An excerpt from the book Cancer Simplified
How fasting is good for your health and a part of a natural cancer treatment
Fast: verb. To abstain from all or some kinds of food or drink…
In the vast history of medicine, fasting has long been a tool used against disease. Despite what modern medicine would have you believe, healing did occur before pharmaceuticals were invented. Physicians of old brought about cures using herbs, foods fasting and cleansing. In 75 AD, one of the favorite practices of Thessalus was to begin the treatment of almost all diseases by prescribing an abstinence from all food for a period of 3 full days.
A Greek physician by the name of Aretaeus of Cappadocia, living in about A.D 250, described a disease he labeled “koiliakos” or “suffering in the bowels”. Aretaeuas recommended fasting and drastic diet changes including eating rice exclusively, to relieve the symptoms of this disease.
In the 1920s, Sidney Haas treated children diagnosed with Celiac disease with a fasting banana diet–and the diet worked.
How to begin your fast
Always start any long-term fast with a 3 day water fast if possible. The innate wisdom of the body is such that, while fasting, it will consume superfluous tissues while carefully conserving vital tissues and organs. The body’s amazing ability to self-digest and destroy needless tissue such as fat, tumors, blood vessel plaque, and other nonessential and diseased tissues, while conserving essential tissues, gives fasting the ability to jump-start and restore the body’s systems.
Just like Aretaeuas and Haas, I have seen many a health crisis turn around simply with a drastic food change. What you are eating right now could be the very thing that is killing you right now. If what you are eating and doing right now is not helping you get healthy, start something completely different right now.
There is a man who approached me recently to tell me that cured his own cancer by going on a potato only diet. I don’t recommend a potato fast for everyone, but it worked for that person.
Giving your body a break and a reasonable change is a wise act to fight disease.
Fasting for natural cancer treatment
I like to start most of my cancer patients on a 3 day water fast minimum if they are not diabetic. After 3 days we usually start a 3 week juice fast consisting of freshly juiced vegetables in a wide variety of blends. Organic carrots make a great base for this although they can turn the juice drinker orange in hue (not a problem really). In the morning blend of fresh juice I recommend adding about 3 cups of whole cilantro into the juicer. But one should always follow cilantro up with 6 capsules of chlorella a couple of hours later as cilantro mobilizes heavy metals that can relocate to other tissue and cause new damage. Chlorella binds the metals for removal from the body giving the juice faster a one-two punch against heavy metal accumulations.
Add to the veggie juice 2 cloves of garlic at least twice a day for an antifungal tool. A little onion or scallions are great and really boost the flavor of the juice also. Add ¼ teaspoon or so of Celtic Sea Salt and 8 drops of Spectralyte or MineraLife to every veggie session for added minerals and flavors. Juice veggie blends several times a day and drink fresh as hungry. Be sure to take a digestive enzyme with every veggie juice.
For a pleasure snack, juice fruits once a day but take it 1 hr away from veggie juice. Using pineapples in the fruit juice is great and full of complete enzymes to help the body to heal up. Be sure to include the nutrient-rich core from the pineapple in the fruit juice.
During your juice fast I recommend taking Tyrosine daily as it is an essential amino acid that comes mostly from animal proteins. Tyrosine is essential for mental cognitive function and also Tyrosine is the “T” in thyroid T-1, T-2, T-3 and T-4. A good vitamin B complex with methylcobalamin (NEVER cyanocobalamin) should be taken at the same time as the minerals and salt to help you assimilate the B vitamins. Take organic vitamin C at 1 capsule with each veggie juice. Fish oil should also be taken daily starting the third week of the fast.
Fasting for a natural cancer treatment
As we grow older and our immune systems naturally decline, we become more susceptible to disease processes, like cancer. A very recent study out in the journal Cell Press found that performing cycles of intermittent fasting helped protect against immune system damage while inducing immune system regeneration by shifting stem cells from a dormant state to one of self-renewal. At first, fasting (for 4 days a time for this study) lowered white blood cell counts but then flipped on the regenerative switch to signal stem cell generation for both blood and immune system building. The study called this finding “a remarkable effect in promoting stem cell-based regeneration of the hematopoietic system.” By performing fasting cycles we can effectively kill-off older and damaged immune cells while signaling the body to regenerate new ones.
If you are in a current cancer battle, follow up on the juice fast with a strict vegetarian diet for at least 6 more months while water fasting 1 day every week. Avoid ALL processed foods like they are poison (which they actually are…). Avoid all gluten and most grain products for the rest of your life. Eat only wild caught salmon with your vegetarian diet and avoid red meats for the most part in this 6 month time. Sugar will forever be a no-no but honey in small amounts and on occasion might be just “OK”. Be sure to continue your vitamin regimen including the Tyrosine from earlier.
Fasting hope
I have had many stage 4 cancer victims that came to me for advice and one person in particular came to me with the prediction of only 3 days to live. When I told her that she was now on a 3 week juice fast she took courage and added 5 wonder-filled, cancer free, pain free and healthful years to her life. At the time they gurneyed her into the clinic she was on 3 morphine patches a day. Within 2 months she was completely pain free and walking briskly, daily, around her neighborhood.
When an illness has reached its acme the lightest diet must be prescribed ~ Hippocrates
Authored by Cancer Nutritionist Craig Stellpflug NDC, CNC, Dayspring Cancer Clinic Scottsdale, AZ
Copyright 2012 Craig Stellpflug© Permission is hereby granted to copy and distribute this article but only in its entirety