I Have Cancer. Is There Escape?
I have Cancer and there seems to be no escape to it. My initial plan was to run away to Mexican beaches, but Cancer would catch up with me sooner than later, so I quickly realised that this wasn´t a sensible plan.
I have Cancer and it seems like there is no control over it. It is conquering my body and I am stressed and scared.
The Feelings of Cancer
If you have just been diagnosed with it, you will feel bombarded with many different feelings that you might not know how to manage.
The main one will undoubtedly be fear.
That is the most usual reaction to Cancer: when we are diagnosed, we just STOP for minutes, sometimes hours, days, weeks or even months! Some people are just too bewildered to even react normally after the news. We then have the so-called fight-or-flight response, when our body goes on red alert for weeks (too long for any body to cope with, really). “What did they just tell me…? No, this has to be a dream… more of a nightmare”. Shock, disbelief or even denial, followed by anxiety, anger, sadness… Later on, you might also come across thoughts like: “I suspected it. I was expecting it”, and even: “It is all my fault”.
Guiltiness was my first reaction, as I thought I had not taken care well enough of my body. I thought I got Cancer because I was not very healthy. I did not practise as much exercise as I needed; and, on the other hand, the nutritional value of the food I ate sometimes was a bit questionable. And, besides that, I thought, Cancer is certainly in my genetics, because many members of my family have had Cancer. So, overall, I thought it was obvious that I was an easy target for Cancer. I didn´t need to call Sherlock for that, really.
Ideally, after the initial phase of distress when you´ve learnt you have Cancer, and when you know more about your treatment plan, then you should enter into an adjustment phase; this is when you usually accept the illness. However, the fear continues to be with you from time to time during the whole process. Cancer. Cancer. Cancer. It sounds so bad in our minds, because we have heard way too many sad stories about it.
But it is important for the cancer patient to know that there are many happy anecdotes as well; we just usually prefer to talk about the bad outcomes. There are thousands of stories out there of people who cured their Cancer either with traditional treatments, or even with alternative (and more controversial) methods.
You must be thinking: “Yes, OK, but is my story going to have a happy ending?” Well, I firmly believe that, most of the times, this will depend on you, and nobody else.
Three months since my diagnosis, and after having given much thought to it, having done lots of research about it, and, above all, according to my personal experience, inner knowledge and belief, I´ve come to the conclusion that I was wrong at the beginning of the process, when I thought my genetics, my lack of exercise and my almost daily glass of red wine had made me develop Cancer.
I now know that what makes you ultimately vulnerable to Cancer is something not physical.
But before going into that, let´s get to know Cancer. After all, we all say we know what it is, but when trying to explain it, we are lost for words. That is because most of us do not even understand what is Cancer. But, if you are a Cancer patient, then you need to get to know it, because it is inhabiting your body, your temple. So you want to get to know it; and also because you wanna kick it out as soon as possible, don´t you? So, in order to do that, you must always know your enemy.
What is Cancer?
For Cancer to start, certain changes (mutations) have to take place within the genes of a single cell or a group of cells. So Cancer starts when a healthy cell becomes damaged. Do you know how many of them we have in our body? This many: 100,000,000,000,000 (a hundred million million cells). And, because of the cells´ genetic information, each of them can produce signals that make themselves work perfectly, sending instructions on how much and often that particular cell will divide, until its death.
The truth it that is really scary to think that Cancer can start when one single cell gets damaged and starts dividing itself like crazy until it forms the primary tumour, which is where the Cancer starts. It is not that simple as it sounds, really. This does not happen all of a sudden, as there have to be about half a dozen different mutations before a normal cell turns into a cancer cell. Still, it sounds quite possible, and that is why it is so scary.
After that happens, it can take several years for a damaged cell to divide, grow and form a tumour big enough to cause symptoms or show up on a scan.
The Causes of Cancer
Ok, so what causes Cancer? As I said before, Cancer is caused by mutations to genes, which are the ones that control our cells.
Most scientists will tell you that the causes for these changes in the genes of a cell can be: genetics, environmental circumstances, and, quite shockingly, some viruses, bacteria and parasites can also lead to several types of Cancer (like, for example, cervical, bladder, stomach and liver).
Some genetic changes that promote Cancer can be inherited from our parents, indeed (it is when these changes are present in our parents´ eggs and sperm). But they can also be acquired later on in life, by being exposed to carcinogenic substances that damage our DNA (like tobacco smoke and poisons, pollution, radiation, ultraviolet light from the sun, etc), or even by mysterious errors that occur as cells divide. Yes: I say mysterious, because sometimes someone is not exposed to any of that, and still manage to get mutations in their genes and develop Cancer.
