I may have a cancer

[mamadrama]

I hope I get a handle on the underlying issue here which definitely seems to be emotional. I think that my emotional development might have come to a stop when I was 13-15, during a big trauma in my life. It is only thanks to all the information that I've come across in Cassiopaea.org and here that I am finally starting to feel some emotions again...


Over the last years, ever since when I've read of it, the idea that traumas/unsolved emotion issues cause cancer has been on my mind more than a lot. I definitely see that direction as promising, and I believe that working emotionally is the key, whether or not I really have cancer. I've held myself back from so much joy in the fear that I'm going to get hurt again and on the other hand beaten myself up over any small issue.

You may want to add these two books to your reading list from the forum's recommended reading:

Martha Stout's The Myth of Sanity and Alice Miller's The Drama of the Gifted Child. Both of these books are written from a psychological point of view and deal with trauma induced issues and the healing that's required.

Also, for general prostate health, saw palmetto is very supportive.

Improve Prostate Health Naturally
by Jo Hartley, citizen journalist

(NaturalNews) The prostate is a small gland that is about as big as a walnut. It is below the bladder and is an important part of the male reproductive system. The prostate has two periods of growth in the course of a man's life. The first period is in early puberty and the second period occurs during the mid twenties.

Prostate problems affect nearly 12% of men at some point in their lives, but the good news is that there are several very effective and natural ways to improve the condition of the prostate.

During the first period of growth, the prostate doubles in size. It is during the second growth period that men often develop an enlarged prostate. As the prostate grows, the tissues that surround it will stop it from expanding at a certain point. If this happens, the prostate will begin to press against the urethra.

There is some disagreement about this, but the general consensus is that most men over age 45 have some degree of prostate enlargement. This condition is often free of symptoms, however, and is usually harmless. Problems urinating may develop later in life.

Approximately 80% of men over sixty experience some difficulties with urination due to an enlarged prostate. It is important to understand that this is not a cancerous condition, but this pressure on the urethra may lead to urinary difficulties such as urinary urgency, frequent urination, a reduction in the force of the urine stream, difficulty starting urination, incomplete bladder emptying, and possibly even the inability to urinate.

If a benign prostate enlargement is not corrected there can be serious health ramifications over time. This includes urinary tract infections, kidney and bladder damage, bladder stones, and incontinence.
The conventional treatment for an enlarged prostate is surgery to remove all or part of the prostate. Obviously, this would correct most urinary symptoms, but impotency may be a lasting result of this surgery. For this reason, surgery should be considered a last resort.

Men who are suffering prostate problems will want to supplement with saw palmetto berry. Saw palmetto is very effective for relieving inflammation and enlargement of the prostate. Saw palmetto also helps to control the hormones that cause prostate enlargement in the first place.

Saw palmetto is a shrub that grows in Florida and Georgia. There are no known side effects. Contrast using saw palmetto with using the prescription drug Proscar and there is no question about the fact that saw palmetto is the safer option.

In addition, "Pygeum africanum" is another herb that has been shown to reduce prostate enlargement and prostate inflammation.

Zinc is also effective at relieving enlarged prostates and inflamed prostates. It has been shown that suffering a zinc deficiency often results in prostate enlargement. Infection and stress lowers blood serum zinc levels in general and specifically lowers prostate levels. Many men do not consume enough zinc each day from their diet. Often a daily zinc supplement in the amount of 50 to 100 milligrams is recommended to help shrink an enlarged prostate.

Kegel exercises are performed by tightening the muscles surrounding the scrotum and anus. By repeating Kegel exercises ten times, 4-5 times per day, the blood circulation to these tissues will be enhanced. This is a simple exercise that can be performed anywhere while doing virtually anything.

Lastly, a Harvard study performed in 2003 of 47,000 men found that men who ate ten servings of tomatoes each week had a 50% less chance of developing serious prostate cancer. This is thought to be due to the lycopene that is present in tomatoes. This is the pigment that makes tomatoes red. Lycopene is known to be a powerful carotene that is actually much more powerful than even beta carotene.

_http://www.naturalnews.com/025169.html

 

[Breton]

Hi Smallwood!
I see some good information is being shared and that is good to see.

