xample:   [Collected via e-mail, March 2007]

CANCER UPDATE FROM JOHN HOPKINS HOSPITAL, US – PLEASE READ

1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.

2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person’s lifetime.

3. When the person’s immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.

4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.

5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.

6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.

7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.

8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.

9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.

10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.

11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply.

CANCER CELLS FEED ON:

a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal,Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in color. Better alternative is Bragg’s aminos or sea salt.

b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soya milk cancer cells are being starved.

c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.

d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).

e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties. Water-best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.

12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines become putrefied and leads to more toxic buildup.

13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body’s killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.

14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the body’s own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body’s normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.

15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, unforgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.

16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.
Origins:   Just as urban legends and rumors eventually become attached to the most famous exemplars of the subjects they discuss (e.g., any fast food-related legend, no matter where it originates, will inevitably be told about McDonald’s), so do many of the spurious medical articles circulated on the Internet eventually become attributed to the world-renowned Johns Hopkins university, medical school, and hospitals.

The “Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins Hospital” quoted above has been forwarded via e-mail as a preface to another piece (about the supposed dangers of using microwave ovens to heat food stored in plastic containers) also falsely said to have originated with Johns Hopkins. Neither article was issued by (or has any connection to) the Johns Hopkins university or hospital, and Johns Hopkins has disclaimed the contents of both:

Information falsely attributed to Johns Hopkins called, “CANCER UPDATE FROM JOHN HOPKINS” describes properties of cancer cells and suggests ways of preventing cancer. Johns Hopkins did not publish the information, which often is an email attachment, nor do we endorse its contents. The email also contains an incorrect spelling of our institution as “John” Hopkins; whereas, the correct spelling is “Johns” Hopkins.

Another hoax email that has been circulating since 2004 regarding plastic containers, bottles, wrap claiming that heat releases dioxins which cause cancer also was not published by Johns Hopkins.

The web site of Johns Hopkins’ Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center also notes of the “Cancer Update” e-mail that:

It has become such a problem that the National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society, and individual cancer centers like the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have posted warnings on their Web sites. Emails offering easy remedies for avoiding and curing cancer are the latest Web-influenced trend. To gain credibility, the anonymous authors falsely attribute their work to respected research institutions like Johns Hopkins. This is the case with the so-called “Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins.”

The gist of this viral email is that cancer therapies of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy do not work against the disease and people should instead choose a variety of dietary strategies.

Traditional therapies, such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy, work. The evidence is the millions of cancer survivors in the United States today who are alive because of these therapies. We recognize that treatments don’t work in every patient, or sometimes work for awhile and then stop working, and there are some cancers that are more difficult to cure than others. These problems are the focus of ongoing cancer research.

Insight from Martha

Everything changes in time. This is the one constant in a Universe where all solid things ultimately disintegrate. It is the core principle that drives our fears and that led the Buddha to proclaim that the understanding of impermanence was the first “noble truth” that must be mastered by anyone who hopes to attain enlightenment.

Me, I’m just trying to get my damn laundry done before I have to leave for the airport.

I have struggled with time since I was a very small child. I remember vividly lying awake the night before my 4th birthday, staring at the ceiling, worrying intensely over how little I had accomplished over such a long period of time. I assumed that all the other 4-year-olds were much further along in their life missions. By the time I was in high school I was virtually insane with time anxiety. I got into a bitter argument with a friend who asked me what bothered me most about this world. I said “transience.” My friend thought I said “transients.” To this day, I think he abhors my position on our nation’s homeless population. What I meant, of course, was that everything passes away, and that I could not reconcile myself to the continuous loss that is an inevitable aspect of linear time. On a more basic note, I never felt I had enough time to do everything I hoped to accomplish. If I had known in high school how dramatically time demands would increase in the 21st century I would still be under my bed.

At this point in my life, I am lucky enough to have help with many tasks that once filled my available time and spilled over into time I should have spent sleeping. Even so I always feel I am running behind schedule. A few weeks ago I lost the cheap plastic Target watch that I was wearing because I know that I am always losing watches. For a few days I was on the road without a clock on my body. I was shocked by how often I looked at my left wrist. I remembered a Haitian proverb that became popular after slavery was abolished on the island: “The white man’s shackles have been replaced by his watches.” I had been experiencing time as my prison, my limitation, and my overseer.

To my huge relief, I soon bought another cheap plastic watch. But this one had a feature I had never seen. To set the time, I had to bring up a screen that said “chrono.” Every time I saw this screen a strange thought would pop into my mind. Not chronos, kairos. Chronos is a greek word that referred to the passage of linear time. Kairos means the time of the Gods. A moment of chronos is simply the tick of a clock. A moment of kairos is an undetermined time when an opening appears for the entry of the divine into the material world. Chronos is clock-time, kairos is god-time.

