Alternatives to radiation and chemotherapy for cancer patients

First it is important to note that the information presented here should not be construed as professional medical advice. You should follow your doctor’s recommendations. For many people radiation and/or chemotherapy are indispensable and the only alternative is death.

If you are currently undergoing either radiation or chemo regimens follow your doctor’s instructions carefully. For instance it is dangerous and counter-productive to take Vitamin C while undergoing radiation. While it may be recommended otherwise you want the oxidizing radiation to do its work — thus antioxidants like C are a hindrance to this process in their way of gobbling up free radicals. Again, listen first to your doctor…

Now for our article…

On Cancer:

Most people have some cancer cells in their body. The reason we are unaware of this fact is that cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion in number. If your doctor were to treat you for cancer and then declare that you no longer had any cancer cells remaining, this declaration would likely indicate only that none remained above the threshold of detectability.

On the Immune System:

It is important to note that cancer cells will emerge between 6 and 10 times in the average person’s life. When the immune system is strong, however, in many cases the body can destroy cancer cells and prevent them from multiplying and forming tumors. Thus, when a person has cancer it can sometimes be an indicator of nutritional deficiencies of various sorts. These deficiencies can stem from genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors. In order to bolster the immune system and address such nutritional deficiencies, diet, exercise, and supplementation are essential (more on this later). This can help the body to fight cancer by itself.

On Chemotherapy:

Chemotherapy involves the poisoning of rapidly-growing (cancer) cells. This also destroys the body’s other rapidly growing cells, namely: bone marrow cells, the cells of the gastrointestinal tract, and many others. This form of treatment is also likely to damage vital organs: the liver, the kidneys, the heart, and the lungs.

On Radiation:

Radiation destroys cancer cells but it also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs – similar to chemotherapy but using different (electromagnetic) means.

Further Limitations of Traditional Cancer Treatments:

Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However, prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in greater reduction in or shrinkage of tumors.

When the body has accumulated too much toxic burden (or too much damage) from chemotherapy and radiation, the immune system can be said to be in a ‘compromised’ state. This exacerbates other health problems in general, of course, and makes you susceptible to a number of otherwise trivial infections and ailments.

At this point we are left with surgery – and while it is sometimes necessary and successful (just like the other traditional treatments), surgery in itself also poses the risk of spreading malignant cells to other sites in the body.

Back to Basics!

One effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells of vital nutrients.

What do cancer cells feed on?

Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar you cut off one of the most useful sources of energy to cancer cells. Note: Intake of artificial sweeteners can also be detrimental, especially those containing Aspartame. Avoid eating too many sweets.

Milk and dairy products cause the body to produce excess mucus, especially in the gastrointestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus and inflammation. Use milk substitutes to thwart cancer cells. Flax, soy, almond, rice, and oat milk are all good substitutes.

Acidic conditions in the body are a boon to cancer. One of the most acidic food types is meat. Avoid beef and pork if possible. Aim for lean meats from animals that are not given antibiotics, growth hormones, or genetically-modified foods to eat. Limiting meat intake is also beneficial in general insofar as it eases the burden on digestion and helps you avoid many of the parasites that come with meat (yes, even in this day and age!). Consider substituting meat with products derived from beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, and whole grains (more on healthy foods below).

Nourishing Yourself:

A diet comprised largely of fresh vegetables, whole grains, seeds, nuts, beans, lentils, and mushrooms helps create alkaline conditions in the body. All that fiber is really good for you. And you need all the macro, micro, and phyto-nutrients in these whole foods to get your body back into the ring, so to speak.

With the exception of the beans and lentils, the rawer the better – active, useful enzymes from whole foods are destroyed at temperatures greater than 104°F/40°C. To obtain such live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh, raw vegetable juice in the form of a smoothie. Consider including chlorella, spirulina, and bean sprouts – they’re great immune system boosters! Whole fruit can be very good too, but remember that you are trying to minimize sugar intake here.

Pure, filtered water, exercise, and plenty of sleep (in a dark room) are highly underrated in terms of the role they play in fighting cancer. Simply put you need all three in large quantities.

