The greatest challenge we have in working with anyone who has had cancer is the panic factor. Most people who find out they have cancer are, understandably, in shock. On top on that, the medical treatments are usually initiated immediately, which can also put someone in a state of shock or trauma.

When we see people who decide to investigate natural therapies, we see them bombarded with information from helpful friends and family members suggesting what they should and shouldn't do. They're routinely offered all shorts of suggestions for some miracle remedy or therapy.

As if you weren't already in a state of shock, this overwhelming information, mixed with the urgency factor that cancer brings because of its typical aggressive nature, can put a person over the top, so to speak. Motivated by fear, a person may jump from practitioner to practitioner, each one offering a different program, contradicting each other, and making the patient feel lost and helpless.

Stop! I try to take away some of that panic by explaining a few things that I believe will help you see cancer a little differently and empower you truly help yourself.

First of all, you are in charge of your body. If you are diagnosed with cancer, go home, sit down, and think. Do not panic immediately (yeah, sure). Realize that you were not born with this disease. You walked into it by doing something over a long period of time, or perhaps not doing something over a long period of time.

In most cases, it is very possible to walk back out of the disease by figuring out what those things were and then correcting them. That's not to say that the walk will be a walk in the park, of course, and it's not to say that surgery won't be required in many cases, but surgery is not the total answer to a cancer-free rest of your life.

In other words, consider more than just surgery to treat cancer. You need to understand how you wound up with cancer in the first place, and then don't repeat your mistakes. Remember that you are in control of the choices that you make. You can choose health, or you can choose to do things that have negative consequences.

This list details some helpful things you can do to deal with the panic factor that comes when diagnosed with cancer. Engrain these thoughts in your heart and mind; they will help you understand the situation you are in and will empower you to make a choice. Some thoughts for cancer patients:

• Do not take your doctor's diagnose as a voodoo curse. Think of all the hundreds, and maybe thousands of people who have been given certain amount of time to live and have contradicted the doctor's diagnosis by eating the cancer and living cancer-free beyond their doctor's allotted time.
• Decide whether you are going to beat the cancer or whether you will let it beat you. You have a choice to make.
• Remember that your body works to keep you healthy and that you just need to provide the opportunity. Cancer did not fall out of the sky and attack you. You harbored it by lifestyle. Avoid blame, and just get prepared to make some changes.
• Remember that you are in control. Stay focused. We all have inherent intelligence when it comes to nutrition and nature's laws. If you are getting advice from a natural health practitioner that doesn't make sense to you, do not follow it; seek someone else. (Word-of-mouth referrals are usually the best.)
• Do not jump from practitioner to practitioner. You will confuse yourself. Find a good holistic nutritionist or herbalist and a good medical doctor, and use their skills and caring to help you heal yourself. Sometimes your medical doctor will be open and willing to write a prescription to see your natural health care provider.
• Your body is constantly being rebuilt, cell by cell. In fact, you have a whole new body every seven years. Give your body what it need to start rebuilding the good cells today!
• If you are spiritually connected (or want to be), pray. God answer prayers; pray for the right help to come to you, and pray that you will recognize it when it does.
• Read inspiring books by people who have fought cancer naturally and won:

Sir Jason Winters Story: From Deadly Cancer to Perfect Health by Benjamin Roth Smythe and Jason Winters, 1997.
Beating Cancer with Nutrition: Clinically Proven and Easy-to-Follow Strategies to Dramatically Improve Quality and Quantity of Live by Patrick Quilin and Noreen Quillin (Contributor), 1998.
You Can Heal Your Life by Louise L. Hay, 1987.

• Remember that attitude is 90 percent of anything. Enhance your attitude of gratitude for the good things you have in your life.
• Have faith. Don't worry about money, time, or anything else. Focus on healing yourself, and the universe will provide you with what you need.
• Be open to learning a whole bunch about yourself in a short period of time. Old thought patterns that do not serve you will be busted up during your true healing process. Many times we realize we are harboring negative emotions that fester as a cancer in the body. This is your opportunity to make your peace with yourself and others.

All these things might sound naive, but, this is how most people overcome any potentially life-threatening disease. Once you are on the other side of the battle, you will be a whole new person, literally cell by cell! Cancer is given the opportunity to grow in our body when our immune system is lowered. This can happen by being overexposure to things that cause damage to the body.

The list of these things, from toxic chemicals to radiation and sun exposure, is do long that it would be too cumbersome to list them all here. Besides eliminating the overexposure to the damaging substances that are overloading your body with toxins, it is imperative that your immune system is strengthened.

