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About the book Fighting Cancer: A Survival Guide
conversations and correspondence
Resources: the start of an adventure
If you have cancer; if you're caring for someone who has it
Cancer Treatment: Personal Stories
Readings from the cancer literature
Other cancer books you might find useful
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According to Chinese thinking, most cancer is the result of a negative impact on liver chi. (chi is the living energy of the body – and each organ has its own chi). Since liver chi controls the flow of the blood throughout the body, the blood itself becomes stagnant (this is in interesting agreement with many complementary healers who blame a poorly functioning liver or low oxygenated blood for causing cancer). Stress, exposure to toxic chemicals are mainly to blame. However cancer can also result from lowered chi from other organs – kidney, pancreas, spleen. Author’s Jason Elias and Katherine Ketcham recommend the following patent medicines to support the immune system and reinvigorate the liver. They can be taken separately or together: 1.Hsiao Yao Wan (Relaxed Wanderer Pills) this formula nourishes the liver and encourages good blood circulation. 2. Shen Qi Da Bu Wan (Ginseng and Astralagus Great Tonifying Pills) This formula helps boost energy and enhance immune function They also recommend the following acupressure points. Each point has a technical and a poetic name) You can discuss these with an acupuncturist
The Failings of doctors – according to an ancient Chinese book on medicine How a doctor should ideally practice medicine according to Chinese ways of thinking can be seen from the following discussion of the most common failings. According to the Yellow Emperor’s Classic, an ancient Chinese medical text, doctors may have one or more of these five failings: "The first failing occurs in diagnosis. When a physician overlooks factors such as a patient’s social and material status that could contribute to the development of the disease, that physician ends up making an incorrect assessment…Lack of such observation is a loss to the physician of a valuable link that is essential to the accuracy of the diagnosis. The second failing occurs in treatment. When a physician neglects a patient’s emotional experiences, which can affect the patient’s health greatly…the consequence is further injury to the patient. It is significant to know the patient’s lifestyle and emotional state because emotions such as anger damage the yin, while overexciteement scatters the yang. Treatment without understanding…may cause further exacerbation to a patient’s condition. The third failing occurs when the physician lacks deductive reasoning. Much information about a patient is gathered, in addition to careful observation, of the body signs and inquiry of the patient’s symptoms, from lifestyle, occupation, social and family circumstances, emotional stress and immediate environment. After gathering the pieces of information, it is the physicians task to utilize his knowledge and analyze through deduction the entire picture of the patient’s illness. Inability to do this limits the physician’s effectiveness. The fourth failing occurs in counseling. When a physician lacks compassion and sincerity, when a physician is hasty in counseling and does not make the effort to guide the patient’s mind and moods in a positive way, the physician has robbed the opportunity to achieve a cure. So much of all illness begins in the mind, and the ability to persuade the patient to change the course of perception and feeling to aid in the healing process is a requirement of a good physician. The fifth failing occurs when a physician is simply inept and careless when administering medical care." (quoted in "Chinese Medicine for Maximum Immunity" by Jason Elias & Katherine Ketcham, Three Rivers Press, NY 1998)
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