How cancer develops in the bodyTo understand how a cancer cure works, it is important to understand how cancer begins and acts in the human body.

“The basic premise of all this is the change which occurs in the body caused by things that do not belong to the body,” said Dr Brij Sood, veteran cancer surgeon and former clinical director of radiation oncology at the Ein-stein hospitals.

Cancer cures witnessed by the late nurse Rene Caisse and Dr Charles A Brusch as well as others who have used the Ojibwa Indian’s brew, prove its healing properties have conquered cancer. The Ojibwa Indian herbal tea is a natural cure that does no harm.

“The first insult to the cell is by an initiator. Then there are promoters that change the cell into cancer. That’s how science sees it,” Dr Sood explained.

“When change is initiated by environmental or dietary factors, then the next step is promotion. Tobacco, alcohol, ultra violet rays can alter the cell, and the cell responds by doing just what it wants to do as the body’s immune sys-tem is altered and the body’s response is altered,” Dr Sood added.

Describing the genetic factor in cancer, Dr Sood explained: “There are expres-sive genes and suppressive genes. Suppressive genes may be absent in some people. Con-sider them the police. When the police are absent, genes which otherwise would have kept quiet grow. How it hap-pens is a mystery.

“In a person’s lifetime, certain things are done to the body so that the normal healthy way of living is not there any more; the suppressor gene is gone and cancer cells grow. In Indian language, as Cree medicine man Don Cardinal expressed it, they want to put the whole body in harmony, put the body where it belongs, acting in perfect physiological balance,” Dr Sood said.

‘Holy drink that purified the body’“Chemotherapy kills good and bad cells. Herbs may strengthen the strong ele-ments of the body so that the body’s defences can take over

the cancer,” Dr Sood said. “How herbs affect it is

beyond the scientific com-munity to explain. They may strengthen the body’s immune system.”

This doctor with 30 years’ experience in treating cancer patients spoke openly and inquisitively. He listened care-fully to the Cree medicine man describe, in almost the same language originally used by the Ojibwa healer, the Indian herbal drink that acted as a detoxifier: “a holy drink that purified the body”.

In a letter written in 1983 to the Canadian minister of Health, Dr E Bruce Hendrick, chief of the Division of Neuro-surgery at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, stated: “There are some ten patients with surgically treated tumours of the central nerv-ous system who have escaped from conventional methods of therapy including both radia-tion and chemotherapy.

“The patients who were started on Essiac have [had] at the present time … a limited follow-up period to reach defi-nite conclusions. However, in eight out of the ten patients, there has been a significant improvement in their neuro-logical state.

“For further confirmation of the effectiveness of this treatment, we’ll wait on CAT scans and subsequent inves-tigations. I am, however, most impressed with the effective-ness of the treatment and the lack of side effects.”

Dr Hendrick’s letter to Canada’s minister of Health further stated: “I feel that this method of treatment should be given serious consideration and would benefit from a sci-entific clinical trial.”

Flor-EssenceGabriel Lightfriend served as national sales and marketing manager for Flora Inc, with US offices in Lynden, Washing-ton. This is the company that manufactures Flor-Essence, the trademarked herbal tea that is the original formula-tion handed down by nurse Caisse to Dr Charles A Brusch.

Lightfriend said: “We have thousands of people using Flor-Essence around the world: in Asia, New Zealand, Australia, Europe, South and Central America, in the Mid-dle East, Israel, and Arabia.

“When the story broke about five years ago, many imitations came on the mar-ket. People started copying the five herbs we listed as ingredi-ents. Now we list eight herbs on our label, and they are copying eight herbs. The only formulation used clinically is ours.”

Flora Inc is a major health-food manufacturer. Otto Greither, a Bavarian medical doctor and the grandfather of Thomas Greither, current

director of Flora, founded the company as Salus Haup health food stores in Germany in 1916. The company’s relation-ship with the German concern continues, and Flora Inc has a major manufacturing facility in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.

“There was a big write-up on Elaine Alexander (who had interviewed Dr Brusch on her radio show) in Vancouver. She had a contract for the origi-nal formula passed down by nurse Caisse to Dr Brusch and couldn’t handle all the people who wanted it,” Gabriel Light-friend explained.

“Elaine Alexander came to us at our home office in Van-couver. We had the ability to produce it [Flor-Essence] with enough quality standards and volume and also had in both Canada and the Unites States a sales force to educate and tell the story properly,” Light-friend said.

“The biggest thing I can say about it is that Flor-Essence is the inherited formula. Another company in Canada inher-ited the name Essiac, the trade-marked name. Fortunately we have been given the proper for-mula,” Gabriel Lightfriend said.

