DR MIKE BRADA Icon's Icon in Radiotherapy

iconEVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW TO HELP YOU B EAT CANCER integrated cancer and oncology news

February 2004 Volume 2 Issue 8

Exclusive interview: DR MIKE BRADA Icon’s icon in radiotherapy

SEEING OFF EYE CANCER Bernie Greener’s inspiring story

FERTILITY AFTER CANCER Part I of a vital report

ZAPPING Can it cure cancer?

IT’S ONLY NATURAL Vitamin D and Ellagic Acid

BREAST CANCER The importance of Only available on subscription early diagnosis ALL PROCEEDS TO CHARITY icon icon A magazine from Health Issues Limited.

contents Registered in the UK 4 (Reg. No. 4405117)

EDITOR: Maggie Goodman EYE CANCER LIVING PROOF The Facts EDITORIAL TEAM: Melanie Hart 7 Bernie Greener and Madeleine Kingsley tells how he saw off ART DIRECTOR: Jeremy Baker NOTICEBOARD eye cancer PUBLISHING TEAM: News and Chris Woollams & Lindsey Fealey 8 views Ask Nurse Patricia icon OUR INTEGRATIVE NURSE 9 is only available on annual ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS subscription. All proceeds go to our charity Cancer ACTIVE

For more information please 10 contact us as follows: 12 Write to us at LET'S BE COMPLEMENTARY Can you zapthose icon, The Elms, Radclive Road CENTREFOLD PIN-UP Gawcott, Buckingham MK18 4JB cancer cells? Things to ask your Email us on doctor before [email protected] radiotherapy Fax us on 01280 824655 14 Telephone us on 01280 815166 Visit our website: MAINFEATURE 18 www.iconmag.co.uk Dr Mike Brada, icon’s We would like to thank all doctors, nurses, health workers icon in radiotherapy SPECIAL REPORT and practitioners who made this Cancer and fertility, issue of icon possible IT'S ONLY NATURAL Part one of a two 20 Vitamin D and Every article and photograph printed in part investigation this magazine is the copyright of Health Ellagic acid Issues Ltd. and may not be reproduced without prior permission.

IMPORTANT NOTICE IN NEXT MONTH'S ISSUE While every attempt has been made to ensure accuracy, neither the magazine, its G icon’s icon: Tony staff, nor publishers accept any responsibility for errors, omissions or Howell, the UK’s first 22 consequences. Professor of Cancer Cancer is a very serious and very individual disease and readers must consult with Prevention CANCER WATCH experts in the appropriate medical field Formaldehyde and leukaemia before taking any action or refraining G Living Proof: overcoming Can ginger prevent cancer? from any action. Update on deodorants The content of this magazine is in no way childhood leukaemia intended to be a substitute for any treatment recommended by a qualified medical practitioner or cancer specialist. G It’s only natural: all HOT GOSSIP Printed by: Northward Press, about zinc 24 Catching upon nutrition in schools Ball Moor, Buckingham Industrial Park Buckingham MK18 1RT EDITORIAL i con 3 Onwardicon and Upwards

e’re proud this month to be publishing a Because we try to be a truly open-minded magazine, rare interview with the Royal Marsden’s Dr we are happy to publish an article in our Let’s be WBrada - icon’s icon in radiotherapy - he’s Complementary slot about Zapping. It’s an usually much too busy researching or dealing with unorthodox and highly experimental treatment patients to talk to people like us! Mike Brada is a which has caused much controversy, and claims and brilliant scientist, working in the traditions of Marie counter-claims have been made about it. But none of Curie to push back the barriers in the battle against that means it won’t work! cancer. I found this article most cheering. Dr Brada is a modest man but you can tell from his comments As our writer Ginny Fraser maintains, it’s not likely to how much progress has been made via radiotherapy, do you any harm, and some people have reported not only in prolonging life but also in eliminating major successes. Who knows, in ten years time, it side effects and in improved patient care during the might be the treatment of choice for some kinds of twenty years he has worked at the Marsden. tumour. Anyway, our volunteer is testing one of the machines and we’ll give you a follow-up in about More good news is reflected in our report about three months. cancer and fertility. There was a time when people with life-threatening illnesses dared only to think inally a big thank you. We’ve had lots of emails, about survival. Now, when prospects of recovery are letters, subscription renewals and telephone so much better, patients have the “luxury” , as writer Fmessages with a postscript wishing us well in the Madeleine Kingsley describes it ,of being able to plan new year and thanking us for the magazine and for beyond the treatment to a time when they may be Chris‘s books. This kind of feedback means a lot to us able to bring up a normal family. And improvements and we are grateful to you all. Don’t stop writing. are happening all the time. Next month in Part 11 we’ll be featuring some of the women (and men) Have a brilliant February and keep taking the cod who have been able to defy the odds. liver oil (see Page 20). Maggie Goodman An update on CancerACTIVE

The lengthy process of registering our new charity is Finally we have received a great presentation on how now in its final stages. The documentation has been to run a successful charity with some fantastic ideas on with the Charities Commission since before Christmas logos and branding. You will be impressed! and we have our fingers crossed that any day now we will be officially a registered charity. So in case you aren’t aware cancerACTIVE is a charity with four main objectives: However, we haven’t been just sitting here waiting for the official go-ahead. G TO PROVIDE UP TO DATE INFORMATION FOR We needed a minimum of a thousand pounds in the EVERYONE “TOUCHED BY CANCER”. bank before attempting registration and thanks to G TO PROVIDE PERSONAL CANCER “ADVOCATES” WHO one particularly generous donation we achieved that WILL GIVE ADVICE ON INTEGRATED CANCER first goal very quickly. Our thanks to that person and TREATMENTS, COUNSELLING AND INFORMATION FROM their family and to all of those who have contributed THE POINT OF DIAGNOSIS FOR AS LONG AS REQUIRED. to date. G TO PROVIDE ADVOCACY AND EDUCATION ON THE A plan of forthcoming fund-raising activities is well PREVENTION OF CANCER. underway and any ideas or suggestions that you have G TO CARRY OUT AND PUBLISH SCIENTIFICALLY will be most welcome. We have received a number of RIGOROUS RESEARCH INTO INTEGRATED CANCER calls and correspondence from potential cancer TREATMENTS. “Advocates” and are planning ways to get people on board and trained as quickly as possible. The same Please call Lindsey at the icon office (01280 815166) goes for “Activists”– more to follow on both of these for more information or to volunteer in any capacity. shortly. And plans are well underway with the We look forward to hearing from you. programme of prevention in schools. i con 4 LIVING PROOF

SEEING OFF EYE CANCER “If I can do all this, anyone can!” LIVING PROOF i con 5

ernie Greener is a remarkable man, although three consultants, but was nipped my ear, and I heard modesty would prevent him from ever told they would get another, myself say, ‘I want my cancer Dr Woods, back from his and my left eye taken away’. Bdescribing himself as such. At 53, the father holiday to see me urgently It might not sound much, but of three, from Sunderland, has just been the following week, as he it was the hardest thing I’ve promoted to foreman at one of the North East’s was the person who had to ever done in my life. I didn’t busiest shipyards. Climbing 60ft ladders to tell me what I had. Before I cry, because I was numb, but left I asked one of the the tears were there. I balance on scaffolding is no mean feat for anyone consultants to tell me what found out much later that - but for a man who lost his left eye to cancer just they’d found. He said, ‘What Linda and the family had over three years ago, and had to learn to walk all do you think?’ I said, ‘I’ve planned a surprise 50th over again, it is a tremendous achievement. got cancer haven’t I?’ He birthday party for me that asked me why I’d said that, night, but it was all quietly and when I said it was a cancelled. Bernie’s courage and determination has also led feeling I had he wasn’t to him launching and running a charitable support allowed to confirm it. He nstead we went home and trust, Eye Believe, to help others with his just said, ‘When you see Dr I tried to tell the kids condition. As he prepares for a busy 2004, and Woods next week your life I(Daniel, Stephanie and will change drastically.’ looks forward to a special personal milestone in Luke, now 21, 16 and 15) what was going to happen his marriage to Linda - their silver wedding So before Dr Woods gave me in a way that wouldn’t make anniversary in March - Bernie found time to tell those two options, I’d them frightened of going to icon his inspiring story. already made up my mind the opticians or having that I would have the check-ups in the future. “I saw Dr Woods at the amount of pain there, but Sunderland Eye Infirmary on I’ve been a plater for more October 9 2000. When I told than 30 years and there’s him it was my 50th birthday always pain somewhere he said, ‘Unfortunately, I doing that work, so I just put don’t think you’re going to it down to the pressure of get a birthday present in working long hours away here.’ He was right. I’d from home. When I went already had lots of tests, but home for my weekend leave, after doing more he told me at the end of my first month, that I had two cancers in my I didn’t notice the left eye. One a corneal kaleidoscope effect at all. malignant melanoma, which Now I think that was was ‘detaching my retina because our bedroom is too and would make me blind’, light, because as soon as I and another ‘floating’ got back to Holland it malignant melanoma which started again. At the time I attacks organs. just put it down to strain - until it got worse in ‘How many options do you September. think you have?’ he asked BERNIE WITH WIFE LINDA me. I said I liked to think I hen the job cancers, and my eye, taken had two, including keeping finished in October I didn’t have my operation away. I wasn’t going to have my eye, but he told me that we all got paid off straight away because a W any radiotherapy. Radiation that wasn’t one of them. I and, as I was on the dole, I blood test at the Sunderland is used all the time at work could either have had time to see my optician. General, showed an and I knew it most often radiotherapy first before I’ve been going to him for abnormality on my liver. I damages the good things in removing my eye, or just go years, so knew something was told that if the cancer your body as well as the bad. straight for the operation. I was drastically wrong when had spread to my liver there I’d already told my family felt numb. I’d only gone he kept me there for an hour was no point doing the eye and friends what I would do, along to my optician the doing various tests. When operation as I only had a but when it came to saying it week before to have a he’d finally finished he said, maximum of 10 months to out loud, which I was asked check-up, after spending ‘Mr Greener, you need to go live. I was given another to do (I think for legal three months working in to the Sunderland Eye scan and had to wait 10 days reasons), that’s when it really Holland. I had been staying Infirmary straight away. I’ll for the full results. The hit me that it was actually in a room on my own there order you a taxi, and pay for worst was already in my going to happen. I started and woke up every morning it, because I don’t want you head, so I didn’t worry. I to go cold from my toes in total darkness to get going on the bus.’ He said didn’t get much sleep, right up to my mouth… ready for work. It was so he wasn’t allowed to tell me though, during that time dark that I noticed a what was wrong, but as soon because I spent it planning kaleidoscope effect in my as he said that I knew I was y wife started crying the next six months in my left eye when I first opened going to lose my eyesight. I and Carol head. I wish I’d written it all it. When I sat up in bed the called my wife, Linda, at MWeatherstone, the down! I wanted to make vision in that eye seemed to work, and she came and nurse who is designated to things as comfortable as I split in half, but when I put drove me to the infirmary, me for life, jumped up, could for my family, and was the light on everything was where I went in and out of when she saw I couldn’t planning things like how to fine. There was a small rooms having tests. I saw speak, came over to me and get extra money for them L i con 6 LIVING PROOF

