anticancer diet to help fight cancer (Part 2) : juices

[This is Part 2 of a 5-parts article. Readers should first read Part 1 (Intro) to get the background to this article. As new remedies will be added from time to time, readers need to come back to this article to view updates.]

Introduction
Juices should become daily supplementary diet not only for people with cancer but for everyone. Vegetable juice is my daily "medicine" which I take twice a day. I notice my health has improved ever since I started drinking vegetable juices everyday. Just as you need to take daily showers to cleanse your body externally, you too need to take daily showers (in the form of juices) to cleanse (ie detoxify) your body internally. You do not need to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to sign up for a detoxification program. Fresh vegetable juice is good enough.

Why juice? Juicing helps you to absorb better all the natural vitamins, minerals & enzymes from the vegetables. These nutrients help your body to detoxify & build up the body's immunity against many diseases & illnesses, including cancer. Juicing also allows you to consume a wide variety of vegetables at one go without the need to chew & digest, especially when you are unable to eat proper meals due to loss of appetite, mouth ulcers, etc. or when you suffer from constipation caused by drugs & medication.

DON’T buy commercially juiced products as they contain preservatives & sugar which are detrimental to health. Invest in a good juicer to make your own fresh juices. A good juicer costs around S$200-S$350 & can last 5-10 years.

I start each morning with ABC juice. In the afternoon or evening, I will drink another glass of vegetable juice. Cancer patients undergoing treatment should try to take veg juices, if possible, because radiotherapy & chemotherapy are highly toxic and juices can help to purge these toxins out of the body.

ABC Juice
Ingredients : one red apple, one small beetroot, one carrot (if beetroot is too big, use part of it & keep the other part in an air-tight container in the fridge).

Method : Remove skin (to get rid of pesticides), wash, cut into pieces & put into juicer. Drink the juice immediately. You may add water if you find the juice too sweet.

When to drink : first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, about one hour before breakfast.

Benefits : Reduce blood pressure & cholesterol; prevent cancer cells from developing & restrain cancer cells from growing; prevent cardiovascular diseases; prevent constipation; assist bowel movement; detoxify liver & body.

Additional notes : Beetroot can cause your stools to turn red. Thus, if you take ABC juice and your stools turn red, do not be alarmed. It is not necessarily blood in the stools.


Green Juices
Ingredients : You can use a variety of green vegetables. I usually juice 4-6 types of vegetables to make green juices. Examples of vegies you can use include asparagus, baby bitter gourd, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, green capsicum, mini cucumber, pumpkin, wheatgrass, etc. I will also add fruits such as green apple, guava & lemon. Please read Part 4 (fruits & vegetables) for a list of foods that have high phytochemical compounds.

Method :
1. Remove skin (if any), wash, cut into pieces & put into blender or juicer.
2. Squeeze out lemon juice separately using a squeezer or a fork, then add it to the juiced or blended green juice (watch the video below to learn how to get the most juice out of lemons).
3. Drink the juice immediately. You may add water if you find the juice too sweet.

 

Note : Broccoli & cauliflower florets can contain germs and bugs. One method to eliminate these germs and bugs is to blanch the broccoli & cauliflower in some boiling salted water before juicing. Plunging vegetables into boiling salted water can help clean the vegetables of germs and bugs that cannot be removed by normal washing. Not all vegetables need to be blanched except those with tight florets such as broccoli & cauliflower (source : Juicing book website).

When to drink : any time of the day on an empty stomach, preferably 30min before meals. Cancer patients undergoing treatment can drink veg juice to detoxify & cleanse the body of toxins.

Benefits : cleanse & detoxify the liver; reduce body acidity (vegies & fruits are alkaline-forming food), assist bowel movement & prevent constipation. Lemon is the top alkaline-forming food so try to consume it everyday (using the method described above).

Caution : if you're new to green juices, go slow as the taste can be quite strong. Add in one green apple, guava, chinese pear, carrot or pumpkin to dilute the green taste.



