Wonders of the Kitchen – Cinnamon and Parsley

Cinnamon contains cinnamic acid, a polyphenol. Cinnamic acid may reduce the incidence of cancer caused by several synthetic food additives. Cinnamon suppresses some forms of detrimental bacteria and inhibits the growth of yeasts and moulds. It inhibits the growth of anatoxin, a deadly cancer-forming substance. Chemotherapy and radiation treatment causes the growth of Candida, and cinnamon helps to treat and suppress these yeast growths.

Parsley is a common herb that is extremely easy to grow. Parsley is thought to prevent some forms of cancer, due to its histidine content. It is also claimed to lower the carcinogenic potential of fried foods. It is a very rich source of vitamin Ñ, à powerful antioxidant and cancer preventative.

Yellow and Orange Fruits and Vegetables

Yellow and orange vegetables contain many cancer-fighting properties.

Apricots are useful in preventing lung and skin cancer, possibly due to their high beta-carotene content – dried apricots contain more beta-carotene than the whole fruit. When buying dried apricots, look for low sulphur or sulphur-free apricots. Apricot seeds contain a substance called laetrile that is believed to contain strong cancer-fighting properties.

Carrots are loaded with beta-carotene, which may lower the incidence of a variety of cancers and prevents the formation of cancer in the later stages. They are particularly useful in preventing colon cancer. In extensive studies, carrots were shown to reduce the lung cancer risk of smokers, reduce the risk of cancer in ex-smokers and reduce the risk of lung cancer to non-smokers exposed to cigarette smoke.

Carrots and pumpkin contain large amounts of alpha-carotenes. Alpha-carotenes protect against liver cancer and are 10 times more effective in protecting against skin and lung cancer than beta-carotene. Carrots, apricots, pumpkin, papaya, mangoes, peaches and sweet potatoes are high in beta-carotene and this makes them very effective in enhancing the immune system by stimulating the activity of T lymphocytes (T-Lymphocytes are the ‘commanders of the immune army’).

Yogurt

Russian biologist Ilich Metchnikoff asserted that the secret to the longest living people in the world, the Bulgarians, was their high intake of yogurt. Recently, research in France has shown that women who eat yogurt (with live yogurt cultures) are less likely to develop breast cancer than women who don’t eat yogurt. Studies in Japan, Italy, Switzerland and Poland indicate those who eat yogurt show less incidence of disease and infection as a whole. Yogurt helps to lower the risk of cancer by boosting the body’s immune system and defending against disease. It is an essential aid in the prevention of stomach and colon cancer.

Lactobacillus Bulgaricus, a common bacterial culture for yogurt, has a particular strain (LV-51) that has been used in Europe for cancer treatment and immune fortification. LV-51 is found to stimulate leukocyte production, T lymphocyte production and anti-tumour activity of macrophages.

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Nutrients

Specific nutrients are very important in maintaining adequate functioning of all levels of the immune system. If one single nutrient is lacking in the body, the immune function can dramatically become depressed. It is important to maintain good levels of beta-carotene, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, zinc, vitamin B6 and other antioxidants. Coenzyme Q10, lipoic acid, N. Acetyl cysteine, germanium, selenium and bioflavonoids have immune system-boosting effects.

Antioxidants are vital for maintaining optimal immune system function as they act to prevent free radical damage to immune cells and the thymus gland. Recent clinical trials have found that antioxidants can significantly improve immune response, including increasing the activation of cells involved in tumour immunity.

Lactobacillus Bulgarius, a common bacterial culture from yogurt, has been used to stimulate T-lymphocyte production and anti-tumour activity of macrophages, thereby enhancing the function of the immune system.

Ozone Therapy

Supersaturating oxygen in the blood oxidizes foreign agents, improving immunity. Liquid oxygen is available from health food stores.

Pets

The human/animal bond is emotional in nature. Given that emotions and neurotransmitters are linked, our pets may help to maintain or enhance our immune system’s strength. Pets teach us the magic of ‘unconditional love’ and provide us with a wonderful stress release. If we are stress-free emotionally, we remain stress-free physically. After all, we can talk to our pets all day long and get all of our worries off our mind. Can you think of a simpler way to release your stresses and improve your physical health?

