Complete Cancer Cleanse: A Proven Program to Detoxify and Renew Body, Mind, and Spirit by Cherie Calbom, John Calbom, Michael Mahaffey

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Cherie Calbom, "The Juice Lady," therapist John Calbom, and Michael Mahaffey, a twenty-year cancer survivor, present a unique, multi-disciplinary approach to fighting cancer.

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THE COMPLETE CANCER CLEANSE

Nelson Books

Chapter One

Love's strength, stands in love's sacrifice, and he who suffers most, has most to gain. -Author Unknown

Cancer is still the great mystery disease. We all pray that we'll never get it, yet here we are. When first diagnosed, we search for answers to a myriad of questions: What is cancer? What caused it? What are my treatment options? Will I die? Cancer diagnosis is shocking enough to send us into a state of terror, like being thrown into the strong currents of a rushing river. We want answers, and we want them now.

Answers are essential: the better informed we are about our disease, the greater the odds of overcoming it. The history of cancer incidence in the West, and particularly the United States, speaks volumes. Prior to this century, cancer was rare and afflicted only a small percentage of the population. Stanislas Tanchou, a French pioneering scientist in the field of vital statistics in the 1830s, tabulated Paris mortality rates; he reported that cancer deaths comprised about 2 percent of the total number of deaths at that time. At the turn of the century, the cancer death rate in the United States was calculated at about 4 percent of the population.

Current cancer statistics are sobering:

* Cancer is the cause of one in five deaths in the United States

* Cancer will affect one in three people in the United States

* Over 1.2 million cases of invasive cancer are diagnosed each year.

* An additional 1.5 million cases of noninvasive cancer will be diagnosed yearly.

* More than five hundred thousand people will die from cancer each year.

* Children ages three to fourteen years die of cancer more than any other disease.

* The total cost of cancer care and mortality is over 15 percent of all health-care costs, exceeding more than 110 billion dollars.

Statistics do not show that we are making progress in prevention or treatment of cancer. Indeed the facts show the opposite-we are losing the war. The number of new cases of nearly every form of cancer has increased annually over the last century. From 1930 to the present, despite all our therapies and technology, cancer incidence has continued to increase.

WHAT IS CANCER?

Cancer is not a disease of modern man. For more than four thousand years it has afflicted human beings. In fact, ancient Egyptian and Greek medical tracts describe cancerous conditions. Writings about Cosmos and Damian, healing physicians of the third century, recount the unusual healing of deacon Justinian's cancerous leg.

Hippocrates described the illness, calling it karkinos, meaning the crab. Historical writings describe tumor growths as having a central area with channels that spread out like arms into surrounding tissue. Ancient observers thought these growths looked like a crab; therefore, it's logical that the Latin word for crab is cancer.

By simple definition cancer is a malignant growth or growths and the illnesses caused by those growths. It all starts in a cell. That cell (or group of cells) escapes homeostatic control (equilibrium of the internal environment), reproduces at will, and shows abnormal growth patterns. Also known as neoplasms (meaning new growth), these growths compete with normal cells for energy and nutrition, and are to some degree autonomous. "New growth" is not an accurate description of most cancers, however, because it often takes from five to twenty years for a tumor to develop from the first mutated cells to a tumor mass.

Cancer cells lose the more specialized functions characteristic of normal cells while at the same time acquiring increased growth function. This increase results in an invasion of the surrounding tissue and the formation of secondary growths at a distance-known as metastasis. Their metabolism is different from that of a normal cell; something happens to alter these cells chemically. Professor Otto Warburg, two-time Nobel Prize-winner in medicine, was the first to suggest that cancer cells are anaerobic, meaning that they function in the absence of free oxygen. He discovered that oxygen in cancer cells was replaced by an energy-yielding mechanism known as glycolysis, which means that the cancer cells feed on the fermentation of glucose (sugar).

Cancer has two characteristics that make it life threatening: it invades tissue and spreads to vital organs where it may compress, obstruct, or destroy vital functions. As cancerous tumors attach themselves to organs, tissues become oxygen starved. Cancer cells appear to take priority over normal cells in acquiring amino acids and nutrients; thus the tumor grows while the rest of the body experiences deficiency and often wasting.

The development of cancer is considered to be a two-stage process. During the initiation stage there is a transformation of a cell, causing it to change (mutate) in some manner, due to the interaction of such factors as chemicals, radiation, viruses, or injury. The transformation occurs rapidly, but the transformed cell or cells may be dormant for a long time until activated by a promoting agent(s). During the promotion stage, many substances, even noncarcinogens such as hormones, can play a part in the rapid cell division characteristic of cancer. In this promotion stage, the tumor forms, unless the mutated cells are destroyed by the immune defense system or through treatment.

