Mainstream medicine sometimes gets it right. A new wonder treatment called CAR T-cell therapy gives hope to cancer victims who would have had none from conventional medicine just a few years ago.
Yet it’s not the be-all, end-all cancer treatment we all want it to be – far from it. For starters, it’s only approved to treat two types of cancer: leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. It’s also available only to patients who’ve exhausted other treatment options (and who’ve been put through the wringer while they did so).
And as so often happens with mainstream medicine, CAR T-cell therapy can have severe side effects, including cytokine release syndrome, which can be life-threatening.
So while that treatment is still being refined and tailored to help a broader range of cancers, I’d like to give you a better idea: a recipe for Do-It-Yourself Immunotherapy. . .
I’m not talking about a homegrown version of CAR T-cell therapy, which is a complex laboratory process that is only safe to attempt in a hospital setting.
But if you think about it, CAR T-cell therapy harnesses the power of the immune system, and there are many ways to do that. In fact, boosting the immune system has always been a cornerstone of alternative cancer therapy.
Most of the ways to stimulate your built-in immune response are natural, inexpensive things you can do from home. Plus, you don’t have to wait to try them until after you’ve tried everything else and death is at your door.
You also don’t have to haggle over insurance approval, and you don’t have to endure horrible side-effects while you wait for the therapies to work. I find all these qualities pretty attractive – irresistible, in fact.
10 ways to upgrade your immune system
Here are the top 10 ways I could find to improve your own immune response without a doctor’s help:
- Take a daily probiotic, add fermented foods to your meals, and eat lots of fibrous foods. Anything that increases the colony of good microbes in your gut will do wonders for supporting your immune system.
- Don’t put toxins in your system. This means no smoking, moderate or no drinking, and steering clear of hazardous breathing conditions like smog. Such toxins undermine your basic immune defenses, making it harder to fight off other risks.
- Get outdoors more. Sunlight triggers your skin’s production of vitamin D. I’m not talking about staying in the sun till you’re tan, which raises the risk of skin cancer. But according to several studies, a good ten-minute daily exposure (more when the days are short) will work wonders in getting you enough vitamin D to help your immune system fight off respiratory infections, the flu, and even colon cancer.
- Lean toward a plant-based diet loaded with vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds. These foods give your body the nutrients your immune system needs to function at its best.
- Sleep well and sleep often. That may be easier said than done if you have chronic pain, urinary tract problems, sleep apnea or other conditions that keep people from getting a good night’s sleep, but it’s worth the effort because quality sleep is absolutely essential to a functional immune system. Most of the conditions that keep us awake are treatable. Get them treated.
- Manage stress. Long-term exposure to cortisol, the hormone released during stressful events, causes inflammation and weakens your immune response.
- Take immune-boosting herbal supplements. Herbs like eleuthero, Asian ginseng, American ginseng, and astragalus are all known to help support the immune system. You can consume them as pills, tinctures, or in tea. Maybe the kindest favor you can do for you immunity is to take glutathione-boosters such as Vital Force, a supplement from our sister company Green Valley Natural Solutions. Other favorites of mine are the mushroom extracts, especially reishi, Coriolus versicolor, Agaricus blazei, and maitake.
- Add mushrooms and garlic to your dinners. Mushrooms, of course, are more fun to eat than to take as a supplement, so add them to your meals. Shiitake and maitake contribute both flavor and immune support to your food. Garlic will also add flavor and is known to be both a broad-spectrum antimicrobial agent and an immune booster.
- Put turmeric in everything. Turmeric gets its distinctive color from curcumin, which has been shown in multiple studies to help with inflammation and to stave off the aging process. Turmeric can be added to everything from sandwiches to lasagnas to smoothies. It can also be taken as a supplement.
- Hide seeds or nuts in everything. Just about every seed or nut out there is loaded with nutrients that support your immune system. Sprinkle them liberally on every meal you consume. Or, if you don’t love the flavor or texture, get a food processor, grind them up, and blend them into everything you eat. Your tongue won’t notice, but your immune system will.
Like body armor for your immune system
Now, I know people look at lists like these and wonder how it’s possible that such simple steps can stave off cancer when the most sophisticated medical technologies only do a subpar job.
Here’s the difference: Most cancer therapies, like chemotherapy, are designed to kill all rapidly-dividing cancer cells. Immunotherapy works from the inside, using the body’s immune cells to fight cancer.
Two things have to happen for this to succeed:
- Your immune system needs to be stimulated
- Your immune system needs to recognize the cancer cells as different from your normal cells
Because scientific research is having more luck with this (such as the CAR T-cell immune treatment), some say we’re entering a new era of cancer treatment. And I’m all for it. But along with that, we’re also entering a new era in which patients are no longer completely helpless to the whims of the bureaucratic, money-driven world of Big Pharma.
So if we take the steps above while we wait for this new era to unfold, then we’re doing the smartest, easiest, quickest thing available right now to stave off cancer. These simple steps will stimulate your immune system, making your body better able to recognize and fight off cancer cells on its own. Better yet, it will also help you fight off routine illnesses like cold and flu.
There are so many simple things we can do at home. In our last issue we wrote about an overlooked variety of pepper that packs a powerful anti-cancer punch. And some people say it tastes better than the black pepper that’s on almost every table! If you missed this article, it’s running again just below.
Best regards,
Lee Euler,
Publisher
