An Overview of Healing - Part II

The greatest success of my natural healing journey is obviously the reversal of stage IV metastatic breast cancer. The cancer was the result of imbalances within my internal terrain and while I'm ecstatic with how far I've come to correct those imbalances I still have plenty of work to do.

My body is still rebuilding and I'm helping it along with supplements for a variety of deficiencies. Last year I had mercury amalgam fillings removed from my mouth. These fillings were more than 25 years old and I believe the vapors they emitted contributed to my body's toxicity and inability to absorb all the nutrients from my food, resulting in mineral deficiencies. Simple pH testing revealed an acidic environment. This has been corrected & my morning pH test is consistently at 6.8 - 7.0, which indicates an alkaline body.

The supplements I take are NatureThroid for an underactive thyroid; Vitamin D for a severe deficiency; Lugol's solution for an iodine deficiency; B-12 injections twice weekly; MSM to fight inflamation; silica to strengthen my weak nails and ionic trace minerals added to my distilled water. I take these consistently and this may change as my regimen has evolved quite a lot over the past few years. Eventually I intend to get everything I need from my food, once my body has rebuilt to that point.

The most preplexing health issue remains the condition of my eyes. They are still chronically dry, itchy and a bit sunken-in. I wear two pairs of sunglasses on bright days because I simply can't bear the light hitting my eyes. It seems the cause is the small nodules inside my lower lids which have clogged my oil glands. There has been some minor improvement but I still have a ways to go. I've been taking the MSM for about two months or so to help reduce the inflamation.

In this picture you can see the puffiness in my lower lids and how my eyes are sunken-in.

As for my energy and overall sense of well being I have no complaints whatsoever. I feel extremely fortunate to have such health and happiness. Of course there are days when I'm "off" - especially when I'm working too much and sleeping too little, but most days I feel what I would call euphoria - completely content and vibrant. Imagine what I'll be like when my eyes have returned to normal and my deficiencies have been met! Wow, I'm excited just thinking about it! So I'll keep at it and I'll continue to post periodic updates.

An Overview of Healing

This post is in response to a comment left by Amanda who requested that I give a summary of my healing journey, including the ups and downs, over the past two years. It's been quite a trip and it's not over yet, even though I've been cancer-free since January 2008. As I've achieved a greater state of health I've become more in-tune with the needs of my body and I have a better understanding of the connection between my physical and spiritual well-being. This journey is not a temporary phase of my life, as I once thought it would be, but rather a lifetime committment to reach my greatest potential on all levels of body, mind and spirit. This opportunity wouldn't have presented itself had I not been diagnosed with cancer and chosen an alternative natural path to healing.

I've remained faithful to a plant-based diet since early 2006 which I believe is the most important contributor to my healing. It wasn't always easy to stay the course but my desire to reverse the cancer kept me motivated. My exams at three-month intervals showed that the cancer had stabilized and the tumor markers were slowly declining. Despite all my good efforts there were a few times when the markers were unpredictable - up a little, then down a little on the next visit, then up again. That sometimes felt defeating, but I understood that this type of bloodwork isn't always reliable. It's more cause for concern when the tumor marker continuously rises by many points at a time. That didn't happen for me but I still sometimes had doubts, and that's when it was tough to remain patient and faithful to my protocol. Keeping a possitive outlook was at times tricky but it became much easier when my tumor markers started to plumet.

I didn't start to see an uninterrupted downward trend in my tumor markers until I started fasting one day each week and then switched to a high-raw diet. (80-100% raw). I believe this helped my body to detoxify on deeper levels than were possible with mostly cooked food. Fasting once a week wasn't easy but I felt it was important to periodically divert my body's energy from digestive tasks to deeper healing. With habitual practice fasting became easier. I've since gotten out of the habit of regular fasting but I keep trying.

