What the Hell is Cancer anyway?

Last month we published Terry Railton’s story of how he cured himself of cancer through natural means. This month it is the turn of Karina Clappison from Beverley: What the Hell is Cancer anyway? That is the question I wanted to answer – why me, and how was I going to turn this around? Most people’s worst nightmare is to hear, “I’m sorry it’s Cancer.” Most react naturally – “How long have I got?” then plead – “just get rid of it!” I decided that my cervical cancer diagnosis was an opportunity – an opportunity to find out. What is going on in my body to make cells turn ‘rogue’ and what is the root cause of my cells turning cancerous? I never even considered that I would have any treatment operations. I believed I knew enough to know that there had to be a reason, a cause. Much to my oncologist’s surprise after he had told me “Karina, if you don’t undergo treatment now you may well be dead in a year!” I disagreed politely and believed otherwise. I knew a lot about nutrition, so felt confident in healing foods having trained as a nutritional councillor. However I also knew through my studies in Naturopathic Nutrition that the physical is not all a human is. Scientists confirm that our body’s chemistry responds to stimuli such as the thoughts you think, the emotions you feel (or do not feel) and the beliefs you hold. Genetics do play a part. However, a controversial comment here, genetics does not wholly dictate whether you manifest cancer – check out the book ‘The Genie in your Genes’ by Dawson Church. My decision was to concentrate for at least 6 months on a variety of health promoting daily lifestyle habits before seeing my oncologist again. My food intake consisted of raw fruits and vegetables, drinking fresh fruit and vegetable juices daily, mainly from ingredients that were grown organically and some from my recently acquired allotment. Juicing extracts more vital nutrients into one cup than food you can munch on in a day. I also took a range of specific supplements to aid my immune system to detox. A charity called Cancer Action leant me an infra red sauna which comfortably heats up the body to sweat out toxins. The twenty minutes per day helped by sweating a deeper sweat compared with a conventional sauna, enabling the body to excrete a higher percentage of toxins together with daily exercise at the gym and walking in nature. I had a range of specific supplements to aid my immune system to detox too. That day of my diagnosis an email appeared in my inbox – it was about emotional health! It’s true that when we are ready the right situations appear. It took courage to walk through that door that day, to invest in an area of my health that in my heart was an invitation from a higher source. I immediately invested in more study with a teacher, to learn more about the power of mind consciousness, emotional freedom and spiritual connection. Faith had the power to release the pain and patterning which was still running my body. Growing up I was an exceptionally shy individual and riddled with self doubt but I was brought up to just ‘get on with it’, so I conformed! My low self esteem, fear, shame and guilt were common feelings. As an innocent child a protective response is to rebel, but I complied. Until the day I was diagnosed I was still carrying a huge burden of emotional stress and unconsciously pushing those difficult emotions down. Progressive stress triggers the body to produce a stress hormone, cortisol. Too much cortisol has many consequences, slowing down the body’s ability to maintain normal cellular functions as well as creating havoc specifically with hormonal health. So when I was diagnosed with cervical cancer it didn’t come as a surprise understanding that fear and negative emotions obstruct normal functioning of cells. In our busy society meditation and silence is an important ritual in order to access inner peace. We all have stress in our lives of some sort and finding time to feel good, feel at peace and to bathe in self-love is one of the most important lessons I have learnt in my own cancer journey, mostly that of forgiveness of self and others. Getting to the heart of the matter, “Pain can be an awakening,” says Karina, “but it is not a pleasant way to be awakened. The body has a canny way of letting you know there is a problem”. Now Karina’s work revolves around treating each person as unique. She designs an individual programme dependent on current lifestyle, past history and what specifically is ailing the client. Interestingly, she has found that for many the physical pains/issues have their roots in emotional blocks. Visit her website at www.eatyourwaybacktohealth.co.uk or email [email protected] and she will take it from there in the strictest confidence. Are there any others out there with healing stories to tell?