Relaxation/Meditation

Meditation or placing ourselves in a relaxed state brings about a sense of calm, peace and serenity, and hence has a positive effect on immune function. Visualizing positive outcomes and good health sets up a plan for the subconscious mind to carry out these desires and wishes.

Sleep

Get adequate sleep. The hours slept before midnight are twice as beneficial as the hours slept after midnight. Go to bed early. Sleep is a revitalizing nutrient that enhances immune system function and provides resistance to infections.

Sunlight

Sunlight is extremely important in enhancing immune system function and having a positive effect on moods and emotions.

Thymus Gland Tapping

Tapping or gently pounding on your thymus gland daily stimulates the release of white blood cells and improves thymus gland health and function.

Touching and Being Touched

As humans we need to feel accepted and loved. Touch in whatever form, whether it be a kiss, a hug, a gentle touch or holding hands, enhances the psycho-neurological phenomena that support immune system function.

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You’ve all heard the saying, ‘what you don’t know, won’t hurt you’. I feel this saying is all too often employed in the practice of medical doctors, especially surrounding certain aspects of cancer. This may come from the fact that many doctors actually don’t know everything about cancer and refuse to admit they don’t have all of the answers. It also stems from the fact that many doctors place themselves in a superior class, higher than most people. They therefore feel the normal person just wouldn’t understand what they are talking about.

Understand or not, it is your moral right to be given all of the facts about your condition. Before undertaking chemotherapy I was told very little, apart from the fact it was the only solution to possibly cure my cancer and some of the possible side effects. As the treatment progressed, everything I was told in the beginning turned out to be less than ten per cent of what I really needed to know. Treatment was completely different to what I was informed it would be like, so no doubt it made me feel frustrated and helpless.

Many medical professionals simply feel that the average person with an illness does not possess the full comprehension to understand what they are talking about. Doctors may feel it is better to keep certain things from you to avoid unnecessary stress or anxiety. This should be the patient’s decision, as you will ultimately have to deal with the problems at some stage, whether it is now or later.

Always seek a medical professional who treats you with respect and is empathetic to your needs. Ask them to share everything with you, including all possibilities and options. Inform them it is okay for them to ring you with results immediately and to give you full copies of every report.

Maintaining secrecy about your results and physical health, due to whatever reason, is simply not good enough. There are many open, understanding doctors out there who realize that no person is better than the next, we are all just different. And for this reason, we should all be treated equally with the same amount of respect we show cowards the person who is treating us. That means if you are divulging valuable and personal information about yourself to the doctor, then you have every right to expect the doctor to divulge all of the information regarding your condition back to you.

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Vitamins and Nutrients

• Free form amino acid supplements (3 1/2 grams/day).

• Vitamin  complex increases the appetite and maintains energy levels.

• Check zinc levels – low zinc levels can cause a lack of taste and appetite. Zinc (80 mg/day) is recommended.

• Check for hydrochloric acid or digestive enzyme deficiency (commonly depleted during orthodox treatment). If levels are low, supplement with hydrochloric acid supplements or apple cider vinegar or digestive enzymes.

• Swedish bitters are also useful for stimulating the appetite.

Herbs

To stimulate a poor appetite use fennel seed, centaury, ginger root, ginseng, papaya leaves or peppermint leaves.

Calamus (also known as Sweet Flag), is an excellent tonic for the gastro-intestinal tract and a great appetite stimulant. Pour 1 cup of boiling water onto 1 to 2 teaspoons of the dried herbs/seeds and let infuse for 10 to 15 minutes. Drink 30 minutes before meals.

Gentian root is an excellent bitter that stimulates the appetite and digestion via the gentle stimulation of digestive juices. Gentian combines well with ginger and cardamom. Put 1/2 teaspoon full of the shredded root in a cup of water and boil for 5 minutes. This should be drunken warm 15 to 30 minutes before meals.

Other Advice

• Gentle exercise can stimulate appetite.

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No form of diagnosis is 100 per cent effective in detecting cancer. Mistakes are often made in diagnosis, as screening methods are still largely based on the medical practitioners’ experience and personal knowledge. I am a perfect example of misdiagnosis, as are many friends of mine. In my search to discover what exactly was out of balance in my body, I attended a number of highly respected medical institutions throughout Europe, America, Asia and Australia and was misdiagnosed six times by specialists in their respective fields.

