This edition first published in 2015 by Conari Press
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Copyright © 2012 by Mike Herbert
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages. Originally published in 2012 by Mike Herbert as The Chemotherapy Diet, ISBN: 978-1475171235.
ISBN: 978-1-57324-675-0
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INTRODUCTION
PART ONE
Chemotherapy Is Only Part of the Healing Process
PART TWO
The 5-Step Chemotherapy Diet Program
Step 1: Change Your Thinking and Develop an Attitude Focused on Healing
Step 2: Detoxify to Promote Healing from the Inside Out
Step 3: Eat the Best Foods to Create a Healing Chemistry in Your Body
Step 4: Supplement Your Diet Correctly to Support the Healing Momentum
Step 5: Exercise and Rest to Speed the Healing Process
PART THREE
Recipes: Eating Healthy
PART FOUR
Beyond Chemotherapy
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, ABOUT THE AUTHOR, BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
Your present circumstances don't determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start.
Nido Qubein
I am writing this book because when I faced a cancer crisis of my own, I could not find a book that would give me solid, reliable information fast enough.
Here is what happened. Out of the blue, my partner, who seemed to be enjoying perfect health up to then, was diagnosed with Stage IV Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. The disease was both virulent and aggressive, advancing daily throughout his body's lymphatic system and threatening to attack his internal organs.
After we got over the shock of an impending death sentence, we began to sort out what needed to be done. Both of us are confirmed natural healing advocates: I am a naturopathic doctor; he has written a book and scores of articles on alternative healing methods. By temperament and by training, we leaned toward seeking a cancer cure outside what is considered “conventional” medical procedure. But, mainly because of the cancer's rapid progress, we opted for traditional cancer treatment under the direction of a traditional oncologist.
We understood that choosing conventional treatment over some of the new alternative, complementary, and integrative approaches probably meant chemotherapy and radiation, maybe even surgery. These are the standard weapons used by allopathic (conventional Western) oncologists in the “war against cancer.”
We also suspected that this arsenal of medical chemicals, especially in the case of chemotherapy, probably would be effective in attacking the cancer, but might not be helpful beyond that. I knew that chemotherapy is designed to kill cells in the body and will stop rapidly dividing cells from multiplying. That is what it will do. What chemo will not do is make a person healthy.
Overnight, I became both a full-time caregiver and nutritional researcher. I was highly motivated to find out how to help my partner stay alive. Because the cancer was advancing rapidly, I closed down my practice and put myself back in graduate school, with myself as the only student—as if I was working on another doctoral degree in naturopathy, this time with a specialization in staying healthy during chemotherapy.
So, we entered traditional cancer treatment—sometimes referred to as “the cancer treatment system”—but with our eyes wide open, looking for every opportunity to balance the destructive work of the chemo chemicals with constructive, life-boosting foods and supplements.
As my research progressed, I began introducing natural healing practices into my partner's personal anti-cancer program. The first order of business was to radically alter what he was eating. He had always been a careful eater, but the new situation called for a thorough scrutiny of the foods that had been his regular fare up to that point.
If the first big area of concern was what he was eating, the second, and just as important, was what he was taking—that is, supplements. My research was showing that the most highly trusted sources were endorsing the use of supplements during chemo, and in therapeutic doses, many times the daily dosage for a healthy person.
Six chemo treatments were prescribed by the doctor. They would be administered three weeks apart, allowing just enough time to recover from one session before undertaking the next. Again, because of the rapid spread of the disease, chemo would begin three days after the initial diagnosis.
Along with conventional treatment, which included not only the chemo drugs but also other pharmaceuticals for various side ailments before, during, and after the actual chemo days, we embarked on a strict regimen of a newly formulated diet, supplemented by vitamins, minerals, and herbs.
Detoxification was also a pressing issue because the chemo needed to leave the body as quickly as possible and take the dead cancer cells with it. I recommended that my partner take detox baths and coffee enemas, based on ideas put forth by highly respected natural healers who were using them with cancer patients.
