Cancer ‘Epidemic’ Demands New Approach

As reported recently, cancer continues to take a devastating toll on the lives of too many Australians.

With the revelation that, not only have we not ‘won the war’ against cancer, the number of new cases has actually increased; up 5% during the past year. This it is a stark reminder of just how little progress we have made in ridding the world of this fearsome disease.

When chemotherapy was introduced, after the Second World War, came with it a promise that within a short time cancer would be beaten. Yet over 60-years-on, cancer continues to wreak the lives of people from all walks of life.

So could our whole approach be wrong and should we be looking for answers elsewhere?

As a society we seem to adopt a ‘military’ style approach to cancer, and it has failed miserably. Yet we adopt this combative mindset not only during the cancer journey, but even after death. Just read the newspapers or listen to the radio or TV and you will see how this ‘war-like’ approach has pervaded our thinking….

‘Football Legend Loses Long Battle Against Cancer’; ‘Movie Star faces long fight with cancer’; ‘…John Smith lost his fight with cancer after a long illness’; ‘Doctors Winning the War on Cancer’.

It is completely understandable that doctors, patients and carers see cancer as something that needs to be ‘attacked’ and ‘beaten’. We all see cancer as some sort of ‘thing’ that has invaded our bodies. So just like a splinter, we need to attack it and get rid of it. But the bleak statistics tells us that clearly this approach has failed to deliver any positive outcomes.

World-renowned cancer advocate, Dr Emmett Miller, makes a valid point when he explains that we have been ‘programmed’ into seeing cancer as an invasive ‘thing’ – like the splinter - that necessitates the declaration of war upon ourselves and attacking the invader.

Now it suits the drug and pharmaceutical industries to promote this ‘military’ approach to dealing with cancer, because if we see cancer as an invasive ‘thing’ then naturally we need to ‘rollout the big guns’ to declare war and attack it. The ‘big guns’ of course include chemotherapy, radiation, surgery and the multitude of drugs designed to help us recover from the shrapnel damage to ourselves as a result of the war effort.

Cancer, as Dr Miller explains is, in fact, not a ‘thing’ but rather an “outcome of processes that have taken place in our bodies”.

These ‘processes’ within our magnificent bodies are at work 24/7. We have over 75 trillion cells all working with their own intellect and controlling every aspect of our lives. We replace millions of amazing cells every few minutes without even knowing it. Yet it is when these ‘processes’ are interrupted or altered that diseases occur.

So the argument could be that if we were to stop seeing cancer as a ‘thing’ and rather as an end result of these processes within our own control, then just maybe we could do something about it.

In my own case when I was diagnosed with ‘terminal’ cancer in 1993, I to wanted to ‘fight the good fight’, but was encouraged to take a different approach. Sure, I still underwent chemo and radiotherapy along with surgery, but decided to leave the ‘military’ part of my cancer journey to the doctors. I chose to deliberately focus on my general wellbeing and health and to change the processes within my body to bring myself health back into balance; spiritually, mentally, emotionally, nutritionally and physically.

Whilst this approach has worked for me, I also know others who did the same but eventually died due to cancer. But they did so with grace, dignity and a sense of peace within. A far cry from the many people who die in pain and surrounded by sadness, fear and damage from the effects of their personal war on cancer.

The solution to cancer will only be found through an integrative approach to facing and treating cancer, involving mainstream medicine working collaboratively with the experts in the field of complementary therapies.

Whilst we continue to face the challenge of cancer with a single minded ‘military-approach’ to ‘winning the war’, the suffering will continue and the final solution will continue to be as distant as ever.