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HEALTH WATCH: DO ESSENTIAL FATTY ACIDS IN THINGS LIKE FLAXSEED PROVIDE HOPE FOR THOSE WITH CANCER?

Are there natural ways of curing cancer? No doubt. Never lose hope. But be cautious. There is no one cure-all. There are over-statements. The best cure is prevention, and prevention involves a sharp turnaround in how we eat (replacing refined white sugar with natural sweeteners, like honey, stocking up on dark greens, avoiding chemicals, eating, for example, broccoli, carrots, almonds, drinking good water). Go for what's closest to what God fashioned.

Diet is crucial but making it healthful can be like turning around an ocean-liner.

In the maze of alleged alternative cures for serious disease -- particularly cancer, which we have focused on because of its prevalence -- a few stand out if for no reason other than they are constantly mentioned. Among these: flaxseed oil. Mixed with low-fat cottage cheese, it has caused what seem like some remarkable results.

The flaxseed claims come about due to the theories of a German biochemist named Johanna Budwig, who was nominated seven times for a Nobel Prize and claimed to have documented a thousand cases of cancer recovery. As explained by Tanya Harter Pierce in Outsmart Your Cancer, Dr. Budwig allegedly discovered that those with cancer tended to have a green-yellowish fluid in their blood (as opposed to oxygen-rich hemoglobin). Lack of oxygen is often implicated in cancer (which functions anaerobically -- without oxygen; it likes an acidic, low-oxygen environment).

And it gets that, in part -- the low oxygen -- when a diet lacks omega-three and omega-six nutrients, the two "essential fatty acids fats" you hear so much about. Oxygen utilization in our cells depends on essential fatty acids. It was a Nobel-Prize-winning physicist, Dr. Otto Warburg, who first found the oxygen connection.

Besides helping with oxygen (ushering it more readily into the cells), omega-three (which comes from many fish) and omega-six (which often comes from seeds and nuts) also form healthy cell membranes, while those altered oils that surround us at the supermarket do the opposite (even clogging up cell walls and leading to something else you frequently hear about: inflammation). When a cell's membrane has been compromised, it can divide itself in a crazy way, causing tumors.

Modern companies alter oil so much to preserve shelf life that these crucial oils have been turned into unhealthful fats.

If you are eating peanut butter and it doesn't have a layer of oil on the top, it's one example of altered fats. Anything "hydrogenated" is a problem. Fried foods and margarines are altered fats.

But back to the alleged cancer "cure":

One of the best sources of both omega-three and omega-six fats is flaxseed oil (or what some call linseed): Additions of it to the diet may affect not just cancer, it is claimed, but arthritis, heart infarction, and other inflammatory ailments. (Why the cottage cheese? Because it's a sulfur-based protein that greatly enhances the ability of healthful oils to assimilate in cells. Onions, leeks, garlic, chives, and yogurt are other examples of sulfur-based proteins.)

The best seafood sources for omega-three include sardines, wild-caught salmon, and mackerel.

And as mentioned, also flaxseed, which has been touted from ancient times (going back to Hippocrates) as a health food.

Some believe it's important to combine flaxseed with cottage cheese not only to enhance its effects but because too much flaxseed oil by itself may cause some people problems. We suggest consulting a nutritionist if it's going to be used in volume over time. (The flaxseed oil recommended was unrefined, cold-pressed oil kept refrigerated, such as Barlein's). With it, there are those who testify to cures from the most difficult malignancies, as well as common ones such as prostate and breast cancer (even when they have metastasized). The effects are often gradual and the "cure," in some cases, may take years. Start slowly.

There's is always hope -- where there is prayer.

One man who was diagnosed with "glioblastoma multiforme" brain cancer decided it was time to seek guidance and went to church with his wife Kelly, recounts Tanya. "They had Tom anointed with oil and hands were laid on him in prayer by the elders (according to James 5:14). They also began to look into holistic methods of fighting cancer. After all, there was nothing conventional medicine could do that would offer him a chance of long-term cure.

"Through other members of the church, Tom and Kelly then found out about Dr. Budwig's flaxseed oil and cottage cheese treatment and they started Tom on this March 2002. On top of that, Kelly frequently rubbed frankincense oil on Tom's head because they had heard that this oil has anti-cancer properties."

Eventually, his MRI was completely clean.

He'd had surgery. But his own doctor thought the way it cleared up was "a miracle," in Tanya's words. In fourteen years of practice, he'd never seen such a result, he reportedly told them. All of his MRI's since have likewise been clear. He was given his life back. Before his cancer, he had been drinking two liters of diet soda a day (artificial sweeteners are implicated by some in brain cancer). Was it flaxseed -- and prayer -- to the rescue?

Such are the reports.

Many come in. There are many "treatments" in nature.

Forsaking conventional medical care is not what is advised here. But at least augmenting conventional treatments with natural ones (and in some cases, perhaps, replacing procedures that may cause more harm than good) is something to pray about.

Prayer works. Of that we're certain.

Mary Undoer of Knots plus The Holy Cloak novena, $7.25

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