Shipyard called to see how I BERNIE’S CHILDREN, DANIEL, was and to say he had a job STEPHANIE AND LUKE for me. I didn’t want to go back on the tools side, with all the grinding and welding, because, although the cause of my cancer is unknown, I’m sure it was through getting weld flashes and dust in my eyes over 30-odd years. The manager offered me a job where I would stay on the ground calculating the weight going on and off the vessel. Later a jobcame up building two ships for the MOD. I was put in charge of progress reports, and had to go on board all units. I said I’d have a go, and walked for after I’d gone. I even I ever felt was when I I still did daft things, though, straight over to a 60ft ladder thought about showing opened my eye after they like leaving the grill open and onto the scaffolding. It them how to turn the water took the patch off. It had and the left-hand gas hobs was like I had never been off in the house, and how to been shut for so long that on, and Linda had to come away. do all the jobs I normally did. the pain was horrendous. along behind me turning It was quite a nice feeling They gave me painkillers, things off. Losing sight in that I had the time to put which I took for a day and that eye, after 50 years, took hat I found difficult, things in order for them. At then just got on with things. time to adjust to and Linda in the early stages, the end of the 10 days, They are amazing people at watched me during that Wwas that because though, I still had more to the Eye Infirmary. They treat period. My son Daniel also eye cancer is so rare there was plan, but when I went back you so well it’s not like being helped, because as soon as I no one to see or talk to about to the hospital to get my in a hospital. was well enough to go out it. That was quite frightening results the lady consultant he came to a football match for me, because nurses, doctors and surgeons only do said there was nothing on nce the patch was off with me. We went early so their jobs and you’re only a my liver and I had the all- I had to wait about that we could walk against number in hospital. Almost as clear to have my eye two weeks, for the the crowds. I knew I had to O soon as I’d had the operation I operation. I was on cloud swelling and discolouration get used to walking around decided I wanted to make sure nine! to go away, before a with people, and the longer I there was somewhere people temporary eye was fitted. put it off the harder it would could go so that they didn’t go had the two-hour eye Although the former didn’t be, so Daniel walked on my through what I had. I operation during the first look too bad, in the blind side. The next time I mentioned it to Mike Walls, week of November 2000. meantime, the children were did it on my own, and I kept I who is now co-ordinator for Miss Chapman removed my a bit upset to see me on until I got better and cancer groups in this area, eye and put a tiny piece of because I wasn’t a bonny better. It was amazing what when I went along to one of man-made coral in the back sight! But I kept telling walking against people did his meetings. This group was of the socket. She attached them it wouldn’t be for long for me. for all kinds of the most the six muscles of the eye to and after about three common cancers, and Mike the coral, pulled the back of months my false eye was hat first six months at suggested I form my own the eye over to cover it and ready. The specialist had home was very hard on group for people with eye then put in a semi-circular made a cast, marking where Linda, because the T cancer. And that’s what I did, plastic former to keep the my pupil was going to be so shock and trauma affected with help from Linda, the Eye shape of my eye. I was told that it matched my other eye me badly. When I was Infirmary and some advice that all the muscles grow on in position as well as getting down, and thinking I from national support group the coral. This keeps them greeny/brown colour. wasn’t getting any better at One Vision (which is for alive so that when the I didn’t go anywhere during managing with one eye, she anyone who has lost sight in artificial eye is inserted the my first two weeks back would say that I was doing one eye). The Eye Believe muscles move as before, and home. It was like living in a alright. Then I worried Support Trust had its first your plastic eye moves like a dream. I forgot about a lot about not getting a job and meeting in July 2002, and real one. It’s amazing. of things and time wasn’t us having to sell the house there were only four or five Someone sitting next to me registering. I was trying to we’d worked so hard for – of us there. Two months later wouldn’t know it wasn’t real. get used to walking again, that would have been like 20 turned up, and we have with one eye, and kept chopping off both legs as 50 members now and have I stayed in hospital for two knocking myself because I well as taking my eye. I been a registered charity for days with a very tight patch was going too fast, trying to don’t think I’d be working six months. My ambition is to on my eye, to keep the be what I was before. again now if it hadn’t been expand the charity and swelling down. Then I was Because I’ve always been for the support Linda gave organise fundraising so that allowed home, but had to go safe at work, and done fire me. I soon realised that I we can build an extension to back in for another week’s fighting safety courses when had to be positive, even the Sunderland Eye Infirmary rest to heal the wound I was working offshore, what though it was hard. to enable more eye patients because it started bleeding I should and shouldn’t be to be treated there. after I began to do too much doing was always in the back After six months, one of the at home. The only real pain of my mind. managers at Swan Hunter’s LIVING PROOF i con 7

I also want to do more to o think that I was going away. We have never lost an eye, I would never help One Vision. At the planning my last six been on holiday just the two have believed it. I wouldn’t moment I talk to about six Tmonths, and I’ve been of us, in 21 years, so I want be without any of it now people, who’ve had similar clear now for more than three to thank her for all the because I love helping experiences to me, on the years…although they never support she’s given me and people. It feels great.” phone every fortnight. I say that the floating take her away for a week to explain what they can expect melanoma is really gone. I go celebrate our 25th wedding (Bernie Greener talked to from the operation and how for check-ups every six months anniversary. Melanie Hart) to cope afterwards. I tell and feel brilliant right now – To find out more about them that I’m 53 and back in as fit as a fiddle. It feels f someone had told me donating to Eye Believe, or the shipyards climbing amazing to be alive and doing three years ago that not for helpful advice, call Bernie around scaffolding, in and so much. I had the surprise Ionly would I be working in Greener on 0191 5492651 or out of tanks, up a height - birthday party, I missed on my the environment I’ve gone 07932 773222. things which most people 50th, for my 53rd last year back to, but that I’d be The charity’s website is with two eyes don’t even do instead and 200 people came promoted to foreman in currently under construction. – and I say that if I can do along, which was great. This charge of 16 platers; and that I that they can do the things year Linda and I are talking would have started a charity One Vision can be contacted they want to. about going away. We have to support people who had on01604 716044.

Ocular Melanoma. The facts.

elanoma of the eye (ocular hospital stay, during which a radioactive melanoma) is a rare cancer. There source (plaque) is placed close to the Mare no accurate figures on how tumour in the eye under general many people are affected by it a year in anaesthetic. Another operation to remove the UK. Melanoma is a cancer that it is carried out after the treatment. develops from cells called melanocytes. These cells produce melanin, the dark- Transpupillary thermotherapy (TTT) coloured pigment which is responsible for This can be used to treat very small ocular the colour of our skin. Melanocytes are melanomas, or as a further treatment found in many places in our body after radiotherapy. The tumour is heated including the eye. with a special type of laser beam. Cancer cells are more susceptible to heat than Ocular melanoma can develop in one of normal cells. Several treatments are several places within the eye. The most normally needed. common is along the uveal tract of the Treatment Surgery eye (uveal melanoma), which includes the A number of different treatments can be It may be possible to remove the tumour choroid, ciliary body and iris. The choroid used, depending on the size, cell type and without needing to remove the eye, but if is part of the lining of the eyeball. position of the tumour - as well as the the cancer is growing rapidly or is large or general health and age of the patient, painful, enucleation (removal of the The ciliary body extends from the choroid and the level of vision in both eyes . The eyeball) may be the most appropriate and focuses the eye by changing the aim is to destroy the cancer cells, stop the treatment. A lot of discussion takes place shape of the lens. The iris is the coloured cancer coming back and save as much with the doctors involved before the disc at the front of the eye, which controls vision as possible. decision to go ahead is taken. Artificial the amount of light entering the eye. All eyes can be made to match your these structures are heavily coloured with Radiotherapy remaining eye, and an implant inserted to melanin. Melanoma can also occur in the High-energy rays are used to destroy the make the artificial eye move realistically. thin lining over the white part of the eye cancer cells. Radiotherapy may be given (the conjunctiva) or on the eyelid, but this either from outside the body or within. It Follow-up is very rare. may be the only treatment, or it may After all your treatment, you will have follow surgery. Recent developments in regular check-ups and possible scans or X- The cause of this kind of tumour is radiotherapy have made it possible to rays, which will probably continue for unknown. However, we do know that completely or partially preserve the several years. If you notice any new exposure to UV rays (either from the sun or patient’s vision. symptoms between times, let your doctor sunbeds) increases the risk of developing know as soon as possible. melanoma of the skin. People whose skin External radiotherapy burns easily (those with fair or red hair and A beam of radiation is directed to the Research blue eyes) are most at risk. However, it is area of the tumour, normally in small Research into treatments for ocular not yet known whether there is any link doses over afew days. A Cyclotron is a melanoma is ongoing and advances are between UV ray exposure and the radiotherapy machine specifically used to being made. The Ocular Oncology development of melanoma of the eye. treat eye tumours. It directs a proton Service, within St Paul’s Eye Unit in radiation beam precisely at the affected Liverpool is one of only three specialist Signs and symptoms area, causing as little radiation exposure centres in the UK carrying out research These include blurred vision, flashing as possible to the surrounding healthy eye into uveal melanomas. These tumours can lights, shadows and misting of the lens of tissue. A minor operation is carried out metastasise, particularly to the liver, so the eye (cataract). Often no symptoms before the treatment to attach small tags regular CT scans of the liver are are noticed until the tumour is quite to parts of the eye. These act as markers important. large. All of these symptoms can be a for the radiation beam. More information about melanoma of sign of other eye conditions, but normally the eye (ocular melanoma) and an eye specialist can diagnose these Internal radiotherapy malignant melanoma is available tumours quite simply and painlessly. This treatment normally involves a week’s from CancerBACUP. i con 8 NOTICEBOARD - LETTERS, NEWS AND VIEWS

