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A review by danarbot300
Anticancer, A New Way of Life by David Servan-Schreiber
2.0
Anticancer had a lot of good information in it, but was also full of pretension and bizarre & irrelevant stories about the author's ex-wives. I can't recommend it as a good reading experience. So here's a summary tailored for people interested in breast cancer.
The main message is that cancer is a chronic disease influenced heavily by the environment and lifestyle. Although mainstream western medicine is excellent at treating acute problems, it terrible at preventing and treating chronic problems. Dr. S-S thinks that nutrition, exercise, and "peace of mind" are also needed to treat (and prevent) cancer and goes over the limited research, and a gazillion anecdotes, showing how these things may influence cancer.
He quotes a World Health Organization report that up to "80% of cancers may be influenced by lifestyle and the environment." The most convincing research to support that was a study that showed Chinese women who moved to San Francisco had 3-5 times the rate of breast cancer than women in the same age groups who stayed in China.
Dr. S-S believes that nutrition, exercise, and whatever (woo-woo, religious, or other) ways we can stay calm influence immune system function. We all have "microtumors" which could turn into cancer. These can be kept in check by the immune system but tumors that successfully take hold actually hijack the immune system in order to grow.
The nutrition information is extensive. There are lists of vegetables that inhibit the growth of specific types of cancer, according to the one doctor in Montreal who decided to research this despite the fact that nobody can patent food as a treatment and make millions like pharmaceutical companies do. (Taxol was one profitable example which took something like 500 million dollars for the research to validate it as effective.) Garlic, leeks, scallions, are at the top of the list for all types of cancer and brussel sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, broccoli, radishes, and onions round out the top of the list for breast cancer.
One section recommends against eating sugar or anything with a high glycemic index. Also, this book finally cleared up the mystery for me about whether eating meat is healthy or not. We get much better nutrition from the meat and eggs of animals that have eaten good diets themselves. If you feed animals nothing but cheap processed corn products, then their meat isn't good for us. There's some pro-Omega-3 info (vs. Omega-6) discussion which points to the benefits of eating fish and taking fish oil supplements. Green tea obstructs cancer formation and growth in 3 different ways and just 2 cups a day provides those benefits.
There was a more about the benefits of support groups, exercise, and finding peace of mind. One interesting thing is that it doesn't take much exercise to provide a protective effect for breast cancer. "Walking 2-5 hours per week at a normal speed has a powerful effect on preventing relapse."
The book covers the important point that none of this means that anyone is responsible for having cancer. The environment/lifestyle issues are cultural and a lot of our food is produced in unhealthy ways. Some people (maybe 20% or more) will get cancer regardless of these factors.
The main message is that cancer is a chronic disease influenced heavily by the environment and lifestyle. Although mainstream western medicine is excellent at treating acute problems, it terrible at preventing and treating chronic problems. Dr. S-S thinks that nutrition, exercise, and "peace of mind" are also needed to treat (and prevent) cancer and goes over the limited research, and a gazillion anecdotes, showing how these things may influence cancer.
He quotes a World Health Organization report that up to "80% of cancers may be influenced by lifestyle and the environment." The most convincing research to support that was a study that showed Chinese women who moved to San Francisco had 3-5 times the rate of breast cancer than women in the same age groups who stayed in China.
Dr. S-S believes that nutrition, exercise, and whatever (woo-woo, religious, or other) ways we can stay calm influence immune system function. We all have "microtumors" which could turn into cancer. These can be kept in check by the immune system but tumors that successfully take hold actually hijack the immune system in order to grow.
The nutrition information is extensive. There are lists of vegetables that inhibit the growth of specific types of cancer, according to the one doctor in Montreal who decided to research this despite the fact that nobody can patent food as a treatment and make millions like pharmaceutical companies do. (Taxol was one profitable example which took something like 500 million dollars for the research to validate it as effective.) Garlic, leeks, scallions, are at the top of the list for all types of cancer and brussel sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, broccoli, radishes, and onions round out the top of the list for breast cancer.
One section recommends against eating sugar or anything with a high glycemic index. Also, this book finally cleared up the mystery for me about whether eating meat is healthy or not. We get much better nutrition from the meat and eggs of animals that have eaten good diets themselves. If you feed animals nothing but cheap processed corn products, then their meat isn't good for us. There's some pro-Omega-3 info (vs. Omega-6) discussion which points to the benefits of eating fish and taking fish oil supplements. Green tea obstructs cancer formation and growth in 3 different ways and just 2 cups a day provides those benefits.
There was a more about the benefits of support groups, exercise, and finding peace of mind. One interesting thing is that it doesn't take much exercise to provide a protective effect for breast cancer. "Walking 2-5 hours per week at a normal speed has a powerful effect on preventing relapse."
The book covers the important point that none of this means that anyone is responsible for having cancer. The environment/lifestyle issues are cultural and a lot of our food is produced in unhealthy ways. Some people (maybe 20% or more) will get cancer regardless of these factors.