A good friend of mine was misdiagnosed by doctors for over one year and hence given the wrong medication, further exacerbating her condition. These are but two cases out of millions throughout the world. Diagnosing cancer in many cases is similar to a guessing game; chances are they will find it, but how long it will take is the real question. And at what cost to your health?

No diagnostic tool is completely accurate. Many blood tests that are deemed specialized in detecting cancer in the body find it difficult to discriminate between cancer and inflammation, and other similar conditions. It is impossible in many cases for doctors to determine what the actual problem is until they actually open you up to operate. This can be dangerous, as cancer is a fear-based condition and cancer cells tend to spread through the body rapidly and easily, if given the right environment to do so. By opening you up to explore they run the risk of spreading the cancer further to other areas of the body, which is obviously why chemotherapy, radiation therapy and cancer drugs are so often employed in follow up treatment of cancer.

It is important to never let a doctor turn you away. We all have strong intuitions and most people know their own bodies very well. If you feel something is out of balance or not quite right, don’t be afraid to see a medical practitioner and ask for tests. If they refuse to listen to you or laugh at you, never give up. Seek a practitioner who is understanding and empathetic to your needs. Chances are if you think something isn’t quite right in your body, you’re absolutely right.

A close friend of mine had no symptoms at all, yet felt something wasn’t quite right in his body. He went to see a doctor and asked him to run some blood tests. Of course, the doctor thought he was crazy, but reluctantly acknowledged his wishes and ran the appropriate blood tests. He later discovered he had the early stages of prostate cancer, which had only begun a few months earlier. Listening to his intuition and trusting his gut feeling saved his life, and the future happiness of his family.

As most medical practitioners only spend 10 to 15 minutes with every patient, it is difficult for them to fully take the time to listen to your problems. Never leave until you are completely satisfied with the outcome and their diagnosis. Many cancer deaths today are due to misdiagnosis, which allows the cancer to spread further and in many cases, makes it difficult to cure. Become aware of the symptoms for each type of cancer and if you are experiencing any of these, consult with an open-minded practitioner. Don’t let any medical practitioner make you feel like you are being a hypochondriac. It is your health and listening to your intuition could mean the difference between life and death.

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There are two ways in which syphilis is routinely diagnosed: (1) microscopic identification of the bacterium Treponema pallidum from swabs taken from the lesions and (2) identification of the body’s immune response to the infection through the use of blood tests. Lesions that are moist, such as the chancres or skin lesions seen in secondary syphilis, can be swabbed examined under a special microscope for the syphilis-causing bacterium. However, most clinics do not have the ability to perform this test or do not have clinicians who are expert at looking for the syphilis-causing bacterium in this way.

The syphilis blood tests are designed to detect antibodies, or proteins that the body makes in response to syphilis infection. The most common of these tests are the VDRL (Venereal Disease Research Laboratory) and RPR (rapid plasma reagin) tests. An infected person may take up to three months after infection to show up as positive, although most people do so within a few weeks of infection. These tests first show positive during primary syphilis, and they will remain positive (usually reaching a peak during secondary syphilis) unless a person receives treatment. If a person is successfully treated for syphilis, the tests will usually return to normal about twelve months after treatment. Thus, these two tests can be used to determine whether or not a given treatment for syphilis is effective.

A small percentage of the population (1-2%) will test positive on the VDRL and RPR tests even though they are not infected with syphilis. These false positive results are more common in pregnant women and in those who have an underlying medical problem (such as lupus) or another infection (such as tuberculosis).

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Herpes infections of the eye—which rarely occur through autoinoculation by touching a genital infection and then touching the eye, and more often occur owing to reactivation of facial HSV-1—should be managed by an ophthalmologist. Almost all herpes in the eye results from infection with type 1 herpes. Effective medications for treating herpes infections of the eye include topical trifluorothymidine, vidarabine, idoxuridine, acyclovir, and interferon.

A vaccine is currently being tested as a way to prevent symptoms in already infected persons, and this treatment may hold some promise for the future. Vaccines initially developed for other diseases—such as smallpox, influenza, and polio—have not been proven effective in preventing infection with or treating herpes.

In people who are immunocompromised and have herpes that is resistant to acyclovir, the medication foscarnet has been proven effective. This medicine has also shown benefit in treating infection caused by another member of the herpes family, cytomegalovirus.