It took a period of several months for me to switch to 100% raw. My first attempt at 30 days raw was a huge struggle. I felt deprived mainly because I missed the grains. I continued to research, learning more about how to prepare raw foods, what to have on hand, etc. and in early 2008, after several months of being high-raw, I transitioned to 100%. It's now my preferred way of eating.

Here's a picture of the residual nodules on my neck that was taken about a year ago.







...and this was just a few weeks ago.


It's hard to tell if there's much change since the lighting is different.
These nodules may be scar tissue, I'm not sure. They were noticeably larger and brighter pink when the cancer was still active and spreading. This is about all that's left and they're stubborn. I've tried therapeutic doses of enzymes, daily infrared sauna sessions, and countless other attempts to dissolve them, but they're not yet ready to budge. They are a reminder to me that my body has other important rebuilding work to do and will get to these later. Stay tuned for my next post when I'll write more about raw foods, my dry eyes and supplements.

Cleanse Day Eight & Done

I've decided to end this "cleanse" after today because it just doesn't feel like I'm accomplishing much cleansing. My eyes felt great for a couple of days but are back to the same old dry, gritty, sensitive state. I've been on fruits and vegetables only, with no added fats. I've also been resting and napping everyday which has been great, so there's something, but what I've come to realize is that with so much fruit in my diet I need to make more time for daily exercise to use up all that sugar. This type of cleanse for more than three days doesn't feel right for me so I'll end it today & attempt a stricter cleanse later this summer. I'm also trying to get more exercise into my daily regimen which is a goal as worthy as cleansing.

Today I saw my holistic doctor & had bloodwork and urine analysis to check among other things my thyroid, hormones, liver, & tumor markers. I'll post again when I get the results of those tests later this week.

Spring Cleanse 2009: Day 4

This is the easiest cleanse I've ever been on because all I'm doing is eliminating fat from my diet for ten days. I'm eating as many raw fruits,vegetables and fresh juices as I want. The bulk of my calories are from fruit which is much easier to digest than fat, so my body is getting a relative rest and plenty of energy. That break from digestive duty is allowing it to concentrate on other tasks such as healing. I don't know if this is coincidence or an effect of the cleanse but my eyes have been noticeably less dry and sensitive to light the past two days. I'm curious to see how long that will continue. No other noticeable changes in these four days. More later.

Spring Cleanse Resumed

I've decided to make this a relatively simple cleanse by eliminating all fat from my diet for the next ten days. This will give my body a bit of a digestive break while allowing it to easily assimilate the nutrients from all the fruits, vegetables and juices I'll be consuming. With less digestive work to do my body will be able to divert that energy to cleansing and healing.

I did great on Saturday with the Master Cleanse and yesterday was also a good day, although I had a little olive oil in a dish I made for a family function. Since I want this to be a completely fat-free cleanse I've decided to start over with today as day#1.

My day was simple with a wheatgrass juice first thing this morning, a green smoothie for breakfast and dinner, with fruit in between when I felt hungry. The bulk of my calories on this cleanse will come from fruit to keep me energized.

Rest is also an important part of my cleanse and today I took a three-hour nap! I haven't done that in years and it felt incredible. I may not be able to do that everyday but I've given this cleanse priority on my schedule for ten full days so I should be able to get in at least a few cat naps. All the benefits of my healing regimen are minimized without proper rest so I'm making it a goal to get adequate sleep consistently, not just during a cleanse. I'll post again in a day or two.

Long Time No Post

My winter crops


It’s been such a long time since my last post and lately I’ve received emails from people wondering how I’m doing. Well, I’ve been doing great – just too busy to even think about posting. Since this is day one of my spring cleanse I decided that now would be the perfect time to resume posting. I was going to wait until after the holiday on Tuesday but when I woke this morning I felt ready and eager to begin.

