The China Study and Pancreatic Cancer

This is the hardest post to write in our 31 Day series...

While the China Study is revolutionary in scope, and has profound effect on diseases from hypertension to diabetes to cancers of all kinds.  It has not been able to crack the vicious hold of pancreatic cancer.

On this blog, mom and I decided long ago to only speak truth.  Even when it's hard.
So, this is the hard post... the truth about the China Study and pancreatic cancer.

Dr. John Kelly devotes a whole chapter in his book, Stop Feeding Your Cancer to the problem of the pancreas...

"It has been my fervent hope in this book to tell a personal story that accurately relates the importance of new finding but does not over-simplify the challenge of cancer.  All the case histories that have been presented highlight the close association that exists between the consumption of animal protein and the manner in which the patient's cancer grows.

There can be no exceptions to good scientific theory - or can there be?  The question many will ask is, 'What about pancreatic cancer?'  It's the one that makes most headlines because of its virulent, seemingly unstoppable nature."

Dr. Kelly goes on to share his experience with 4 patients under his care who had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and who had agreed to follow the Whole-Food, Plant-Based diet.

His first case was a patient who came to him with possible gallstones.  Tests revealed the malignant lesion in her pancreas.  She underwent surgery, the surgery was deemed successful,  she embarked on the new diet and seemed to be recovering well.

Two months later a new lesion developed.   Her oncologist put her on a stringent course of chemotherapy along with the whole-food, plant-based diet.

Three months later she was dead.

Dr. Kelly shares his complete shock.  For he firmly believed that neither the original cancer recurring, nor a new tumour should have happened while the patient was on the diet.

A small part of his questioning was her full compliance with the diet. Hopefully she had been faithful to the new diet, but he shares, "The awful truth for the patient was that she got no second chance."

Several years later, Dr. Kelly received another pancreatic cancer case.  The 65-year old man was totally on board with the diet and determined to make it work.  What transpired in his case was completely unexpected.  On the night before surgery, he died from a massive hemorrhage at the cancer site.

Dr. Kelly statess that "if nothing else, this incident was a dramatic demonstration of the aggressiveness of pancreatic cancer; there was clearly no one to blame for what happened."

And yet, Dr. Kelly appears to have taken much of the blame, speaking of many sleepless nights, reviewing and reevaluating the study and pancreatic cancer in particular...

"I took comfort from the progress of the other patients in my trial, but the pancreas issue was never far from my thoughts.  I had to wait three years before another pancreatic case presented itself.  In fact, two showed up in quick succession.  There were striking similarities between the cases.  Both were males between 60 and 70 years old, both had extensive metastatic spread by the time of diagnosis, and tragically both patients were dead within a few months, the agony of their final weeks barely controlled by high doses of pain-killing drugs.  The last patient to die was my own brother, who was eight years my junior.

Observing a family member's death in such pain from this most vigorous cancer was a horrific experience.  The anguish seemed worse since he'd known all about Colin Campbell's work and told me he'd been following the animal-protein-free diet.  I do not know how disciplined he was with the diet but, knowing him so well, I suspect he was at least reasonably so.  I was heartbroken, but his death focused my mind as never before... I went to sleep thinking of pancreatic cancer, and woke every morning still thinking of it."

And if this were the end of our study, it would appear hopeless.  Completely, utterly hopeless...

I would not be sharing the China Study with you, my friends, if I did believe with certainty that it is the stuff of great Hope.

Indeed, it was the China Study that actually led Dr. Kelly to his Eureka Moment with pancreatic cancer...  It's a complicated, scientific thesis that is simply brimming with Hope!

Stay tuned as we delve into the science behind the role of trypsin and pepsin in the aggressive growth of pancreatic cancer.  Dr. Kelly is confident that we are reaching a critical crossroads in cancer research, and if his deductions are right, there is incredible Hope for the pancreatic cancer patients and all their loved ones...

More tomorrow!  Can't wait to share this exciting  new development!

Stop Feeding Your Cancer

Dr. John Kelly was downright skeptical when he was challenged to review Dr. Campbell’s work.  As a general practitioner he had seen his fair share of cancer through the years.

After reading through the comprehensive results of The China Study and Dr. Campbell’s subsequent follow-up, he found himself unable to ignore the importance of the science and the urgency of the message…

“Cancer has visited my own family and, like so many others, I have personally dealt with the stress it brings to lives, and with the frequently helpless confusion.  Patients’ first reactions on hearing their diagnoses are consistent.  Alarm and distress are compounded by ignorance.  The headlines about cancer are well known and circulated in the popular press; it is virulent, it is indiscriminately fatal and treatments are complex and often brutal.”

