
That is the question of the century.
I have been doing a DEEP dive into this question over the last year and have read and listened to the top cancer docs working in the Integrative Medicine arena. After all of this, I’ve seen a strand that runs through each book, podcast and webinar and it’s not ONE thing, it’s multiple things.
This is Part I of a three part series, because you would glaze over if I dumped this on you all at once! Please, please, read this and pass it along to others. One in eight women and one in five men will get cancer this coming year 2020 and 1.8 million people have received this diagnosis so far in 2019.
#1 Toxicity
Every single practitioner believes we are living in a toxic world and eventually we hit the “total load effect.” This is the straw that breaks the camel’s back so to speak. The final drop of a toxin that pushes the body into a place of not being able to detox properly and the buildup begins.
You’ve heard me talk about “autophagy” before and so let’s review. “Auto” means self and “phagy” means eat. So the literal meaning of autophagy is “self-eating.” A Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded in 2016 for the discovery of this process. Autophagy is the body’s way of cleaning out damaged cells (cancer cells), in order to regenerate new, healthier cells. It could be called the body’s garbage and recycling system that goes on primarily when we sleep.
With the toxic load coming from so many areas, and then not giving the body the tools it needs to do autophagy, we now have cancer cells free to duplicate and roam about. So two things are necessary, lowering the toxic load and supporting the role of autophagy.
These are just some of the areas we need to address in order to lower toxicity. Remember, don’t think you have to do this all at once! As you run out of these products look for non-toxic products to replace them with.
Most Common Source of Toxins
- Pesticides – buy organic when possible. Go to EWG.org and get your “Dirty Dozen” list of most heavily sprayed fruits and vegetables and start here.
- Molds – make sure you are not living in a moldy house!
- Parasites – yes, we all have them but it’s a good idea to do a gentle parasite cleanse yearly, especially if you eat Sushi and travel outside the U.S. (I’m working on a recommended product for this.)
- Pharmaceutical drugs – yep, these are a tremendous burden on your liver. Look for natural alternatives, there are many available. An example is instead of a statin us Red Yeast Rice, it’s been used for thousands of years in Asia.
- Processed foods – packaged, frozen, fast foods all have bad oils and fats, high sugar and loads of preservatives, food colorings, anti-caking agents etc. etc. Use fresh when ever possible and buy organic when possible.
- Skin care products – your skin is your largest organ, it absorbs everything you put on it, by-passing the liver and going straight into the blood stream. EWG.org has a good list of “clean” skin care products.
- Cleaning products – look under your cabinets in your kitchen, your bathroom and in your laundry room. Count how many products you have to clean with, five, eight, ten??? Everyone is full of toxins. EWG.org has ideas but even your local grocery store will have cleaner products, search them out. We use a non-toxic dishwasher soap, one “green soap” for all bathrooms and showering, one “non-toxic” cleaner for countertops, cleaning bathrooms etc. and a non-toxic laundry detergent, that’s it!
- Plastics – they are everywhere. Avoid bottled water in plastic bottles especially, buy a glass one and fill up with your own filtered water. Avoid using plastics whenever possible to store food in and especially to cook in.
- Air pollution – it is said that indoor air pollution is far more toxic than outdoor air. Your carpets, flooring, furniture, countertops, clothes, air fresheners, plug-ins etc. all “out-gas” toxins. We have a air-filter in our house in our bedroom and it will filter approximately 850sq feet. We like having it in the bedroom so at least at night while we sleep we have clean air.
WOW! Can you see how we can be over-loaded???
Supporting Autophagy
As we gradually start to replace these products with clean ones we can be working on our cellular cleaning system. The number one support for autophagy is fasting and intermittent fasting. Remember, the body does not send out the garbage men until we stop putting food in! Start with intermittent fasting, 12-16 hours a day. Example of that would be eat your last food at 6pm and do not eat again until 8am, that’s 14 hours of fasting, not that hard!
Along with the fasting make sure your diet is a low-inflammatory diet, Grab a list on my website, and scroll down to the bottom for a PDF handout. Eat a diet high in antioxidant rich fruits and vegetables. Avoid “bad” fats (fried food, vegetable oils) and eat “good fats” like olive oil, coconut oil and MCT oil. All of this support the process of autophagy!
Ok, that’s it for this newsletter. Remember, the goal is progress, not perfection! Pick one area to work on then congratulate yourself for completing it!
Don’t forget to put January 13th on your calendar for our next 10 Day Detox where we spend ten days learning more how to support our body to detox!
Alongside your journey,
Chris
P.S. Have you or someone you know had cancer? Join me on a Hope 4 Cancer Recovery journey that will help your body detox from all the cancer treatment drugs, restore your immune system and create a lifestyle where cancer can never grow again! 50% off right now, Kick Cancer With Chris Now!