Wellness News Winter 2012

Vol. 28 No.3

winter print edition 2012

With life as short as a half taken breath, don’t plant anything but Love.

Rumi

Cancer Support Association

wellness, support & healing for all West Australians with cancer

Cancer Support Line (08) 9384 3544 www.cancersupportwa.org.au

editorial

wellness news

Wellness News is published by Cancer Support Association and distributed free to members. Wellness News is dedicated entirely to publishing informative, inspiring and helpful articles related to wellness and healing. The magazine is for people with cancer and other serious health issues; for people who want to maintain their good health naturally; and for integrative and natural health professionals.

editorial & production...

Editor & Designer Mandy BeckerKnox mandy@cancersupportassociation.org.au Marketing & Promotion Ester Gomez ester@cancersupportassociation.org.au Printing Optima Digital Print Distribution to our dedicated volunteers – thankyou, your efforts are appreciated!

contact...

e info@cancersupportassociation.org.au ph (08) 9384 3544 f 9384 6196 a 80 Railway St Cottesloe WA, p PO Box 325 Cottesloe WA 6911

online at...

www.cancersupportwa.org.au

Follow CSA on Facebook: Cancer Support Association

The contents of this magazine do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the CSA and should be not be construed as medical advice. CSA encourages readers to be discerning with information presented and make treatment, dietary and lifestyle choices in consultation with a team of health-care professionals. © Copyright of all articles and images remains with individual contributors.

Life exists only at this very moment, and in this moment it is infinite and eternal, for the present moment is infinitely small; before we can measure it, it has gone, and yet it exists forever...

Dear members and friends,

I

n this month’s editorial I’d like to share with you the story of the beautiful butterfly on our front cover...

Late last year I travelled to South India with a group of yoga students to immerse ourselves in yoga, exploring the backwaters of Kerala by houseboat and an Ayurvedic program in a beautiful centre by the sea. We had amazing, profound and diverse experiences, but for me the absolute highlight was half an hour spent standing under a lantana bush in which hundreds of heady butterflies were flitting from flower to flower indulging on the nectar of one before moving to the next. This is the moment I took the photo above and the cover photo.

Butterflies only live for a very short time, but their life on their lantana bush was one of obvious bliss and joy. In that short time under the lantana I paused from the activity, movement of everyday life and shared in the bliss of the butterflies.

By simply being still, being fully present I was completely immersed in the moment without a thought back to the past or worry for the future and in that moment of stillness I experienced an immediate joy and felt completely at one with the butterflies and with the world. I needn’t have travelled to India to find this joy, but the experience was a reminder that happiness and lasting peace is something which is always within us and we simply need to be still to experience it – and we can do this anywhere, anytime and in any circumstances.

Of course this perspective is constantly challenged, particularly when life doesn’t seem to be going our way. I was driving to work this morning on a grey day on a busy Perth road. Stopped at the traffic lights I noticed one lost butterfly isolated in traffic hovering above cars not sure whether to land on the old Landcruiser or the Hyundai hatch. I felt immediate sadness and nostalgia for that moment in India, because, whether this lonely butterfly was aware of it or not, its life was infinitely less blissful than the Kerala butterflies on their lantana bush, and my life in this moment stuck in traffic also felt infinitely less blissful!

Life isn’t always perfect, we will often be caught up in the flow of traffic on busy freeways. The challenge is to balance moments of duty, of disharmony, of pain with moments which reconnect us with the bliss which leads us towards healing. We can’t avoid suffering in life, but we can avoid perpetuating it by turning our attention away from the thoughts which lead to pain and instead towards the beauty which exists in every moment.

Enjoy this edition of Wellness News. There is some great content, particularly the article titled “Healing Cancer” which is quite lengthy but gives significant insight into what is involved is a cancer healing commitment. F Peace, Mandy

mind-body healing integrative therapies lifestyle & environment inspiring personal stories current news & information nutrition & recipes inspirations Welcome to the Winter 2012 Print Edition of Wellness News. We have compiled an informative, inspiring edition for you with some great content.

This year we have changed the size and format of the magazine to make it not only more economical but also more appealing and easy to read.

Wellness News is unique in that it is an extremely positive, uplifting, intelligent and beautiful publication focusing on wellness, healing and the environment. Wellness News is designed to offer hope and life-enhancing wellness strategies for people who may be seriously ill, and a broad spectrum of information for people interested in maintaining good health.

Wellness News articles are commissioned or sourced from highly regarded international journals, publications and websites and are divided into seven key areas for complete cancer wellness and healing: mind-body healing; integrative therapies; nutrition and recipes; inspiring personal stories; lifestyle and environment; current news & information; inspirations.

Topics covered are spirituality, healing modalities, complementary therapies, integrative medicine – balanced with inspirational stories, recipes and the latest nutrition and wellness trends, and also information on how the environment can impact on health and wellbeing. We place great value on personal cancer stories for their insight into how people manage in challenging circumstances. Also important to our balance of content is poetry and art for the healing potential of words and images.

Visually, our magazine is designed to inspire the healing spirit. Please enjoy this edition!

INTRODUCTION

about Wellness News when you look for beauty in the world around you, then even the weeds in your garden are wondrous and amazing!

about CSA Since 1984 Cancer Support Association has helped and supported thousands of West Australians with cancer to achieve wellness and healing. CSA is a pioneer of the “wellness approach” to cancer which integrates lifestyle therapies such as nutrition, exercise and meditation with treatment.

CSA’s mission is to help people with cancer, their carers and families become informed, empowered and supported through an integrative approach which includes therapeutic, lifestyle and ancillary services and an educational program.

CSA is the only cancer wellness organisation in WA which supports people through every stage of every type of cancer.

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Meeting the Challenge Handbook for People Diagnosed with Cancer

Dealing with Diagnosis • The Wellness Approach to Cancer • Complementary Therapies • Diet & Nutrition • Lifestyle Medicine • Power of the Mind • How to Relax & Meditate • Support for Families • Role of the Carer • Cancer Support & Resources in WA

Cancer Support Association www.cancersupportwa.org.au

Meeting the Challenge Handbook for People Diagnosed with Cancer Anyone diagnosed with cancer will benefit from the immediate strategies in this handbook which may help you positively deal with cancer and improve your life. Meeting the Challenge is based on the principles of lifestyle medicine and mind-body healing. The handbook contains information to help you process your diagnosis, to learn about the options available to you, and introduce you to the key areas of lifestyle medicine.

Lifestyle medicine is about what you can do within your everyday life to improve your health. Adjustments to lifestyle, nutrition and adding meditation, natural and complementary therapies into your daily routine can all improve your wellbeing. Once you’ve read through this handbook you may have a clearer idea about the kinds of changes you could make to aid your recovery from cancer. At the back of the handbook we have included a template for you to start thinking about your own personalised cancer wellness plan.

contents winter 2012 news & information What’s on at CSA in 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 CSA Weekly Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 About CSA’s 5 Week Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Updates from the CSA Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 How Vitamin C stops cancer. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .14 Aspirin’s role in cancer treatment. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .15 Exercise a ‘super drug’ for cancer survivors. . .. . .. 16 Prescribing Meditation for cancer patients. . . . . . .16 Laughter Yoga at CSA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Natural Household Cleaners. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .57 Volunteer at CSA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

mind-body healing When cancer disappears: the curious phenomenon of “unexpected remission”. . . . . . . . 18 Breast cancer grandmother gives hope to others through NLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 The Healing Power of Consciousness and Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

personal stories Mother Maya Tiwari – a light which cannot be made brighter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 Grace Bubeck – Surrendering to the process of healing, dancing with life. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48

forgiveness

CSA is distributing Meeting the Challenge “... FORGIVING is NOT forgetting and it is NOT for them. It is Handbook free of charge to help more for YOU. Forgiveness is the key to unlocking the cage where people in WA with cancer. Download or bitterness dwells and once it is opened – you have set order a copy online or phone 9384 3544: yourself free.” – Dodinsky www.cancersupportwa.org.au 4 Cancer Support Association www.cancersupportwa.org.au

CONTENTS

nutrition & food Anti-cancer Superfoods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Alkaline/Acid Food Chart. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 Kale: the top 10 health benefits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Facts about watermelons . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .53 The health benefits of sprouts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54 Health and Chemoprotective Properties of Sprouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54 My Juice Fast . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .56

inspirations Wishes by Rumi. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .23 10 ways to cultivate loving kindness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Advice from a tree. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .34 The Journey. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . ..

Cultivating Gratitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

believe in yourself In the infinity of life where I am all is perfect, whole and complete.

integrative medicine Healing cancer: NLP meets Chi Kung Part A. . . . . 24 Healing cancer: NLP meets Chi Kung Part B . . . . . 33 What is NLP?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 Cancer Support in China. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 40

I accept perfect health as the natural state of my being.

I now consciously release any mental patterns within me that could express as dis-ease in any way.

I love and approve of myself.

recipes Creamy Kale Salad. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .52 Avocado Kale Salad. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 52 Watermelon and Tomato Gazpacho . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Clover Sprout Shot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Broccoli Sprout Juice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Mung Bean Sprout Hummus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

I love and approve of my body.

I feed it nourishing foods and beverages.

I exercise it in ways that are fun.

I recognise my body as a wondrous and magnificent machine, and I feel privileged to live in it.

I love lots of energy.

All is well in my world.

An affirmation by Louise Hay

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what’s on at CSA

be part of the csa community by joining the groups, courses and wellness activities at our wellness & healing centre

Meeting the Challenge

“If you travel alone, you can probably go faster. But the journey will never be as rewarding, and you probably won’t be able to go as far.” ~ John Maxwell

1 Day Cancer Wellness Seminar Life Changing Information for people with cancer and their carers. Led by Cathy Brown, this seminar provides wellness information, wellness strategies, new resources (such as nutrition, treatment options, meditation) and sharing with others on a healing journey. There is also a focus on accessing cancer information online. Held monthly at CSA on the first Friday of every month from 9.30am-4.30pm. Free for new CSA members, bookings are required.

cancer support groups

with Angela Ebert & Mike Sowerby Support groups enable people to discover new ways of coping; share the experience with others going through something similar; exchange information and resources; develop a holistic approach to healing; be inspired by others on the journey to regaining wellness. CSA offers an open cancer support group for people with cancer and their carers on Tuesday mornings 10am-12pm. This weekly group is facilitated by Angela Ebert and Mike Sowerby. We also offer a Carers’ Support Group and a Grief and Loss Support Group.

guest speaker program

with inspirational speakers & healers Once a month, CSA host special guests to entertain, educate and inspire members and friends. Make sure you are on our email list to ensure you receive information about upcoming guest speakers.

counselling

Individual, Family & Group

Ongoing counselling sessions with a caring, compassionate professional could help you deal more effectively with the many issues, fears and emotions which arise on the cancer journey; gain clarity to make treatment decisions; give you the insight to grow from your experiences; and the peace of mind and heart needed to heal.

Sessions can be booked with our qualified counsellor Mike Sowerby, and are also available at home or hospital for those unable to make it in to our Cottesloe centre.

5 week cancer wellness courses

reiki clinic

If you have cancer or any other chronic illness there are things you can do in your everyday life to help you restore health, find peace and be happy. CSA offers courses for people with illnesses which cover the key areas of Lifestyle Medicine. Enrol online for: (1) Cancer Wellness, (2) Eating for Cancer Recovery, (3) Absolute Beginners Yoga for Healing, (4) Introduction to Meditation. CSA’s 5 Week Courses are designed to be of maximum benefit to people with cancer.

Courses start regularly throughout the year.

CSA offers a weekly reiki clinic staffed by qualified volunteers. Gold coin donation. Reiki is a Japanese energybased therapy that promotes healing and overall wellness.

A trained reiki practitioner uses his or her hands to transmit energy to the recipient. Reiki has been proven to help with pain management, relaxation, and side effects of cancer treatment.

(details on following page)

reflexology

with Udo Kannapin Reflexology is the application of pressure, stretching and movement to the feet and hands to trigger corresponding parts of the body. It complements standard medical care by relaxing the body and reducing stress. 1 hour sessions are deeply relaxing and healing.

every Tuesday

qi gong

with Alan Donelly Qigong is a traditional Chinese mind-body practice that uses meditation, breathing control, and movement to balance the flow of energy (qi) through the body to help healing to occur.

CSA offers qigong to complement cancer therapies and help with the symptoms of cancer. In this setting, qigong is not used as a treatment for cancer per se, but as a method of easing cancer symptoms such as fatigue.

meditation made easy with Bavali Hill

CSA weekly program

please check our website before attending as session times may change.

Meditation is a safe and simple way to balance a person’s physical, emotional, and mental states.

Meditation for healing is not new. Meditative techniques are the product of diverse cultures and peoples around the world. The value of Meditation to alleviate suffering and promote healing has been known and practiced for thousands of years. In these weekly lessons at CSA, Bavali guides participants through various healing meditation techniques and gives notes and handouts to support home practice.

Meditation Made Easy: Ongoing Lessons ................................9.30 – 11.00am

yoga for healing

Open Cancer Support Group.....................................................10.00 – 12.00pm

with Madeline Clare Yoga for Healing classes bring the joy of yoga to people with cancer and those who may need a nurturing space to practice. CSA yoga teacher, Madeline Clare, takes inspiration from both Iyengar and Vinyasa approaches to yoga with an emphasis on relaxation, breath awareness, gentle movement and meditation. A balanced yoga practice has the capacity to heal, shift energy blockages and bring the body into physical, emotional, mental and spiritual alignment.

exercise for cancer program

with Eric Martin and Michael Jenning Research shows that exercise makes a significant difference to cancer outcomes and is an effective cancer therapy in its own right. CSA is now hosting a one to one personal training program in conjunction with exercise physiologists Eric Martin and Michael Jenning from Notre Dame University. The program places an emphasis on developing an appropriate and indiviudalised exercise program to assist with recovery from cancer. Suitable for all people with cancer. 1 hour appointments on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, bookings are essential.

cancer wellness walking group

Monday

TUESDAY

Exercise for Cancer Program (by appointment)...................... 7.30 -10.30am Cancer Wellness Walking Group....................................................8.00 – 9.00am Meet at Blue Duck Cafe, North Cottesloe.

Reiki Healing Sessions..................................................................... 12.15 – 1.30pm Counselling Sessions (by appointment) .....................................1.00 – 4.00pm 5 Week Cancer Wellness Course (bookings required)............1.30 – 3.30pm Dates: 6th June, 25 July, 29th Aug, 17 Oct, 21 Nov Sound Healing (monthly: check website for dates).....................4.00-5.30pm

TUESDAY EVENING

5 Week Absolute Beginners Yoga Course..................................6.00 – 7.00pm Dates: 24 July, 28th Aug, 16 Oct, 20 Nov 5 Week Introduction to Meditation (bookings required).....6.00 – 7.00pm Dates: 24 July, 28th Aug, 16 Oct, 20 Nov Guest Speaker Program.....................................................................6.00 – 8.00pm 1st Tuesday of each month (see website for guest speakers)

WEDNESDAY

Gawler Foundation 12 Week Cancer Wellbeing Course......10 – 12:30pm (check website for 2012 dates) Laughter Yoga....................................................................................10.45 – 11.45am Chinese Medical Healthcare Qigong....................................1.00pm – 2.30pm Counselling Sessions (by appointment)......................................9.00 – 4.00pm

THURSDAY

Exercise for Cancer Program (bookings required).................. 7.30 -10.30am Arts for Healing (Art Therapy) .................................................... 10.00 – 12.00 pm with Glenys Gibbs ($15/members $25/non-members) Yoga for Healing (Gentle yoga and relaxation).....................11.00 – 12.15pm Grief Support Group (last Thursday of each month)........1.00pm – 3.00pm

North Cottesloe Beach

5 Week Eating for Cancer Recovery Course.................................1.30-3.30pm Dates: 7th June, 26 July, 30th Aug, 18 Oct, 22 Nov

Sunshine or light rain...join CSA staff and volunteers in a weekly wellness walking group along North Cottesloe beach beginning and ending at the Blue Duck Cafe, North Cottesloe. Come along to gain some informal support, make new connections with other individuals with cancer and enjoy the fresh sea air and exercise. 8am-9am Tuesday mornings.

Counselling Sessions (by appointment) .....................................9.00 – 4.00pm

FRIDAY

Meeting the Challenge 1 Day Cancer Wellness Seminar....9.30 – 4.30pm 1st Friday of each month. Free for new members.

Reflexology Sessions (by appointment).............................10.00am – 2.00pm

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NEW CSA members can attend free!

Meet our 5 Week Course Presenters We are honoured to have a great team of professional facilitators who have come together to present CSA’s life changing five week courses for people with cancer.

Cathy Brown CSA’s Cathy Brown has was diagnosed with secondary melanoma in 1990. She was told there was no treatment which could save her and she had 2 months–2 years to live.

This initiated an amazing journey, exploring beliefs and healing modalities. Cathy now facilitates courses at CSA to and is an inspiration to others facing the same predicament.

Kathleen Kirby-Turner

Meeting the Challenge

Kathleen Kirby-Turner practices Satyananda yoga and has been an accredited teacher for many years. Her main focus is making the practice of yoga accessible and relevant to all people regardless of physical limitation. She has taught classes for all levels and spent 4 months teaching yoga in a shelter for battered house-maids while living in Kuwait.

Patti McBain

Patti McBain has been a practitioner and teacher of meditation and yoga for over 30 years after attending her first class in 1976. She trained in Europe and the US and has taught in business, schools, private homes, yoga, meditation and community centres.

one day cancer wellness workshop First Friday of every month between 9.30am-4.30pm at CSA, Cottesloe Life Changing Information for people with cancer: • The Wellness Approach to Cancer • Nutrition for Optimal Health • Power of the Mind • Introduction to Meditation • Integrating Natural & Complementary Therapies

To book ph CSA 8384 3544 online: www.cancersupportwa.org.au

8

Cancer Support Association

Scott, Jazz, Paul and Marnie

(left to right) Ironman and endurance athletes Scott and Jazz are on a mission to inspire and teach the world how to become healthy, happy and fit for life.

Together they run motivating workshops and seminars sharing knowledge, research, resources and years of experience about the benefits of RAW food plus ethical and environmentally friendly plant-based diets.

Paul Boroughs studied agricultural science which was the start of his journey in specialised areas of plants growth. After spending time in the Middle East supervising a team of workers growing wheat in the desert, he managed a turf farm in WA. Paul now follows his passion – the chemically free and organic growth of plants. He currently has an aquaponic, sustainable greenhouse where he grows sprouts and wheatgrass to help people with their wellbeing.

Marnie Downer is the course coordinator. Marnie has studied naturopathy at the Australian Institute of Holistic Medicine and has a Health Science degree from Charles Sturt University. After graduation she set up her own business in Mount Lawley. Marnie’s interest is in not only treating illness, but helping others understand how to build health, particularly through nutrition.

www.cancersupportwa.org.au

MAY...5 Week

About CSA’s 5 Week Wellness Courses

Life-changing courses to give participants the knowledge, skills and inspiration to restore health, find peace and be happy!

Cancer Wellness Course

Tuesdays 1.30pm-3.30pm, $100 CSA members, $150 public This course introduces participants to the key areas of the wellness approach to cancer including: how to cope with cancer; lifestyle medicine; diet and nutrition; developing personal and practical resources; meditation and exercise; integrating natural medicine and complementary therapies. Informative, practical sessions and demonstrations with notes and home practices. *All other CSA activities are FREE during this 5 week course.

Eating for Cancer Recovery Course

Thursdays 1.30pm-3.30pm, $150 members, $200 public An introduction to eating for cancer recovery. Course includes information on healing foods which prevent cancer and assist recovery, and practical sessions on juicing, sprouting, raw food preparation, organic gardening. Includes juices, sprouts and great food!

Introduction to Meditation Course

Tuesdays 6pm-7pm, $50 members, $60 public A structured course where participants learn and are guided in simple meditation techniques to help concentrate better, meditate deeply, replenish energy levels, relax deeply, counter stress, cultivate inner peace and promote self-healing.

Absolute Beginners Yoga Course

Tuesdays 6pm-7pm, $50 CSA members, $60 public Our gentle yoga course is designed for absolute beginners and people with cancer or other medical conditions. There is an emphasis on safely stretching, strengthening and relaxing; gaining a thorough understanding of yoga; and accessing the self-healing and relaxation potential of this healing art.

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News from the CSA Team...

update from the President: a fresh team with new direction It has now been approximately seven months since the AGM and the new board of directors were elected. A great deal has happened during this time and I would like to bring you up to date with some of these activities.

After the new Board gained control of CSA, we were dismayed by the financial state the previous board and management had left the CSA in. As a result, our new treasurer Richard Nowak has worked tirelessly with CSA management to regain financial control. We have also engaged an external accountancy group to ensure absolute transparency, honesty and efficiency with our bookkeeping and reporting. There still remains a great deal of work to do in this department. On behalf of the board I would like to thank Richard for the tireless effort he has given and continues to give.

Another significant change that has occurred is with the leadership of the CSA. In the short time that Mandy has been in the General Manager role she has put in an extraordinary effort to revitalise the CSA. In conjunction with our client services team she has revamped our program of services and is generating several new programs this year.

