The Big C - II

Cancer , aka the Big C, once again strikes into the heart of the Silk household. This time the young grand-daughter of a close family friend has contracted leukaemia. Talking about the sad news over dinner, my wife, a faithful reader of my blog, asked "how does a girl that age get Cancer, I thought you said it was all about lifestyle". And she's right - most cancers are understood by Chinese Medicine to be a matter of accumulation and stagnation. Young people rarely accumulate and, certainly not before the pressures of teenage-hood, do their energies stagnate. Medically speaking therefore, in young people cancers are a whole different story .

​In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM ) energy or qi can be categorised into

a) post-natal qi

b) pre-heaven qi.

​Post-natal qi is energy put into the body by what and how we eat and what and how we breathe. It is here that accumulation and stagnation rule supreme - over-eat and then hold your breath: sounds like your average adult office lunchtime.

​Pre-heaven qi is our inherited energy and our essence, called jing. It is analogous to the coal that fuels the fire of our activity. Burn too bright and too fast and the fuel will run out. Over-work and, to the great delight of my acupuncture class, ''over-sex'', will drain our resources. Jing is 'delivered' from the parents' Kidney to the Kidney of the foetus [Organs in TCM are understood in terms of energetic function and relationship as well as 'simply' the structure and form of an organ - they parallel but are different from a Western Medical understanding of organs]. From then-on the child's development is dependent on the strength of that jing. In western terms this could be considered as a link between genetics and health.

​In Chinese Medicine Kidney has several functions. They govern head hair, develop the skeletal structure and support the immune system. The Kidney's relationship with head hair serves to demonstrate their role in aging. As we age, we use up jing and our hair turns white (or a commanding salt and pepper in my case). In the case of leukaemia, a disease of the bone marrow, Kidney is relevant in that it "produces marrow". Although the 'Marrow' of Chinese medicine has no direct translation in Western medical terms its function is to produce red blood cells in the heads of the long bones and develop a robust skeletal system. It is partnered with the Lungs to create Wei Qi (Defensive Qi) that fights off pathogenic invasions and people who sneeze on the tube - this is an immune system function.

​According to Stephen Gasgoigne, a British medical doctor who trained in TCM in Shanghai, cancer is all about the immune system. The progression of a cancer from primary to secondary sites is dependent on the quality of a person's immune system. As well as Kidney qi playing an important role in the immune system there is a form of qi in the body known as zhen qi or upright qi. This qi can be observed in the posture of an individual. Simply put upright qi keeps us on the straight and narrow. A person who is 'down in the mouth', slumped over or 'pressed down by life' has compromised zhen qi.

Many people with cancer believe in the importance of maintaining a so-called P.M.A. (and struggle with all that that entails) and evidence does suggest that we heal better if we are feeling positive. However, to maintain a true balance of mental health there also has to be dialogue with the parts of one's self that are aware of the negatives of a life with cancer. I mention the relationship between cancer and zhen qi more as a treatment protocol rather than offering unasked-for and trite advice to people who have cancer. As cancer treatments sometimes target the very resources a patient may need in order to recover and move into remission it is important to use acupuncture to help the patient become as resilient and healthy as possible.

The language used in describing and treating cancer is often aggressive and problem focused. We have "malignant" tumours. Malignancy comes from the word malign. Although in pathology terms this is understood to mean uncontrolled growth, malign can mean "disposed to cause harm, suffering, or distress deliberately". When asked to draw a malignant tumour and a benign tumour clients often draw the malignant tumour with a vicious face. It may be anthropomorphism but we are all predisposed to personalise the experiences we have. If we believe there is something in us that is vicious and wants to cause us harm it is unsurprising we want to "war against cancer". The cancerous cells though are part of us. If we go to war, we go to war against ourselves.

I donate regularly to Cancer Research (in fact some of my best friends are cancer researchers!). I hold in the highest esteem the professionalism, learning and compassion of the oncology units in the UK and I very much doubt that if my child or anyone I was close to, G-d forbid, was to get cancer I would react in a different way. I would want them treated, and treated immediately, by the best experts in the world but in this blog I am simply reflecting on whether this knee-jerk reaction would indeed be the very best thing for that person.

Cancer is terrifying. The idea of being eaten from within, or however you visualise it, is a scary demon. According to a Course in Miracles we only have two emotions: love and fear and if we act from one we cannot act from the other. Fear can make us seek authority. It has been observed  countless times in the voting patterns of a frightened society that we seek the certainty of the extremes. Cancer, possibly because of the fear it generates, is treated as a medical emergency and interventions are powerful and speedy.  As already mentioned many of these treatments drain the immune system that is central to recovery from cancer.

As a therapist I would feel very uncomfortable treating anyone for cancer who was not 'in the system', who was not having a course of chemo or radio or whatever therapy an oncology doctor believed was best for them. I believe in this context acupuncture can only be complementary. I don't personally believe 6 tons of goji berries is going to magically transform you into a cancer-free entity. But I do believe in re-integration. I believe that if we can radiate peace and acceptance to the parts of us that are hurt and suffering and if we can focus on how we would like to feel and look instead of fighting how we don't want to look and feel then we spend our time in a happier place even if we are there for no longer than if we spent it fighting and suffering.

As a therapist my aim is to hold an image of the patient as strong and healthy, robust and happy. I choose to focus on a positive objective rather than putting my attention and energy solely on the cancer. Finally, I would like say a massive thank everyone who recently sponsored me for a skydive for CLIC-Sargent Cancer Care. Please click here if you would like to donate to my personal fundraising page or here is you are interested in giving directly to CLIC-Sargent.