B IKE WEEK PARTNER RESEAR S WITH LE CH UKAEMIA I read your piece in Cancer Watch on “early diagnosis Th icon e UK’s ann vital in lung cancer” (Dec ) with interest. ual celebra has chosen tion of cyc Macmillan Cancer Relief and the Roy Castle Lung Cancer the Leuk ling, Bike W nation aemia Rese eek, Foundation decided to work again in partnership to al charity p arch Fund cyc artner for as its ling events 2004. Mo promote the message “early diagnosis saves lives”. will be pr re than 1,5 many for n omoted be 00 ovices, fam tween 12-2 Event o ilies and o 0 June, Sadly, lung cancer is the UK’s biggest cancer killer with rganisers a ccasional for re being e cyclists. the charity ncourage over 94 people a day dying from the disease (Cancer which, si d to raise f cycle rides nce 1989 h unds Research UK). A major problem is that it is often to increas as successf of its v e donation ully used detected too late. But people are 40 times more likely ital researc s and raise h week. awareness to survive if the disease is detected early on. (The “ Leukaemia critical under provision of Thoracic Surgery in UK (Jan Research is explained a natural p 2001) Report: joint working group of British Thoracic national co artner for wanted -ordinato us,” Society and the Society of Cardiothoracic Surgeons of to link w r Nick Harv und ith a high- ey. We erstands h profile cha Great Britain and Ireland.) ow to turn rity that cyclists int the prove The materials we produced were intended to alert o effective n generos a great medical re ity of people at risk (smokers, ex-smokers, over 55s) to the way to ra search. Rid terr ise money ing a bike ible diseas for the fig is symptoms and encourage them to see their GP. The e. Children ht against keep fit an and teena this campaign has been a great success with excellent d healthy b agers can shops o y regularl also feedback from patients and healthcare professionals r just for f y cycling to un.” school, to alike. Only by increasing awareness can we help to More informati stamp out this disease. on from 01 243 527444 NICOLA RYAN Macmillan Cancer Relief

I devour icon the moment it arrives, from cover to I read your take when New te double- olicy for a cover - what a brilliant magazine you have created! d a comple w Health P I di uary (A Ne about year And I have been tremendously helped by reading your fold in Jan in the bit centre tely taking asies or books. t immedia aving fant Year). No er I was h ou over red wheth d tipped y 4, I wonde rations ha g. 202 year celeb ful thinkin D EVERETT, LONDON W6 er the new as all wish se wheth overed it w our in the Then I disc nse of hum the top. till has a se someone s Thank God dark days. IL GE BY EMA ZABETH ED ar and say ELI a happy new ye h the i c o n team cult to I want to wis ine! It is so diffi onderful magaz anks for your w as everyone th ble information biased and relia bsolutely get un ing, so i c o n is a e selling someth oks and seems to b is Woollams’ bo ve also read Chr invaluable. I ha le. they are my bib IL SABINE BY EMA

All contribu tions and comm ents from reade With a mag rs will be most azine and a we welcome. “ever bsite, i c o n real ything you need ly does aim to p to know to hel rovide Addre p you beat canc ss details on ins er”. ide front cover. Subscribe to icon NOW! icon is a monthly magazine only available on annual subscription Ring 01280 815166 NOW to place your order! QUESTIONS & ANSWERS i con 9

My daughter has cancer, and is undergoing treatment. The hospital is looking after her Q fantastically, and we are very grateful. We have Ask nurse Patricia three other children under ten and I am concerned about how they are coping. Hospital visits and caring for our daughter take up most of our time, and I am becoming exhausted with trying to keep on top of everything. I feel guilty that they are getting little attention, and my husband and I find ourselves getting snappy with them when they demand it. What can I do?

When a child has cancer, many elements need to be addressed, both for yourself and other family A members; whether they are dealt with individually, or as a family depends upon the people involved. Obviously your primary focus is in caring for your sick child; this is your first and most overwhelming instinct, and a normal reaction to a crisis. However, the impact on each family member should not be underestimated, and developing suitable, ongoing support is something that should be attended to as soon as possible. I cannot cover this adequately here but the main points to pay attention to are: Patricia Peat is a registered nurse. Following years of Don’t try to do this without support, and professional help experience in oncology, combined with research into if it proves to be necessary; you are not alone and there natural approaches to cancer she now runs Cancer Options. are people who can help. Cancer Options consists of a specialised team of Ensure each family member has access to emotional practitioners who provide individual consultancy and support, whether it is through professional counselling, coaching regarding treatment, and helping patients to support groups, or peer groups. Your other children make decisions about all approaches to cancer. should have something they can access; whether they wish Details of their services are available on: to or not is up to them. Play therapy can be particularly www.canceroptions.co.uk or by calling 0845 009 2041 useful for the younger siblings. You also need care and support; the long-term stress this can bring is not easy for the hardiest of people. Try and plan time off and gaps in your schedule specifically for you to relax, and do something that does not involve caring I have a large liver tumour, which has spread, for your family. from my bowel, I asked my doctor about ablation therapy, but he said it wasn’t appropriate, is this Try to plan normal family activities if possible; your other Q right? children will need the reassurance that normal life can continue to some extent. There are several ways of ablating tumours in the There is financial help for the family to have a break, and liver; the most popular and effective at the also to help with any financial hardships this may be moment is by radio frequency ablation, which causing. You may also be able to get practical assistance A sends high frequency waves down the probe, with caring for the family; this does vary from area to which is put directly into the tumour. Other area. variations on a theme are to use ultrasound, cryotherapy (freezing), or less popular now, ethanol, which is a type of Your local hospital will be able to put you in touch with alcohol. local organisations. The hospital social worker will help with accessing financial and practical assistance. Some Generally, five centimemtres is the limit set for the size of national organisations, which may help, are: tumour which can be dealt with in this way. Surgery is National Holiday Fund for Sick and Disabled Children sometimes possible as the liver is divided into lobes, and PO Box 44, Belvedere, London DA 17 6WT can function quite well with some removed. It is worth 01341 280 486 pointing out though, that these techniques do not stop further metastases developing, which, as usual brings us Moonbeams Children’s Cancer Charity back to the metabolic approach of changing the 49/51 Montrose Terrace, Edinburgh EH7 5DJ environment in which it started in order to get the best 0131 478 7978 and most lasting result. www.moonbeams.co.uk

Rainbow Centre for Children Patricia Peat can be contacted on 01623 438733 27 Lilymead Avenue, Bristol BS4 2BY www.canceroptions.co.uk, 0117 9853343 or write to her at Ask Nurse Patricia, icon, There is much more to cover on this subject; support for The Elms, Radclive Road, Gawcott, Buckingham, MK18 4JB you all is vitally important - don’t be afraid to ask for help. or Email her on [email protected] i con 10 LET’S BE COMPLEMENTARY

ZAP THAT CANCER By Ginny Fraser

nyone takingchargeof dealing behind her work is that ALL cancers are resonance. This is what happens when with their cancer will have caused by a combination of two factors an opera singer hits a high note and a Aextensively explored the medical – first that everyone with cancer has glass shatters. The same thing happens treatments available. They will have parasites, particularly intestinal, liver when you rub a finger around the top read widely about diet, and made and pancreatic flukes and the common of a wine glass and it resonates. Just significant changes. They will probably roundworm. The second factor is the like the glass, all bacteria and have stopped usingtoxic substances – presence of solvents in the body pathogens have a frequency. Clark’s from cigarettes and sugar to certain (through pollution of the food chain). research claims “Any positive offset brands of bathroom cleaner. They will Different solvents accumulate (DC) frequency kills all bacteria, viruses be exercisingand takingsupplements. preferentially in different organs, and parasites simultaneously given It will feel like no stone has been left giving rise to different diseases. sufficient voltage (five to 10 volts), unturned. Isopropyl alcohol, for instance, duration (seven minutes) and frequency accumulates in the liver. Accordingto (anythingfrom 10 Hz to 500,000 Hz). A There is, however, a little-known area Clark, this results in the completion of treatment cycle of three blocks of seven that may provide another weapon in the life cycle of the fluke (fasciolopsis minutes, separated by 20-minute gaps is the cancer patient’s arsenal – electronic buskii) in the liver, which establishes the recommended. Clark recommends that medicine. malignant process. users zap daily for two to three weeks and then once weekly thereafter. It is The claims made about this technology lark claims that the removal of completely painless and most people are dramatic, with some of its solvents from the patient’s body don’t really feel much, although some proponents claimingyou can literally Cand environment plus the killing report a slight warming of the hands. ZAP your cancer into submission in the of the parasites and their larvae results There has been no rigorous research comfort of your own home, usinga in a “remarkable recovery”. The zapper done on the Clark approach and all the device called – and here is the technical is part of her regime to do this, as is an evidence is anecdotal. She claims to term – a zapper! extremely stringent detoxification have “cured” 100 people of cancer with regime that is almost impossible for her methods before she went public Parasites as the cause anyone not livingon top of a mountain with her theory, and over the past in New Zealand, and includes things fifteen years has treated over 2,000 Best-known proponent of the zapper is like getting rid of pets and removal of patients. American researcher, Hulda Clark, fillings and sometimes teeth. So the jury is still out on the efficiency author of the confidently titled The of the Clark zapper. However, for cure for all cancers. The basic principle The principle behind Clark’s zapper is anyone wantingto experiment, it is LET’S BE COMPLEMENTARY i con 11