Added to all this was an “exercise program”—a daily walk that began as a tentative stroll around the block and progressed to, in a couple of weeks, a nature hike of nearly two miles. Oddly, perhaps, I did not have to push this exercise on my partner. He did it on his own, at a time of the day when he had the energy, because, with the rich nutrients he was taking in, he felt up to walking and felt really good afterwards.
Several weeks went by, with some good days and some bad days—all bravely borne by my partner with anticipation of a bright light at the end of the dark tunnel of treatments. Meanwhile, I continued my investigation into how a person can stay healthy throughout conventional cancer therapy, using the power of nature and the body's own healing capabilities as allies.
During all this time, my partner suffered no nausea or vomiting, and rarely had diarrhea or constipation. There was no indigestion, no heartburn, no dehydration. These and other common side effects of chemo relating to food and drink seemed to be taken care of by a proper diet, one that allowed for optimum digestion and assimilation.
Sometimes, if he was up to it, we listened to informational tapes and watched videos together, comparing notes afterwards. In time, I had compiled several file folders bulging with data on the role of nutrition and supplementation in the treatment of cancer from the latest and most trustworthy sources. Study after study repeated the same encouraging message: keep a positive attitude, detox, eat right, supplement the diet, exercise.
A PET/CT scan after the third chemo treatment showed that no cancer was visible in my partner's body. Naturally, this was cause for optimism. But, as the oncologist kept reminding us, a scan only shows what is visible. To get at what was happening at the microscopic level, we would need more blood work, more probing, more examinations—and more chemotherapy.
But after the fifth round of chemo (of the prescribed six), the lab results were thought to be so good that a final round of the chemicals was deemed unnecessary. Choosing to stop chemo varied from the oncologist's original conservative prescription, but the chemo seemed to be doing more damage at this point than the cancer had done; although there were few physical side effects present, my partner's mental abilities seemed to be increasingly compromised. The oncologist agreed with us to shorten the chemotherapy treatment, or at least he did not insist on one more blast of chemo.
The nightmare that had begun in August was over and done with by Christmas. So far, the happy ending of this story is holding. The cancer, after almost a year, has not returned. And my partner has resumed his life fully, with mounting energy and enthusiasm to meet the bright future he had imagined during those dark days.
From a cancer patient, he has become a cancer survivor.
Every year in the United States alone, more than one and a half million people are handed the shocking cancer diagnosis that was given to my partner—that's the population of Phoenix or Philadelphia.
Imagine all those hundreds of thousands of people lined up to receive treatment for their cancers, hoping that they will receive the best treatment possible, that they will able to afford it, that the process of healing will be easy and not wrenching, and that they will come out the other side in good health and ready to pick up their lives where they left off before cancer.
Some eventually will call themselves cancer survivors, joining the twelve million in the U.S. Others will not.
Statistics on how many cancer patients will opt for conventional allopathic treatment, including chemotherapy, are hard to come by; numbers are difficult, maybe even impossible, to ascertain. Most sources that monitor the traffic in and out of hospitals and cancer clinics say that probably 90% of diagnosed patients will choose conventional treatment—surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation.
My experience with cancer—including chemotherapy and the other conventional treatments medical science has to combat it—left me with a burning desire to share the information I gathered with people who have been diagnosed with cancer.
Early on in my partner's life-or-death cancer journey, I realized I wanted to write a book that would outline a practical way to augment the healing process begun by the oncologist and other specialists. Their job is to eradicate cancer cells using highly toxic chemicals. The job of the cancer patient and the caregiver is to pick up the process where that leaves off by using sensible eating plans with supplements, natural herbal powders, juices, and teas, combined with detoxifications and exercise—all designed to build up the immune system, help lessen the debilitating side effects of chemotherapy, keep the cancer patient healthy and more energetic during treatment, and speed up the healing process.
I am writing this book to tell cancer patients they can heal faster and better during their time in conventional treatment. This can be done by turning to the body's own self-correcting, self-healing capability for assistance.
