Cancer is a disease that has touched my life in many different ways. As I watched my grandfather wither from a combination of chemotherapy and disease progression, I was working EMS and experiencing the medical side. I’ve transported patients to hospice homes for their final days. I’ve gone into countless homes to deliver the news that a loved one has passed, taken by an insidious enhancement of deterioration. The toll on the caregivers is a component that stays with me— the entire situation of cancer feels like a helpless feeling of drowning much of the time.
It is terrible in every single way.
Now, as part of the childhood cancer community, I have seen more suffering than I could have ever imagined. The prevalence of this disease is shockingly common, with occurrences increasing. Too many cancer stories are summarized with horrific side effects from treatments resulting in a reduced quality of life.
As I comb through the heartache of parents, I often come across a mention of the need for new treatments. I couldn’t agree more, and I also feel that another need is to make the most of the procedures we have until new therapies are developed. I believe we have complementary means and must ask better questions in conjunction with modern medicine. I do not think we will beat cancer with just surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy.
Our bodies are like soil, and cancer is like the seeds of weeds. My focus is on not providing them with an environment to grow and reproduce. Recent studies are showing a correlation between glucose, insulin, phytochemicals, and the microbiome with the effectiveness or lack thereof of chemo and immunotherapies. These are areas the medical community needs to look into for solutions to improve the efficiency of treatment.
If anyone ever looks you in the eye and tells you those claims aren’t backed up by scientific research, including by medical professionals, refer to the following articles, which are just the tip of the iceberg.
Sugary Drinks and Cancer https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31292122Turmeric and
Curcumin https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29693253
Gut Microbiota and Tumor Suppression https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6356461/
My point here is not to start an argument but rather to illustrate that we are not helpless and at the sole mercy of the medical establishment.
Cancer is multidimensional, and as such, we can and must fight it on multiple fronts. To best highlight cancer’s correlation with sugar, we need to look at how a PET scan is used to identify tumors. This dates back to the early 1900s when Otto Warburg identified that cancer cells have an increased uptake of glucose. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4783224/ With a PET scan, a radioactive particle is mixed with FDG, a form of glucose. Cancer cells gobble it up, and the higher concentration shows up on imaging. This is an oversimplification, but the point is that many types of cancer suck up sugar in the blood, and we have known this for a hundred years. The Warburg Effect breaks down the process of cancer metabolism, which is vastly different from that of regular cells. https://cancerandmetabolism.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40170-016-0145-9
Lander’s sugar intake was and still is minimal, with no added sugar at all. The extremely low levels of sugar he did consume came in the form of honey (very rarely) and some fruits and vegetables like sweet potatoes. He had absolutely no packaged snacks, juice, soft drinks, candy, or foods with added sugar. The products that hide sugar are astounding; essentially, all condiments, including ketchup, are loaded. Chocolate milk is overflowing with added sugar.
Checking out nutrition labels on everything you consume is vital.
There are so many alternative foods with health-promoting properties than to consume these hazardous foods. For example, I recently made a chocolate macadamia milk blended with a few raspberries. It was delicious and, aside from the raspberries, was sugar-free and provided many positive nutritional components.
Cocoa has anti-cancer properties, eat it without sugar and dairy. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19838930I firmly believe future generations will look back at many food producers with the same disdain many have for tobacco product manufacturers.
In my experience, sugar is like fertilizer for cancer. I cannot think of a single benefit of giving a cancer patient sugar, nor can I think of one detrimental effect on the health of a cancer patient by not giving them sugar. It is an addictive drug.
This is an “everything to gain and nothing to lose” proposition. We must remove damaging substances and maximize nutrition to help the body overcome.
Not only are the harmful effects of sugar evident for overall health, but the effectiveness of some chemotherapies may also be directly correlated. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5727758/
What does all of this mean? For me, it led to my decision to completely remove sugar and simple carbohydrates from Lander’s diet. I think his results speak for themselves. God did his part in getting us the clear scans, and we sure tried our best to do our part. Arkansas Children’s Hospital and multiple medical teams saved Lander’s life and I’m forever grateful. But because of the damage caused by chemotherapy and radiations, of which possible side effects are other forms of cancer,
Lander will be on the best eating plan for the rest of his life. Prevention is the best way to fight this horrible disease. Here is a blog post about the related topics of Ketosis and Intermittent Fasting. https://meandmcgeemarket.com/ketosis-and-intermittent-fasting/
It can’t be stressed enough that beating cancer is fought on many fronts. I will continue to research and share to increase awareness of the possibilities of a better way.