The Metabolic Approach to Cancer and to Life
by Marji Keith
Navigating cancer, striving to prevent recurrence, recovering from treatment, and embracing hope and empowerment— the metabolic approach to cancer and caring for your body’s terrain is all of the above.
When I was diagnosed with cancer I read books like “The Anatomy of Hope,” and “Radical Remission.” I wanted and I needed HOPE. And these books helped. The hope they conveyed empowered me. And an empowered person takes action.
I knew instinctively that I couldn’t rely solely on what doctors were telling me. I needed to take my health into my own hands in addition to saying yes to conventional treatment. I stumbled upon fasting and I stumbled upon meditation and I stumbled upon Nasha Winter’s book, “The Metabolic Approach to Cancer.” I put pieces of the puzzle together. I took care of my mind and body. And I got better. A lot better.
What is the metabolic approach to cancer and why does it matter to me so much?
Think of your body as your garden, your soil. Cancer is a weed growing in that garden. Or about to grow. What can be done to keep weeds out? Is it as simple as spraying a chemical on them and hoping they never come back? Or as easy as plucking them out combined with the good luck that causes them to never return?
A gardener with little experience might opt for the quick fix - spray weed killer, and hope for the best. A master gardener, on the other hand will be interested in the deep nutrition within the soil. We’re talking minerals, pure water, just the right amount of sunshine for their particular garden, protection from the elements and ensuring no toxins sneak in and maybe even some loving kindness.
In rich, well tended soil flowers bloom vibrantly and weeds are quickly eradicated. The gardener dictates the fate of their garden. This belief extends to your body which is susceptible to disease. To have a well tended body takes work, especially in the face of cancer. But it may be a journey of learning, empowerment and hope. Not blind, unsubstantiated hope, but the kind that comes from taking control of your own health. Taking part in your healthcare and wellbeing.
For those fighting cancer now, your doctors do their best to pull out the weeds with surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and medications that target cancer cells. If you’ve had cancer in the past, like me, you undergo periodic checks just to see if it has come back rather than to prevent it from coming back. What proactive measures is your doctor performing to prevent relapse? They test to see if the cancer has already come back; is that the definition of prevention? What can you do to make sure those weeds don’t grow back? Is the way you are feeding your body inadvertently nourishing cancer cells? Or is it fortifying your healthy white blood cells and immune system?
Just as a garden thrives on nutrients, water and sunlight, your body flourishes with deep nutrition, exercise, restorative sleep and other elements of the metabolic approach.
The metabolic approach is a paradigm shift debunking the notion that cancer is merely genetic fate or just bad luck and that that there’s nothing we can do to prevent it or prevent a recurrence.
Empowerment emerges as the cornerstone of this philosophy.
What science tells us is that if I’m an empowered patient I have better quality of life, pain management works better, cancer drugs work better. I respond to therapies better and I’m more open, broadened to do what is necessary to survive and to thrive. There’s no downside to being an empowered patient, medically speaking. Cancer is one of the most disempowering things that can happen to someone but it doesn’t have to be. Approaching your health, your treatment from a metabolic standpoint means taking charge of your body, your garden, your life. And this can be very empowering, creating a better quality of life, during and beyond treatment. There is no downside.