posted 5 years ago
I think these conversations often get bogged down with the idea that one must eschew conventional treatment entirely to benefit from alternative therapies, or that there must be a solution in a single package. I don't agree with this assessment.
I think that a comprehensive, holistic approach is probably best, both in terms of prevention, and in the case that cancer develops. Why would I eat only mushrooms if I could also drink tumeric, kale, and blueberry smoothies? Why wouldn't I do things to boost my body's natural capacity to fend for itself, even as other avenues of treatment are explored?
As prevention, avoiding exposure to carcinogens tops the list, I think, perhaps over any treatment. Then a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, to provide all kinds of phytonutrients and antioxidants, all those good, dark- or bright-colour compounds in our fruits and veggies, everything. I love garlic and onions, to the point where I don't think any parasite could live in my blood, and my touch will wither vampires.
I have heard that encouraging more alkalinity in the body is beneficial to keeping cancer cell counts down, though I know there are differing opinions on how that may be best accomplished.
Also, ensuring the body isn't mineral- or nutrient-deficient is apparently much more of a big deal than many realise. Some focus on the calcium/magnesium ratio, which makes me think of their interaction in soil.
I read a while back in a statistical dietary study in Japan, if I remember correctly, that tracked cancer levels in an area where mushrooms made up a disproportionate amount of the diet, that the cancer rate in older women was a fraction of that in the West, and it was attributed to the mushrooms.
Of the mushrooms I have heard mentioned, Lion's Mane and Turkey Tail are the ones I have most often heard about having anti-cancerous properties.
Personally, I love mushrooms. One of my favourite soups that I have ever made was a Chanterelle soup. I grew up on chanterelle omelettes at the cottage because they symbiose with the stands of jack pine, and are distinctive enough that one isn't likely to be confused about their identity. Oh, and they're fucking delicious.
I think the most proof, though, exists with the studies performed. Those would probably be pharmaceutical in nature. Those, too, are getting better, but I think that if they focused on shutting down that cloaking device that kola Redhawk mentioned, that healthy human bodies would put a swift end to cancer in the body.
I do wish, though, that we could isolate a single plant, fungus, or even animal, that had the capacity to shut down that cloak, so that we could simply eat it prophylactically.
"Oh, and waiter, I will have the Lion's Mane and Turkey Tail mushroom and Sweetbreads Terrine, please."
-CK
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
-Robert A. Heinlein