The program I am setting out here starts with the idea that our bodies are potent healing machines and that well-being is our normal, natural state. Even under the assault of the toxic chemicals that make up chemotherapy—the more toxic the better, to destroy cancer cells—there is a great deal that can be done to help mitigate their side effects and to promote healing by activating and fueling the body's immune system, allowing it to operate as a powerful healing engine. Remember that even at the time of diagnosis, we have more healthy cells than cancer cells in our body.
Let me say here that what follows comes from my personal experience as a doctor of naturopathy and a caregiver to my partner and from the evidence of clients who come to me for help. It is not a scientific study or a laboratory tested procedure. I designed this program from my knowledge of natural medicine, learned over more than a decade of treating clients with various body imbalances.
This book admittedly presents a one-size-fits-all approach, even though it is important to acknowledge that every person and every cancer is different. Women with cancer are different from men with cancer; children with cancer are different from adults with cancer; people with lung cancer are different from people with stomach cancer. As humans, however, we share a common chemistry and that has been my guide in assembling a support plan that will benefit anyone seeking to stay healthy during chemotherapy and those returning to normal life...cancer-free.
If you are a cancer patient or a caregiver, I send you personal wishes for health, well-being, and a future filled with passion and joy. There is hope!
Please note that the information here is not meant to replace any therapy for cancer set out by a primary health provider. Before undertaking any of the suggestions I put forth in this book, a cancer patient and caregiver should check with the oncologist or other medical professional who is mainly responsible for treatment.
All the information I assembled about staying healthy while undergoing chemotherapy could not fit in this book, so my team and I expanded the essential material you will find here into a website.
On the site you will see more recipes, charts that can be printed out for posting around the kitchen, sources for the highest quality supplements, educational articles, free downloads, and more.
The new field of staying healthy during cancer treatment is changing rapidly, with new research appearing virtually every day. I encourage you to visit our website frequently for up-to-the-minute information and inspiration.
stayhealthyduringchemo.com
The doctor of the future will give no medication, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.
Thomas A. Edison
Many cancer patients seem to have attached themselves to the idea that chemotherapy solves all the problems that cancer poses. They believe that between chemo and radiation treatments, everything that can be done to destroy the cancer and bring the patient back to good health is automatically being done.
Call it the antibiotic mind-set. When we take antibiotics, we assume that they are combating an infection in the body brought on by bacteria or fungi or parasites, and we don't need to do anything else to push the process of infection-fighting further. The antibiotics are taking care of everything.
Let me say immediately that chemotherapy is not the same as antibiotic or antibacterial therapy. The medications are quite different and so are the processes of how they work. But the mind-set of “let medicine do the work while I just sit back and wait” is the same with chemo as it is with antibiotics for many people.
Cancer patients who are not suffering from a cancer related to the digestive process—such as stomach, pancreatic or colon cancer—are usually allowed an “unrestricted diet” by their oncologists. For instance, my partner who was diagnosed with lymphoma needed to be hospitalized for his first round of chemotherapy because he had a history of hepatitis-B and his doctor did not want to risk a flare-up of that disease during the chemo treatments. Chemo would suppress the immune system, leaving the door open for other diseases to come out of hiding. So the first chemo cocktail was administered as a round-the-clock drip over five days.
All during that week in the hospital, since his diet was officially “unrestricted,” he was served the same kinds of food available to anyone eating in the cafeteria-style restaurant down the street. A typical dinner was Salisbury steak with mashed potatoes and gravy, a salad with ranch dressing, bread roll and butter, a glass of milk, a cup of coffee, and for dessert, a generous slice of chocolate cake.
During the time that chemo was being administered—his entire stay in the hospital—he was not allowed supplements of any kind, because of the concern that vitamins, minerals, and amino acids might have interfered with the intended effects of chemotherapy, and in some cases might have actually caused dangerous chemical reactions in the body. This, in spite of the fact that most foods naturally contain vitamins, minerals, and amino acids.
So my partner was left with chemo and an “unrestricted diet,” which is to say that there was precious little to rely on for healing beyond chemotherapy and a business-as-usual eating plan.
