Copyright 2006 Paula Rothstein
In spite of the advancements made by medicine over the years, the treatment of cancer remains adrift, buffeted by political tides and conflicting approaches. It is a disease that has been hijacked by a very large and powerful pharmaceutical drug industry, an industry capable of altering the historical course of medicine.
Once receiving a diagnosis of cancer, the patient wears a price tag of approximately $300,000. Cancer is BIG business.
To put this ill-conceived power in perspective, consider the words of the novelist Upton Sinclair who once said of such danger, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."
In 1913 the American Cancer Society came into existence under the guise of an "emergency organization, a temporary organization, seeking in its independent Crusade to obtain enough dollars to wage an unrelenting fight against cancer."
Apparently "enough dollars" was not the suitable criteria for success after all. The American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute have spent many billions of taxpayer and charity dollars promoting, for the most part, ineffective drugs while virtually ignoring strategies for prevention. For the utter lack of progress, one would question whether the cancer industry is aptly motivated to find a cure. Despite decades of false assurances, we are losing the winnable war on cancer. The fact of the matter is that we are no closer to controlling this disease. This year approximately 1,400,000 Americans will be diagnosed with cancer and 600,000 will die. If we had taken the advice of doctors several decades ago who researched and introduced natural methods for prevention and treatment of this disease, and if we had focused our attention on eliminating carcinogens from the food we eat, air we breathe, and water we drink, we would not be facing this great tragedy today. Vested interests have repeatedly blocked these strategies.
THE NATURE OF CANCER
"You cannot poison your body into health with drugs, chemo or radiation. The holistic approach treats the whole animal, ignites the body's internal healing force and stimulates the body's natural abilities to heal itself. Health can only be achieved with healthful living." T.C. Fry
First, it is important to understand the nature of cancer if we are to take control of the disease. According to Dr. George C. Pack, a cancer specialist at Cornell Medical School, almost everyone has cancer cells present at times in their bodies.
If our immune system is working properly, these cells are killed or reabsorbed by our defense system before they begin to grow and threaten our health. Our immune system is a very sophisticated system and over time has developed a "seek and destroy" method for dealing with these cancerous cells. Today, it is necessary to consider why the immune system is failing us at an alarming rate. A reasonable person would question whether our approach is completely wrong for our lack of progress. (I would hazard to guess that we have been on the right track numerous times only to be derailed by the pharmaceutical drug industry and governmental agencies in their employ.)
Cancer occurs when our bodies are exposed to a factor or combination of factors that damage normal cells and make them start dividing uncontrollably. Frequent exposure to tens of thousands of synthetic chemicals, accumulating from the very moment we are born, has a very large part to do with the cancer epidemic we are now experiencing in the U.S. and around the world. You take this increase in our overall toxic load and top it off with an immune system weakened by a modern diet and you have a state conducive to growth for these cancerous cells.
APPROACHING CANCER NATURALLY
"If I contracted cancer, I would never go to a standard cancer treatment centre. Cancer victims who live far from such centres have a chance." Professor Georges Mathé, French cancer specialist
The reality is that if you wait for the disease to manifest itself in symptoms you more than likely have had the disease for two to three years. Ultimately, there is no absolute cure for cancer, only prevention and remission. We need to interrupt the process of cancer and take steps to move away from an environment conducive to the formation of cancerous cells. Therefore, it is extremely important to find effective methods of circumventing disease onset. Perhaps the inability of the cancer industry to properly turn their attention to prevention is because a synthetic drug will never be of any use in this regard.
Interestingly enough, there are just a few fundamental concepts that can influence the internal environment, turning it away from disease and towards health. These concepts involve the alkaline/acid levels and oxygen levels in the cells. Just as we could not live without oxygen, research shows that cancer cannot exist in cells where there is enough oxygen or where the pH level is properly balanced. Unfortunately, all too often our cells are low in oxygen and therefore acidic.
Highly suspect as a trigger of this disease are carcinogens and toxins, however, these may be, in a sense, secondary causes of cancer. An underlying cause of all cancers may have been discovered over 50 years ago by the renowned scientist Otto Warburg, winner of two Nobel Prizes for discovering the clues to why cancer develops. Dr. Warburg's research supports his theory that cancer development appears to be connected to cellular oxygen levels.
Now here is where toxins come into play. One of the causes of poor oxygenation include a buildup of carcinogens and other toxins within and around cells which blocks and then damages the cellular oxygen respiration mechanism. This clumping of red blood cells ultimately slows down the bloodstream and restricts flow into capillaries which also causes poor oxygenation. The mere lack of proper building blocks for cell walls and essential fatty acids, restricts oxygen exchange.
The other aspect of dealing with cancer is supporting the immune system. After all, for most of one's life the immune system has successfully dealt with cancer cells. Usually it becomes worn out and ineffective and unable to deal with the cancer cells before cancer takes hold and thrives.
It is important to strengthen the immune system so that it can better fight cancer, especially if one is taking medical treatments that negatively affect the immune system as is the case with chemotherapy. Current cancer treatments seem to make no sense once you understand the basics of the disease. In fact, studies show that most methods of detecting and treating cancer INCREASE your overall cancer risk, including mammograms.

