand that I am just a susceptible to it as the little girl down the street and my elderly neighbors. It is important to understand our bodies & how they work and how to maintain them. Some people spend hours and tons of money maintaining cars, houses,their external selves but when it comes to being healthy on the inside it becomes a flippant matter. This is another reason to eat pesticide & herbicide free foods, eat healthy whole antioxidant rich foods, only use body care products that are also free of the carcinogens,clean with natural cleaners, stop smoking,drinking excessively, just simply getting rid of exposure to carcinogenic stuff in our lives. It only takes one trigger and it is a game of Russian Roulette if you don't eliminate those things. A healthy immune system begins in the gut with our good bacteria. Probiotics should be a part of everyone lives and so should the prebiotics that feed the probiotics. Suppressing that immune system is the worst thing we can do to ourselves health wise. Eating crappy junk is a sure fire way suppress it. The food we eat is meant to nourish our bodies not harm them. Real whole foods do this. Fake foods like most candies, fast foods,processed foods,artifically sweetened and processed foods do not.
Here is my point. I do not have detectable cancer as a disease in my body and I plan to keep it that way. My husband does and has since Dec. 2007. It was diagnosed at stage IV,metastic & inoperable with a life expectancy of 3 to 6 months. You do the math. We have made many changes in our lifestyle and in our thinking and are enjoying a simple,happy, healthy life. I am not afraid to know that I have cancer cells in my body because I know with confidence that I am preventing the illness through my diet & lifestyle. I want everyone to be able to say the same thing. I also want health classes to be taught in every school in the world and I am not talking about extra gym time. It is better to teach healthy preventative habits to young people than wait until those bad habits have set in. Wouldn't you like to see children asking for an apple instead of chips or fries and wanting to play outside instead of sitting in front of the tv playing video games. That is how it should be.
Canser does suck but it doesn't have to be the big bad boogie man. People need to open their eyes & minds and say yes to a healthy life. Everything we need we have. Mother nature provides for us. Nobody wants to think about getting a serious illness but education is key to prevention. Talking about sex won't get you pregnant and talking about canser won't give you a tumor.

1 comment:

  1. wonderful post, thanks! and so true, I love the last line, talking about canser won't give you a tumor! love and best wishes,
    Grace and Linus (msgracewales @mycsl.com) xxxxx

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