John and Cherie Calbom believe their schnauzer, MacKenzie, had a tumor that was an example of this two-stage development process. When he was diagnosed with a malignant tumor in his right-front paw, they couldn't figure out why he would get cancer. After all, he'd had the very best of everything: organic food, vitamins, purified water, fresh air, daily walks, a stress-free life, and oodles of love and attention. But with a little thought, it began to make some sense. When he was about ten months old, he jumped off their second-story deck-a scampering squirrel was simply too much temptation. Gathering him up, Cherie examined four bloody paws-nothing broken, they learned, just very bruised. Daily walks in the neighborhood that summer proved to be problematic. Neighbors sprayed their lawns with chemicals, and often MacKenzie got sick upon returning from their strolls. Perhaps the injury followed by the lawn chemicals initiated cell mutations in his toe, and nine years later, other factors finally promoted a tumor. Today, minus only one toe, he's completely well, thanks to their holistic vet and his nontraditional canine cancer-care program.

YOUR AUTHORS' PERSPECTIVES ON THIS DISEASE

Each of your authors brings a different perspective to a study of cancer. Cherie is a nutritionist who has studied the relationship between cancer and nutrition for the last sixteen years. She is well-known in the United States as the "Juice Lady" for her work with juicing and health and for the numerous books she has written, such as Juicing for Life. Her husband, Father John Calbom, is an Orthodox priest who is also a psychotherapist and a behavioral medicine specialist. And Michael Mahaffey is a cancer survivor who is the cofounder of Cedar Springs Renewal Center. Getting cancer changed the direction of his life, and as a result, he has dedicated his time, money, and efforts to helping other cancer patients survive and discover how to live each day to the fullest.

In this first chapter they'd like to give you a glimpse of how they became so involved with this disease.

CHERIE'S STORY

One blustery March day in Iowa, our family gathered in the church "to pay our last respects," as my aunt said. All of us who loved my mother sat in silence, stunned by grief. "A lovely life snuffed out far too soon," someone said in passing. My grandmother nodded.

That was the day the music died forever; her music, that is. The piano keys she once played for hours a day lay as cold as her fingers. The funeral service passed like a short winter snow flurry, and then, as sleepwalkers unaroused, we headed for the altar. I could barely see over the edge of the casket. My knees became weak, and I didn't think I could breathe when I saw her face, motionless and white. A lady leaned down and told me she was in heaven. I only knew my mother was dead. At six, I had no idea what breast cancer was, but it had killed her.

This was my defining moment-one that shaped my life. From that time on I wanted to know what cancer was, what caused it, how it could be prevented, and how it could be cured. Years later it was no mystery that I felt compelled to respond to an ad in our university bulletin regarding a small grant to research nutrition and cancer. I was awarded the money, which supported an intense medical and scientific literature search. This project also became my master's thesis at Bastyr University, titled "Nutrition as an Adjunct to Cancer Treatment." The Center for Alternative Cancer Research, the sponsors of the grant, liked my project and printed it as a book titled Nutrition and Cancer: Is Nutrition the Missing Piece in the Cancer Treatment Puzzle?

That project is what led me to write Part One of The Complete Cancer Cleanse. But before I tell you what this book can offer you on your journey to complete health and healing, I want to tell you about what cleansing has done for me in my own recovery from illness.

It was 1978 and I was single, twenty-something, and working in Hollywood for Pat Boone. Life was exciting! Debby Boone's "You Light up My Life" was a big hit, and the Boone office was a flurry of activity. I had a chance to meet scores of singers, songwriters, and TV personalities. One was Kathie Lee Johnson (now Gifford). I spent a Thanksgiving Day in her home, and she arranged a blind date for me with TV singer Tom Netherton. That was just one of many exciting party and event invitations that came my way because of my job.

In the midst of the fun, I started feeling tired-too tired to do much more than lie on the couch after work. Then I began turning down invitations because I was so fatigued, and I spent most of my weekends sleeping. When I got the flu, it never seemed to end. I was perennially lethargic and suffered continuously from a low-grade fever and swollen glands. My muscles and joints ached, and I didn't sleep restfully through the night. I had a devastating case of what we now know is chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia; but at that time, doctors didn't have a clue as to what was going on in my body. Imagine my chagrin when it was suggested that I was depressed and should see a psychiatrist. Depressed! Life had been anything but depressing. The only thing I was depressed about was my health, and the fact that no one seemed to be able to help me.

