Fighting Cancer - A dual fight

Fighting Cancer is actually two fights in one. Firstly fighting the cancer cells and second, fighting the clinical treatments. The latter at times more difficult. This is my personal opinion as a soldier and fighter. We have to take all scenarios and factor in all considerations in winning the final battle. To survive. One can win in killing off all the cancer cells but still die from the harsh effects of the treatments.

Fighting Cancer cells is a tough fight and we need to harness all combat powers to win. And it is a winnable fight, whether it is a total destruction of the cancer cells or a total suppression of the cancer cells to submission. To do this there are many approved medical treatments and protocols to kill off the cancer cells. But there are no "good" nor "bad" treatments. The approach to treatments is dependent on many factors and conditions. Many survivors will attest that the integrated approach to treatment is the best course of action. Combining conventional treatments and complementary treatments do add synergy to the fight. Alternative treatments may seem attractive in the short term or to hopelessness, but with very high combat risks.

Fighting to recover from treatment needs lots of efforts and having a good body condition. Further adjunct medications do help in the short term, but again more side effects for the body to deal with. So before we decide what treatments to opt for in dealing with the cancer cells in us, we should firstly look at our body condition and fitness to withstand the treatment. Age and other ailments in the body are also main considerations to the choice of treatments. You are the best advisor to the choice of treatment. You should know your body conditions better than any doctor or oncologist. It is going to be your fight after the prescribed treatments. Your doctor can only monitor and assist you in a very secondary way. This is your fight. To improve your physique and body combat power to fight off the invasive treatment modalities. You would have a very short time to fight off the impacts of chemo, radiation, hormonal changes and loss of an organ after surgery. And most of the time our treatments will include more than one modality.

Both chemo and radiation have a protracted length of time inside our body. Producing free radicals, carcinogens and distorting our DNA every second.

Fighting off treatments is a protracted war.

Time is the essence in both the fights, against the cancer cells and recover from the treatments. But what we can do is to prepare for our body physique and fitness at all times. We cannot jump start fitness. The body needs time to develop to a new level of fitness. There is no way to an instant fitness. It actually need rest time to development time in gaining fitness. Unfortunately there are no shortcuts.

Early detection of cancer and early preparations to good health and body conditions are key to winning the dual battle.

Take care

Allen Lai