Anticancer: A New Way of Life
by David Servan-Schreiber
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Book Reviews of Anticancer: A New Way of Life
Book Review: Good News for the Walmart/Target Shopper!
Summary: 4 Stars
I admire this book not so much for the content, which can be found in many, many other resources, but that it has been marketed for the Walmart/Target crowd who never would have had access to this information had they not come across this book in those retail outlets. I don't mean this as a put down as I first saw the book prominently displayed in Target. You see, most of those with cancer do nothing other than what their oncologist suggests .... Having my own cancer story I have gone much further outside the box than this book with the MD stamp suggests and I have been able after almost 5 years to avoid any sort of mainstream treatment for my cancer. I do still have cancer in my body but have not only been able to keep it suppressed through non-mainstream means but it is now on the decline. Yeah! It makes little sense to me however to tell someone what dietary changes to make other than to do what makes sense for you as there is evidence to the contrary for EVERY dietary suggestion you will find (I am looking at you low-fat crowd) except to stay away from carbs and sugar (but then Martin Brofman, a cancer survivor and now successful healer ate junk food while he was healing of "terminal" cancer. HIs story is my favorite of all that I have read. See him at http://www.healer.ch You can find him on Youtube as well). If you were to ask me what to do about cancer I would not give you any advice other than to "Know Thyself" and give up everything you think you know about cancer and healing. And there are books I would recommend to throughly shake up what you believe about cancer (and possibly confuse you as well with all the contradictions you will find): There is a book that is not available on Amazon but is available on the net called "Chemotherapy Kills Cancer and the World is Flat," 100% of the cancer patients who recovered this author studied did "energy work" in some form; only 80% made dietary changes as well. These next two you can find right here on Amazon: "The Hidden Story of Cancer" by Brian Peskin, "You Can Fight for Your Life" by Lawrence LeShan. Anything regarding EFT will be helpful with your energy work: www.emofree.com Also, Bill Henderson's classic "Cancer-Free" is recommended. I find Ken Wilber's work on the Integral Model and AQAL valuable for all areas of my life - "Integral Life Practice: A 21st-Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening" is a great place to start. I also go to a Classical Homeopath that has been very, very helpful in my healing; do not believe the quacks who live to debunk homeopathy as I have been CURED of my "incurable" chronic bronchitis, as well as acne and cracks I had on the corners of my mouth for 20 years by homeopathy. I do recommend going to a Classical Homeopath and not a Naturopath if you choose Homeopathy. New German Medicine is worth the effort it takes to google it and spend a few minutes learning about it. And there are many, many books about the deception and power of the Medical-Industrial complex that will cause you to at least not swallow every little bit of information that comes out of your doctor's mouth whole. Well, in the end, everything works and nothing works because it is all up to you. Good Luck!Book Review: Why Don't We All Get Cancer?
Summary: 5 Stars
From: www.BasilAndSpice.com
Book Review: Anticancer: A New Way of Life (Viking, 2008) by David Servan-Schreiber
Both an informational book and an autobiography, Anticancer begins with the premise that all of us have cancer in our bodies, but not all of us will develop the disease. The author, David Servan-Schreiber tells his story of how he discovered his own brain cancer while testing an MRI machine, how he felt about his diagnosis, and what issues he faced. This autobiography is truly fascinating as Servan-Schreiber lowers the privacy walls surrounding his life, to allow us in. He has been a cancer survivor for 16 years. David Servan-Schreiber, MD, PhD, is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and cofounder of the Center for Integrative Medicine.
As a physician who has also been a patient himself, Servan-Schreiber wants the West to know what the recent discoveries in the world of cancer research are and how they can benefit us. The major points of Anticancer:
* The Western diet creates conditions for the disease.
* Our bodies are making defective cells all of the time.
* Each of us also has a body designed to fight the process of tumor development.
* Sugar and stress do feed cancer.
* There are physical effects from feelings of helplessness and unhealed wounds which affect our ability to restore our health.
Benefits of reading Anticancer: Servan-Schreiber explains:
* How to find the right blend of traditional and alternative care
* How to minimize environmental toxins
* How to reap the benefits of exercise, yoga, and meditation
* How to learn about ways to achieve life balance and good nutrition to combat it
* How to develop a science-based anticancer diet
Servan-Schreiber places a major emphasis on our food. Many cancer patients, relying on their oncologists' advice, believe that they can eat whatever they wish, thinking it will have no bearing on their wellness. Servan-Schreiber states that this simply isn't true. He outlines the importance of food and its synergy with the body showing the research behind eating well. Key topics include refined sugars, red meat, fats, organic, garlic, turmeric, and toxins.
Also included within the book's middle is an Anticancer Action Plan, for quick reference. The Plan highlights foods to eat regularly and is well designed. (The number one vegetable is garlic.)
Anticancer also discusses how to avoid toxins, the need for exercise, how our mind and body works together, how to overcome fear, talking about death, and notes the recent research into cell phone risks.
Anticancer should be read by everyone. It is a tool for cancer prevention, and a wellness guide for those living with the disease. Anticancer offers considerable scientific-backed research to support its lifetime living plan. The only negative--it wasn't published quickly enough. I have personally recommended this book to others who live with cancer.
5 Stars
Book Review: "Enjoy the benefits of medical progress and the body's natural defenses."
Summary: 5 Stars
In "Anti-Cancer: A New Way of Life," French-born psychiatrist and neuroscientist Dr. David Servan-Schreiber discusses his fifteen-year battle with brain cancer. Although conventional treatments worked initially, the cancer recurred. Fortunately, he has been cancer-free for the past seven years, and he attributes his success to an anti-cancer regimen that, he asserts, boosts the body's natural defenses. Dr. Servan-Schreiber does NOT encourage cancer patients to reject their doctors' advice concerning surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation treatments. However, he does believe that there is nothing to lose and everything to gain by making changes in one's diet, level of physical activity, psychological attitude, and environment.
