I no longer accept that disease is the way of living

Healing and Health Issues

I've come to realize: start with food issues. I've done meditations, sports, etc., but none has done me a greater service than what I put into my body. Once I started to change my attitudes toward food, my health vastly improved.

I started this journey when my girlfriend suggested I check out [a site displaying your books] because she intuited some sort of affinity. I found out about this ascended master on [the site] and read some of the solstice channelings. Some of the teachings are too esoteric for me to comprehend, but what resonated was... advice to study and absorb the spiritual nature of food. Food that's cooked has little or no spiritual nurturing for us. You go to a supermarket and you can sense the elevated vibrations of the produce section and the low or dead vibrations of the refrigerated or processed foods sections. [The site] repeatedly points to the book We want to live, by Aajonus Vonderplanitz (rawmilk.org), which I finally ordered last Spring. It's become the most studied book I've had. I turn to it for any healing crisis I have and I've not visited a regular physician since I opened the book.

After a workshop and private session with Vonderplanitz,

I was onto my new food schedule. Weaned of coffee and alcohol, I found immediate health benefits in this new diet. The chronic health problems were gone over night and returned quickly when I didn't have access to my green juice during the week of moving into my house last month. Headaches though continued to flare up during stressful periods, but they now seem to have vanished, after I got my almgam fillings pulled a few weeks ago. John Butler, my healer in Syracuse, suggested I should get my teeth cleaned out now and not wait till I am healthier.
Right now, I am detoxing from mercury buildup and my lower back hurts a little, understandably. Some mercury leached into the body when the fillings were replaced (with plastic composites). Studies (with sheep) have shown that amalgam fillings leach into the body continuously, especially with hot beverages and foods. The kidney and the brain absorb the toxic metals, and I suspect now that many of us with lower back pain and/or urinary problems are fighting mercury poisoning. My back pain has been very subdued or vanished despite the mercury buildup in the kidneys due to the cilanthro I put in the green juice and the butter or coconut cream I eat with the juice. The fat traps the loosened mercury (made volatile by cilantro) and flushes it out of the body. Hot baths (with Epsom salt and baking soda for 22 minutes) help deal with flushing out radiation contamination and toxic metal through the skin, as does vigorous exercise.

Medical Myths

This raw foods diet dispels several medical myths and gives us tools to preach these new values:
1. fat is good: raw butter, raw coconut cream (homemade, with Greenstar juicer), raw avocados all are vital to build healthy fat cells in the body and strengthen the liver
2. eggs are great: raw eggs and lots of them heal during health crisis, take down swellings and flush out toxins. Forget the cholesterol scare.
3. eat starch in moderation: Aajonus suspects that my mother's heavy starch diet contributed to discoloring my eyes to brown. Now with this diet, the attempt is to bring them back to blue. Aajonus advises to eat a soft nut meal (ground nuts) only once a week.
4. raw [food] is an excellent source for healing.
5. raw milk is the best: this gets to the crux of our modern neurosis, that all milk and juices, etc., have to be processed, pasteurized and homogenized. Once I started drinking raw milk my teeth and gum pains disappeared.
6. green juices are beneficial: it's hard for our stomach to absorb raw vegetables, such as salads, especially cucumbers because they are high in fibers. With a Greenstar Juicer or other model that separates fiber and juice, we get a high energy drink; no need for coffee; well, I still retain my weakness for teas, even though I know full well that they make the body acidic.

I no longer accept that disease is the way of living, especially into old age.

I started on this new diet - and I have never followed any strict diet plan before -when I realized that quite a few of my friends had contracted cancer and some died because, as I suspected, of using chemotherapy. Given my own protracted health problems which could only be stabilized with antibiotics, I grew impatient and ask for new holistic perspectives. I no longer accept that disease is the way of living, especially into old age, I am no longer scared of cancers because I know that there's a way to reverse it, and it's not advertised by the medical establishment that pushes chemical treatment. Aajonus has been dubbed the guru of the 'underground raw milk movement' by the Wall Street Journal. They are taking note of us. Let's not be deterred by it, but convince ourselves to overcome fears and walk lightly on a new path of healthfulness.

Mecke N., Cortland, New York

Cancer answer to person new to Primal Diet

A gentleman in the Netherlands wrote to Aajonus:
"I've recently bought your latest book and I am pretty happy with that investment. I've been researching diets for many years now and of course a lot of contradicting facts will emerge then, usually I can distill the truth by myself but this time I was hoping you could perhaps elaborate on one of those widespread contradictions. Namely the famous "Gerson diet/therapy". I was hoping you could elaborate on that subject a little and free me of my confusion.. Or why they might both be successful? ... I hope this won't just clear up my confusion but can help everyone else in need who has concern about this.
Thank you very much for your work and time, all the best, P.C."