Genetics
According to a study, a third of all Cancer cases can be attributed to inherited genes. This means an average of 33% of all Cancer cases. This percentage differs according to each particular type of Cancer: for example, in the case of Melanoma and Prostate Cancer the figure is much higher (60%), whereas Breast Cancer is linked to family inheritance about 31% of the time.
This would translate into the other two thirds of all Cancer cases being due to environmental causes (carcinogens, poor nutrition, etc).
Sometimes, Cancer is in your family, but surprisingly, this does not necessarily mean that it is in your genetics. Cancer might have developed for other (unknown) reasons on some members of the same family. Even if you test positive in a genetic test it won´t mean that you will develop Cancer. There is a high chance, of course (in some cases it reaches an astounding 85% of probability), so it is indeed higher than a person who does not have inherited genes altered (the estimated lifetime risk of Cancer for any person, a very general figure, is about 50%, this is 1 in 2 people).
Therefore, in summary, an inherited altered gen is a variable in the equation of What Causes Cancer, but it is not the most important one.
Carcinogens
Carcinogens such as pollution, tobacco, alcohol, heavy metals, plastics or toxins in the water you drink, even perhaps the electromagnetic radiation of your mobile, laptop and tablet, the vile side of the sun… they all can account for a Cancer diagnosis: these factors can be able to alter those gens, and, if there is a genetic predisposition, well then, they can fantastically help in the Cancer´s conquest of our bodies.
Nutrition
Eating a healthy and, above all, a balanced diet, foods full of nutritional value taken in the right amount and even time of the day, are definitely key factors that promote good health. The food you eat creates your blood, and make your gens work in the way they should.
According to Norwegian researchers, one-third protein, one-third fat and one-third carbohydrates is the best recipe to limit the risk of most lifestyle-related diseases. If our meals are made of more than 33% carbohydrates, fat or protein, then we are creating an imbalance that would stimulate our genes to initiate the activity that creates inflammation in our bodies. So it seems more than probable that years of eating in a non-balanced way could provoke, then, mutations in gens, and therefore could eventually cause Cancer.
Exercise
Practicing exercise, sports, being active, can help a lot in preventing Cancer and many other chronic diseases in numerous ways. First of all, we do have legs that serve the purpose of carrying us to places, so it is a no-brainer that the human body was designed to be active. When we move regularly, our muscles and bones become stronger (this is particularly important as we age, when we tend to lose muscle mass and function, which can provoke injuries and disabilities). Regular exercise helps us to be less fatigued during the day, but more tired in the night (so the quality of sleep is better); it also makes us digest the food faster; it burns fat storage from places that should not have fat accumulation, and, therefore, it also helps us to reduce weight.
Exercise can also improve brain function by increasing our heart rate, which promotes the flow of blood and oxygen to such an important organ.
But, when talking about the benefits of exercising, it is interesting how it is always strongly linked to mental health, as it is demonstrated that those who practise regular physical activity present fewer depressive symptoms and anxiety than those who don´t do any exercise. This is because it increases the production of certain chemicals and hormones in our brains and bodies such as serotonin, dopamine and endorphins, which are absolutely necessary to improve our mood. Serotonin, for example, impacts many parts of our body, from our emotions to our motor skills. It even helps with sleeping, eating and digesting.
But There Has to Be another Cause for Cancer…!
So far we are all clear that some factors (inherited or acquired during life) might cause Cancer, as they make our gens go nuts; and also that a healthy lifestyle (with the right nutrition and activity of your body) will definitely help you keep Cancer away. All true, but… I am still not satisfied. There is something more to it. To the question you might ask yourself when you are diagnosed with Cancer (which is of course: “What have caused MY Cancer?”), every expert on the matter will look at you like if you were crazy, and answer: “Well, we cannot know that!”
Exactly! Bingo! That is what I thought. So… you (oncologist, scientist) do NOT know anything about Cancer. Or, at least, you don´t know the most important bit of it: What ultimately caused Cancer in a particular person. This is what really perturbs me as a Cancer patient, as to me it is so obvious that there is something more to it. I just don´t buy that, just because there is Cancer in my family or because I drunk a bit of red wine and ate home-made hamburgers from time to time, I got Cancer. It just does not make sense to me. At all.
For starters, even if it is in my genetics (I have not taken any tests yet), “Why me, and not my older sisters and cousins? Why me now, at 37, a young age for Breast Cancer? Why me, doctor? Do you have an answer? Of course, you don´t”.
After putting that question out there, that none of the most brilliant scientists seem to know how to answer, then I can keep on inquiring: “Why some people smoke like chimneys, are alcoholics, are exposed to the most heavy metals, and yet they do not develop Cancer?”
And I can keep on going, of course. “Why some people eat absolute garbage, do not move their bodies in the slightest, are obese, and yet they do not get Cancer?”
Well, the answer is simple: because it is all down to your particular immune system.
