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On World Cancer Day, This Book Title Speaks For All of Us: F*ck Off Cancer

Today, February 4, 2016 is World Cancer Day. “Taking place under the tagline ‘We can. I can.’, World Cancer Day 2016-2018 will explore how everyone – as a collective or as individuals – can do their part to reduce the global burden of cancer.”

Linda Brossi Murphy faced breast cancer with a heaping dose of humor and bravely shares her cancer experience in her book F*CK OFF CANCER: Cancer, shaken, not stirred, on the rocks with a twist! to benefit those who may follow in her footsteps. Those who have previously walked in her footsteps will also gain some degree of comfort, validation, and sisterhood as they read this book. As Linda pointed out: “The good news about this is that I was not alone. The bad news is that everyone’s life is touched by cancer.”

Truer words were never spoken, as every person I know has a relationship with cancer. There are, it seems, many paths to health. Linda chose to follow conventional treatment: surgery (two lumpectomies) followed by chemotherapy and radiation. She also chose to participate in a clinical trial, not knowing whether she was receiving the actual drug or a placebo in addition to the protocol outlined by her oncologist.

We’re all lucky that Linda followed a friend’s advice to write this book. Linda tells it like it is, leaving very little to the imagination (yes, her book includes photos to document her journey) as she graciously told her story of life with cancer. This story will help assess cancer treatment by studying how the treatment affected every facet of Linda’s life. Yes, we can call this anecdotal data and dismiss its value. OR we can give this type of data a little more respect and call it a case study. It is, after all, each individual’s experience that lets us know how our science (treatment protocol) actually plays out. Linda’s observation about chemotherapy illustrates the toll her treatment took on body, mind, and spirit:

Someday, in the future, chemotherapy will be looked at the same way we currently look at electric shock therapy. Barbaric! As we progress in understanding cancer and finding treatments, it will eventually be looked back upon as ludicrous that we sat people down and pumped them full of a broad-spectrum poison.

There simply must be a better way to treat cancer. Linda endured more than a year and a half of treatment, at one point joking: “I am fat, bald, toenail-less, burned from radiation, and scarred. How lovely!” So how the heck did this wild woman get through her treatment with her sense of humor fully in tact? With a little help from her friends, of course! She had a support team that included a vast group of family and friends. Each chemo treatment found a collection of supporters in Linda’s chemo room laughing, joking, and sometimes cajoling the hours away. This party atmosphere did not mean that Linda didn’t appreciate the serious nature of cancer. On the contrary, this was just one way Linda chose to tell cancer to f*ck off.

Linda also focused on her medical team: To show the members of her medical team how much she appreciated their treatment, Linda asked her support team to bake cookies for her medical team rather than to bring meals to her and her family. Not just once and done; she had a calendar and her support team signed up to bake cookies and make sure they got them to Linda ahead to time so she could deliver them prior to her treatment. She also threw an end-of-treatment party to thank everyone – friends, family, medical personnel – who had helped her through her treatment.

This book is a generous gift from a cancer conqueror to anyone who wants to know what it’s like to walk through the world of cancer treatment. There are laughs and tears along the way as you’d expect. Not surprisingly, there are also poignant moments when Linda and her husband faced mortality head on.  Little was easy; much was overwhelming. Each day also presented a new adventure, an opportunity to look at the world from a new vantage point. While making her way through a world of overwhelm, Linda chose to find a way to laugh every day as she walked through the halls of cancer treatment.

As we observe World Cancer Day in 2016, we owe it to Linda and everyone else who has faced a cancer diagnosis to:

  • Acknowledge that after 40 years of fighting a war on cancer, we need to change up our approach.
  • Stop expecting a different outcome without changing our behavior (treatment / research).
  • Provide support to cancer patients, rather than the cancer industry.
  • Focus on prevention. Prevention ≠ screening / detection.
  • Explore evidence-based complementary care.
  • Read this book and others like it to understand how cancer treatment affects the patient.

