We all know that drinking, smoking and drug use promotes cancer, and that environmental toxins can cause cancer, but I’d like us to all dig a little deeper, and open our eyes to the sheer volume of exposure to cancer causing agents in our world today.

 There are cases where cancer strikes quickly but it is more common when cancerous tumors manifest after years of specific harmful habits. Good examples of this are smoking, exposure to radiation i.e. mobile phones, and overexposure to ultraviolet rays, which result in lung cancer, brain cancer, and skin cancer, respectively.

It is no coincidence that cancer is on the rise, i’m not just talking about the elderly because they are living longer, but in babies and children, teenagers and young adults. Childhood cancers used to be a rarity yet now they are becoming scarily common. So if our genes are still the same, something is fundamentally wrong with the environment in which we surround ourselves.

So firstly what kind of diet promotes cancer?

We live in a world where red/ processed meat, dairy, GMO food, refined sugar, salt and refined oils make up the basis of our diets.  We live in an age where all our food is drenched in pesticides and where organic food is considered as some strange ritual by many people. We live in an age where we coat our bodies, face and hair with products which are loaded with carcinogenic toxins that are absorbed by our skin. We are frequently over prescribed antibiotics by our doctors for trivial illness, which in turn destroys our microflora (where 80% of our immune system resides). Not only antibiotics but prescription medications that cause side effects and consequently new symptoms that are so bad that they require more medication, only for that drug to cause more side effects that requires another drug. Our soil lacks the nutrients and minerals that it used to provide us with years ago, so many of us are walking around with undetected nutritional deficiencies which instantly puts us at greater risk of cancer. We live in a world where we are scared of the sun, in case we get skin cancer so instead we coat our skin in toxic sun-creams which contain parabens, oxybenzone and other cancer causing chemicals. Ironic since vitamin D is so important for our immune system – the very thing we need to be strong in order to detect and fight cancer. It therefore is not surprising that skin cancer rates are rising despite sunscreen use and reduced sun exposure, there is clearly a deeper underlying cause. It is considered normal for people to microwave (radiate) their food which destroys its nutritional content, worse the food is often microwaved in plastic which contains toxic BPA which leaches in to the food we eat.

It is no wonder with these trends and modern technology that childhood cancer is on the rise. In particular, childhood liver cancers have started to creep up. Children’s livers are simply incapable of dealing with such a vast bombardment of toxins on a daily basis.

Take a typical child’s diet; It is often heavily processed (including refined sugar, packets of crisps and white bread daily), it is non organic, cooked using a microwave, includes fizzy drinks, is heavily dairy based, lacking in fruits and vegetables, ready meals are not uncommon. Then take a look at their lifestyle; often heavily sedentary with a lack of sunlight, surrounded by electro magnetic fields from WIFI in the home and mobile phones etc. Then look at the water they drink, often fluoridated and containing traces of hormones and prescription drugs. Then look at the products that are used on their skin and hair which contain parabens, SLS and phalates which are carcinogenic. The list could go on but you can see the picture evolving of why childhood cancers are becoming more and more widespread when they used to be so rare.

All of this can be said of adults too, however then add in alcohol, smoking, high stress levels, toxic prescription meds, drug use, oral contraceptive pill, hair dyes that contain carcinogenic compounds, constant mobile phone radiation and you can soon see why there are now 1 in 2 people that will be affected by cancer.

 

People talk a lot about “cures” in the health industry but there’s a saying you probably heard from your grandparents that makes a lot more sense…

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

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Here are my 15 tips on how to reduce your risk of cancer

1. Avoid sugar especially fructose – sugar feeds cancer and contributes to an acidic environment in the body where cancer thrives. Processed refined white sugar is the worst and is found in just about every processed food on the market, even the savoury stuff.

2. Optimise your vitamin D levels – vitamin D is able to enter cancer cells and trigger apoptosis (cell death). If you have cancer your levels should be between 70-100mg/ml. Vitamin D is heavily involved with the immune system and therefore is needed in order for prevention of cancer. Not many people living in the UK have optimal vitamin D levels due to our climate, and our fear of the sun. We are usually covered up, and the bits of skin exposed are often covered in makeup or moisturiser which contains sunscreen, the same for our hands. Most sunscreens contain toxic chemicals that can be more dangerous than moderate sun exposure.