In my book The Recipe For Living Without Disease, I discuss therapies and their effectiveness, how to distinguish between independent disease-reversals attributed to therapies rather than cyclic phase of the body and therapies that truly help bodies reverse disease.
healthfully,
aajonus

As I was not sure how rapidly Aajonus would be able to respond, I asked my wife Barbara if she had anything to say to this gentleman. Here is what she said:
As fate would have it, I myself am a cancer patient (diagnosed over three years ago with advanced spinal cancer after MRI), and so I have done much research on different alternative cancer therapies, including having read the whole Max Gerson book on the subject. That is no small feat for a layman like myself to read the erudite writings of a German scientist.

It is true that most alternative therapies have their record of successes. I myself chose the Primal Diet. I saw Aajonus Vonderplanitz, who gave me a tailored diet that is based on the basic Primal Diet, which is the subject of both his books: We Want To Live, and The Recipe For Living Without Disease.

To say that I am a nutritional miracle of the Primal Diet, would be an understatement. Dr. Vonderplanitz did also recommend some additional herbs etc., since my type of cancer is very aggressive, and is considered fatal by the medical community. Especially since the cancer was everywhere on the spine and was very far-gone by the time I started the Primal Diet. (I was told by my oncologist that there is no cure for this, and chemo wouldn't cure me, but just "manage my symptoms" to which I replied, 'no thanks'. So I have had no medical therapy at all, not even a biopsy.)

It is the case that Gerson did recommend the juice of raw liver in addition to his mostly fruits/veggies/grains diet, though I believe that he withdrew that recommendation, after discovering the toxic condition of the livers of most animals. He also recommended a Lugol solution, which if memory serves me, is either iron or iodine.

For me, having raw meats, fish and chicken (and oysters and scallops) and also raw liver, does supply me with a good quantity of the vitamins, minerals and enzymes available with these meats. In addition, I find the raw milk and other raw fats to be very nourishing and calming.

Please note that I am not a nutritionist, and so I can only relay my own experiences. I am not qualified to give any other information or advice of any kind. So I hope that answers at least some of your questions. For other questions, please see the two books of Dr. Vonderplanitz, and look in the index for his ideas about cancer, and how to handle that disease.

Sincerely, Barbara Ellingson

Note from webmaster: Aajonus' book We Want To Live: the Primal Diet contains several pages about cancer.

Cancer patient on the Primal Diet reports

This is to acquaint you with the recent trip to Mexico of the "in-progress" cancer patient (Barbara Ellingson) who is on the Aajonus Vonderplanitz Primal Diet--and in the absence of all medical treatment (no surgery, no chemo, no radiation). Things are once again going well! We show that all is holding steady. The spinal cancer which was far advanced 2 years ago upon diagnosis (per MRI and CT scan done at a local hospital) is showing reduction in some of the tumor sites on the spine, with some new growths on some other areas of the spine. From my understanding, this is consistent with the Aajonus Vonderplanitz' book called We Want To Live, (see index) and the fact that blood tests reveal that the tumor burden as a whole remains steady. In personal consulations with Aajonus, he has said from the get-go that it takes 2-4 years to begin to reverse this cancer.
2 years ago before the disease was first diagnosed (over Labor Day 2006), I was immobile for 3 days and had to be taken to the hospital on a stretcher in an ambulance in to their emergency room to find out what was wrong. When I was shown the MRI by the medical doctor (on his lap top computer) there were tumors, masses, lesions and damage everywhere on the spine. The cancer had largely taken over the sacrum, and was visible in the bone marrow.

I am now walking around (although slowly).
I FEEL BETTER! MORE ENERGY! (even despite the numerous "detoxification" symptoms.)

I am looking forward to a DETAILED report based on a comparison (film-to-film) of 2 MRI's a year and a half apart, that will be done in Mexico--soon, I am told. I will post that when I get it.

More information in detail is available earlier on the blog in November 2007, and also on the wewant2live.com website, namely my picture and poem, at the bottom of the home page.

CANCER, FROM A SURVIVOR'S VIEWPOINT!

This is being written by a person with cancer

who has vital information to share based on successes with a raw food diet. Hello, I am Barbara Ellingson here, alive and kicking, on planet earth, 2008!

Over the fateful Labor Day Weekend in 2006, when I was transported on a stretcher in an ambulance because I had been unable to move for 3 days due to back pain, they did an MRI at the hospital and I got diagnosed with advanced spinal cancer.

My prospects were bleak in terms of cancer recovery—and I know because I got to see the MRI on the medical doctor's lap-top computer. That was the picture worth 1000 words. It certainly explained why I'd ended up immobile and in the hospital to begin with.

I called Aajonus Vonderplanitz PhD Nutrition, right away. I won't go in to how I had heard of him earlier, but suffice it to say I got started on his recommended raw food diet and herbs at that time. I could tell within a week that I was no longer being consumed—from the inside. The raw food diet was that calming, even before I started the herbs. (By the way, I am now walking around.)

My nutritionist zeroed in on 2 main factors that are common to holistic cancer treatments: detoxification and nutrition, but not as you will usually find— when you read his books, you will see. The herbs he recommended as being non-toxic were intended as a more aggressive treatment beyond the diet, so that I would not end up paralyzed due to spinal nerve damage as a result of the cancer.