relatively cheap and can be self- down growth rates of bacteria, yeasts technologies were basically lost to the assembled even more cheaply from the and moulds in the test tube compared world. He died in 1971 a broken man. instructions in her book. We doubt it with non-treated controls”. can harm, provided her instructions are Commercial Science’s research with the However, today there are a number of followed. Clark zapper did not appear to have people trying to re-create what Rife any effect, though the tests were done discovered, and Rife-inspired machines Less well-known is the Beck zapper. in vitro and Hyslop acknowledges that are available. One of the most The principle behind it was discovered in vivo results might be very different. respected of these is the Rife-Bare at the Albert Einstein College of It is recommended that for cancer, the machine developed by James Bare. This Medicine in New York in 1991. Beck zapper, which costs under a has been approved by Health Canada Researchers found that when the HIV hundred pounds to purchase, be used (the equivalent of the US’s FDA), but is virus was exposed to a small current it in conjunction with colloidal silver, not available in the US. lost its ability to infect white blood magnetic pulsing and ozonated water. The Rife-Bare machine uses a gas cells. The current damages the outside plasma tube to radiate energy to the of the micro-organisms making them Royal Rife patient. It looks a bit like a vertical weaker and more vulnerable to attack neon light tube. The patient must be by the body’s natural defence system. In another league altogether are the between six to twelve feet away from This is a different fundamental principle machines based around the technology the machine, and can quite happily do to the Clark machine. of Dr Royal Rife. The story of Rife and other activities while being “zapped”. his incredible scientific discoveries is Bare makes no claims for curing cancer, The electrodes of the Beck zapper are one surrounded by intrigue. and there is no quality research on its placed on the ankles, and the sensation effectiveness, but he cites plenty of feels a like an electrical thump orking in the US in 1931, Rife anecdotal evidence where it has been alternately at each ankle. The amount came to the attention of the effective with cancer. Rife’s original of power going into each electrode can Wscientific world with a machine was used with a 100% success be adjusted to suit you, and treatment microscope of extraordinary rate on trials with 16 patients with sessions are usually around an hour. It magnification and resolution. His advanced cancer. The Rife-Bare is recommended that you build up the breakthrough was well-documented in machine has also shown promising usage by 15 minutes a week for three the most prestigious scientific journals. results. A volunteer-based evaluation weeks until you reach one hour. Use In 1932, using his powerful microscope, programme has been running since the zapper then for another week at he saw a virus at the heart of every 1996, and volunteers have reported one hour per day; rest for one week solid tumour (which he called BX), and “reduction in the size of tumours, then zap every three weeks with the at the heart of every diffuse cancer reduction of pain and inflammation”. fourth week off. The reason for the (BY). He then identified a radio Again, not very scientific, but all the cautious approach is not that the frequency which destroyed only the results are viewable at zapper itself will cause any damage, but virus while he watched. Decades later www.resonantlight.com. to avoid the toxic overload that the this accomplishment remained zapped matter can cause to the liver unrivalled, and the supporters of Rife In England it is necessary to import a and kidneys. Two and a half litres of claim that there has been nothing to machine from Canada at a cost of water per day are recommended to touch his discoveries to this day. His around £2000, or make one yourself, assist in the flushing of the toxins. success with cancer patients lay in the based on James Bare’s detailed fact that his powerful microscope instructions (see his book, Resonant allowed him to work out very precisely eck makes very cautious claims FrequencyTherapy:Building the which frequencies killed the microbes about what his device can help Rife/Bare Beam RayDevice, available without damaging anything else. Bwith. He calls it simply a blood through www.rt66.com). purifier, but theoretically it can be By the mid-thirties work was in progress The field of electronic frequency beneficial in cancer, HIV and any other at the University of Southern California medicine is not new, but it is still systemic invaders in the blood. Unlike to bring Rife’s discoveries to the world. unproven. For those who want to other machines, however, it only works At the same time the American Medical explore all the options it certainly on the blood. Association had a strong focus of deserves a deeper investigation. As with opposition to “energy medicine”, and any treatment – conventional and In the UK, Chris Hyslop of Commercial was purportedly run by those who had alternative – check it out. The internet Science is enthusiastic about the Beck close connections with the allows us unprecedented access to machine, and sells both it and the Clark pharmaceutical industry. A series of information. An icon volunteer is also models. Formerly a microbiologist, investigations into Rife and his conducting an experiment with a Rife- Hyslop now works as a homeopath and technologies began and the story goes Bare machine on a user with thus has a keen interest in healing that the laboratory in New Jersey melanoma. Results will be measured by generally. His personal experience with where his investigations were being CT scan, and reported in three months the Beck machine is compelling. After checked was burned down. The full time. a fourteen-day bout of serious flu, he story of Dr Rife can be found in Barry had weeks of post-viral fatigue Lynes book, The Cancer Cure that syndrome that was proving impossible Worked. According to Lynes, writing in ver the coming months, we will to shift. Being involved in the California Sun, “The world was on be developing this whole theme complementary therapies he tried the verge of a medical-scientific Oof biophysics, energetic and fourteen different treatments to no revolution that, if it had taken place, electrical therapies with stories from avail. A friend lent him the Beck would have brought a totally different America to Russia in our series The machine, and overnight he had a huge kind of health practice and science to Coming Cancer Cure. Keep reading. improvement. “I felt like I’d been the human family.” switched back on,” he says. Tests done Clark and Beck zappers are available by Hyslop with the Beck machine The story continues with the mysterious from Commercial Science on showed that it “significantly slowed disappearance of records and Rife’s www.comsci.org.uk i con12 CENTREFOLD PIN-UP

adiotherapy uses in tumoursize or high-speed ionising c) anotheroutcome? radiation, similar to How long will the R treatment be? X-rays, to hit the DNA in Is it a one-off, ormight abnormal (cancerous) there be more? cells. If it hits the DNA Will you be an outpatient? when it is dividing, a nonsensical code sequence will be How often has the produced and the body’s 3 doctorpersonally natural defence system treated your type of will throw the rogue cells tumour, and what is his/her out. At least, that’s the success rate? How does that theory. Techniques are compare to the national being developed all the average? time to try to kill more of the cancerous cells and What otherorgans less of the surrounding 4 and tissues will good guys. The total receive radiation as dosage is very carefully well as the target area? calculated to do the most Will the beam be efficient and effective job, modulated to minimise so patients must go to damage? What are the every planned session. chances of it causing long- Radiotherapy’s term damage to affected effectiveness has to be organs? (In breast cancer balanced against the cases, sometimes up to 15 risks; there are recent percent of lung tissue is reports of new cancers permanently damaged in this way). 20 appearing later in life after radiotherapy treatments. Finally, What happens if remember, radiotherapy 5 there is no response? can go on working for up How common is that, to four to six weeks after and what is the the treatment has fallback plan? things you need stopped. What exactly are the Ask yourconsultant 6 side effects likely to 1 whetherhe/she be, and what really to know about considers there are are the chances of each active cancercells in the side effect? area, or is the radiotherapy a precautionary measure? radiotherapy Is this the optimum time Which supplements forthis treatment,or 7 would they would it be betterto hold recommend to: it in reserve? If you have radiotherapy now, can you G improve the success of have further treatment in the radiotherapy the future? Is it to be used as a cure or symptom G reduce side effects relief? (A lot less radiation is needed forsymptom G speed up recovery relief).

Selenium, soya What would the 8 isoflavones and 2 doctorconsiderto astragalus have been be a successful proven in various studies outcome at the end of the worldwide to make treatment a) no tumour radiotherapy more remaining, b) a reduction effective. CENTREFOLD PIN-UP i con 13

PRE-RADIOTHERAPY damaged cells, and L- DURING POST cysteine, which is RADIOTHERAPY RADIOTHERAPY particularly important in DNA repair. (and for 4-6 weeks afterwards) Keep all the above going and add back Keep on going to 19 Instead of taking the in the beta-carotene, 13 supplements, you 16 the cranial vitamin C, lycopene, co- can eat raw carrots, osteopath and/or enzyme Q10 and Cassie tea. asparagus, avocado and acupuncturist and cruciferous vegetables practising regular yoga and (broccoli, brussel sprouts, meditation, though you cabbage etc) which are will probably be too tired especially strong in to exercise fully. Stay out of Go to a cranial glutathione; and kelp, eggs bright sunshine, as 9 osteopath and/or and garlic for L-cysteine. radiotherapy can “burn” acupuncturist, as the skin. Wash the area soon as you find out you only in cold water and have cancer. They will apply cooling aloe vera gel. balance and strengthen your body energy systems. Take an organic iron Start a yoga course and supplement for the first learn to meditate. week to raise your blood count.

Take a good colloidal 10 multivitamin and To help regenerate Avoid animal fats, mineral supplement - 20 a healthy immune ideally one including some 14 saturated oils and system quickly, take dairy products, as iron and B complex, with at 1,500mgs of echinacea and cancer cells thrive on fats. least 400mcgs of folic acid. 1,000mgs of cat’s claw (uno Use soya instead and take Take beta-carotene (6mgs de gato) - the latter on an 3gms of soya lecithin a day, twice a day), vitamin C empty stomach - along which will help the liver (500mgs four times a day), with the 3,000mgs of break down the excess fats vitamin E (400 IU daily), astragalus. MGN-3 and lying there. Add 2gms of zinc (25mgs daily), selenium medicinal mushroom soya isoflavones a day, to (200mcgs daily), co-enzyme products are reported in help in all cases of Take all the Q10 (30mgs daily) and Japanese clinical trials to lycopene (10-20mgs daily). hormone-induced cancer 17 supplements except significantly reduce side (breast, prostate etc). beta-carotene, All of which will strengthen effects and improve vitamin C, lycopene, Cassie your immune system. effectiveness and survival tea and co-enzyme Q10 - rates. all of which might prevent Take 1,000mgs of the radiotherapy working 11 cod liver oil and two properly. garlic tablets a day, or eat lots of oily fish and Take carnitine (Italian raw garlic. Take 3,000mgs doctors have identified the of astragalus and drink cause of fatigue during Cassie tea (Essiac). Replace radiotherapy as low levels all chocolate, coffee and of carnitine circulating in tea drinks with green tea. the blood stream).