All eyes are on Vice President Biden’s moonshot. I applaud his and President Obama’s enthusiasm. We’ve also got answers right here on Earth that are waiting to be put into practice. What do you say? I say now would be the time.

On World Cancer Day, This Book Title Speaks For All of Us: F*ck Off Cancer was last modified: December 1st, 2016 by Deb Nelson

Got A Beef With Meat?

There is no shortage of diet options for us to choose from: vegetarian, vegan, paleo, paleo vegan, macrobiotic, Mediterranean, raw, high fat, low fat, high carb, low carb, and on and on. Can’t we just eat food. Hmmm…now we’re talking.

What’s the purpose of our food? Pleasure? Nourishment? Both? Rip Esselstyn’s book, My Beef With Meat: The Healthiest Argument for Eating a Plant-Strong Diet makes the case that plant-powered food offers both pleasure and nourishment. A former firefighter, Esselstyn also puts to rest the argument that manly men can’t live on plants alone.

He argues that:

Plants can heal. Plants can nourish. Plants can nurture. Plants can give you everything you need to be the healthiest person you can be and live the life you deserve to live.

The book sets out to debunk 36 myths surrounding diet and takes a look at actual facts about plant and animal foods. From Plants are Plentiful in Protein to It’s Never too Early to Start a Plant-Based Diet to It’s Never Too Late to Start a Plant-Based Diet, Esselstyn explains his take on how and why plants are the way to go. Referencing science to back up his claims, Esselstyn implores us to take the plunge into the plant world and leave the beef behind. He also includes 140 recipes to entice us into the plant-strong side of life.

He cites the claim by the American Institute for Cancer Research that:

You can’t control your age, but you can control your cancer risk….For seniors, the AICR advises that all meals be based on plant-based food. A consistent diet of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains will ‘protect against a range of cancers, including mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, stomach, lung, pancreas, and prostate.’

In full disclosure, I gave up meat (or carcass as Susan Peirce Thompson, Ph.D. would say) a number of years ago. It’s a decision that suits me well. I also realize that each of us is unique with our own nutrition needs. So…what to do? What to do? If you’re a carnivore, experiment with your diet. Try opting out of meat and giving Meatless Mondays a whirl. For the rest of the week, take a look at the amount of meat / animal products you’re eating. How much of your plate is covered by a hunk of meat and how much of your plate is covered by vegetables?

No doubt if you are eating meat, you think you’re not eating that much. That seems to be the refrain from meat eaters around the world according to Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. So take a look at your plate, and make a few adjustments. See what happens if you cut down on the amount of animal products (that includes dairy and seafood) you’re eating and replace them with vegetables. Pump up the volume on the amount of water you’re drinking while you’re at it. Do you feel better? Worse? Do you have more or less energy?

If you give this a try, let me know how changing up your diet works for you and whether you’ll make long-term changes or revert back to your traditional diet. Or have you already been experimenting to find a diet that suits you best?

Got A Beef With Meat? was last modified: December 1st, 2016 by Deb Nelson

Joe Biden’s Moonshot Needs More than $2 Billion

Timing, as they say, is everything. Last week I published a blog post – Is It Time to Rethink Our Approach to Cancer Treatment? – hours before President Obama’s state of the union address. During that address, the president announced that Vice President Joe Biden would lead a new initiative to end cancer.

Listening to the State of the Union address last week I wondered how President Obama would use this speech to influence his legacy. He made a number of points that we’d expect to hear supporting children, families, and the middle class. And then, from out of the blue (at least from my non-inner-circle perspective), he announced that the vice president would be taking charge of an initiative to end cancer: a new initiative in the Obama administration that was first introduced by the Nixon administration.

This appointment by President Obama was actually quite logical since the vice president had apparently called for a moonshot three months ago to cure cancer. It’s also a sentimental appointment on the heels of the death of Beau Biden, the vice president’s son, who lost his life to brain cancer last year.