So here I am still alive and doing well (all things considered) two weeks short of two years after cancer-diagnosis, with what the hospital doctors believe (in the absence of a biopsy) is most likely the multiple myeloma form of cancer. I had chosen not to have a biopsy done because we knew the tumors on my spine were malignant, and I did not want to risk spreading the disease. Since then I have chosen to receive no medical treatment for cancer at all: that is, no surgery, no radiation, no chemotherapy. The latest MRI and blood tests (one and a half years after the original tests) show essentially no spreading of the cancer since it was first discovered! I am just one example of living proof of a cancer treatment that is relatively gentle, and that really does hold a promise of full recovery down the line.

Note: at the bottom of the home page on the website is a picture of me strangling the cancer monster, and also a poem that I wrote and dedicated to my nutritionist. Then you will see that the 1^st five chapters of this author's first book are available to view on the website FOR FREE. Please get the flavor and concept of this and see what you think.

Also, the information you'll find about nutrition is also great for preventing illnesses of various kinds and for boosting good health—it's not only helpful with cancer. As we know, our good health is our most valuable commodity. It's easy to take it for granted, even though it really stands at the beginning of all that we embark upon every day in life!

The pros and cons of the raw food diet...

A Primal Dieter (Barbara Ellingson) was interviewed on video last Sunday June 22nd, about successes with the Primal Diet in relation to "serious" health situations. The interviewer was a lady reporter called Gypsy, from the Bay area who has herself in the past written to Aajonus "to thank you for saving my life" (see her blog entry on November 17, 2007). Barbara points out that since she has cancer, it was of interest for Gypsy to see that she is doing well and holding steady, according to objective medical tests such as MRI, blood tests, ultra-sounds, etc.
Alyson Powell was also interviewed. In her career as a hairdresser, she has had to deal with much chemical toxicity. She is doing well on the Primal Diet and did an interesting interview.
Stay tuned to see if either of these interviews air on any TV stations in your area!

How Aajonus was right so many times...

I am the one who was diagnosed (end of August 2006) with advanced spinal cancer, and am still here to tell the tale. (Yay!) The prospects for such a scenario with standard medical treatment were bleak indeed, and my local oncologist was honest enough to tell me so. With just my seeing the MRI of my spine on the doctor's laptop computer, it looked like the aliens had landed! (Whew!) But fortunately I had known of Aajonus earlier, and had even been on the diet 7 years back for a year, before going off it (big mistake). So Aajonus put me back on the raw food diet (with tailored instructions), and said to high-tail it to Mexico for the only source he knew of for non-toxic herbal treatment for cancers.

I can only say that I started reading everything I could get my hands on relating to the "beast". Then I asked Aajonus about doing various other things to help the banish the cancer more certainly and/or more swiftly. It was like having a guide along the way to steer me to the right things and away from the wrong things. Some of the right things were: add raw bone marrow to my regime weekly, add sunbathing, add more lymph baths (see the book We Want To Live), and add the recipe for de-toxing aluminum. This last was based on iridology exams. One wrong thing that I luckily avoided adding was IV ozone drips. (Months later someone I knew with cancer, worsened by doing exactly that.) Suffice it to say that I feel blessed with the good advice that I got from Aajonus, and that things are holding steady for me (to the surprise of my local oncologist), and I just have to be patient. Aajonus spent 2-4 years just to start to reverse his own cancers, and about 12 years to eliminate them totally. Slow and steady wins the race!

A Cancer remedy called Coley's Toxins

Perhaps you have not heard of this one, right?

Over 50 years ago William B. Coley M.D. discovered that deliberately introducing certain bacteria in to a person's body would stimulate their immune system to start fighting cancer. That launched a 40 year venture on his part with cancer research and cures. This didn't get picked up by mainstream medical research, that I can see. When I read about Coley in a book by Ralph W. Moss, I realized this was at least one discovery that went before the Primal Diet--a diet which has been so successful in my dealing with advanced spinal cancer. Here was yet another researcher who found that bacteria were not such a horrible threat to us all!

What can I say except that the Primal Diet (which is so rich in bacteria from meat, dairy and other sources) has seemed to produce lots of flu and cold symptoms, vomiting, diarrhea, ear infections and etc. No wonder I have been losing skirmishes but winning the war! For my full story thus far, you may refer to this blog (cancer section) where 4 parts of the story were posted starting November 1st 2007.

Gypsy has done well with the Primal Diet...

Dear Aajonus,

my name is Gypsy Taub. I am a TV host and media activist in the Bay Area.

First of all, I would like to thank you for saving my life. I read your book on the Big Island of Hawaii when I was told that I most likely had cervical cancer. I refused the invasive diagnostic procedures that were offered do me by the hack doctors that hack your body parts off and call it a cure. They wanted to chop off half of my cervix just to see if I had cancer. So I said: "Thanks, but, no thanks!" Instead I started looking for a natural cure and found your book. I started eating a lot of raw foods and drinking a lot of raw milk. Within months the problem was gone. I can’t thank you enough! I feel that the best thing I can do to express my gratitude is to inform other people about your book.

