HOMEOPATHY FOR CANCER
Tamara Der-Ohanian December 10, 2013Radical Approach Treats the Whole Person
The intention of this article is to introduce you to homeopathy and the important role it can play in treating patients with cancer.
Given the opportunity, I could write volumes on how cancer politics have kept you in the dark: why unsuccessful treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation continue to dominate oncology, and what role the petrochemical and nuclear industries play in ensuring this gruesome reality. I also have strong opinions about how the public is misled into believing that the millions of dollars collected and spent for cancer research each year is actually going to result in finding a cure. While I am passionate about my feelings on these topics, I am equally determined to give you information in this article that will offer hope and viable solutions.
In reality, cancer cures already exist and many cases of cancer have been successfully reversed. In my view, the answers are not found in drugs, surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, although, in moderation and in rare cases they can be useful. Statistics show that the most successful recipe to cancer cure is the synergistic approach, combining a wholistic lifestyle with different natural treatments. An arsenal consisting of a diet rich in raw organic foods and juices, regular exercise, therapeutic doses of antioxidants and other natural supplements, regular detoxification, a healthy emotional state through counseling and meditation, combined with homeopathic treatment can dramatically increase your chances of combating and reversing cancer.
What is Cancer?
Among 150 different types, five major groups of cancer are recognized:
1. Carcinomas form in the epithelial cells that cover the surface of skin, mouth, nose, throat, lung airways, genitourinary and gastrointestinal tract, or that line glands such as the breast or thyroid. Lung, breast, prostate, skin, stomach, and colon cancers are solid tumours called carcinomas.
2. Sarcomas form in the bones and soft connective and supportive tissues surrounding organs and tissues, such as cartilage, muscles, tendons, fat, and outer linings of lungs, abdomen, heart, central nervous system, and blood vessels. Sarcomas are also solid tumours, but are the most rare of malignant tumours and the most deadly.
3. Leukemias form in the blood and bone marrow and the abnormal white blood cells produced there travel through the bloodstream creating problems in the spleen and other tissues. Leukemias are not solid tumours; they are characterized by an overproduction of abnormal white blood cells.
4. Lymphomas are cancer of the lymph glands. Lymph glands act as a filter for the body’s impurities and are concentrated mostly in the neck, groin, armpits, spleen, the center of the chest, and around the intestines. Lymphomas are usually made up of abnormal white blood cells that congregate in lymph glands to produce solid masses. Two examples are Hodgkin’s disease and non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas.
5. Myelomas are rare tumours that arise in the antibody-producing plasma cells or hemopoietic (blood cell-producing) cells in various tissues in the bone marrow.
A key characteristic of cancer cells is their greatly prolonged life span compared to that of normal cells. Not only do cancer cells not die when they are supposed to, they also fail to develop the specialized functions of their normal counterparts. Masses of cancer cells may become like parasites, developing their own network of blood vessels to siphon nourishment away from the body’s main blood supply. It is this process that, unchecked, will eventually lead to the formation of a tumour — a swelling caused by the abnormal growth of cells. If the tumour invades adjacent normal tissue or spreads through lymph vessels or blood vessels to other normal tissues, this tumour is considered malignant.
How Homeopathy Can Help
Homeopathy is a medical science that aims to treat the whole person rather than just physical symptoms. It works on the principle that the mind and body are so strongly linked that physical symptoms or illnesses cannot be cured without understanding and considering the person’s emotional state, constitution and character.
Homeopathy does not treat the cancer. Homeopathy treats the patient who has cancer as their primary physical manifestation. It works by stimulating the body’s own healing intelligence so as to activate the healing process. This is the essential distinction between the orthodox medical approach to cancer, which seeks to destroy the tumour, and the homeopathic approach, which treats the patient enabling their system to destroy the tumour. Addressing the overall constitution of the patient and administering one corresponding remedy is called constitutional treatment using classical homeopathy.
Case Histories
This was the method I used for treating a 39-year-old patient with an endometriotic tumour. The homeopathic Arsenicum album, which corresponded to the patients’ overall constitution (energy patterns, sleep, appetite, digestion, personality, etc.), was the only remedy used. By the time of her next ultrasound four months later, the patient’s body had healed itself and the tumour had completely disappeared. In addition, the patient experienced considerable improvement in her sleep patterns, stopped having nightmares, her anxiety level decreased considerably and so did her menstrual disturbances.
More aggressive methods are used depending on the seriousness of the cancer. One approach includes using the constitutional homeopathic remedy along with organ-specific remedies – remedies that target the organ presenting the tumour. (e.g. Hydrastis for cancer of the stomach, Chelidonium for cancer of the liver and gall bladder and Phytolacca for cancer of the breast.). Specific remedies can also be used to support as well as detoxify various organs.