The CSA has undergone significant changes within our staff team to become more efficient and effective, with the addition of Ester Gomez to our management team as a senior marketing specialist. Ester has been invaluable in assisting Mandy develop new avenues of funding.

Another very important task which Mandy and her team are undertaking is rebuilding relationships with other similar organisations and agencies. This will enable CSA to develop and expand our activities and help us towards our ultimate goal of making available the best possible service and support to those travelling with cancer as well as their carers and loved ones.

The services CSA provides continue to grow and we remain extremely fortunate to have the calibre of people such as Cathy Brown and Mike Sowerby leading this. Several new programs have been introduced with more in the planning phase. Arrangements are also well underway to take our ‘Meeting the Challenge’ workshop to regional and outer metropolitan Perth.

One of the most exciting times for CSA remains ahead of us with the advent of the new Cancer Wellness Centre (CWC). This will be where Breast Care WA, Melanoma WA and several smaller like organisations will be co-located at Wanslea house and will enable CSA, whilst retaining our autonomy, to be able to team with them to provide a greater service to those in need. While the planning phase is continuing it is expected that physical work on a complete refurbishment of Wanslea House, which is part of the CWC establishment and fully funded by Lotteries West, should commence around the middle of this year with completion towards the end of 2013.

CSA is currently undergoing a huge transformation in the way it is managed and the services it provides. Our aim is to re-establish the caring and supportive community of like-minded people and provide an environment where people can come in their time of need and then continue to receive support once they have conquered their challenges with cancer.

As in all charities, finances and fundraising continues to be a major concern for the longevity of the CSA, but through the renewed energy of the new CSA management team and the new board a number of different avenues for fundraising are being explored.

While we can use all the help and support we can get in this regard and significant challenges lay ahead, I am confident that with the professionalism, competency and enthusiasm of our current management team supported by our new board of directors we will be able to steer the CSA through this period and emerge better than ever.

Pat Ryan CSA President 10

Cancer Support Association

www.cancersupportwa.org.au

This year has been a huge challenge for the whole CSA team who have all stepped up to meet the challenges of revitalising and rebuilding CSA. After last year’s AGM there was a complete change of Board which has been a blessing for CSA. While their work is largely behind the scenes, our new Board are committed and etremely proactive in their roles and work closely with the CSA team as mentors and advisors, helping devise strategy and working together with staff to implement positive change. We are very grateful for their business expertise and the professionalism and honesty they bring to CSA management.

The new CSA management team apply the same wellness model in the workplace that we promote to our members for their healing. We have created a ‘leadership team’ who work together within a culture of openness and transparency, and are putting a lot of time and energy into creating a more ambient, positive community for our members and revitalising our client services with meaningful new programs and activities.

I have worked at CSA for more than a decade in a Communications role editing the Wellness News, and have seen many highs and lows within the organisation. I can honestly say that the team we have now and the services we are developing are the best in the history of CSA. I am proud of the effort our staff, board and volunteers have made to improve CSA’s finances and internal processes, and the commitment they have made to ensure CSA can flourish.

Ester Gomez, a highly experienced marketing specialist has recently joined the team after volunteering with CSA and has already made a huge contribution to our fundraising review and strategic planning. Over the course of this year you will see new fundraising and education campaigns and events.

This year we have sought out grants, sponsorship and corporate funding to extend our services to outer metropolitan and regional WA. We have already received a generous grant from the Brady Cancer Support Foundation and sponsorship of Wellness News magazine from Western Potatoes.

While our focus has been necessarily inward looking as we develop new strategies for CSA and focus on developing new income streams, we have put equal attention on expanding our client services with the development of a series of new 5 Week Cancer Wellness Courses; a dynamic Guest Speaker Program; the Regional and Outer Metropolitan Meeting the Challenge Program; and the Networking and Education Program.

We are also working with community groups to develop appropriate cancer wellness programs for Aboriginal Australians and also a cancer wellness and support program in outer metro Perth where there is a great need for the kinds of services we have offered here in Cottesloe for 28 years. There is a good chance CSA will soon be offering a program near you!

CSA will soon be part of the “Cancer Wellness Centre” which is comprised of four cancer charities sharing the Wanslea site which is owned by the National Trust. This is a very positive step for CSA as we will be the main service provider at Wanslea.

There is a representative from each organisation on the Board of the new Cancer Wellness Centre to ensure that each charity is equally represented, that the project is collaborative and all decisions made are beneficial for the members of each organisation. I am pleased to represent CSA on the CWC Board.

The Cancer Wellness Centre project has been funded by a building grant from Lotteries West (more than $8,500,000).

The heritage-listed building will be restored to its former glory and we will have a new meeting hall with a capacity for 100 people on the grounds and beautifully landscaped gardens for our members to enjoy. We are pleased that client services can continue onsite without having to relocate throughout construction.

While change can be a challenge, the changes taking place at CSA are positive and exciting. CSA now has a completely committed and dedicated team of staff, executive management and volunteers working diligently for our members and all West Australians with cancer.

Mandy BeckerKnox General Manager Winter 2012

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CSA NEWS AND INFORMATION

from the General Manager: working together to revitalise and rebuild csa

Client services: helping our clients to meet the challenges of cancer Wow! What a year this has been. CSA has been very busy implementing exciting and new programs for members. The 1 day Meeting the Challenge (which is an introduction to the CSA and the holistic approach to cancer) has now expanded to encompass the 5 week Wellness Course which brings together 22 years of accumulated information from my journey with cancer. This allows participants to explore at a deeper level different aspects of healing.

This is presented two hours each week through power point presentations, meditations, journal writing, simple exercises, learning about the mind and emotions. This allows participants to explore their healing journey and in the final week, work on a personal wellness plan – bringing it all together. Remember that the CSA is always there – without any judgement – creating a sanctuary for you to ‘just be’.

Cathy Brown Client Services, Wellness Facilitator

CSA is coming to Broome!

We are pleased to announce our Meeting The Challenge regional program has received generous support through the Brady Cancer Support Foundation enabling Cath and I to travel to Broome in late June. There has been great interest in the Broome community for MTC, as geographic isolation and minimal support services make it tough going for those diagnosed with cancer. Sadly the survival rates for those with cancer in rural/remote areas are 35% lower than in the city, so programs such as MTC are seen as vital in helping address the social emotional wellbeing of our friends in the bush.

We have trialled a Thursday evening Men’s support group, alas with few takers so we have for now cancelled the Thursday evening sessions. CSA is committed to a dedicated men’s cancer support group so if you are interested please let us know and we can look at reestablishing the group if the demand is there.

I have been doing home/hospital visits for those in need of respite from travel, and this is proving both valuable and rewarding to those who have arranged a visit.

I am finding this a very exciting time for reviewing the many new findings in support of a holistic approach to cancer and wellbeing. To mention just two you might be interested to follow up, long-term research conclusively supports Aspirin as a cancer preventative*and research by Sydney University has demonstrated meditation as significantly improving wellbeing for those practitioners of peace of mind*.

Doctors associated with the study are calling for meditation to be part of ‘prescribed’ treatment available to clients when visiting their doctor. Interestingly patients visiting their GP in Holland have three complimentary visits to the ‘theatre/arts’ available on prescription as part of their National Health Initiative.

Peace be with you.

Mike Sowerby Support Groups, Counselling & Research *Algra AM and Rothwell PM. Effects of regular aspirin on long-term cancer incidence and metastasis: a systematic comparison of evidence from observational studies versus randomised trials. The Lancet Oncology, Early Online Publication, March 21 2012 *R. Manocha, D. Black, J. Sarris, and C. Stough, “A randomized, controlled trial of meditation for work stress, anxiety and depressed mood in full-time workers,” Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, vol. 2011, Article ID 960583, 8 pages, 2011. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar

Barbara Nicolay, Fundraising Hilary Harman, Client Care

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www.cancersupportwa.org.au

CSA NEWS AND INFORMATION

Fundraising and Marketing 2012 is a significant year for the Cancer Support Association, as it enters a new era, offering the marketing team with a great opportunity to bring back and reposition CSA brand’s values as the leading position as a Cancer Wellness Service Provider in WA. During this year, the CSA’s marketing team is focusing its efforts on improving existing marketing tactics and implementing new strategies with the objectives to; 1. Nurture our relationships with existing clients; 2. Develop new and innovative revenue streams and 3. Continue growing awareness of CSA’s services amongst people with cancer in the local, outer metropolitan, regional and remote areas of Western Australia.

To nurture existing relationships, we are working on improving the existing ways of communication, as well as their frequency amongst others. We are in the process of acquiring new database software to help us understand our members and supporters better, to communicate with you more regularly and effectively and to go above and beyond your needs and expectations.

To develop new and innovative revenue streams to keep the organisation providing ‘best in class’ services and to continue growing, we are working on establishing corporate funding programs, applying for grants and developing CSA owned products, courses and services.

The marketing team has defined a new strategy to bring raffles and mail appeals to life by introducing an innovative mail concept, taking the raffles sales back to public venues and looking at involving community groups in raffle programs.

As of this raffle, we have contracted our telefundraising call centre to a professional centre as CSA’s traditional fundrasing results from raffles and mail appeals has been steadily declining over the last few years. The new call centre is located in Sydney and members and supporters may receive calls about our raffles from their Sydney number. The plan is to reinstate the call centre at CSA once the Cancer Wellness Centre is complete.

CSA will be introducing, later in the year, a range of CSA branded products and will be running a state wide community event, CSA Wellness Week, funded by key sponsors and with the objective to promote wellness and cancer prevention.

Lastly, to continue growing awareness of CSA’s services and products CSA’s objective is to continue promoting its services in the print and online local and state media, as well as, maintaining and establishing new relationships with health providers in outer metro, regional and remote areas by distributing the Meeting the Challenge handbook. It is also a priority to work with corporations to obtain funding to bring and promote our services in these areas.

Cancer Wellness Program in the Yarra Valley West Australians with cancer are invited to apply for a subsidy to attend the Life and Living Cancer Self Help Program at the Gawler Foundation, Yarra Valley, Victoria The Gawler Foundation, through the generosity of the Brady Cancer Support Foundation, are able to offer substantial bursaries to people from Western Australia who would like to attend the Foundation’s world renowed Life and Living cancer self help program in Victoria.

If you or a family member have a diagnosis of cancer and you would like to attend the program please contact The Gawler Foundation on (03) 5967 1730 or email info@gawler.org The bursary can be used to assist you with fees, flights or having a carer come along with you to attend the program.

Ester Gomez Senior Marketing Specialist Barbara Nicolay Fundraising Co-ordinator Winter 2012

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In the News...

Vitamin C is a well known and commonly used cancer therapy.

What is the sicence behind vitamin c and does it really work?

How Vitamin C stops cancer

Nearly 30 years after Nobel laureate Linus Pauling famously and controversially suggested that vitamin C supplements can prevent cancer, a team of Johns Hopkins scientists have shown that in mice at least, vitamin C – and potentially other antioxidants – can indeed inhibit the growth of some tumours – just not in the manner suggested by years of investigation.

The conventional wisdom of how antioxidants such as vitamin C help prevent cancer growth is that they grab up volatile oxygen free radical molecules and prevent the damage they are known to do to our delicate DNA. The Hopkins study, led by Chi Dang, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine and oncology and Johns Hopkins Family Professor in Oncology Research, unexpectedly found that the antioxidants’ actual role may be to destabilize a tumour’s ability to grow under oxygen-starved conditions. Their work is detailed this week in Cancer Cell.

“The potential anticancer benefits of antioxidants have been the driving force for many clinical and preclinical studies,” says Dang. “By uncovering the mechanism behind antioxidants, we are now better suited to maximize their therapeutic use.”

“Once again, this work demonstrates the irreplaceable value of letting researchers follow their scientific noses wherever it leads them,” Dang adds.

The authors do caution that while vitamin C is still essential for good health, this study is preliminary and people should not rush out and buy bulk supplies of antioxidants as a means of cancer prevention.

The Johns Hopkins investigators discovered the surprise antioxidant mechanism while looking at mice implanted with either human lymphoma (a blood cancer) or human liver cancer cells. Both of these cancers produce high levels of free radicals that can be suppressed by feeding the mice supplements of antioxidants, either vitamin C or N-acetylcysteine (NAC).

However, when the Hopkins team examined cancer cells from cancer-implanted mice not fed the antioxidants, they noticed the absence of any significant DNA damage. “Clearly, if DNA damage was not in play as a cause of the cancer, then whatever the antioxidants were doing to help was also not related to DNA damage,” says Ping Gao, Ph.D, lead author of the paper.

That conclusion led Gao and Dang to suspect that some other mechanism was involved, such as a protein known to be dependent on free radicals called HIF-1 (hypoxia-induced factor), which was discovered over a decade ago by Hopkins researcher and co-author Gregg Semenza, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Program in Vascular Cell Engineering. Indeed, they found that while this protein was abundant in untreated cancer cells taken from the mice, it disappeared in vitamin C-treated cells taken from similar animals.

“When a cell lacks oxygen, HIF-1 helps it compensate,” explains Dang. “HIF-1 helps an oxygen-starved cell convert sugar to energy without using oxygen and also initiates the construction of new blood vessels to bring in a fresh oxygen supply.”

Some rapidly growing tumours consume enough energy to easily suck out the available oxygen in their vicinity, making HIF-1 absolutely critical for their continued survival. But HIF-1 can only operate if it has a supply of free radicals. Antioxidants remove these free radicals and stop HIF-1, and the tumour, in its tracks.

The authors confirmed the importance of this “hypoxia protein” by creating cancer cells with a genetic variant of HIF-1 that didn’t require free radicals to be stable. In these cells, antioxidants no longer had any cancer-fighting power. F From: Science Daily. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health. Authors on the paper are Dean Felsher of Stanford; and Gao, Huafeng Zhang, Ramani Dinavahi, Feng Li, Yan Xiang, Venu Raman, Zaver Bhujwalla, Linzhao Cheng, Jonathan Pevsner, Linda Lee, Gregg Semenza and Dang of Johns Hopkins.

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A small study focused on the big question of whether intravenous Vitamin C fights cancer has yielded “somewhat encouraging findings,” some Thomas Jefferson University researchers conclude.

Many alternative medicine practitioners are firmly convinced that ascorbic acid infusions work, based on anecdotal cases of remissions and cures. But the evidence remains inconclusive.

In the new study, nine patients with advanced pancreatic cancer received intravenous C plus two standard chemotherapy drugs for eight weeks. CT scans showed eight of the nine patients had shrinkage of their pancreas tumours. That’s unusual with chemo alone, the researchers say.

“This is a horrible disease that doesn’t respond to much.

We wanted to see if we at least got an efficacy signal,” said study leader Daniel Monti, director of Jefferson’s integrative medicine center. “And we did.”

But the shrinkage did not change the patients’ grim prognosis. On average, their disease progressed in three months, and they died in six months – comparable to studies of chemotherapy alone.

Vitamin C was ardently championed as a cancer therapy 35 years ago by two-time Nobel laureate Linus Pauling.

His theory was scorned after two large, federally funded trials found no benefit – and he began touting ascorbate for ills from colds to mental illness.

Newer research suggests those trials had a fatal flaw: The patients took Vitamin C in pill form. Mark Levine, a nutrition researcher at the National Institutes of Health and senior author of the Jefferson study, has published lab and animal studies showing that Vitamin C is toxic to cancer cells – but only at very high blood levels, which can be achieved only by putting ascorbate directly into a vein.

While he has long called for new trials, Jefferson is among the few institutions willing to revisit the C controversy.

As expected, the new study – published last week in the journal PLOS One – showed ascorbate plus chemo was safe. Given that, plus the tumour shrinkage, Jefferson has launched the next step: a trial in which 35 advanced pancreatic cancer patients will get 16 weeks of C plus chemo. F

Aspirin’s role in cancer treatment Scientists from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute in Melbourne say they have made an important discovery about how cancer spreads.

Researchers have known for years that common drugs like aspirin can help cancer patients, but they were not sure why.

Now they have found a link between drugs like aspirin and the ability for cancer tumours to spread in the body.

The institute’s associate professor Steven Stacker says the discovery unlocks a range of potential new pathways for treating cancer.

“Hopefully this insight is going to be very important to understanding how these drugs may work and in fact how the lymphatic vessels may really contribute to a tumour metastasis,” he said.

Professor Stacker says scientists have learned more about how the lymphatic vessels in the body’s circulatory system function.

Those vessels are often “hijacked” when a person has cancer.

“The blood vessels can be a conduit for cells to leave the primary tumour and go to other sites. The discovery we’ve found is that for the first time the major lymphatic vessels are seen to play their own individual role in this process,” he said.

Scientists found these vessels expand in the process of metastasis, increasing their volume and therefore allow cells and fluid to be transported more readily, a bit like a highway for cancer cells.

The researchers have discovered that drugs like aspirin, known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs), can play a role in shutting down the dilation of these lymphatic vessels or cancer highways, effectively closing off a tumour’s supply lines.

“It does provide an opportunity now to try to inhibit that protein or inhibit that process, reduce the dilation of those lymphatic vessels and potentially reduce metastatic spread,” he said.

The researchers also think their findings could lead to an early warning system to help doctors work out if a tumour is likely to spread.

The study was published on the 14th February 2012 in the journal Cancer Cell. F http://au.news.yahoo.com, February 2012

By Marie McCullough. From: The Inqurier, January, 2012.

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CURRENT CANCER NEWS

Does Vitamin C really work?

Prescribed Meditation helps cancer patients

Exercise a ‘super drug’ for cancer survivors

Like many other US doctors, Dr. Rex Hoffman has been prescribing meditation for cancer patients. Dr. Hoffman is the medical director of radiation oncology at Roy and Patricia Disney Family Cancer Centre in California, US. More than 6 million Americans are advised to practice meditation and other mind-body therapies by conventional health care providers, according to a report released by Harvard Medical School.

Exercise is a ‘wonder drug’ for cancer survivors and may prevent the disease returning, it was suggested yesterday.

Physical activity could also benefit those undergoing treatment for cancer, said Macmillan Cancer Support. It urges doctors to prescribe exercise rather than telling patients to rest, as in the past.

And for sicker patients, these alternatives therapies seem to provide both emotional and physical relief for many types of medical ailments, according to the findings, which were published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

A review of more than 60 studies for the charity found that being active during treatment does not worsen fatigue and has positive effects on mood and wellbeing.

Nearly 40 percent of Americans use some form of complementary and alternative medicine, according to the 2007 National Health Interview Survey. These practices include meditation, yoga, acupuncture and other types of mind-body-practices. And now, many are receiving the support of conventional doctors who have seen benefits in some of their patients.

Some studies suggest meditation can help lower blood pressure and even improve immune function.

“There are a lot of great benefits for people that are starting to meditate and we find that that’s cumulative,” said Harden. “So the more you meditate, the more the benefits last.”

Meditation has more recently been tried to treat eating disorders, alcoholism, psoriasis, and even impotence. More than two dozen medical centers across the country, including specialised cancer centres, have attached complementary medicine centres, or provide meditation or other mind-body classes.

However, many of these uses of meditation are experimental, and the results vary by each patient. Many experts say meditation is more likely to treat medical conditions successfully when it is used in conjunction with conventional therapies.

Once treatment has finished, exercise can reduce the impact of side effects, such as swelling, anxiety, depression, fatigue, impaired mobility and changes to weight.

The research also showed exercise has an impact on preventing recurrence of a few specific cancers. For example, women with breast cancer who exercise for 150 minutes a week at moderate intensity have more than a 40 per cent lower risk of dying and recurrence of disease compared to women who are active for less than one hour a week.

Moderate exercise includes very brisk walking, heavy cleaning – such as washing windows, vacuuming and mopping – mowing the lawn, cycling and badminton.

Macmillan Cancer Support found that more than half of GPs, practice nurses, oncologists and cancer nurses did not speak to their patients about the possible benefits of exercise, or only spoke to a few of them.

“I think it’s really an onus both not only on the patient but also on the physicians as well, and the people involved in the person’s healthcare to provide them with different options they can benefit from,” said Hoffman.

The charity’s chief medical officer Jane Maher said: ‘If physical exercise were a drug, it would be hitting the headlines. ‘There really needs to be a cultural change so that health professionals see physical activity as an integral part of cancer aftercare, not just an optional add-on.’

From: abcnews.go.com, 11th May.

From the Daily Mail, UK: www.dailymail.co.uk, August 2011

Cancer Wellness Support Groups

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Cancer Support Association

You are not alone on your journey with cancer. CSA is here to support all West Australians with cancer...you are welcome to attend our weekly support groups for people with cancer, their families and carers. Just come along, bookings not required.

Open Cancer Support Group: Tuesday 10am-12pm.

Separate Carers’ Support Group: Tuesday 10am-12pm Grief & Loss Group: last Thursday of each month 1pm-3pm

www.cancersupportwa.org.au

Join CSA’s wellness facilitators for a nurturing day of healing, sharing, learning and community.

Gentle Healing Yoga with Kathleen Kirby-Turner Experience the soothing gentle yoga and breathing practices which bring your mind, body and soul into perfect harmony and activate the body’s selfhealing potential. Incredibly gentle, these practices are suitable for everyone.