Try starting with daily walks, push-ups, and sit-ups. If you begin exercising more, you will also probably find yourself drinking more water naturally, and sleeping more deeply and easily as well. This is a positive feedback-loop, or perhaps we should call it a Synergistic Health-Boosting Vector Trajectory..! Ok, ok, let’s keep it simple then. How about “Nutrition, Exercise, Water, and Sleep”. It’s good NEWS – get it? Just give it some encouragement and you can let your body do its thing!

Other foods and forms of supplementation to consider:

• Garlic – The superfood to beat. Anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, etc. I take it chopped up (finely) and swallow the (raw) pieces with a big glass of water at the first sign of a cold.
• Turmeric – One of the best anti-inflammatory foods available. It adds nice flavors to food too.
• Melatonin – A natural hormone your body releases when you sleep (in dark spaces). Be careful to protect your personal stock of melatonin by turning off all screens that shine into your face (such as this one) 30 minutes before you go to sleep. Supplements come in 3mg doses generally. Melatonin effectively turns off cell division while you sleep as one of the key mechanisms of homeostasis (body maintenance) – this means cancer cells aren’t growing while you sleep!
• Vitamin C – General health booster extraordinaire!
• Vitamin D – The sun vitamin. Prevalent in oily fish. One of the only vitamins proven to help prevent disease through supplementation in pill form.
• B Vitamins – These perform a wide variety of roles in your body. B6 and B12 are particularly important to supplement in times of illness, but can be obtained through healthy, whole foods at adequate levels.

Fight the Holistic Fight:

Remember that cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Likewise, a prolonged angry and bitter response to illness may shorten your life.

Learn to relax, remember to breathe, and try to enjoy life to the fullest.

She is the Water Bear, the Moss Piglet. She survives 6,000 meters up in the Himalayas, and down 4,000 meters under water.

She is one tough extremophile.

Blam! ¡La Señorita Tardigrada!

 

From Wikipedia:

Tardigrades are able to survive in extreme environments that would kill almost any other animal. Some can survive temperatures of close to absolute zero, Kelvin (−273 °C (−459 °F)), temperatures as high as 151 °C (304 °F), 1,000 times more radiation than other animals, and almost a decade without water. Since 2007, tardigrades have also returned alive from studies in which they have been exposed to the vacuum of outer space for a few days in low earth orbit.

 

Gotta get focused.
Let’s just wait until there are 200 stumbles.
That will likely be during my next vacation (in the fall, if not the winter).

“Ciao, stumbleupon. Catch ya lata’!”

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The words of Max More are too well composed, too precise to emulate, so I have decided to provide a simple introduction and then let the rest speak for itself. The original, The Extropian Principles 3.o, is also to be found here on Max More’s own site.

Introduction

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The term ‘transhumanist’ comes with significant baggage concerning the ethics or unethical-ness of modifying the human body and mind — indeed this is one of the foundational principles in Extropianism/Transhumanism — that of ‘hacking’ and ‘modding’ our essence, so to speak. Neo-luddites site this and our oft-demonstrated inability to reign in progress before significant disruption of the biosphere occurs, just look at the recent BP oil spill, or Chernobyl, or Global Climate Change/Chaos, or the Pacific Plastic Swarm for examples. Neo-luddites in particular (in addition to many other concerned citizens) have a number of justifiably rational fears about new technologies and their implications, such as nanobots and the grey-goo scenario. But in the words of the great Isaac Asimov, “If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them”.

Transhumanism and Extropianism are, of course, centered on progress. And although progress can lead to its own fair share of problems, the goal in Extropianism/Transhumanism is also to discover innovative ways of preventing the kind of greed-fueled disasters for which science and capitalism are often blamed. So, let’s not oversimplify by saying that Neo-luddites are anti-progress and Extropians are pro-. I would like to argue that Extropians are neither extremist nor hyper-capitalist when it comes to progress, but that they take the long view on the development of civilization in general.

Transhumanism and Extropianism are philosophical frameworks that provide a rationale for expanding our knowledge of ourselves, our knowledge of the universe, and our ability to affect change in those two realms.

“No mysteries are sacrosanct, no limits unquestionable; the unknown will yield to the ingenious mind. We seek to understand the universe, not to tremble before mystery, as we continue to learn and grow and enjoy our lives ever more.”