3. Maintain a healthy body weight – excess fat cells produce their own oestrogen – oestrogen dominance is linked to cancer in both men and women.  Engage in regular exercise to help to maintain a healthy weight. Exercise also gets the lymph going and moves toxins. Exercise oxygenates the body, and guess what, cancer can not thrive in an oxygenated environment.

4. Look after your gut; Recent research has suggested that probiotic supplementation may be able to stop tumour growth. And this makes perfect sense because 80 percent of your immune system is housed in your gut. In addition to supporting your immunity to disease, research has also shown that probiotics can improve digestive function and mineral absorption as well as aid in healing leaky gut, which all contribute to helping prevent cancer.

 

5. Do not consume dairy. Dairy contains something called ‘insulin like growth factor’ which as the name implies, causes cells to grow exponentially – not ideal if there are rogue cancer cells in the body which will be turned in to a tumour in no time if dairy is consumed daily. It also contains antibiotics and hormones as a way to control udder infections and make the calf grow in to a big cow quickly. These are all detrimental to the immune system and add to the circulating pool of oestrogens. All adding to the risk of cancer.

6. Eat organic! Pesticides, herbicides and fungicides are all carcinogenic. Consuming them on your food every single day causes a huge build-up of toxins in the body which can go on to initiate cancers. This is most important for fruits, veggies, but also meat which should be organic and grass fed. Fish should only be consumed if it is wild, not farmed. Farmed fish is fed a whole host of antibiotics, hormones and other toxins, which are stored in the fish and then we eat the whole lot.

 

7. Get plenty of high quality animal based omega 3 fats – omega 3 deficiency is a common underlying factor for cancer and since most cancers have an inflammatory component, omega 3 fats particularly EPA will directly decrease inflammation.

 

8. Consume curcumin via diet (great put in to any spicy food, put in to baking or made in to a turmeric latte) or take a supplement. Biomedical literate suggests that the active component in turmeric ‘Curcumin’ can prevent and combat over 100 types of cancer. It is also highly anti-inflammatory and boosts your body’s production of Glutathione (the most potent antioxidant).

 

9. Eat a rainbow diet – each different coloured fruit or vegetable contains different phytonutrients that possess different cancer killing/ antioxidant properties. Include fresh juices, smoothies, salads, raw vegetables, fruits on a daily basis.

10. Avoid electromagnetic fields as much as possible. A big one that we are never without is our mobile phone, do not sleep with it by your head all night, and if you must then turn it on to airplane mode. Turn WIFI off at night.

 

11. Avoid xenoestrogens in the home, these contain something called BPA which is a hormone disrupter and linked to cancer development. It mimics oestrogen in the body and causes an excess leading to oestrogen dominance. BPA is found in plastics, cleaning products and non-organic beauty products.

 

12. Watch out for excessive iron levels – especially for you men out there you should never be supplementing with iron, nor eating red meat in excess. Unlike us women you have no way of getting rid of excess iron like we do on a monthly basis. Excess iron actually works as a potent OXIDANT increasing free radicals and raising risk of cancer. Ferritin which is the body’s stored iron should not be above 80 – if it is you should donate blood to reduce it.

13. Make sure you are not iodine deficient, there is substantial evidence that iodine deficiency is a modifiable risk factor in cancers of the stomach and breast and possibly many other organs. You can obtain iodine from eating sea vegetables and seafood or taking a supplement.

14. Increase your antioxidants by increasing your fruit and vegetables to 10 portions per day. Only two should be from fruit to reduce sugar intake. This can easily be done by having a smoothie every day as you can easily cram lots of veggies and fruit in to one. Then including a salad for one of your meals and serving vegetables with the others. Also using things like cauliflower rice instead of normal rice, or courgetti instead of spaghetti is another way to increase veg and reduce carbs. Doing this will make the body more alkaline, where cancer prefers an acidic environment.

 

15. Avoid fluoride, use a water filter and buy an unfluoridated toothpaste. Fluoride has not actually been shown in studies to improve dental health but has strong links to cancer.

 

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There are many other natural and hugely effective specific nutrients, supplements and techniques that can be added to the above recommendations to avoid cancer and also to stop it in its tracks if you have got cancer. If you are interested in further information then please feel free to contact me.

I hope this post inspires you to make some changes in your life.

Love & Light

xx