A Different Way to Think About Cancer For decades, cancer research has focused heavily on identifying, targeting, and eliminating tumors. This has led to significant advances in screening, surgical techniques, radiation, and drug therapies — many of which have improved outcomes in certain cancers. Yet one question remains: Are we also asking enough about the biological conditions that allow cancer to develop in the first place? In Never Fear Cancer Again, Raymond Francis encourages readers to examine cancer from a systems perspective. Cancer as a Biological Process Rather than viewing cancer solely as a mass to be removed or destroyed, Raymond frames it as a multi-step biological process involving: Cellular damage Impaired repair mechanisms Chronic inflammation Toxic burden Nutrient deficiencies Immune dysfunction From this perspective, tumors are the visible result of deeper biological imbalances. The central idea is not that conventional medicine is irrelevant &m…

Amaze Magazine Reviews Never Fear Cancer Again A review from Amaze Magazine highlights the bold perspective presented in Never Fear Cancer Again by Raymond Francis. The reviewers note that Raymond challenges readers to reconsider how cancer is understood. Rather than viewing cancer strictly as a tumor to be removed or destroyed, he encourages thinking of it as a biological process that develops over time. A Different Framework In the book, Raymond argues that conventional medicine often focuses primarily on treating tumors — the visible result of cancer — rather than addressing the broader biological conditions that allow cancer cells to grow. His model proposes that cancer development involves a sequence of stages influenced by: Cellular damage Nutrient deficiencies Toxic exposure Chronic inflammation Immune suppression The core breakthrough idea is not that cancer is simple — but that it is systematic. And if it is a process, then understanding that pro…

What Every Woman Must Know About Dense Breast Tissue & Safer Screening Options The Hidden Risk Most Women Don’t Know About Do you have dense breasts? According to a 2010 Harris Poll, 95% of women don’t know whether they do and most physicians don’t routinely discuss it. Yet nearly 40% of women have dense breast tissue, and research suggests that breast density may: • Increase breast cancer risk• Decrease mammogram accuracy• Delay early detection That combination should concern every woman. What Are Dense Breasts? Breasts are composed of: • Fatty tissue• Milk-producing glands• Connective tissue Most breasts are 75% or more fatty tissue. Dense breasts contain more glandular and connective tissue than fat. On imaging, that difference matters. Why Mammograms Miss Cancer in Dense Breasts On a mammogram: • Fatty tissue appears dark• Dense tissue appears white• Cancerous tumors also appear white As one physician described it,…

Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH): Inevitable—or Preventable? By age 80, approximately 90% of men have an enlarged prostate, medically referred to as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). In conventional medicine, BPH is now widely regarded as an almost inevitable consequence of aging. At Beyond Health, we don’t accept inevitability as destiny. Understanding BPH and Its Risks The prostate gland surrounds the urethra. As it enlarges, it can compress the urethral channel, leading to lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) that range from mildly annoying to severely debilitating. Common symptoms include: Weak or interrupted urine stream Difficulty starting or stopping urination A feeling of incomplete bladder emptying Dribbling Frequent urination, especially at night Urgency or sudden need to urinate Burning or pain during urination Over time, irritation and damage to the urethral lining can increase the risk of urinary tract infections. If left unaddressed, progre…

October Tells You to Get a Mammogram. But What Does the Science Say? Every October, women are encouraged to schedule mammograms “to prevent breast cancer.” But here’s the critical question: Can exposure to ionizing radiation the kind used in mammography contribute to the very disease it’s trying to detect? A 2011 report from the Institute of Medicine warned women to avoid unnecessary ionizing radiation if they want to reduce breast cancer risk. Yet conventional recommendations for routine mammography continue. So how do we reconcile this contradiction? Understanding the Radiation Argument Radiation exposure is measured in millisieverts (mSv). Average annual background radiation in the U.S.: ~3 mSv One mammogram: ~0.4 mSv(Equivalent to about 40 days of background radiation) Some argue this is “minimal.” However, many scientists including Physicians for Social Responsibility maintain that no level of ionizing radiation has been proven safe. Radia…

. . . be sure to take vitamin D supplements with fat for proper absorption One of the fears men have about growing older is the increasing risk of prostate cancer that comes with age. But here’s some good news: a study at the Center for Cancer Research at Purdue University found that having adequate levels of vitamin D may help to prevent prostate cancer and slow down the growth rate of already existing prostate cancer. Investigators gave three groups of male mice different amounts of vitamin D in their food and tested their blood levels of vitamin D with the same 25(OH)D test that’s used for humans. The first group was deficient, at 10.5 ng/ml; the second was normal, at 31 ng/ml; and the third exceeded the high normal range at 95 ng/ml. The more rapidly cells divide, the more likely cancer is to develop or spread. Conversely, the more quickly cells die a normal death (called apoptosis), the less likely cancer is to develop or spread. The scientists found that prostate cells i…

