Get Your MEDICAL BIO-MARKERS Immediately when you are Diagnosed

When you are diagnosed with cancer, you would have a plethora of questions concerning every aspect of your condition. Why me when I have been so careful all my life? How come others with toxic lifestyles can get away with a clean slate? Why didn't I know sooner? Now what should I do - who should I trust? Why is there so much contradiction - orthodox and altertive folks alike? Which cures, therapies, options should I choose or do I even get to choose, do I have the right to choose? Which doctors are telling me I don't have time to think and what is their motive? Does leaving thorough research to family members make me feel secure? etc....

All these deserved doubts and questions on top of the initial diagnosis, shock, family pressures and fear!

Then you see that there is a sheer volume of information that you would like to digest and consider before making decisions - even when your background may have been in research or health or healing. Then there’s the terminology that bowls you over: metabolic versus eclectic, complementary and alternative, holistic versus adjunctive, functional versus organic. Overwhelm! And then friends and loved ones add more information into the mix and offer more than assistance - some personal opinions must win out, it seems!
Therapies outside of the mainstream accepted methods are often considered suspiciously - but why? Should you not also be suspicious of chemos - not very successful toxic liquids, afterall, given the hundreds of billions of private and tax research dollars that we have poured into it to try to perfect it nsccessfully so far!

Some alternatives are goofy, concocted by dilettantes and shady types, and people who don’t have your best interests at heart or who are generally ineffective and mis-informed. So you need to learn a lot in a very short time. You need to know your boundaries with others, who you can trust and you need to control your emotions at the very time you want to let them pour out. You may want to see specialists that you may never have considered seeing before, such as naturopaths and/or a psychologist, for example, for a second opinion - not a second opinion similar to the first opinion - why bother. This is definitely not the kind of advice your GP would promote or “waste time” discussing with you.

You may want to gather a trusted small group of people around you - your team - and they will give you a sense of control and protection. They can come with you to each and every meeting - meetings you need to understand ALL your options - clipboard in hand, taking notes and showing how very serious YOU are in deciding what YOU need and that it is YOUR decision, while you concentrate on asking the questions. Then there is always a debriefing - more ears and eyes mean more information to digest after eacg event - nothing wasted. Your team is working for you - each may even have a specialty.

You may even want to see people that you had heard about as others around you explored alternatives in the past, never thinking that you, too, would have a need to checkout these practitioners or specialists. Some of these not-at-the-forefront and under-utilised non-orthodox therapies are discussed here in The Healing Journal and many other websites. A task for some one you trust on your team can shortlist what you specify and need to read, to help you broaden your knowledge and level the playing field of information just a little bit more - to bring you clarity, empowerment and insight where you may have previously heard derision and uninformed, biased points of view.

Mainstream cancer therapies offer a luxury that often goes unnoticed. Decisions are made on your behalf with little or no input by yourself. Appointments are scheduled, transportation by volunteers is arranged etc. and little is required of you except to show up, cope, have faith and follow orders. And your provincial Medical Plan in Canada and/or your American Medical plans pay for a large portion of this "health" care, to boot! That can be a real relief in the face of chaos for some.
In holistic/naturopathic/alternative healing, cancer is seen as a total-body challenge, not a tumour, per se, to be attacked. The origins of the problem are seen as multi-factoral in nature and the return to wellness is perceived as complex - as complex as you are. You, the patient, is viewed as unique and so therefore your therapy will be designed as such, too. Few alternative therapies believe in toxic approaches - an unjustified premise to start with and not very effective. The "fighting and war" mindset may not always be considered healing, either! Working "with" your body in a mindfull, determined manner may be more useful.

Alternatives therapies worth their salt will not hide behind the "genetics" curtain. When toxins get the "blame" then much logic is missing. "Stress" as the often-sited culprit is about as vague and obtuse as describing thirst as the reason for alcoholism. This doesn't diminish the huge amount of stress any diagnosis heaps onto an individual. A true "whole-istic" therapy must drill down to exactly the emotion/situation/shock/conflict that triggered the body's cell deviation. Cells don't deviate for some reasons in some of us and not in others. We know from research that science cannot prevail if two identical situations result in two different results - know as scientific fantasy! In orthodox medicine and alternative medicine this outrage nonsense abounds! And when in doubt, just blame those genes and toxins! Healing has ups and downs that also needs hawk-like attentions.

Going beyond “orthodoxy” can require much more from you: appointments and therapies are spread out amongst doctors and practitioners in different locations; costly life-style changes could be required; little or none of the cost of all of this is reimbursed by regular government medical insurance, even though the cost is much less.