In the case of a 54-year-old man with colon cancer, I used the organ-specific remedy Aloe with his constitutional remedy Lycopodium. The pains and the rectal bleeding stopped within the first three weeks. The patient became more in control of his bowel movements within eight weeks.
By the three-month mark, there was considerable improvement in his energy levels, moods and mental outlook, appetite, quality of sleep and digestion. Six months following the commencement of homeopathic treatment, his follow-up tests showed no trace of cancer. My patient was convinced that had he gone through with the recommended surgery and chemotherapy, his health would not have improved and the tumour likely re-emerged.
Radically Re-thinking the Cancer Treatment Model
G. Zajicek, M.D., of the H.H. Humphrey Center for Experimental Medicine and Cancer Research at Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem, Israel, challenges the way modern medicine deals with cancer: “Modern oncology (study of tumours) needs to radically rethink its cancer model, which is based on the Halstead theory of cancer (developed by W.S. Halstead, 1852-1922). This theory, whose central premise is that the primary fact about cancer is the tumour, not the patient as a living organism, must be dropped in favour of a more systemic model. The fact that the mortality rate for breast cancer has remained virtually unchanged for 60 years (from 1939-1990) means that the standard treatments devised to kill tumours have failed because they are based on false premises. This hypothesis implies that tumour removal should cure the patient, yet 60 years of intensive effort to remove the tumour did not change the biological outcome of the disease. Obviously, the hypothesis is wrong and should be modified. Focusing medical efforts on removing the tumour is fundamentally a mistake, and will not cure cancer because cancer is metabolically a systemic deficiency and a chronic system disease. Halstead’s cancer theory is flawed, because it emphasizes the tumour and ignores the patient.”
Among the more profound benefits of homeopathy is its ability to prevent disease (or tumours) from re-occurring by changing the “terrain” of the body, or the biochemical environment of the cells that determines a person’s susceptibility to disease. When the terrain is improved, the immune responsiveness of the individual can be profoundly strengthened. It is also possible to change some of the hereditary weaknesses, called miasms in homeopathy, which make some people more susceptible to cancer and other illnesses.
One 73-year-old patient had been diagnosed with pre-cancerous intestinal polyps when he first came to see me. The prescribed constitutional remedy was able to prevent and reverse the progression of the disease. The next colonoscopy examination, a few months later, showed no sign of the polyps. In addition, my patients’ overall health improved in the process.
Homeopathy can help in all stages of cancer. If you choose to employ the conventional treatment methods of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, homeopathy can help alleviate the pains, discomforts and fears associated with surgery, as well as the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation. In addition terminal patients entering the death process can find relief. Certain remedies can help comfort individuals and help them deal with their fear of death. It can assist individuals in coming to greater peace about the death process, enabling them to embrace the transition with greater spiritual centeredness and dignity.
In overcoming any serious or terminal illness, I cannot stress strongly enough the importance of a positive mental/emotional outlook. Finding love and forgiveness, for self and others, holds the key to our emotional health. I strongly believe that our consciousness has a vote in everything that happens to us. We create our own reality by every thought we have and every choice we make each and every moment of our lives. Prolonged periods of emotional stress can culminate in serious diseases. Homeopathy has the ability to profoundly and positively affect one’s emotions, which in many cases is the underlying cause of illness.
“We’re holistic creatures. When we betray our truth, we can call illness into our lives. Psychoneuroimmunologists like Herbert Benson, Joan Borysenko and Hans Selye, all pioneers in the mind-body connection, have found a link between disease and what we think and feel. Norman Shealy, M.D., founder of the American Holistic Medical Association and co-author of The Creation of Health, wrote that 75% of his patients told him they wanted to die six to twenty-four months before they were diagnosed with cancer.” Be careful what you wish for.
When facing a diagnosis of cancer, I recommend that you explore your options by consulting a wide variety of health practitioners and alternative cancer treatment modalities. And most importantly, be realistic — expect a miracle!
Tamara Der-Ohanian
Tamara Der-Ohanian, DSHomMed, HOM, was a registered homeopath practising in North York, Ont. She also taught at the Canadian College of Homeopathic Medicine. Tamara passed away in 2019. For those who are seeking homeopathic approaches to illness, Kerry Walker is a colleague of Tamara's and a graduate of The Canadian College of Homeopathic Medicine. She can be reached at 647-781-4861 or email: homeopathkerry@gmail.com
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