15 Feb Taking a Hygienic Approach to Cancer
It has been over forty years since President Nixon declared a “War On Cancer” and signed the National Cancer Act, which allocated $1.5 billion over three years for cancer research and control. President Richard M. Nixon set a goal that Cancer would be cured by 1976. Did not happen. Others said it would be by 2000, then by 2015 and President Obama has vowed to find ”a cure” for cancer as part of the economic stimulus package increasing federal money for “cancer research” by a third.
Since the war on cancer began, the National Cancer Institute has spent $105 billion with other agencies, universities and drug companies spending billions more. Yet, cancer rates have barely budged. Some cancers have increased. We remain a nation in which more than one out of every three people will get cancer in their lifetime. The statistics are sometimes bent to make the problem look better or worse but we know that the problem remains and is growing. Is cancer just an impossibly hard problem?
Cancer is not a single entity in my opinion. Research lurches from fad to fad — cancer viruses, immunology, genomics, etc., and the grim facts about cancer are often lost among the messages from the media and medical centers. Then there are the volunteer groups with their charity walks and bike rides for “the cure” and by businesses who are in the “pink”, hinting that they are pressing for the cure with your financial support…if only we walk far enough, ride our bikes far enough and you give enough of your money!
The message generally given is that cancer is preventable if you are screened regularly with things like mammograms that emit radiation that is known to cause cancer! The message continues that if your cancer is caught early your chances of being cured are high, and that if your cancer is potentially deadly new treatments may save you. As many with cancer have learned the real picture is not so glowing.
What epidemiologists have demonstrated is that the major reason cancer has become so prevalent is due to our environment…the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the chemicals in our environment including our homes, the radiation we are exposed to, the materials we spray our foods with, what we spew into our environment from a multitude of sources all interplaying with our genetics. We cannot determine who are parents will be but we can play a role in our environmental exposures.
There is compelling evidence that avoidable environmental factors play the major role in the causation of most cases of the cancer, sometimes from one or two sources though usually from a multitude of sources. This is seen by comparing cancer incidence in different countries or sometimes simply in different communities. For a cancer that is common in one country, there is another country where the incidence is several times lower and when the people of one country go to another country they tend to develop the same incidence of the cancer in that new location. Migrant populations tend to adopt the pattern of cancer incidence typical of the host country and therefore the differences in cancer rates appear to be due to environmental, not genetic, factors.
There are also subgroups within nations whose way of life reduces the total cancer death rate. One out of three people in the US acquire cancer but the rate of cancer among strict Mormons in Utah, for example, is only about half that among Americans in general. Cancer incidence is also low in certain relatively affluent populations in Africa.
All of this again points to environmental factors i.e. the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the radiation we are exposed to and other factors pertaining to how and where we live and what we are exposed to. These factors are best demonstrated by observational studies as opposed to doing laboratory research in the artificial environments of medical laboratories using petri plate cells and hapless laboratory animals that are brutally submitted to horrendous cruelties by the millions each year all needlessly.
If indeed it is environmental factors that largely determine our risks of cancer than our emphasis should be, both in terms of prevention and the resolution of cancer, on developing the right conditions under which to encourage the growth of healthy normal cells while discouraging the conditions under which cancer cells proliferate.
The medical approach of seeking out cancer cells and destroying them in this regard is counter-intuitive. Using “therapies” that are highly toxic, e.g. chemotherapy and radiation therapy, therapies known to be capable of inducing cancer themselves seems illogical yet remains the mainstay of modern cancer therapy and research and has been for many years.
We do not pretend to have the answers to cancer. We do however, promote living in specific ways that support healthy cellular growth i.e. provide the right conditions of health. If cancer occurs we think it is logical and wise to also promote an internal and external environment that is conducive to healthy cellular growth. Each person must decide if this will include bombarding our tissues with toxic chemicals and radiation. The authority and glamour of modern medical institutions and their massive buildings, high tech machines and thousands of workers in white coats representing, supposedly, the epitome of scientific wisdom make this difficult to resist, particularly for people who are faced with a life threatening issue.
The Goldberg Tener Clinic works with patients who have cancer but we do not treat Cancer in any fashion. We work with our clients in a supportive manner to encourage good nutrition, a healthy metabolism and a health supporting lifestyle.
We have no panaceas to “cure” cancer. We are not invincible to cancer ourselves. We do not discourage patients from seeking conventional medical treatment for cancer if that is their wish.
We do believe, however, that our best chance for good health and for recovery from any disease are to implement the right conditions, tailored to the individual, that build and support health from a biological, mental and spiritual standpoint. This is our approach to patients who come to us and have cancer and are looking for us to help support their overall health. This is our approach to all patients regardless of their medical diagnosis.
Paul A. Goldberg
The Goldberg Tener Clinic
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