Published March 21, 2016 Anne Cameron, the author of several successful childrens’ books, was confused and overwhelmed in 2012 when she was diagnosed with colon cancer. It all started in 2011 when Anne noticed she didn’t have much energy. She assumed it was simply a side effect of aging, but she got a blood test done just to be sure. Her levels revealed she was anemic, and she was sent home with iron pills. The iron pills didn’t work, and their only solution was to prescribe more.“No one told me that anemia in older people can be a sign of internal bleeding, and that colon cancer is often its source,” revealed Anne in her first book written for adults: Curing Cancer with Carrots.Anne’s next sign of ill health was abdominal pain that she just couldn’t shake. She thought it was from a pulled muscle that she strained during ab exercises, but it continued for months. In February 2012, she finally saw a trauma specialist, who ordered an ultrasound. They said her abdomen was normal (although she was filled with gallstones, a red flag!) and sent her on her way.In April, she was dealing with even worse abdominal pain and constant diarrhea, which doctors attributed to intestinal infections from her recent trip to Guatemala. By May, her right abdomen felt entirely rigid. “I went to my new doctor and told him that antibiotics for the intestinal infections hadn’t fixed my health. I still had the abdominal pain I had attributed to those exercises, only worse.” He finally sent her for a CT scan. It revealed a large mass, probably colon cancer. She had her first surgery four days later which removed 12 inches of her colon. Anne’s surgeon told her that although chemotherapy was “not mandatory in her case,” he recommended it. She decided to see an oncologist, who echoed this sentiment. The oncologist told her that she didn’t have to accept the chemo (a combination called “FOLFOX”), but that it would give her a 90% chance to prevent a recurrence of the cancer. The chance without chemo was more like 70%. Anne agreed to begin chemo in July… although the universe seemed to have other plans! Her surgical stitches became infected and Anne was unable to have chemo, due to the fact that the toxic drugs would have killed her new cells, too. She had to wait until September when the wound was healed, which gave any leftover cancer cells time to grow.During this time period, Anne’s knowledge and personal power grew as well. She began researching the side effects of the chemo she was planning to have. “The possible side effects of FOLFOX included hair loss, nausea, vomiting, anemia (from new red blood cells being killed off), and neutropenia (fever caused by the chemo killing off new white blood cells); and peripheral neuropathy (numb or burning hands and feet),” Anne writes in her book. “I e-mailed my surgeon telling him that I couldn’t bear the idea of deliberately making myself sick all over again with FOLFOX. He responded with great sympathy and stopped pushing me to do chemo.”On November 9, 2012, her wound fully healed and she had her 6-month follow up exam. The news was devastating. The CT scan showed that two new tumors had formed on lymph nodes between her lungs. The oncologist said that radiation would be useless, and chemo couldn’t cure them. She recommended chemo anyway, though – “palliative chemotherapy” – the name oncologists give to chemo that cannot fully cure. She said it would extend her life by 20 months, and would be FOLFOX, the exact same combination she had rejected in July.Anne went home and got right back to research. Something told her to type “cancer” and “five pounds of carrots” into google. (More divine intervention, eh?!) A website opened up written by a man named Ralph Cole. Ralph had cured 10 small squamous cell tumors on his chest in eight weeks back in 2006 by juicing five pounds of carrots daily. Here’s what happened: While Ralph was waiting for a surgery to remove 3 tumors from his chest, he began juicing 3 pounds of carrots daily at the advice of an acquaintance. The tumors didn’t disappear, but miraculously, they stopped growing. Because of this, he was able to persuade the medical staff to skip the surgery, however he still opted for chemo/radiation as a back-up plan to assure full remission.During and after the six weeks of chemo treatments, he continued juicing carrots. The two big tumors finally disappeared several months after the radiation and chemotherapy concluded. Something about the combination of radiation, chemo, and 3 pounds of carrot juice got rid of everything… temporarily.Unfortunately, the radiation treatments caused him to lose his teeth and permanently damaged his ability to salivate and swallow. He was hospitalized, unable to eat or drink. Then, he was hit with the worst news yet. The remission didn’t last. Ten new tumors had appeared on his chest. He returned to his routine of 3 pounds of carrots per day (equivalent to 3 cups of juice, around 8oz. each). Once again, the tumors didn’t grow, but also didn’t shrink. So what did he do? He upped his juicing!This time around, he juiced 5 pounds of carrots, which yielded 5 cups of juice. The tumors appeared to shrink the first day, and even more the second. All but one disappeared within 6 weeks. That largest, lingering one was gone by the 8th week. To be sure his ordeal was over with, he continued his 5 pound juicing protocol for another month. When he was done, no new tumors appeared.Too good to be true, right? That’s what Anne thought, until she decided to give him a call through the number on his website. He told her he’d used ordinary carrots from the supermarket, and that in the seven years since his carrot regimen, the cancer hadn’t returned once. He believed 5 pounds of carrots daily was the threshold for cancer: more might be good, but less wouldn’t work (as he realized firsthand when he tried juicing only 3 pounds). Anne believed him, especially because he wasn’t selling anything. She went to the supermarket herself to grab carrots and a juicer, and began her journey on November 16, 2012. Five pounds of carrots. Five cups of daily juice. Ready, set, go. On January 9th, 2013, her CT scan was promising. Surprised, her oncologist delivered the good news. The two tumors hadn’t grown, and had actually shrunk slightly. She no longer recommended chemotherapy. Anne continued juicing carrots. “I thought that maybe, they were curing me,” she writes.In March 2013, she had a new CT scan. It shows no swollen lymph nodes, and the previously enlarged cancerous ones had shrunk even further. In fact, they were normal. “I think this means that I no longer had cancer,” she said, “but