All I can do is offer encouragement to take this as one of "life's lessons". In that sense, this is an opportunity, to learn your machine better, while you do the necessary work to get to the bottom of the problem, whether it is cancer or something else.

This is the approach that I personally am ATTEMPTING to do when I hit tribulations: instead of saying "why is this happening to me?", I want to try and say "what is the lesson that I am supposed to learn from this?" and look at it as a test, or a challenge for my soul development, in some way.

Just my thoughts, for what its worth...

Hang in there!

_Breton_

 

[Smallwood]

Again, thank You all! You have all been very supportive and as always, interacting this way with you people has helped me adjust the course as well as gently offered a few sights into how exactly my machine works. I can see now that there is a lot of fear-programming in me, and I have only peeled a few layers of it. I am most amazed for the grace that I've seen shown here so many times. I hope that some day when I have my machine in order I can be of this much help to someone else here as you have been to me.

I am currently re-reading "Myth of Sanity", and after that I'm moving on to "The Drama of the Gifted Child". I have a time coming up soon for a therapist so I'm going to talk about dissociation with her (if I remember right, she is a cognitive therapist which should be right up that alley), in hopes to learn more exactly about the trauma that has affected me. Also, in the coming week I'll be contacting an iridologist as well as looking for details about someone close to my location who can give me a specialized diagnosis on the symptoms. Only after that, I will focus on adjusting the diet and supplements more deeply. I will be back when I have a few specialists' opinion.

Also, for general prostate health, saw palmetto is very supportive.

Thanks for the tip and the article! I will look if I can find it anywhere here, and if not, I will certainly try the zinc that the article also suggests.

All I can do is offer encouragement to take this as one of "life's lessons". In that sense, this is an opportunity, to learn your machine better, while you do the necessary work to get to the bottom of the problem, whether it is cancer or something else.

Yes, I can easily agree with that view. I think it is in one of Castaneda's books that says something to the effect that for a normal person everything is either a blessing or a curse, while for a Warrior everything is a challenge. It takes a lot of courage to be a real Warrior, because reality seems to be very terrible atleast half the time. On the other hand I suspect that if one is aware enough, each day holds many beautiful and energizing things just waiting to be seen and heard that in their turn award the genuine Warriors for their work on themselves and the world. It must be so, for why else would anyone ever want to wake up?

I think this is a wake up call.

 

[Renaissance]

Hi Smallwood, I hope things go well with your meeting with specialists.

the other night I remembered that Henry Lai of Washington University had been doing some research into Artemisinin, which is an herb that has been used in China to cure Malaria since the 70's. Lai's work has been in testing it against Cancer. From what I understand, and what is probably on oversimplification, cancer cells have an abnormally high concentration of iron, which makes it sensitive to oxygen radicals which is what is produced by Artemisinin:

Artemisinin: From Malaria to Cancer Treatment
by Robert Jay Rowen, MD Editor-in-Chief, Second Opinion

(...)
Artemisinin contains an internal peroxide group. Due to this group, reactive oxygen is already present in the molecule. This belief is in agreement with the observations that derivatives of artemisinin lacking the peroxide moiety, are devoid of antimalaria activity.9

Additional support for oxygen-mediated toxicity of artemisinin is generated from other studies. The antimalarial activity of artemisinin in vitro, against P. falciparum, could be enhanced by increased oxygen tension. Drugs such as miconazole and doxorubicin, which are known to work via oxygen radical effects, enhance the activity of artesunate, a derivative of artemisinin. The effectiveness of artemisinin is reduced by catalase, dithiothreitol and alpha tocopherol.10

Furthermore, Levander, et al. found that manipulation of the host antioxidant defense status could provide prophylactic or therapeutic enhancement for the control of malaria. In this study, mice were fed with diets deficient in vitamin E or a diet supplemented with cod liver oil, which would deplete antioxidants. Vitamin E deficiency enhanced the antimalarial action of artemisinin against P. yoelii, but selenium deficiency did not. A diet containing 5% cod liver oil had a very strong antimalarial action.11

Artemisinin has been shown to work through oxygen and carbon based free radical mechanisms. Its structure includes an endoperoxide bridge. Peroxides generate free radicals in a Fenton type reaction when exposed to unbound ferrous iron. Malaria, which grows in the erythrocytes, has the opportunity to accumulate much excess iron which can spill into the unbound form. Electron microscopy has confirmed destruction of plasmodium membranes with morphology typical of free radical mechanisms.