Your new path may open doors never known to you! You will incorporate methods that are the bare basics: maybe some serious detoxification in some cases, rebuilding the immune system in some cases, using the some of the right therapies for you to reduce the cancer itself and embracing significant ways to work with the body-mind connection and, out of necesity, to discover and work with the underlying emotion(s) / conflict that powered your health challenge in the first place, so that you can make changes that are lasting and fundamental to your healing. (So, you see, it is much more than becoming an organic vegan and relaxing more and taking the odd meditation class!)

So you assemble a team - they surround you with support and work hard on your behalf. You design the "wish" list while not being pressured by anyone... you're the boss. Well... a bit of pressure on one person! You can put some on your G.P. if a tumour marker test is not immediately, automatically ordered. Hand in glove with a diagnosis comes the request for this very inexpensive blood test. This is a bio-chemical way of keeping track of where you are at - no guessing and therefore empowering. It is telling that some cancer clinics and doctors and secialists would just as soon let you forget this worthy test... why should you wish to keep track?

No matter what your path of returning to wellness is, you need to know where you “stand” and how you are progressing and if the chosen therapies are working as expected. That is why bio-markers or tumour markers are so useful. If you are diagnosed and NO tumour markers are ordered, you’d want to know why and think twice about how serious your “care” is taken. Maybe markers are not known to that particular doctor or maybe they don’t know which ones to requisite, but there is NO excuse for NO markers. This is a relatively inexpensive blood test that all medical insurance premiums cover. (Another method of keeping track would be live blood analysis - less well known and not properly done by mainstream doctors.)

We have listed the more common tumour markers below.
 
AFP (alpha feto-protein) measures the level of the AFP protein (found in everyone’s blood). Higher levels are associated with pregnancy, fetuses, young children and malignancy. It can be elevated with primary tumours of the liver, endodermal tissue and with non-seminomatous testicular germ-cell tumours. It can also show elevated levels pancreatic cancers, gastric cancers, colonic cancers, and bronchogenic cancers
CA 15-3 - uses cancer Antibodies for measuring and is a particular protein that is shed by breast tumor cells, making it useful as a tumor marker to follow the course of therapy. It is elevated in about 30% of women (or more) with localised breast cancer and in about 75% of those with invasive breast cancer (cancer that has metastasised) and may also be elevated in people with other cancers and conditions such as colorectal cancer, lung cancer, cirrhosis, hepatitis and benign breast disease.
CA 19-9 useful to help differentiate between cancer of the pancreas and bile ducts and some other conditions; used to monitor responses to pancreatic, gastric, hepatic and colorectal cancer treatments and to watch for recurrence.
CA 125 - used for detecting high risk ovarian cancer and tracking treatment and therapy (80% sensitivity) and uterine cancer (60% sensitivity).
CEA - an enzyme immunoassay using a monoclonal antibody against glycoprotein produced by immature and / or malignant cells originating - in the gut. Elevated levels are associated with  carcinoma of the rectum, colon, lung and breast. Smokers can have a higher “normal” range than non-smokers and not have cancer.
DM/70K - used for detecting ovarian cancer (70% sensitivity), gynecologic malignancies and cancer of the lung and breast.
hCG (human Chorionic Gonadotropin) - used to measure hormones made by the placenta during pregnancy or to diagnose trophoblastic disease or germ cell tumors such as of the testicular and ovarian and some lung cancers.
LASA-P a biomarker useful in a wide range of malignancies which measures alterations in the surface membrane (lipid associated sialic acid in plasma). 

More tumour marker details at: http://www.tc-cancer.com/tumormarkers.html

by Merrie bakker, BA, BArch, Pacific Holistic, http://www.pacificholistic.com, 604-261-7742, info@pacificholistic.com
Live blood analysis, Ozone Therapy, Reiki, Dowsing and Reflexology Classes in Vancouver, BC, Canada

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More by this author at:

Oil Pulling - http://www.thehealingjournal.com/node/1473
Eating According to the Glycemic Index - http://www.thehealingjournal.com/node/1462
Oxygen and Ozone Therapies - http://www.thehealingjournal.com/node/101
Castor Oil Packs - http://www.thehealingjournal.com/node/95
Tinnitus - Ringing, Buzzing, Humming & Chirping - http://www.thehealingjournal.com/node/1263
Molybdenum and Manganese - Mining for Good Mental Health and Feeling Better - http://www.thehealingjournal.com/node/1070
Ug99 Spreads - Scientists Scurrying to Secure new Safe Strains - http://www.thehealingjournal.com/node/849
PainKillers - from subtle to strong - http://www.thehealingjournal.com/node/895
Mistletoe - http://www.thehealingjournal.com/node/81
Herb Robert (geranium robertianum) - removing radiation - http://www.thehealingjournal.com/node/153
A Tribute to Dr. Virginia C. Livingston - http://www.thehealingjournal.com/node/96

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