This book is an informative and eye-opening look at the mechanisms of cancer, explained in a way that a layman can understand. There are many helpful charts, tables, and illustrations that clarify the sometimes technical information about the latest research on the genesis and progression of cancer. The author maps out how rogue cells are nourished and conversely, how they can be starved of the nourishment that they need to multiply. Although researchers have undoubtedly made a great deal of progress, Servan-Schreiber assures us that we have a long way to go before we can declare victory over the many types of cancer that still plague mankind. In addition, he includes well-chosen quotations from literature (such as Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilyich"), philosophy, and other physicians and scientists to illustrate his points, some of which deal with our fear of dying without having lived a full and meaningful life.
"Anti-Cancer" is a personal, touching, instructive, and thought-provoking. Whether or not the reader is interested in adopting the author's recommendations concerning diet, exercise, meditation, and other lifestyle changes, no one who completes this book will ever think about cancer or about the human body in quite the same way. Servan-Schreiber is not a new-age charlatan who advocates far-out therapies. Everything that he suggests is based on solid and well-documented research, and he includes numerous citations from scientific journals.
Although no one wants to confront a fatal illness, Servan-Schreiber contends that his battle with cancer has had a positive aspect. "By exposing life's brevity, a diagnosis of cancer can restore life's true flavor." Forced for the first time to look into his soul and evaluate his approach to living, he realized that he had been caught up in a treadmill that allowed him little time to appreciate the importance of mind-body equilibrium, inner peace, relationships with loved ones, and personal fulfillment. Everyone, no matter what the state of his or her health, can benefit from this stimulating and provocative work.
Book Review: Anti-Cancer: A Must Read for the Health Seeker
Summary: 4 Stars
David begins the book with the story of his own cancer, thus giving us the rare perspective of an MD who is also a patient. (His personal account is thereafter woven throughout the text.)
While researching for my own book, I have read hundreds of nutrition books. Nonetheless, I was able to get several new gems and tidbits of information from this one. For example, he boils the obesity epidemic down to one single factor (p. 66). I also learned that turmeric is not effective as an anti-inflammatory agent unless mixed with black pepper.
Finally, an MD who addresses the importance of detox by diet! The book is worth the price just for the chapter on the anti-cancer foods, along with the colored charts in the middle that boil down the essence of the book's advice.
Although Dr. Servan goes into great detail about anti-cancer foods, he seems to be unaware of the importance of eating them in their natural uncooked state, since studies have proven that many of the phytochemicals are less bioavailable when cooked, and in fact cooking produces chemical toxins that add to the toxic burden the body must deal with.
Dr. Servan is still under the influence of the drug companies when he claims that one is a "charlatan" is one "refuses to work in collaboration with an oncologist and recommends stopping conventional treatments." Paradoxically, he admits just how toxic chemotherapy and radiotherapy are. He goes into great detail about how toxins are at the root of most cancers. So why he finds value in adding more toxins to a toxic, sick body is a mystery. The body, in its infinite wisdom, is able to cleanse by fasting and eating fresh juices and anti-cancer foods, as Lorraine Day, MD discovered when she healed herself that way of breast cancer, forgoing all convention toxic treatments. Tens of thousands of patients at various Natural Hygiene clinics have likewise healed of cancer without using toxins.
The basic chemical used in chemotherapy is similar to mustard gas, a World War I weapon used to kill soldiers on the battlefield. It was so terrible that wartime treaties banned its future wartime
If you can just forget his advice about toxic drugs, this book is a must-read for cancer patients and people wishing to prevent cancer. It has plenty of useful advice for the mind as well as body. This book really is a guide for taking back your power, expanding your life span despite cancer, taking control!
Book Review: Evidence through anecdote
Summary: 5 Stars
I am only about halfway through this book and, like others, also wish I'd had it on hand about three years ago, when my dearest friend was diagnosed with gastrointestinal stromal tumors (AKA GIST cancer) for the third time in her 25 years of life. After two experimental drug trials, a rare side effect from one (or two) types of chemotherapeutic pills stopped her heart, effectively killing her, twice in one week. Both times, my friend was paddled back to life, alive but without any remaining traditional treatment options: Her heart was too weak for surgery and, specifically, anesthesia; the last available experimental drugs had killed her (twice); and no other drugs were left. Until three years ago, I'd thought that the scariest words I'd ever heard her say were "I have cancer," but when I heard doctors say "There is nothing else we can do" I realized I'd been wrong. And believe me, we looked all over the country for one more thing that could be done.
Because no other traditional treatment options remained, my friend was left with natural options. None of us, my friend included, believed these would work, but that was all that was left: We thought it was crazy, we thought it would never work, we thought she was as good as dead. Out of desperation, she did things that still sound crazy: "live" blood tests, vitamin C IVs, a vegan diet (80% raw, 20% cooked), juicing, supplements, cesium, enemas, and stripping out all processed foods, plastic containers, and unnatural personal products.
July 2009 marked three full years since my friend last took traditional drugs, and her 14 GIST tumors are either stable or slowly, slightly shrinking. Her quality of life is incredibly high and her heart returned to normal after a few months. No one quite knows what to make of it.
Much of what my friend has done is covered in this book and, whether you believe it or not, it's worth a read. This book summarizes much of what required YEARS of online reading and research to learn. I am so happy that books like this (as well as Crazy Sexy Cancer) are beginning to bring some of these ideas into the mainstream. I'm certainly not claiming that they work or work the same way for everyone, but hey, that's the deal with drugs, too!