Here’s what you can do to protect yourself
It’s well known that some people are more susceptible to cancer, while others appear relatively immune to it.
But no one has really been able to figure out why. Until now.
A new study has discovered that getting cancer is not just the result of bad luck. There actually needs to be a “perfect storm” of conditions for cancer to develop in an individual.
That just reinforces what I’ve been saying all along…that the academic-government-industrial medical mainstream blanket risk-factor recommendations for cancer prevention are off the mark for most people.
Instead, the focus should be on individual risks, susceptibility, or resistance to cancer.
Read on, and I’ll tell you the simple but effective steps you can take to head off cancer’s perfect storm. (Hint: They don’t involve dangerous, expensive, and ineffective screening techniques like colonoscopies).
But first, let’s take a closer look at this remarkable new study.
Are cancer “storm clouds” ahead for you?
The study, conducted by scientists at Cancer Research UK’s Cambridge Institute and St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in the U.S., found that cancer is most likely to start in stem cells.[1] These early-stage cells are designed to easily replicate so they can replace old cells and repair damaged tissues.
But we all have stem cells, so why aren’t we all equally susceptible to developing cancer? Because there are more steps involved.
First of all, the researchers found that cancer can develop as a result of damage or mistakes in the DNA of stem cells.
This damage may simply accumulate over time, which is why the single biggest risk factor for cancer is simply advancing age. Environmental factors also accelerate the rate of DNA damage (I’ll tell you more about that in a moment).
But it turns out that not all stem cells with damaged DNA become cancerous.
The researchers discovered this by experimentally introducing DNA mistakes into stem cells in human organs. They first put these mistakes in dormant (non-reproducing) stem cells… and didn’t find any signs of cancer. But cancer appeared when they introduced DNA mistakes into active stem cells in organs in which there is a lot of wear and tear—like the colon.
Why? Because stem cells must reproduce more frequently in those more-active organs to replace damaged cells and tissues. And if those stem cells have DNA damage, that means they’re creating more damaged cells.
And if an organ accumulates enough damaged cells, that can lead to cancer.
When it comes to cancer, the government is not “here to help”
The scientists concluded that environmental factors can not only lead to DNA damage in your stem cells, but they can also cause more wear and tear on your organs. And that increases the chances of a “perfect storm” brewing…and causing cancer.
So this means the U.S. government’s decades-long, multibillion-dollar “war on cancer” has been missing in action all along (just like its wars on cholesterol, saturated fat, and salt).
Blanket, half-right recommendations for controlling risk factors for everyone, and “routine” cancer screenings that don’t work, have not won the “war” (as evident from rising cancer rates). But they do give excuses to big government to expand its efforts to control human behavior and restrict individual rights.
For instance, government recommendations that all people should avoid all sun exposure to prevent skin cancer has contributed to an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency. Which increases the risk of many mental and physical health problems—including cancer itself.
And giving dangerous HPV vaccines that cause life-long ovarian failure and infertility to innocent young children to prevent cervical cancer makes no sense when there is a simple, safe screening technique that has worked for generations (the Pap smear).
Of course, we can only wish that other “routine” cancer screening tests worked as well.
I’ve written many times before about how the government-recommended screenings that have been done for decades for breast, colon, prostate, skin, and thyroid cancers don’t work to prevent cancer deaths, and/or have other serious problems associated with them.
In fact, the situation is so bad with colonoscopies that I launched the “Safe Colon Cancer Screenings Initiative to better inform and educate Congress and the American people about all of the less dangerous and expensive alternatives for colon cancer screening. You can read more about the initiative by visiting www.safecoloncancerscreenings.org.
And I won’t even get started again on the government’s abject failures regarding researching susceptibility to lung cancer and effective screening. Implementing their draconian, politically correct policies—which are only partially effective anyway— left more than half of all lung cancer victims with no real treatment options.
