Cancer - Treatments & Prevention

By Paul M. Otten, Editor

In 1997 and 1998 I twice had the opportunity to LIVE in a cancer treatment center in Mexico. This was not because I had cancer, but a close friend did. This was his second bout with cancer, colon cancer to be exact.

In the simplistic western medical model, when a tumor is located and removed, cancer is “cured.” In the clinic I lived in, as well as a dozen or so I visited while there on five separate occasions, I learned that they view the tumor and cancer itself only as symptoms of deeper underlying health problems. Removing the tumor, in their practice, does NOT remove cancer, much less its cause. My friend had his first tumor surgically removed while in his thirties and was subsequently declared cancer-free, “cured.”

“Removing the tumor, in their practice, does NOT remove cancer, much less its cause.”

Ooooops! Not so fast! No MD gave him any directions for lifestyle or nutritional changes, so he went back to his “normal” American way of life… until a second tumor appeared nearly a decade later. This grapefruit-sized tumor was not removable by surgery because it was “entangled” with several internal organs.

But it was the same cancer. You see, the CAUSES had not been addressed and removed so the symptoms returned. He had had the “best of care” by highly specialized medical professionals: oncologists, radiologists, surgeons and internists. They all specialized in disease, not in health. But the absence of disease (or tumors) does not equate health. Unfortunately he did not work with any health-experts. No one counseled him how to get healthy or remain so. In fact, do you know anyone who goes to an MD to get counseled on health? Unfortunately these specialists don't study health or the path to it. Their focus is on disease. This focus is one of the greatest failings of the American “health” care system!

“My friend decided he'd rather die than go through with more chemo.”

After doing all the radiation treatments and even a single course of chemo, my friend decided he'd rather die than go through with more chemo. He was extremely weak and could keep no food down. His closest friend told me he'll never make it out of bed again - he's done! But no “health-care” professional addressed this most critical area of health: food, digestion (which chemo practically destroys), and nutrition. We have so compartmentalized and specialized health care that one specialist can know almost everything about toe nail fungus but practically NOTHNG about the health of the body to which the toe is attached and from which it receives EVERYTHING to sustain itself and function. An odd phenomenon!

“We have so compartmentalized and specialized health care that one specialist can know almost everything about toe nail fungus but practically NOTHNG about the health of the body to which the toe is attached and from which it receives EVERYTHING to sustain itself and function.”

In that precarious condition, all hope being gone, we went to a Mexican hospital, where they only worked with ten customers at a time - no more - and usually with patients who were “given” only weeks or months to live.

The institution was fully staffed by a variety of well-trained professional practitioners - M.D., PhD in biochemistry, homeopath, clinical nutritionist, and other health practitioners. They knew how important psychological and emotional support was - health and disease is greatly influenced by our thoughts and emotions. The leaders strongly encouraged a family member or other close friend to accompany the guest (patient). Another friend and I volunteered to stay with him for the duration of his initial 5-week live-in recovery program.

You've heard the old saying, “Death begins in the colon” (in the broad sense - the entire digestive tract.) We'll, believe it, because through “the colon” you either get or fail to get the nutrients that sustain life itself. For weeks and weeks my friend had not a single regular bowel movement. Instead, whatever he took in came right back up or turned into diarrhea. He was skin and bones, death warmed over. We flew to San Diego on a Thursday, got to the hospital (more like a private villa) just before supper. By Sunday evening - a mere three days later - he had the first regular bowel movement in a long, long time. He cried… and so did I. We both knew what that meant, namely that a BIG turn-around in his most basic bodily function had been accomplished. Now, “health was beginning in the colon,” instead of death.

“My friend received a wide variety of 'treatments,' but the foundation was nutrition, nutrition, and nutrition.”

My friend received a wide variety of “treatments,” but the foundation was nutrition, nutrition, and nutrition. First, he ate nothing but whole and organic food secured from local sources and well prepared from scratch three times a day. Secondly, he received intravenous nutrition, including, among others, massive doses of vitamin C (up to 50 grams/day). Thirdly, he also took nutritional supplements throughout the waking hours.

In five weeks my friend was back home. The protocol called for monthly tests by regular U. S. labs, and then about an hour or so of consultation with their lead scientist. The near happy ending is that this middle-aged gentleman gradually regained his strength and health and went back to work, while monthly consulting with the health experts of that institution. The not-so-happy ending is that, having been divorced twice (I have no doubt that stress is a powerful health challenge), he ended up “chasing” another lady, gave up his healthy eating habits, nutritional supplements and monthly testing and consultation, and eventually regressed and passed away.

Though my Spanish is not the best in the world, I can get around in it, occasional using a Portuguese (my native tongue) word instead For those of you who have visited Tijuana, you know it is not the nicest of Mexican cities, nor the safest. However, since I was director of a corporate health department at the time, I was also determined to find out for myself about other similar alternative and complimentary treatment centers for all kinds of degenerative conditions that we call diseases.

“I wanted to have a place to suggest to friends and loved ones who were looking for something other than radiation (itself an undisputed cancer-causer) and chemo (highly toxic) as a way to possibly reverse their condition.”

Before going, I had made myself a list of nearly 20 similar centers I wanted to contact as time permitted. I was resolved to talk to as many patients as possible to seek to find out what degree of success or perceived success they were experiencing. I was also determined to personally interview at least some of the leading MDs and other health scientists developing the protocols and directing the treatments. Since nearly one out of two persons encounters a bout with cancer in America today, I wanted to have a place to suggest to friends and loved ones who were looking for something other than radiation (itself an undisputed cancer-causer) and chemo (highly toxic) as a way to possibly reverse their condition.

As it turned out, these stays in 1997 and 1998, were only the first of five trips made to Mexico and California to visit with and sit at the feet of immunologists, oncologists, surgeons, nutritionists, biochemists, homeopaths, naturopaths and other health professionals to seek to get to the bottom of our pathetic American “health” (degeneration) and how to reverse it, at least on an individual level. The subject is worth of a book, but it seems another will have to write it.

However, a fair number of books have been written by some of the scientists and health practitioners with whom I visited. (I have several dozen of them in our health library, and if you ever visit me in St. Paul, feel free to ask me about them.) One of the most recent books can actually be secured FREE… though I suggest you pay for it. It is entitled DISMANTLING CANCER and is authored by Francisco Contreras, MD, a surgical oncologist who was trained in Vienna, Austria. I met with him, as well as his brother Ernesto Contreras, Jr., MD, both of whom were then working with their father (Ernesto Contreras, Sr., MD) who had founded Oasis of Hope over 40 years ago. Dr. Francisco Contreras is now its General Director and has authored ten books. Oasis of Hope, a very modern 6-story health complex, was one of several centers I felt quite comfortable in recommending to friends.

“Wouldn't you rather eat 8-10 servings of delicious berries, fruits and vegetables a day, be physically active, get plenty of rest, stay away from toxic contaminants… than do radiation or take chemo?”

For your (free) copy of DISMANTLING CANCER by Dr. Francisco Contreras, log onto to their web site. You may also call their toll free number: 1-888-500-HOPE (4673).

Perhaps, with good personal preventive choices, you may never have to be in a position to choose what therapy to use. Prevention is always easier than a “cure,” is certainly more effective, less expensive, and a lot more pleasant. I mean, wouldn't you rather eat 8-10 servings of delicious berries, fruits and vegetables a day, be physically active, get plenty of rest, stay away from toxic contaminants of all kinds (tobacco, street drugs, most pharmaceutical drugs) than do radiation or take chemo?

Come on, is the choice really that hard?