to your diet will go a long way toward
building up your body’s defenses. See
“Fierce Foods,” left, for proven anticancer fare.
WELLNESS WALK Regular physical
activity has been shown to improve
survival rates for many types of cancer. Just walking briskly for 30 minutes, six times a week, dramatically
reduces the chances of a relapse after
breast cancer treatment, for example.
NOW AND ZEN Stress causes inflammation and weakens your immune
system, two disadvantages in the fight
against cancer. Though we can’t avoid
stress in our lives, we can learn to respond to it differently and reduce our
level of stress hormones. Practices
such as yoga, qigong, and mindfulness meditation can transform our
response to stress and strengthen our
resistance to disease.
CLEAN SWEEP Though they can’t be
avoided completely, common household toxins should be minimized.
Substances that can impair your
body’s cancer-fighting system include
certain preservatives in cosmetics
(called parabens and phthalates);
Teflon released from scratched pans;
percholorethylene used in standard
dry cleaning; gases given off by new
polyvinyl chloride objects such as
those used in plumbing pipes; and
bisphenol A from water heated in
hard plastics.
As a physician who has now been
living with cancer for 16 years, I’ve
discovered we can all make our bodies
tougher targets for cancer through the
choices we make in our lives. Indeed,
as strange as it may seem, I’m in better
health and happier today than before
I became ill. I feel more at peace,
lighter, with more energy, drive, and
passion for life.
Most people who start on this health
journey notice a difference within a
few weeks. Recent studies suggest
that healthy habits start improving
mood and well-being after two to four
months, and can have an impact on
cancer statistics within a year or two.
What I’ve learned in my own journey
is that the best way to go on living is to
nourish life at all levels of my being:
through my meals, through my walks
in nature, through the purpose in my
work, through the flow of love in my
relationships, and through the pro-
tection of our environment. Science
told me that this slows down cancer,
and, perhaps even more important,
it brings to my life, every day, a new
light and a new meaning. ;
David Servan-Schreiber, M.D., Ph.D., is
clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
This story is adapted from Anticancer: A
New Way of Life. Copyright Éditions Robert Laffont, S.A. Paris, 2007; translation
copyright David Servan-Schreiber, 2008.
Printed by arrangement with Viking, a
member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
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