This appointment came as no surprise to the vice president, who published a blog post following the SOTU and shared it via twitter. The blog shared the vice president’s plans to “accelerate our efforts to progress towards a cure.” He also indicated he wanted to hear from people if cancer had touched their lives. The vice president then went on to let us know that he intends to do two things:

  1. Increase resources — both private and public — to fight cancer.
  2. Break down silos and bring all the cancer fighters together — to work together, share information, and end cancer as we know it.

And that is when I sighed a heavy sigh. A sigh of cynicism, a sigh of sadness, a sigh of defeat. It sounds to me as though we are taking the same approach to dealing with cancer we’ve always taken. Now, simply because we’ve elevated the desire to deal with this disease we expect the same action to produce a different result.

Why, I wondered, were we continuing down the same road? The road of pouring seemingly endless amounts of money down a seemingly endless black hole? Increasing resources in my mind translates to more cash for the pharmaceutical companies. That might make sense to me if the results to date indicated this would be a promising route to take. Unfortunately, in 2015 cancer diagnoses in the US were expected top 1.5 million and cancer deaths were on track to surpass 500,000. It really makes me shake my head to think that $2 billion will be invested in the same fashion – more research conducted by the same people who have had access to billions upon billions of dollars in the past.

Is the vice president asking what will happen if we:

  • Explore the unconventional?
  • Invest in the science-based complementary treatments serving cancer patients so well?
  • Focus on at prevention?
  • Take a look at some “anecdotal” evidence?
  • Don’t invest $2 billion in research?

Since I’m not in the inner circle, I can’t say that these questions aren’t being asked. I’d be surprised, though, if discussion of any of these questions is on the agenda.

So…what did I do with my sighs of cynicism, sadness, and defeat? I let them take up a few moments of my time. Then I responded to the vice president’s request for information from anyone whose life had been touched by cancer by:

  • Leaving a response on his blog post.
  • Referencing his moonshot in a tweet or two.
  • Sending him a message via the White House website.

So far, no response. No worries. I’m off to write Vice President a note. After all, this moonshot could do us all a world of good if a few assumptions are kicked to the curb. My advice to the vice president is simple:

Be bold.
Be brave.
Ask difficult questions.

Joe Biden’s Moonshot Needs More than $2 Billion was last modified: December 1st, 2016 by Deb Nelson

Is it Time to Rethink Our Approach to Cancer Treatment?

Richard Nixon declared war on cancer as he signed the cancer act in 1971 stating, “for those who have cancer and who are looking for success in this field, they at least can have the assurance that everything that can be done by government, everything that can be done by voluntary agencies in this great, powerful, rich country, now will be done and that will give some hope, and we hope those hopes will not be disappointed.”

Good intentions here. Stop the suffering caused by cancer. Who could argue with that? Well, more than four decades later, it’s time to ask a few tough questions:

Is waging a war on cancer actually waging war on our own bodies? Conventional treatment includes three options:  cutting, poisoning, and burning cancer away via surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. One of the issues with these treatments, of course, is that there is a delicate balance: give the patient enough treatment to kill the cancer cells without killing the patient. While this balancing act may read like a Stephen King novel, it’s a real-life nightmare for way too many people.

Is this what success in the war on cancer looks like? The National Cancer Institute’s website includes expectations for 2015: “In 2015, an estimated 1,658,370 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the United States and 589,430 people will die from the disease.” Conduct your own analysis here; however, it’s difficult to argue with the conclusion that these expectations indicate less than stellar success after 40+ years of research, experimentation, and treatment.

Einstein proposed that the definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting a different result. Isn’t it time to do something different? We seem to think that in order to “beat” cancer the patient needs to go to battle and endure unimaginable suffering. How many times have we heard how close we are to a cure? And that all we need is more funding for research? More clinical trials? This brings up even more questions – questions that begin with What if…

What if stronger drugs aren’t the answer?

What if lifestyle and nutrition play key roles in prevention and healing of cancer?

What if we focus on prevention?

What if we stop referring to screening for cancer as prevention?