Common sense cancer prevention techniques that work
Today, mainstream oncology is “targeting” toxic treatments like radiation and chemotherapy to cancer cells, so they don’t kill the cancer patient. That makes sense—as far as it goes. But, as I explained in the September Insiders’ Cures (“The deadly treatments that can boost your risk of cancer”), these treatments actually increase your chance of developing a more deadly second, or even third, cancer.
This new study shows what we really need to target is cancer prevention—and take into account the fact that each person is a unique individual with different risks of developing cancer in the first place. How about that for the era of “personalized medicine”?
For instance, there are simple steps you can take to limit the environmentally caused damage to stem cells and organs that’s discussed in the new study.
Start by using natural insect repellants such as citrus, lavender, or neroli oil rather than chemical compounds like DEET. Don’t use herbicides, pesticides, or other artificial chemicals on your lawn or garden. And avoid them in your diet by only eating organic foods and drinking filtered or selected bottled mineral waters (I tell which ones in my July 2015 Insiders’ Cures article, “The slimy secret water companies don’t want you to know: Bacteria, arsenic, and carcinogens all found in bottled water.”)
Other powerful anti-cancer dietary choices include eating plenty of green, leafy, and cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and kale. These foods, along with yellow-orange fruits and vegetables, are packed with a full spectrum of carotenoids, polyphenols, and other antioxidants that not only prevent cellular damage, but also help hard-working organs like your colon operate at peak efficiency.
Fish is loaded with cancer-preventing omega-3 fatty acids, so eat it regularly and take 1,000-2,000 mg per day of high-quality fish oil.
Other supplements that help prevent the cellular and organ damage that can lead to cancer include vitamins B (take a high-quality B complex every day), C (500 mg twice a day), and D (10,000 IU per day). Key cancer-prevention minerals include magnesium (400 mg a day) and selenium (220 mcg a day).
And, of course, don’t forget moderate, daily physical activity like housework, walking, or swimming—which has been proven in study after study to lower cancer risk. Yard work or other outdoor activity has the added bonus of healthy sun exposure.
You can also manage cell-damaging stress through meditation, yoga, relaxation, and other mind-body therapies.
Personalized steps you can take to prevent specific cancers
For colon cancer, pay more attention if you are over age 50 and have a family history—which means a close relative (mother, father, brother, sister) who got colon cancer when he or she was younger than 60.
Likewise, women need to know their family history for breast cancer. It’s also a good idea to do physical breast exams, which have been shown to work as well as mammograms without any of the risks.
One of the conventional screening techniques I do recommend is Pap smears for cervical cancer. This test is safe and effective and has decades of experience behind it.
Men should insist their doctors carry out a digital rectal exam to detect prostate abnormalities or prostate cancer. This simple and quick procedure will also find any rectal cancers.
Finally, despite what your doctor may tell you, there is actually a safe and effective new screening technique for lung cancer. It’s called low-dose computed tomography (LDCT), and I wrote about it in the Aug. 25 Daily Dispatch (“Lung cancer screening increases survival to nearly 90%”). And, as I wrote in the May 27, 2014 Daily Dispatch (“NIH mandarins keep life-saving cancer screening a secret”), research shows a simple CT lung scan could prevent a whopping 12,000 lung cancer deaths per year in smokers and ex-smokers.
There’s much more to say about what you can do personally to prevent and survive these cancers—as well as other types. In fact, I’m currently working on an in-depth, step-by-step, anti-cancer online learning protocol that will help guide you through the best, science-backed methods to prevent and fight this deadly disease. I will let you know as soon as this new protocol is ready, so stay tuned! (And be sure to sign up for my Daily Dispatch e-letter at www.drmicozzi.com so you don’t miss the official announcement.)
In the meantime, the bottom line is that cancer is personal…but preventable.
Simple lifestyle modifications, and simple steps by your primary doctor during your regular physical exam, can substantially reduce your risk of encountering your own “perfect storm,” and help you live a long and healthy life.
Source:
[1]“Multi-organ Mapping of Cancer Risk.” Cell, 2016; 166 (5): 1132.