Chinese Pear JuiceChinese (golden) pears are round, crunchy & sweet, and differ from the traditional bell-shaped European pears. The Chinese pear is known to have more medicinal values than the other pears. The Chinese pear juice is an effective remedy for coughs & sore throats.

I first heard of the medicinal value of the Chinese pear a few years ago during a routine consultation with my TCM physician. I happened to be down with an irritating dry cough & he recommended me to drink fresh Chinese pear juice. He advised me, “Don’t eat the pear, drink the juice, it’s more effective.” I took his advice. And he was right. After drinking just one glass of the juice, I was amazed that my dry cough was healed almost instantly! And now I’m sharing this secret recipe with you.

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the best time to drink pear juice is in the morning when you want to help get rid of a cough or to relieve fever. Because of its soothing effect on the throat, the Chinese pear juice is very suitable for NPC patients & survivors who often suffer from dry mouth (xerostomia) & dry throat due to side-effects of radiation & chemo drugs. If you are a chilli lover like me, you will be happy to know that you will soon be able to take chilli again if you include this juice in your diet.

Ingredients : one Chinese pear

Method : remove skin (to get rid of pesticides), wash, cut into pieces & put into juicer. Drink the juice immediately. Pear juice is fairly concentrated & sweet but I normally don’t dilute it with water as I drink it as a “cough syrup” to allow the “medicine” to work on my throat.

When to drink : drink in the morning if you are down with a cough or fever or dry throat; drink when you feel a cold coming; drink during summer heat or hot weather to cool down & prevent sore throat; drink to help relieve the dryness in your mouth & throat (for NPC sufferers & survivors).

Benefits : regulate bowel movements & relieve constipation; relieve coughs & fever; soothe the throat & prevent throat problems; boost immunity system; relieve inflammation; help to clear phlegm & mucus; aid in digestion; good for people prone to allergic reactions.

Additional tips : boil two Chinese pears with some raw honey & drink it warm. It’s said to provide healing for the throat & vocal cord.

Where to find good Chinese pears in Singapore : fruits stalls & wet markets & some supermarkets. A good Chinese pear costs about S$1.20 or S$1.30. They are imported mostly from China & South Korea (the Korean ones are of better quality). Good pears have deep green or golden colour & are firm to the touch.




(watch out for more remedies ........ )


Eat rightly. Exercise daily. Rest adequately.
shuqin

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References

Cancer Facts
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/cancerlibrary/what-is-cancer
http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/CancerBasics/what-is-cancer
http://www.detox.net.au/articles/cancer-facts-vegetarian-recipes.htm

Chinese Pear
http://www.juicing-for-health.com/health-benefits-of-pear.html

anticancer diet to help fight cancer (Part 1) : introduction

[This is Part 1 of a 5-parts article.]


Introduction
What special food or diet should I take to help me cope with cancer?

This is a question I'm frequently asked by people suffering from nose cancer. It is a valid question. Food or diet is a top concern of every cancer sufferer & survivor. I too had asked this same question when I was diagnosed with NPC (nasopharyngeal cancer) in 2006. Five years on, this topic is still very close to my heart.

By asking this question, we recognise that end of treatment does not necessarily mean end of cancer. We have gone (or are going) through the vigorous cancer treatment which has weakened our body's immune system. We have lost many kilos of weight. We now experience many changes in our body, including the side-effects of cancer treatment. We want to know what we should eat or do to restore our health and prevent cancer from coming back.

In the past 5 years, I have searched the internet, read up books, attended talks & picked up tips from my "NPC family" on what I should eat or do to help me cope & live with nose cancer. I will share some of these anticancer diet or remedies but before we delve into that, we must first understand some basic facts about cancer.

