Anti Cancer Living

Modern oncology focusses on treating us once we have been diagnosed with cancer. Many existing treatment protocols are variable effectiveness, often failing to significantly improve survival rates and potentially causing significant collateral damage along the way.

More than $100 billion a year is spent worldwide in the quest to cure cancer.

And yet despite this exhaustive effort, the number of cancer cases is expected to increase by 70% over the next two decades. One in two of us will now develop cancer in this country.

There have been some significant improvements in treatment and the development of some important breakthrough drugs (I am currently benefitting from one of these, the targeted drug Herceptin). But overall progress in reducing deaths from cancer has been frustratingly slow. Despite spending multiple hundreds of millions on clinical studies, we have seen only small incremental improvements. At a social level, the rate of return on the investment in cancer research has been, frankly, very poor.

There are doubtless many reasons for this, not least that cancer is not just one disease. Rather it is a general term for many diseases with some key features in common, but with a multitude of different sub-types and molecular features. Each of these variants might best be attacked in a different way – making the search for cures deeply complex.

But instead of focussing on curing cancer once we have it, what if we placed our attention on trying to stop people developing cancer in the first place? It feels like common sense to me - and yet funding for research on cancer prevention is absolutely dwarfed, ten to one, by spending on the search for post-diagnosis treatments.

As we continue to learn more about cancer, in particular our better understanding about how genes work, we are learning that our bodies are essentially lean, mean fighting machines, pre-programmed to heal themselves.

We all have mutating cells in our body every day. A healthily functioning body will quietly mop these up before they go rogue. But we now understand that if our physiological balance is upset for any reason these front-line, protective systems can fail, allowing mutating cells to run out of control, forming tumours.

We know that our lifestyle choices can upset this physiological balance (or homeostasis). We are also learning about the clear connection between the behaviour of our cells and the way we live our lives. Thanks to multiple breakthroughs in the burgeoning new field of epigenetics, scientists are now seeing how our daily habits and life choices can influence the behaviour of our genes, potentially causing faulty regulation which in turn can contribute to cell mutation.

These developments are exciting for many reasons. Not least because they imply that by changing our behaviours, individuals might have a role in helping to determine their own health outcomes, offering a potential sense of agency and control which often feels very lacking following a cancer diagnosis.

In just over two weeks I will come to the end of over a year of intensive treatment. This was aimed first at removing my tumour and affected lymph nodes (the filter between my diseased breast and the rest of my body), and then at trying to destroy any escaped and errant cancer cells, potentially hiding like deadly time-bombs in other areas of my body.

At the end of March, I will see my oncologist and likely be effectively discharged. From a mainstream medical perspective, I will be coming to the end of this period of intensive treatment. Fingers tightly crossed and scans dependant, I will hopefully be categorised as N.E.D – or No Evidence of Disease. The oncologist’s job - for now at least - over, I will be told to re-present only if and when I get symptoms of secondaries, potentially indicating a recurrence of the cancer in another part of my body.

But for me and others in my situation, this is a very strange moment. Ostensibly signed-off from medical care. And yet ironically feeling far weaker, more poorly and wrung out than on the day of diagnosis – thanks to the hammering that every cell in the body has taken from a myriad of cytotoxic treatments. Effectively declared ‘cured’ by the doctors. And yet painfully aware of the very real and present potential for the cancer to come back as incurable metastatic disease.

And so, there is the sense of an ending, but also a beginning. A crossroads when many cancer patients - if they haven’t already - start to look beyond the ‘cure’ or fix offered by mainstream medicine, and towards a future where they take control back their own health and look for ways to minimise the chances of recurrence. In doing so we raise our gaze away from a cluster of out-of-control cells, and up to the bigger picture – the very fabric of our lives and how we chose to live it going forwards.