Who is benefiting from all of these fundraisers to eradicate cancer? How many billions of dollars have been raised for cancer research? And still, the National Cancer Institute expected more than 1.5 million new cancer diagnoses and more than 500,000 deaths due to cancer in 2015.

Is there a simpler solution? These questions have been asked before – for decades, actually. Dr. John McDougall has been working with cancer patients for more than 40 years. One of his favorite treatments: diet. While he does prescribe drugs for patients and recommends surgery as well, he puts his patients in control of their health by teaching them about the importance of a plant-based diet. Listen to the interview Chris Wark of chrisbeatcancer.com conducted with McDougall – none of the propositions about the relationship between diet and cancer are new; these connections were acknowledged decades ago.

T. Colin Campbell has conducted research showing the impact diet has on chronic diseases. Campbell published the results of his research in The China Study; these results were the opposite of what Campbell thought he’d find.

So what does this all mean?

Keep asking questions if you find yourself or a loved one facing a cancer diagnosis. I’ve written an eBook, 12 Bold Questions to Ask on Your Journey to Health, to serve as a starting point for a conversation for cancer patients and their healthcare teams.

Remember that knowledge is power. Conduct your own research, and know where your healthcare tea is getting its information from.

Listen to your inner voice.

Lots of questions remain. How do you approach the conversation surrounding cancer and other chronic illnesses?

Is it Time to Rethink Our Approach to Cancer Treatment? was last modified: December 1st, 2016 by Deb Nelson

Strong Partnerships Helping Cancer Patients

Know someone who’s healing from a cancer diagnosis? You might want to check out your local YMCA. LiveSTRONG and YMCAs have had a strong partnership since 2008. This partnership underscores important knowledge about healing from cancer: cancer patients need community support and healing cancer is a long-term process.

Riding past my local Y last week, I was glad to see this sign promoting the LiveSTRONG at the YMCA program. This program is “designed to help adult cancer survivors reclaim their total health.”  Participants in the program meet twice a week “to regain their physical, emotional, and spiritual strength.” That’s why I love the idea of this program: there is an acknowledgment that cancer patients need to heal on a number of levels. Cancer affects every nook and cranny of a person’s life and LiveSTRONG at the YMCA aims to address a variety of challenges cancer patients face.

This 12-week program, offered at no cost, also benefits every family member of the cancer patient as it includes a complimentary membership for the entire family.

Printed material sums up this program:

Participants work with Y staff trained in supportive cancer care to safely achieve their goals such as building muscle mass and strength; increasing flexibility and endurance; and improving confidence and self-esteem.  By focusing on the whole person and not the disease, LIVESTRONG at the YMCA is helping people move beyond cancer in spirit, mind, and body.

Restoring strength and physical stamina is important; equally important is the need to restore self-confidence, address relationship issues, and stresses and life changes associated with cancer diagnosis and treatment.  If you know someone who could benefit from this program, please connect with your local Y or LIVESTRONG.

Strong Partnerships Helping Cancer Patients was last modified: December 1st, 2016 by Deb Nelson

Relying Too Much on Technology? Maybe Low Tech is the Way to Go.

While traveling last week, I decided to rent a bike to get some exercise and take advantage of the warm weather. What a valuable lesson it turned out to be. The only bikes available while equipped with old-school baskets and kickstands were lacking in handbrakes and gears. I hopped on this beauty of a bike and took to the bike paths with a fresh perspective.

Yes, I must admit, I missed the idea of my bike and its 30 gears. Had a bike similar to the one waiting for me at home been available to rent, I’d have chosen it. Lucky for me, I had no choice other than this sweet low-tech beauty. I also had no need for any of those 30 gears I’ve become so accustomed to dependent upon when I ride my bike at home. A lesson learned here: how much tech power do we need? Do we make things more complicated by using technology because it’s available rather than because we need it.

I think about how we as a society invest our resources – time, energy, funds – pretty frequently. Usually it’s in the context of healthcare. Are stronger, more expensive drugs the answer to the culture of dis-ease? Or do we need to take a step (or many steps) back and get closer to nature to heal so many of the chronic illnesses that seem to be the result of poor choices?

