Arthritis, Breast Cancer

How and When To Be Your Own Doctor
by Dr. Isabelle A. Mose, Steve Solomon

(Page 11 of 23)

Arthritis

Some years back my 70 years old mother came from the family homestead in the wilds of northern British Columbia to visit me at the Great Oaks School. She had gotten into pathetic physical condition. Fifteen years previously she had remarried. Tom, her new husband, had been a gold prospector and general mountain man, a wonderfully independent and cantankerous cuss, a great hunter and wood chopper and all around good-natured backwoods homestead handyman. Tom had tired of solitary log cabin life and to solve his problem had taken on the care and feeding of a needy widow, my mom. He began doing the cooking and menu planning. Tom, a little older than my mother, had no sense about eating but could still shoot game. Ever since their marriage she had been living on moose meat stews with potatoes and gravy, white flour bread with jam, black tea with canned milk, a ritual glass of brandy at bedtime, and almost no fresh fruit or vegetables.

In her youth, my mother had been a concert pianist; now she had such large arthritic knobs on all of her knuckles that her hands had become claws. Though there was still that very same fine upright in the cabin that I had learned to play as a child, she had long since given up the piano. Her knees also had large arthritic knobs; this proud woman with a straight back and long, flowing strides was bent over, limping along with a cane. She was also 30 pounds overweight and her blood pressure was a very dangerous 210 over 140, just asking for a stroke.

Instead of a welcoming feast, the usual greeting offered to a loved one who has not been seen for a few years, I immediately started her on a juice fast. I gave her freshly prepared carrot juice (one quart daily) mixed with wheat grass juice (three ounces daily) plus daily colonics. She had no previous experience with these techniques but she gamely accepted everything I threw her way because she knew I was doing it because I loved her and wanted to see her in better condition. She also received a daily full body massage with particular attention to the hand and knees, stimulating the circulation to the area and speeding the removal of wastes. Every night her hands and knees were wrapped in warm castor oil compresses held in place with old sheeting.

I did not use any vitamins or food supplements in her case. I did give her flavorful herbal teas made of peppermint and chamomile because she needed the comfort of a hot cupa; but these teas were in no way medicinal except for her morale.

In three weeks on this program, Grannybelle, as I and my daughters called her, had no unsightly knobs remaining on either her knuckles or knees and she could walk and move her fingers without pain within a normal range of movement. The big payoff for me besides seeing her look so wonderful (20 years younger and 20 pounds lighter) was to hear her sit down and treat us to a Beethoven recital. And her blood pressure was 130 over 90.

Breast Cancer

I have worked with many young women with breast cancer; so many in fact, that their faces and cases tend to blur. But whenever I think about them, Kelly inevitably comes to mind because we became such good friends. Like me, Kelly was an independent-minded back country Canuck. At the age 26, she received a medical diagnosis of breast cancer. Kelly had already permitted a lumpectomy and biopsy, but had studied the statistical outcomes and did not want to treat her illness with radical mastectomy, radiation and chemotherapy because she knew her odds of long-term survival without radical medical treatment were equal to or better than allowing the doctors to do everything possible. Nor did she want to lose even one of her breasts. She knew how useful her breasts were because she had already suckled one child, not to mention their contribution to one's own self-image as a whole person. I admired Kelly's unusual independent-mindedness because she comes from a country where universal health coverage is in place; her insurance would have paid all the costs had she been willing to accept conventional medicine, but Canadian national health insurance does not cover alternative therapy.

Kelly stayed with me for nearly two months as a residential faster, because she needed to be far from the distractions of a troubled family life. With financial support from her parents and child-care from her friends she was able to take time out to give the recovery of health top priority in her life without worrying about whether her small son was being well cared for. This peace of mind was also very important to her recovery.

Analysis with biokinesiology showed a pervasively weak immune system, including a weak thymus gland, spleen, and an overloaded lymphatic system. Her liver was weak, but not as weak as it might have been, because she had become a vegetarian, and had been working on her health in a haphazard fashion for a few years. Kelly's body also showed weaknesses in pancreatic and adrenal function as well as a toxic colon. Most immediately worrisome to her, biokinesiology testing showed several over-strong testing lumpy areas in the breasts and over-strong testing lumpy lymph nodes in the armpits. Cancerous tumors always test overly strong

Kelly's earlier life-style had contributed to her condition in several ways. She had worked for years in a forestry tree nursery handling seedling trees treated with highly toxic chemicals. She had worked as a cook in a logging camp for several seasons, eating too much meat and greasy food. And she had also spent the usual number of adolescent and young adult years deeply involved in recreational drug use and the bad diet that went with it.

Kelly started right in on a rigorous water fast that lasted for one entire month. She had a colonic every day, plus body work including reflexology, holding and massage of neurolymphatic and neurovascular points, and stimulation of acupuncture points related to weak organ systems and general massage to stimulate overall circulation and lymphatic drainage. She took protomorphogens to help rebuild her weakened organs; she took ten grams of vitamin C every day and a half-dose of life extension vitamin mix in assimilable powdered form; she drank herbal teas of echinacea and fenugreek seeds and several ounces of freshly squeezed wheat grass juice every day. Twice each day she made poultices out of clay and the pulp left over from making her wheat grass juice, filled an old bra with this mixture and pressed it to her breast for several hours until the clay dried. Shortly, I will explain all the measures in some detail.