Every summer we warn against using sunscreens. First, sunscreens contain toxic ingredients. Some are better than others, but we haven’t found a single one we’d want to use or recommend. Second, sunscreens are designed to block out the sun’s ultraviolet rays. This prevents sunburn, but it also blocks out many of the sun’s benefits. We’ve been sold a bill of goods on sunlight being dangerous. Sunlight is essential to our health and well-being. While too much sun can give you a sunburn, too much of anything can be harmful. Used intelligently, sunlight is nourishing and energizing. Our bodies convert the sun’s rays into vitamin D. Sunlight increases production of the “happy hormones” that prevent anxiety and depression, it enhances immunity, and increases the oxygen content in our blood. It helps to prevent and reverse cancer. Sunlight has even been shown to lower blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides, and to heal wounds and any number of skin diseases. So what is “intelli…

Consumers are finally beginning to bypass sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and their equally toxic artificially-sweetened alternatives. Some people are nixing coffee to avoid excess caffeine’s stressful effect on their adrenal glands. So what’s left to help you get started in the morning or to provide a rewarding pick-me-up when you begin to flag in the afternoon? Purified water is an option. It can be surprisingly energizing, and even delicious, especially with a squeeze of lemon or lime. Of course most tap water is neither energizing nor delicious because it’s full of chemicals and other stuff we’d rather not even think about. But a Beyond Health Reverse Osmosis Water Filtration System can provide you with pure, great tasting water at pennies per gallon. But what about something a little stronger? Here we come to green tea, a beverage that’s not only very satisfying but a superfood that’s been documented to help prevent just about every disease known to mankind, including…

Children’s energy and zest for living make us adults feel alive and joyful. They seem to epitomize good health. But appearances can be deceiving. Like most Americans today, our children are suffering from poor nutrition and toxicity, the two causes of disease. And while children may appear invulnerable, nutrient deficiencies and toxic exposures are taking a silent and sometimes not-so-silent toll. The truth is that even though the knowledge exists to raise strong, healthy children, it is difficult to find a truly healthy child. Child poverty is a significant problem in the US, but even the children of affluent and highly-educated parents have multiple nutrient deficiencies based on government standards, which are already too low. Meanwhile, chemical use in America has gone up 2,000% over the past half century. More than 85,000 synthetic chemicals (only a tiny fraction of which have been tested for safety in humans) are now found in our air, water, soil, food, household furnish…

Taking showers can cause cancer! Twenty years ago the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) placed hot showers on their list of cancer sources. The main culprit was chlorine. Chlorine is a poisonous chemical, a bleaching agent. Sure, it does a great job of killing living things in our water, like bacteria and viruses. The problem is we’re living things too. Chlorine gas was used as a deadly weapon during World War I! Chlorine is a pro-oxidant that causes free radical damage in the body, a major factor in aging and in every kind of disease. Chlorine and its by-products have been linked with various forms of cancer, neurological issues, reproductive problems, heart disease (including atherosclerosis and hypertension), decreased immunity, allergies, hypothyroidism and lung problems. When you smell chlorine in your shower, it’s because it’s escaping into the air as chlorine gas. Since showers are usually poorly ventilated, chlorine gas concentrations can be quite high. In…

It’s been called “the most effective, potent way that we can improve quality of life and duration of life.” If it were a drug, “it would likely be the most valuable pharmaceutical ever developed.” It isn’t a new supplement or super food, and best of all it’s free. It’s . . . exercise! In a recent issue of Time magazine, reporter Mandy Outlander explored the cutting edge of exercise research with various experts who have become increasingly excited about “exercise as medicine.” His own research prompted the rave reviews above from genetic metabolic neurologist Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky at McMaster University in Ontario. That exercise is good for us isn’t exactly news, but Dr. Tarnopolsky hopes that by pointing out all its wonderful rewards, he may motivate us enough to jump up out of our chairs and actually do it! Rewards being documented are both immediate and long-term. Right after a short exercise session, measurable result…

As we envision a healthy future for ourselves, our children, and our planet this month, let’s take a look at cell phones. Although more than 90% of the US population now owns one, cell phones have never been proven safe.  In fact, evidence for their ability to harm continues to accumulate. Although it’s too late to put the genie back in the bottle—we’ve become too dependent on our cell phones to give them up—both adults and especially children must limit cell phone use if we want a healthy future. Nutritionist Anne Louise Gittleman has pointed out that the kind of electromagnetic radiation cell phones emit causes subliminal stress that raises blood pressure and cortisol (a stress hormone) levels, alters blood sugar regulation, lowers thyroid hormone output and can interfere with getting a good night’s sleep. Cell phones also affect fertility and have been linked in children with behavioral disorders, learning difficulties and depression. Of particular concern have been…