Either my subconscious mind or a passing guardian angel seems to be telling me that in order to move forward successfully with my purpose in life, I must relinquish my death grip on chronos and surrender to kairos. I am only beginning to experiment with this–such is the obsession with chronos I’ve had since preschool. At this point, my practice (and I would suggest this for you too if it feels interesting) is to notice that every day is peppered with kairos moments. A kairos moment may occur when your schedule is so full you feel like screaming. The message is to stop, to forget chronos, and to feel the calming force telling you almost nothing on your schedule is really important. A kairos moment might be the double-take you do when your eyes catch something beautiful or awe-inspiring. Take off your watch: the divine is speaking to you. A kairos moment may be the burst of laughter that comes when you realize all your darkest fears are fabrications of your mind. They are not happening now in this moment. This moment is the doorway to god. Stop and open it.

To remind myself of this I have been taking off my watch for several hours each day. Each time I look at my wrist and see nothing but skin I remember to drop chronos and feel for kairos. Within the kairos moment nothing ever needs to be done, and everything can happen at once. Life can weave itself around my heart’s desires. In one instant of kairos, there is room for everything we have envisioned for ourselves and for one another. I’ll meet you there.

~ Martha

Huh? I hear you ask. What’s water got to do with Emotional Intelligence? Moving up from the densest Intelligence, our Physical, is our second and more subtle sheath of intelligence, our Emotional layer. Our Emotional Intelligence is actually fueled by our emotions, breath, food, water, and sexual desire.

It all comes down to energy. We need energy to live and to work though our defensive patterns for thinking and feeling … or else we are doomed to making the same knee-jerk reactions to adversity that we always do.

Think about it. Most of the crises we face in our country today stem from our lack of Emotional Intelligence. We don’t know how to handle the constant anxiety and mood-bending hijacks that hit us like an avalanche when life’s little challenges crash in. So we smoke, drink, eat, and/or act out sexually … and frigidity is just another way of acting out sexually, uh or a chilly way of not-acting out sexually; but that’s another episode on The Ellen Show. All this in the name of managing a little bit of life stress.

Learning to self-soothe is essential for Emotional maturity and our spiritual growth.

This Emotional layer of the body includes our lungs and our guts. It’s how we bring raw energy into our body and transform it into power to live by. Chi in Chinese and prana in Sanskrit both mean breath AND life force energy.

Think (and sense and feel) a time when you were with someone you totally LOVED being with. Notice how you felt when you left them – totally jazzed and uplifted, brimming with energy. Our most positive emotions give us energy, chi, prana, and life force.

And so does gifting your body with the water it needs to thrive. So drink up … water, that is.

To that end your Featured Article this week is “The Real Truth About Water” by guest change artist Mark Joyner. Mark has a colorful turn-of-phrase. But he makes a good point.

This week’s Quick Tip is “Big Gay Uncle Al’s Quantum Mathematic Formula for Your Daily H2O.” What can I say? My people love to work a theme, me especially…

Enjoy, and remember … You are brilliant

IT’S WHAT YOU SCATTER

I was at the corner grocery store buying some early potatoes… I noticed a small boy, delicate of bone and feature, ragged but clean, hungrily apprising a basket of freshly picked green peas.

I paid for my potatoes but was also drawn to the display of fresh green peas. I am a pushover for creamed peas and new potatoes.

Pondering the peas, I couldn’t help overhearing the conversation between Mr. Miller (the store owner) and the ragged boy next to me.

‘Hello Barry, how are you today?’

‘H’lo, Mr. Miller. Fine, thank ya. Jus’ admirin’ them peas. They sure look good.’

‘They are good, Barry. How’s your Ma?’
‘Fine. Gittin’ stronger alla’ time.’
‘Good. Anything I can help you with?’
‘No, Sir. Jus’ admirin’ them peas.’
‘Would you like to take some home?’ asked Mr. Miller.

‘No, Sir. Got nuthin’ to pay for ‘em with.’

‘Well, what have you to trade me for some of those peas?’

‘All I got’s my prize marble here.’

‘Is that right? Let me see it’, said Miller.

‘Here ’tis. She’s a dandy.’

‘I can see that. Hmm mmm, only thing is this one is blue and I sort of go for red. Do you have a red one like this at home?’ the store owner asked.

‘Not zackley but almost.’

‘Tell you what. Take this sack of peas home with you and next trip this way let me look at that red marble’. Mr. Miller told the boy.

‘Sure will. Thanks Mr.. Miller.’

Mrs. Miller, who had been standing nearby, came over to help me.

With a smile she said, ‘There are two other boys like him in our community, all three are in very poor circumstances. Jim just loves to bargain with them for peas, apples, tomatoes, or whatever.

When they come back with their red marbles, and they always do, he decides he doesn’t like red after all and he sends them home with a bag of produce for a green marble or an orange one, when they come on their next trip to the store.’

I left the store smiling to myself, impressed with this man. A short time later I moved to Colorado , but I never forgot the story of this man, the boys, and their bartering for marbles.

Several years went by, each more rapid than the previous one. Just recently I had occasion to visit some old friends in that Idaho community and while I was there learned that Mr. Miller had died. They were having his visitation that evening and knowing my friends wanted to go, I agreed to accompany them. Upon arrival at the mortuary we fell into line to meet the relatives of the deceased and to offer whatever words of comfort we could.