To dig a little deeper, we can say that the Extropian’s work is to push the bounds of science and philosophy in attempts to improve not only the human situation and human conditions, but also our capacity to understand and innovate further. But this is nothing new; humans have been building up these capacities since before we diverged from other apes. Every survival-enhancing behavior and trait gained since that point has led us here: enhanced social skills, complex displays of emotions, tool use, language, agriculture, mathematics, writing… All these things have served to further and spread innovation in our species in a directional arrow of evolution. And what that arrow points to is, in fact, of the greatest concern to Extropians: the reduction of entropy to the greatest possible point — metaphorically that is; by way of increasing extropy (definitions below).

Were our species to die out, it is not certain that any others would come into our place as intelligent, tool-using, environment-manipulating mammals with a capacity for language and empathy. It is all these traits that have made our civilization possible, and to be fair, a bit unstable. The Extropian has considered many of the existential risks we face and seeks, to the greatest extent possible, to gather, maintain, and make permanent the genetic, cultural, philosophical, and technological innovations that have emerged on our planet. And the best way to do this is to continue to build upon what we have done, to reach past our limits and imagine even greater accomplishments and greater enlightenment, and more freedom and equality for everyone.

The meme thus comes off sounding quite naive and idealistic, at times with a libertarian/anti-authoritarian streak, and perhaps with the feel of a cult. But if anything, this is a cult dedicated to the intentional evolution of our species, in the best ways possible. And, as we will see, we have already been modifying ourselves significantly since the beginning of civilization. Books are a medium of information transfer that brought about significant innovation. Tools are a part of our heritage that pass themselves on through usefulness alone. Medicine is surely a ‘hack’ for our natural, biological operating systems, so to speak. And who is to say that we should abandon any of the more recent knowledge sharing engines like the internet, even if it creates new problems while solving older ones. What else can we expect but to be confronted with new limits when we break down the old? And that is precisely what Extropianism prepares us to expect. Entropy is a worthy adversary and, ultimately, our species is in a race against time. So without further ado, I present:

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THE EXTROPIAN PRINCIPLES — Version 3.0

A Transhumanist Declaration, ©1998. By Max More.

EXTROPY — the extent of a system’s intelligence, information, order, vitality, and capacity for improvement.
EXTROPIANS — those who seek to increase extropy.
EXTROPIANISM — the evolving transhumanist philosophy of extropy.

Extropianism is a transhumanist philosophy. The Extropian Principles define a specific version or “brand” of transhumanist thinking. Like humanists, transhumanists favor reason, progress, and values centered on our well being rather than on an external religious authority. Transhumanists take humanism further by challenging human limits by means of science and technology combined with critical and creative thinking. We challenge the inevitability of aging and death, and we seek continuing enhancements to our intellectual abilities, our physical capacities, and our emotional development. We see humanity as a transitory stage in the evolutionary development of intelligence. We advocate using science to accelerate our move from human to a transhuman or posthuman condition. As physicist Freeman Dyson has said: “Humanity looks to me like a magnificent beginning but not the final word.”

These Principles are not presented as absolute truths or universal values. The Principles codify and express those attitudes and approaches affirmed by those who describe themselves as “Extropian”. Extropian thinking offers a basic framework for thinking about the human condition. This document deliberately does not specify particular beliefs, technologies, or conclusions. These Principles merely define an evolving framework for approaching life in a rational, effective manner unencumbered by dogmas that cannot survive scientific or philosophical criticism. Like humanists we affirm an empowering, rational view of life, yet seek to avoid dogmatic beliefs of any kind. The Extropian philosophy embodies an inspiring and uplifting view of life while remaining open to revision according to science, reason, and the boundless search for improvement.

1. Perpetual Progress — Seeking more intelligence, wisdom, and effectiveness, an indefinite lifespan, and the removal of political, cultural, biological, and psychological limits to self-actualization and self-realization. Perpetually overcoming constraints on our progress and possibilities. Expanding into the universe and advancing without end.

2. Self-Transformation — Affirming continual moral, intellectual, and physical self-improvement, through critical and creative thinking, personal responsibility, and experimentation. Seeking biological and neurological augmentation along with emotional and psychological refinement.

3. Practical Optimism — Fueling action with positive expectations. Adopting a rational, action-based optimism, in place of both blind faith and stagnant pessimism.