Meditation & Arts Healing with Glenys Gibbs Glenys gently, respectfully and skilfully guides participants in a deep meditation and healing session. Glenys will also facilitate Arts Healing sessions where participants playfully connect with their healing potential through various art mediums.

Outsmart Stress with Janni Goss Discover strategies for wellbeing including Gratitude and Vitamin “L” and Vitamin “F”. Explore the health benefits of Laughter.

Food for the Soul Enjoy a lovingly prepared morning tea and a lunch of healing, nurturing soups.

A Community Event at CSA. 80 Railway St, Cottesloe.

Contact CSA for more information & bookings 9384 3544.

Book easily online: www.cancersupportwa.org.au Cost is $35 CSA members, $50 non-members.

Winter 2012

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By Kelly Turner, PhD

We’ve all heard a story like this one. After trying all that Western medicine has to offer, a person with Stage 4 cancer is told there is nothing more the doctors can do and is sent home to receive hospice care. Five years later, that person strolls into the doctor’s office feeling great, with no further evidence of cancer.

In the medical world, this kind of case is referred to as a spontaneous remission, which is defined as “the disappearance, complete or incomplete, of cancer without medical treatment or with medical treatment that is considered inadequate to produce the resulting disappearance of disease symptoms or tumour.”1 Many researchers, including myself, believe that the word spontaneous is a misnomer and should be changed to unexpected or unlikely. We feel this way because few things in life are truly spontaneous – occurring purely by accident. It is more likely that these remissions have a cause – or two or three – that science has not yet identified.

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MIND-BODY HEALING

Background Regardless of what we call them, unexpected remissions do occur, and more than one thousand cases (across all types of cancer) have been published in medical journals.

Thousands more have most likely occurred but not been published, because most doctors don’t take the time to write up a report and submit it to a journal – which unfortunately is currently the only way of tracking these kinds of cases. Based on what has been published, unexpected remissions are estimated to occur in one out of every sixty thousand to one hundred thousand cancer patients; however, the true incidence rate is likely higher than that due to underreporting.2 Over the past century, there has been a steady flow of published case reports along with flashes of increased interest in this topic. For example, in the 1960s, the first two scientific books on unexpected remission were published, which led to a sharp increase in the number of case reports submitted to medical journals.3 After awhile, however, interest in the topic lulled again until the late 1980s when the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) launched the Spontaneous Remission Project, which culminated in the publication of a comprehensive bibliography of documented cases.4 Since then, approximately twenty new cases of unexpected remission are published each year, and there still has been a noticeable lack of formal research into why these remissions might occur.

It’s understandable, in a way. How do you begin to research something you cannot explain? Many conventional doctors feel threatened by these “miraculous” cures and don’t wish to talk about them – much less research them – for fear that they will give “false hope” to their other patients. In fact, most of the unexpected remission survivors I have studied are thrilled to have finally found a professional who is interested in learning how they healed. They often lament, “My doctor didn’t even ask how I did it.”

The Present Research

“...cancer thrives under certain, suboptimal conditions in the bodymind-spirit system and that to remove cancer, those underlying conditions must change.”

Perhaps because I am a qualitative researcher and not a medical doctor, I have always been fascinated by cases of unexpected remission. When I began studying them during my doctoral studies at the University of California at Berkeley, I was disappointed to see how little research had been done on this topic. The first problem I saw was that there was no database where I could easily find and analyze these cases. The second issue I noticed was that two groups of people had been largely ignored in the research: the survivors themselves as well as nonallopathic healers. It seemed odd that in an effort to explain unexpected remissions, we weren’t asking the opinions of the people who had actually healed. I also couldn’t understand why, when trying to explain a remission that is by definition not a result of allopathic treatment, we weren’t seeking out hypotheses from nonallopathic healers.

As a result, my dissertation research involved collecting hypotheses from these two previously ignored groups about why unexpected remissions may occur. More specifically, I spent ten months traveling the world in search of fifty nonallopathic cancer healers. My research led me to interview healers in the United States, China, Japan, New Zealand, Thailand, India, England, Ireland, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Brazil (translators were used when necessary). When I returned from this amazing trip, I found twenty unpublished cases of unexpected remission and conducted phone interviews with the survivors. I purposely sought out unpublished cases first, in order to see if the underreporting issues were true – which they were. I am grateful to the American Cancer Society for providing partial funding for this study.

My seventy hour-long interviews resulted in more than three thousand pages of transcripts, which I analyzed multiple times to find recurring themes. I identified more than seventy-five “treatments” for cancer, six of which were “very frequent” among all seventy subjects.

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Underlying beliefs about cancer also emerged from the interviews, of which three were very frequent. I am happy to share these results here in an abbreviated form. Please remember that these are hypotheses only, not facts.

Belief #1: Change the Conditions under which Cancer Thrives The majority of my interviewees believed that cancer thrives under certain, suboptimal conditions in the body-mind-spirit system and that to remove cancer, those underlying conditions must change. Healer #21 from Hawaii explained it this way: The most successful recoveries seem to be strongly associated with major mental, emotional, or physical behavioral changes among the people with the illness. What is major for one person, of course, may not be the same for another...I know of one success where a woman left her family, took up a different religion, changed her clothing and diet, and moved to a different country. Maybe she needed all of those changes or maybe not, but overall it worked for her. I know of another person, a man, who simply stopped trying to outdo his father, and that worked for him.

Art: Glenda Dietrich

“any illness – including cancer – represents a blockage or slowness somewhere in the bodymind-spirit system, whereas health occurs when there is a state of unhindered movement or flow.”

Belief #2: Illness = Blockage/Slowness; Health = Movement The majority of my interviewees also believed that any illness – including cancer – represents a blockage or slowness somewhere in the body-mind-spirit system, whereas health occurs when there is a state of unhindered movement or flow.

FIELD NOTES: Healer #1 explained his theory of “bypasses,” which he described as psychological defense mechanisms that function to create a bypass around an energetic block. He said that this energetic block can be located at either the spiritual, mental, emotional, or physical level and that these bypasses become solidified over time. In his opinion, true healing only occurs when a person (1) stops bypassing and (2) releases the original blockage.

Belief #3: A Body-Mind-Spirit Interaction Exists, and Energy Permeates All Three Levels The third belief that the majority of my interviewees discussed was the idea that a bodymind-spirit interaction exists and that energy permeates all three of these levels. According to Healer #35, an American-born, Peruvian-trained shaman: You have to have mind, body, and spirit healing. . . Most of us who live in our physical bodies, we don’t even know about spiritual or emotional bodies. So we have to connect with all three of them. But you see, in the mountains of the Andes, [the Andean people] are already connected.

In addition to these three underlying beliefs about health, there were also six treatments that the cancer survivors and healers discussed most frequently. These included physical as well as emotional, energetic, and spiritual “treatments.” They are listed below in alphabetical order.

Changing One’s Diet The majority of my interviewees believed it was important to change their diet to primarily whole vegetables, fruits, grains, and beans, while eliminating meat, sugar, dairy, and refined grains. Unexpected Survivor #16, who overcame liver cancer without conventional medical treatment, explains the major changes he made in his diet: [I healed] by just going on a basic, good, predominantly raw, vegan diet alone and supplementing it with lots of juices, like carrot juice, which of course is packed with nutrients. And the reason why the juices are so important is we have depleted basically

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all of our produce...That’s the reason for using juices as a supplement...All of a sudden the body says, Wow! It’s like watering the lawn when it’s dry.

Experiencing a Deepening of Spirituality The majority of my interviewees also discussed feeling – not just believing but actually feeling – an internal sensation of divine, loving energy. Some even had transcendent experiences, such as Unexpected Survivor #4, who healed from a Stage 3 lung cancer without conventional medical treatment: It was a ten-day, silent retreat, where you couldn’t speak, you couldn’t acknowledge other people in the room, and you just meditated for like fourteen hours a day. And I had this experience that I can’t explain. It was like all of a sudden there was a flash, and in my eyes I could see rivers of energy swirling around and at the same time felt that same thing through every cell of my body. And there’s a word for it, but I forget what the teacher said it was – but he explained that, “You felt your soul. You felt your true essence.” And I said, “Did I feel God?” And he kind of smiled and said, “Some people may call it that.”

Feeling Love/Joy/Happiness The majority of my interviewees also discussed the importance of increasing love and happiness in their life in order to help regain their health.

FIELD NOTES: [Unexpected Survivor #5, who overcame a rare lymphoma without conventional medical treatment] said that the energy/spiritual healer that he saw flooded his lymph system with energy and that after the treatment he felt like “a teenager in love.” He felt love toward everyone and everything. He said the treatment made him realize that if he could only find a way to feel that level of unconditional love all of the time, then he would be healed from his cancer.

Releasing Repressed Emotions Because many of my interviewees believed that illness represents a state of blockage, they therefore believed that it was healthy to release any emotions they had been holding onto, such as fear, anger, and grief. Unexpected Survivor #19, who overcame pancreatic cancer without conventional medical treatment, explains her insight into this process: I believe that the energy stuck in my body that appeared to be a mass or a tumour, and which [my physicians] called cancer, had been caused by these patterns that I was describing to you that don’t get released, that are continually overlaid, over and over and over, wherever they are. So if it’s kidney cancer, it’s probably excessive fears; if it’s lung cancer, it’s grief of some sort that hasn’t been resolved. I mean, I think they can be very much tracked back to patterns, thought patterns, thought forms that are not releasing, and therefore they hold in the cell memory are not being released.

Taking Herbs or Vitamins Many of my interviewees also took various forms of supplements, with the belief that they would help to detoxify their body or boost their immune system or both. Here is how Unexpected Survivor #8, who overcame Stage 3 colon cancer, described it: Dr. Turner: Of all the things you just told me about, what do you think was the most influential for your healing, or are they all pretty equal for you?

Unexpected Survivor #8: I would say, for my body, that would be the Wholly Immune [supplement] that I got...It has like about fifty different things in it...[A friend] researched it and said, “In that Wholly Immune, you’ve got seven cancer fighters. If you were taking them on their own, it wouldn’t be as potent.” He said that because they’re in combination, it acts as a cancer destroyer.

Using Intuition to Help Make Treatment Decisions Finally, many of my interviewees talked about the importance of using intuition to help make treatment-related decisions.

For example, Unexpected Survivor #7, who overcame recurrent metastatic breast cancer after conventional medicine had failed to work, described how a healer’s intuition matched her own: [The Tibetan healer] took his finger and with a pinpoint accuracy touched every spot on my body where I had had cancer, or where I had cancer presently. It was amazing! He could see what scans couldn’t see. I had predicted my cancer four times. I had led [my doctors] to it with a pinpoint of accuracy before the scans could even pick up the collection of cells. [The Tibetan healer] could do what I could do with my own body.

In addition to the six “treatments” listed above, which were common among both the healers and the unexpected survivors, there were additional treatments that were more frequent in one group than the other. For example, the following three themes were very frequent among the twenty unexpected survivors, but less so among the healers.

Taking Control of Health Decisions The vast majority of the unexpected survivors discussed taking a more active role in health decision-making, as opposed to passively accepting whatever their doctors told them.

Unexpected Survivor #9, who overcame recurrent metastatic breast cancer after conventional medicine had failed to work, describes it this way: Once the panic and fear had subsided after the breast cancer returned for the fifth time, I felt as certain as I ever had been that the only person who could save me was the scientist within...For five years, I had done everything my doctors had Winter 2012

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...from previous page advised and undergone all the treatments that they had prescribed...[This time] I decided that instead I would look at breast cancer in a detached way, as a natural scientist, and try to understand the disease as a type of natural phenomenon.

Having a Strong Will to Live The vast majority of the unexpected survivors demonstrated a strong will to live.

Unexpected Survivor #15, who overcame Stage 3 breast cancer without conventional medicine, demonstrates this willfulness: The doctor said to me, “After you get this surgery done and have the chemo and radiation, we can give you five more years to live.” And I thought, I want to live more than five years!

So, when the doctor said that, I got mad...So I kind of went out with an attitude of this isn’t going to beat me. I’m going to do this.

Receiving Social Support Finally, the vast majority of unexpected survivors in this study described receiving positive social support during their cancer experience. Unexpected Survivor #13 describes the outpouring of love that she received:

Art: Ruth Greenup

“...anomalies such as unexpected remissions is neither easy, nor uncontroversial, nor immediately fruitful.

However, I firmly believe that such research can lead us to a new paradigm of scientific understanding, and that by rigorously investigating unexpected remissions – as opposed to simply ignoring them – we can make significant advances in the war on cancer.”

One of the things I truly learned [when I had cancer] is that I am valued...I was able to share the reality of my experience, and people resonated with that and just stepped in to do whatever was needed. It was a huge validation of the universe and that all life is valued. I wasn’t valued because I’m me, my person necessarily, but because my lifehas value. All life has value, and that includes mine...It’s a wonderful consequence of this disease, the outpouring of love. Well, maybe it’s the purpose There were two themes that occurred more frequently among the healers than the unexpected survivors: (1) healing, infusing, or unblocking energy and (2) strengthening or activating the immune system. You can read more about these, as well as further analysis of all themes, in my full dissertation.

Future Directions The results from this qualitative study provide some hypotheses as to why unexpected remission may occur. What is needed now is for researchers to study these hypotheses in clinical trials that can test first for safety, then for feasibility, and finally for causality. In addition, there is an immediate need for a central database of unexpected remission case reports, ideally one that is online.

I am currently working on creating such a database and website, with the hope that survivors, doctors, and healers will be able to quickly submit their case reports so that researchers like myself can verify and analyse them. Eventually, this de-identified (anonymous) database will also be searchable by the public, serving not only as a portal for researchers but also as a source of inspiration for cancer patients who are currently battling the disease.

If you know anyone who has healed their cancer either (1) without conventional medicine, (2) after conventional medicine failed, or (3) who used integrative methods to outlive a dire prognosis, please encourage them to submit their case at www.UnexpectedRemission.org.

All submitted reports will be automatically de-identified unless specifically asked not to by the survivor.

In closing, I would like to say that studying anomalies such as unexpected remissions is neither easy, nor uncontroversial, nor immediately fruitful. However, I firmly believe that such research can lead us to a new paradigm of scientific understanding, and that by rigorously investigating unexpected remissions – as opposed to simply ignoring them – we can make significant advances in the war on cancer.

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“One thing I learned (when I had cancer) is that I am valued . . . I was able to share the reality of my experience, and people resonated with that and just stepped in to do whatever was needed.”

Recommended Supplements: Asian mushrooms

These contain strongly cancer-protective substances.

CoQ10 A natural antioxidant which has been shown to increase survival in some forms of cancer.

Folic acid Can help reduce the risk of breast cancer.

A vitamin B-complex Folic acid (with B12) can help prevent cancer of the colon.

A balanced calcium-magnesium formula Can be an

effective weapon against colon cancer.

Lycopene A powerful antioxidant that is particularly good at

protecting against prostate cancer.

Selenium Fosters healthy cell growth and division, and discourages tumour formation.

Vitamin D Reduces risk of prostate, colourectal and other forms of cancer. F

Article from: Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) newsletter Issue Seventeen, December 2011. IONS website: www.noetic.org.

Kelly Turner, PhD, is a researcher, lecturer, and consultant in the field of Integrative Oncology. Her specialized research focus is the “unexpected remission” of cancer, which is a remission that occurs either in the absence of Western medicine or after Western medicine has failed to achieve remission.

Her interest in complementary medicine began when she received her B.A. from Harvard University, and it later became the sole focus of her doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dt Turner’s dissertation research included a year-long trip around the world, during which she traveled to ten countries to interview 50 holistic healers and 20 “spontaneous” remission cancer survivors about their healing practices and techniques. Kelly is currently working on a book for cancer patients which summarizes her research findings, as well as a website that will continue to collect cases of Unexpected Remission (www.UnexpectedRemission.org).

While Dr. Turner’s research focuses on anomalies, she is a strong proponent of Western oncology treatments and she consults on how to integrate them with complementary treatments.

the time has come to break all my promises tear apart all chains and cast away all advice disassemble the heavens link by link and break at once all lovers ties with the sword of death put cotton inside both my ears and close them to all words of wisdom crash the door and enter the chamber where all sweet things are hidden how long can i beg and bargain for the things of this world while love is waiting? how long before i can rise beyond how i am and what i am? ~ Rumi (from Essential Rumi) Winter 2012

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Healing Cancer NLP Meets Chi Kung

By Dr Richard Bolstad and Margot Hamblett

We have a strong personal interest in assisting people to heal from cancer. Like most NLP based health practitioners, we have seen clients heal cancer using Neuro Linguistic Programming processes, and we have also seen clients die from cancer. However we know that cancer can be healed using mind-body processes, and it can be healed on a consistent basis. We are talking about a research study based on over 300,000 people which shows over 95% effectiveness.

The methods used in the world’s largest study on medicine-free healing of cancer are almost entirely familiar to NLP Practitioners, with one key exception. In the first part of this article we will document the research into these methods, and explain their basis in immunology. In the second part of the article, we describe a format for the effective healing of cancer and similar life threatening illnesses. We will also explain the one process which we consider is missing in current NLP treatment formats, and suggest an answer to one of the most profound questions in NLP: “If NLP is so good, why do many of our clients with cancer not improve?”.

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MIND/BODY HEALING

Part A: Research Based Approach To Mind-Body Healing Of Cancer Successes and Failures in Healing Over this century, health professionals in the west rediscovered the incredible power of the mind to heal the body. The first research demonstrating this in relation to cancer treatment was published by Dr Carl and Stephanie Simonton from Dallas Texas, in their book Getting Well Again (1978). Working with 159 people considered to have medically incurable cancer (average life expectancy 12 months) the Simontons reported two years later that 14 clients had no evidence of cancer at all, 29 had tumours which were stable or regressing, and almost all had lived well beyond the 12 month “limit” (p 11-12). Essentially, 10% were cured and 20% were curing themselves. The Simontons used a combination of biofeedback, visualisation, exercise, goalsetting, resolving internal conflicts, letting go of resentment, and engaging family support. They explained their success based on psychoneuroimmunology (the way the mind affects the nervous system which in turn affects the immune system).

In Mind-Body Therapy (1988) Ernest Rossi and David Cheek provided another coherent model for achieving this success, using ideodynamic communication (hypnotic communication with the unconscious mind). The publication of Beliefs (1990) by Robert Dilts, Tim Hallbom and Suzi Smith offered an NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) frame for understanding the same processes. This book begins with Dilts’ breathtaking account of his mother healing from cancer after 4 days of NLP to change limiting beliefs and resolve internal conflicts. Six years later, Ian McDermott and Joseph O’Connor published NLP And Health (1996), a thorough review of how NLP techniques can be used to mobilise the immune system to maintain health and heal illness.

These models are exciting, and they still leave us with the question, “What about the other 70% in the Simontons’ studies?”. In the field of complementary healing, including in the NLP community, we have sometimes encountered a fear of statistical research. This is related in our experience to a kind of incongruity amongst “healers”, who know that their methods only sometimes deliver the success they are advertising. Basically, they don’t want to talk about (or even think about) the majority of their previous clients, who did not get cured. It is true that for individual clients, statistics are deceptive. If your cancer heals, it heals, and so you have not 10% success but 100% success. For us as NLP Practitioners though, our interest is also in shifting a larger group of people into the situation of being fully cured.

We set goals, and for us the statistics do count. Later in this article, we will describe a methodology which could increase the Simontons’ success fourfold.

Over the last century, health professionals in the west rediscovered the incredible power of the mind to heal the body. We know that cancer can be healed using mind-body processes, and it can be healed on a consistent

What Is Cancer?

basis.

First, let us be clear that NLP techniques are already associated with cancer cure. New Zealand NLP Master Practitioner Anthony Wightman (1999, p 42) describes his successful treatment of skin cancer and of leukaemia with skills developed during his NLP Practitioner training.

He imagined a laser burning out the cancer cells, and filled his body with “a golden glow which imbued all cells with health and removed any unhealthy cells”. He ran an imaginary hot iron over the inside of the vein next to the skin cancer to stop any spread and bleeding when it dropped out (which it actually did a week after he began visualising). Before treating his skin cancer, he had it diagnosed by 3 separate doctors, all of whom claimed after his cure that they must have misdiagnosed a solar keratosis. His haematologist had a somewhat more difficult job explaining the change in his leukaemia. Anthony says “I believe we are only scratching the surface of our own capabilities and that the most promising area for research lies within our own minds, our own hearts, our own souls.”

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...from previous page To understand what Anthony has done, it’s useful to know how the body normally keeps its cells healthy (Greer, 1999, p 236-241). Your body’s cells don’t just hold standardised genetic information about who you are. They also need to monitor where in your body they are, so they know what their particular job is within that whole community of cells. The cells in your skin, for example, need to know that they are skin cells. They do this partially by checking what cells are around them. If a cell has its genetic instructions damaged repeatedly, however, it can lose track of where it is and what job it is meant to be doing. This can happen due to toxic chemicals, radiation, or “free radicals” (chemicals which result from normal body oxidation, and accumulate with age). If a cell is damaged enough to lose track of where it fits in the community of cells, it is then described as more “undifferentiated” looking, and it may start dividing randomly, instead of at the rate needed to replace itself. It could then be described as a cancer cell. Actually, before reaching this stage, genetic damage is usually repaired. This is a possibility not often discussed in oncology (cancer treatment). However, the body is usually capable of repairing genetic damage unless there is some interference or inhibition of the immune response. Psychological depression has been shown to be one factor which inhibits such repair (Kiecolt-Glaser, 1985).

