All of us have been faced with a battle of cancer. Maybe you weren’t the one with the disease in your body, but I’m sure you know a few individuals close to you who have experienced the disease first hand.

I personally am not a big supporter of traditional medicine, as I believe the body is damaged more by the drugs it is given than by the actual disease. Many of you might not even realize that there are treatments other than radiation and chemotherapy to help fight the battle that is cancer.

There definitely are some success rates with traditional cancer treatments; that is, if the cancer is detected soon enough, right? If the cancer is too severe to cure by these treatments, why not try it anyway? You know, for the odd chance of improvement?

I’ll tell you why… It is more often found that patients who undergo chemotherapy and radiation suffer from physical and emotional distress resulting from exposure to extreme toxic materials. Alternative treatments have just as much, if not more, success rates with healing cancer. Not only do they cure the chronic disease, but they also improve the patient’s physical and mental well-being.

In my opinion, the use of holistic treatments holds a lot more positive effects on the patient.

Although chemotherapy has shown success in healing cancer, it more often has a larger impact on the patient’s body than the cancer itself. Chemotherapy consists of high concentration chemicals that are used to kill cancerous cells in the body, but in the process the chemical also kills “healthy” cells and ultimately damage vital organs.

The liver is a vital organ that, along with the pancreas, aids in decreasing toxicity in the body and, therefore, has to compensate for the toxins injected during chemotherapy treatment.

Overcompensation of the liver, as well as the drugs killing “healthy” cells, consequently causes severe damage to the liver and leads to organ failure. Many cancer patients die from organ failure and not because of the severity of the cancer. (This I can tell you from experiencing the loss of family members, due to organ failure and NOT CANCER.)

Chemotherapy also damages the immune system to the point where it cannot recuperate enough to fight common illnesses. Opportunistic diseases attack the vulnerable body, which results in 67% of cancer patients’ fatalities, as the immune system is too weak to fight these diseases (Ransom).

Along with that, I have found that radiation has been proved to cause just as much damage to the body as chemotherapy, and certainly more than cancer does. Radiation kills cancerous cells as well as “healthy” cells in the body, just like chemotherapy.

I have found, and it has been proven, that radiation often causes cancer. (There is a reason naturalists don’t agree with the use of microwaves…) Can we then say that it holds the potential to worsen the state of cancer? Does it pose any other threats to the body?

Radiation is measured in Grays, which refers to the absorbed energy per unit mass of tissue. For every 1 Gray of radiation a woman is exposed to when treated for breast cancer, her heart risk increases by 7.4% (Watson). The typical fraction for adults upon the start of treatment is 1.8 to 2 grays of radiation per day, five days per week. This results in a 70.3% increase of heart risk per week of initial treatment for breast cancer. Do you see where I’m going with this?

You can see for yourself that traditional cancer treatments damage a body severely, and might even lead to death. The real threat isn’t the cancer; it’s the drugs that follow. Don’t you think it’s worth a shot to do some research of your own and possibly save a life?

(Ransom, Steven. “Fraught With Risks and Side-Effects.” Cancer Tutor. 22 Feb. 2015. Web. 27 Feb. 2016.)

(Watson, Stephanie. “Radiation for breast cancer can increase heart risks - Harvard health Blog.” Breast Cancer. Harvard Health Blog, 30 Oct. 2013. Web. 26 Feb. 2016.)