Healthy Nutrition, Vitamins Not A Treatment, But Is Good Prevention

In an age where antioxidant supplements and vitamins are being touted as having greater and more powerful benefits than may be possible, many people are resorting to natural, alternative methods of 'handling' their condition or disease. This may be a risk that isn't worth taking on its own, considering the level of progression of the ailment. Not that a good antioxidant supplement and vitamins consumed from the whole food source aren't a good idea, but putting all hope on the ability of nutrients to 'correct' the problem could be putting your life at risk. Here's one example of how that very thing happened --

With much of her lower body consumed by cancer, Leslee Flasch finally faced the truth: The herbal supplements and special diet were not working. "I want this thing cut out from me. I want it out," she told her family.

But it was too late. Her rectal cancer — potentially curable earlier on — had invaded bones, tissue, muscle, skin. The 53-year-old Florida woman could barely sit, and constantly bled and soiled herself.

"It was terrible," one doctor said. "The pain must have been excruciating." Flasch had sought a natural cure. Instead, a deadly disease ran its natural course. And the herb peddlers who sold her hope in a bottle?

"Whatever money she had left in life, they got most of it," said a sister, Sharon Flasch. "They prey on the sick public with the belief that this stuff can help them, whether they can or can't."

Some people who try unproven remedies risk only money. But people with cancer can lose their only chance of beating the disease by skipping conventional treatment or by mixing in other therapies. Even harmless-sounding vitamins and "natural" supplements can interfere with cancer medicines or affect hormones that help cancer grow.

Yet they are extremely popular with cancer patients, who crave control over their disease and want to do everything they can to be healthy — emotional needs that make them vulnerable to deceptive claims. Studies estimate that 60 percent of cancer patients try unconventional remedies and about 40 percent take vitamin or dietary supplements, which do not have to be proved safe or effective and are not approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration. ( Read more... )

Comment: While every effort should be made to get good nutrition, and even a whole food nutrition supplement for added antioxidants and nutrients for the body's cells, it isn't what you should rest your hopes on when it comes to treating any condition or disease. Used in conjunction with proper medical intervention, a healthy diet may provide that 'extra' help that your body needs to heal.

More importantly, a healthy diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables is the best defense against sickness and disease. It's never too late to start getting better nutrition. Just don't wait until you feel it's absolutely necessary - i.e. being diagnosed with advanced cancer...because then it may be too late.

Take action now as though "it is absolutely necessary" and you may be preventing things you don't even know are 'percolating' in your body, feeding off of the free radicals and unhealthy toxins that you may be ingesting. Good nutrition may just provide the antioxidants that keeps sickness and disease at bay.

If you need to get more fruit and vegetable nutrients and are having trouble consuming the minimum recommended daily amount, add Juice Plus+® to your diet. Juice Plus+® is whole food nutrition from a variety of fruits and vegetables.

Dr. J. Patrick Havey
The Health & Wellness Institute, PC
Official Juice Plus+® Distributor