Drinking peppermint or Take an amino acid ginger tea or slippery elm 12 supplement powder dissolved with soya Please refer to Chris containing Detox. Buy a milk and hot water may Woollams’ new book ‘The glutamine (such as N-Acetyl 15 proprietary detox calm the stomach and help Tree Of Life - everything Cysteine). This stimulates and use it for at least with any nausea. you need to EAT to help the liver to produce four days to help clean the you beat cancer’, for more glutathione, which repairs liver. Drink up to three dietary information, and litres of glass bottled or Detox after three, the best-selling reverse-osmosis filtered 18 six and nine weeks, ‘Everything You Need To water a day to clear away if you feel up to it, Know To Help You Beat toxins and clean the liver, and continue drinking pure Cancer’ for more details on and take 200mgs of milk- water and avoiding fats radiotherapy and how to thistle to strengthen it. and oils. combat the side effects. i con 14 MAIN FEATURE

Dr. Mike Brada ICON’S ICON IN RADIOTHERAPY i con 16 MAIN FEATURE shaped tumours, which most if not all How many similar centres are Are there still worrying tumours are. We developed a way of treating them from multiple directions there now in the UK? side-effects to modern and – using very high precision CT and radiotherapy? MRI scan information in 3D – to “There are probably three in London conform the radiotherapy so that it and four or five in the rest of the UK. We’ve heard that some patients follows the shape of the individual We have become something of a get depressed and that a tumour. We also worked with a reference centre, setting up teaching neurosurgeon from the National programmes and courses on FSRT.” sizeable percentage fail to keep Hospital (now working in Bristol), Steve their full schedule of Gill, on developing a head frame that How do patients benefit? didn’t have to be fixed with screws, and appointments. was therefore removable and relocatable. It’s very simple, fixed to the “As non-invasive, out-patient “There’s no skin burning these days as head with straps and fitted by the treatment, FSRT has now become there used to be with treatment. High patient’s dental impression. We were in accepted as routine for a number of energy X-rays penetrate the superficial on the very early development of brain tumours – acoustic neuromas, skin layers and do no damage. I know fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy pituitary adenomas, no evidence that radiotherapy itself (FSRT) . Whereas other American and craniopharyngiomas, skull-based causes depression, though it can cause European centres bought their meningiomas. We can treat and cure profound tiredness, especially in people equipment at great expense when it such benign tumours in a safer and with gliomas, from which, even after became commercially available, we more localised way. Some other usually treatment, it takes a while to emerge. developed some of ours in-house and more malignant tumours can only be One of our research projects is devoted collaborated on the development with controlled for a period. At the most to working out exactly what determines the manufacturer so that it cost us aggressive end of the spectrum, this fatigue, whether it’s related to the nothing but the efforts of our very malignant gliomas have resisted many precise area of the brain you irradiate enthusiastic team. I think that we were of the endeavours we’ve made and we or to the volume. In two or three years certainly the first in Europe to offer need to carry on and find new and we’ll have some answers. As for FSRT, if not the first in the world. We better ways of treating them. We’ve attendance – we find that compliance currently treat about 150 patients a tried treatment with FSRT, and other for radiotherapy is extremely high, as year, some with only five or six ways of increasing radiation intensity you would expect among people who fractions, some up to 30, over a period and in terms of balancing risk benefit, know they have a serious condition.” between one and six weeks.” all the attempts have been disappointing. It’s likely that new What do you see as the next treatments will evolve as small steps Just how much progress requiring very careful trials. have you observed in the technicaladvance? I’ve also been involved in new drug trials, including work on Temozolomide treatment of malignant brain “Here at the Marsden we have a developed at Aston University and first tumours? number of European and world leaders studied at Charing Cross Hospital. The in IMRT or Intensity Modulated licence has been sold to a drug Radiotherapy, where instead of just company and the drug has been “I find that there’s been very limited changing the shape of the beam, you approved for clinical use and we progress over the past 20 years, and can actually change the intensity, as you continue to work on its potential that’s not necessarily for lack of treat different parts of the tumour. Our benefits.” research. Often enthusiasm that is not recently completed study shows that stereotactic IMRT is in fact no better for treating benign brain tumours than conventional stereotactic radiotherapy. But I’m now looking at its application for some specific brain tumours and for lung cancer.” How much of a team effort is the delivery of FSRT?

“Very much. I see the patient, decide on the best treatment and define exactly which area needs to be treated The physicists here plan the treatment sitting by the computer and then provide the precise delivery links between the computer and the machine. The actual treatment is delivered by radiographers who know how to position and direct the machine to the prescription I give. In the clinic we have research fellows working constantly on technique development and research nurses and research managers to collect the data.” i con 16 MAIN FEATURE shaped tumours, which most if not all How many similar centres are Are there still worrying tumours are. We developed a way of treating them from multiple directions there now in the UK? side-effects to modern and – using very high precision CT and radiotherapy? MRI scan information in 3D – to “There are probably three in London conform the radiotherapy so that it and four or five in the rest of the UK. We’ve heard that some patients follows the shape of the individual We have become something of a get depressed and that a tumour. We also worked with a reference centre, setting up teaching neurosurgeon from the National programmes and courses on FSRT.” sizeable percentage fail to keep Hospital (now working in Bristol), Steve their full schedule of Gill, on developing a head frame that How do patients benefit? didn’t have to be fixed with screws, and appointments. was therefore removable and relocatable. It’s very simple, fixed to the “As non-invasive, out-patient “There’s no skin burning these days as head with straps and fitted by the treatment, FSRT has now become there used to be with treatment. High patient’s dental impression. We were in accepted as routine for a number of energy X-rays penetrate the superficial on the very early development of brain tumours – acoustic neuromas, skin layers and do no damage. I know fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy pituitary adenomas, no evidence that radiotherapy itself (FSRT) . Whereas other American and craniopharyngiomas, skull-based causes depression, though it can cause European centres bought their meningiomas. We can treat and cure profound tiredness, especially in people equipment at great expense when it such benign tumours in a safer and with gliomas, from which, even after became commercially available, we more localised way. Some other usually treatment, it takes a while to emerge. developed some of ours in-house and more malignant tumours can only be One of our research projects is devoted collaborated on the development with controlled for a period. At the most to working out exactly what determines the manufacturer so that it cost us aggressive end of the spectrum, this fatigue, whether it’s related to the nothing but the efforts of our very malignant gliomas have resisted many precise area of the brain you irradiate enthusiastic team. I think that we were of the endeavours we’ve made and we or to the volume. In two or three years certainly the first in Europe to offer need to carry on and find new and we’ll have some answers. As for FSRT, if not the first in the world. We better ways of treating them. We’ve attendance – we find that compliance currently treat about 150 patients a tried treatment with FSRT, and other for radiotherapy is extremely high, as year, some with only five or six ways of increasing radiation intensity you would expect among people who fractions, some up to 30, over a period and in terms of balancing risk benefit, know they have a serious condition.” between one and six weeks.” all the attempts have been disappointing. It’s likely that new What do you see as the next treatments will evolve as small steps Just how much progress requiring very careful trials. have you observed in the technicaladvance? I’ve also been involved in new drug trials, including work on Temozolomide treatment of malignant brain “Here at the Marsden we have a developed at Aston University and first tumours? number of European and world leaders studied at Charing Cross Hospital. The in IMRT or Intensity Modulated licence has been sold to a drug Radiotherapy, where instead of just company and the drug has been “I find that there’s been very limited changing the shape of the beam, you approved for clinical use and we progress over the past 20 years, and can actually change the intensity, as you continue to work on its potential that’s not necessarily for lack of treat different parts of the tumour. Our benefits.” research. Often enthusiasm that is not recently completed study shows that stereotactic IMRT is in fact no better for treating benign brain tumours than conventional stereotactic radiotherapy. But I’m now looking at its application for some specific brain tumours and for lung cancer.” How much of a team effort is the delivery of FSRT?