Needless to say that I was mad to hear about the legislation against raw milk. I am familiar with the CODEX scam that the WTO is pulling on the whole world where they banned vitamins and supplements and made them prescription drugs. I remember how they were taken to court in Europe and lost the case, and since CAFTA was met with enourmous opposition in the US CAFTA was sort of abandoned (as far as I am aware), and CAFTA was supposed to be a tool to implement CODEX. So CODEX was averted for the time being. I am well aware of the conspiracy by the pharmaceutical industry to eradicate alternative medicine especially now when so many people are waking up and choosing alternative medicine.

Giving the Primal Diet credit in arresting the cancer

In this last recent visit September 2007 at the Bio-Medical Center in Mexico, based on the X-Ray, they saw some positive progress!
The medical doctor there explained to me that the X-Ray is not nearly as sensitive a tool as is a cat scan or MRI so it was not possible to see shrinkage in the cancerous tumors on and in the
spine, the competence of the Mexican radiologist notwithstanding. However, they did see a 2 centimeter shrinkage in the biggest of the benign fibroid tumors. For the medical doctor, radiologist and oncologist there, that's a fairly good shrinkage. In their experience this was a possible sign of positive response in that this shrinkage usually goes along with or precedes shrinkage in the actual cancer. That, plus the fact that the blood tests over the last few visits have held steady, and in particular the immunoglobulin levels. These are the rogue white blood cells being generated by the cancerous bone marrow, which don't really defend you like the real ones do. An increase in immunoglobulin levels would show more tumor burden and vice versa. In my case, the immunoglobulin levels have been decreasing ever so slightly over the last few tests.
And the clincher: they want to see me 6 months from now instead of in 3 months, glory hallelujah! They also requested I get a new MRI done just before I go there again, and bring it along, for another comparison with the original. By then, this would make them a year
and a half apart. I will request an MRI at the Los Angeles hospital, and also request to see both MRI's myself along with the oncologist locally, and see what he has to say about them, even before bringing the new one down to Mexico.
By indications so far, I have not really been giving the natural methods I have used, and particularly the primal diet, the credit they apparently so richly deserve, even if only in arresting the cancer. Of course we read about natural miracles in books and hear about them in testimonials (and more testimonials ) but in some sense they have had an unreality for me, and a status almost like "toys", as far as their workability is concerned.
However I continued to use those same testimonials to bolster myself up, the ones that always sound so good when it's happening to someone else. You might chalk up some of my dissenting skepticism perhaps to my parents who always staunchly support the medical establishment, plus my lack of experience with natural remedies in a situation where it really matters. Also I have tended a bit to blot out any losses in the medical field with cancer patients (some of
them very close to me), to say nothing of having been told explicitly that no medical cure is available for people with multiple myeloma. And as the grass is always greener, I even started
playing with the fictitious idea of attributing magical powers to the medical establishment, which they admittedly do not have with all types of cancer. Also, why give myself too much hope and have it prove out to be wrong? So I had a pretty good little thing going between unabashed confidence and the lack of it, meanwhile always following the directions I had, and going for a full and complete return to health, and gearing myself up mentally to make it so!
It should be said that the Biomedical Center gives you dietary guidelines to follow. I went over this with them, but I chose the Primal Diet instead, and—in retrospect—I am Soooooooooooo glad I did. The diet given at the Biomedical Center is primarily grain and veggie based. The Primal Diet (all raw) includes meat and dairy, and is so rich in nutrition, and has felt so rejuvenating. I have been able to stay within the Bio Medical Center's guidelines, in terms of
no white flour/white sugar, processed foods, and other prohibited foods as well. However I felt very lucky to have the best of all possible worlds with the Primal Diet, and I feel that that one
factor is what kept me from reaping the consequences of expanding tumors that I was warned about, within the first 6 months of treatment. They know (and understand) that I am not taking any of the vitamin and mineral supplements they suggested. Congratulations must go to to Aajonus Vonderplanitz for the research that led to the Primal Diet, since my remarkable results are largely a credit to that diet.
I would be terribly remiss not to say that as a Scientologist I was getting spiritual help from my church, mostly through my husband. I feel there is no substitute for a good spiritual approach, for any of us who seek values and triumphs in that way.
So there it is from the horse's mouth.

Barbara

The cancer is not be spreading - is the raw food diet guiding us through the storm?

