My Parents and Cancer

Nearly 30 years ago my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.  She got several opinions.  Some doctors went as far as to tell her to cut off both her breasts (she had cysts ever since she gave birth to my brother, so it was always difficult to distinguish between the cysts and possible tumors).  Around that time my brother had gotten married, and his new wife was very into health foods.  She and my brother had started eating a macrobiotic diet just to stay healthy, and they recommended my mother try it.  She ultimately decided to try macrobiotics.  Luckily her cancer wasn't a very aggressive type, so she felt she had time to see if the healing diet would work.  Initially she was cooking separately for herself and my father, but eventually he decided to go on the diet with her so she wouldn't be cooking two separate meals.  On the diet they both noticed marked improvements in the way they felt.  My mother's cysts disappeared.  She's never had a definitive biopsy to be sure the cancer is gone, but I think the fact that she's still in great health almost 30 years later would convince anyone that it is.

My father's story is even more compelling.  Now you would think with him being on a macrobiotic all these years that he wouldn't have any major health problems, but thanks to the evil of pharmaceuticals he did.  He was diagnosed with Petit Mal (a form of epilepsy) in his early twenties.  He had always been on medication for it - the only medication he really took.  Well a few years back he began to have a very serious issue with his heart - a bubble had formed on his aorta, and he needed surgery to repair it.  He later discovered this problem was most likely a result of being on much too high a dosage of his medication for several years.  He hadn't had it checked as regularly as he should have.  During his operation clogged arteries were found and he had a bypass as well.  Now after you go through an operation like that, the doctors load you up with mounds of medications.  He was on at least a dozen or more different medications after the surgery.  Soon he developed shingles (which took a long time to go away), and he then developed lymphoma.  He went to doctors, oncologists, and even a macrobiotic counselor.  Every one of them recommended he get chemo - they all said it had a very high success rate with lymphoma (he was in stage 3).  He remained adamant that he would heal himself with a macrobiotic healing diet.  I think even most doctors when pushed would admit that chemo can cause cancer.  If you research lymphoma you'll find that it's not uncommon after chemo for the cancer to "come back" in some other area.  Well it doesn't take a brain surgeon to realize that this "coming back" could very well be a new cancer from the chemo, and this was a big concern of my father.

My father stuck to his guns and went on a very strict healing diet.  A short while before this I had begun going to a holistic chiropractor who I'm always raving about.  I asked her if there was anyone in my parents' area that did work similar to hers, and lo and behold it turned out that her mentor, one of the leading practitioners in the entire world, had his office just a few minutes from my parents.  They had to wait two months to get an appointment, but my father credits Dr. Schmitt with saving his life.  Dr. Schmitt examined the medications my father was taking - it turned out most of them were seriously damaging his immune system; thus the onset of shingles and later lymphoma.  He gave my father a mushroom derivative to begin taking to strengthen his immune system, balancing the negative effects of the medication.  He used other natural supplements as well to balance him.  Very quickly the swelling in my father's lymph nodes subsided.  When he went back to the oncologist a few months later the doctor said he had made a believer out of him, and to keep on doing whatever he had been doing.  Within a year he was mostly better - his last PET scan showed the lymphoma gone. 

The moral of the story is this:  natural methods of healing do work.  I believe they work better than the ways of western medicine.  I don't believe anyone should try them on their own, especially when dealing with a life-threatening disease.  Find an expert to help guide you.  I think many people go about these diets in a half-assed fashion, and then when they fail the doctors point to them and say "see - it doesn't work."  Well I would imagine if they went on chemo and didn't stick to the plan, missing medication, it wouldn't work either.  With natural methods it may take longer, but there is no sickness, no nausea, no hair loss;  you will only continue to feel better and better.  For patients who do opt for chemo but go on a healing diet as well, their side effects are greatly reduced.  I have no issue with anyone opting for any method they like, but I do have an issue when they make an uninformed decision.  If you only consult medical doctors, you will not be making an informed decision, since doctors will rarely inform you of alternative methods;  you need to research on your own!