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Electrosurgery

In electrosurgery, an electrified blade or wire is used to cut out a wart, usually after the area has been numbed with a local anesthetic. It can be used to treat oral warts, external genital warts, and warts around the anus. This is one of the more expensive treatments, and although it may be slightly more effective than topical treatments, the success rate depends to a large extent on the skill of the health care provider performing the procedure. It has a clearance rate of 35-94 percent and a recurrence rate of 22 percent.

Surgery

Surgery on warts is usually performed with a scalpel after the area to be treated has first been numbed with a local anesthetic. Surgery is often the treatment of choice for very extensive warts, either in the external genital area or in the anal area, and it can be used for oral warts as well. After the procedure stitches may be used to close the area. This is another more expensive treatment. It has a clearance rate of 93 percent and a recurrence rate of 29 percent.

Laser Surgery

In laser surgery, a high-intensity beam of light is focused on the affected tissue, usually with the aid of a microscope, in order to remove it. The procedure is primarily recommended for extensive external genital or anal warts. The success of the procedure depends on the skill of the health care provider performing the surgery. Because it is expensive and usually involves an outpatient visit to a hospital and general anesthesia, it is most often recommended for warts that are difficult to treat or extensive. It has a clearance rate of 43 percent and a recurrence rate of 95 percent.

The entire genital area should not be treated with the laser in an attempt to rid the genitals of the virus; this treatment method has been shown to cause precancerous changes in the vagina from the extensive tissue destruction.

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When condoms are used correctly, and used every time you have sex, the failure rate from a condom breaking is usually less than 2 percent. In other words, condoms break about twice out of every one hundred times they are used. However, in the real world, condoms fail more often, sometimes ten out of every one hundred times used. Not surprisingly, this is usually because they are not used correctly or consistently. Here are the “top twelve rules” of male condom use. These rules apply to both latex and plastic condoms except where differences are specifically noted.

1. Condoms should be used for every sexual contact with a person whose status for STDs is not known. This includes oral, anal, and genital contact. If you or your partner uses them only “some of the time,” then you are not protecting yourself against STDs. It can take only one unprotected sexual encounter to transmit an STD.

2. Condoms should be put on before any genital contact. It is not enough to use the condom only during ejaculation and not during the earlier sexual contact. Pre-ejaculate can also cause pregnancy and transmit STDs if a male partner is infected.

3. Latex condoms should not be used with any oil-based lubricants, such as mineral oil, vegetable shortening, massage oil, or petroleum jelly, since this will increase the chances of their breaking. Only water-based lubricants, such as those that are glycerin based, are recommended for use with latex condoms, since these do not increase the risk of breakage. Watch out for lubricants that say they are “water soluble.” This is not the same as water based, and water-soluble lubricants may actually contain oils and are therefore not to be used with latex condoms. Plastic or polyurethane condoms can be used with either oil- or water-based lubricants.

4. Latex condoms should not be stored in a warm or hot place, such as a wallet or the glove compartment, since this will increase the risk of breakage. Plastic condoms are not destroyed by heat exposure.

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Molluscum contagiosum. Often confused with warts, molluscum skin lesions are usually white, waxy, painless bumps with a dimple in the center. In the center of the lesion is a hard white core, which contains the virus. There are usually many lesions at a time, and they can continue to appear long after the initial infection (sometimes for months to years). The lesions will clear up without treatment, but treating them usually speeds up the healing process. Molluscum lesions can become infected with skin bacteria and take on a pimple-like appearance, which may resemble that of herpes lesions.

Psoriasis. Psoriasis is a usually benign skin rash that is not sexually transmitted, although its cause is not known. It can occur anywhere on the skin, but the genitals are a common site. The typical rash is characterized by red splotches, often with silvery or white scales on top. It can look very similar to fungal rashes in the genital area, and it is often suspected when the usual antifungal creams do not work. The rash usually does not hurt or itch. Several topical treatments, including steroid creams, are effective. Treatment is usually best coordinated with a dermatologist.

Scabies. Scabies usually forms very itchy bumps and lines in the genitals as well as other areas of the body (the webs between the fingers, wrists, beltline, buttocks, ankles, and armpits, among others). The bumps appear about two to four weeks after the initial infection, but they can appear sooner in someone who has previously been infected. The itching tends to be worse at night and after a shower.

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