Even while treating your Cancer with the orthodox methods of chemotherapy, surgery and radiation, at the end it is up to your immune system to get rid of all your Cancer cells, and win the battle. In the same house you will always find the person who catches a cold, and the person who did not, having being exposed to the same virus, and that is because one´s immune system was stronger than the other´s.
For sure that a good lifestyle with healthy habits will make your immune system stronger, but yet, there is something more to all this mystery. Something that becomes obvious for many when they actually get Cancer.
It is really simple. Ultimately, what weakens our immune system, what ends up making our body vulnerable to all outside attacks and to those inherited mutations as well is OUR MIND; our own particular and really complicated brain, which nobody else can ever dream to have access to, not even the cleverest scientist with the latest technology.
Our mind controls absolutely everything in our body and everything we do. It is not exactly as if we created our illness, but we do create the appropriate environment for illness, without realising, with our daily thoughts. The fact that you develop this or this other illness might depend on your genetics and the tendency to develop a particular illness in your family. But, for sure, your thoughts have created, day by day and during several years, the ideal setting to welcome illness. Cancer isn´t a lottery and it does not happen overnight.
Our thoughts make us ill, with all our negativity, with our being unhappy with everything around us. But the good news is that your thoughts could also, then, make you well.
The most important thing to avoid or cure Cancer (or any other illness) is to change one´s attitude towards life.
In my case, for example, I forgot to be happy.
You might think: “Well, that is something you don´t decide, really; to be happy or not. It is not up to you!”
But for sure it is! It is up to you, to me, to each individual to be happy; to be happy with what we get in this life; to try to see the positive side in everything that happens to us; to stop being a spoiled child. We came to this life to learn lessons, and if I am not going to grow as a person, then, please let me get out, as there is no point in living it at all. I don´t want to be a hedonist (I have always been), but it is time to face my war, in order to achieve the peace that I need.
We all have to fight our own battles, and no one´s battle is better or worst than others´. Our own battle is designed for ourselves, and probably by ourselves; it is not what God or Destiny send us. I really truly believe that we choose the life we are living.
It might sound like a stupid advice, but: Do NOT be scared. Do not be scared of Cancer or any other illness you have. It is part of your learning process. And, if you understand that you created your Cancer with your thoughts, you can just reverse the Cancer with them as well, but of course you will need to change your attitude; to truly act different to what you have been acting so far; to really believe in new ideas and concepts. And, then, only then, it is going to be just FINE.
Do You Want to Live?
If you have just been diagnosed with Cancer, the first question you need to ask yourself is: “Do you want to live?”
It might sound stupid but it is an honest question that deserves an honest answer from the person affected. Some people wants to die soon, as the emotional pain they are having in this life is too much too stand (or rather they believe so). Some other people would not mind, really, if everything finished soon. They also have a massive amount of pain in their souls.
Some other people are gutted to hear they have Cancer, and they definitely DO want to LIVE.
I was in between, to be perfectly honest. I took a year off from work and from London, because I was tired and really stressed with the job I was doing, but I was also tired of living in such a big city that can treat you really badly sometimes: There is pollution, too much noise, so many people that there is not space to walk in the streets or even to stand in the tube, and, on top on that, you have to let pass ten trains in order to fit into one in the early morning to get to work. I was so sick of London.
London can be unbearable, unless you work next to your workplace, in my opinion, or if you earn a lot of money, which is not my case. There was a time when I lived so closed to my workplace, my boyfriend and even my university! I was so happy and relaxed. Life was just beautiful. I was working, studying a Master and having a boyfriend, and that was all possible to manage! But JUST because everything was within 10 minutes waking distance! But when I moved away from the centre and I had to commute for a total of 2 hours everyday, oh God, I just had to stop at some point! I felt as if my life was passing in front of my eyes and I was not in it.
Obviously there were other issues in my life that I could not really identify well at the time, but I knew they existed.
When it was time to come back from my wonderful year off, I was so stressed! So depressed to come back to that grey office, to that populated city, to the cold and humid house I was living in… that is when I found out about the lump in my breast. Well, I actually found out before, during my year off, but somehow my brain blocked it. And, I swear, I don´t mean that I ignored it. I absolutely forgot to check again if there was something there.
Maybe it has to do with the fact that… I didn´t care that much if I had something bad in my body. Let me explain. I had a very rough 6 years. Many things happened in this long time, and there was a point where I became one of those who think: Well, if I died, I wouldn´t mind that much. I don´t have a family on my own (children or husband) and I do have someone in my life but he never married me, so, I don´t know, I thought that I just didn´t have anyone who really would miss me that much. I do have friends, and actually some very good ones, but they would cope with life without me in no time. That is what I thought, so well, I was a bit like: “Yeh, I wouldn´t mind to exit the stage now, bring it on, if you think this is my time, God”.