Once out of the hospital, he was put on a regular schedule of chemotherapy treatments every three weeks. His prescription was for five day-long treatments following the week-long drip in the hospital—making six rounds of chemo over eighteen weeks, a period of five months, six counting follow-up blood work and PET scans.
All during that critical half-year period, he was left in chemo treatment only with the usual unrestricted diet directive and the admonition to avoid all supplements on the chemo days. Nothing was said about adding or subtracting foods and beverages from his diet or engaging in some gentle exercise such as walking or yoga, or anything else beyond getting chemo and, as best he could, recovering from one round in time to take another round.
Left with this regimen for healing, which is no regimen at all, a cancer patient can look forward to weeks and months of feeling bad from the side effects of chemotherapy as the body processes and then finally eliminates the toxic chemicals along with the dead cancer cells. Meanwhile, the body is left in such a weakened state that the patient often becomes a professional sick person, open to all kinds of lesser diseases that a compromised immune system lets in.
Something is missing. There must be a way for a cancer patient to withstand the forceful work of chemo in the body and feel good at the same time. There must be a way to speed up the process of healing from cancer and enjoy high energy and a sense of well-being while the healing is taking its course.
There is a way, of course, and it is nature's way.
To understand more about what really goes on in chemo treatment, it is important to know what chemotherapy is designed to do. Chemotherapy treats cancer with an antineoplastic drug or several antineoplastic drugs in combination. “Antineoplastic” means that a drug acts to prevent, inhibit, or stop (anti) the development of a tumor (neoplasm).
The task of chemotherapy chemicals is to kill rapidly dividing malignant cells in the body. Cancer cells divide and multiply at a rapid rate, causing a breakdown in bodily systems. Chemotherapy kills those cells, and along with them the reproducing cells of normal tissues. The chemicals can be given through a vein, which is the usual way of getting them into the body, or injected into a body cavity. Sometimes one or more of the chemicals are given orally in pill form.
When chemo descends to do fatal damage to malignant cells and stop the disease from spreading, it also damages normal cells. And when that happens, unwanted side effects appear. Since chemo cannot tell the difference between a cancer cell and a healthy cell, it attacks both the rapidly growing cancer cells and other fast-growing cells, such as hair and blood cells.
A cancer patient already knows most of this, because it is part of the experience of living with chemo treatment. Naturally, an oncologist tries to find a delicate balance between destroying the malignant cells to control the disease and leaving the normal cells alone, so that there are as few negative side effects as possible.
So, chemo is designed to kill. There is some interesting history behind this language of killing, destroying, and attacking. The chemical treatment of cancer goes back to the world wars of the past century and the development of weaponry.
During World War I, one of the weapons deployed was chlorine gas, which was used as early as 1915. Another was mustard gas. So devastating were the effects of these and other chemical gases—killing, in many cases, both sides in a battle—that their use in warfare was banned. But it was found that mustard gas was a powerful suppressor of hematopoiesis, or blood production. Based on those findings, medical scientists began to study how chemicals derived from nitrogen mustards might arrest the growth of cancer cells.
In 1942, during World War II, an accident exposed several hundred people to mustard gas in the Italian town of Bari. Those who survived were discovered to have very low white blood cell counts. After the war, researchers experimented with using chemicals to fight cancer, starting with mustine, developed from nitrogen mustards.
The first chemotherapy drugs were born in warfare and have never lost their bellicose expression. In the 1970s and 1980s, when cancer began to emerge as “the emperor of all diseases,” as one recent book calls it, cancer patients were encouraged to engage in noble combat with the disease, imagining healthy cells in the body doing battle against cancer cells—and winning.
Allusions to chemotherapy's wartime past are also evident in how we frame the treatment of “aggressive” cancers that “advance” rapidly and therefore must be killed, destroyed, eradicated, wiped out, exterminated. When the National Cancer Act of 1971 was announced, it was immediately named “the War on Cancer” by the media. Other efforts to support cancer research are routinely referred to in warlike terms. Obituaries report that a person “lost his battle against cancer.”