From the very moment you get a cancer diagnosis you are inundated with information and advice – do this, don’t do this, think this, don’t think that, try this, never try that. Most of it is generously offered in the spirit of supportiveness - I get that (and still struggle myself not to do exactly the same whenever I speak to someone recently diagnosed). It is though, quite frankly, confusing and overwhelming. It takes time to work out how you want to respond to a diagnosis and to find your own path through the brambles.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy? Intravenous vitamin C? Any number of supplementation programmes? Coffee enemas? Radical detoxing? Even more radical diets? Fasting? Mistletoe therapy? Far infrared saunas? Cannabinoids? Off-label drugs (drugs originally developed for treating other conditions such as infections, diabetes or high cholesterol, but which could potentially also have anti-cancer properties)? The complementary (ie in addition to mainstream treatment) possibilities are endless and, in some cases, expensive. The scientific evidence is mixed and, in some cases, very contested. For me, it has been an exhausting full-time job, trying to sieve through the pros and cons of each option, trying to find the best way to support myself beyond conventional treatment.

But what if there were other, far simpler (and cheaper) ways, to help protect our bodies, shielding us from the worst effects of treatment, supporting our body’s natural defence mechanisms and creating an internal micro-environment inhospitable to mutating cells? Simple lifestyle changes we could all make which, as well as increasing the survival chances for those already with cancer, might reduce the risk of ever developing cancer for those not yet diagnosed?

Since my diagnosis I have read a myriad of books in an effort to better understand how to help myself. Some have been insipid. Others have been life changing. I list some of my favourites at the end of this blog and will be drawing on them in my next few posts.

I have learnt that some key features of modern life – a diet rich in highly processed food, chronic levels of stress, lack of sleep, sedentary lifestyles – all potentially create conditions in our body which make us more vulnerable to cancer, by raising levels of damaging stress hormones, compromising our immune system and creating an internal environment of chronic inflammation. Although studies differ, research indicates that somewhere between 50-90% of cancers could be avoided through lifestyle changes.

In order to create an internal micro-environment hostile to cancer cells, and support our body’s own natural defence systems, we need instead to make lifestyle choices which boost our immune system, reduce inflammation, regulate blood sugar and move us out of a sympathetic nervous system response (fight-or-fight mode) into a parasympathetic nervous system response (‘rest, digest, repair’ mode).

I do not want my cancer to come back. I am clear that for the coming months and years, my absolutely priority is taking whatever action I can to try to reduce my chances of this happening. I will be uncompromising on this. I want to live.

And so from my reading, I have pulled together a protocol for living an anti-cancer life (well, I’ve stolen most of it from that particular book…) . A framework of simple, daily actions from a number of inter-connected, mutually re-inforcing areas, all shown to be pivotal in maintaining physiological balance and so optimising health.

Here are my key areas of focus:

• Reducing Stress – reducing stress levels wherever possible in order to soothe my nervous system and move out of flight-or-fight response and into rest-and-repair mode

• Diet – adapting my diet to regulate blood sugar, boost my gut microbiome (the seat of our immune system) and reduce inflammation

• Sleep – getting more and better nightly rest, maximising my body's opportunity to heal

• Exercise – prioritising exercise in order to strengthen my body and immune system and boost my endorphin levels

• Connection – nurturing my support network, spending time with those I love, creating new connections

• Cultivating hope, joy and gratitude - upping health-boosting endorphin levels

• Detoxing my environment – looking at products I put on my skin and use about the house to reduce my toxic load

• Finding creative expression - writing, drawing, whatever moves me...

The good news is that these simple habit changes are not only relevant for those of us already with a cancer diagnosis hoping to avoid recurrence. Research shows that they might also help reduce the risk of developing cancer in the first place.

In the coming weeks I will write more about each of these in turn – digging deeper into the science and explaining how they impact our physiology to create a cancer hostile micro-environment. I will also share some simple suggestions for adaptations we can make to our daily habits to better protect our health and embrace an anti-cancer way of life.

In the meantime – here are some of my favourite books of recent months…

When the Body Says No - Gabor Maté

Cured - Dr Jeff Rediger

Anti-Cancer Living - Dr Lorenzo Cohen and Alison Jefferies

The Cancer Whisperer – Sophie Sabbage

Breath – James Nestor

Why we sleep – Matthew Walker

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