Allow me to back up a little bit before I get into my cleansing plans. First, for those who have asked - I’ve been cancer free since January 2008, just over one year now! I have my tumor markers checked every 4 months and last time the reading was at 17, which was great news because the normal range is 0–40. I’m due for my next check-up in early June, and my next thermascan will be in August. (If you’re not familiar with thermography you should be! It’s an alternative to mammography which you can read about in my report below this post. I've mentioned it before on this blogsite and I'll continue to do my best to get the word out about thermography).

My diet is still “high-raw”, which in my case means that 95-100% of my food is uncooked: fruits, vegetables, greens, sprouts, nuts, seeds and juice. Last year (or was it the year before? I’m losing track) I had blood work as well as hair and urine analysis and found out that I had high levels of heavy metals including mercury in my system. These toxins were interfering with my body’s absorption of nutrients and the test results also revealed that I had an underactive thyroid, hormone imbalances and many deficiencies, including iodine, vitamin D and iron.

I had all the mercury amalgam fillings removed from my teeth (they were over 25 years old and releasing vapors into my system). I’ve also been taking natural supplements (versus synthetic) and although it will take my body time to rebuild there is improvement with my thyroid which now tests normal. In June I’ll see how I’m doing with the other deficiencies. The point I’d like to make here is that I should have been tested for toxins and deficiencies when I was first diagnosed with cancer – especially iodine and vitamin D. That would have aided and likely sped up the healing process.

Even though I’ve been doing great I’m ready to take my health to the next level. I still have residual nodules on my neck, although they’re much fewer in number and barely noticeable now. My back was completely covered with these nodules when the cancer was still spreading but it's now completely and beautifully smooth and clear. The oil glands in my eyes are still clogged (I don’t understand the connection but that condition came with the cancer) and my eyes are still extremely sensitive to bright light – especially sunlight. I believe that with periodic cleansing these conditions will improve as my body continues to heal.

The winter was long and cold and I got into the habit of eating dense foods far too often – nuts, seeds and avocados – especially around the holidays when I made rich nut-and-date-based desserts. Not surprising this type of food took a lot of energy for my body to digest and my stamina declined. I resolved to do a spring cleanse to clear out the winter debris and congestion and increase my energy levels.

In January I started growing wheatgrass so I could have 2–4 ounces of the potent juice daily. That’s helped with cleansing but there’s nothing like a fast to really re-boot the body. I’ve looked forward to a rest and a fast, especially since I’ve been way too busy, sleeping less and feeling run down for more than a month. Last week my eyes were so tired that I burst a blood vessel which turned half of my eye dark red. It looked horrendous and caused my already sensitive eyes to be even more so. I wore shades for nearly a week. That episode and other signs of fatigue made me eager to start a fast.

I don’t know yet how long or what type of cleanse I’ll do, but I’d like it to be at least ten days with a few days of fasting. Today I’m doing the Master Cleanse fast, which is lemonade made of fresh lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne and water. (Because of the maple syrup it’s not raw, but is mineral-dense). I drank one quart today and felt wonderful. I didn't experience any hunger, perhaps because yesterday I ate only fruits and vegetables without any fats, in preparation of the fast.

Sunday and Monday I plan to eat only fruits and vegetables, (no fats), followed by a water fast of one to three days and plenty of good rest. I’ll gauge how I feel each day and plan accordingly, and I’ll post regularly during the ten-day cleanse. That’s it for today.

Thermography: A Safer Option for Breast Cancer Detection

NaturalNews.com printable article
Originally published November 12 2007

(NaturalNews) The occurrence of breast cancer has dramatically increased in the past 50 years and the medical establishment encourages the use of annual mammogram screenings as a woman’s best option for early detection. In fact, for more than 30 years it’s been the unquestioned, standard screening device used by the medical community. While mammography may be useful in certain situations, it has many disturbing drawbacks.