Dr Brendan O’Regan is a neurochemist who has The body expects cancer cells to appear occasionally, and certain white blood cells (lymphocytes) have the function of identifying these confused cells and marking them out so collected a database of 3,500 that other lymphocytes (for example “T cells” from the Thymus gland) can eliminate them. medically documented cases of In case you were disturbed about the idea of eliminating cells, it’s useful to know that every time you swallow, the inner lining of your mouth releases millions of cells which were past spontaneous remission of cancer. their “use by” date. “Recycling” might be a better term for this constant change of cells in the body, and the elimination of cancer cells is just another example of this. A disorder such as Dr Charles Weinstock leads the AIDS, that stops lymphocytes working, tends to result in the appearance of numerous cancers the body. This suggests that normal, healthy bodies generate occasional cancer cells, and New York Psychosomatic Study in normal, healthy lymphocytes recycle those cancer cells naturally. The lymphocytes are the embodiment of an “immune system” which protects you from both external invasion and group, and has commented on internal mistakes. Even when a cancer has developed beyond the level of one aberrant cell, these cases that “Within a short this immune system continues to protect you. Increased number of killer cells and increased level of activity is strongly associated in research with the cancer being contained in one place, period before the remission, rather than spreading, and with cancer ceasing to reoccur after treatment (Mandeville et alia, 1982; Burford-Mason et alia, 1989). ranging from days to a few In 1979, a crisis occurred at Lawrence Livermore Laboratories in California, where nuclear months, there was an important arms were being developed. A very high incidence of small skin pre-cancers and melanomas was found in staff. Virtually all were easily removed surgically. Dr Lydia Temoshok investigated change, such as a marriage, the outbreak and determined that, in fact, the incidence was probably not higher than usual. The staff had been examined “with a fine tooth comb” and small lesions, which would otherwise an ordination, the birth of a have been eliminated by the immune system, were detected by the physicians. (Temoshok and Dreher, 1992, p 211). Biophysics researcher Dr Candace Pert (who discovered endorphins) grandchild, or removal of a says “It’s a fact that every one of us has a number of tiny cancerous tumours growing in our relationship that was unwanted. bodies at every moment. The part of the immune system that is responsible for the destruction of these errant cells “do their job well” and these tiny tumours never grow large enough to There was a psychosocial cause us to become ill.” (1999, p 192). rehabilitation of one sort or How Can We Help The Immune System? another, and then the cancer Supporting the body’s immune system assists in the healing of cancer. We consider this to be was healed.” the core of what NLP contributes to cancer treatment. Interestingly, very little advice is given by many oncologists (cancer specialists) about how to assist the immune system. Furthermore, many orthodox cancer treatments compromise the immune system by removing endocrine glands and lymphatic nodes, or by killing lymphocytes (both radiotherapy and chemotherapy lower lymphocyte levels). That doesn’t mean that orthodox treatments are “wrong”; simply that they don’t focus on building up the immune system, and in the final analysis the immune system is what we depend on to heal from and prevent cancer. NLP provides an effective

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model for enhancing immune response. This is useful both as an adjunct to orthodox treatment, and as an alternative choice where orthodox treatment has little expected success.

As always in NLP, we could benefit by being curious about people who are already successful in the way we desire to be.

Dr Brendan O’Regan is a neurochemist who has collected a database of 3,500 medically documented cases of spontaneous remission of cancer. Dr Charles Weinstock leads the New York Psychosomatic Study group, and has commented on these cases that “Within a short period before the remission, ranging from days to a few months, there was an important change, such as a marriage, an ordination, the birth of a grandchild, or removal of a relationship that was unwanted. There was a psychosocial rehabilitation of one sort or another, and then the cancer was healed.” (Weinstock, 1997).

There are two ways in which processes like NLP have been shown to promote this kind of shift in immune function. The first is by therapeutically changing the person’s general state and attitude to life events. Research shows that bereavement and experimentally induced negative mood states both inhibit the body’s lymphocyte production (Bartrop et alia 1977, Schleifer et alia 1983, Futterman et alia, 1994). Sustained grief and depression, then, are states which increase the risk of cancer.

Any intervention which enables the person to let go of such negative states will have a positive effect on healing. Also, a proactive style of coping with stress is associated with enhanced T cell activity (Goodkin et alia, 1992). That is to say, when someone is in a state where they feel in charge of their life, and as if they are making choices about their future, a check of their T cells will show that these cells are more actively eliminating cancer cells. Research also shows that lymphocyte activity can be anchored using NLP anchoring (classical conditioning) techniques (Buske-Kirschbaum, 1992). This state of being in control of life, with the resultant improved immune response, can be anchored and enhanced like any state.

Short term educational psychotherapy can also increase both the percentage of T cells and their activity, by teaching the person how to respond resourcefully (Fawzy et alia, 1990, and 1993).

These improvements due to short term therapy continue to intensify up to 6 months after the psychotherapy! On the other hand, longer term, problem focused psychotherapy may have a negative effect on survival. Psychologist Dr Hans Eysenck has warned of the dangers of traditional psychotherapy for some time. He describes a longitudinal study of 7000 inhabitants of Heidelberg, from 1973 to 1986. This study was designed to discover the health effects of psychotherapy. Clients in psychotherapy were able to be matched by age, sex, type and amount of smoking etc with controls. This study showed that cancer and heart disease were most prevalent in the group who had had two years or more of “therapy”, less frequent in the group who had one year or more in “therapy”, and least frequent in the group who had no “therapy” (Eysenck, 1992).

Talking about what’s wrong with life once a week for years is not healthy.

The second way in which NLP style interventions can promote immune function is by directly “instructing” the lymphocytes to do their job more effectively. This instruction is achieved by the person imagining their lymphocytes identifying and eliminating cancer cells. A metaphorical representation may be used; for example seeing the lymphocytes as hungry fish clearing weeds from a lake. People with cancer who are taught relaxation and guided imagery show significantly higher T cell activity than controls (Walker, 1997). Nicholas Hall, at the University of South Florida, describes a study in which he found that lymphocytes from women with breast cancer who did guided imagery, were both more effectively duplicating themselves and more effectively dissolving and engulfing cancer cells (Batt, 1994, p151). The effect of visualisation is so precise that when students are taught to imagine their lymphocytes doing one specific activity (in the research, they imagined the lymphocytes adhering to other cells better) then that specific activity will be enhanced and not others! (Hall et alia, 1992). How do scientists get these research results, which have been replicated with a number of different types of cancer?

They actually take lymphocytes out of the person’s body and place them in a test tube next to cancer cells from that same person. What is perhaps most amazing is to realise that once the cells have been “given their instructions” by visualisation, they continue to follow them even when removed from the body, or even after several months in the body.

It’s also important to understand that there are more than 100 different forms of cancer, ranging from cancers which are almost certain to be solved by simple surgery (such as many skin cancers) to cancers which are very difficult to treat using conventional methods. Much of the research on psychological alteration of immune response (eg lymphocyte reactions) has been done with easily treatable cancers such as early stage breast cancer and melanoma, where orthodox treatments are likely to be highly successful anyway. On the other hand, much of the research on the clinical effectiveness of psychological interventions (how likely they are to result in cure or longerterm survival in “real life”) has been done with somewhat more serious cases. This is because when simple surgical cure is available, not many clients are willing to risk being in a long term clinical trial of an untested visualisation technique. For the Simontons’ patients, however, psychological treatments offered an otherwise unavailable hope. Clinical data from other studies of clients with more serious cancer has supported the Simontons’ work. Even one session a week of cognitive therapy improved survival for women with late stage breast cancer by 18 months and resulted in 6% surviving to see the research published ten years later (all the control group died within 4 years; see Spiegel, 1989). Similar results have been achieved in other groups with late stage breast cancer (Kogon et alia, 1997), malignant melanoma (Fawzey et alia, 1993) and leukaemia (Richardson et alia, 1990). While merely increasing survival time is not our aim, these results are often as significant

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...from previous page as the results of palliative chemotherapy treatment, without the distressing side effects. We can expect that the same psychological techniques have even more power with smaller, more contained and easily treatable cancers, while respecting the inappropriateness of doing clinical trials on these operable cancers.

Evidence to the Contrary?

The most famous attack on the value of psychosocial approaches to cancer treatment came in 1990 with the publication of research on women with breast cancer at the Bristol Cancer Help Centre in England. The report, published in the medical journal The Lancet (Bagenal et alia, 1990), suggested that women who used the visualisation, meditation, exercise, nutritional and social support offered by the centre actually had lower survival rates than controls. A group of women involved with the centre immediately challenged flaws in the research methodology, pointing out (for example) that the Bristol women had more advanced tumours than the control group, and were in a different age range with a higher risk of cancer metastasis. They suggested that the study was a deliberate attempt to discredit complementary cancer treatments. The women’s struggle, lead to the researchers admitting to “flaws”, the Charity Commission criticising the research they had funded, and the Royal College of Physicians setting up a “fraud squad”. Their story is told in the book “Fighting Spirit” (Goodare ed, 1996). We mention it here because oncologists sometimes still remember the original study, rather than the controversy that essentially invalidated it. It reminds us that even something published in a reputable medical journal may be based on assumptions that are limited or even on simple mistakes.

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• Creating a sense of mission.

• Setting future goals aligned with that mission.

• Healing grief and depression.

• Letting go of resentment and anger.

• Learning skills to express emotion effectively.

• Resolving internal and external conflicts.

• Developing a proactive coping style rather than a passive/ helpless one.

To state this more positively, we might say that the existence of cancer is a message from the person’s immune system, telling them that they need to let go of certain stressful emotions, resolve internal conflicts, and create a life worth living. The only risk of this model for understanding illness is that it suggests that the continued existence of cancer cells presupposes an ongoing parts conflict. When clients do not immediately have their cancer dissolve as a result of using parts integration, Time Line Therapy techniques, re-imprinting, core transformation etc, NLP Practitioners then tend to ask “What’s wrong?” In fact, nothing may be wrong. Some people take time to heal (see the description of Zhineng Chi Kung below). The most useful response may be to continue visualising healing.

If someone has had difficulty spelling, and we do the trauma cure on all their distressing memories of spelling, we don’t necessarily ask “What’s wrong?” just because they misspell another word. We tend to accept that their brain is learning the new process. A similar acceptance may be useful here.

NLP treatment can also teach the person how to visualise the immune system responding effectively to cancer. Dilts, Hallbom and Smith (1990, p 153-156) express concern about the use of visualisation which encourages a “war” metaphor, saying that it may encourage internal parts conflict. They propose instead the use of images such as sheep grazing on weeds. The Simontons’ research revealed that certain factors made visualisation more successful in healing cancer (Simonton et alia, 1980, p 136-160). These factors included: • Learning how to relax fully.

Many of the studies described previously refer to the effect of mood and life attitudes on lymphocyte responses. These results are most likely related to research which suggests that there are two key psychological factors associated with the development of cancer: 1) loss of a crucial relationship perceived as a “reason for living”, and 2) unexpressed hostility.

In one study, 72% of cancer patients were identified as having lost a crucial relationship recently as compared to 12% of controls. In the same study, 47% of cancer patients were rated as having unexpressed hostility, as compared to 25% of controls. This enabled a researcher to predict which clients were likely to have cancer with 95% accuracy, simply based on these two variables. The probability that this number of correct predictions would occur by chance was less than one in a thousand. (LeShan, 1984, p 26-27).

Beliefs and Representations of Healing

One aim of NLP treatment for cancer will be removing these two variables and improving the person’s state by:

Creating these internal representations of healing is closely related to the notion of generating a placebo effect by creating

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• Visualising the cancer cells as weak and confused rather than “aggressive”.

• Visualising the lymphocytes as numerous, powerful, energetic and ready to eliminate or recycle cancer cells.

• Associating into the experience of being your lymphocytes.

• Visualising cancer treatments as powerful and positive, with any side damage to healthy cells being easily repaired.

• Seeing yourself reaching your life’s purpose and achieving goals as a result of healing.

a belief that healing can occur. However, there is a subtle difference. The person does not need to absolutely “believe” in the internal representations for them to work. They simply need to be willing to make the representations consistently. Dr David C. McClelland and Carol Kirshnit of Boston University have published a study which clearly explains this, while demonstrating that caring is another significant emotional state for immune responsiveness (McClelland and Kirshnit, 1988). In this research, subjects are shown a variety of movies, and their level of Immunoglobulin A (a blood chemical which is the first line of defence against viruses and other pathogens) is monitored before and after. Gardening films and political propaganda have no effect, but a film of Mother Teresa caring for people in Calcutta caused a sharp rise in levels of the immune chemical. Interestingly, many of the subjects in this study, when questioned after, said that they did not approve of Mother Teresa and doubted the genuineness of her work.

Their immunity level rose anyway. The fact that they had held the internal representations of caring in their mind was more important than the theories they considered about it.

Psychologist Bruno Klopfer (1957) cites perhaps the most famous example of the healing power of belief in the story of an American cancer patient named Mr. Wright. Mr. Wright had a extremely advanced lymphosarcoma; a cancer which had spread via the lymph system through his whole body. Because his life expectancy was less than three months, Mr. Wright did not qualify for treatment with an experimental new drug called Krebiozen, being tested at the hospital. However Mr. Wright believed that Krebiozen was his one hope. He pleaded with Dr Klopfer until the doctor finally agreed to give him a test injection.

The result was miraculous. In a few days the orange-sized tumours, which had spread through his body, were half the size. Within ten days, Klopfer had agreed to give him the full test treatments, and Mr. Wright was well enough to leave the hospital. In two weeks he had moved from surviving only with an intravenous drip and oxygen mask, to flying home, piloting his own plane. However after two months of perfect health, Mr. Wright read the newspaper reports on the Krebiozen treatments. The tests were a failure; Krebiozen had no measurable effect. In a few days the tumours had regrown and Mr. Wright was again given only weeks to live. At this point, Dr Klopfer decided to experiment. He told Mr. Wright that the original tests were done with poor quality Krebiozen, and a new super-refined, double strength product was now available. He then began a series of injections of “super Krebiozen” (really using pure water).

Mr. Wright’s second recovery was even faster. Again, he flew away, symptom-free.

The existence of cancer is a message from the person’s immune system, telling them that they need to let go of certain stressful emotions, resolve internal conflicts, and

Supporting The Immune System Physically: Diet There are many things that can be done to support the immune system physically of course.

Dietary change is a fairly obvious intervention to enhance immune response. The association between cigarette smoking and cancer production is now well known, but that between alcohol consumption and cancer (Lundberg and Passik, 1997) is less well known yet equally concerning.

The importance of consuming a diet based on fruit and vegetables to increase antioxidant levels (antioxidants such as vitamin C and E prevent cancer causing damage to cells) is quite well known. The importance of shifting to Omega 3 and Omega 9 fatty acids, rather than the Omega 6 fatty acids found in most margarines or cooking oils (Rose, 1997) is less widely understood, but thoroughly researched. Omega 9 fatty acids are found in Olive oil and Canola oil. Omega 3 fatty acids are found in fish and shellfish oils (such as the New Zealand shellfish oil Lyprinol) and in linseed (flax seed) oil. Dr Lilian Thompson in Toronto has been giving her cancer patients 25 grams of ground linseed a day (in a muffin) and producing a consistent reduction in tumour size in the 1-3 weeks between diagnosis and surgery to remove the cancer.

This is a greater reduction in tumour size than seen with chemotherapy, and produced by a completely safe, enjoyable dosage of an ordinary food. Omega 3 fatty acids seem to enter the tissue and create an environment which nourishes the immune system (Block, 1999, p 247).

create a life worth living.

Many alternative approaches to cancer treatment are based on a belief that cancer is a systemic disorder caused by the body’s inability to detoxify itself. While detoxification can be a useful process, the use of rigorous “detoxifying” diets, enemas and herbal remedies (such as the formula developed by Harry Hoxsey, 1901-1974) is not in itself a proven cure for cancer.

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...from previous page However some of the particular plants in the Hoxsey formula (red clover, burdock, buckthorn, barberry, licorice etc) are beginning to deliver research results for other reasons. Red clover, for example, is a rich source of phyto-oestrogens (a type of antioxidant also found in soy products) which appear to protect against hormone related cancers such as breast cancer and prostate cancer (Ingram, 1997). Furthermore, evidence linking chemical additives in food to cancer (eg see Wolff, 1993) also suggests that “detoxifying the body”, by removing these additives gently, makes sense.

What is NLP? Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is an incredibly powerful discipline that enables people to unblock the structures of human communication and human excellence. By doing so people can think, communicate and manage themselves, and others, more effectively.

NLP explores the relationships between how we think (neuro), how we communicate (linguistic) and our patterns of behaviour and emotion (programmes).

By studying and learning from these relationships people can effectively transform the way they traditionally think and act, adopting new, far more successful models of human excellence. (This activity is called modelling and is a key feature that distinguishes NLP from psychology).

In effect, NLP is a powerful change management tool that transforms the way people think and act to have the greatest impact both professionally and personally.

That’s why NLP is one of the most powerful skills used in business management, psychology, sales, sports coaching and all forms of personal development.

Supporting The Immune System Physically: Mobilising Body Energy In China, as in the west, orthodox medicine co-exists with a number of complementary systems for healing. One of these is the 5000 year old science of Chi Kung (Qigong). “Chi” refers to body energy of the type demonstrated in EEG measures of brain waves and ECG measures of heart function. Practitioners of Chi Kung claim to be able to direct body energy in order to cause specified effects in cells, including enhancing the activity of lymphocytes and removing cancer cells.

At the First World Conference For Academic Exchange of Medical Qigong in Beijing in 1988, a large number of research studies on the effects of chi kung on cancer cells in culture, and clinical cancer results were presented. Generally, these studies used “emitted chi” which means that a Chi Kung Practitioner held their hands near the cells to be altered and intentionally sent bio-electrical energy to the cells. In one large set of studies, 20 minutes of chi treatment of cancer cells killed 13% to 36% of cells, while control cells that were simply held showed no effect (Feng Li-da et alia, 1988). In another, cancer spread in mice was reduced markedly by the use of emitted chi.

In a third study, mice which had their immune system suppressed by cortisone were divided into groups and rechecked after 24 hours. Those who received emitted chi had lymphocyte numbers and immunity back to normal, while those untreated showed no improvement (Li Caixi et alia, 1988).

To date, the most dramatic clinical results of chi kung are reported by the Huaxia Zhineng Qigong Clinic and Training Centre in Qinhuangdao, China (formerly in Zigachong). Founded by western trained physician Dr Pang Ming, it has over 600 staff, including 26 western trained doctors, and treats 4000-7000 people at any given time. Residents (called students because they are learning to use chi kung, rather than simply being “treated”) are checked medically after each 24 day treatment period. Most of the people treated have been told that there is no orthodox treatment available for their condition. Most of them have inoperable cancers. Results at the Centre are classified as: • Cured (no symptoms of illness, and no signs on EKG, ultrasound, X-ray, CT etc) • Very Effective (almost no symptoms, and dramatic improvement on instruments) • Effective (detectable improvements) • Ineffective (no change or even worsening symptoms) In the centre’s first published results, (Huaxia Zhineng Centre, 1991; Chan, 1999, p vii) data on 7,936 students showed that 15.2% were cured, 37.68% very effective, and 42.09% effective. That is to say, after a month, 52% were cured or almost cured, and overall 95% had improved. Cure rates have been improving since then, as staff learn precisely how to get the best from their methods.

Furthermore, each week certain students with defined tumours are selected to have direct chi treatment by staff, the results being displayed on ultrasound and recorded on video. Luke Chan, the teacher who has taken Zhineng Chi Kung to the west (under the name Chi Lel‒2, see Chan, 1999) describes observing a session where 8 students are treated in this way. After less than one minute of treatment, 5 of these cancers actually disappeared immediately and one diminished.

The high success rate at the Centre is achieved by a structured use of visualisation, affirmation, belief change and attitudinal (metaprogram) change, as well as the core chi kung exercises.

The work of the Huaxia Zhineng centre has replicated the western mind-body healing methods described previously and added an important new dimension. In doing so, it offers us a model for an integrated NLP approach to successfully healing up to 95% of clients with cancer. This approach will be explained in the second part of this article starting on page 33.

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INSPIRATION To soften and open your heart to others is to lead a truly fulfilling life. In this excerpt from her book Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation, meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg provides 10 tips for cultivating a loving-kindness meditation practice.

Think of kindness as a strength, not as a weakness.

Kindness isn’t an ally of foolishness or gullibility, but rather an ally of wisdom and courage.

children or animals in our thoughts. Taking just 10 minutes a day to reflect in this way is a powerful path to transformation.

