When I read the terrible story today of Alison’s reconstructive surgery following the removal of the melanoma on her leg it reminded me of when I did a body cleansing detox when I had a melanoma.
The story is about Alison, a 52 year old single Mum with two teenage children, who is undergoing a procedure called tissue expansion, where her skin is being slowly stretched to produce enough skin to fill in a deep crater in her calf.
This deep crater that has disfigured her is the result of the second wide excision that dermatologists usually do after the initial removal of a melanoma.
Reading the story made me thankful that I refused to have the second wider excision following the removal of a very superficial melanoma on my ankle 8 years ago and decided to do a body cleansing detox instead.
I was told that that the second wider excision was done as a precaution to ensure that they “got a nice margin of of normal skin”. As the mole was on my ankle, where there was very little skin, this procedure entailed a skin graft from my thigh and a 5 day stay in hospital with my leg imobilizied.
That didn’t appeal to me at all. I immediately thought of all the things that could go wrong like getting an infection, the graft not taking, and having to eat bad hospital food unless I had someone bringing it in for me.
I decided to do some research and get a second opinion. Although the doctors were telling me that a second excision saved lives I found some US research that concluded a second excision make no difference to the survival rates.
I consulted a Naturopathic Doctor
I consulted a Naturopathic doctor I knew of who specialized in helping people with cancer and, after doing a battery of tests to look at my immune system and toxic load in depth, we came to the decision that as the Melanoma was so superficial and the margins of the 1st excision were clear that I would do a body cleansing detox and not have the second excision.
I did not have the benefit of a sentinel lymph node biopsy as that had not been introduced then.
Main stream doctors tend to approach cancer by the cut, burn and poison method and rarely recommend detoxing the body to improve the odds of the immune system dealing with it.
I knew that if I cleansed by body of toxic chemicals and heavy metals my immune system would work better and mop up any stray cancer cells in my body.
My GP said I was mad. But, my instincts and everything I had learned about detox and cleansing for cancer led me to believe that this was the right thing to do.
The consultant said that they would like to do trials to see if a second wider excision did in fact save lives but it would not be ethical to do. She said I would have made an ideal candidate for this but they needed more people like me!
Dramatic Rise in Melanoma Rates
According to the Daily Mail journalist the most common age for diagnosis of melanoma is over 65 but according to a recent article on Fox news “Melanoma rates increase ‘dramatically’ among young adults”.
So what is causing this rise?
According to Dr Bav Shergill, Consultant Dermatologist & Dermatological Surgeon ” skin cancer is almost always caused by too much exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light”.
Alison said that in the 70’s when not much was heard of about the dangers of sunbathing she loved tanning her legs. She often lay out in the sun with tanning oil and took regular holidays to Spain.
I did the same in the 60’s. I even had a course of tanning bed sessions before I got married. My consultant said that would have caused it even though it was all those years ago.
The Melanoma Research Foundation says “Exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation, such as sunlight or indoor tanning beds is a major risk factor for developing melanoma. Using tanning beds before age 30 increases your risk of a melanoma diagnosis by 75 percent and occasionally using tanning beds can triple your chances”.
But others say Melanoma is not caused by early ultraviolet (UVA) light exposure.
An article by Dr Mercola states that melanoma increases are due to benign disease, not sunlight. He explains that “people are being diagnosed with melanoma skin cancer even when they have only a minimal, non-cancerous lesion, and these diagnoses appear to be skewing disease rates significantly”.
Are toxic sunscreen to blame?
He goes on to say that “Despite all the bad press linking sun exposure to skin cancer, there’s almost no evidence at all to support it. There is, however, plenty of evidence to the contrary. Over the years, several studies have confirmed that appropriate sun exposure actually helps prevent skin cancer. In fact, melanoma occurrence has been found to decrease with greater sun exposure, and can be increased by sunscreens”.
So what caused Alison’s and my melanoma? Was it the sunbathing or was the toxic sunscreens we used to blame?
If you have not already read my post on the toxicity of sunscreen you might want to go back to it after you have finished reading this post. Alarming Toxic Chemicals in Sunscreens
As I read of Alison making the weekly trip from from her home to a reconstructive surgery clinic 30 miles away I know I made the right decision to do a body cleasing detox.
The tests showed I had higher than “background levels” of certain chemicals in my blood, high mercury and lead levels, a high viral load, and my immune system killer cells were low.
I was already eating a diet high in fruit and vegetables and had continued to drink a fresh juice at least once if not twice a day since the days of intensive juicing that helped me recover from chronic fatigue many years ago. That obviously wasn’t enough!
The Naturopath introduced me to the Vitamix and I made a cocktail of veg and fruit to drink every day. I had Far Infra Red saunas, did coffee enemas, took liquid zeolite and increased the vegetables in my diet even more eating them for breakfast too as a thick soup.
This body cleansing detox eventually lowered the chemicals, toxic metals and viral load. After having follow up appointments with the dermatologist for 5 years I was eventually proclaimed “cured”.
I didn’t let this go to my head though. I am ever mindful that statistics show that 5% of very superficial thin melanomas are not completely cured. That thought keeps me on the straight and narrow as far as my diet is concerned and I continue to do a body cleansing detox twice a year.