He explained that their company in Washington state contracts with local farmers to organically grow the herbs required for Flor-Essence. “When it came from the Indi-ans a hundred years ago, they used to pick the herbs in the wild in northern Ontario.

“To sell it worldwide we have to have proper facilities to test it in the lab to assure quality and be sure there are no bacteria in it. We have a lot more first-hand control over the herbs. Some are grown on

our own farm here,” Light-friend explained.

One of the key herbs is sheep sorrel. “There is wild sorrel, but sheep’s head sorrel was used by Rene Caisse and Dr Brusch. That’s a key ingre-dient. Dr Brusch himself had bowel cancer, and he treated it himself with Flor-Essence and was cured,” Lightfriend said.

Information: The book, The Essiac Report, Canada’s Remarkable Unknown Cancer Remedy, is available from The

Alternative Treatment Informa-tion Network, 1244 Ozeta Ter-race, Los Angeles, CA 90069, phone 310-278-6611. Flora, Inc can be contacted at 1-360-354-2110, or visit the website at www.florahealth.com.

Dr John Christopher Fine is the author of 24 books on a vari-ety of subjects. His articles and photography appear in major magazines and newspapers in the United States and Europe.

T HE conventional view is that obesity is the result of eating too much and/or not being

active enough. I don’t quite subscribe to this view myself, as I see body weight as the result of a complex interplay between a variety of factors including the form calories come in in the diet and hormo-nal factors. One key hormone here is insulin – the chief hormone responsible for the accumulation of fat in the fat cells. Get insulin levels down and you have a pretty decent chance of losing weight.

Thyroid and weightOther key hormones that play a part in body weight mainte-nance include those hormones secreted by the thyroid gland. The most plentiful thyroid hor-mone is thyroxine (also known as T4). Thyroxine, essentially, stimulates the metabolism. Some of it, in health, is con-verted into a related hormone known as lio-thyronine (T3) that is more metabolically active. Should the body be deficient in thyroid hormone and/or the tissues be resistant to thyroid hormone (this lat-ter idea is controversial) then “hypothyroidism” (low thy-roid function) is the result.

Hypothyroidism can bring with it many different signs and symptoms, but some of the more common include weight gain, fatigue, low mood/depression, dry skin, dry hair, constipation, sensi-tivity to cold and cold extrem-ities. I’ve found excess weight in individuals with low thy-roid function often to be quite resistant to eating right. Many individuals with low thyroid function feel as though their weight is “stuck” somehow.

I was thinking about this while reading an article on April 12th, ‘Worrying levels of iodine deficiency in the UK’ on the BBC website which informs us that the majority (almost 70 per cent) of teenage girls in the UK are deficient in the nutri-ent iodine. The relevance of this to thyroid function is that iodine is a critical nutrient for proper functioning of the thy-roid and production of thyroid hormone. Iodine deficiency is well known to cause enlarge-ment of the thyroid (known as a “goitre”).

I remember learning in medical school that goi-tres were common in places far from the sea where few iodine-rich foodstuffs (such as fish and seafood) are con-sumed in general terms. This concept came flooding back to me some years ago when I was lecturing in the US and was staying in a hotel which was

also inhabited by teenage girls from a girl guide-like organi-sation based somewhere in the mid-west in the US. I remem-ber remarking to a colleague that every single one of these girls appeared to have a goitre.

Iodine deficiencyIf iodine deficiency is so com-mon, could it be contributing to the “obesity epidemic”? We may not know the answer to that question for sure, but I think it’s fair to say iodine

deficiency will not be helping. And anything that impacts on thyroid function won’t just impact on weight, either, remember. The BBC report makes the point that iodine deficiency can impair brain development in the foetus too.

Ensuring adequate iodine intake does appear to be a matter of considerable importance, particularly for women of child-bearing age. I found what looks like a use-ful resource online for more information about this in the form of the International Council for the Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders. This website has a useful “frequently asked questions” section which gives advice on several relevant issues including recommended daily intakes and potential iodine sources. It should per-haps be borne in mind that vegetarians and vegans are at a significantly increased risk of eating a diet deficient in iodine, according to research published in the British Jour-nal of Nutrition in January 1999 and in the Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism in September 2003.Dr John Briffa is a London-based doctor, author and health writer with a special interest in nutrition and natu-ral medicine. Practical advice about all aspects of health and wellbeing can be found at www.drbriffa.com

Iodine deficiency and the “obesity epidemic”

I’ve found excess weight in individuals with low thyroid function often to be quite resistant to eating right

‘Dr Brusch had bowel cancer, treated it with Flor-Essence, and was cured’

RESEARCH: ‘Radio-elements’ are being produced to locate cancerous cells

Myth or fact: Pilates makes you tallerBY LESLEY POWELL

Does Pilates make your bones and muscles longer? No! It does, however, work on the co-ordination of your mus-cles around your joints to improve mobility and stabil-ity, depending on the partic-ular movement.