It sounds tough, but it is the reality, and it is more common that you think. Many people around us are suffering from depression, and some of them wouldn´t mind to die. They just don´t talk about mental health. Nobody does, because it makes us look weak. In my case I was not depressed. I have always had a purpose, and LOTS of things to do in life. I never get bored! Writing, reading, learning about health and science, singing, travelling and photography are passions of mine that would NEVER make me feel bored for a single second, but, at that stage of my life (before knowing about my Cancer, having to come back to the tedious job I have), I thought: “Well, I suppose if I died all my troubles would vanished. That would be so easy”. Plus I was quite lazy and a hedonist, so “if everything finished now (I thought) well… I will just move to the next life” (I believe in reincarnation). I have always been really adaptable and get on with whatever life throws at me.
The thing is that the moment I knew about my Cancer, it really hit me: “NOOOOOOO!!!! I SOOOOOO WANT TO LIVE!!!”
So ask yourself that question: “Do you want to live?” It is really relevant and it demands an honest answer from you.
But, please, if you say “No”, let´s do a simple exercise:
Try to think (and write it down) ALL the things that you like to do in life. Even if it is something as plain as walking, taking fresh air, jumping, or… anything, really! There are so many hobbies that I am sure you would enjoy doing! It is very rare if someone cannot think of anything. But if you cannot, that is your mood talking, and it probably is because you are not the kind of person who likes to try different activities.
Try to research activities, practise them to see if you enjoy them… dancing, exercise, cooking, sewing, drawing, collecting minerals, shells, stamps or coins (I collect a few things!). The world is full of things to do, as silly as some of them might seem to many people. It can be hard to try new things if you are the lazy type, but you need to get out of your comfort zone and at least try. In my year off I travelled so much and tried so many different things that it made me see life with totally different eyes. Now I am sure of what I like and what I don´t. To be happy, you really need to get to know yourself 100%.
You will never regret to get to know what things you like. And do you know what is even better? When you find someone who likes the same things that you do. Nowadays, thanks to the Internet and the social media, it is so easy to find these soul buddies! Twitter, Facebook, Instagram… They are all your little windows to every remote corner of the world! Open them, change your mind, and I promise you, you won´t regret it.
Life is so worth to be lived and enjoyed. Do NOT be scared to live!
And do not be scared to die either, as it is part of life, and that will mean that you´ve learned all the things you have come here to learn.
But I truly believe that, by changing your behaviours, you can overcome any disease you have. You can do it!
I Have Cancer. Is There Escape?
As I said at the beginning, the Fear will probably accompany you throughout this process. From time to time, it will always try to be present, but you need to Kill the Fear, so whenever it comes back, just kick its arse; kick it out, because you are going to be not just fine, but with an invaluable experience that not many people can tell they have had the chance to get.
So to the question asked at the beginning of this post “Is there a Escape to Cancer?” The answer is “Yes, absolutely!” Fighting is the way.
Some people strongly believe that just a good nutrition could make most of the cancers go, (for example, the Gerson therapy) although (they say) this would take two years, and unfortunately many of us don´t have that time to experiment and try to prove such statement, as we have fast-growing tumours. But I still do not believe that just a good nutrition can make illnesses go.
You can fight (you probably will) with the orthodox methods (surgery, chemo drugs and radiation). But do not ever forget that, at the end, it is up to your own body, to your immune system to make it all go, and how do we keep a strong immune system? With good nutrition, yes; with exercise, indeed; but, above all, with a healthy mind.
Unhealthy mind + 100% healthy body = 0% healthy body
Do not ever forget that your mind can make your Cancer go. You just need to work on it. It is not as simple as just saying happy statements out loud, but you will need to work in your thoughts and feelings daily; you need to learn how to be happy with your circumstances, accepting and embracing them. It can take time, but it is not as complicated as it sounds, and there are many people out there with tutorials and videos that you can listen to everyday to understand how your own mind can cure you.
When you win your battle (because there can only be physical defeat in Cancer; spiritually, rest assured that you will always get a victory, as long as you fight). So, as I was saying, when you do win your battle, you will be looking at a totally different person in the mirror: a much stronger, knowledgeable, sensitive and emphatic person, more than you could ever imagine possible to be.
If you want to find out more about how to cure your mind, I strongly recommend the read of The Healing Code, by Dr Alex Loyd and Dr Ben Johnson.
You can find it in Amazon at different prizes:
I would also recommend to watch or just listen to some videos in Youtube from Dr Joe Dispenza, who explains the concept of how our thoughts can make us sick, and how to reverse them.
There are many motivational speakers out there who are great for you to understand how our brain works and how to achieve interior peace, like, for example, Wayne Dyer (https://www.drwaynedyer.com), and who also can teach you how to be positive and overcome any difficulty you may have, like Louise Hay ( https://www.louisehay.com).
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