Do yourself a favor, take a ride on a yellow low-tech bike and have a colorful salad for your next meal. Then make a habit of choosing these options. You just might find yourself feeling a bit better than you thought possible.

Relying Too Much on Technology? Maybe Low Tech is the Way to Go. was last modified: December 1st, 2016 by Deb Nelson

Primary Food: You Won’t Find It On Your Plate

Talking about nutrition can be tricky business. Joshua Rosenthal, founder of Institute For Integrative Nutrition, takes a bold look at the primary source of our nourishment.

When you think of Primary Food, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? A fresh, crisp salad? Or a bowl of fruit? Maybe an organic veggie stir fry over quinoa? Well, Joshua Rosenthal would ask you to take a step back from your plate, and think about the environment surrounding you.

Rosenthal’s theory is that Primary Food consists of four elements:

  • Relationships
  • Physical Activity
  • Career
  • Spirituality

 

Without these four elements operating at full tilt, you can eat plate after plate of nutritious food and still not be healthy. I love this approach to food and nourishment acknowledging that we have the power to create a healthy environment for ourselves.

Take a look around your world. How is your Primary Food source treating you?

Primary Food: You Won’t Find It On Your Plate was last modified: December 1st, 2016 by Deb Nelson

Loving the Journey of Life-Long Learning

Opportunity after opportunity presents itself to each of us to expand our knowledge, deepen our expertise, and enrich our lives. Make sure you’re paying attention when opportunity knocks.

When I was in my mid-40s I went back to school, earning a master’s degree in public policy and management. That degree was instrumental in advancing my career, allowing me to score a job as development director for a local United Way. Two years later, I was promoted to director of communications and development. While enrolling in this degree program had a direct and immediate impact on my career, it also fed my need to learn and to be engaged in my community.

It’s now ten years later and I enrolled in a program to become an integrative nutrition health coach. What, you ask? “You’re 55 and you’re going back to school AGAIN?” My answer: “You betcha!” The last four years have taken me on a journey I never envisioned: discovering the many paths to health following a cancer diagnosis. I’ve written a bit about how I, with no cancer diagnosis, started down this path and how I value curiosity.

Sometimes it’s not easy to question those in author by asking “Why?” or to say, “Hell yes” when presented with an opportunity that takes us out of our comfort zone. And, no, you don’t have to enroll in a degree program to experience life-long learning to enhance your knowledge and feed your sense of curiosity. Learning takes many formats. You can:

Attend a Conference or Workshop
Take an Art Class or Voice Lesson
Go for a Run or Bike Ride
Teach a Class
Take a Yoga or Tai Chi Class
Speak at a Conference or TED Talk
Learn to Speak a Language
Join a Mastermind Group
Network Network Network

Each of these activities will put you in a new environment and force your mind to work in a different way. Stretch yourself and enjoy the rewards!

Loving the Journey of Life-Long Learning was last modified: December 1st, 2016 by Deb Nelson

What if There’s No Reason to Fear Cancer?

“All you have to do is understand what cancer is and why it happens, and that puts you in control.” Raymond Francis, M.Sc in his book, Never Fear Cancer Again: How to Prevent and Reverse Cancer.

The title of Raymond Francis’s book makes quite a statement: Never Fear Cancer Again. Really? Well, let’s see…

What if: there were only one type of disease?

What if: there were two possible causes of disease?

What if: by following six pathways, you would find (based on your choices) either health or disease?

According to Francis, it’s as simple and as complex as:

One type of disease: cellular malfunction.

Two possible causes: deficiency or toxicity.

Six pathways to health or disease: nutrition, toxin, mental, physical, genetic, medical.

The major takeaway I had from reading this book is that our health is in our hands. To use Francis’s words: “interfering with the cancer process gives you the power to prevent or reverse cancer.”

Francis has science on his side as he maps out a path to health following the six pathways. He healed his own chronic illness decades ago after doctors could offer him no more treatment. Taking advantage of his background in biochemistry, Francis studied disease at a cellular level; and after two years rather than facing a premature death, he was back to being healthy and enjoying life.