Training the deeper mus-cles and the co-ordination needed around your joints can bring new alignment and cre-ate better conditions for injury prevention. Better alignment makes you feel taller.

Mobility and stabilityMobility and stability are very important for posture and movement. When you walk, your muscles are constantly changing to assist the move-ment. If you lack strength and mobility, this will affect your walking.

For example, look at an old person who no longer walks well. Did you ever notice some elderly people shuf-fling in their steps? A lot has to do with their posture. Try to stand slumped and walk. Did you notice that you had to take smaller steps?

When the spine is poorly aligned and compressed, it will affect the movement of the pelvis and the legs. The upper spine should counter-balance the movement of the pelvis in a healthy gait. When a part of the spine is rigid, it will affect the entire sequenc-ing of the spine and limbs.

Tight muscles are usually weak ones as well.

When you walk, one side of your pelvis, your spine, and your legs mobilise to swing the leg through. Mobil-ity is different from stretch-ing. Mobility of the hip, for instance, is the ability of the thighbone to glide in the hip

socket in all the directions provided by the design of the hip socket.

The other side stabilises to assist the mobility. Otherwise, you would be on the floor.

A lot of people have lost this proper sequencing of mobility and stability. This loss could lead to back pain.

According to the founder of Laban movement analy-sis (www.limsonline.org), Rudoph Laban, this concept of mobility and stability is key to physical health.

It is the co-ordination of muscles around a joint that gives stability. For instance, the muscles around the hip and

spine help us stand on one leg. There are muscles around

the knee that help coordi-nate its movement. When the alignment of the knee and the balance of the muscles work-ing around the knee are cor-rect, you will stand differently and possibly be pain free.

Feel the difference in

standing when your legs are parallel. Now bring your knees in (as in knock-knees). How does this make you stand?

Improving the co-ordina-tion of mobility and stability of the entire body will change how you stand and move.

Mobility gives the joints the proper space to move. Dynamic stability supports the body to move in space with its proper mobility.

Feel taller when you recon-nect to the co-ordination of muscles around the joints for both mobility and stability.

Lesley Powell, CMA, founder and director of Movements Afoot, has been a private fitness trainer since 1986. Movementsafoot@mac.com for further inquiries.

BY MIMI LI

HOLLYWOOD star Catherine Zeta-Jones recently revealed that she suffers from manic depression, or bipolar disor-der.

What is bipolar disorder?• Manic depression is the

former name of what is nowa-days known as bipolar disor-der.

• Bipolar disorder is char-acterised by extreme mood swings, and is categorised as an affective or mood disorder.

• Mood swings of those with manic depression are different from normal mood swings. “The mood swings of bipolar [disorder] are more severe, longer lasting, and maybe most significant of all, they interfere with some important aspect of function-ing, such as ability to work at one’s job, or manage one’s home, or be a successful stu-dent,” Matthew Rudorfer of the National Institute of Men-

tal Health has said to WebMD.com.

• Symptoms of bipolar disorder are severe. The condi-tion can lead to broken inter-personal relationships, doing poorly in school or work, and suicide.

• Manic depression is named after the two phases of the disorder. The “manic” phase is characterised by euphoric aggression, while the “depression” phase includes anxiety and hopelessness.

• Nearly six million Ameri-can adults suffer from bipolar disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. About 1 per cent of the Irish population is diagnosed with the condition.

• No one really knows what causes manic depression. Sci-entists think that the disorder can be genetically inherited, a result of imbalanced hor-mones or neurotransmitters, and triggered by stress and other traumatic experiences.

Sources: WedMD.com, Mayo Clinic, National Institute of Mental Health.

Some facts about bipolar disorder

Pilates can bring new alignment and create better conditions for injury prevention

The rise of Essiac teaIn part three of this four-part series DR JOHN CHRISTOPHER FINE describes how a leading company took this herbal formula from obscurity to worldwide popularity

FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE

AMANDA EDWARDS/GETTY IMAGES

Mobility and stability are important for posture and movement

12 HEALTHMay 13 - 19, 2011

A FRESH LOOK AT OUR CHANGING WORLD

ON THE PULSE

DR JOHN BRIFFA