What is cancer?

Cancer is a pretty complicated subject. I am sure most of you realize this. But, I am going to start with the basics to help you understand what has happened to me and to others. So, here it goes...

According to wikipedia, Cancer is "a class of diseases in which a group of cells display the traits of uncontrolled growth (growth and division beyond the normal limits), invasion (intrusion on and destruction of adjacent tissues), and sometimes metastasis (spread to other locations in the body via lymph or blood)."

What does that mean? One of the most informative books I have, "Beating Cancer With Nutrition" breaks down the meaning of this wretched disease. The Authors, Patrick Quillen and Noreen Quillen, say that cancer is " a mistake cell that is growing wildly out of control". They compare cancer cells to the movie "Predator" with Arnold Schwarzeneggar. Though I am not a huge fan of his movies, I love this comparison because anyone can relate.

So, I will paint the picture for you. The predator in the movie wore a protective shield that allowed it to mimic its current environment, thus, making it difficult to destroy. Cancer is similar, it can mimic our body chemistry at the cellular level. It can confuse the immune system into thinking it is a normal cell and the body can then allow the cells to grow into a tumor.

There are many theories about cancer, one of which that makes sense to me is the "surveillance theory". The Quillens explain the theory, which says that cancer cells, or mistake cells, show up in our body on a regular basis. DNA replication and cell growth happens multiple times over during the day. A normal immune system will keep the good cells and destroy the bad cells. There are several ways that our bodies can and DO destroy these bad cells all of the time. Our bodies are self-healing mechanisms.

For those of us who actually develop tumors in our bodies, something went wrong with our immune system. It was not able to stop the division and replication of bad cells before they grew out of control.

Once, tumors develop and cancer is identified, there are several ways to treat cancer and help restore the body's immune system. It can be done, but it does take time. That is what I am working on now. I will talk more about these methods in future blogs.

For now, I am sure I have given you a lot to chew on..so let me know what questions you have.

Lolo