The 2nd visit to Mexico last December was a living nightmare. This is where they made the first comparison between what was diagnosed originally in September 2006 and what they were looking at now 3 months later. Whereas in September 2006 I had about 3 liver enzymes
that were somewhat high, in December I had about 8 of them out the roof, so much so that they were concerned either that I also had hepatitis (I understand it's not a great idea to have cancer and hepatitis at the same time), or that the cancer had now metastasized to the liver. In addition the doctor said I was anemic. I had other bad points (who can even remember the litany of test results he rattled off to me) and also I had a full blown kidney/bladder infection. Since they already had a sample of my blood, I gave the go-ahead for a hepatitis panel. The doctor said he'd call me in a few days when the results came back. Then he reiterated the usual disclaimers that this may not go away at all, etc. After a few hours of near retching and near fainting with my knees buckling under me, my husband helped me to make it on the shuttle and back to the hotel north of the border. While I normally don't watch television, in this case it performed its function admirably--a form of "dull-a-bye-baby" even better than the drugs I continued not to take
during that time period. When I woke up the next morning, I could say "it's a new day" and life did just what it does sometimes, by carrying on without me until I stepped on to the playing field once again. The doctor did call from Mexico a few days later to say that I had no hepatitis. An ultra sound done at the local hospital later, revealed no metastasis to the liver, or other internal organs, such as kidney, bladder, spleen, etc. We were still functioning on the good news that the cancer had not spread or gotten bigger in 3 months, so hope was once more on the horizon.
The following March for whatever reason I was once again back in pain and in the wheel chair. The cancer was still not spreading, so I asked "what gives"? My hospital doctor's evaluation after re-examining the original MRI, was that the architecture of the spinal bones was so compromised, that any shift in movement could cause that phenomenon. Their physical therapist at the hospital (all in Los Angeles) gave me some exercises that might help to build
muscle, and warned against sneezing or coughing (or try to do so with support at the back and a pillow in front), as that could precipitate a spinal fracture which would be problematic. He said
this was not theoretical, but that this type of thing had actually happened.
Subsequent visits to Mexico (after that extreme low point in December) were relatively calmer. Liver enzymes went lower, and other things in their tests seemed to be going more toward normal ranges though not by much. In a way, every visit seemed to be much
like the previous ones: all is holding steady, but no positive progress, such as bone regeneration as yet. So I learned to be grateful for the fact that the cancer still wasn't spreading. More
and more, it began to seem like the true miracle that it really and factually was! I came to accept the fact that the doctors at the Bio-Medical center in Mexico would want to see me every 3 months for some time, while they kept looking for "positive progress" without finding any. I learned to accept the fact that it might take a while to reverse the cancer, since after all, these were all natural methods...all this, while I continued eating the primal diet exclusively, and the recommended herbs. I was determined to hold the confidence I had originally in what I was doing, and also in the fact that I felt (after reading approximately 30 books and even more
articles on cancer) that I was partaking in the best treatment possible in this situation--again without getting too exotic with other things that hadn't been statistically proven nor specifically
recommended by either my nutritionist, Aajonus, or the Bio-Medical Center doctors, unless I knew that what I was doing was definitely not working or that more was needed. Also, I felt there was some sense to not flying off in all directions and doing a little of everything, for who knows what benefit. And there is always good sense in putting one's most positive face forward and trying to reassure everyone, as well as reassuring myself.

This part of the story gives the cancer details and initial actions taken.

As soon as I could, I saw Aajonus for an exam and specific diet plan, got my medical records out of the hospital in Los Angeles including the x-rays they took at first, the CT scan and MRI, plus copies of the contents of my medical file, and within a few days my husband and I were off to Mexico to get the herbs.
I will quote some of those medical file reports dated 9/2/06:
"multiple spinal metastases. Unknown primary cancer. There is complete replacement of the sacrum especially the upper portion by a probable neoplastic process. Large fibroid uterus" (this one in the uterus is a benign, meaning a non-malignant tumor) "measuring 8.8 cm in diameter for the dominant fibroid. There is also involvement of various vertebral bodies by this metastatic process. Please see MRI for additional information on vertebral body metastases."
The doctor at the hospital showed me the MRI on his lap-top computer. I didn't know to look for a sacrum that should have been there, but the doctor did point out that same large tumor covering the first 3 lower vertebrae. There were masses, lesions and damage everywhere on the spine. The 2nd largest tumor was at the top of the spine, at the base of the skull. As for the main large non-malignant fibroid, it was oval in shape, and quite large.
In addition to the first visit to Mexico, my husband has taken me back to visit the Bio-Medical Center every 3 months since September of '06. Their usual tests have been blood, urine and X-Rays, in addition to the original X-Ray, cat scan and MRI which I brought with me on my first trip there. I have likewise seen the local hospital oncologist locally every 3 months, usually just before each trip to Mexico. He knows I don't want chemotherapy, since it is known not to have much success with the type of cancer they think I have. (In the absence of a biopsy, I was told that my most likely type of cancer was multiple myeloma). The oncologist said that multiple myeloma could be monitored with blood tests alone, so mercifully I did not have to keep doing more cat scans and MRI's beyond the first ones. The advantage of having the X-rays done in Mexico is that they don't give you a lot of radiation (they give much less than cat scans), and also the radiologist in Mexico is able to see what he needs to see from these, namely spread or shrinkage, indications of new bone growing
etc. By the way, the Bio-Medical Center is not your "mom and pop" herb shop--they have medical doctors, a radiologist and oncologist, and lab technicians, and the full support staff that they need.
In that first visit to Mexico, the medical doctor there advised me to get radiation on the lower tumor, so it wouldn't expand any further. That one expanding could have resulted in loss of bladder control, bowel control and the function of the left leg entirely. I was told that the herbs might not be of help right away because it usually takes 3-6 months for them to level in the blood stream to be able to have any effect on the tumor. I had already partially lost bladder control, and my head had developed an involuntary "shake" that was perceptible to me but not to others, so what the doctor said was not out of line as far as I could see. Also, the MRI showed
the cancer in the bone marrow, with the spinal nerves nearby or next in the line of attack, so to say. Back at home, Aajonus, based on his experience with himself and others, thought that radiation was not a good idea. Plus the local hospital doctors wouldn't order radiation (or any treatment) without a biopsy, so there I was between the proverbial rock and the hard place. If ever I wanted to go in to training to develop what might remotely resemble a few
nerves of steel, now was the time...
I did not get any radiation. I continued with the primal diet and I started taking the herbs, and continued with life, seeing family and friends, writing poetry and (oh my gosh) trying to figure out our taxes. None of the bad consequences ever materialized. Around October through December I was developing more mobility, and was feeling much better than I expected (the diet being especially rejuvenating). I could walk, drive the car, and care for myself mostly. With the bold confidence of the truly naive, at that point I even figured the cancer would be gone in a few months, no problem.

