Cancer prevention – which preventative measures can be taken?

Since cancer is one of the main causes of death worldwide, it is useful to consider ways to avoid risk factors, and appropriate preventive measures. Breast, prostate, colon and lung cancer are the most common cancers, but the frequency of cancer types can vary greatly from country to country. The WHO expects the incidence of cancer to double by 2040. According to the cancer report of the IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer), 18.1 million people worldwide have been diagnosed with cancer since 2018. In 2040, this number is expected to rise to 29-37 million people. The WHO views increasing life expectancy as one reason for this. However, at the same time, the risk of dying from cancer has fortunately decreased overall.(1)

 

What are the risk factors for cancer?

At the Alpstein Clinic, it is of great importance to us to be able to offer you preventative healthcare, before the onset of a disease. Approximately one in three cancer cases could be prevented by changing behavior and avoiding certain risks. But what are the risk factors and how can an individual influence them? Risk factors include:

• Smoking (passive smokers are also at risk): Avoid all types of tobacco and ensure a smoke-free environment.
• Overweight: Maintain a healthy body weight.
• Lack of exercise: Undertake daily exercise and regular sporting activities.
• Poor nutrition: Make sure you eat a balanced diet and avoid carbohydrates with a high glycemic index, such as high-calorie sugary drinks. Eat enough fresh fruit, vegetables, and pulses, and make sure you consume good omega 3 fatty acids, etc.
• Excessive alcohol consumption: Limit your intake of alcohol.
• Carcinogenic substances: Avoid or protect yourself from carcinogenic substances, e.g. at work or in your home, and identify them.
• Sunbathing: Avoid extensive and unprotected sunbathing.
• Electro smog: Identify where and how you can reduce daily exposure to electro smog.
• Synthetic hormone replacement therapy: Use bioidentical hormones where necessary, e.g. during menopause, instead of synthetic hormone replacement therapy.
• Chronic infections (e.g. those caused by the Epstein-Barr-Virus (EBV) or by Helicobacter pylori): Counteract the chronic, gradual infection with a biologically integrative therapy.
• Dental interference fields: Let our dentist Dr. Vizkelety advise you on whether your teeth are responsible for possible interference fields in your organism and find out what you can do about it.
• Long-lasting mental-emotional, unresolved conflicts: Whether at work, in the family, or in a partnership, if situations of extreme stress remain unresolved over a long period of time, this can have a negative effect on health.

At the Alpstein Clinic, because we take a holistic view of the individual, in the presence of such conflict and stressful situations, we look to integrative psychological counselling and therapy with our psychological consultant Flavia Krogh lic. phil.

 

Which risk factors can be diagnosed and treated therapeutically?

Biological Integrative Medicine offers many possibilities here. The following disruptive factors can be diagnosed and then treated:

• Determination of heavy/light metal contamination (arsenic, aluminium, lead, mercury etc.)
• Determination of xenohormones (pesticides, insecticides, plastics, etc.)
• Determination of detoxification enzymes (i.e. is the body able to detoxify sufficiently?)
• Determination of food intolerances (which in turn can disrupt the immune system within the intestinal mucosa)
• Determination of the intestinal flora, the immunity of the intestinal mucosa, the integrity of the intestinal wall (leaky gut), etc.
• Determination of chronic infections, such as viral loads (EBV, HPV etc.)
• Evaluation of possible dental interference fields
• Evaluation of vital substance deficiencies (vitamin D3, B vitamins, zinc, selenium, Q10, etc.)
• Identification of any mental and emotional, unresolved conflict and overload issues in the initial consultation with the patient
• And many more.

 

Cancer prevention on the psychological-psychosomatic level

There is also a great deal that can be done on the psychological-psychosomatic level, both preventively, and in the case of a specific cancer diagnosis.

Cancer can affect practically all regions and organs of the body. Cancers are also known as neoplasms, i.e. something new that forms and grows. In psychosomatics, it is assumed that this growth (cancer) takes place on the wrong level. Deep sorrow, unprocessed injuries, feelings of guilt that have become unbearable, missing out on life and wasted talents, shocking experiences, great worries about the future and many, many other concerns that go hand in hand with strong emotions and affect the ‘emotional milieu’, block our defences and become a trigger. This is because cancer begins immunologically, after a breakdown of the immune system. Whereas with an intact immune system cancer cells are quickly eradicated, emotional stress considerably reduces the immune system.

Symbolically, we can say that if we have strayed too far from our line of development in a specific area, the body must help this repression express itself so that it can somehow be integrated into life. Cancer physically realizes what would be necessary in the corresponding area of consciousness: the disease makes something visible that should have been seen and digested long ago. Cancer ‘wants’ us to act and bring our lives back into balance. If there is no growth in consciousness, metastases grow, which emphatically show that the unprocessed subject must spread in order to be seen.(2)

Psychological prevention is therefore concerned with breaking down old burdens, rebuilding self-confidence, maintaining respectful relationships, checking inner convictions for their strengthening effects, giving meaningfulness and joy a place in life, and generally promoting the conscious synchronisation of body, mind and soul. In these resilience coaching sessions, many tools for self-reflection are imparted, so that we can experience a deep appreciation of the interconnectedness of life anew. When we feel in harmony with our environment, and with creation as a whole, we are profoundly healthy. Cancer cells are then not necessary and those that have built up by chance are quickly eliminated by the well-functioning immune system.

In summary, through a ‘Holistic Check-up’ – on a physical and mental level – possible disruptive factors can be determined and therapeutically addressed with the patient.

In our next blog post, we will introduce the interdisciplinary and integrative-therapeutic alternatives, in accordance with the principles of biological and conventional medicine, which the Alpstein Clinic offers for cancer treatment. We look forward to welcoming you as a reader again!

 

Arrange a non-binding initial consultation now

Would you like to learn more about holistic cancer prevention in an initial conversation with our team of doctors? Please take a few moments to fill out our medical questionnaire and make an appointment.

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(1) See WHO (2012) Global Report: Mortality attributable to tobacco. World Health Organization (ed), Genua; See Kurier.at, ege, 29.10.2015: Die vollständige Krebs-Liste: 116 Risikofaktoren. In German; See Neue Züricher Zeitung, 04.02.2020: WHO warnt vor Verdoppelung der Krebserkrankungen bis 2040. In German.

(2) See Ruediger Dahlke, Krankheit als Symbol. Handbuch der Psychosomatik und integralen Medizin, S. 512 ff., C. Bertelsmann Verlag, München, 2014 (25. Auflage). In German.