Cancer: the mega disease predicted to affect 1 in 2 of us in the coming years, if not already. It’s a scary topic, almost everyone I know has been affected in some shape or form by this disease or their family has. It appears to be rampant and getting worse with each passing year.

So when I read that we were going to spend an entire day diving into this very topic as part of my Nutritional science qualification, I was super excited.

Cancer: uncontrolled cell division with the ability to invade other tissue, either adjacent or distant sites (metastasis)

IINH 2019

This disease strikes from the very building blocks of the human body, genes and DNA. Specifically DNA mutations that can start with a single cell. A single cell! Given that we have around 37.2 trillion cells in our body, the odds of avoidance are not stacked in our favour.

Our lecture was delivered by the wonderful Patricia Daly, a 2 time cancer survivor herself, it was both humbling and educational to spend the day with her learning about both her own experience of cancer and the current science around it, specifically where nutritional therapy can help with cancer management.

I’m not going to lie here, this one scares the hell out of me. The causes are multi factorial – everything from carcinogens in our external environment (e.g. exhaust fumes, pollution, pesticides, nicotine), radiation (also used as a treatment would you believe), chemicals, viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasites, hormones, lifestyle factors (poor diet, lack of exercise, obesity), heredity, stress, chronic inflammation….the list goes on. When I consider all of the potential triggers like the ones above coupled with the fact that it only takes one cell to go rogue for cancer to start coupled again with the society that we live in today – lots of stress, fast paced, take away food, obesity rising, convenience everywhere – it seems to me to be a perfect storm of conditions to allow diseases like this to run wild.

I can’t wait to get stuck into the study on this one but the lecture day itself left me feeling pretty humbled by the enormity of this disease.

If you have any experience with this awful disease, I’d love to hear your thoughts below, specifically regarding the impact and effectiveness of chemotherapy and radiotherapy as treatment protocols for cancer.

Yours in health and happiness,

JP