A cancer survivor in-the-making gives us her story

This was sent to me by Barbara - the same lady whose photo was taken as she strangles the cancer monstor, at the bottom of the home page of www.wewant2live.com. It is being presented in four parts.

First let me give the usual and appropriate disclaimers that I am not qualified to give medical advice of any sort.

Anyone with diagnosed cancer should seek competent medical help or as they so choose.

What I am relaying is my own story only. It goes without saying that it is up to anyone with an illness to become informed, ask any questions and make the best choices for him or herself. There are resources available for information and help, a few of which are known to me. If my story gives any hope or incentive to another person with cancer, then it will have been worthwhile to assemble what's written here, with much personal information about myself, and send it along to you.

Also nothing I am saying should be construed to mean that I am against all medical treatment for all situations, because that would not be true. A combination of two circumstances namely, no medical cure in sight for what I had, and my inclination to favor natural treatments first, steered me in the direction of choosing the holistic route as the sole source of treatment for myself at the outset. I figured if medical treatment options came along later that might prove successful, I could always use them in addition to, or instead of what I was doing. And I continued paying monthly health insurance premiums, since I knew I might need doctors and other hospital/medical resources, come what may.

During the Labor Day weekend of 2006, I was told at a hospital in Los Angeles, that the reason I couldn't walk was because I had advanced spinal cancer. This was after an MRI and CT scan were done. The doctor told me that the cancer had most likely metastasized (spread) from some primary source, but they did not know from where, since these same tests showed that the internal organs were apparently "clean". Since it was Labor Day and they had a skeleton crew, I was sent home to call in and schedule a biopsy, so that they could take a tissue sample and determine the primary source. I was also told to schedule radiation--not that this would cure me, but it could possibly cause the largest tumor at the base of the spine to shrink some. The first thing I did after I was gotten home (with the help of crutches and a walker), was to get internet data on biopsies. According to what I read, the risk of causing the cancer to spread by dragging known malignant tissue from the spine through the body, was not worth knowing what the primary source of the cancer was, without exhausting other methods first.

I then called a nutritionist Aajonus Vonderplanitz as he was already familiar to me. He had dealt with cancer patients, including his own situation which was over 30 years earlier. I had seen Aajonus about 6-7 years earlier. I went on the primal diet then for a year, and had a big resurgence in health, since I was finally able to handle insomnia and get good sleep and heal. Then I figured I didn't need it anymore since I was now "healthy", so I went off the primal diet--big mistake. In our Sept 06 visit, Aajonus agreed with my internet research that doing a biopsy first might not be advisable, plus it might not be necessary in order to start treatment. I know that holistic practitioners tend to view cancer as a whole body disease, as opposed to a disease of one or more particular organs. There is certainly no harm in starting to treat the whole body. He then proceeded to give me a diet plan to follow of all raw foods, at least until I could see him for some non-invasive testing called iridology, which is an examination of the irises of both eyes. He also recommended certain herbs that were non-toxic, and told me where in Mexico I could get these herbal preparations. The main herbal tonic is based on Harry Hoxsey's formula, and the clinic is called the Bio-Medical Center. It is located in Tijuana.