He has shared information through a number of books in addition to Never Fear Cancer Again. This was one of the first books I read when I started looking at the relationship surrounding cancer, nutrition, and lifestyle. As I’ve previously written, Francis’s theory makes a lot of sense to me.  Check it out and let me know if it resonates with you.

What if There’s No Reason to Fear Cancer? was last modified: December 1st, 2016 by Deb Nelson

Jon Huntsman, Sr.: On a Mission to Cure Cancer

Four-time cancer survivor Jon Huntsman’s willingness to spend his last dollar in search of a cure for cancer may prove that the cure isn’t all about money.

A man of integrity, Jon Huntsman, Sr. recently shared the story of his dreams and accomplishments in his book Barefoot to Billionaire: Reflections on a Life’s Work and a Promise to Cure Cancer. Here Huntsman makes it clear he has no intention of taking his last dollar with him. He plans to exit this world as he entered it: barefoot and broke. Huntsman will put his money to use by spending, investing, and sharing it during his lifetime.

Finding a cure for cancer is a lofty goal. After all, President Richard Nixon began our “war” on cancer in 1971. The progress we’ve made since then, in spite of the billions of dollars invested in research, is questionable at best. We celebrate as a success story any and all cancer patients who are alive five years after their original diagnosis. Yes, surviving five years sounds good. But what if you’re diagnosed at age 16: does living until 21 sound like a success story?

Let’s get back to Huntsman’s goal – identifying a cure for cancer. Don’t underestimate Huntsman’s perseverance, tenacity, and ability to meet goals. His approach to business has been questioned numerous times. In his book, Huntsman states:

Because we are headquartered in Utah, the big boys often look at us as hicks. As soon as they see signs of decency, openness, and straightforwardness, some take it as a sign of weakness and think they can take advantage of us. Some have found out the hard way that when cheated or threatened with an unfair set of playing rules, there is another side to Jon Huntsman, a tough side of which advantage can’t be taken.

This toughness in the corporate world translates well as Huntsman maps out his philanthropic investment plan. When partners reneged on their promises to assist with financing for a cancer institute, Huntsman Cancer Institute became a reality thanks to Plan B – something the masterful planner Huntsman always seems to have in his back pocket.

[M]y original partners pulled out, leaving me to put everything together myself. Today, I don’t rely on partners or other people. If I want something done, I figure out how to do it and I get it done.*

Huntsman continues to fund Huntsman Cancer Institute with the expectation that a cure for cancer will be uncovered. His namesake cancer institute is well known for research and the care it provides its patients. So, why did I imply that the answer may not be about money? Are too many people making too much money to stop this cancer industry we’ve created? As I’ve written before, I have to wonder “What if?” whenever I wonder why we haven’t found a cure for cancer. Here are a few more questions to ponder:

  • What if we already have a cure?
  • What if we take a closer look at T. Colin Campbell’s book The China Study and adjust our diet and lifestyle rather than suffering through surgery, drugs, radiation, and their debilitating side effects?
  • What if we check our assumptions at the door and read Raymond Francis’ book Never Fear Cancer Again?
  • What if while we look for that cure, we also pay attention to prevention like the folks at Less Cancer who believe Prevention is the Future?
  • What if everyone seeking a cure for cancer were motivated – as Huntsman is – to eliminate suffering, rather than to bulk up their bank accounts?

Like Huntsman and Francis, I imagine a day when we don’t fear a cancer diagnosis. I commend Huntsman for his efforts to remove cancer from our lives. I also encourage him to broaden his search and look under the unlikely stone to identify the cure he seeks. Never would I count Huntsman out – he is, after all, a man of his word. And, yes, I’d love to tour his cancer institute.

*From article in Summer 2012 Philanthropy Magazine.

Jon Huntsman, Sr.: On a Mission to Cure Cancer was last modified: December 1st, 2016 by Deb Nelson