A Cancer Primer

Cancer is not a single disease.  It is a large and complex family of malignancies that can affect virtually every organ in the body.  Cancer kills one out of every four Americans.  Over 1.2 million new cases are diagnosed every year, with half of them occurring in the lung, prostate, breast, colon and rectum.

There are around 200 different types of cancer.  It is a disease caused by the loss of control over a cell's reproduction capacity.  Rather than dividing in a controlled and programed manner, the cell continues to divide and multiply abnormally, until a detectable lump or tumor develops.

This new growth can be either benign or malignant.  A benign tumor does not spread to other parts of the body and so are not cancerous.  A malignant tumor can spread and is cancerous.  When this tumor spreads, its malignant cells break off and travel through the blood lymph system to other parts of the body, resulting in a secondary tumor.  The name given to the cancer is reflective of the orignation of the cancer.  As an example, if lung cancer spreads to the brain, the disease is still called lung cancer, not brain cancer.

Both external and internal factors cause cancer.  Factors such as chemicals, radiation, viruses, hormones and inherited mutations may act ogether to start or further cancer.

Thanks to the advances made by research, treatments are available for many forms of cancer.  Depending on the type of disease, these treatments are used alone or in combination, to either control cancer cell growth or to eliminate the disease completely.  These traditional or conventional treatment options may include surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, hormone therapy and immunotherapy.  These therapies have proven to be acceptable, safe and effective, although with often unpleasant side effects.

Conventional therapy may prove to be detrimental to the emotional well being of some patients and this is where complementary and alternative therapies have stepped in to offer holistic treatment.  Complementary and alternative medicine (known as CAM) also referred to as integrative medicine, include a broad range of approaches and thereapies used to prevent illness, reduce stress, prevent or reduce side effects and symptons and to control or cure disease.

The terms "complementary" and "alternative" are often used interchangeably, when they are in fact, two different therapies.  Complementary refer to therapies such as acupuncture, aromatherapy, art therapy, counseling, massage, meditation, etc. which are given alongside conventional cancer treatments.  The former does not replace the latter.  They do play a supporting role to standard treatments.

"Alternative"  therapies, on the other hand, are generally used instead of conventional treatments.  Those treatments include Electormagnetic theray, iscador (mistletoe extract), gerson and Essiac are examples of alternative treatments.

Herbal Balance For Life, Inc. produces the most advanced version of Essiac, a non toxic herbal remedy in use for hundreds of years.  Our Essiac is 100% free of any chemicals, made soley from organically grown plants.

Our proprietary Eight Herb formula is designed to breakdown the pollutants and toxins in your system and flush them from your body.  The deep cleaning properties of Essiac can help boost your immune system.  A strong immune system can help fight off illness and disease.

We urge you to use Essiac on a daily basis to keep your immune system strong and defending you from illness and disease.

We do suggest that you contact your physician before taking Essiac to be certain that whatever medications or therapies you are currently taking, will not be affected by using Essiac.

Thank You,

Jim