4. Intelligent Technology — Applying science and technology creatively to transcend “natural” limits imposed by our biological heritage, culture, and environment. Seeing technology not as an end in itself but as an effective means towards the improvement of life.

5. Open Society — Supporting social orders that foster freedom of speech, freedom of action, and experimentation. Opposing authoritarian social control and favoring the rule of law and decentralization of power. Preferring bargaining over battling, and exchange over compulsion. Openness to improvement rather than a static utopia.

6. Self-Direction — Seeking independent thinking, individual freedom, personal responsibility, self-direction, self-esteem, and respect for others.

7. Rational Thinking — Favoring reason over blind faith and questioning over dogma. Remaining open to challenges to our beliefs and practices in pursuit of perpetual improvement. Welcoming criticism of our existing beliefs while being open to new ideas.

1. PERPETUAL PROGRESS

Extropians seek continual improvement in ourselves, our cultures, and our environments. We seek to improve ourselves physically, intellectually, and psychologically. We value the perpetual pursuit of knowledge and understanding. Extropians question traditional assertions that we should leave human nature fundamentally unchanged in order to conform to “God’s will” or to what is considered “natural”. Like our intellectual cousins, the humanists, we seek continued progress in all directions. We go beyond many humanists in proposed fundamental alterations in human nature in pursuit of these improvements. We question traditional, biological, genetic, and intellectual constraints on our progress and possibility.

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An epic story about meeting god on a train.
Written by Harry Stottle @ fullmoon.nu

Talking to God

I met god the other day.

I know what you’re thinking. How the hell did you know it was god?

Well, I’ll explain as we go along, but basically he convinced me by having all, and I do mean ALL, the answers. Every question I flung at him he batted back with a plausible and satisfactory answer. In the end, it was easier to accept that he was god than otherwise.

Which is odd, because I’m still an atheist and we even agree on that!

It all started on the 8.20 back from Paddington. Got myself a nice window seat, no screaming brats or drunken hooligans within earshot. Not even a mobile phone in sight. Sat down, reading the paper and in he walks.

What did he look like?

Well not what you might have expected that’s for sure. He was about 30, wearing a pair of jeans and a “hobgoblin” tee shirt. Definitely casual. Looked like he could have been a social worker or perhaps a programmer like myself.

‘Anyone sitting here?’ he said.

‘Help yourself’ I replied.

Sits down, relaxes, I ignore and back to the correspondence on genetic foods entering the food chain…

Train pulls out and a few minutes later he speaks.

‘Can I ask you a question?’

Fighting to restrain my left eyebrow I replied ‘Yes’ in a tone which was intended to convey that I might not mind one question, and possibly a supplementary, but I really wasn’t in the mood for a conversation. ..

‘Why don’t you believe in god?’

The Bastard!

I love this kind of conversation and can rabbit on for hours about the nonsense of theist beliefs. But I have to be in the mood! It’s like when a jehova’s witness knocks on your door 20 minutes before you’re due to have a wisdom tooth pulled. Much as you’d really love to stay… You can’t even begin the fun. And I knew, if I gave my standard reply we’d still be arguing when we got to Cardiff. I just wasn’t in the mood. I needed to fend him off.

But then I thought ‘Odd! How is this perfect stranger so obviously confident – and correct – about my atheism?’ If I’d been driving my car, it wouldn’t have been such a mystery. I’ve got the Darwin fish on the back of mine – the antidote to that twee christian fish you see all over. So anyone spotting that and understanding it would have been in a position to guess my beliefs. But I was on a train and not even wearing my Darwin “Evolve” tshirt that day. And ‘The Independent’ isn’t a registered flag for card carrying atheists, so what, I wondered, had given the game away.

‘What makes you so certain that I don’t?’

‘Because’, he said, ‘ I am god – and you are not afraid of me’

You’ll have to take my word for it of course, but there are ways you can deliver a line like that – most of which would render the speaker a candidate for an institution, or at least prozac. Some of which could be construed as mildly amusing.

Conveying it as “indifferent fact” is a difficult task but that’s exactly how it came across. Nothing in his tone or attitude struck me as even mildly out of place with that statement. He said it because he believed it and his rationality did not appear to be drug induced or the result of a mental breakdown.

