Cancer and Body Terrain

By Dr. Jacqueline Fields

Cancer is the abnormal growth of cells that rapidly replicates in the body and the

house cleaning mechanisms of the body do not recognize to remove or destroy the cells.

Due to the cells abnormality where it has loss the cellular death message, that all normal

cells have, the cells then develop a life and growth of there own. Unfortunately, this is

what allows tumors to then take over. The development actually occurs many times

through our life but because the body’s terrain is healthy and our house cleaning

mechanisms take care of these abnormal cells, the tumors do not develop.

I explain to my patients that cancer is an opportunity that has arisen in the body

because it is not healthy. Often many systems are down not working efficiently or

effectively. All types of cancer can be affected and even possibly prevented if we work

hard to keep our cellular terrain healthy and our beliefs healthy. I like to educate people

on several terrain topics that I like to improve upon for all patients. For any new cancer

patient, I like to address all the bodily terrain topics trying to minimize the progression of

their cancer and ultimately increasing there fight power against it. I currently have many

metastatic cancer patients who were told in the medical world the doctors had nothing

more to offer. Yet once we started working their terrain and optimized all of it, their

cancer arrested or disappeared.

Terrain of the body

1. Nutritional status

2. Immune system

3. Hormones that feed the cancer

4. Toxic overload of the body

5. P.H. of the body

6. Viscosity of the blood

7. Inflammation

8. Genetics, such as MTHFR polymorphisms

9. Mind and beliefs of the patient

NUTRITION

Let’s start with understanding how nutrition plays into supporting preventing

cancer or furthermore if you have cancer why it is important to optimize your nutritional

status to help fight your cancer. Most people do not realize that 40% or more of cancer

patients actually die from malnutrition. Many oncologists cling to an old mindset that

rejects supplements out of concern that they’ll interfere with treatment. Dr. Charles

Simone M.D. medical oncologist, immunologist, and radiation oncologist did a recent

survey of 280 peer reviewed studies which should lay many of these fears to rest. Most of

the studies found that dietary supplements did not interact negatively with treatments.

Along with supplying needed nutrients, many of them actually improved the

effectiveness of chemotherapy and radiation, reduced appetite-suppressing side effects,

and even increased survival chances. There are very specific tests checking on known

nutrient deficiencies that directly feed specific cancers such as zinc in hormone based

cancers, vitamin D especially for breast, colon or prostate cancer and, of course,

antioxidants which affects all cancers. You can have your physician run an intracellular

nutrient test that tells you the status of 30 of your intracellular nutrients including all your

B vitamins, minerals, amino acids and your antioxidants status. If your physician doesn’t

know this information you can consult with the physicians at the Healing Gardens for this

kind of testing. When patients are extremely depleted from malnutrition or stress, we

sometimes find it critical to use Myers cocktails or customized nutrient infusions. This is

an infusion of nutrients tailored to the patients needs. Myers helps restore the patient’s

defiencies much faster so their body can start to repair and fight the actual cancer.

Bottom line with test like Spectracell or nutraeval by genova, we now can know

exactly where a patient stands nutritionally and start to supplement exactly what their

body needs. If patients have severe deficiencies, we may offer IV nutrient infusions. See

further information on my article about myer’s infusions.

IMMUNITY

Your immune status is the next critical terrain aspect to check. I like ordering a

lymph eneurmeration with NK. Why oncologists don’t care what your immune system

is doing when you have cancer amazes me. Most of my stage IV cancer patients appear

to have their immune system so depleted that sometimes they are like AIDS patients.

Unfortunately, Chemotherapy commonly wipes this system out and it becomes a race of

time where hopefully the bad cells are killed faster then the good cells and sooner then

the system overall fails. There is a great test called a lymphocyte enumeration with

natural killer counts. This tells us how your T cells and natural killer cells are

functioning. If these are very depleted there are fabulous botanicals and immune

enhancing supplements. One of my favorites is Immucare I and Mushroom synergy

by Natura. This is a professional line botanical product available at the medicinal store.

Donny Yance is an exceptional herbologist that has studied cancer and written many

books including “THRIVING NOT JUST SURVIVING”. I have seen his products raise

T cells and natural killer counts from severely deficient numbers to normal in six weeks.

Some other products that help raise natural killer counts are the mushroom extracts like

maitake, and reishi products or the AHCC products.

