When I meet someone who is rapidly approaching the end of the second decade of treating biopsy-proven cancer only with natural approaches, I am left in awe. In fact, I just recently met such a person.  A success like this can only be due to a true re-awakening as to what it means to live – how to eat, how to move, how to connect, how to let loose. It involves dedication, a hunger to learn, and faith. Resilience and flexibility are fundamental, as there are always ups and downs in this process, demonstrated by the widely fluctuating tumor marker levels. How inspiring for us all when someone demonstrates that cancer does not have to be a death sentence, but an invitation to transform our lives to the way we were truly meant to be. It involves elimination of ALL toxins in our life – in food, water, air, and relationships. It involves cultivating and nurturing those family members, friends and spiritual individuals who can be there for us to lean on and re-inspire us when inevitable challenges arise. It involves a reconnection with the spirit energy from whence we came, which surrounds us and into which we will later re-immerse.  

We will have the opportunity in June to hear one of the great cancer minds of our time teach about healing in cancer. Donald Yance can achieve results in cancer where no one else can. He has been perhaps the most successful in the country at restoring vitality to cancer patients. He understands cancer as few do. Not only has he put together a monograph on integrative prostate cancer care with over 1300 references, but has a prostate cancer patient who has surpassed the 20 year mark. On the morning of June 5th, he will be presenting at the Midway Foundation Cancer Conference at the WT Young Library.  Call 859-846-4445 or e-mail mcimsupplements@gmail.com to join us.

Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love and Wisdom – Rick Hanson
This book has reminded me how essential it is for us to maintain a parasympathetic mode. We know that the ‘fight or flight’ sympathetic mode increases adrenalin and cortisol, suppressing the immune system.  Increasingly, we are bombarded with visual images and sounds that have the effect of putting us on high alert. Do you jump when surprised?

Our brains become wired one direction or the other through our reinforcement. Negativity begets negativity. We become increasingly wired to think damaging thoughts.  Our immune system then battles increasingly uphill.   

But we have the ability to ‘vaccinate’ our brain. A morning meditation, such as Sa-Ta-Na-Ma, when repeated each morning, reinforces a parasympathetic wiring that will increasingly predominate during the day. When a negative thought arrives, pairing it with a positive thought can dissipate its energy. Our brain then wires these two thoughts together, so that, with reinforcement, when the negative appears, the positive one follows behind. Not only does the parasympathetic mode substantially strengthen our immune system, it also makes our life much more pleasant. Stressful occurrences no longer have to disrupt our day and we can rest peacefully at night.