Look for the good in yourself – not as a way to deny your difficulties or problems but as a way to broaden your outlook so it’s more truthful and balanced. Looking for the good in ourselves helps us see the good in others.

Listen. Often we have conversations where we are only partially paying attention; we’re thinking about the next e-mail we need to send, or what we forgot to mention to the last person we spoke to. Or we decide we know what the other person is going to say, based on past encounters. Reopening that closed file by listening is a powerful gesture of kindness, one that allows fresh responses and transformed relationships.

Remember that everyone wants to be happy. If we look deeply into any kind of behavior, we will see an urge to feel a part of something greater than our own limited sense of self, a desire to feel at home in this body and mind. This urge toward happiness is often twisted and distorted by ignorance, by not knowing where happiness is actually to be found. Remembering what we share inspires us toward kindness.

Recollect those who have helped or inspired us. Sometimes even a small act of kindness on someone’s part makes an essential difference for us. Cultivating gratitude is a way of honoring these people, and also a way of lifting our spirits and reminding us of the power of good-heartedness.

Practice at least one act of generosity a day. We all have something to give, large or small. It may be a smile, or an attentive conversation. Perhaps you let a stranger get ahead of you in line, or gave a coworker a small gift, or wrote a late-night note of appreciation. Any act of generosity–whether material or of the spirit–is a meaningful expression of kindness.

Do lovingkindness meditation. Each day we can take the time to hold others in our hearts quietly and wish them well. This meditation might include someone who has been helpful or inspiring to us, someone we know who is feeling alone or afraid, someone who is experiencing triumph and joy, or someone we are about to meet with some trepidation. We might, depending on the circumstances of our lives, particularly include

Include those who seem left out. In a conversation with a group of people, there may be those too shy to speak. In a room full of partygoers, there may be some who feel out of place. Be the one who opens the circle.

Refrain from speaking ill of others. A friend told me about a time he resolved not to talk about any third person; if he had something to say about someone, he would say it directly to that person instead. If you feel tempted to put someone down, assume knowledge of their bad motives, or generally prove their inferiority, take a breath. Even though we might feel a rush of power in saying those words, we ultimately get no benefit from dividing people and sowing seeds of dissension and dislike. There are ways to talk about wrong behavior without derision or condemnation.

“Walk a mile in another person’s shoes before you pass judgment.” As this old saying suggests, even if we’re going to take strong action to try to change someone’s behavior, a sense of empathy and understanding for them won’t weaken us. If anything, that element of kindness will allow us to act more compassionately and creatively. F

From: Kripalu newlsetter: www.kripalu.org. Sharon Salzberg is one of today’s leading meditation teachers and authors.

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We are reestablishing the CSA Laughter Club with an Afternoon Tea and Laughter Session for CSA members and friends. You are most welcome to come along to experience the joy of laughter and community.

Laughter Yoga is a revolutionary idea developed by Dr. Madan Kataria, a Physician from Mumbai, India. It is a complete wellbeing workout combining Unconditional Laughter with Yogic Breathing (Pranayama). Anyone can Laugh for No Reason, without relying on humour, jokes or comedy. Laughter is simulated as a body exercise in a group; with eye contact and childlike playfulness, it soon turns into real and contagious laughter.

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MIND/BODY HEALING

Part B: An Integrated Format for the Mind-Body Healing of Cancer Chi Kung As A Framework For Integrating The NLP Techniques In the first part of this article, we reviewed the research on mind-body healing of cancer.

We documented the growing number of studies demonstrating direct anti-cancer effects of a positive mood, a proactive style of response to stress, the ability to release anger and grief, a belief in one’s ability to heal, and the ability to imagine white blood cells removing cancer cells. We pointed out that so far this mind-body methodology could reliably result in cure for 10-30% of clients with advanced cancers. We then discussed the research being done at the Huaxia Zhineng Centre in China, where 1-3 months treatment programs for 300,000 people with “incurable” diseases has resulted in medically documented improvement for over 95% and in cure for 52%. 4224 Scientific Research papers have been published on the method, involving 90 different Chinese Universities (Jin and Marcello, 1999, p 47-51). This makes it the most thoroughly researched form of Chi Kung. Chinese government agencies have repeatedly identified it as the most effective health enhancing chi kung form known.

These results are being achieved through the integrated use of visualisation, affirmation, belief change and attitudinal (metaprogram) change, as well as the core chi kung (traditional Chinese “energy work”) exercises.

We were extremely interested to observe the Huaxia Zhineng Centre in June 1998. It was, frankly, hard to believe the continuing sequence of first-hand, individual stories which we heard there, describing apparently miraculous cures. In our training in 1999 with Luke Chan, we met a number of westerners who reported the same results from their practise of the Zhineng Chi Kung (under his trademark “Chi Lel”; see Chan, 1999). We have trained in several models of “energy work”, including other forms of Chi Kung, Reiki (3rd degree), Huna, Therapeutic Touch, and Transformational Process. Each of these methods can claim anecdotal successes. What the Huaxia Zhineng Centre is achieving puts Zhineng Chi Kung in a totally different category.

Research being done in China where 3000,000 people with “incurable” diseases were studied has shown that 95% improve and 52% are cured using a Chi Kung treatment program. These results are being achieved through the integrated use of visualisation, affirmation, belief change and attitudinal (metaprogram) change, as well as the core chi kung (traditional Chinese “energy work”) exercises.

As approved teachers of Chi Le we are interested in delivering this simple method to as many people as possible. As NLP Trainers, we have been interested in modelling just what it is that produces such outstanding results. We have identified several key factors:

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...from previous page

“Belief”: Full Sensory Representations of Healing Belief is identified by Dr Pang Ming as one of the four components of Zhineng Chi Kung. In practice, firstly, students repeat to themselves several affirmations while doing the exercises (“Blood and chi are plentiful!”, “All body energy channels are open!”, “All illness disappears now!” and “Body functions return to normal!”). These auditory representations do refer to the problem being solved, and the research at the centre has shown that there is an important balance here.

Practitioners of Chi Kung claim to be able to direct body energy in order to cause specified effects in cells, including enhancing the activity of lymphocytes and removing cancer cells.

The fact that a specific illness needs to be healed seems important to refer to, and at the same time, the student’s focus needs to be on the image of universal healing energy. In fact, the main instruction given by teachers is to think of the illness as completely healed NOW (an instruction repeatedly given in Chinese as “Hao La!”). Also, sometimes students are instructed to stop thinking about the symptom and to just think “blue sky”, ie to turn their attention away from the problem.

Secondly, students perform several visualisations as they practice. They imagine their body expanding to fill the whole universe, so that they and the universe are one. They imagine releasing any illness to the universe, and then absorbing healing energy from the universe.

They imagine the 10 million people who are currently practitioners and teachers of Zhineng Chi Kung practising with them.

Thirdly, a state of love and joyfulness is promoted. Students smile as they do the exercises, and make a point of smiling at each other when they complete each process. Their helping others is considered a therapeutic act, reminding one of the research showing that feeling love or caring increases immune response. Doing Zhineng Chi Kung is not like doing aerobics. It is a meditation; a joyful celebration of life. Many students comment on the powerful experience of love and caring from their teachers also.

Fourthly, belief is sustained in Chi Lel by hearing or reading stories of people who have healed (by Ericksonian metaphor). In the Centre in China, three people tell their stories before each practise session. In the west, practitioners can read stories from Luke Chan’s book 101 Miracles of Natural Healing (Chan, 1999).

Fifthly, the active movements of the chi kung processes are themselves a kinesthetic representation of healing. The movements symbolically reach out to draw energy from the universe and then direct energy into the body. This sequence is identifiable in the simplest method of all, called La Chi. Luke Chan explains La Chi thus (Chan, 1999, p 150): “Put your hands close to each other so that fingers and palms almost touch each other. Relaxing your shoulders and hands, slowly open your hands to the sides. Then close your hands until the palms and fingers almost touch. Repeat these opening and closing movements many times.

Very soon you will feel some sensations between your hands. These sensations are caused by chi gathering from the universe. Then deliver this chi into where is needed in your body. For instance if you have a headache, deliver chi into your head by doing the opening and closing movements near your head. When doing the opening movement, imagine that your illness disappears into infinity; when doing the closing movement, imagine that you are delivering life energy into where it is needed. Meanwhile, suggest to yourself that chi is healing you and that you have recovered.”

When people first come to the Huaxia Zhineng Centre, many of them are unable to stand up and do the main chi kung exercise sequence (a 15-30 minute tai-chi like process called “Lift Chi Up and Pour Chi Down”). La Chi is adequate to begin the healing process. As a kinesthetic swish, we believe it adds a crucial ingredient missing from most NLP interventions for cancer treatment. In NLP terms, the existence of cancer demonstrates the person’s ability to “somatise” their problems (to represent their problems kinesthetically). If we only use visual and auditory/ auditory digital techniques to enable healing, we will miss the key way they have generated the problem. The use of a kinesthetic representation of healing is the key exception which we believe has limited NLP’s success with cancer treatment. We suggest that even the use of La

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Chi would significantly improve on the results obtained by the Simontons and other researchers in the west. Repeated kinesthetic representations of healing have been a missing link in the NLP treatment of cancer.

Furthermore, an examination of the success of chi kung reveals that some precisely “tuned” electromagnetic energy is involved in the success of the method. At Huaxia Zhineng Centre, research studies show that the teachers are able to recharge electric batteries with their hands (Jin and Marcello, 1999, p 51). Chi Kung teachers in Beijing repeatedly demonstrate their ability to light an actual light bulb, while it is not plugged in, simply by holding it (Eisenberg with Wright, 1995, p 222-226).

La Chi Understanding Internal Representations In traditional Chinese Taoist philosophy, the mind is described as having two parts. The “yang” mind is rational and sensible, and attempts to differentiate real from unreal and make decisions accordingly. The “yin” mind “cannot distinguish fantasies from realities, and acts on everything you believe in.”

(Chan, 1993, p 45). A person can learn to use this ability of the yin mind. Luke Chan tells the story of a Chinese Prince who led his army on a long desert march. When his soldiers rebelled out of thirst, one of his generals recommended executing the leaders of the rebellion to ensure obedience. But after some thought, the Prince spoke to his army. He told them that just beyond the desert were trees full of sour lemons and bitter plums. He asked them to imagine biting into these fruit, and had them taste the fruit. Saliva filled the soldiers’ mouths, and they were relieved of their thirst, enabling them to continue on their march to success.

Successful practice of chi kung is based on this same understanding of the power of the yin (unconscious) mind to create bodily results when directed by rich internal representations.

Entering a State of Rapport and Trance The teacher leading a chi kung session at Huaxia Zhineng centre begins by surveying the group present and imagining that they are harmonised with each other and with the world around them. The group are invited to relax together, and imagine that all the other chi kung practitioners around the world are with them. The slow calm voice of the teacher is designed to invite them into a group trance. Their rapport with each other is considered an important part of creating this “chi field”. In the Taoist philosophy which underpins traditional chi kung, the universe is considered a unitary organism, and the practitioner is one with it (Chan, 1993, p 97). The chi kung movements seem to embody this experience. Even the inward and outward movements of La Chi are an expression of harmony with the yin-yang movement of the universe itself.

Profound meditative states and experiences of ecstasy are

commonly reported by practitioners as their body becomes accustomed to the method. Some understanding of chi (Bolstad and Hamblett, 1998) is useful for this process to work. Once a person has practised chi kung for some time, the trance called “the chi kung state” is anchored to simple actions such as the use of La Chi.

Total Commitment In NLP we have become used to instant healing. We have techniques for resolving a phobia or even an allergy in ten minutes. This is both a blessing and a risk in the field of cancer treatment. It is a blessing because extremely fast cures do occur. In our NLP training we have met several people who have experienced “miracle cures”. We talked with two people who had large tumours dissolve from their bodies within days of attending a Time Line Therapy. weekend training. One had needed to be carried into the training with her medication ready. We met them both over a year later, with their bodies completely cancer-free. In training in Chi Lel, we have also come across several examples of “miracle cures”. One woman, Catherine, had advanced Multiple Sclerosis. Three years ago, when she met people she explained the reason she staggered and had to hold the wall and slurred her speech was not because she was drunk but that she had MS. She went to the Huaxia Zhineng Centre for two weeks and Dr. Pang visited while she was there. He pulled her out of the lunch line and applied Chi to her. All her symptoms disappeared and she has since had two CAT scans showing there has been no growth of MS lesions in over two years.

But the risk of knowing about fast cures is that we tend to wonder what went “wrong” when it doesn’t happen. The fact is that after a month of doing at least 6 hours of chi kung a day, only 52% of people at the Centre are cured. Of the 101 examples in Luke Chan’s book (Chan, 1999) approximately half took more than 3 months to fully heal. The teachers at the centre say that if the student’s chi happens to be perfectly harmonised with the chi of a teacher, or of the centre itself, then instantaneous healing will occur, but otherwise it takes time for their body to generate or absorb the chi needed. Most people attempting to treat cancer using psychological methods tend to underestimate the time needed. Louise Hay, one of the “gurus” of cancer self-healing, took six months of doing full time, intense psychotherapy, visualisation and a detoxifying diet to heal her vaginal cancer. Basically, it’s a major commitment to do this. At the centre, someone will actually begin by doing a minimum of 6-8 hours of La Chi a day. And at the end of three months they don’t despair if they haven’t healed yet. They carry on. Many people actually describe how their cancer enlarged before the chi began to reduce it. The extraordinary success the centre achieves requires total commitment.

Another important point to consider is that commitment to a simple strategy may be more effective than trying every method going to “see if it works”. Whatever decision a person

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...from previous page makes about treatment, they can never be 100% sure they’ve made the right choice. And each day they spend focused on healing seems like one less day just to enjoy life, spend time with friends and family, and have fun. Medical advice can be less than helpful, because most doctors do not have access to the information in this article, or any other reliable information about treatment alternatives. In our experience, most oncologists are motivated by a great sense of love, and by an enormous fear of cancer. This fear is communicated to their clients as a disbelief in the ability of the immune system. The problem is compounded for the person with cancer because every second friend and health professional has another idea about the right way to solve this problem. It’s tempting to read all the books they give you, try all the therapies they recommend, and take all the food supplements they urge.

Stories Of Commitment Luke Chan’s book (1999) contains records of 101 interviews he conducted with people who had healed themselves at Huaxia Zhineng Centre. They emphasise the importance of commitment.

An important point to consider is that commitment to a simple strategy may be more effective than trying every method going to “see if it works”.

In 1990, Lin Shua-Hua, aged 52, was diagnosed with a malignant tumour of her oesophagus (throat). She had had two tumours removed surgically over the previous 20 years, but doctors advised her that this one was inoperable. Fed intravenously, her weight soon fell to 79 pounds, and she lay in bed waiting to die. Her son, though, had had an unusual experience. He used to wear gloves to school to cover a number of wart like growths on his hands. By practising Chi Lel for 15 days, he cured this problem. Now he begged his mother to try the method.

At first she needed three people to carry her in to the Chi Lel sessions, where she would do La Chi. After 20 days, she was able to walk, though her stomach began to hurt. Her teacher reframed this as a positive response to chi. Within 3 months, her health had returned to normal, and doctors found that her tumour was gone. She now teaches at the Huaxia Zhineng Centre (Chan, 1999, p 18).

In 1988, Wu Zhong-Chiong, age 39, was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer and told she probably only had 3 months to live. Because of a heart condition (climbing the 5 flights of stairs to her home, she needed to rest ten times), she was unable to undergo chemotherapy.

She began to do Chi Lel. It took four years before she was cancer free. But by that time, she was able to climb the five flights of stairs without even breathing heavily. Her heart condition had also disappeared. She now teaches at the centre (Chan, 1999, p 26) 50 year old Li Chong-Cheng had surgery for liver cancer in 1991. Three months later, doctors told him that the cancer had spread to his lungs and he had less than two months to live. A neighbour taught him Chi Lel, and for the next six months he practised by himself. His tumours remained stable. In 1992, he decided that he needed to make an “all or nothing” commitment to the method. He travelled to the centre, and began practising from early morning until late at night. After two months, there was no sign of any tumour at either site, and he has remained cancer free since (Chan, 1999, p 61).

Alternative or Complementary Therapy?

We have met many people who had life threatening cancers and are now cancer free, having never used surgery, radiotherapy or medication of any kind. We have been to the Centre in China where that result is the norm. Right now there are 7000 people there using simple movements, visualisations and affirmations for 6 hours a day. In 3 months, over 3500 of them will have completed their healing. Most of the rest will continue to heal over the next months and years. But in the end no-one can make the decision as to which treatments are “appropriate” for the person with cancer except that person themselves. The same techniques we have been describing as a cure for cancer are also a valuable support for persons undergoing orthodox cancer treatments. We have talked to people who did one hour of Chi Lel a day throughout their chemotherapy, and managed to keep their white blood cell count in the normal range throughout that time (to the astonishment of their oncologists). We know people who have healed from major surgery in a fraction of the time predicted, by using Chi Lel and NLP.

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Whatever decisions the person with cancer makes, it seems to us that there are certain reliable guidelines for using NLP to heal the body. These include:

Resourceful State For The Practitioner:

To assist someone to heal cancer, the NLP Practitioner benefits from having a sound understanding of the power of the immune system. We have aimed in the first part of this article to provide some of the scientific and anecdotal backing for your belief that the mind can heal cancer. There may be emotional issues, including past trauma, which it’s appropriate for a practitioner to heal before dealing with clients who have cancer.

Clarify values for each significant area of life and check that goals are aligned with them.

Clear stressful emotions (especially resentment, anger, grief and depression) and limiting decisions from the past time line using Re-imprinting or Time Line Therapy. techniques.

Resolve any conflicts, including conflicts related to limiting beliefs about healing, using Parts Integration.

Establish communication with the unconscious mind (eg using finger signals) and clarify the positive intention of any part not totally supportive of healing. Establish agreement from the unconscious mind to heal fully.

Establish Rapport: It’s important to begin

Identify any possible secondary gain resulting from the cancer, and take real life steps to meet the intention behind that fully.

SPECIFY Outcomes:

Learn how to communicate successfully interpersonally and ensure that any conflicts with significant others are resolved (see Bolstad and Hamblett, 1998).

by establishing what the client’s understanding of their situation is, and acknowledging their fear while remaining resourceful.

The research on mobilising the immune system shows that the outcome “To heal from cancer” is not an adequate one. The immune system is most successfully mobilised by having the person clarify what they want to live for. It is also useful to establish markers that would let the person know that they are healing. At the Huaxia Zhineng Centre, each person is checked medically once every 24 days, so that even subtle healing changes can be detected. It is important to be able to celebrate all positive changes, not merely to wait for “total cure”.

Open Up The Person’s Model of the World:

For the person to use this methodology, they will benefit from several important reframes, including: An understanding that internal representations affect the immune response. Even the Prince’s lemon demonstration is useful to make this clear. Telling the stories of people who have healed from cancer (eg see Dilts, Hallbom and Smith, 1990 and Chan, 1999) is an important use of Ericksonian metaphor.

An understanding that significant events generating unresolved grief and anger may have weakened the immune system, and need to be cleared before it can strengthen fully.

An understanding that all actions, including eating and exercise choices are an opportunity for reminding the unconscious mind that you want to live; so that the whole lifestyle will be re-examined in a healing light.

An understanding of the importance of absolute commitment, proactive response to stress and a willingness to keep going until (to use the Chi Lel phrase) “the chi arrives”.

An understanding that cancer could be considered an important message from the unconscious mind, urging you to make more fundamental and life affirming changes.

Leading (Using NLP-Related Change Techniques) Define a clear sense of mission.

Set future goals aligned with that mission and place them in the future time line, including the goal of healing.

Adjust diet to support healing fully.

Take time each day to visualise the immune system (the lymphocytes in particular) responding appropriately and healing the body.

Do Zhineng Chi Kung every day for 1-8 hours. Remember that at the centre, 6-8 hours a day delivers complete healing in 52% of cases within 3 months.

Verify Change: Celebrate all changes, no matter how small.

Reframe any changes related to the above activities as messages from the unconscious mind that healing is occurring.

Exit: Ensure an ongoing commitment to honour the changes that the unconscious mind has signalled the need for. F

From: www.transformations.net.nz. Dr. Richard Bolstad is a trained nurse (RCpN), teacher (Dip Tchg), psychotherapist (NZAP), herbalist (Dip.Herb) and hypnotherapist (D. Clin.Hyp.). He has trained more than half the NLP Practitioners in his native New Zealand, and teaches NLP each year on 4 continents. He is the co-author of the books Communicating Caring, The Structure of Personality and Pro-fusion, and the author of RESOLVE: A New Model of Therapy, Transforming Communication, The Rapport Based Family, Creating A Cooperative World and The Secrets Of NLP Training. His books are published in many languages, in Asia, Europe and the middle east.

He has also published numerous audio CDs, DVDs and many articles in the international NLP journals, including Anchor Point and NLP World. Richard’s central interest is linking NLP to wider issues of spiritual development and conflict resolution. He is the developer of the RESOLVE and Personal Strength models for NLP use.

