

Food, Exercise & and Cancer

Eating whole and healthy food has become a “buzz” conversation among most of my clients as everyone tries to age well, stay healthy and fit in their favorite size clothes.  Although looking good on the outside is great for our self esteem, it is nowhere near as important as being healthy on the inside and if cancer or disease becomes an issue for you or a loved one, eating well & exercising can mean the difference between life and death.

There is a report from the American Cancer Society that looks at all this from the perspective of clinical trial results – and based on the type of cancer you have, there are different should and shouldn’t-s.  In the “COMMON QUESTIONS ABOUT DIET, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY, AND CANCER SURVIVORSHIP” section I quote; “Evidence strongly suggests that exercise is not only safe and feasible during cancer treatment, but that it can also improve physical functioning and various aspects of quality of life.”

I know a little bit about this and because I do I want to share a personal story:

Right after my 15th birthday my father was diagnosed with brain cancer.  This was in 1977.  His prognosis was grim and after a surgery to remove a baseball size tumor that was embedded in his brain around the right temporal lobe like blue cheese the doctors sent him home to die.  They did not put in a shunt to replace the mass they removed because they had no reason to believe that it would be necessary to follow up intelligently on a dead man walking.  They did recommend radiation and chemotherapy which my mother wisely refused on my father’s behalf.

In 1977 you couldn’t Google brain cancer and get a plethora of resources.  My mother, now a retired school teacher went to the library and to the health food store.  She researched everything she could get her hands on regarding cancer therapy and practically overnight replaced our typical American diet with what my father referred to as “lake soup”.  She researched Dr. Max Gerson and his carrot juice treatments, apricot kernels, eliminated refined sugar and processed food, used coffee enemas and the wonder drug hydrazine sulfate developed by the late Dr. Joseph Gold. (Syracuse Cancer Research Institute)  Hydrazine Sulfate enables the pancreas to continue working and prevents cachexia (the wasting away of the body) and has the wonderful side effect of stopping tumors from growing.  It works.  Vitamin supplements became a routine part of our world from then on.

My father grew back a full head of hair.  He was 38 years old when diagnosed.  He went back to work as a travelling salesman driving and carrying heavy sample bags daily.  (Note here that he wasn’t going to a gym to exercise but physical activity & endurance was a part of his lifestyle!)  I have blogged often about the importance of integrating exercise into your individual daily activities…)  To the disbelief of the oncologists he was cured.  That was until the fluid pressure that built up in his brain due to the lack of having a shunt put in killed him.  He died on October 21, 1978 at the age of 39.

I remember one day he asked my mom to just cook him a meal that he could “chew and swallow”.  We had steak that night after months of no red meat.  He immediately threw up all over the kitchen table.  I know firsthand how important and significant diet is in cancer treatment.  I remember as a student at Syracuse University I took a nutrition course with esteemed professor Dr. Sarah Short.  She told me how wrong I was when I questioned her stance on the old food pyramid and the need for vitamin supplements.  Unlike so many teachers who live in the question and quest for knowledge and new information, she embraced her ego and personal world view when it came to nutrition as did the doctors who killed my father.

Cancer is a horrible disease.  If there are lifestyle choices and adaptations through diet, exercise, and letting go of bitterness in your heart that can help you to be well and I believe there are, I hope that you choose them.  “Let the FOOD be thy medicine and the medicine be the food.”  Hippocrates.  Perhaps more doctors are realizing the importance of how we treat our bodies and how are food is making us sick, perhaps not.  Only YOU can choose what is best for YOU!

Many of you are dieting and may I suggest that in “DIEting” and eating processed, fake foods you are actually killing yourself, just as the word implies.  Eat whole and real food, chew, swallow and be well. At the end of the day, you’re still here – embrace & acknowledge the gift of life and make it your best day yet!

Thank you for reading.  Love, PSPenny_1

Penny Shure

2 Responses

  1. Dolly Magarik says:

    Wonderful advice, a sad story but one so important to share. Thank you. For years I’ve attempted to control my weight, regardless of the processed food/snacks encouraged by WW and other programs. Thankfully, I’ve changed my approach & eat mostly healthy unprocessed, whenever feasible. There are times where it is more difficult than others.

    In the long run, every step you can take toward that goal of wholesome foods, increasing activity etc….all can net great results in your life. And, if you already suffer from a disease, the approach can only help. Thanks for the blog!