HORMONES

The next terrain topic is hormones. Many Hormones can feed the growth of

certain cancers. We have all heard of how progesterone and estrogen feeds breast cancer

or how testosterone feeds prostate cancer. But it is also important to understand that you

can look at the pathways the hormones follow and correct the dysfunctional pathways. If

you have a family history of breast or prostate cancer I think it is a good idea to optimize

this so you do not ever get cancer. Data from John Hopkins validated how certain

extracts from the Brassica family of plants play a significant supportive role in up

regulating the detoxification pathways of the liver which help process these hormones.

Some of my favorite products are DIM or Cell Guardian both of these truly helps the

body choose the safest pathway to metabolize the hormones. Other hormones that are

critical to monitor include insulin, leptin and IGf 1.

TOXICITY

The next topic involves toxicity to the body. If the body is burdened with

increased heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides or even medications, then the

detoxification pathways become overburdened. This unfortunately can put a tremendous

strain on the body’s ability to keep up with house cleaning of abnormal cells because so

much effort and cellular energy is spent coping with the toxic burden. It is critical that if

heavy metals are present, then we want to assist the body with downloading the load.

This can happen through the skin with infra-red saunas, detox baths or just tremendous

sweating like in hot yoga. It is also possible to use an array of nutrients, botanicals or

chelating agents to bind the metals and assist their removal. One of my favorite products

is called Ultimate Chelate which is a combination of chelating agents very well

tolerated. It is in this section that we might want to test genetic polymorphisms such as

can occur in the MTHFR pathway. Defects in this pathway can significantly affect how a

patient can process and detox. This topic is critical when patients are on

chemotherapeutic agents that require this pathway to function well.

PH

Unfortunately, when the body is metal toxic, commonly the PH is very acidic. It

is critical to try to keep the body’s PH at 6.5-7.0. If you get below a PH of 6.5 via testing

your urine or saliva, then the body is acidic. This is a cellular strain and more inviting to

cancer cells to evolve or replicate. See my specific article on PH management. I first try

to correct with diet, but if this is not enough, I might use tri salts, bicarb or alkalinized

water.

INFLAMMATION

All cancer and chronic disease are fueled by inflammation. Monitoring a

patient’s inflammatory status is a critical terrain topic. Removing sugar from the diet and

using botanicals such as turmeric is extremely valuable to the patient’s health and

prognosis. There is extensive data in integrative oncology showing the anticancer effects

with turmeric, because of its de-inflammatory role in the body.

VISCOSITY

The sixth terrain issue is viscosity. In Chinese medicine we view this as stasis of

the blood, which invites dis-ease. In the medical world this can be looked at as

fibrinogen or proteins in the blood that slow down flow. When we have stasis and

stagnation and hypercoagulable states, we feed growth and metastasis. There are

enzymes like lumbokinase and nattokinase that can help eat the proteins and decrease this

stasis.

GENETICS AND POLYMORPHISM SUCH AS MTHFR GENE

It is important to understand each patient’s individual risks genetically. Everyone

has heard of the BRAC1 BRACA testing for breast cancer, but there are many other

genetic tests relevant to a patient’s health. As a functional medicine physician, we know

genes are a road map, but that lifestyle and nutrients can affect the genetic defect and

hence save a patient’s life. The most interesting recent genetic finding is the MTHFR

gene and enzyme. This gene can have lots of variation in people and it affects how

patients can detoxify in phase 2 of the liver detoxification pathway. It is critical to

determine if this pathway needs to be supported especially if a patient is going to be

placed on chemotherapy.

BELIEFS, ATTITUDES AND THE POWER TO HEAL

Finally, the mind and your beliefs is probably the most important part of healing.

We are our thoughts! It is critical that when we get ill, that we look at the process as a

teacher and as a journey. We must realize our body is the last manifestation of our

spiritual emotional self. So, when physical things occur in our body, it has been going on

in our emotional body for a long time. I like to say the body is like a poem about our

spiritual self. When we listen, ideally sooner then later, it is a gift, and it is always a

teacher. The illness journey can bring profound changes and that leads to healing. We

must not be afraid; we must work with our thoughts and beliefs and remember they are

what dictate messages to our cells.

Each one of these topics we could have a class on alone, but for now this is a

good start to realize that when you address the body terrain you can arrest even cancer. I

like to teach the patient that host care is a powerful therapy. I have years of observing

many patients who chose sometimes only to do host care or what I call supporting their

terrain. As I said, I currently have many patients with cancer and even stage IV cancer

that were told there was nothing more the mainstream medical world to offer them.

When we started addressing the terrain, the cancer many times ceases to be a nuisance.

That has only confirmed to me that when the body is given all the right support it is truly

miraculous to witness what happens!

Dr. Jacqueline Fields