Full Bibliography & References provided on page 38 of the online edition of this magazine: www.cancersupportwa.org.au Winter 2012

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Breast Cancer Grandmother Gives Hope To Others Through NLP Rosie O’Hara uses NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and healthy doses of humour to cope with her breast cancer and in her forthcoming book ‘No More Bingo Dresses – Using NLP to cope with breast cancer and other people’ she brings inspiration, and critically practical help, to other cancer sufferers.

Rosie is an NLP trainer and she says that the book came about “as a result of a diary I wrote for my friends, and I added bits of NLP I used help me to cope with other people, family, friends, business colleagues and anyone in the medical profession (note sweeping generalisation).”

Rosie O’Hara uses NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and healthy doses of humour to cope with her breast cancer and in her forthcoming book ‘No More Bingo Dresses” she brings inspiration and critically practical help to other cancer sufferers..

Rosie’s style is very positive, humour laden, frank and honest. Fiona Pearson from Friends of ANCHOR comments “Her account of this part of her life journey is brutally honest which is refreshingly different from other related personal journals; instead of self-pity, sorrow and sadness, Rosie’s book is inspiring and uplifting.”

Rosie’s experience with cancer is extensive and started with her late husband Michael. Rosie comments; “Michael used to say that in life you only get what you deserve. In NLP we also talk about ‘Perception is Projection’. In essence if you believe you ‘don’t deserve something’ or ‘you are not worthy’, then most probably you’ll get that ‘nothing’ or ‘bad thing’. The book gives you ideas on how to be clear about what you want and then get what you want, which is extremely important when coping with cancer.”

On the encouragement of her publishers, Rosie has started a blog and has really taken to it.

Provocative articles like “When My Granny Had 2 Boobs” and “Why do cancer patients have to live on handouts” are proving extremely popular. Rosie is fearless and doesn’t pull her punches.

There is plenty of humour, which Rosie explains is healthy to have when dealing with cancer.

A truly modern granny she is also tackling YouTube. Our favourite moment in her first video is when Rosie, not a particularly big fan of supermarket chains, delivers a particularly fun sideswipe.

Her initial breast examination was in a mobile scanning unit in a supermarket car park and she says that she is thinking of complaining to the manager as although she ‘had her goods scanned’, she didn’t receive any clubcard points.

There is however a very serious side to the book as the Managing Director of the Association of NLP, Karen Moxom explains; “Her open approach to a challenging and sometimes ‘taboo’ subject is both refreshing and empowering. She is passionate about conveying the importance of developing and maintaining a positive attitude, and she details how she used NLP techniques so that others may feel encouraged to model her approach.”

This clear outlining of the NLP techniques used, so that others may replicate Rosie’s very successful approach, is being extremely well received by everyone from NLP practitioners to members of the medical community. The ‘physical’ treatments for cancer are well established, but the handling of the mental trauma needs a lot of work and Rosie’s book is an excellent start.

Other coaches and teachers will find it a very useful resource as George McBride from the Coaching for Teachers Academy outlines: “As you might expect from a serious NLP professional, there is some subtlety but no mumbojumbo. Many people will gravitate toward the action plan; however there is power on each page delivered in a simple and honest fashion. How Rosie beat cancer and is medication free is both humorous and inspiring”. F

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The book was released May, 2011 and is avaailable in paperback and electronically. Rosie’s Blog is at rosieohara.wordpress.com. Website: http://www.mxpublishing.co.uk/engine/shop/ product/9781908218346/ Cancer Support Association

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INSPIRATION

‘Mother’ Maya Tiwari a light which cannot be made brighter Mother Maya visited CSA in January and was so touched by the work we do here and the healing community that we have created that she returned in June to share her wisdom and inspiration in a program for members and a special training in “Women’s Healing” for our staff and facilitators. It has been an honour and a blessing to have Mother Maya at CSA and we are deeply grateful.

“I was born an agent for change, I’m radical in many ways, in that I do understand, and prove it every day, that each and every person has the ability to be a Saint.”

“Saint meaning the way of peace, the way of harmony inside. So what is a Saint?

Someone who wears robes or someone who is out there preaching? Not necessarily. A saint is a person who understands their inner harmony, who understands the greatest gift in our human life – no matter what our ancestries are about and our privileges and non-privileges – that the gift is our preservation of inner peace.”

“When cultivating harmony, the change must first happen within us. It doesn’t start outside of us. First, to make a difference in our societies, in our personal lives, in our individual lives and in our family life, we need to look inside of ourselves and see what would create a more peaceful human being within us?”

“We are not individual entities separate from nature, but we are part of nature, we are not only part of nature we are absolutely the divine essence of everything. We are divinity – not all together alone, but individually as well.”

Her words appear to flow from our very source of being, as she acts as a filter for all that is good and wise.

But life has not always been this way for Mother Maya.

“You are the Divine Being. Cast not a single shadow that block the Inner Light. If I had only one day left to live, it would be spent in love – to love and love completely. Spend every day as if it were your last.”

“I’ve had incredible teachers in my life, spiritual teachers, as well as other teachers, and have always been guided, but my greatest guru so to speak was Ovarian Cancer, because it taught me to come back to a place of purpose, a place of my own purpose.”

“I think like most young Americans I was racing after the American dream. I was there studying, and at an early and young age I became a very well known fashion designer, and then I was hit with cancer – the kind where you were told that you had six months to live after many surgeries and many invasive therapy’s.”

“I went away deciding I wanted to die with dignity, without drugs in my body… I didn’t embrace death, but I wasn’t afraid of it ether, and I think that what that did was that it gave me a better space in which to make my exit, which I thought I was going to do at that time.”

“And then I came back from sojourn, I had taken a secluded time in a place in Vermont… I came back 5 months later alive!”

“What was the process? Did I eat brown rice? Did I live on kale or do veganism? No. What I did was that I wept my grief with whatever I thought was my ancestral grief out of me and I asked to meet my maker in a way that had a sense of myself in it.”

“And so I have been walking a journey of service and learning how to become the best servant I can to do the work of the divine.” F

By Mike Worsman. From: www.ourworldtoday.com.au Winter 2012

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By Dr.Niu

In January this year, Dr Niu and senior physicians from Fuda Cancer Hospital in China visited CSA. Dr Niu presented a talk on the latest and most successful cancer treatments available.

Cancer is a systemic disease with tumours as a local manifestation of the disease. Once Cancer occurs

in a person, Cancerous cells will be found in the whole body. Hence, if only tumour resection is done, it will not cure Cancer. For example Breast Cancer, even though tumours have been removed in the early stage, can relapse even after twenty years.

Like hypertension and diabetes, Cancer is a chronic disease. The disease may take a few years to manifest itself – from its occurrence until the appearance of the tumours. In some cases Cancer cells in the body may continue to exist in a stage of dormancy and never manifest themselves.

Our immune system plays an important role in controlling the development of Cancer. Cancer cells may either be killed by immune cells or if they are as strong as immune cells, it may lead to a stage of break and nothing happens to the body. However, if the immune cells fall in number and their activity level is reduced, or if Cancerous cells are able to evade the detection of immune cells (immune tolerance), then the cancerous cells will prosper, grow and spread rapidly (metastasis) and become life threatening.

Influenced by various factors inside and outside our bodies, a series of genes mutate continuously so that the growth of the cells loses control and tumour is formed. Every Cancer patient even those suffering from the same Cancer, has a different pathogenic factor and mutational gene. In that way, every tumour has its specific biological features – the heterogeneity of the tumour. Ignoring the heterogeneity is the main reason that Cancer treatment doesn’t have an ideal effect. It will work better if treatment is prescribed more individually – aimed at the heterogeneity.

Principles in the treatment of Cancer 1. Performing surgical removal of tumours or Cryosurgical Ablation. Surgery and Cryosurgical Ablation are effective methods in terms of local treatments.

2. Conventional chemotherapy will damage the immune cells. In Cancer micro-vascular intervention, chemotherapy drugs are inserted into tumours resulting in a greater local treatment effect with minimal side effects.

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4. Personalized therapy for Cancer is a brand new therapy utilizing the molecular biological differences between Cancer cells and normal cells to choose the appropriate drugs. The drugs will act on specific targeted Cancer cells which mean receptors, kinases and other proteins related with cellular signal transduction to specifically kill or control cancer cells.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is fundamental to cancer treatment programs in China Traditional and mainstream approaches in the field of Medicine in China are Surgery, Chemotherapy, Radiotherapy and TCM. In China, TCM is a standard treatment for people, especially for Cancer patients. Many Cancer patients are suffering from unbearable pain, and acupuncture and massage is a solution to manage the patient’s pain.

Recurrence, diffusion and metastasis all cause Cancer treatment failures and are the main cause of death. To prevent the spread of the tumour and transfer to other parts of the body and to enhance the curative rate, prolonging the survival time has very vital significance.

Scientific research has found that Traditional Chinese Medicine is able to improve the bodies’ immunity, and promote Cancer dormancy, and kill Cancer cells directly. The purpose to achieve recurrence resistance is to prevent the metastasis. The goal of the Chinese Medical approach in the treatment of Cancer is to prevent recurrence and one of the effective means is to prevent diffusion.

The “3C+P” of Fuda Hospital’s Specific treatments includes: Personalised Cancer Therapy (PCT) Applying molecular diagnosing techniques to classify Cancers can not only identify the prognosis of the Cancer, but also allows us to choose effective targeted drugs based on the molecular marker of the tumour.

In this way, having a molecular biology test will offer us a good reference for prescription. It can bring hope to Cancer patients by improving the accuracy in the treatment.

Cryosurgical Ablation (CSA) Using imaging guided techniques (Ultrasound, CT or MRI), Cryo-probes are inserted into tumours to lower the temperature

of the targeted area to -160°C or below. Later the temperature is raised to 20 – 40°C. This is repeated two or three times to lead to complete ablation of the whole tumour.

Cancer Micro Vascular Intervention (CMI) One or several types of chemotherapy drugs are embedded to tiny particles or sealed in them using a special technology.

Using an image-guided micro-catheter, these tiny particles containing minimal dose of chemical drugs are inserted into tiny capillary vessels supplying blood to the tumour. The chemotherapy drugs pass through the wall of the tiny capillary vessels into the tumour. As more and more chemotherapy drugs are released into the tumour, Cancerous cells are destroyed.

Tiny particles cannot pass through the wall of normal capillaries which is compact. Hence, chemotherapy drugs embedded or sealed inside tiny particles will not cause damage to other parts of the body and the overall side effects to the body are reduced to a minimum.

Combined Immunotherapy for Cancer (CIC) CIC aims at raising and improving systemic immunological function of Cancer patients to fight against cancer. Cancer cells display heterogeneity indicated by the presence of different gene sub-types within the same tumour. They also show variability and instability. They mutate from time to time. In fighting cancer cells, the systemic immunological treatment mechanism must be multiple attacks and adjust its treatment strategy in time. CIC is the combination of several immune techniques to increase and stimulate systemic immune function.

Some of them are to upgrade the function of T cells and /or B cells; some of them are to upgrade the function of DC, NK cells, macrophages and various kinds of cytokines. The combination is able to destroy or inhibit cancer cells regardless of what kind of cancer and the variability/mutation of cancer cells.

CIC includes cytotherapy of dentritic cells (DC), cytokine induced natural killer cells (CIK), nonspecific multiple vaccines (MV), immune irritant (low dose Naltrexone, LDN), cytokines and TCM. They are applied jointly and sequentially.

The beneficial effect of our “3 C+P” treatment mode is significant, mainly because they have the following advantages:

CSA • It is applicable to both small and large tumours. It can lead to ablation of a single tumour or several tumours; • Cryosurgical ablation will not cause damage to large blood vessels and trachea hence can be used to treat tumours at the nearby area; • Cryosurgical ablation will not cause any pain. Instead it helps to reduce pain.

continued on next page...

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INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE

3. Immunotherapy is a systemic therapy. The destruction of the last cancer cell is by immune cells and not by any other medicine.

Australian Fuda Patient’s Story

On the 10th of June 2010, a young Australian boy sent a mail to President Xu Kecheng. His name is Gianni Ciccotosto, the grandson of an Australian patient in ward seven (7) of our hospital. In the letter, he wrote down:”Dear Professor Xu. You are very friendly to my family and me…I have an important question to ask. Can I become a doctor and begin my study in your hospital now? I am willing to study and work hard.”

This was written by a nine-year old boy. After reading his letter, Professor Xu could not remain calm for quite a while. Our job touched the heart of a child.

Alberto Giglia was the grandpa of that child. Alberto, a hotel owner, was seventy-one years old. He had three daughters and a son. He was from Perth in Western Australia. This city has produced two Nobel Prize winners specializing in Digestive diseases, Professor Barry Marshall and Dr Robin Warren.

They discovered helicobacter pylori and brought about a revolutionary change in treatment of Digestive diseases and provided a new concept on the incidence of Gastric cancer.

Alberto Giglia was suffering from gastric cancer. When he was diagnosed, the tumour was un-resectable. Chemotherapy had failed to control the disease.

In September 2009, he came along with his two daughters and a grandson. This was the first time he came to Guangzhou, China. He was admitted into our hospital and his disease was under control after treatment.

More than a month ago he was examined in Australia and discovered that the primary foci of Gastric cancer and metastatic lymph nodes had mostly disappeared. The whole family was very happy.

He came back to our hospital for consolidation treatment. After the treatment, they went around Guangzhou to visit various places of attraction and to enjoy spectacular meals.

Gilberto told us that his grandson was very smart. When he noticed that his grandpa was getting better and better each day, he had the fantasy of studying medicine in China. On the 26th of June, Gilberto was discharged and Professor Xu Kecheng met them at the hospital lobby. Ciccotosto hold Pro Xu’s hand and asked him to promise that we would let him study medicine in our hospital.

In January this year when I visited Australia, I saw Giglia and his grandfather again. F

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Dr Niu at CSA

“In a word, the treatment of a tumour is an integrated treatment. It is an artistic problem of how we use existing modern technology for our patients rationally and orderly to achieve the greatest benefit.” ~ Professor Xu Kecheng • The whole process of cryosurgical ablation can be monitored through imaging techniques such as ultrasound; • After cancerous cells have been destroyed by CSA, they are left intact. Dead cancerous cells will release antigens which will stimulate the immune system to eradicate any remaining cancerous cells and it will reduce recurrence of cancer.

CMI • High concentration of chemotherapy drugs within the tumour itself with very little systemic drugs in the remaining parts of the body • Rapid result. Solid tumours are rapidly softened, their size reduced and fast disappearance of staining of capillary blood vessels in tumours.

• Very little side effects. Patients can return home 3-4 hours after treatment. No hospitalization is required; • When conventional chemotherapy and interventional chemotherapy fail, CMI provides as an alternative role.

• CMI can be repeated without affecting quality of life

CIC • Very little side effect • Broad spectrum anti tumour effects • An effective measure for the prevention of Cancer relapses. F

Dr Niu is President , Chief surgeon, Oncology, Mini invasive Surgery at Fuda Cancer Hospital Guangzhou, China. www.orienttumour.com

About Fuda Cancer Hospital Guangzhou Fuda Cancer Hospital is a hospital under Guangdong Provincial Department of Health. As a modern cancer hospital, the characteristic of Fuda is minimally invasive therapy on oncology. Professor Cao Zheyi, who is the former Vice Minister of Ministry of Health, vice-President of Chinese Medical Association and the famous expert in gynecologic tumour, is the honorary president of Fuda. Professor Xu Kecheng, president of FUDA, is a very famous Specialist of research on liver cancer, gastric cancer, pancreatic cancer, and other cancers.

Fuda is focused on the treatments of Liver Cancer, Lung Cancer, Breast Cancer, Mammary Cancer, Nasopharyngeal Cancer, Brain Tumours, Colourectal Cancer, Uterine Tumour, Stomach Cancer, Esophageal Cancer, Hepatic Cancer, Tongue Cancer, Prostate Cancer, Cutis Cancer, Larynx Cancer and Lymphoma.

We are insisting offering patient-centered service and personal Rx to our patients based on their different situation by using the three integrating: “integrating traditional treatment and new modern technology together; integrating Multi-modern technology together and integrating traditional and western medicine together”.

Besides traditional treatments like Surgery, Chemotherapy and Radio-thermotherapy, Fuda introduce many modern techniques such as: Cryosurgery, Photodynamic therapy and Seeds Knife, Phonton Knife, Radio-frequency Ablation and Biological Immune Therapy.Now, many techniques in Fuda are at leading rank of China at Oncology treatment, fro example, Fuda already has more than 3000 clinical cases, the most cases in China, on cryotherapy cryoablation. Furthermore, Fuda is famous in east-south Asia countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippe and Singapore for its good services and technique.

Travelling to Fuda for treatment Worried about traveling overseas for treatment? Don’t be. To date, Fuda have treated thousands of patients that come from outside China.

They have a full-time patient services department whose sole jobs are to translate, handle visas, book and alter flight tickets, arrange airport pickups, book hotel accommodations, and arrange finances. There is a stepby-step procedure to come to Fuda Hospital for cancer treatment outlined on the Fuda website. F

The Fuda Hospital website is at: www.orienttumour.com

We all have different reasons for travelling, but for me there is only really one reason to travel to India – to gain insights, develop compassion and tolerance, to evolve! It is possible for this to happen at home, but stepping outside the everyday routine of homelife accelerates the process. And when we’re away, on a pilgrimage, or a healing journey, there is a clear intention to evolve and deepen our understanding of the life experience, to be at peace, or to be well.

The Himalayas and the people of the Himalayas are great teachers. The mountains are a wonder of nature...beautiful, soaring, arid, snow covered peaks seen at icy dawn...and the local people naturally embody the qualities of the mountains. The people of Sikkim in the Eastern Himalaya are serene, peaceful, patient, joyful and expansive (there is a 0% crime rate in Sikkim!). Just being in the mountains and a part of that world for a short while reminds me of who I am, who I want to be, and what is truly important in life.

Sikkim is an independent Indian state in the eastern Himalaya, and is home to ancient Buddhist monasteries including Pemyagentse Monastery located on a serene and breezy hilltop with a panorama of Mount Kanchenjunga and the Himalayan peaks. We visited Pemyagentse and were greeted warmly by a Lama who kindly gave an impromptu talk on the history of Tibetan Buddhism, and pointed out that the invasion of Tibet and annihilation of Tibetan culture and spirituality by the Chinese was foreseen by a wise Lama many centuries before who advised the people to shift Buddhism to Sikkim. This happened on a small scale and the monasteries established in Sikkim have been preserved.

We asked the Lama how he personally feels about Tibet. He replied that for a long time he was deeply sad, displaced, and unable to ‘digest’ the situation, but in recent years he has found peace because he has now ‘fully digested’ what happened to him and his fellow refugees. He explained this only happened after he shifted his focus from his own pain and cultural identity, to the pain and point of view of the perpetrators and the world at large. By doing this as a spiritual practice he was able to internally heal, and eventually feel compassion for the invaders and accept the suffering without pushing it away.

The Lama went on to say that some suffering in life is inevitable, but by developing inner skills and insight we can transform pain into compassion, love and be at peace with ourselves and the world around us – even in the midst of difficulty or tragedy. Just as the invasion of Tibet was foreseen, with insight we can look into our own future, and take steps to direct our lives in a positive and beneficial direction, and prepare ourselves emotionally and spiritually for whatever is to come.

I hope as you look through the pages of this magazine you find the inspiration to embark on a journey – perhaps an inner journey of insight and healing, or an external journey to a place which brings you peace and understanding. ~ Mandy Winter 2012

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Street Art: Christian Guémy

Leigh Fortson is the author of a new book titled Embrace, Release, Heal: An Empowering Guide to Talking About, Thinking About, and Treating Cancer (Sounds True, 2011), which is full of healing journeys and inspiring stories.

This is her story...

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cheered when I read Kelly Turner’s article on unexpected remission of cancer and promptly sent it to all my friends who know that there’s more to the cancer story than what’s being told through mainstream channels. Giving scientific time and energy to these “miracles” is long overdue, and those of us who have resolved our cancer in unorthodox ways are vigorously applauding her efforts and wondering with great anticipation where this might lead.

According to Turner, “unexpected remissions are estimated to occur in one of every sixty thousand to one hundred thousand cancer patients; however, the true incidence rate is likely higher than that due to underreporting.” I couldn’t agree more. In fact, I’d bet that the rate is far higher than any of us imagine.

Before I extrapolate, let me say that I am not a scientist or a medical researcher. I’m an author with a firsthand understanding of what it’s like to have cancer, go through the rigors of conventional treatments, and find myself deposited on a lonely and frightening island after those treatments didn’t work. Most of all, I’m a believer in the power of stories and how they are an integral component of consciousness and healing. I know this not only from my own story but also from the stories I heard as I healed.

www.cancersupportwa.org.au

From Despair to Hope MIND/BODY HEALING

In 2006, I was diagnosed with anal cancer, right around the time Farrah Fawcett was diagnosed with the same. I was given a 90 percent “cure rate” using chemo and radiation. This was a hard course for me to follow because for years I had written or edited books on nutrition and alternative medicine and I wanted to take another path. But even doctors in Germany who offered more innovative treatments urged me to stay home, save my money, and do the conventional protocol since it was so successful.