‘And why should I believe that?’

‘Well’ he said, ‘why don’t you ask me a few questions. Anything you like, and see if the answers satisfy your sceptical mind?’

This is going to be a short conversation after all, I thought.

‘Who am I?’

‘Stottle. Harry Stottle, born August 10 1947, Bristol, England. Father Paul, Mother Mary. Educated Duke of Yorks Royal Military School 1960 67, Sandhurst and Oxford, PhD in Exobiology, failed rock singer, full time trade union activist for 10 years, latterly self employed computer programmer, web author and aspiring philosopher. Married to Michelle, American citizen, two children by a previous marriage. You’re returning home after what seems to have been a successful meeting with an investor interested in your proposed product tracking anti-forgery software and protocol and you ate a full english breakfast at the hotel this morning except that, as usual, you asked them to hold the revolting english sausages and give you some extra bacon. ‘

He paused

‘You’re not convinced. Hmmm… what would it take to convince you?’

‘oh right! Your most secret password and its association’

A serious hacker might be able to obtain the password, but no one else and I mean

NO ONE

knows its association.

He did.

Read the rest of this entry »

99% do, 1% don’t.
Do now.
Just stretch one percent of the time.
Philosophy is a way out of anxiety.
Don’t just theorize, though.
You’ve got to act.
And perfect philosophy,
is like meditation
for the anxious mind.
Lower the blood pressure
by refining your philosophy,
but take it one step at a time.
Anything worth doing,
is worth the time it takes to do it.

From Nick Lepard, November 2008 (website)

“In my most recent work I explore notions of singularity, concepts of time and patterns of change.

Today, modernity requires that each of us navigate a blizzard of information. How this maelstrom of data is interpreted and synthesized constructs an individual’s paradigm. However, the qualities of the data are subject to a Catch-22: while the data works to describe an individual’s paradigm, an individual’s paradigm likewise works to describe the data.

With so much accessible information, yet so little certainty, are our interpretations of the world more complex or confused, more varied or more refined? Is the course of progress more accessible, or more elusive?”

Telefire, by Nick Lepard

“The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

FUTURE-WISE

As we saw in Minus One, the future can be a very shocking proposition when it is extrapolated far out enough. But we all have to deal with the day-to-day just like anyone else. This, I believe, is why stuff like the iPad and it’s raved successors won’t be progressively more exciting, but less — these things won’t noticeably change our lives while the pace of innovation is so high (not that the iPad is the best representation of innovation, of course).

NOW-WISE

I just hope we can hang on if things really do get fast, like the futurists believe will happen. Say, if we have a computer that can improve itself, jump to the next generation in a year, and keep pace. If one existed, and many attempts (and approximations) are underway, then the second generation computer could spawn a third in six months. Continue this trend and by the tenth generation (around two years from initial boot-up), the thing is up to one-new-generation a day and greater. Can we even prepare for this? (Is there a possible answer here, at the Singularity University?)

THE PROGRESSION OF THE GENERATIONS

1. One year until generation two.
2. Six months until generation three.
3. Three months until generation four.
4. 45 days
5. 22 days until a great great grandchild is born.
6. 11.3 days until generation seven.
7. 5.6 days
8. 2.8 days until generation nine.
9. 1.4 days
10. Now it’s only 17 hours until generation 11, and it’s been roughly two years.

BUT WHAT WILL IT MEAN?

Say the first generation from above is a human-level intelligence. Just humor me. If we could, let’s also assume a doubling time of one year initially. We get to 1000 times human capacity after around 623 days, or 1.7 years. We just can’t imagine what an intelligence of 1000 times the human capacity would do, nor can we easily grasp how swiftly it would continue to evolve.

This is the essence of the singularity — not even being able to guess at what’s next when we’ve got relentlessly evolving intelligences around. Pretty vaguely, this seems to be telling us this: In the future, we are nearly equally as likely to be shocked because of our ignorance as we are to be apathetic from seeing too much change in too short a span. Indeed, these are some strange times, and the future isn’t even here yet…

SO UNTIL THEN, I SAY, EVERY DAY IS EXACTLY THE SAME

Something I felt to be perfect for these curiously-lagging-times: