Earlier this summer, a working group of the National Cancer Institute said we need a new definition of cancer. Its recommendations were published in JAMA this past July.
“We need a 21st-century definition of cancer instead of a 19th-century definition of cancer, which is what we’ve been using,” Dr. Otis W. Brawley of the American Cancer Association told the New York Times.
Simply, new technology has let us see more – including lesions and growths that might never develop into full blown cancers at all. Under the current definition of “cancer,” what would never have been diagnosed before now may be treated aggressively, whether or not it deserves to be.
All medical treatment involves risk and subjects the body to trauma. When “early screening” leads to false positives – as happens all too often with mammography (20 to 60% of the time, according to published estimates) – it becomes unnecessary risk and a source of long lasting psychological harm.
These kinds of problems are well documented in books such as Dr. H. Gilbert Welch’s Overdiagnosed: Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health – a worthwhile and eye-opening read.
Better imaging isn’t the only factor at play here. There’s also the matter of genetic profiling.
It’s crucial to understand that genes are not, in fact, destiny. While screening can tell you whether you have genes that predispose you to particular diseases, it cannot say whether you will ever develop them. Genes are potential – until something triggers them. This is what we’re talking about when we talk about epigenetics and environmental factors in the development of cancer and other diseases.
Despite this, we increasingly see people going to terrible extremes in the name of “prevention” – such as Angelina Jolie opting for double mastectomy after having tested positive for the BRCA1 mutation. She didn’t have cancer. We don’t know if she ever would have developed cancer. Yet she allowed her body to be mutilated for a maybe. Even then, according to the conventional cancer model, she remains at risk of the cancer that the surgery is meant to “prevent.”
Unfortunately, that model continues to see cancer as a foreign invader rather than a physiological response to a dynamic of environmental insults – a failed attempt by the body to self-regulate in the way it was designed to do. The only “solutions” are to cut it out or kill it, both of which subject the body to even more trauma and may in fact pave the way for recurrence.
Fortunately, there are effective alternatives, such as the biological treatments used by Dr. Rau’s Paracelsus Clinic in Switzerland, which you can read about here. But even better than after-the-fact treatment is to address the root causes cancer in a truly preventive way. As Dr. Mercola recently wrote,
You actually have a tremendous amount of control over how your genetic traits are expressed. Your genes will express or suppress genetic data depending on the environment in which it finds itself, meaning the presence or absence of appropriate nutrients, toxins, and even your thoughts and feelings, which unleash hormones and other chemicals in your body….
Research into the health of our ancient ancestors also suggests that cancer is indeed a manmade disease. Increasingly, environmental and lifestyle factors are being pinpointed as the culprits, and it is my personal belief that our cancer problem is the result of too many people being regularly exposed to too many of these toxic factors.
Here are the key factors Dr. Mercola identifies:
Be sure to read his full article for some excellent tips to not only lower your cancer risk but optimize your overall health.
Additionally, in the latest issue of Dental Truth, Leo Cashman notes several specifically dental factors to be aware of as we think about both how to treat and prevent cancer:
Consider removing mercury amalgam fillings. But if this is done, be sure that the amalgams are properly and carefully removed by a “biological” dentist who can do it safely. Other dentists might claim they can do it safely, but they can’t. Amalgams provide a major source of mercury and mercury harms energy production in all of our cells. It can harm oxygen transport, too, and increase oxidative stress. These effects increase the risk for cancer. That mercury should’ve never been put there in the first place!
Properly test for mercury body burden. Testing for mercury can shed light on a patient’s mercury status. Most doctors do not know how to perform such testing and most testing that is done is inaccurate, possibly harmful and misleading. The mercury Tri-test by Quicksilver Scientific is one that is worth consideration. Many of the other tests lack validity and some are not as safe as you might want.
Toxic crowns, root canal treated teeth and jawbone disease (“cavitations”) can all contribute significantly to further toxicity and to the risk of cancer. It is smart and, arguably, preventative of cancer to remove toxic crowns, remove toxic, infected root canaled teeth, and to have jawbone disease diagnosed and, if necessary, treated….
Fluoride is a toxic element that is to be avoided, not added to the drinking water or used in a toothpaste or a treatment gel. Fluoride accelerates the aging process and harms the teeth (dental fluorosis), thyroid, the brain and the immune system. Considering that a healthy immune sysem is what protects us from cancer, immune damaging toxins like mercury and fluoride and bad to be exposed to, even on a low-dose daily basis.
The cancer industry keeps itself going by creating, instilling and perpetuating fear. Once you get past that talk to the biological, physiological truths of the matter, you become empowered, aware that you have choices and that “early diagnosis” can never be preventive in the way that healthful choices are.