“The role of a doctor like me is not only giving treatment but also offering care and ultimately good quality of life. As another research activity, we developed a patient follow-up system of nurse-led clinics: people with serious conditions need a lot of support after treatment. But they don’t necessarily need to come to a busy clinic every month and why should they be reminded of hospital when they are feeling well. They find it much more helpful to have ongoing contact and continuity – maybe only on the phone – with one nurse they know well.” Do you find that especially with internet access, people are existence of a person. So some people with surgery and chemotherapy. It increasingly knowledgeable are all the more devastated. And yet requires cooperationbetweenclinical about their own condition, and the outcome inthe cross-sectionof all and medical oncologists and surgeons. tumours is not that different from With radiotherapy to the lung there is a keen to exercise their own other cancers: some are devastating, similar risk of damage as to the brain. It others are completely curable.” can damage healthy lung tissue, leaving treatment choice? the patient breathless. Have you ever seen a miracle in We are researching ways to reduce the ”It’s important and it’s right that people dose of radiation to the lung. During know more, even though not patients with highly aggressive breathing, the lung and consequently everything on the net is right and we brain tumours? the tumour move up and down, so that now have to spend a lot more time radiationis notdirected solely at the guiding people through factual tumour. We’re looking at a device that information. Some people say ‘I want “As anacademic I don’t use the word helps people during the respiration you to make the decisionfor me.’ ‘miracle’. I see a whole range of cycle to stop breathing just long Others say ‘I want to know everything patients and some within that range do enough for the tumour only to be there is to know and then I’ll decide for very well. That depends on some irradiated whenit is stationary.” myself.’ Thenthere are people who are tumours being perhaps less aggressive not quite sure and you have to get a than others and on the right treatment Would Marie Curie be pleased feeling from them to assess what they’d intervention being given at the right prefer to know and what they might time. Some people amaze me. I believe or frustrated by the progress of find most upsetting.” that each personhas hope andI give them all the tools I canto maintainit.” radiotherapy and its Isn’t it an extremely sobering contribution to cancer control What’s your hope for the field you’ve chosen to work in now? lung cancer patients you have here? started working with? “I think we’ve come an enormous way. As far as survival goes, radiotherapy has ‘Seenfrom the outside perhaps so. The a great impact – so far greater than public perceptionof braintumours “Radiotherapy is already used as a sole drugs, and after surgery, radiotherapy is makes it seem very sobering, because a curative treatment for certain the second most successful curative braintumour seems to strike at the very inoperable lung cancers. But now the treatment for cancer.” aim is to cure more advanced stages of existence of a person. So some people Dr Brada talked to Madeleine Kingsley are all the more devastated. And yet this disease, combining radiotherapy i con 18 MAIN FEATURE What chance of having a humans, young women left infertile, topic, and research funding acquiring a after cancer treatment could indeed be much higher priority. BACUP, for child after treatment for rocking their own cradles. The reality instance, plans a report later in the year may be five, 10 even 20 years off, but it on the levels of emotional and medical cancer? is certainly in the pipeline. support women with cancer and hopes of future childbearing now receive. The fact that doctors, scientists and Part I of a vital report that patients are now starting to consider “Future fertility can seem a difficult effectsthe future of many fertility when battling cancer marks a subject to broach with a family where a turn in the medical tide. Treatment has young person is newly diagnosed” says women - so improved that it’s no longer Dr Mark Brougham, research fellow in preoccupied solely with preventing paediatric oncology at the Royal death. There’s now the luxury of Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh. and men too. considering how best to help survivors “For adolescent boys, it’s potentially give birth after cancer. And – as we embarrassing to discuss, although they By Madeleine Kingsley shall explore next month – actually and their families may be thinking

amily comes firmly first for West Midlands student Louise Lockley. FAged 19, in millenium year, Louise learned that she had Ewing’s Sarcoma. She was in for a rocky ride with chemotherapy and surgery but, crucially, her mother Linda came with her to her first oncology consultation. “Louise sat there, too shocked to talk” Linda recalls. “She had a hand-size tumour on her back.” But when Dr Peake explained that chemo could damage her fertility, Louise broke down completely. “Getting married and having children has always been top of my priorities” explains Louise now.

Fortunately Linda – who had read about male sperm being frozen before cancer treatment- stepped in at once to enquire if anything could be done to preserve Louise’s eggs. “I had no idea whether this was possible,” says Linda. “I have a feeling that I was the first person for whom it was done at this Fertility hospital,” adds Louise. Although it meant delaying the start of life-saving treatment, and although she was warned that the freezing of eggs was still ahighly speculative procedure, Louise opted for an ovarian biopsy after cancer under general anaesthetic –and the hope that went with it.

Too many women experience the double-dose anguish of a cancer diagnosis compounded by a question achieving that longed-for outcome. The about it. And yet it’s a really important mark over their future fertility. Had challenges involved in helping more issue to raise at an early stage, because, LindaLockley not askeddirectly, it patients are huge, ranging from the apart from the practical side, a lot of seems unlikely that Louise would have deeply emotional (how difficult it can stressed families derive benefit from been offered the chance to bank be for an adolescent boy who may projecting their thoughts forward to ovarian tissue or store frozen eggs, “as never have had sex to provide sperm the possibility of atime when other girls I met in hospital were for storage) to the legalities of frozen treatment is past.” distressed to have missed out on the egg storage and the daunting opportunity”. bureaucracy surrounding vital studies. r Brougham’s research lies in a Potential to conceive varies so much particularly challenging field: In October 2003, Dr David Lee’s according to cancer type – five out of D“We so far have nothing to offer breakthrough research in Oregon 10 men receiving cisplatin for testicular pre-pubertal children in terms of brought the likelihood of apregnancy cancer regain fertility after two years, preserving fertility and I am focusing on through ovarian transplant one vital with the figure rising to eight out of 10 what might be done for young boys step closer to reality: ovarian tissue was five years on. –on whether parts of the testes can be implanted into an infertile rhesus taken and stored and whether, when monkey, resulting in an egg harvested icon’s interest in post-treatment retrieved, could produce cells to be to produce a healthy test-tube baby. If fertility is timely, with oncologists artificially matured or put back into the this technology can be adapted for increasingly airing a hitherto neglected testes. The technology to help girls i con 19 from whom ovarian tissue’s taken, is mutate germ cells and cause problems of chemotherapy may have been potentially easier, as they are born with in the next generation. The evidence is greatly overestimated. all the oocytes they will have in life. also reassuring in terms of familial With boys the cells go through major cancers, where again one might According to Breast Cancer Care, changes before becoming mature anticipate, because of quite mutagenic women whose breast cancer is sperm, so the technology is at least 10 drugs given, that survivors’ children oestrogen receptor positive may be years off.” At 32, Dr Brougham says could be at increased risk of cancer. But offered one of three different “it’s very exciting to work on something if you exclude the particular childhood treatments (ovarian ablation) to stop so long term. Hopefully, before I retire, cancers (such as retinoblastoma) that their ovaries functioning. Of these, preserving fertility in very young we’ve known for decades are inherited, radiotherapy will induce infertility only patients will be routine practice.” there is no evidence of any additional if applied to both ovaries. Oophrectomy risk.” Did ongoing fertility among the (surgical removal of the ovaries) also Dr Mike Hawkins, Reader in 10,000 survivors so far identified relate spells the end of reproductive potential Epidemiology at Birmingham University, to the type of cancer suffered? but the hormone treatment Zoladex has already spent 20 years studying offers potentially reversible ablation survivors of childhood cancer. He is Not so, says Dr Hawkins, it related more with periods returning within six to the treatment and primarily to the months of ending treatment. extent to which the ovary or testes were in the field of radiation received, Monthly injections of Zoladex taken to the dosage of chemotherapy, and over two years is one alternative to the age at which it was given, as chemotherapy that may preserve treatment pre-puberty is much more fertility. Tamoxifen too, looks like a damaging to fertility than post. good friend to women wanting children on recovery. Stimulating the or many laymen, the myth still ovaries, it actually makes some women prevails that cancer and chemo are more fertile at the start, though Fsynonymous with later ongoing use inhibits periods during the childlessness. So casual listeners to BBC five year period usually recommended Radio 4’s The Archers, may have for the drug. You are advised not to thought the storyline far-fetched in conceive whilst on Tamoxifen so this which Ruth Archer had gruelling chemo may not be an ideal option for older for breast cancer in 2000, yet a year women whose biological clock is ticking later fell accidentally pregnant with loud. But one, admittedly small study at baby Ben. But this “everyday story of Cornell medical Centre in New York country folk” never embellishes the City, found that every woman on truth. Medically it was unwise of Ruth Tamoxifen remained fertile enough to not to take precautions for two years produce “at least one and in some cases after taking toxic drugs that could two embryos”. Dr Jamie Griffo of NYU perhaps harm the foetus, but Medical Centre observes that Tamoxifen realistically, says Dr Jane Stewart, is, at least theoretically, also a safer consultant at the Newcastle Fertility drug than others currently used. But Centre, “there are lots of precedents along with UK oncologists, he calls for for women with breast cancer further research . successfully having babies after treatment. About one third of pre- eanwhile, Louise Lockley has menopausal women will lose their been in remission for three fertility; one third will retain the facility Myears and has ongoing hopes of to conceive for a while before bearing four children. “Obviously premature menopause sets in and a uncertainty remains, but I seem to be further third will be unaffected.” There one of the fortunate ones with retained is also no evidence that women going natural fertility as well as stored on to have babies after remaining ovarian tissue . I think the drug I took - cancer-free for two years have an Etoposide – is quite toxic, and when my currently working on a mammoth study added risk of recurrence. periods resumed after treatment they involving 14,000 of the 18,000 recorded were, at first, quite irregular. My doctor UK survivors treated between l940 and As a rule of thumb, the younger a suggested taking the Pill, but I wasn’t l991. “This study - the first to follow up woman, the less likely she is to stop ready for that as a way to rebalance my effects of cancer treatment, and ovulating permanently after breast hormones. I took myself off for a addressing survivors directly, should tell cancer. Chemotherapy is also often less private consultation with a us more about fertility,” he says. It will harsh than that given to sufferers of gynaecologist where blood tests and no doubt expand on the previous work other cancers. Women wanting a family an ovarian scan showed everything to I’ve done through GPs which has should always discuss this and the be normal. Obviously I can’t be positive already found 3000 children born to projected chemo regime with their until the time comes to try for a baby, survivors. The information about them oncologist as certain drugs known as but the picture looks encouraging. At is, says Dr Hawkins, “very reassuring. “alkylating agents“, of which the most hospital check-ups I heard about Rather like thalidomide, there had been common is cyclophosphamide, are another woman who had the same a concern whether the rate of birth traditionally thought most likely to cancer as me, then twins at 28. That defects in these offspring would be affect chances of pregnancy. But news made me cry. I like the idea of higher than average. It is not, not even Professor Michael Seckl, consultant having grandchildren to ask me what I in the offspring of people who had medical oncologist at Imperial College, did at the millennium. I’d say ‘I was in a their gonads irradiated as children or London, stresses that damage to lot of pain, but I’m still here – and so those who had drugs that might fertility with even the more toxic forms are you!’” i con 20 IT’S ONLY NATURAL

