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 HOW I LOOK AT CANCER
 Dr. Nancy Offenhauser

Cancer arises out of a state of cell starvation.
    

Cells require oxygen for their normal metabolic process. Cells turn cancerous after being subjected to a state of hypoxia, or low oxygen, for some time. A low oxygen level can be caused, for example, by poor circulation, lymphatic congestion, or impaired waste removal.  These can in turn be created by muscle spasm or disc herniation causing nerve dysfunction.  Infection and toxicity are other potential causes.  
    

Deprived of oxygen, cells switch to the default metabolic pathway, which involves gobbling sugar.  This switch to a default mechanism is not unique to cancer cells, by the way. There are other biochemical examples of preferred and secondary pathways being available to achieve a given goal.  Usually, however, there is an intrinsic problem with the secondary pathway.  It doesn’t provide a clean burn. Instead, it creates residues, much like the black smoke that results when logs in a fireplace are burned without enough draft.
    

Moreover, secondary pathways are intended for emergency use only, and cause long-term problems if used on a permanent basis.

Cells and plants think alike
Dr. John Donofrio, a chiropractor, told us in our chiropractic board review that “malignancies eat, reproduce, and don’t work.” This is consistent behavior for a cell or organism threatened with extinction.  Anthropologist Colin Turnbull described the social disintegration of the Ik, a tribe in Ethiopia faced with starvation.  Compassion disappeared; each individual thought of his or her survival first and foremost.
    

Cancer cells, in a state of starvation, behave like the Ik.  They become greedy. Tumors create their own blood supply, which ultimately takes sustenance away from the rest of the organism.  This is a disintegration of the social order within the body.  Tumor cells, therefore, “don’t work” in their appointed place.  They begin to lose the
distinctive characteristics of the tissue to which they are supposed to belong, become structurally less organized and more chaotic, until they have reverted to an embryonic state, allowing for uncontrolled growth—growth of the group of cells at the expense of the organism as a whole.
    

Plants threatened by a decrease in the food supply, or simply nearing the end of their growing season, will go to seed in order to reproduce.  Cancer cells threatened by starvation will do the same thing.

Cancer cells forget who they are  

There’s a problem with this.  Cancer cells are losing track of the distinction between the life of the cell and the life of the organism.  A serious error in consciousness has occurred here.  The longer the state of starvation continues, the more the cells are going to regress toward the embryonic state. They are renegades, looking out only for themselves.  They lose sight of the fact that, if the organism dies, they will die with it.

Rectifying the error  

What will rectify this error in consciousness?  Starving, burning, or poisoning them will not encourage the renegade cells to rejoin the social order. It may kill some of them, but if it doesn’t kill all of them, the rest will probably respond by either fighting or fleeing to another location where they feel safer. By fleeing to another location, they create metastasis.
    

The more they feel threatened and are starving, the more the cancer cells are going to gobble.  So the logical thing to do is feed them—with oxygen, with real food, with light, with water, with rest, with exercise, with love, with work, with humor, with spiritual practice, with mental endeavor, with meaning.

Cancer follows natural laws
    Little cancers are being formed and hunted down by the immune system all the time.  If the individual is in good health, they will be kept under control. However, if low oxygen, poor circulation, poor elimination, nerve interference, infection, or toxicity persist for a long time, the health begins to break down, and the cellular starvation sets in.  This creates a cellular panic reaction, which can be exacerbated by the receiving of the diagnosis itself, since people have been conditioned to think that cancer equals death.

A distress call from the body
Cancer doesn’t necessarily equal death.  It is, however, a distress call from the body.  If you have cancer, it means that something in your life, whether physical or emotional, is intolerable to the body and has to be changed NOW!  You have the chance to decide what needs to change and go about changing it.  Cancer is a default response.  This means that the body will automatically create cancer in an intolerable situation when it doesn’t know what else to do. Your body will gladly choose another course, given half a chance, if you are willing to work and negotiate with it.  If you do not heed the call to change, the body will begin to travel the path of social disintegration described above.

How bad is it?
    If your cancer was discovered incidentally on a routine test, chances are it isn’t very bad yet.  If you feel relatively strong, you probably have time to observe it and get to know it, so long as you get to work enhancing health.  If you consider your cancer as a movie, it makes a huge difference whether you get your diagnosis in the first five minutes, after half an hour, or five minutes from the end.  If you are in serious trouble, it may be necessary to use one of the time-tested protocols such as Gerson or Kelley (to be described below) for rapid and safe detoxification and rebuilding.  Go within and trust your intuition.