Cancer Facts
Every person has cancer cells in his body. These cancer cells do not show up until they have multiplied to a few billion. When your doctor tells you there are no more cancer cells in your body after treatment, it just means that tests are unable to detect cancer cells because they have not reached detectable size. When your immune system is strong, cancer cells will be destroyed and thus will be prevented from multiplying & forming tumours.

Chemotherapy involves poisoning rapidly-growing cancer cells as well as destroys healthy cells in the body. Radiation, while destroying cancer cells, also burns, scars & damages healthy cells, tissues & organs. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation, our immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence we can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.

A Total Approach to Fighting Cancer
Our battle with cancer does not end with treatment. End of treatment does not mean we simply return to our former way of life without making changes to our diet & lifestyle. In other words, we cannot afford to do nothing.

Our battle with cancer is an ongoing lifelong battle. We need to stay vigilant against cancer at all times. But we should not live each day worrying about cancer either. While we should lead normal lives, we need also to pay more attention to our diet & lifestyle. So what do we need to do to gear up our ammunition against cancer?

To fight cancer, we need to :
1. starve cancer cells by not feeding the cells with foods that can help it to multiply
2. build up our body's immune system to enable our body's own killer cells to destroy cancer cells
3. detoxify our body so our body's immune system can function more efficiently to remove the cancer cells
4. do deep-breathing exercise daily to get more oxygen down to the cellular level as cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment
5. adopt a positive mindset & stress-free lifestyle

In this 5-parts article as well as in future articles, I will provide some practical guide on how we can incorporate these 5 points in our daily battle against cancer.

Anticancer Diet
I will present in this article natural remedies or recipes that are believed to help our bodies fight cancer and provide relief from the side-effects of cancer treatment. Some of these remedies have scientific evidence, while some may not; and some remedies are spread by word of mouth. As each of our body constitution is different, what works for one person may not necessarily work for another. Therefore as you try out these remedies, you must listen to your body, monitor your body's reactions & then make your own decision.

Please note that these natural remedies are NOT meant to replace your daily balanced meals or cancer treatment. These remedies are supplementary diet to help you fight your cancer.

I will group the anticancer diet under 4 categories : juices, herbs & spices, fruits & vegetables and soups. Due to the length of this article, I will present it in 5 parts as follows :

Part 1 : Introduction
Part 2 : Juices
Part 3 : Herbs & Spices
Part 4 : Fruits & Vegetables
Part 5 : Soups & Beverages

Please proceed now to Part 2 on juices.


Eat rightly. Exercise daily. Rest adequately.
shuqin

__________________________________________________________________

References

Cancer Facts
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/cancerlibrary/what-is-cancer
http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/CancerBasics/what-is-cancer
http://www.detox.net.au/articles/cancer-facts-vegetarian-recipes.htm

cancer recurrence : stories from NPC survivors

Relapse is the most fearful word for cancer survivors. To a cancer survivor, having cancer a 2nd or 3rd time can be devastating. Relapse can be harder to accept than the first time you were diagnosed. But when faced with a relapse, do not panic. Stay calm. There is hope even in relapse cases.

When cancer comes back, doctors call it a recurrence (or recurrent cancer). There are some things you need to know when cancer returns. The following 3 points are taken from the US National Cancer Institute website** :

• A recurrent cancer starts with cancer cells that the first treatment didn’t fully remove or destroy. Some may have been too small to be seen in follow-up. This doesn’t mean that the treatment you received was wrong. And it doesn’t mean that you did anything wrong either. It just means that a small number of cancer cells survived the treatment. These cells grew over time into tumours or cancer that your doctor can now detect.

• When cancer comes back, it doesn’t always show up in the same part of the body. For example, if you had colon cancer, it may come back in your liver. But the cancer is still called colon cancer. When the original cancer spreads to a new place, it is called a metastasis (pronounced “meh-TAS-tuh-sis”).

• It is possible to develop a completely new cancer that has nothing to do with your original cancer. But this doesn’t happen very often. Recurrences are more common.
Stories from 4 NPC survivors
What will you do when you learn that cancer has returned?