VITAMIN D AND BONES Vitamin D is essential for maintaining bone density and preventing osteoporosis as it helps the absorption of bone- building materials calcium and phosphorus. In this action it is helped by magnesium. All these minerals are best absorbed from plant sources. Of course dairy foods also VITAMIN D provide a lot of blood calcium (and a little vitamin D). However this also depresses vitamin D levels and the body’s ability to absorb magnesium. Catch 22. Dairy gives you high The vitamin that works blood calcium, but low bone calcium. Much work has been done on the effect of vitamin D with like a hormone bones. For example, in 1991 Tufts University, Boston showed that vitamin D was essential for improving bone density and supplementation was important in the winter months. This work was confirmed in Lyon, France in 1992 where a group taking 800 IU’s of vitamin D and 1.2 gms of calcium per day had 43 per cent less hip fractures and 32 per cent less other, non-vertebral fractures. SOURCES Sunlight on our skin is now thought to be the main “source” of vitamin D. Whilst a little is found in dairy, the major source is fish liver oils and particularly cod liver oil. Plants contain very little vitamin D. Kidney or liver disease (and alcohol) depress vitamin D levels, as do cholesterol-lowering drugs (e.g. statins), mineral oils, anticonvulsants and toxic chemicals in the environment (e.g. smog). Cadmium blocks vitamin D production whilst pantothenic acid helps make it. Night shift workers have lowered blood levels of vitamin D. Heavily tanned, or black people cannot make vitamin D through the process of sunlight in their skin. n 1919 Sir Edward Mellanby was working indoors with RDA dogs and concluded that if they didn’t get sunlight they Ideveloped bone disorders (typically rickets in children). He The RDA was set at 5 to 10 micrograms (about 200 IU’s) from further concluded that the essential action of fats preventing that work over 50 years ago. these problems was due to a vitamin; and that cod liver oil However, Dawson-Hughes (Americal Journal of Clinical was a strong preventative agent (see also icon: fish oils parts Nutrition1995; 61) has shown that at that level it has no 1 and 2 – January and February 2003). effect on bone status at all.

The chemical structure of this vitamin was identified in the Reinhold Veith PhD, University of Toronto, has concluded 1930’s by Professor A Windaus of the University of Göttingen, adults need five times this level (Am J Clin Nut May 1999). Germany. Thus vitamin D came about. On a sunny day the body delivers about 10,000 IU’s which As we shall see, it is now known that this substance is not makes a bit of a mockery of the official safety limit for technically a vitamin at all, but acts as a classic steroid supplementation of 2000 IU’s. Veith proposed a level of hormone! A detailed study of the biochemistry was not 4,000 – 10,000 IU’s per day and argued that toxicity doesn’t possible until the 1960’s when ‘radioactive vitamin D’ could start until about 40,000 IU’s (Am J Clin Nut 1999; 69). And be prepared. Over the last few years researchers have come Harvard Medical researchers totally agree with him. to learn completely new things about vitamin D, not least that the RDA’s originally set for the prevention of rickets are IS THAT ALL? woefully inadequate. Sadly they are still in place today. Well now we come to the newer discoveries. Firstly vitamin D seems to help the body assimilate vitamin A WHAT IS IT? and has a synergistic effect with both A and E. Vitamin D is an umbrella term for a number of fat-soluble Then came the finding that vitamin D stimulates the chemicals called calciferols. Two are important to humans: pancreas and helps in the production of insulin. In cases of D2 is produced when ergosterol in plants is energised by the vitamin D deficiency the body loses its ability to fully produce sun; D3 or cholocalciferol is synthesised by the action of insulin. sunlight on our subcutaneous cholesterol layers. Next, vitamin D was found to be crucial to the growth and maturation of the immune system white cells and thus The activity of vitamin D involves a five step process: The people started to become interested in its effects on the generation or ingestion of D3; liver metabolism to a hydroxyl immune system as a whole. form; circulation in blood; conversion to a double hydroxyl form in the kidneys; transport to nuclear receptor sites. VITAMIN D AND CANCER All this is a long way beyond those first views of vitamin D, Vitamin D plays multiple roles in the regulation of animals’ where deficiencies were associated with rickets in the young metabolism; Boston University School of Medicine (Rahul and osteomalacia in adults. Ray) showed that it has a regulatory effect on plasma IT’S ONLY NATURAL i con 21

membranes affecting all sorts of carried hormones and llagic acid is a proven anti-carcinogen, anti-mutagen and chemicals, and also on gene transcription. They have anti-cancer initiator. It is plentiful in the foods we eat, conducted much work on vitamin D Nuclear Receptors Eespecially in fruits, plants and nuts (free form as (VDR’s). Basically vitamin D is bound in plasma and on ellagitannins or as a glucoside). nuclear sites and is very much part of the endocrine system. Initial studies and clinical tests have shown that it prevents the destruction of the p53 gene in cancer cells and it seems to Epidemiology studies have argued that the levels of sunlight form “joints” with DNA by binding to sites which would and cancer are inversely proportional. Studzinski and Moore otherwise be attached to mutagens or carcinogens. (Cancer Research 1995; 55) talked about a “belt” through America where there was less sunshine and two to three Dr Daniel Nixon at the Hollings Cancer Institute, at the times higher rates of cancer. But where cancer researchers Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) began studying were really turned on was in the finding that vitamin D can ellagic acid in 1993. regulate cell differentiation and proliferation. Recent published data from MUSC includes the findings that: For example, laboratory tests have shown that vitamin D Ellagic acid slows the growth of abnormal colon cells. inhibits the growth of the new blood vessels needed by Ellagic acid has antibacterial and anti-viral properties. It can tumours in order to satisfy their high metabolism prevent HPV infected cells developing, and cervical cells (Shokravi et al Inv Cph 1995; 36). Furthermore cancer cells infected with HPV experience apoptosis (normal cell death). are undifferentiated – they act like foetal cells, being young It increases the rate of metabolism of carcinogens and and dividing rapidly and, as yet, not differentiated into lung prevents the development of cancer cells. cells, or liver cells or breast cells. Vitamin D can switch them It affects and inhibits the action of arylamines, known as over to be “normal“. And right now drug companies are potent carcinogens. trying to patent drugs to do this! (Ed: Why not just give people vitamin D?!) As a powerful antioxidant it neutralises the affects of aflatoxins produced by parasites within the body. Professor Michael Holick, an endocrinologist from The Boston School of Medicine has argued that 25 per cent of the And all this seems to come from eating just one cup of red women who die of breast cancer would not have even had a raspberries per day! problem if they had maintained adequate levels of vitamin D throughout their lives. Research has shown that ellagic acid can protect the p53 gene. This gene has the ability to rebuild damaged DNA Black people, who cannot photosynthesise vitamin D under under normal conditions. But as part of cancer development it their pigmented skins, are known to get more prostate becomes switched off. There is evidence that this is a factor in cancers than Caucasians, and Gross (J Urol 1998) highlighted breast, prostate, pancreas, skin, cervical and colon cancers. the use of vitamin D in the treatment of recurrent prostate cancer. MUSC are now hoping to conduct a double blind test on Vitamin D is claimed to greatly enhance radiotherapy humans over a two-year period, studying its effect on cervical effectiveness on breast cancer treatment (Mercola June 2003) cancer in particular. and vitamin D is known to inhibit the growth of pre- malignant cells in the lining of the colon and reduce cancer Preliminary studies are extremely positive with even small tumours (Somer). In May 2003 at the Howard Hughes concentrations inhibiting growth within 48 hours and causing Medical School they showed that vitamin D detoxifies a apoptosis (cell death) within 72 hours. carcinogenic bile acid Lithocholic acid, and confirmed that vitamin D can reduce polyps in the colon which often SOURCES ultimately turn into cancer tumours. Ellagic acid, an extremely stable polyphenol, is found in some 46 different fruits and nuts, for example pomegranate, red Holick is clear that vitamin D reduces the risk of breast, colon raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, walnuts, and ovarian cancers, and named 13 others (from bladder to pecans and cranberries. kidney to stomach) that he thought vitamin D could affect.

In our recent interview with the two Professors Powles of the Of course you can now buy supplements – but why not eat Royal Marsden, we were interested to note that they have the above? You only need half to one cupful according to Dr been providing vitamin D to their cancer patients. Nixon. IN SUMMARY Icon’s view is that although sunshine can give rise to skin cancer, the record levels of this disease are being driven by oestrogen and oestrogen mimics pre-sensitising men and women to harmful rays. Sunshine is a crucially protective element to Caucasians. ELLAGIC ACID Meanwhile it is quite clear that more is being learned about vitamin D all the time and every reader would be well advised to supplement with a pure cod liver oil daily. It’s raspberries to you Worryingly, of course, EU directives have set RDA’s for vitamins and levels for supplements. Recent research on vitamin D merely highlights the conflict that at the same time as the bureaucrats are clamping down, the scientists are just discovering how these essential ingredients really work. i con 22 CANCER WATCH

Early diagnosis vital in Breast Cancer The USA has 5-year survival rates of 89 per cent, whilst Europe has 79 per cent (and the UK is below this). The question is, “why?” Michael Coleman of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine analysed 4,478 women with breast cancer in Europe against 13,182 such women in the USA.

He concluded that 41 per cent of women were identified as “early stage” in the USA, but only 29 per cent in Europe, and that early CANCER WATCH treatment improves survival rates. In Europe we are especially bad at examining the over 65’s where 43 “Our aim is to bring you the latest per cent were early stage in the USA but only 25 per cent were so in information that can helpyou beat cancer” Europe.