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Paula Rothstein has been involved in the natural health industry for over 10 years with a specific emphasis on promoting products and introducing lifestyle changes which address chronic diseases relating to high levels of toxicity. For more information on detoxification, please visit: http://www.medicinefreeliving.com Questions can be sent to: Paula.Rothstein@medicinefreeliving.com


Exercise Can Help Relieve Lower Back Pain
If you are one of the millions of people that suffer from lower back pain, then you need to know that exercise can do wonders for you. When it comes to relieving lower back pain, exercise provides more long term relief than any back pills that your doctor can give you. The fact is, pills only serve to mask the problem by providing temporary relief of the pain, but the problem that is causing much of the pain is still there. Exercise will strengthen the muscles that support your back and improve flexibility thus greatly reducing the chances of future attacks.
You should be doing a three fold program of exercise which includes aerobics, resistance and stretching exercises. Aerobic exercise like walking and bike riding will begin to get your body conditioned properly because it strengthens your heart and lightly works your muscles. Resistance exercise like weight lifting will strengthen the muscles that support your back. Stretching exercises will increase flexibility giving your back a greater range of motion. Your doctor can guide you as to when and how much of each type of exercise you should be getting.
For people with lower back pain, the best aerobic exercises to do are low impact ones like swimming, walking and bike riding. Jogging, dance aerobics and step aerobics all produce repeated impact on your back and on your knee and hip joints as well. In order to get in good condition, start out with 15 minutes of light aerobic work per day, 2 to 3 times per week, and then gradually build yourself up to 30 to 40 minutes per day, 4 to 5 times per week.
You should be working enough to raise your heart rate to be in between 65% to 85% of your maximal heart rate. You determine your maximal heart rate by subtracting your age from 220. Regardless of whether you are walking, bike riding or doing any other aerobic exercise, always maintain good posture. This means sit up strait, stand strait and do not slouch or lean forward. Good posture is essential to any good exercise program.
When it comes to resistance exercising, you always want to concentrate on the abdominal muscles. These muscles play a major part in giving your lower back support and the stronger they are, the more relief for your back. Also important is to do exercises that are designed to specifically strengthen the lower back muscles themselves. You will best benefit from working each muscle group 2 to 3 times per week. You may want to hire a qualified fitness trainer to help get you on your way by designing a resistance program that is right for you.
Remember that while resistance exercise is great for strengthening the targeted muscles being worked, there should never be any pain involved. Some discomfort should be present in the muscles being worked while performing the exercises for them, but should subside very shortly after completion of the exercise. If there is any pain during the exercises or if discomfort persists for some time after, it is a sign that something is wrong and exercising should be discontinued and your doctor should be consulted immediately.
As far as stretching is concerned, 10 to 15 minutes of moderate stretching per day is usually enough to get the job done just fine. Here you really want to concentrate on stretching your hamstrings which are the muscles in the back of your upper legs. The looser your hamstring muscles are, the better range of motion your back will have as flexible hamstring muscles do not put the strain on your lower back that tight ones do.
Stretching the lower back muscles is also a must and sitting on the floor with your legs flat on the floor in front of you while you slowly reach for your toes until you can't go any further, hold for 10 seconds, and sit back up is a great exercise to stretch both your hamstrings and your lower back. Repeat this stretch 2 to 3 times each day.
While there are no miracle cures for lower back pain, you can make living with a lower back condition much easier to deal with by simply incorporating some exercise into your life each day. It is worth the effort in the long run give up 30 to 40 minutes per day, 4 to 5 days per week to exercise away your lower back pain.

About The Author:
Jim O'Neill gives you tons of valuable information on the subjects of weight loss, fitness, and nutrition to make it easy for you to live a healthy lifestyle. Sign up now for his free newsletter at: http://www.mrgymhealth.com


Exercise Cellulite Away
Exercise Cellulite Away
A simply analogy that describes cellulite is skin that appears to have a cottage cheese appearance. The lumpy appearance of the skin is actually deposits of fat and/or water that are trapped in the connective tissue beneath the skin. The most common areas for cellulite to develop are on the hips, buttocks, and thighs.
Causes of Cellulite
Cellulite develops from a number of reasons. The main causes though are circulation problems, water retention, and dietary factors that include food additives, chemical preservatives, & hormones. In addition, lack of exercise, excess ingestion of saturated fats and sugar and poor hydration are other factors in developing cellulite.
Reducing or Eliminating the Appearance of Cellulite
There are ways in which you can reduce or even eliminate cellulite. However, to rid your body of this condition will take discipline to exercise. Below is a fitness program to get you on your way to better looking skin.
As with any exercise program, a warm-up is required to reduce the threat of strain or injury on your muscles. A good warm-up exercise could be 15 minutes of aerobic dance, and some general stretching.
After you have done your warm up, you are ready to begin your exercise regiment. The first exercise should be strength exercises or weight training. Start out with lightweights and then as your program progresses, raise the weights to a higher level.
Recommendations for exercise are to do at least 15 minutes of strength exercises. In addition, you should do 10 repetitions of each exercise for the targeted area. After completion of 10 repetitions, you should do a few stretching exercise for about 20 seconds. Stretching out the targeted muscle will increase flexibility and increase strength. Increasing strength will build muscle thus eliminating cellulite.
For example, if your thighs are the problem area, use exercises that are designed for the thighs. These could be leg lefts or side leg lifts. In addition, there is exercise equipment exclusively made for thighs.
If cellulite is on the buttocks, there are a number of ways to eliminate it. Doing lunges or squat exercises would be one way. Moreover, to increase the effects of your exercises, consider adding weights to you ankles or holding weights at your side. Exercise machines are another possibility to get you on your way to reducing or eliminating cellulite.
There is no easy cure for cellulite. Reducing its appearance or eliminating it altogether takes some work and dedication. A good exercise regimen will not only improve your cellulite, it will promote a sense of well being and improved health all around.

For more information about cellulite, visit Cellulite
About The Author:
David Chandler