It was a brutal several months, and the radiation changed my body forever. My doctors said this was the price to pay to cure the cancer. But a year later they found another tumour requiring radical surgery that left me with a colostomy.

My oncologist reassured me that I’d be back on my bike within a month of the surgery, but what my well-meaning doctors didn’t comprehend was how badly the radiation had destroyed my skin. I didn’t have enough healthy tissue to heal the surgery site, and I needed two subsequent operations and nine months of mostly prone rest before the wound came together. Again, my doctors reassured me that this was necessary to combat the disease.

Three months after everything seemed back to normal, my radiologist, a very kind man, told me in the quietest and most telling voice that there was a small tumour near my sciatic nerve, which was spotted on a routine scan. This meant the cancer had metastasized; there wasn’t much they could do. This news grew in me and became the horror story of my end days. My husband and I spent weeks in the grip of terror, wondering who would help raise our two beautiful children.

A first inkling of hope came from my therapist. She was reading Candace Pert’s The Molecules of Emotion, which explains the relationship between mind and body. My therapist urged me to harness the magnificent power of my mind to create a pathway to wellness. Catching her enthusiasm, I shored up my inner resources and decided that if the doctors couldn’t help, then it was up to me.

I became a raw foodist, turned off the news, and refused to read sad books or watch violent movies. I gave myself completely to the belief that my mind and body make up an inseparable partnership that creates my emotional and physical well being. I got my hands on everything I could about using the mind to heal and accessing whatever tools consciousness had to offer. I did undergo a progressive type of radiation called Cyberknife, which is considered less harmful than the “wide field” that was used on me after the first diagnosis. But I opted not to undergo the chemo that a specialist said “might do something.” It sounded like a dice roll at best.

The choices I made during those months launched me on an empowering and fantastic journey, largely because of my dedication and clarity of mind to get well. Even so, I still had moments of panic that this “metastasized cancer” was going to defeat my best intentions. That’s when I realised that to truly and fully believe in my own healing, I needed to hear the stories of others. I decided to compile their stories, as well as those from doctors using cutting-edge cancer treatments, into a book.

An Unyielding Belief in Healing I thought I’d have to take out an ad in The New York Times to find people who are now cancer free despite a dire prognosis, but it didn’t take any advertising at all.

Friends and clergy were both curious and supportive when they learned about my project, and they eagerly stepped up to help. They didn’t know I was writing the book to save myself, but they did know a distant cousin, a spouse of a client, a friend of a friend, or even someone from the local Lyon’s Club who had faced a death sentence after conventional treatment failed but was now thriving.

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...from previous page The first several interviews revealed the dualistic relationship these people had with their recovery. Most were intensely private about it, partly because they were finished with cancer and didn’t want to carry the cultural associations of having a disease or being a survivor. Some said friends or family didn’t consider their approach to healing legitimate because it was outside the box or believed the cancer would return or perhaps wasn’t even there to begin with. A handful of people disappeared from the lives of those I interviewed, uncomfortable with the mere notion that these things happen.

The other reason interviewees were private about their stories is there’s no place to go with them. As Turner’s article points out, today’s pharmaceutically based medicine doesn’t track this stuff. I was told how doctors were mildly interested, stymied by the clean blood tests or scans, or critical and dismissive. Perhaps that’s why the people I spoke to lit up when I told them I was compiling a book about healing in unconventional ways – including how consciousness plays into the mix.

Again, there was no scientific arm – or aim – to my interviews.

I just wanted insights into the dimensions of mind that helped forge a pathway to good health. And indeed, there were many.

Those I spoke with employed a vast menu of tools, including food and forgiveness; qi gong; creative visualization; prayer and meditation; Traditional Chinese Medicine; crystals and herbs. Plus, they engaged their consciousness – meaning that they understood their healing was ultimately up to them. It was not just a “think positively” fest. Depending on their personalities, they developed and refined their healing approach either intuitively or pragmatically, or both intuitively and pragmatically. It was work in every sense of the word, but it was the work they saw as right, true, and necessary to transform the cancer in both their mind and body.

One thread seems to be common to every story: all of these people harnessed an unyielding belief that they would heal – or die trying. Most admitted that disempowering relationships, jobs, self-judgment, or all of these played into why they believe they got the disease, and so, most made significant life changes after getting cancer. All believed that consciously and deliberately making the choices that were right for them and committing to a new, more empowering life is partly why they healed. Some were more at peace than others with the fact that they might die in spite of their efforts. But they had no regrets about changing their lives for the better for as long as they were alive. Everyone fostered a new and infectious zeal for living.

Hearing their inspiring stories, I became increasingly convinced that I could do it too. I could craft my own story to resolve my cancer. I was conscious of everything I ate and drank, everything I exposed myself to in my environment, and mindful of every strain or stress and where it was located in my body. I also worked with professionals and friends to know myself as deeply as I could: the admirable parts, the unsavory

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ones, and those with self-destructive tendencies – however unconscious they may have been. In doing so, I healed layers of myself I didn’t even know existed. A year after the last tumour was detected, I was found to be cancer free.

Consciousness Matters While conducting these interviews, I also soaked up what I could from various masters of consciousness (Jesus, Thich Nhat Hahn, Viktor Frankl, Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra, Byron Katie, Gregg Braden) and learned all I could about how the mind impacts the body (Bruce Lipton, David Hawkins, Candace Pert, and others). I realized that using the power of our minds has less to do with will and might than most of us realize. There is a supercharged energy that accompanies us on quests of such clarity and intensity; I call it spiritual adrenaline. In that space, we are willful, yes, but we quickly learn that will is a product of a finite mind-set or ego-based reality. What happened for me is that I gave way to something much bigger than I could control or instruct. It propelled the wave of my intention as I stepped aside and allowed it to guide, heal, and soothe me. It was the most peaceful, accepting, loving, and powerful energy I have ever known. It was pure consciousness, in love with my desire for life.

I believe we are in a unique and potentially liberating moment in the history of understanding health. While cancer rates are on the rise and the cost of allopathic treatments is skyrocketing, there is a fledging but rapidly growing public interest in new and more humanistic ways to treat this vexing disease. It’s clear, for example, that accepting disease as more than just a physical problem – by using our consciousness – is a wise and holistic prescription for approaching wellness.

So let’s get busy spreading the news of research like Dr. Turner’s. As they find the technology to scientifically prove that consciousness matters, that our photons emit light for miles away, that the field of energy we occupy mingles with the fields of every living thing on our planet and maybe even in our universe, those of us who have experienced something phenomenal will be the first to defend and announce that consciousness was part of our own healing process.

I may never be able to teach, measure, or prove in quantifiable terms what happened to me or the people I interviewed.

Although there is living proof across the globe that remarkable recoveries occur, how do we capture the consciousness behind them to see how it happens? Perhaps that’s the new frontier of medicine that we’re only now dreaming up. So, for now, maybe the best thing we can do is to keep telling our stories; they are life-giving medicine all by themselves. F

Article from: Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) newsletter Noetic Now, Issue Nineteen, February 2012. www.noetic.org. Leigh Fortson is the author of Embrace, Release, Heal: An Empowering Guide to Talking About, Thinking About, and Treating Cancer (Sounds True, 2011). To learn more, go to embracehealingcancer.com.

CSA is a place of wellness, healing and a place for expressing and sharing stories. We invite you to come along to the centre and participate in the various groups, activities and counselling which give all participants opportunities for sharing, self expression and deep healing.

Support Groups CSA’s skilled support group faciliators guide participants to connect and share in a supportive group setting.

Christian Guémy aka C215 believes that if you look deeply enough into a person’s face, you will see their life story unfold in front of your very eyes.

The French street artist travels around the globe and meets all types of people, including tramps, beggars and street orphans. With no regard for the law, he creates extraordinary stencils of them on the streets in their neighbourhood. For more information on Christian’s street art go to his website: mymodernmet.com

Counselling One-to-one sessions with CSA’s cancer counsellors are opportunities to deeply explore your feelings, beliefs and express the stories which define who you are – leading to transformation and healing.

Arts for Healing (expressive art therapy) Our qualified art therapist guides participants to connect with their inner worlds and develop clarity and selfunderstanding through the medium of visual art.

Journal Writing bring pen to paper the old fashioned way to get in touch with your deeper feelings. Our 5 Week Cancer Wellness Course features guided journal writing.

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By Grace Bubeck I am now looking back to the fear from an inner place of much more trust. The prayer for

“the whole cancer experience has been a path of surrender, over and over. I don’t know where else it will take me, what else I will need to surrender to (really, who knows?)... Surrendering to a healing process, to who one truly is, and to where life takes one has its joyful and exuberant moments.

Life becomes a dance when it stops being so serious.”

healing described above was part of a 50-day practice of meditation and prayer that came to me at Easter as a way of choosing to focus on healing instead of on fear. When I started I had an intuitive sense that I and my body were on a knife’s edge between healing and relapsing into more cancer, that both were equally possible. All I knew at that point was that I needed to heal, and that I was afraid. My yearning was, as it had been at the very outset, for a healing much deeper than at the physical level, and it became a yearning to be healed by pure Love. So the meditation and prayer turned into a connecting with and dwelling in that state of Love, feeling myself truly healing at all levels. For the heart it was a return to its true home, for the mind it was a place of rest, for the body it was a tuning into, and an immersion in, a vibration that I could feel right down to the cellular level. During one of these meditations, it came to me that even cancer cells can mutate back into normal cells when exposed to this purest and most beautiful of all vibrations. I have no rational way of checking this, but intuitively I know this to be true. (This, incidentally, is also the essence of all spiritual healing: causing chaotic patterns to give way to harmonious states.)

As the 50 days unfolded, I started feeling more and more confident that I was indeed healing.

The fear was fading out. Then, one day close to the end of this period, I had a very clear perception that there was no more cancer left in my body. I was stunned, as I didn’t know whether I could ‘believe’ that perception, but it was confirmed by a healer I went to see around that time. I have also read accounts by other people who had such perceptions as part of their healing process. There remains a sceptical part of me that will only believe the absence of cancer if it’s confirmed by a much longer time span of being cancer free (more like several years!). But it’s only a part, and at the same time, my body feels healthy – in fact, at this point it’s more obviously troubled by the hormonal imbalances of menopause than by cancer. So on the whole, I feel that my body is healing and I am able to trust the process as it continues to unfold. As the 50 days came to a close, I decided to add another 50 days, as I felt a need for more healing, more so at a heart and soul level than at the physical level. This time, the prayer opens out from healing for myself to include all beings in need of healing. I have a sense that I may add a third 50 day practice – who knows what the prayer will evolve into by then?

It’s been part of my healing over the last few weeks to come to accept myself much more fully in who I am, especially those parts of me that will not be limited to the physical realm.

This may be a curious statement coming from somebody who does energy work and various other rather esoteric things. But the fact is that I had given myself a hard time because I didn’t seem to be able to choose the conventional treatment options. I’ve always had this part and inner voice that would have liked me to be like everybody else, more ‘normal’: so why couldn’t I be content with seeing cancer as a physical problem that had the physical solutions doctors told me about? Well, the reality kept being that I couldn’t. So in doing my meditation and prayer for healing I also learnt to accept that for me this was indeed my way of healing, and that I could trust it because this was what I kept feeling drawn to. Essentially what I was drawn to was the healing power of pure love, and in the course of the last few weeks I’ve come to understand much more clearly how subtle vibrations such as love can be powerful sources of healing even at a physical level.

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Indeed, talking about surrender, I see that the whole cancer experience has been a path of surrender, over and over. I don’t know where else it will take me, what else I will need to surrender to (really, who knows?). At this point the journey is a lot less painful and stressful than it was around the time of the surgery and after. In fact, surrendering to a healing process, to who one truly is, and to where life takes one has its joyful and exuberant moments, too! Life becomes a dance when it stops being so serious. I recently saw a film that used the image of life as a dance as well, and I kept seeing the final sequence of a native woman dancing in my inner eye. Clearly the film – and Life – is inviting me to dance more, grateful for this precious opportunity to live love in its many facets. These days I feel indeed grateful for the cancer experience, as it’s taught me so much. As I surrender to a summer of ‘not doing very much’ I wonder what gifts this time, this part of the journey, will bring? It’s somewhat scary to look at so much ‘empty time’, and I realise how much I’m still in the mental habit of filling the time ahead of me with all sorts of ‘shoulds’, all sorts of lists of what I need to do. So not to do this, to be truly open to the moment, is both scary and precious, a true dance with life and of life, going with its flow and rhythm, being in the mystery of its unknowable essence. May we all find our unique dance, at every moment, of this precious lifetime! This is my heartfelt wish for myself and for all of you for this summer and beyond. F

This article is one of six autobiographical pieces on Grace ’s Cancer journey some of which have previously published in Wellness News and published online at: www.heartoftransformation. org. Grace left a successful career in academia because she felt called to healing work and helping people connect with themselves and feel better and more at ease.

PERSONAL STORY

I’ve also had to accept myself in another way: after the early spring weeks of being more active and enjoying all that activity, I realised that there was still a need to rest. Accepting that need meant facing another part of me that’s impatient, always pushing me to do more than I am capable of. It’s also linked in with the old conditioning of the protestant work ethic that I grew up with. Indeed, I felt like I needed to take the summer off, but this seemed way too self-indulgent – after all I was feeling a lot better physically and mentally, so what was the need? There was much internal argument until I finally realised that the timing of this process was really beyond my control.

If there was more need to rest as well as a need to allow last year’s experience to ‘settle’ and be digested more completely, this was obviously because I wasn’t fully ready to get going again. It seems so simple from the outside, but it was a painful and familiar conflict from the inside. I now realise that I’ve been pushing myself all my life, and this is a chance to stop that pushing and surrender even more fully to the process of healing and transformation that is still going on.

Being thankful and appreciating life as it is, are the secrets to success on a healing journey. As author Max Strom says ‘gratitude humbles us’ – and it is with the attitude of humility we are able to truly be thankful for the life we have, recognise and appreciate the blessings and gifts that each experience presents us with and graciously accept Life As It Is. Rather than continually wanting more, we become happy to Just Be. This inner contentment sets the stage for the healing process to unfold within us.

Cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude sounds simple – until we come up against our minds and its latent beliefs, powerful emotions and continual desires! The key is self-understanding – to look within objectively and compassionately observe the play of the mind, to take a deep breath, reassure ourselves we are okay, and then let go of our need for any particular outcome.

Imagine a life where you have never loved deeply or been loved. Imagine the emptiness of skimming the surfaces of relationships and never really immersing yourself in knowing and loving others.

Now remember your mother’s smiling face or your partner’s loving embrace, a friend’s care and concern, or the sound of your small child’s laughter – and feel gladness and gratitude in your heart for the people and experiences which have defined your life and made it precious.

The risk we take when we live life fully and love others deeply is that one day, whoever we are and whatever our circumstances, we will no longer have the someone or something we loved the most.

Perhaps you have lost the someone or something you loved the most, or you feel life has treated you badly, and as a result your heart is contracted to protect you from further pain.

Whoever we are, whatever our circumstances, love and loss are an inescapable fact of life. To accept Life As It Is regardless of what we have or don’t have, and to cultivate Gratitude is a spiritual practice, helping us shift our awareness from what we believe we Lack in our lives to the Abundance we do have.

Starting with just one small thing to be grateful for every day can lead to many great things, many great realisations and the alleviation of pain, disappointment and disillusionment. We literally become enlightened as our hearts fill with gratitude and we become attuned to what a precious gift Life really is. ~ Mandy

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Anti-Cancer Superfood Shopping List

Anti-Cancer Superfoods It has been found that 1 in 3 cases of cancer can be prevented. In fact, the study of epigenetics

Dr. Oz and David Katz, author of The Way to Eat: A Six-Step Path to Lifelong Weight Control and Director and Co-Founder of the Yale Prevention Research Centre, discussed a list of anti-cancer superfoods for us to take to the supermarket. This list will change and maybe even save your life, since these foods help fight cancer and prevent rogue cells from growing out of control.

Vegetables & Fruits leafy greens brussel sprouts tomatoes beets carrots sweet potatoes squash broccoli onions, leeks, shallots mushrooms lentils peppers: bell, jalapeno spinach oranges grapefruit lemon lime apples berries – blueberries, strawberries, raspberries apricots pomegranates mango

Proteins salmon mackerel tilapia soy products (tofu, beans, milk) Spices & Herbs: turmeric ginger cinnamon rosemary curry chive garlic basil Nuts/seeds/oils pecans walnuts almonds hazelnuts flaxseed/flaxseed oil olive oil Desserts dark chocolate

Beverages green tea Whole Grains ginger tea oats flaxseed quinoa p.s. whenever possible, remember to buy organic!

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has shown that certain foods we eat can turn on or off the genes that cause us to get cancer.

Cancer is a complex disease, but changing your diet can be just as effective at reducing your risk of cancer as quitting smoking. David Katz said that 30-60% of cancer can be prevented by eating anti-cancer superfoods.

Karen, a 48 year old woman, was diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer. She had surgery to remove the tumour and 12 rounds of chemotherapy. But Karen thinks she is cancer free not because she infused her body with everything green… She went green! Green tea, kale, cabbage, parsley, leafy greens – these all became standard in her diet. She says that you are what you eat and she had to cram in nutrients to supercharge her immune system. Each day she has 16 ounces of a green drink made of kale, chard, collard greens, lemon with the rind, ginger and celery. Dr. Oz says that research has shown that lab mice grown tumours a lot smaller and that their tumours grown much slower when fed similar green drinks.

So lets all commit to rethinking our fridge. Clean everything out and refill your fridge with the following list of foods.

Fighting Five – Vegetables and Fruits

Fruits and vegetables do not have an excess of salt or sugar. Tomatoes have lycopene and carrots have carotenoids, but these are only released when the vegetables are cooked a bit.

The best way to cook tomatoes and carrots is in a bit of oil, because this helps our body absorb the lycopenes and carotenoids. Women who eat broccoli and cabbage are 72% less likely to get breast cancer. Broccoli should be cooked a little (steamed for example), but do not overcook it or you lose the vitamins… same goes for cabbage! Other fruits and vegetables to eat include leafy greens, brussel sprouts, tomatoes, beets, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, broccoli, leeks, shallots, onions, mushrooms, lentils, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, spinach, grapefruit, lemon, lime, apples, blueberries, raspberries, apricots, pomegranates, mangoes, oranges and strawberries

Tumour Torpedoes – Whole Grains

We should have three servings a day of whole grains, which are loaded with fibre and helps to move everything through our primary detox system, our digestive system. Whole grains are also a great source of soluble fibre, which is good for regulating your hormone levels. Try whole grain bread, whole grain pasta, whole grain tortillas, oats, flaxseed and quinoa.

Cell Commando Foods – Proteins

Replace fatty proteins (like beef ), with lean proteins such as fish (salmon, tilapia, tuna, mackerel), beans, tofu, soy milk and edamame.

Fire Fighters – Herbs & Spices

Herbs and spices have natural anti-inflammatory properties and are anti-microbial. Incorporate herbs and spices like curry, cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, rosemary, chive, basil and garlic. Garlic has no odour until you cut it, because when you cut garlic it produces allicin which keeps cancer cells from multiplying. So before using garlic, chop it up and let it be exposed to the air for a few minutes.

We also need to rethink how to plate our food. Half of your plate should be filled with vegetables and fruits. 1/4 of your plate should be proteins and another 1/4 of your plate should be whole grains. Plus, Dr. Oz is giving us a little sliver on the plate for some healthy treats like nuts and dark chocolate!

www.drozfans.com www.cancersupportwa.org.au

FOOD & NUTRITION

The 80/20 Alkaline/Acid Food Rule The concepts behind following an alkaline diet are very simple: eat the things you know are good for you (fresh, leafy green vegetables and salads etc.) and steer clear of the things you know are bad (sugar, bad fats, alcohol, tobacco, yeast etc.) Of course, the science and research behind this approach are slightly more detailed than this – but following the advice your mother always gave you is the basis of this extremely effective and beneficial lifestyle – eat more fresh vegetables and cut out the junk food! The key is to maximise the amount of fresh, alkalising fruits and vegetables that you consume, along with plenty of pure, alkaline water. By aiming for an optimal 80/20 ratio of alkaline to acid foods we can ensure that our body receives the nourishment, nutrients and fuel it needs to maintain optimal health and send our energy levels through the roof!

Chart provided by www.phreshproducts.com. The information in the chart is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice.

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kale the top 10 health benefits Kale is being called “the new beef”, “the queen of greens” and “a nutritional powerhouse.” Here are ten great benefits of adding more kale to your diet: 1. Kale is low in calorie, high in fibre and has zero fat. One cup of kale has only 36 calories, 5 grams of fibre and 0 grams of fat. It is great for aiding in digestion and elimination with its great fibre content. It’s also filled with so many nutrients, vitamins, folate and magnesium as well as those listed below.

2. Kale is high in iron. Per calorie, kale has more iron than beef. Iron is essential for good health, such as the formation of hemoglobin and enzymes, transporting oxygen to various parts of the body, cell growth, proper liver function and more.

