is Candida and blood cancer linked???????????

Is a parasite driving your cancer?

Say the word ´parasite´ to most people and they think of 6 foot long tape worms. But parasites come in many forms and can be microscopic.

In fact, expert cancer bodies acknowledge that 15-20 per cent of cancers are caused and driven by viruses (for example, some liver cancers), or bacteria (for example Helicobacter pylori and stomach cancer). At CANCERactive we feel that the figure may be much, much higher. Certainly drugs companies are now working hard on this theory and to see if vaccines might help.

When Pau D´arco and Wormwood were first used with cancer patients, their success caused people to think of these two herbs as cancer cell killers. While it has now been shown that they do have some anti-cancer effects, their primary ability is in their anti-bacterial and anti-viral strengths, and particularly in their anti-fungal abilities too.

Candida albicans and cancer

The most common ´parasite´ in the Western World is Candida albicans, a common fungus. 70 - 80 per cent of people have excesses of it. Yellow toe nails, flatulence after meals, thrush, cystitis - these are all signs of candida excess.

The major reason is that we allow our intestinal flora to become imbalanced. We kill off the helpful bacteria - the ones we have lived in harmony with for thousands of years - with antibiotiocs, chlorinated water, drugs, salt, alcohol etc. And we don´t feed them their favourite foods - whole grains, vegetables, fruits, fibre.

But, at night while you sleep, your good bacteria would consume vast quantities of microbes, fungus and yeasts that you consumed with your food during the day; so ´cleaning´ your system for you.

If you cannot deal with your excesses of the fungus candida albicans, they can produce toxins which pervade the blood system. People may feel like they have a hangover when they ate or drank something ´yeasty´. Worse they can punch holes in the gut wall with their roots (think IBS) and even enter the blood stream from the gut. Research then shows they can sit on and block cell receptor sites normally reserved for important hormones. This blocking effect is lnown to occur in some cases of type 2 Diabetes. In 25 per cent of cases cinnamon relieved the symptoms of the disease - but then, cinnamon kills candida in the blood system.

Interestingly, there is research showing that women who take 25 doses of antibiotics in their lifetime have twice the breast cancer risk.

Yeasts and fungal infections like candida are anaerobic - they do not use oxygen to generate their energy. An acid body is a pleasant home for candida, a poorly nourished one too, as is one with a low immune response. Once in the blood system, candida can colonise areas of the body. The shere presence of thousands of yeast cells reduces oxygen levels in those areas. But your body cells are clever. If they cannot take in enough oxygen, they can generate energy without it. Just as a cancer cell does!

Worse, some cancer treatments can severely increase levels of candida in the body. In cases of leukaemia, the treatment irtself, because of its severity, can produce fatal excesses.

In 1993 a top US medical magazine wrote that ´People on chemotherapy finally succunbed, not to their cancer, but due to an excess of candida albicans.

Articles of interest in this section

We have two really important articles that you must read.

        * The first is an interview with herbalist Gerald Green entitled ´Can Candida Cause Cancer?´;
         * The second is an article featuring ´struck off´ Italian oncologist, Dr Simoncini.

Both believe that Candida albicans is a driving force behind cancer. The former believes diet is the answer to removing the fungus and setting up a healing programme; while Simoncini uses alkalsing ´Sodium Bicarbonate´.

Our note of caution is that, whilst we can see the issues with candida, we (as always) do not believe there is one single thing that causes all cancer, just as we do not believe that there is one single thing that can cure it.

Simoncini believes that research shows he is right. For example, we cover two separate studies over the last three years - one where two American Scientists injected (alkaline) sodium bicarbonate into breast tumours and the tumours regressed; the other where drinking sodium bicarbonate resulted into a cessation of new metastases. However, since the inside of a tumour is highly acid, and acid conditions are known to encourage metastases, these two research studies could simply be the effects of introducing alkaline sodium bicarbonate into the mix. Candida might not be the driver per se.

Green and Simoncini are not the first to believe that parasites played a dangerous role. Dr Hulda Clark was an earlier observer. A third article covers her views.