Ahead of us in line were three young men. One was in an army uniform and the other two wore nice haircuts, dark suits and white shirts….all very professional looking. They approached Mrs. Miller, standing composed and smiling by her husband’s casket.

Each of the young men hugged her, kissed her on the cheek, spoke briefly with her and moved on to the casket. Her misty light blue eyes followed them as, one by one; each young man stopped briefly and placed his own warm hand over the cold pale hand in the casket.. Each left the mortuary awkwardly, wiping his eyes..

Our turn came to meet Mrs. Miller. I told her who I was and reminded her of the story from those many years ago and what she had told me about her husband’s bartering for marbles. With her eyes glistening, she took my hand and led me to the casket.

‘Those three young men who just left were the boys I told you about.

They just told me how they appreciated the things Jim ‘traded’ them.. Now, at last, when Jim could not change his mind about color or size….they came to pay their debt.’

‘We’ve never had a great deal of the wealth of this world,’ she confided, ‘but right now, Jim would consider himself the richest man in Idaho.’

With loving gentleness she lifted the lifeless fingers of her deceased husband. Resting underneath were three exquisitely shined red marbles.

The Moral:

We will not be remembered by our words, but by our kind deeds. Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath.
 

Today I wish you a day of ordinary miracles ~ 

A fresh pot of coffee you didn’t make yourself…
An unexpected phone call from an old friend….  
Green stoplights on your way to work….
The fastest line at the grocery store….
A good sing-along song on the radio…
Your keys found right where you left them.

Send this to the people you’ll never forget. I just did…

If you don’t send it to anyone, it means you are in way too much of a hurry to even notice the ordinary miracles when they occur.

IT’S NOT WHAT YOU GATHER, BUT WHAT YOU SCATTER THAT TELLS WHAT KIND OF LIFE YOU HAVE LIVED!

Maybe it is worth evaluating whether the gain your lifestyle brings is as great as you think it is. One way to do this is to ask the question: “what do I really want?” It would be a terrible shame to be enduring the pain of constant high pressure in order to manifest something that you didn’t really want! This exercise also helps to lessen the resentment the pressure produces if you know you are getting something you value from  it.

I recommend making a list of the ten things you want most in your life. Once you have the list, write next to each item what you are doing to manifest that in your life right now. Try to prioritize the list so that the most important things are at the top. Maybe you want to make sure you spend quite a bit of energy and time manifesting the top items.

Remember 2012 is your year and you can make it different if you want to. You have to choose what you do and what you don’t do. Sometimes the most important choices are about what we are NOT going to do, rather than what we ARE going to do. Research shows us that resolutions don’t work, so don’t set yourself up for failure by making a whole bunch of them. Rather focus on what you want and the motivation will come from the desire.

This time of the year is a time for merry making and festivity, for family time and celebration, as well as for Summer holidays. Enjoy all that this  offers and smile when it hurts. Thank the pain for making the pleasure possible. Pain can come in the form of irritating family members, badly behaved children, disappointing results, goodbyes and much more. Watch and see how perfectly in  balance it all is.

So I wish you and your family peace this holiday season. I wish you presence and acceptance too. Thank you for all your support in 2011 and I look forward to sharing more learning, wellness, healing and stillness with you  in the famed year of 2012.

So what happens between childhood and adulthood that robs us of our capacity to just love being energetic? I think physicality loses its charm because we don’t make having fun the goal. In deciding what to do as an exercise form, many of us set on doing something that bores us half to death. We decide that gym will get us good results and it is easy to access, so that’s what we do. My suggestion to you is ask yourself what is fun for you, and do that. So if you love to dance, then dance as exercise and if you love water then swim for exercise. Children have no need to lose weight or get fitter and so they just do what feels best for them. They are able to just get into their bodies and enjoy the sensations of moving, swimming and running. They do this just because it feels great for them. When it stops being pleasurable, they stop. They are oblivious to sweat, or looking good, they just let go and enjoy.  Once they get to their teens then of course all this changes, but until then, exercise is not an intellectual thing at all. Most children let go self consciousness and their bodies take over.

Why not see what happens if you find what feels fun for you and do that for the next week or two?
Maybe you can reclaim your childhood physicality and enhance your health without even trying to. If you are keen on getting fit, follow my training program here and leave your comments.

Don’t forget to like BodyBrilliance on Facebook we are giving you a daily suggestion for better health. These are useful tips that are easy for you to implement in your life. Give them a try and give us your feedback on Facebook as to how they help you

Try running, just put-on your takkies and go. Let your legs loose and your hair stream in the wind. Hold your stomach firm and your back straight and breathe in your belly. It feels good!

Don’t try to go too far at first, just go until it isn’t fun anymore then walk home. Go again the next day, even if you have to face your own resistance to get going.

Make it fun and concentrate on how good it feels in your body. Notice how you feel afterwards and later that day. This is for freedom, for play, for the sheer joy of being alive and the gratitude for having a body that works.

As from next week, I will be posting a weekly program for you to follow!

Enjoy! And give me your feedback.