With the knowledge of a high accumulation of iron in cancer cells, researchers Henry Lai and Narenda Singh of the University of Washington became interested in possible Artemisinin activity against malignant cells. In 1995, they published a paper in Cancer Letters concerning the use of artemisinin against numerous cancer cell lines in vitro. This article has mobilized interest in artemisinin as an addition to anticancer treatment.12

There are a number of properties shared by cancer cells, which favor the selective toxicity of artemisinin against cancer cell lines, and against cancer in vivo. In addition to higher rates of iron flux via transferren receptors than normal cells, cancers are particularly sensitive to oxygen radicals.13

A subsequent article appeared in Life Science in 2001 by Singh and Lai on the selective toxicity of artemisinin and holotransferrin towards human breast cancer cells.14 In this article, rapid and complete destruction of a radiation-resistant breast cancer cell line was achieved when the in vitro cell system was supported in iron uptake with holotransferrin. The cancer cell line was completely nonviable within 8 hours of combined incubation with minimal effect on the normal cells.

Artemisinin becomes cytotoxic in the presence of ferrous iron. Since iron influx is naturally high in cancer cells, artemisinin and its analogs selectively kill cancer cells under conditions in vivo. Further, it is possible to increase or enhance iron flux in cancer cells using the conditions that increase intracellular iron concentrations. However, intact in vivo systems do not need holotransferrin, the living body provides all the necessary iron transport proteins.

A third paper, by Efferth et al., published in Oncology in 2001 stated that the antimalarial artesunate is also active against cancer.15 This article described dramatic cytotoxic activity against a wide variety of cancers including drug resistant cell lines. Artesunate (ART) is a semi-synthetic derivative of artemisinin, and has been analyzed for its anticancer activity against 55 cell lines by the Developmental Therapeutics program of the National Cancer Institute, USA. ART was most active against leukemia and colon cancer cell lines. Mean growth inhibition 50% (GI 50) 1.11microM and 2.13 microM respectively. Non-small cell lung cancer cell lines showed the highest mean (GI50 26.62 microM) indicating the lowest sensitivity towards ART. Intermediate GI 50 values were obtained for melanomas, breast, ovarian, prostate, CNS, and renal cancer cell lines. Most important, a comparison of ART’s cytotoxicity with those standard cytostatic drugs showed that ART was active in molar ranges comparable to those of established antitumor drugs. Leukemia lines resistant to either doxorubicin, vincristine, methotrexate, or hydroxyurea were tested. Remarkably, none of these drug resistant lines showed resistance to ART. The theorized reason for this is the absence of a tertiary amine in ART, present in virtually all other chemotherapy agents, which is required for cellular transport systems to usher the drug outside the cell.
(...)

I have a pdf copy of the third paper mentioned, by Efferth et al.; I can't post it - the conversion to text didn't work as it looks like its made from an image. If you or anyone would like a copy, message me and I can send it.

Here's a video of Lai talking about Artemisinin - it's a big file, 88 MB and in wmv format.
http://www.bioeng.washington.edu/video/599J/Spring2005/bioe599jL5.wmv

I emailed Dr. Lai back in 2002 on the issue and he was very receptive and helpful with questions I had. His email can be found on his University web page:
http://depts.washington.edu/bioe/about/news/artemisinin.html
(It's also interesting that his other area of research is in the biological effects of electromagnetic radiation.)

also there is an Artemisinin page on the University of Washington's website that should also probably be read if this is an area of interest:
http://depts.washington.edu/bioe/about/news/artemisinin/artemisinin.html
It gives the following notice:

IMPORTANT NOTE: The Department of Bioengineering and University of Washington do not advocate the use of artemisinin to treat cancer. The US Food and Drug Administration does not currently approve the use of artemisinin for the treatment of any disease. Research on artemisinin and cancer is still in very early stages. Human use of artemisinin should be considered experimental and taking artemisinin or any other drug should be approached with extreme caution and responsibility.