he didn’t tell me that, so I went on juicing carrots daily.” On August 1st, she got more results back. “Little change from January” and “No sign of cancer.” For the first time, Anne told her oncologist that she’d been using carrots. She smiled and said she’d always thought Anne was the kind of person who would try a natural alternative. “And I’m not skeptical,” the oncologist said. “I believe there are many natural substances that can attack cancer.” Why Carrots? Carrots contain an amazing number of naturally occurring compounds. Falcarinol and luteolin have been studied extensively for over 10 years and have the strongest known effects. Falcarinol Falcarinol is a compound found in all carrots which prevents fungi from attacking their roots.Does this light up a HUGE bulb in your head? It does in mine! Some theorize that candida or other systemic fungal infections may contribute to the development of cancer (and I can see this in the sense that a chronic fungal overgrowth would distract an immune system that should be tagging and clearing abnormal cells!). In 1999, Meinolf Karthaus, MD, watched three different children with leukemia suddenly go into remission upon receiving a triple antifungal drug cocktail for their “secondary” fungal infections (1). This continues to ring true today as you can read in the 2015 article, “Anti-fungal drug shows promise as potential new cancer treatment.“Milton White, MD also believed that cancer is a chronic, infectious, fungus disease. Dr. Mercola has written about White’s work, stating that “using the proper isolation techniques (involving saline instead of formaldehyde as a tissue transportation medium between the operating room and the pathology lab), White was able to find fungal spores in every sample of cancer tissue he studied. His lifetime work has been routinely dismissed as nothing more than an unproven postulate.” Now that I’ve explained this, let me revisit the first sentence in this section because I want it to really sink in. Falcarinol is a compound in all carrots which prevents fungi from attacking their roots.A-HA! Just like carrots, humans have natural defenses against harmful organisms. As I always say, this includes our nutrient/mineral stores, and our stomach acid. What happens when those defenses are down, and we get sick? We get to enlist the help of plant defenses! Falcarinol is produced by carrots so that fungus doesn’t infest their roots. Food is medicine, and that same compound will help to keep fungus from attacking OUR “roots.” Isn’t it amazing how that works? The Science on Falcarinol For years, Dr. Kirsten Brandt from the University of Newcastle-on-Tyne has investigated carrots and falcarinol.In many experiments, lab rats and mice were injected with carcinogens. Dr. Brandt found that, compared to mice or rats eating their normal diet, those fed either carrots or falcarinol developed a third fewer large tumors.In the US, researchers at Harvard University found women who ate at least five carrots a week were nearly two-thirds less likely to have a stroke than those who ate them only once a month.Five cups of carrot juice totals around 17 mg falcarinol. Luteolin Another anti-cancer compound in carrots (that has been studied much more extensively) is luteolin.In 2008, the journal Molecules gave a nice summary of its anti-cancer effects: “Luteolin displays specific anti-inflammatory and anticarcinogenic effects, which can only partly be explained by its antioxidant and free radical scavenging capacities. Luteolin can delay or block the development of cancer cells in vitro and in vivo by protection from carcinogenic stimuli, by inhibition of tumor cell proliferation, by induction of cell cycle arrest and by induction of apoptosis via intrinsic and extrinsic signaling pathways. When compared to other flavonoids, luteolin was usually among the most effective…” Luteolin is also found in parsley, wheatgrass, lemongrass, green peppers, celery, chamomile, yarrow, rooibos tea, thyme, peppermint, basil, artichokes, citrus fruits, and green onion leaves.On average, Americans only consume 1 mg of luteolin daily. But there are 75-mg. luteolin in five pounds of carrots— 75 times the usual American consumption.To close this section, I’d like to leave you with a little information on a common breast cancer drug, Tamoxifen. A study by Mark Noble of the University of Rochester Medical Center found that with two days of Tamoxifen exposure at the level patients use, 75% of a certain kind of brain cell died – the cells essential for making myelin sheaths so that nerves work properly.Luteolin binds to estrogen receptors in the breast more strongly than Tamoxifen! It inhibits cell proliferation without doing any damage to health or brain cells. If you’d like to know why doctors prescribe chemo instead of these natural plant chemicals, I suggest you read “The Truth about Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It” by Dr. Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of medicine. Anne’s Final Advice At the end of her book, Anne gave a few points of advice for those planning to add carrots to their arsenal.“The important thing is that the carrots are fresh. You can be sure of this if you buy them with the green tops. Break off the greens right away, because if you don’t, they’ll draw nutrients and water our of the carrot roots.”She says that if you can find them, choose purple carrots whenever possible. Purple carrots have six times the amount of the falcarinol in orange carrots, although the orange ones work fine (she used orange).And lastly, heat destroys falcarinol and its companion compound falcarindiol. Drinking bottled pasteurized juice from a store will only give you heat-stable luteolin, but not the benefit of carrot enzymes or falcarinol. It’s best to juice the carrots fresh at home, even if you have to make a large batch in the morning to refrigerate and drink throughout the day.Celery sometimes has double or triple the amount of falcarinol in carrots. Celery also has apigenin, which has been discovered to have its own very beneficial effects.I think I’ll be adding some carrot juice to my daily routine as well, and on that note, I’m off to make some! 😉References (1) Karthaus, M. Treatment of fungal infections led to leukemia remissions. Sept. 28, 1999 (2) Curing Cancer with Carrots, Cameron A. (2014) (3) other references linked within article
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3 min read # S3E24 – GETTING COMFORTABLE WITH DEATH — Death Doula Caroline Lee dives into the uncomfortable conversation around death and how we can ease the process for us and others