He called on Europe’s Health Ministers to provide more money for early diagnosis. Formaldehyde link to produced evidence that ginger may (Ed: What women really want – prevent cancer. After feeding mice certainly from talking to them up leukaemia with ginger (yes, really!) three and down Britain recently – is a times per week for two weeks, they safe yet effective testing system. were then injected with cancer The fact is that the average UK lady In the Journal of the National cells. The ones on ginger simply doesn’t trust mammography Cancer Institute (2003;95) developed less tumours than those and truly fears an annual dose of researchers reported that factory on the placebo. And the tumours radiation). workers exposed to formaldehyde grew more slowly. have a higher risk of death from Can we please change leukaemia and particularly myeloid (Ed: Fresh ginger with lemon and leukaemia. The study, conducted by honey is a very refreshing start to the system? Michael Hauptmann of NCI, the day when used as an infusion). Bethesda, followed 25,619 workers Anthony Harrison in Getting the involved with formaldehyde itself, Breast conserving Right Medicines? is absolutely clear. plastics, photographic film and “Research to protect and promote plywood. health is attracting far fewer surgery risks resources than research to find Meanwhile David Coggon from new, profitable drugs“. Southampton University, UK linked Researchers report (Ann Oncol formaldehyde with higher lung 2003;14) that young women who The important report from the cancer rates. choose lumpectomy as a treatment King’s Fund Think Tank is very for breast cancer have a higher risk critical of pharmaceutical (Ed: Formaldehyde is denoted by of recurrence than those choosing companies and the current system over 40 names in a whole host of full mastectomy. Whilst the risk of research in the UK. For example: toiletry and cosmetic products. We was five times less in the first five have advised readers previously to years after the initial operation, it Many treatments and therapies go seek out a non-toxic supplier of rose to 12 times more after five untested because it is not in the such products). years in women who had only a interests of the drugs industry to lumpectomy. fund the clinical research. Ginger up! Drugs companies are not made to There was no difference in test their drugs against known Ann Bode and her team at The metastasis levels, or in survival alternative risks – e.g. aspirin and University of Minnesota have rates. colon cancer. CANCER WATCH i con 23

The report further stated that the intellectual impairment, a Swedish evidence on the dangers of the Government had allowed drugs research report claims. chemical preservative family and companies to put financial gain have urged women to cut down or before the health of consumers. It A team from the Karolinska stop using deodorants after called for a task force to be created Institute in Stockholm working with parabens were found in breast to consider how to “compel teams from Harvard and Athens cancer tumours companies to do trials in the followed more than 3000 children . interest of the wider community” who had had radiation treatment. Dr Philippa Darbre, a breast cancer and stated that the amount of Children who had the highest doses specialist at the University of public money for clinical trials of radiation were only half as likely Reading, reported that her team should be increased. to achieve a place in high school as analysed samples of breast tumours (Ed: At icon we are very concerned the norm, and scored less well on from 20 women. They found that proper research into natural IQ tests. parabens in all but two of the products to fight brain tumours, or samples in a form that suggested clinical studies on the ability of The researchers concluded that they had probably been absorbed selenium and soya isoflavones to Computed Tomography Scans and through the skin. This is the first improve radiotherapy success rates their use on the brain needed to be study to confirm that they can be are just not finding funding. We reviewed. absorbed in human tissue. Dr Darbre note that Professor Julian Peto of (Ed: In 50 years time we will look now plans to test non-cancerous Oxford University and Cancer back on the widespread uses of x- human breast tissue for traces of Research, in his speech to the cancer rays with horror). parabens to see whether the levels carers’ association, was adamant found in tumours were significantly that too much drug related research US vaccine for higher. was swamping doctors and preventing them exploring their pancreatic cancer “I used anti-perspirants myself until own cancer beating ideas – many of eight years ago, but never use them which did not draw reliable funding. Although no one seems to know now and wonder why I did,” she We call on the Government to what causes pancreatic cancer, said. “Some women may never have change the system. maybe a cure is coming for some any problems, but women with We believe that pharmaceutical sufferers. Symptoms of pancreatic genetic histories of breast cancer companies should not fund clinical cancer are hard to diagnose until it may be extra sensitive to these trials directly. Instead a levy should is well advanced. Smokers are two chemicals.” be drawn from all of them into a to three times more likely to central fund administered by a new develop it, and the disease is very As many men have only really division of the NHS. This unit could fast acting. started using deodorants regularly in then examine research proposals the last 20-30 years, could this be from doctors, professors and Now doctors at Sloan-Kettering one reason why more men are being scientists and allocate funds Cancer Centre in New York have diagnosed with breast cancer? accordingly. Money would then be managed to keep three out of ten available for non-drug or causal patients alive in a pilot study. Dr Richard Sullivan from Cancer research. The link between Doctors took proteins from the Research UK said, “No causal pharmaceutical company, charity cancer itself after surgery and relationship has been found and researchers would then be modified them through “heat between underarm cosmetics broken and along with it would go shock“. These were then re- containing parabens. Should any the concerns that research results injected in order to boost the notional risk exist it would be may be rewritten or biased. immune system response. Doctors insignificant compared to other The funding must be separated from feel it will five years before such a avoidable environmental risks such the researchers, who should not vaccine-programme, which is tailor- as obesity.” have to feel that if they report bad made, could be widely available. results they may lose a source of Predictably, the cosmetic future income. Stay smelling fresh manufacturers (the UK market is A major reappraisal and step change worth £400 million) said there was in the system is essential and long Regular icon readers will not have no proof and called for further overdue. ) been shocked by last month’s research. deodorant stories on TV news X-rays of the head bulletins and in newspapers. We Why wait? Change to a safer have highlighted the danger of deodorant now. While you’re may cause harm some deodorants for along time, checking, look for one without and listed parabens as one of the aluminium as well, as that has been Children who have x-rays on their 15 chemical baddies to evict from linked to Alzheimer’s. heads, for example a CT scan after your bathrooms (Toxic Toiletries, Call icon on 01280 815166 for more a shock to the head, can suffer May 2003). Now scientists have new product information i con 24

teachers, parents and kids radioactively labelled how to have the strongest glucose. The cancer cells HOT possible defence. probably cheer!

When I toured the country I The Government’s pilot test is GOSSIP spoke in schools. To children a step. A small step. But the who were extremely big picture involves a simple interested, to parents (who question – when is the from hardly bothered to turn up) Government going to Chris Woollams and to school workers like appoint someone to rise kitchen staff and meal above all the drug mumbo planners (who didn’t turn up jumbo and look at what we at all!). already know about real Eight per cent of all adults in healthy eating? And then Glucose – the USA have late onset In icon we have warned of find practical ways to diabetes. In the under 12’s the dangers of dairy, of fat implement it, in schools, the figure is a whopping 16 and hydrogenated vegetable hospitals and wherever the per cent. In the UK, late oil consumption and the cancer is a threat? onset diabetes is growing in dangers of sugar. Government the under 12s by 11 per cent Sugar feeds cancers. Despite per year. this fact, clearly established since Otto Warburg won his awakens. The causes? Excess sugar and Nobel Prize in 1931, carbohydrate consumption. BULLETIN Governments, hospitals, (Refined bread, pasta, rice, dieticians and the like fizzy drinks, pasteurised fruit continue merely to talk Slowly. juices, chocolate bars, sugar, “blah” about eating five lots cakes, breakfast cereals etc.). BOARD of fruit and vegetables per According to US research in day - or “a little bit of As if by magic, four days 2001, Hydrogenated everything based around after we called on the Vegetable Oil can be added starchy foods”, the letter we At icon we are often asked Government to improve the to the list, and research in received from the FSA! about the Atkins diet or Dr nutrition and nourishment of 2002 showed excess dairy Mercola’s “no grain diet“. our children, they announced consumed by the under fives Holding blood sugar levels Our views are well known. a “pilot study” in 500 schools also caused pancreatic between critical limits is We think the former is across Britain. overload. crucial in the prevention of dangerous and the latter cancer, and especially for misleading. “No refined On January 5th, Melanie The Government already people with cancer. There is grains” might be a better Johnson, the Public Health instigated a healthy eating evidence that sugars like sound-bite. Minister, launched the “Food programme in schools 18 glucose feed cancer cells in Schools” scheme, part of a months or so ago. No one more efficiently than Now comes a new book on national approach to healthy uses it. It is no good sending starches. People with breast diets of the world, The live eating in schools. Fizzy teachers a letter. You have cancer survive for longer longer diet by Sally Beare. drinks, crisps and chocolate to provide lessons, books, when kept on low blood This looks accurately at the are to be banned from tuck reading material as part of sugar diets. diets of, for example, the shops (how “public school“!) the curriculum. The Bama of China, The Hunzas and vending machines. This Government simply has not Various natural supplements of Pakistan, the population £2 million campaign (that’s done this. can help reduce blood sugar of Symi, a Greek Island and about 15 per cent of the levels, from chromium more. All peoples who have McDonald’s advertising spend Our Charity CancerACTIVE is cinnamon, from avocados (an long life expectancies. The in Britain) will see the switch working with two ladies, element called winners are probably the to milk (oh dear!), water and Michelle Roe and Sheila mannoheptulose) to Okinawans. Okinawa is in fruit. Moreover parents are Gaukroger, who have already hydrazine sulphate (Joseph fact 161 coral islands. The to be taught what to put in run three pilot tests in the Gold, M.D.). We certainly are diet is mineral rich and based their little cherubs’ lunch North East. They are trying to not telling people about on whole grains, sweet boxes. provide materials for ideas like these – although potatoes and leafy greens. teachers to teach healthy the research is there, our They also eat seaweed, fresh Let’s go back a little, before eating and cancer prevention doctors and our Government fish and boiled chicken and we are overwhelmed by the to children and parents. If don’t seem to know it. pork with the fat trimmed euphoria. the tests work we will have off. packs for teachers, followed Our recent report on hospital Sixty five per cent of 16 year by reading books and other diets recommended for But they consume only 1500 olds are overweight and ideas for children of all ages. cancer patients undergoing calories per day of which one about 25 per cent obese. 47 chemotherapy was an eye- third comes from whole per cent of our children do We all have the best natural opener, such was the grains like buckwheat. The not eat a vegetable other defence possible against ignorance about how cancer diet is also low on sodium. than potato in the average diseases like diabetes and cells work. week. 27 per cent cannot cancer. It’s called the Worse, when cancer patients There are 34 centenarians per name broccoli when shown a immune system. And we are given PET scans, we 100,000. In the UK the figure photograph. want to explain simply to actually inject them with is five.