We all love boobs. They are pretty cool. Humans are actually the only species in which females have them permanently. But every once in a while they can be the epicenter of major health concerns for both men and women. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2009 alone over 40,000 people died of breast cancer in the United States. How we combat this disease that is taking the lives of tens of thousands of mothers, sisters and daughters and even a couple thousand fathers, brothers and sons is a topic of some dispute. Both traditional and alternative medicines have their pros and cons, successes and failures.
Anne Chayker-Weber, born Oct. 6 1921, died at age 53, on April 9 1974. Breast cancer took her away from a husband and four children under the age of 20. Her then 15-year-old daughter is my mother. Due to this disease, Anne never even saw her youngest graduate middle school, nevertheless any of her kids getting married or have children of their own. Due to this disease ,I never met my grandma, she never tucked me in bed at night or taught me family recipes. Not gonna lie, it took more than a few tissues just to write these brief sentences. There are so many millions of stories more tragic than this one that are a result of breast cancer.
Breast cancer awareness is important especially when you discover some of the myths circulating in our society. The National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) website debunks several of these myths including that men cannot get breast cancer, family history has a huge impact on developing it and it is contagious. None of these statements are true. There are also many misconceptions about the options for treatment of breast cancer. The “standard” prescribed treatments are defined as “appropriate, accepted and widely used,” but what about the “best” and most “healthy” course of action.
Chemotherapy is a common treatment that involves the use of cytotoxic drugs, defined by NBCF as meaning “toxic to cells.” Did you catch that? “Cells.” Not just those stubborn and disruptive cancer cells, but all your healthy ones too. Some of the various side effects of chemo are weakening of the heart, later development of leukemia, damage to the ovaries and, if pregnant, severe birth defects. Other treatments have similarly long lists of scary side effects such as headaches, hair loss, rashes, weakened immune system, serious breathing problems and even heart failure. This disease is daunting, but so is its “standard” treatment plan.
What if there was an alternative? There is. There just so happens to be another method that has been shown to cure breast cancer. If you can believe it, a doctor by the name of Max Gerson developed it all the way back in the 1930’s. So how come you haven’t heard of it? Non-allopathic, or non-traditional, medicine is often discredited and is not promoted or even taught throughout the majority of the medical field. The Gerson Institute works with common cancers and chronic degenerative conditions. According to their website, “the Gerson Therapy is a whole-body therapy designed to improve overall health through an organic nutrient dense diet, fresh juices and detoxification.”
Rita is a breast cancer survivor. She had lumps in her breast and began the challenge of traditional therapies. She felt terrible, was scared of the risks and had to admit it did not seem to be working all that well anyways because she developed more tumors. After much research, she ditched her traditional treatment plan and began the Gerson Method. Though this method is not without its own struggles, four months into her therapy an MRI revealed that three of her four tumors had completely disappeared and two years later she was totally cancer free. Rita says she learned that, “it’s important to listen to our body and to listen to all the alarms and signals that it gives to us before we discover we are ill.”
I am not claiming that the Gerson Method can treat any and all ailments, because it cannot. But it is critical that people are aware of their options. Healing the body from the inside out is a powerful philosophy and treatment, which can not only make you a survivor but could put you on a path to a much more vibrant life.