Living experience on a raw food farm

Day 27 1/8/05

We woke up around 5:30 am this morning. I was getting picked up by Homer at 6:30 am and I wanted to help out a little bit before I went. We were going to an 8 hour conference by this Mennonite Nurse named Melissa who was giving a lecture on Ten Steps Towards Super-Duper Health. She invited several of the Amish farmers to set up booths and sell their stuff. Albert wasn’t going to go, they were going spend the weekend at Albert’s sister’s. They couldn’t get a driver who was cheap enough. But at the last minute Albert decided to go to the conference too. Homer was late picking me up, Albert ended up taking me. Before he left, he was talking to Marie in her bedroom. She was crying and saying something in Penn. Dutch. We left and went to the conference. Melissa said there were going to be 150 people there. There were about 70. It was largely a mixture of Mennonites and Amish. Mennonites are like Amish Light or Diet Amish. They have to wear plain clothes like the Amish, but they can be light blue or have floral patterns though. The women have to wear white caps, and without the strings that the Amish women have. They can have cell phones and drive cars. They can get divorces only if they are “mistreated”. It is looked down upon if they re-marry though I think. They have to look really plain. On a whole from what I saw, they were usually fatter and were less eye-candy than the Amish. I helped Albert set up a little bit. We were set up right next to Futurorama Hearing Instrument Center. It seemed like a glorified hearing aide company. They had a sign which said they were voted best Hearing Instrument Company 2 years in a row by the main Lancaster Newspaper. They had this big sign up with a group photo of the 5 main people that worked there. It was 3 women and 2 men. They all had their names up there with letters after them. One or two of them had a B.S. and some other weird letters. My favorite one was “HIS” (Hearing Instrument Specialist). The three women were sort of attractive in a weird Lancaster, Pennsylvania way. One guy (the owner) was short, fat, had a widow’s peak and a round head. The other was giving this kind of sexy serious look - like if James Bond were a Hearing Instrument Specialist, he would look like him. The only letters after the “sexy look” guy’s name were “HIS”. I don’t think he had as much educational training as everyone else. One of the guys and one of the women were manning the booth. They were both the owners. The guy was the short, fat, widow peak one. He had this weird, nervous twitch when he wasn’t paying attention or thought people weren’t looking. He would blink a lot and shrug his shoulders. He was really going at it. Albert brought way too many boxes and coolers, he said he’s used to not having enough so he tried to bring extra this time. I went into the kitchen to help out. Sara, the bread lady was there with her husband Mervin who I hadn’t met. Abe Stoner and his wife Annie were there too. Abe Stoner is a dairy farmer who deals with a lot of Sally Fallon people. Homer Adams and Christian Ackerman were at the conference also. They were manning their booths in the main area. Peter Aeschelman and his wife Barbie (which seems to be a pretty popular Amish name) and ten year old daughter Sylvia came in. They are a freaky looking family. They look like the Adam’s family. Peter is super tall and gangly, with a big, long face and some missing teeth on the sides. He looks like an Amish Rob Zombie. He looks like he should have fangs and long yellow fingernails. His kid looks like Wednesday (Adams’s family), big pale face, red eyes, his wife is short with a skinny face and pale complexion. I have mixed feelings about Peter Aeschelman. I’ve heard from some Amish that he is kind of shady. They said he pasteurizes his yogurt before he makes it and still calls it raw. This is generally done to make it more creamy. He doesn’t produce dairy, only meat. He is kind of like Sally Fallon's Amish middle man. He buys products from people like Albert, Sara and Homer then resells them. I have mixed feelings about him. He’s really hardcore Amish. He has 11 kids (one reason his wife looks so worn out); he won’t go to Disney land again because it’s “owned by the gays”. He grabbed my arm pretty hard one time and ordered me around a little bit. He brought a lot of his “kvass,” which is a Russian addictive, naturally fermented soda (not organic or as healthy as people make it out to be) and was happily pouring it out to as many people as he could during lunch time. By the way, I was at the conference to help cook lunch. Maybe he’s just a good businessman. He’s also heading down to Florida in a couple of days to help one of his customers who distributes cream for him. His customer’s buildings got destroyed by the hurricane and he is going to go down there to help rebuild it. So I don’t know what to think of this guy. I’ve come to realize lately that I am a horrible judge of character. We were able to joke around a lot as the day went on. We made jokes, I told him to bring me back some sand when he goes to Florida and he said, “I’ll bring it back between my toes.” Maybe he’s good and bad. Working with all of them in the kitchen today made me not want to leave Pennsylvania. It was the most fun I’ve had since I’ve been here. We were cracking jokes the whole time. The kitchen had a pro-kitchen dishwasher, the kind where you put the dirty dishes on a tray, put it in the metal box and slide the walls down. They could not figure out how to turn it on and make it work. I figured it out, and every time they needed the dishes washed they would ask me to do it. They started joking about how, thank God I was there and how I am the best dishwasher ever. It was extremely easy to operate. All I had to do was put the dishes in and slide down the walls. It would then automatically turn on. I didn’t tell them this; I thought it was funny. When I finally told them how easy it was, we all laughed. There was a vitamin company called “SuperPepPills” there. The speaker Melissa was supporting and working for them. They had a machine called a bio-platonic machine which was supposed to measure the level of cartenoids (anti-oxidants) in your body and tell you your “body defense score”. Then depending how good your score was, the average was 20,000-25,000, they would tell you how much of their vitamins you needed to take. You put your hand on the machine and a blue laser would shine on it. I got 30,000. Ann the speaker had 44,000. The rest of the people in the kitchen ranged from 20,000 to 40,000. Homer Adams got 76,000. We were all joking about that. The people who were doing the test never saw a score that high before. He started selling them on the value of fermented vegetables and raw milk. The Amish and I loved that. If anyone could have gotten 76,000, it would have been Homer Adams. We told him that he scored so high that he was going to go back the other way now. That he was so healthy, that he is going to get sick. We couldn’t stop joking about that and how for breakfast he had six eggs, bread and as much butter as bread on it. The speaker, Melissa was introduced on stage by this fat, ugly, diabetic, extremely unhealthy Mennonite lady named Rita. She was talking about how much the vitamins had helped her and how much better she feels since working with Melissa. Again, another extremely unhealthy looking person in my life trying to tell me how to be healthy. WARNING! WARNING! I did not enjoy the speaker. She was a nurse who was really into Western Medicine and then went to a conference by Sally Fallon and started combining the two. She is like a combination of Sally Fallon, modern crap science, “Praise the Lord” and “You need supplements to be healthy.” She borrowed a lot from Sally, she even had some of her slides from her Weston Price slideshow. We kept making fun of her. We asked each other if we thought that someone needs vitamins to be healthy, we all said, “No”. We kept on saying, “Melissa, will get there soon.” We were also making fun of ourselves, saying, “If they’re not talking about grass-fed stuff, we don’t care.” I had a wonderful time. I ate a lot. I talked to Dorothy McCoy there. She’s English and is pretty heavily involved in the Weston Price Association. We talked about how she’s had Chronic Fatigue for 13 years and now it is getting worse. I related since I am tired all the time also. I asked her if she knew of Aajonus and would try the raw meat thing. She seemed grossed out by that. I wonder if that would help her¹. Albert was still acting a little weird today, off and on. We talked about the raw meat thing a little more. I explained it a little better. He even said that he might try it. We got the Jersey in her stall today, she kept on breaking free. She dragged me again a couple of times. I told Albert I should climb on top of the pipes and then grab her chain and hook her up. We didn’t do that. Instead, we got her squished in a stall with another cow, then we tied a string behind her on the two poles so she couldn’t get out. It worked.