Four NPC survivors shared their experiences with cancer relapse at the recent NPC support group meeting. Although faced with a similar life-threatening situation, each of these survivors had chosen a different approach to dealing with cancer recurrence. Two of the survivors opted for conventional treatment while the other two opted for alternative treatment. For these 4 survivors, the relapse occurred within the first 5 years after their first treatment.

Below is their story. I have addressed each one of them by their surname to protect their identities. This write-up is based on my personal notes as I listened to their touching stories.

Mr NgHe was diagnosed in 2003 with Stage 2 NPC and suffered two relapses. The first relapse occurred in 2005 when cancer spread to the lymph nodes on his neck; he underwent surgery. The second relapse occurred in 2006 when cancer returned to the original site (nasopharynx); he underwent both radiotherapy & chemotherapy. His doctor had told him he had up to 6 months to live but he has survived to this day.

Based on his experience with relapse, he gave the following advice :
• Seek second opinion from another cancer expert
• Talk to others with similar experiences but make your own final decision
• Weigh the pros & cons when deciding on your option
• Find out the side effects & consequences to the treatment you have opted
• Whatever your choice, there is no such thing as a guaranteed cure

Mr Ng concluded with the following 3 A’s : Accept, Adapt, Adjust. Cancer requires a new way of life, so stop all unhealthy habits, take up healthy activities, switch to a healthier diet, relax & avoid stress. He emphasised that the mind played an important part, so stay positive & be happy.

Mr GohHe was diagnosed with NPC in 2000 and experienced a relapse in 2002 when he discovered a tumour on his neck. He discussed with his oncologist but turned down his doctor's recommendation of surgery & radiotherapy as he did not wish to suffer the side effects of conventional treatment. He opted for TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) instead. He was surprised the tumour shrunk & disappeared. He survived 10 years but cancer returned again in Feb 2011. He again opted for TCM treatment.

Mr NgHe was diagnosed with Stage 3 NPC in 2008 at age 36 with tumour on the neck. After completing conventional treatment of RT & chemo, the tumour disappeared but cancer returned to the nose one year later in 2009. This time he chose to take natural herbs to heal his body. He believes that cancer survivors need to build up a strong immunity against cancer & he does this by including natural herbs in his daily diet such as wheatgrass, Sabah Snake Grass (SSG), fruit enzymes and other herbs.

Ms G
She was diagnosed with Stage 3 NPC in 2006 & underwent both surgery & RT. She suffered a relapse in 2011 when her CT scan showed a growth under her tongue. After discussing with her oncologist, she opted for RT & suffered side effects worse than the first. But she managed to go through the tough journey due to her belief in God, the support she received from her husband & a positive attitude to handling life crisis.

My story
I was diagnosed with Stage 2 NPC in 2006. One year after completing conventional treatment, the CT scan spotted a tiny nodule (2mm) on my right lung. The following year (2008), the nodule had not only increased its size to 6mm but two other tiny nodules of 2mm each were also spotted on the same lung. I considered all the options suggested by my oncologist & decided to have the tumour surgically removed. Biopsy later confirmed the tumour was malignant. Since then, I have been consciously modifying my diet & lifestyle by taking up qigong deep-breathing exercises & paying more attention to anticancer foods in my diet (please read my article : "Anticancer diet to help fight cancer").

ConclusionWhether one chooses the conventional or alternative treatment, there is no right or wrong approach to treating cancer. There is no guaranteed cure in cancer either. Do not believe anyone or any product or any treatment that promises or guarantees complete cure from cancer. Every NPC survivor who suffers a relapse will need to do some homework and consider wisely & carefully all available options before making the final decision.

(for more on cancer relapse, please read my other posting on 19 Jun 2010 - "Cancer recurrence : when nose cancer returns")

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References
** http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/coping/when-cancer-returns/when-cancer-returns/page2)