Knockout

I always figured that Suzanne Somers was some flaky blond celebrity, because that's how she always seems when she's on the Home Shopping Network. I wasn't very interested in reading any of her books because they all seemed like a stiff read, about hormones and ageing and stuff like that. Then one morning I saw her on the Today show and she was talking about how one morning she woke up and was covered in a rash and couldn't breathe. She went to the hospital and they told her that she has full body cancer. She couldn't figure out how this could happen since a month or so earlier her doctor said that she was in great health. So after being told numerous times that she is going to die, the doctors finally figured out that she had something called Valley Fever, which is no where near as bad as cancer and can be treated. They tell her this after they want to give her chemo, and a ton of drugs which she later found out would've killed her. Why would doctors give something to someone that would kill them? So she wrote this book which is a bunch of interviews with doctors who are trying to prevent and treat cancer without using chemicals like radiation and chemo. Since it is full of doctor speak, some parts are kind of dry, but it really was a very interesting read.

This is what I kind of got out of it. In order to prevent yourself from getting cancer, which I think is impossible, you need to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Fruits, veggies, exercise, no soda, no sugar (apparently sugar can actually cause cancer), try to stay away from processed foods and chemicals (like in cleaning supplies. I'm screwed because I spray Febreze all over my room). And even if you do all these things, there's still a chance you will get it. But I think that what they were saying is that if you do live a healthy, clean, lifestyle that if you do get cancer, there will be a better chance of beating it. You need to believe that you will be healthy and its proven that even something as simple as that can help.

After some of the interviews there are statements from that doctors patients who tell their story and how that doctor helped them. Suzanne wants the reader to understand that there are other options out there instead of the typical chemo and drugs that most people get.

One of the things that someone said in the book was when one of the doctors was having a conversation with other doctor and that doctor said that the way to treat brain cancer is with radiation, but if he had brain cancer, he wouldn't do radiation. Because it doesn't work. Why have a patient take something that you, as a doctor, would never do to yourself. Shouldn't you trust how you are treating a patient enough that you would do the same for yourself?

My fav quote from the book was "Feelings Never Lie". It makes sense. We really need to start listening to our bodies. Mines a mess and I need to start making it happy so that I won't die when I'm like 30. Lay off the sugar and start exercising. Surround myself with positive people and do things that make me feel good.

So, check this book out, you might learn something.