Most of us know about “silent killers,” like high blood pressure, insulin resistance, and certain cancers that we can have for years without being aware of it.  But while conventional medicine has expensive tests for (and drugs to treat) these silent killers, a more fundamental silent killer, acidosis, is largely ignored.  What is acidosis?  It’s simply having too much acid in the trillions of body cells that make up our bodies. Most of our population in the US suffer from one degree or another of acidosis, usually unwittingly. And it’s killing us! pH is a measure along a continuum that runs from highly acidic to highly alkaline. The pH of our body fluids, especially the fluids in and around our cells, needs to be slightly alkaline in order for cells to function normally. Acidosis causes cells to malfunction, resulting in a host of other diseases and dysfunctions, including high blood pressure, insulin resistance and cancer. What other problems are a…

About one in 23 men and one in 25 women in the US will develop colon cancer during their lifetimes.  Although using colonoscopies to find and remove cancerous polyps has reduced the overall death rate from colon cancer, among people younger than age 55, deaths from colon cancer have increased 2 percent per year from 2007 and 2016. Could there be a relationship between colon cancer and the observation that almost all Americans are deficient in fiber?  We think so. So did a group of researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, who joined forces with the University of KwaZulu in rural Africa to compare the diets of African Americans and rural Africans.  African Americans have especially high rates of colon cancer, 13 times higher than rural Africans; and the researchers hypothesized that the rural Africans’ high-fiber, low-fat diets had something to do with this. To test their ideas, the researchers compared the diets and also the microbiota (gut bugs) of a…

Years ago we heard an intriguing story. A frail, elderly gentleman in India, bent over with age, left his village to wander into the woods to die. Several years later he returned, vigorous, upright and tanned from the sun, claiming he had been rejuvenated by communing with the rocks, the trees, and the mountain streams.This story came out of Asia’s ancient tradition of nature therapy recently revived in Japan under the name of shinrin-yoku, or “forest bathing.” Forest bathing is immersing yourself in a forest environment. This means leaving your cell phone and daily concerns behind and spending several hours deep in the woods, walking on trails or sitting with no other purpose than to experience your surroundings through all five senses: smelling the woodsy air; feeling the ground beneath your feet or the bark of a tree or the texture of a leaf; tasting a blackberry or wild mint; listening to bird calls and the sound of the wind rustling through the trees; and taking in the varied si…

"It would be a mistake to view Raymond Francis' Never Fear Cancer Again as a book solely about preventing cancer,” says Blogcritics.org. Here, Blogcritics writes an extremely informative book review and explains why Francis believes conventional medicine lacks success when treating cancer, yet this book is not solely about cancer. It is really about is getting healthy and staying healthy. “The simplicity of the Beyond Health model makes it very attractive, and certainly for those of us who are interested in staying well and avoiding diseases of all kinds, the advice in this book is easy to accept and very worthwhile.”…

Do you seem to catch every cold or flu going around? Do you have an ongoing infection, like the yeast infection candida, that you can’t get rid of?  Or do you have the opposite problem—an overactive immune system leading to allergies or to an autoimmune disease? Do you have, or have you had cancer?  These are all indications that your immune system isn’t protecting you as it should, and it’s likely that a primary reason for that is that you don’t have enough glutathione. Glutathione is a critical protein that your body produces. It can also be obtained from food and supplements.  Glutathione has been called “the mother antioxidant” because our antioxidant system can’t function without it. Neither can our detoxification system. And neither can our immune system. Glutathione has the following six essential roles in immune function: Glutathione patrols the bloodstream directly killing many pathogens before they can begin…

Vitamin E is an essential fat-soluble vitamin that we can’t do without. It’s known primarily as an antithrombic, preventing blood clots inside blood vessels, and as the body’s primary fat-soluble antioxidant, offering significant protection to the heart, brain, skin and immune system.But as crucial as vitamin E is to our health, well-known vitamin E researcher Magrit G. Traber has reported that an estimated 90% or more Americans don’t consume enough dietary vitamin E to meet the minimal government standard of 12 milligrams (mg) a day. Meanwhile, health experts recommend hundreds of mg daily for optimal health. Vitamin E is found in whole grains, nuts, seeds, and healthy fats and oils, such as pure, extra-virgin olive oil. If you included all these good foods regularly in your diet, you would likely meet minimum government standards, but for optimal health Beyond Health recommends 400 IU (268 mg) a day, an amount that can only be feasibly consumed by taking a nutritio…