Cancer : My Thoughts and the Nuances of Treatment
Going up against cancer is a big deal which requires a huge amount of self discipline and effort. This battle is a moment in time when you really must decide whether you are going to cast your fate to the wind or to dedicate all of your efforts and resources toward fighting it.
The battle against this deadly manifestation of mutant cell proliferation is going to be part of your life from the moment you are diagnosed until the moment that you die. Hopefully this moment will be many years down the road from when you find out that cancer is lingering in your body.
I dropped into Dr Eng’s Medical Practise and IV Clinic in Armstrong St, Middle Park a couple of days ago to say hello to the staff and Peter. Peter Eng was the doctor who I chose to direct a significant part of my cancer treatment, especially the IVs (vitamin C and Curcumin amongst others) and tests that helped my body respond positively to fighting the cancer. Peter is 84 years old and should be enjoying his retirement but he has instead chosen to continue to help and support his fellow man in their quest to rise above cancer. He was a saint who offered me hope during my campaign to beat the onslaught of cancer. The first thing that he offered me was hope. I wasn’t long into my cancer journey when I first met him but until that moment I didn’t have a light to to guide me. He offered optimism and a positive expectation of curing myself. He also directed me toward Dr Sam Leung, a seasoned and well practised radiologist who was in charge of my radiation therapy.
I suppose the point is that cancer is a very complex disease that is still not fully understood. The mainstream are just starting to move toward researching and applying immunotherapy after spending decades trying to attack cancer through the genes. I’m not going to even pretend to understand the nitty gritty of what cancer does to mutate and proliferate and eventually to metastasise into different parts of one’s body. I’m not going to question the mainstream oncologists who all seem to have very good intentions but based on the numbers unfortunately not great results.
My point is that the individual fight against cancer is your own. Just like any fight, we have whatever capabilities that we have and it is up to us as individuals to learn new skills and abilities through research, study and application. You can say that your enemy was stronger than you, which may well be true but that’s a rather shitty excuse when the end result is you receiving a beating. You owe it to yourself to prepare yourself in whatever way you are capable of.
The way I see it is that like almost anything on our wonderful planet, cancer is complex and the fight against it also needs to be complex. There are nuances everywhere and for somebody like me the only option was to try everything that I could find that wasn’t going to be toxic or create long term harm to my body.
The common thread between all living things no matter how simple or complex is the overwhelming desire to survive. The thing that I had to get through my head was that cancer is just a clump of cells that are doing whatever they need to do to survive. I just had to a) want to survive a bit more than the cancer cells and b) work out practical and effective ways to pull it off.
I heard a researcher describe her quest as a nontoxic, metabolic and many pronged approach to dealing with cancer. You cannot afford to be stuck on anything as you will certainly come across new information as your journey continues. But for me the goal was to defeat the cancer and get it under control without destroying my body in the process. I figured that if I could make my body’s natural defences stronger and healthier that I might just come out the other end stronger and wiser.
Like I’ve said in earlier posts, part of my mission was to put together a team that I could trust and rely on. They didn’t even have to agree with each other or for that matter be working together. That was up to me to co-ordinate what they had to offer me. So I am grateful to Dr Peter Eng, Dr Sam Leung, Malcolm Hooper, the technicians at the radiology clinic, the oncologists from Monash Health, my family and from afar Dr Thomas Seyfied, Dom D’Agostino, Dr Peter Attia, Miriam Kalamian, Peter Berg …. I feel like I’m giving a speech at the Academy Awards and I’m sure as hell leaving people out who I should be naming. But the point that I’m making is that I used every tool and resource that I could within my own understanding, capability and resources/finances.
My advice is that you owe it to yourself to do your own research, find your own team and work out your own strategy. Why? Because it is YOUR life that is hanging in balance. You may think that everyone else is wiser than you but I’ll tell you right now that your personal urge to survive is more powerful than any other factor.
I have been lucky so far. I am currently cancer free based on all of the tests that I have done and my intention is to stay that way. So my battle against cancer is an ongoing campaign that will be part of my life until the day that I die, which if I have my way will be sometime after my 100th birthday.
The podcast below is worth listening to if you have or have had cancer. It can be tough going for those of us without a metabolic foundation but I urge you to struggle through it. The person being interviewed if Angela Poff, a PHD who works with Dom D’Agostino at the University of South Florida, she is also co-founder of the Metabolic Health Summit. Angela has been studying the impact of hyperbaric oxygen and the ketogenic diet on cancer patients for many years and presents some compelling data which may convince you to follow these protocols without having rose coloured glasses on.