Finally, I had to quit my job and move to my father's home in Colorado Springs-too sick to work and unable to afford my apartment. I visited a holistic doctor who tested me for food allergies, and I left his office with a list of offending foods longer than my arm. It seemed like I had nothing left to eat but tree bark and lettuce.

Not finding any promising answers from the medical profession, I finally turned to health food stores. I talked with employees and searched the bookshelves, where I did find answers. There was something I could do to change my health. I discovered I was eating all the wrong things-enough junk to kill a healthy young gorilla, as I say in my book The Juice Lady's Guide to Juicing for Health. My body needed nutrients to heal and gain energy. I had never particularly cared for vegetables, salads, or whole grains, but they were the foods I needed to eat to get well. From my reading, I also learned about the healing benefits of fresh juice and the restorative power of juice fasting. Two health-care professionals pointed out that my body was toxic. It needed to be cleansed from all the toxicity I'd collected over the years.

New knowledge in hand, and armed with my first juicer, I designed my own program, starting with a kick-off, five-day juice fast made up of mostly vegetable juices. For the remainder of the summer, I turned to vegan foods and fresh juice I made daily, along with periodic juice fasts. Instead of getting better, though, I felt worse. My body was experiencing what is known as a healing crisis. My father thought I was going to kill myself with this program, but I assured him nothing could be better for me than vegetables, whole grains, and vegetable juices. And besides, before I started my program, I had felt like I was dying anyway, so what did I have to lose?

On the fifth day of my kick-off juice fast, I experienced a miracle: my body expelled a tumor about the size of a golf ball. It had its own blood supply of small blue veins and was obviously "starved" by my fast. My body expelled it through my colon. I have no idea if this tumor was benign or malignant; one doctor said it was probably a polyp (benign). I will never know for certain what it was, because I didn't think to take it to someone for examination, but I was so thankful it was gone. Then, midway through my cleanse program, I tried a gallbladder flush at the recommendation of my holistic health-care provider. My body expelled dozens of pea-sized, green-colored gallstones as a result.

I continued my self-designed program for three months, never cheating with even one unhealthy morsel. One day I awoke early, feeling like jogging (a first!). I had energy to spare and wished I could give some away to those in need. Even as a child, I couldn't remember feeling this good. That day was my turning point. From then on, I felt vibrant, healthy, and strong-three words I'd never used to describe myself.

Frequently, people ask me why I got as sick as I did at such an early age. After all, I didn't smoke, habitually drink alcohol, or take drugs, so what was it? I did love junk food, fast food, and sweets. But then so do a lot of other young people, and they don't get sick. I believe my mother had the beginning stages of cancer when I was conceived, which probably set the stage for my weakened immune system. I inherited my mother's poor eating habits (a love of sweets and dislike of vegetables), and on an emotional level, I leaned toward her propensity for stuffing negative emotions, rather than expressing or releasing them. Add to that the eye-stinging Los Angeles smog, and a picture begins to form of a toxic internal environment I had created unknowingly.

I owe my good health today to the holistic approach I've taken-periodic juice fasts, whole foods, lots of vegetables, freshly made juice every day, nutritional supplements, filtered water, pure air, exercise, and some very intense work through the years on physical, mental, and emotional cleansing, prayer, and inner healing. When it came to cleansing the soul, I had some significant emotional baggage to discard. Pockets of pain and toxic emotions congested my soul like the stones in my gallbladder. Parts of my wounded soul and "breaks in being," as they're called, needed healing. There were tears to release and letters of forgiveness to write. All these processes worked together for my complete recovery from illness and the restoration of my health and wholeness.

It is for your restoration and wholeness that I have written the first eight chapters on cleansing the body because I know firsthand what cleansing can do to facilitate healing. And I also know what it is like to search for answers and find none, to look for help unsuccessfully. Early in my career as a nutritionist, I resolved to help save the lives of mothers, fathers, children, friends, and family members from the grief of losing someone they love to cancer, and to offer help and hope to those who are fighting to live and overcome their disease.

Like many health professionals, I've seen firsthand how important it is to eat nutritiously and detoxify the body. In fact I'm convinced that these factors should be a significant part of everyone's cancer treatment and prevention program, no matter what other treatments are chosen. The key words in The Complete Cancer Cleanse Program are detoxification-of the body, mind, and spirit-and renewal.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from THE COMPLETE CANCER CLEANSE by Cherie Calbom John Calbom Michael Mahaffey Copyright © 2007 by Cherie Calbom, M.S. Fr. John Calbom, M.A. Michael Mahaffey, P.C.. Excerpted by permission.
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