3. Kale is high in Vitamin K. Eating a diet high in Vitamin K can help protect against various cancers. It is also necessary for a wide variety of bodily functions including normal bone health and the prevention of blood clotting. Also increased levels of vitamin K can help people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

4. Kale is filled with powerful antioxidants. Antioxidants, such as carotenoids and flavonoids help protect against various cancers.

5. Kale is a great anti-inflammatory food. One cup of kale is filled with 10% of the RDA of omega-3 fatty acids, which help, fight against arthritis, asthma and autoimmune disorders.

6. Kale is great for cardiovascular support. Eating more kale can help lower cholesterol levels.

7. Kale is high in Vitamin A.Vitamin A is great for your vision, your skin as well as helping to prevent lung and oral cavity cancers.

8. Kale is high in Vitamin C. This is very helpful for your immune system, your metabolism and your hydration.

9. Kale is high in calcium. Per calorie, kale has more calcium than milk, which aids in preventing bone loss, preventing osteoporosis and maintaining a healthy metabolism. Vitamin C is also helpful to maintain cartilage and joint flexibility 10. Kale is a great detox food. Kale is filled with fibre and sulfur, both great for detoxifying your body and keeping your liver healthy.

By Alison Lewis, Cookbook Author, Magazine and Internet Food, Travel and Health Journalist, Speaker, Travel and Food Photographer and Owner of Ingredients, Inc. www.ingredientsinc.net

Creamy Kale Salad Who said raw foods are too time consuming? Few meals take less time to prepare than a salad, and these two salads are full of nutrition thanks to the creamy avocado and delicious kale. Toss them together in less than 10 minutes!

Ingredients 1 large avocado, ripe 1 t – 1 T lemon juice 1 T curry powder 1 bunch kale (about 4-6 ounces), de-ribbed and leaves coarsly chopped 1/2 t salt 1 T olive oil 5 large cherry tomatoes, quartered Directions In a small food processor, blend the avocado, lemon juice and curry powder until smooth. Taste and adjust if needed.

In a large bowl, massage the kale with olive oil and salt until softer and darker in color.

Toss the kale with the avocado blend, and fold in the tomatoes.

Avocado Kale Salad Ingredients 1/2 head of kale 1 avocado 1 handful radishes, sliced 1 handful cucumbers, sliced 1 handful almonds, soaked and dehydrated (this step is optional) 1/2 lemon, squeezed for juice Sea salt to taste Nutritional Yeast (optional) Directions Hand massage kale and avocado salad (don’t rush) Add cucumbers, radishes, almonds Add lemon juice, sea salt, other spices Toss and enjoy!

Recipe by Philip McCluskey

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www.cancersupportwa.org.au

RECIPES

Facts about watermelons

Watermelon & Tomato Gazpacho The perfect ingredients to create a soup that is as tasty as it is healing. Perfect if you’re on a raw food cleanse. It’s very high in cancer preventing lycopene and the flavour is simply fantastic. I taught this at my Brooklyn Kitchen classes and everyone raved about how much they loved it. If you’re cleansing you can skip the sea salt and if you want a richer soup add a tablespoon or two of good quality extra virgin olive oil to the base.

For the Base 4 cups watermelon, chopped 1 small red heirloom or Roma tomato, seeded, chopped 2 tablespoons fresh spearmint 2 tablespoons fresh basil 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar 1 small clove garlic 1/2 teaspoon sea salt Add 1 1/2 cups multi colored heirloom or Roma tomatoes, seeded, diced 1 1/2 cups watermelon, diced 2 tablespoons fresh spearmint 1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, diced 1/2 cup white onions, diced Directions 1. Place 4 cups of the watermelon in a blender along with the tomato, spearmint, basil, lime juice, vinegar, garlic and sea salt and blend until smooth.

2. Transfer the puree to a large bowl. Add diced tomatoes, watermelon cucumbers and onions and stir to combine.

3. Chill for 1-2 hours before serving.

4. Will last two days in the refrigerator.

Recipe By Raw Food Chef Judita. www.rawjudita.com. Her raw food cook book “Going Raw” is available from Amazon.

The health benefits of juicing allows you to discover the healing power of watermelon. Watermelon are considered to be (along with cranberries) the finest diuretics you can find in the plant kingdom. Watermelon has a very high water content of approximately 92%, making it a favorite thirst-quenching fruit.

If watermelon juicing recipes are prepared using the rind and the seeds, the nutritional value of the juice improves dramatically.

What are some of the health benefits of watermelon?

The zinch content in watermelons make them an important kidney and bladder cleanser. Studies have found a range of specific health benefits of watermelons that can contribute to your urogenital and prostate health.

These studies show encouraging findings regarding a watermelon diet providing protection against a range of cancers.

Watermelon is a very good source of the carotenoid, lycopene. Lycopene is what gives watermelon and other red fruits and vegetables their red colour. Watermelon is said to have higher concentrations of lycopene than any other fresh fruit or vegetable.

Fresh watermelon contains higher levels of lycopene than fresh tomatoes because one cup serving of watermelon contains and average of 9 mg of lycopene while one medium-sized tomato contains only 4 mg.

This powerful carotenoid acts as an antioxidant, which protects cells against damage from the free radicals formed when body cells burn oxygen for energy.

Lycopene is not produced in the body, so you can only obtain its benefits by eating foods rich in lycopene.

Encouraging watermelon nutritional facts now include the increasing range of cancers against which lycopene provides protection. Because of its strong antioxidant profile, lycopene has been extensively studied for its cancer-preventing properties. While many food phytonutrients have only been studied in animals, the cancer protection role of lycopene in humans has been extensively studied.

This list now includes breast cancer, skin cancer, lung cancer, and colon cancers and in addition there are numerous studies about the protective effect of lycopene on prostate cancer in particular.

Men who most frequently enjoyed these foods were 82% less likely to have prostate cancer compared to those consuming the least lycopenerich foods.

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The Health Benefits of Sprouts The health benefits of the sprouts are delivered by a number of factors, one of which is the sprouting biochemistry that transforms the seed into a plant.

This process unlocks the resources stored in seeds so as to become available to the growing sprout and contains plant flavonoids (antioxidants), minerals, enzymes and proteins.

Recipes using sprouts deliver these health benefits. Clover sprouts contain the most significant dietary sources of isoflavones of any sprout variety.

Isoflavone is a plant flavonoid with the capacity to act as an antioxidant with anti-cancer properties, according to researchers.

Clover sprouts dark green leaves indicate an abundance of chlorophyll and detoxifying and blood cleansing properties have been attributed to this ubiquitous plant molecule.

It is interesting to note that hemoglobin (blood) and chlorophyll share the same molecular structure except for the central atom which in chlorophyll is Magnesium (Mg) and in hemoglobin is Iron (Fe).

Alfalfa sprouts are a source of saponins, a compound that stimulates the immune system by increasing the activity of natural killer cells such as T-Lymphocytes and Interferon, according to Steve Meyerowitz.

Some women have had relief from women’s health issues by daily consumption of these two leaf stage sprouts (clover and alfalfa) as they also contain phytoestrogens (a natural estrogen molecule).

Old fashioned medicine tinctures generally had an awful taste. Some people dislike sprouts equally but realise the health benefits of them. An easy quick way to overcome this is to juice them to make a sprout shot and disguise the flavour with other natural additives of your choice.

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nature’s healing food Clover Sprout Shot I juice up clover as I am not fond of it and add a pinch of salt to the shot and it seems much better to the taste.

A recipe that works well: Juice up the sprouts you want the health benefits of but don’t like.

Add and juice 1 apple and 1 small piece of ginger Collect juice in a glass Toss down the hatch.

Broccoli Sprout Juice Research has indicated positive effects on cancer sufferers who consume 100gms of 3 day old broccoli sprouts daily. Any difficulty in consuming 100gms of broccoli sprouts daily is easily overcome by juicing.

A broccoli sprout juice recipe: 1 carrot 1 celery stick 1 apple 100gms broccoli sprouts.

Mung Bean Sprout Hommus

The China Study by Professor T Campbell outlines the positive effects for cancer patients by plant protein. Two day old mung bean sprouts (when the radicle and hypocotyl have just emerged) have approximately 23% protein.

400gms 2 day old mung bean sprouts 1 garlic clove 1 tablespoon of tahini lemon juice.

A pinch of paprika.

Put in blender and process until smooth. Place in taco shells. Add alfalfa sprouts to garnish.

Paul Boroughs, the enigmatic “Sprout Man”, is a facilitator on CSA’s new cancer nutrition course. Join our knowledgeable and passionate team of nutrition experts Paul, Marnie, Jazz and Scott and learn how to prepare and enjoy the foods which heal. Remaining 2012 Dates: 26th July, 30th Aug, 18 Oct, 22 Nov. Book early!

www.cancersupportwa.org.au

Sprouts have many valuable attributes in relation to human health.

Back in the 1920’s, an American Professor named Edmond Szekely put forward the concept and way of life of Bio-genic Nutrition.

He classified sprouted seeds and baby greens as the most beneficial foods and recommended that they make up 25% of our daily food intake, calling them life-generating Bio-genic foods which he claimed offer the strongest support for cell regeneration.

In our daily life, various factors transpire to create free radicals within our bodies.

Free radicals are highly unstable oxygen molecules needing an electron to stabilise their entropy (chaotic state).

By stealing electrons from healthy cells the causal effects of this are the breakdown of vital biological structures and the alteration of DNA and RNA (a process called per oxidation).

Once this has occurred, the affected cell will only reproduce the altered version. These superfoods are a powerful source of antioxidants (minerals, vitamins and enzymes) which assist in protecting against this damage.

A healthy body is alkaline (i.e not acidic). Bio-genic foods have an alkalising effect on the body.

Raw foods contain oxygen and regular consumption of raw bio-genic foods with their abundant oxygen is valuable to health.

Double Nobel Prize winner Dr Otto Warburg found growth of cancer cells were initiated by a lack of oxygen and these cells, along with viruses and bacteria, could not live in an alkaline and oxygen rich environment.

Bio-genic foods are a good source of essential fatty acids (the average western diet is generally deficient in these) which play a major role in the immune system defences and are one of the highest food sources of fibre.

When these superfoods are grown to the chlorophyll rich two leaf stage, it has been shown they have been effective in overcoming proteindeficiency anaemia.

Some women have found that daily consumption of these superfoods has given relief from hot flushes and supported hormonal function.

The supply of vitamins (B complex and C) existing in seeds can be increased by the sprouting biochemistry over several days by 100% to 2000%.

This biochemistry modifies the array of minerals in sprouts so that they are in a chelated form which is more easily assimilated in the body.

It also denatures protein into the amino acid building blocks so that we can digest them in half the time of cooked foods. F

Article and Recipes By Paul Boroughs: sprouts-as-medicine.com.

Did You Know…

Broccoli sprouts are a natural cancer remedy?

These humble young plants that look like alfalfa and taste peppery (like radishes) pack a powerful cancer-prevention punch.

You may have heard that broccoli is one of the most powerful natural cancer-fighting super foods available, numerous studies have confirmed that broccoli sprouts offer even more intense benefits than the mature plant.

That’s because broccoli contains natural cancer-fighting compounds – such as sulforaphane – which are most concentrated in the sprouts. For example, just one ounce of broccoli sprouts contains more sulforaphane than two pounds of broccoli.

“Three-day-old broccoli sprouts consistently contain 20 to 50 times the amount of chemo protective compounds found in mature broccoli heads, and may offer a simple, dietary means of chemically reducing cancer risk,” says Paul Talalay, M.D., J.J. Abel, Distinguished Service Professor of Pharmacology.

Broccoli and Brussels sprouts may also help stop the spread of cancer, because consuming them prompts the body to produce a substance known as 13C (indole3-carbinol). Researchers at the Ohio State University have found exciting evidence for 13C’s ability to fight cancer cells’ proliferation.

The research was published recently in Cancer Prevention magazine, and focused on breast cancer cells. Nearly half of breast cancer patients – especially those with advanced, life-threatening cancer – have escalated levels of a molecule called Cdc25A. “Cdc25A is present at abnormally high levels in about half of breast cancer cases, and it is associated with a poor prognosis,” said study leader Xianghong Zou, assistant professor of pathology at the Ohio State University Medical Centre.

But the good news is that 13C attacks and destroys both Cdc25A and breast cancer cells.

What’s more, researchers believe 13C can also fight other cancers and possibly even reverse Alzheimer’s disease .those who ate the broccoli sprouts were cleansed of cancercausing substances.

From: www.healthiertalk.com. You can easily grow broccoli sprouts at home, or order your 3 day old broccoli sprouts directly from Paul Boroughs: sprouts-as-medicine.com.

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RECIPES

Health Benefits & Chemoprotective Properties of Sprouts

J

“When I juice fast I feel amazing and can’t stop telling people.

Those of you that have fasted know what I mean.”

uice fasting is an amazing way to encourage healing and cleanse the body while supplying a remarkable increase in vitamins, minerals and enzymes. Cancer cells, toxins, built-up chemicals, excess body fat, transformed fatty acids, impacted mucus in the bowel, sickness and disease are all dramatically impacted.

The living enzymes abundant in fruit and vegetable juices radiate with healing properties. Antioxidants attach themselves to toxins, effectively removing them from the body. Vegetable juice is living fuel that takes no digestive energies, allowing the body’s entire focus to be on healing and rejuvenation. Packed with vitamins, minerals, living enzymes, antioxidants, phytochemicals, yet low enough in calories to force the body to metabolise its waste, propelling you to vigorous physical health and clarity of mind. There will be periods of toxic crisis, but once you learn not to fear them they can bring an exciting anticipation that your body is going through a deep cleansing.

All the essential nutrients in fruit and vegetables are locked within their fibres. A juice extractor frees these essential nutrients so they can be absorbed and used directly, requiring a minimum amount of digestive effort. Therefore the metabolic energy can be used 100% for cleansing mucoid matter from the lymph and toxins from the cellular tissue.

Fruit and vegetable juices are the cleansers, energisers, builders, and regenerate the human system. A combination of either fresh raw fruit or vegetable juices will supply all the enzymes, vitamins, minerals, protein, and fats critical to increased vitality! Adding live juices to your diet as a daily routine, many have experienced a rejuvenating effect and healing of various illnesses including cancer. Supplying the body with easily absorbed nutrients, while the body is cleansing itself in the fasting state, avoids the dangers of total abstinence associated with water fasting.

For most health conditions juice fasting is the best method to transform health. Through juice fasting, thousands of individuals have been freed from serious diseases such as cancer, leukaemia, arthritis, high blood pressure, kidney disorders, skin infections, liver disorders, and addictions such as alcohol and even smoking. Because juice fasting removes toxins and excess fatty tissue while supplying a full spectrum of nutrients, it has an advantage over any weight-loss program.

When juice fasting you can choose a wide variety of plants to juice including carrots, parsley, beets, beet tops, red cabbage, kale, apples, chard, spinach and cucumbers, lemon, parsley, ginger etc. I also blend fruits like papaya, blueberries, cantaloupe, watermelon and tomatoes. If you find yourself out to dinner with friends, just have warm lemon water and trust me, you will be the centre of attention and passionately lecturing and answering questions about Veganism and juicing. Or, if you must eat just have a plate of raw or very slightly steamed vegetables.

When I juice fast I feel amazing and can’t stop telling people. Those of you that have fasted know what I mean. You develop an uncanny vibrancy, clarity and energy. During the fast I lose my appetite for food and I quite frankly don’t even think about it. I juice mainly red cabbage, kale, parsley, spinach and mustard greens....Not the most delicious drink in the world but the concentration of nutrients is miraculous.

After my fast I’ll typically eat raw vegetables, sprouted beans, yams, melons and of course lots of vegetable juice, which is a part my daily existence. I will then add whole grains like wheat berries, hulled buckwheat, hulled barley, black rice, quinoa and sprouted adzuki/garbanzo/mung beans. F

By Juice Enthusiast Jo Hilbert

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www.cancersupportwa.org.au

Despite what the commercials may say, all your natural household cleaners can be made simply, and naturally with just a few inexpensive products:

White vinegar inhibits the growth of bacteria by creating an unfriendly, acidic environment. It’s preferred over apple cider vinegar since it won’t stain, is completely non-toxic and it’s easy to use. (Lemon oil or juice is a common alternative to white vinegar.)

Baking soda acts as a natural abrasive/scouring agent, deodorizer and cleanser and is gentle enough to use on nearly every surface.

Olive or jojoba oil will polish furniture and oil wood without harmful additives.

They are also less likely to go rancid.

Hydrogen peroxide will help remove stains naturally and easily. Always be sure to check for color-fastness before use.

Soap nuts are a berry-like fruit harvested from a tree. They contain saponins, which clean anything from clothing to dishes, even hair! Where soap nuts are not available, try grated handmade soaps (often found at a farmer’s market or online) or natural, biodegradable dish soap, if necessary.

Essential oils are a nice, complementary addition to any natural household cleaner but not necessary.

Using the ingredients listed above you can make all of the following natural household cleaners:

All-Purpose Natural Household Cleaners

In a spray bottle, mix 9 parts water and 1 part white vinegar. You can a few drops of dish soap, as well. Add essential oils if you’d like to minimize the strong smell of the vinegar. Tea tree oil or lavender can be used as an anti-bacterial, anti-viral, or anti-fungal if necessary.

Natural Scouring Alternative

Simply sprinkle baking soda over the area to be cleaned or onto a rag and begin scrubbing.

Natural Furniture Polish

Mix 1/4 cup white vinegar or lemon juice with 1 tablespoon of oil. You can use this in a spray bottle or a small amount on a cotton rag.

Natural Oil or Wax for Wood

For wood surfaces that require regular oiling/waxing, switch the ratios to 1/4 cup oil and 1 tablespoon white vinegar or lemon juice. Allow it to soak in for at least 12 hours before wiping off any excess with a dry cloth.

Natural Soap from Soap Nuts

Soap nuts can be added whole to your washing machine or boiled to create a liquid soap nut concentrate: Add two soap nuts per cup of water and boil for approximately 30 minutes, mashing them periodically. Strain, add essential oils and store in a sealed container. F

There are a myriad of natural household cleaners on the market today. But as “green” as they proclaim to be, or as well as they work, most are still completely unnecessary.

They require excessive energy and resources to manufacture and cost more simply because of their “green” status.

But common household cleaners are toxic, contain harmful chemicals linked to everything from cancer to birth defects and are mostly unnecessary. Household cleaning substances are the third highest exposure reported to Poison Control Centres; the second highest among young children.

Disinfectants are also dangerous to inhale and have been proven to create super-bugs: stronger bacteria resistant to disinfectants.

They can also weaken your immune system by creating a too-sterile environment, which inhibits your body from building immunity to common germs. Disinfectants belong in surgical rooms, not our homes.

From: www.sustainablebabysteps.com Winter 2012

wellness NEWS

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LIFESTYLE & ENVIRONMENT

Natural Household Cleaners

“Better keep yourself clean and bright.

You are the window through which you must see the world.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

thankyou...

This edition of Wellness News was generously sponsored by our major donor Western Potatoes who have included a “Feel Good” magazine for our members. www.westernpotatoes.com.au Other generous sponsors include the following companies who have donated or discounted services to assist with production of Wellness News and our recent Thankyou Mail Appeal. We highly recommend these professional and ethical West Australian businesses: Vital Packaging www.vitalpackaging.com.au Quickmail www.quickmail.com.au Optima Digital Print www.optimadigital.com.au Artproof Printing Phone Peter 9430 4034

The lovely Sheree selling raffle tickets for CSA

our volunteers...

CSA is priveleged to have a team of dedicated volunteers who assist with many activities in the organisation including reception, client services and programs, marketing and fundraising. Volunteers’ duties depend on their interests, expertise and the organisation’s needs. We have a variety of programs and campaigns and are always welcoming new volunteers to our wellness community. If you would like to join CSA’s volunteer program contact Ester Gomez on 9384 3544 ester@ cancersupportassociation.org.au to see how you can be of service.

To our volunteers, sponsors and supporters – thankyou! Together we are providing wellness and healing opportunities and support for people in WA with caner.

In loving memory of those who have shared part of their life journey with us...

Zonia Cartwright Bettina Hughan-Lloyd Irene Worth

Verna Marr Marion Baker Fiona Beasley

Louis Coremans Sandra Radich Kirsten Hobbs

Do not stand at my grave and weep. I am not there. I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glints on snow. the sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn rain...

58I amCancer Support Association www.cancersupportwa.org.au

SPONSORS & DONORS

Winter 2012

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Cancer Support Association

wellness, support & healing for all West Australians with cancer

Cancer Support Association of Western Australia Inc. 80 Railway St, Cottesloe WA. PO Box 325 Cottesloe WA 6911

CSA has been supporting and helping WA families with cancer for 28 years

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Since 1984, the Cancer Support Association has helped and supported many thousands of West Australian families and individuals with cancer to achieve wellness and healing. CSA continues to provide wellness courses, seminars, publications, a comprehensive website, library, counselling and self-help activities to assist and inspire people on their journey with cancer.

Cancer Support Association Cancer Supportwww.cancersupportwa.org.au Line (08) 9384 3544 www.cancersupportwa.org.au