With toxic radiation, mammogram testing compresses sensitive breast tissue causing pain and possible tissue damage. To make matters worse, the false negative and false positive rates of mammography are a troubling 30% and 89% respectively.(1) Another concern is that many breast cancers occur below the armpits; however, mammography completely misses this auxiliary region, viewing only the breast tissue compressed between two plates of glass. Considering these drawbacks, breast thermography should be given closer consideration.

Thermography (also called thermology) is a little-known technique for breast cancer detection that’s been available since the 1960s. It’s non-invasive and non-toxic, using an infrared camera to measure thermal emissions from the entire chest and auxiliary regions. Cancerous tissue develops a blood supply to feed a growing tumor, and the abnormal blood vessel formations generate significantly more heat than the surrounding healthy tissue. The infrared camera detects the differences in heat emitted from abnormal tissue (including malignancies, benign tumors and fibrocystic disease), as compared to normal tissue. There is no physical contact with the patient, who stands several feet away from the camera while a technician takes a series of images.

A second set of images is taken following a “cold challenge”. The patient places her hands in ice cold water for one minute causing healthy tissue to constrict while the abnormal tumor tissue remains hot. The infrared scanner easily distinguishes the difference, and these images are compared with the first set for confirmation.

Thermography can detect abnormalities before the onset of a malignancy, and as early as ten years before being recognized by other procedures such as manual breast exam, mammography, ultrasound or MRI.(2) This makes it potentially life-saving for women who are unknowingly developing abnormalities, as it can take several years for a cancerous tumor to develop and be detected by mammogram. Its accuracy is also impressive, with false negative and false positive rates at 9% for each.(3) Thermography is also an effective way to establish a baseline for comparison with future scans; therefore, women should begin screening by the age of 25.

Although widely embraced by alternative health care practitioners, thermography’s obscurity in the mainstream means that too many women rely on mammograms as their only option. There are several reasons for thermography’s lack of support by the conventional medical community. Early thermal scanners were not very sensitive, nor were they well-tested before being used in clinical practice. This resulted in many misdiagnosed cases and its utter dismissal by the medical community. Since then the technology has advanced dramatically and thermography now uses highly sensitive state-of-the-art infrared cameras and sophisticated computers. A wealth of clinical research attests to its high degree of sensitivity and accuracy. In 1982, the FDA approved thermography for breast cancer screening, yet most of the medical establishment is either unaware of it or still associates it with its early false start. Since most women are also uninformed of the technology there is no pressure on the medical community to support it.

This author - who knows from first-hand experience the physical and emotional trauma of mammography as well as the passive and comforting accuracy of thermal scanning – would have been spared from years of radiation exposure with an earlier knowledge of thermography. The importance of education and awareness of this technology cannot be overstated.

When a thermographic report is negative, annual monitoring is essential to note any changes as early as possible. A positive report should be discussed with a health care practitioner as it may be necessary to follow-up with another detection method such as mammography or ultrasound to identify the exact location of the abnormality and to determine whether tissue biopsy is needed. If mammography is used to complement the thermal scan, it’s important to offset the affects of radiation prior to and following the procedure. Wheat grass juice, green super foods, or brown seaweed such as Modifilan are powerful detoxifiers.

Breast abnormalities and tumors are merely symptoms of imbalances within the body’s internal terrain that need to be identified and corrected. A thoughtful and careful look at diet, exposure to toxins, and lifestyle should be the first line of defense against any disease. This, and regular thermal screenings provide an effective arsenal against breast cancer. An internet search of thermography will locate qualified technicians in your area.

1. Saputo, MD. Len. Overview: Beyond Mammography. From his account of the “Breast Cancer Detection Demonstration Project: Five Year summary

report” CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, Vol 32, 194-225, Copyright © 1982 by American Cancer Society.

2. International Academy of Clinical Thermology, www.iact-org.org

3. http://healthybreasts.info/ Summary from “Value and Interest of Dynamic Telethermography in Detection of Breast Cancer”, ACTA Thermographica,

Vol. 1, Num. 2, 89-96, 1976.