You immune system is the system that goes to war for you to fight off anything in the body that shouldn't be there. It also keeps cells that are potentially cancer-causing under control. Fighting cancer is like helping your body fight an internal war. To win the battle you must first supply your troops with the tools they need to fight and secondly, eliminate your enemies' food source.

Sometimes the food source is pesticides, smoke, sugar, built-up toxins in the body, negative thoughts, and radiation. You can weaken the enemy cells by depriving them of what gives them strength. Cancer thrives on low oxygen environments. A clogged up system where mucus, bowel wastes, and a dirty lymphatic system exists leaves little room for revitalizing oxygen to nourish the cells.

Exercise and deep breathing as well as nutrients will help flush toxins out of the body and bring oxygen back into cells. On the other side of the battlefield, your good guys need your support. You can support them by feeding them immune system-building foods, herbs, and thoughts. This is how you begin to tip the scales in your favor.

A myriad of herbs and supplements exist to boost your immune system and detoxify the system. For simplicity's sake, I have had to choose a best single herb for each ailment. In this case, it would to be red clover. The purplish flowers of this common clover plant have been used medicinally to cleanse the blood, liver, and lymphatic system.

Red clover is a tonic and is believed to help cancer patients because of its ability to aid protein assimilation. Red clover is rich in calcium, potassium, vitamin C, and magnesium. Red clover is an excellent blood cleanser and is used for a host of ailments, including acne, athlete's foot, bronchitis, leukemia, psoriasis, skin cancer, skin diseases, and whooping cough.

Because the cancer-fighting battle is a serious one, you are going to have to use more than just one herb or supplement to boost your immunity, cleanse the body, bring oxygen into the cells and balance the hormones. Essiac formula is a Native American formula used to fight cancer. It was passed down from the Cherokee tribe to a Canadian nurse in the early 1920s and was used successfully by hundreds over the years.

Other supplements that can aid you in your fight include all the antioxidant vitamins that help fight free radical damage. Some antioxidant vitamins and supplements include vitamin E and C, beta carotene, grape seed, pine bark extract, zinc, shark cartilage, reishi mushroom, germanium, food enzymes, acidophilus, and fish oil lipids known as Omega-3 oils or Omega-3 fatty acids.

These are designed to help your body digest proteins (many people with cancer have poor protein assimilation), cleanse the bowel, and build immunity. In addition, it is imperative to eat primarily organic fruits, vegetables, and animal products. Pesticides and chemical fertilizers found on non-organic foods can only add to your enemy cells.

Take the energy required for digesting solid foods, and juice your organic fruits and veggies. Your body can utilize the extra energy to get well. If your cancer is hormonally induced (involving the reproductive organs), it is a good idea to stay away from animal products unless they are organic.

The hormones given to non-organic cows and chickens can be passed on to you through their flesh or products, and this can unbalance your own hormones. That's not to mention that the pesticides put in the feed for these animals could be lingering in the animal products your ingest.

Soy products contain substances that block receptor sites for hormones and may help balance your own hormonal levels. See your physician or holistic practitioner before you begin a soy supplement. Complementary help includes bowel cleansing. You can administer your own enemas at home or see a colonic irrigation specialist.

Laughter also is good medicine. Watch uplifting movies and read inspirational books, and avoid negative situations while you are battling cancer, or at any time, for that matter!

The thymus gland, a butterfly shaped gland that sits at about the top of the breastbone at the bottom of the throat, is responsible for making immunity cells. Tapping this are with your finger is called thymus thumping and may help stimulate T-cell production. Eating 10 raw almonds a day has also been recommended for folks with cancer. Eat them between meals to help balance blood sugar level.

Chemotherapy is radical chemical therapy that kills cancer cells in the body. The bad news is that it kills good cells, too. You can think of it as a big bomb being dropped on the battlefield. Chemotherapy can make some people very ill and can even make hair fall out.

Consider using herbs to do your best to protect your body from the side effects chemotherapy, and discuss these things with your doctor also. Some controversy has arisen about antioxidants during chemotherapy it from the body. I believe that anything that you can do to protect the good cells that you have will strengthen you.

You will have to discuss this with the health care professionals you work with and must make up your own mind. Bee pollen and coenzyme Q10 have also been used to help combat the side effects of chemotherapy treatment. Talk to some folks who have gone through chemotherapy using antioxidants with success, and see what you think.

Once the battle is over, the healing can begin. You will need to rebuild your body after the destruction so that you can maintain your health and live preventatively. Hopefully you will have added the good things to your diet and lifestyle that have helped you win and recover, and it will serve you to keep good habits for prevention for the rest of your life.

Maintaining your health with nutrients such as alfalfa (rich in minerals), bee pollen (nourishment for the body), antioxidants, acidophilus, enzymes, and red clover will keep your good cells strong and will serve as your preventative program.