1 I meet people like this all the time. They say they want to be healthy and will do anything to get it. What this usually means is that they will do anything to be healthy, as long as it fits into their comfort zone. The only solution for this is that the pain gets so bad, that they have to step outside their comfort zone or die. Even though they were dying they will still eat crappy food. It is easy for people to forget the pain they were in before. I know some people whose cancer was reversed by The Primal Diet.

Avoiding heart disease with a raw food diet

My side of a story belongs on this blog. You will be hearing the other side of the story soon on this same blog. That there are two sides of the story does not mean this has been an argument, but there are definitely different points of view. I wish to remain anonymous by the way.
The story you will be hearing one of these days on this blog is from my wife. I will call her Molly.
The strength of her character is what makes this important to tell. Maybe some day I will write the book, but in a few seconds let me just say that she puts the word 'caring' in a whole new ballpark. I may be biased, but a complete stranger is not. A patient sharing a hospital room with her and only overhearing her conversations, later that day pleaded with the doctor to really take care of Molly well because she is somebody really special. In a nutshell, over Labor Day weekend on 2006 Molly went to the hospital because for three days she could not get out of bed or even stand. She was diagnosed at that time with advanced spinal cancer, based on the tumors in full view on an MRI.
Let me say right now that in my opinion, this could have been avoided. I say this with 20/20 hindsight in full view. If what I say enables anyone visiting this blog to avoid the same mistake we made, I will be glad.
The thing is, we had both read We Want To Live: the Primal Diet. We had both already benefited greatly from the work Aajonus has done. We should have known that he really has mapped out how to live without disease and there is no need to try other diets.
At the time we read the book (in 2001 or thereabouts) and Molly had a consultation with Aajonus, she was suffering from an illness only partially identified by an M.D. & heart specialist practicing in Beverly Hills (after a wrong diagnosis by an earlier M.D.). Aajonus spotted the (heart disease) problem easily during our consultation and he spotted what made the problem continue (inability to get a good night's sleep). He spotted these things not based on anything that we said, but through correct use of iridology. He told us the raw food diet details to enable Molly to reverse this disease. Within one year of following Aajonus' recommendations, Molly went from being a space case [where she couldn't climb stairs, would forget where she was heading when she got out of an elevator and so on] to her natural bright and intelligent state. She passed a physical exam by an M.D. with no trace of the former problem.
Right after this victory is where we made the mistake. She then went off Aajonus' recommendations a) she had solved the problem that had been so destructive before the raw food diet, b)because she didn't like the taste of some of the items on the menu (this was just before The Recipe for Living Without Disease came out, giving many many recipes for making food that is good for you also taste very good) and c) as apparently is the case with many good looking women, she was concerned about gaining weight.
Weight loss is the apparent goal of many diets offered these days. Molly selected one acclaimed weight loss diet, got the required check-up from her M.D. and started. She lost weight right away and continued to lose weight. Back problems began to creep into her life. This continued right up to the point where she ended up in the hospital diagnosed with cancer, over Labor Day weekend in 2006. Please understand there is no medical advice in anything I am saying; also, we are not naming the specific diet nor accusing them of intentional wrongdoing.

Now you will be able to follow her story, when it arrives on this blog, with an understanding of what happened before the diagnosis that brought her back to the raw food diet 100%.