Dr. Kelly chose to devise his own straw poll study in his clinical practice.  Compelled by the scientific findings in Campbells China Study, he put forth the question… “What would be the fate of my cancer patients if they followed Campbell’s study and rigorously adopted the animal-protein-free-diet he advocated?”

He stresses that as a medical practitioner he was committed to the well-being of all his patients and was not discouraging them from continuing conventional cancer treatments.  His field test involved adding in the whole food plant-based diet alongside whatever treatments the patient was already indergoing.

The trial that Dr. Kelly proposed was not a conventional, full-scale clinical trial.  "As with any doctor on the frontline of health care, I had seen too much suffering and too many lives cut short by cancer to be blasé about the disease.  My reasoning was that any study that proposed widespread remedial value demanded the most rigorous and transparent field-testing.”

So Dr. Kelly proceeded with his own study, with his patients’ help.  He made a pact with himself to avoid psychological prompting and to resist coaching individuals' response to recovery.  His job, as he saw it, was merely to introduce the facts, urge the diet and to observe and record.  The field-test spanned eight years.

What transpired was nothing short of remarkable…

One of the case studies in Dr. Kelly's book, Stop Feeding Your Cancer, was about a patient named Ronan.

Ronan was in his mid-sixties when he developed colon cancer.  He had a portion of the cancerous colon removed and made a rapid recovery.  His surgeon felt that he was doing well, but suggested a follow-up with his general practitioner, Dr. Kelly.

Dr. Kelly followed Ronan's progress and was the one who called for scans 7 months later when Ronan came to him with jaundice.  The scans showed multiple secondary lesions or cancer deposits on his liver.  

Ronan's cancer had come back and had metastisized.

Dr Kelly brought up the subject of The China Study and talked with Ronan about the possible association between animal protein and cancer growth.  Ronan agreed to read the book, but did not see the significance in it and went back to the surgeon who removed the section of liver where the cancer was located.

Ronan did agree to cut down a little on cheese, in a nod to the strict plant-based, no dairy diet that was recommended, and Dr. Kelly, true to his word, did not prompt or coach Ronan to comply.

Several months later scans discovered new cancer deposits in the soft tissue of the pelvis.  The cancer had come back.  

This time Ronan was treated with radiation, more surgery and finally another course of chemotherapy.

At some point in the grueling treatment, Ronan hit a turning point.  He came to Dr. Kelly and with the conviction of a man with one last chance, Ronan decided to surrender to the animal-protein-free diet.  

According to Dr. Kelly, "Almost immediately after adopting the diet, Ronan began to feel considerably better, and after three weeks he became quite enthusiastic about his new regime."  

At the time of writing his book, Dr. Keely shared that Ronan was more than 18 months out of treatment and appeared fit, well and optimistic, maintaining a full and active life on the diet.

I will be sharing more of Dr. Kelly's case studies in the next weeks, but  after a decade of work with hundreds of cancer patients in his clinic, Dr. Kelly has become convinced beyond any reasonable doubt of the link between consumption of animal protein and cancer growth.

The question still ponders, was it the simultaneous course of chemo and radiation or the whole-food-plant-based diet that gave Ronan a second chance?

Excited to see transformation and conversation beginning as we walk this journey and discover ways to Beat Cancer...

So glad you're here!  

The Secret Ingredient

I am not about to make you wait... there is too much at stake.

The China Study is filled with information (387 pages worth!) and if you are like me, you skip to the last chapter immediately to see what gives.

Well, here's the skinny...

The secret ingredient to a good diet, according to Dr. Campbell and his research team, is simple.

Plants.

That's it.  {You're welcome.}

We should eat Plants.  Every day.  All kinds.

Green, Yellow, Orange, Purple and Red.

Sweet, Tart, Wholesome Plants.  Not animals.  Just Plants.

The secret to dramatically reducing our risk of cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

And I might be over-simplifying just a bit.  There's so much more (387 pages!)

But you deserve to know what we're getting in to.  Right from the start.   We are getting radical.

Changing our diets is not for the faint of heart.  Yet, it is the very crux of so much that is wrong with our health.

When I first heard about the China Study, I was reading a book by Dr. John Kelly called Stop Feeding Your Cancer...

It is a fascinating read and fully engaged me from the first page.  Dr. Kelly had been introduced to The China Study and was compelled to follow-up with these dietary recommendations in his own practice.

His book is filled with case studies of many heroic patients who agreed to follow the diet and share their stories.  

It peaked my interest and I began a journey into a new, and might I add, revolutionary chapter in our cancer journey...

And it involves Plants.  Lots of delicious, nutritious, amazing plants...

Don't be scared off.  Stick with me.  The stories are nothing short of miraculous and you deserve every chance in the world in this fight against cancer.

If a diet could change the way your body healed itself, would you be interested???

Come back tomorrow... it just gets better and better!