According to friends who are older than me, people hardly ever heard of someone getting cancer 30 years ago.
It was a rarity.
Today, however, it’s all too common.
On that score, Jacquie Woodward has written a marvelous book based on research and her own proven experience called Slam the Door on Cancer.
I liked the book so much I interviewed Jacquie on the blog.
If you are interesting in how to avoid getting cancer and/or how to treat it, you’ll want to read this interview, share it with your friends, and get the book.
Enjoy!
What provoked you to write the book?
When I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, I needed this book desperately. Available literature was piecemeal, and I had no time to chase down rabbit trails—I needed solid consensus factually (science) and truthfully (God’s Word).
Doctors admitted they had nothing for me. A physician friend told me “If you get through this, you will have to be your own doctor.” My faith had been latent for many years. There was much to learn and time was of the essence. My story illustrates the blessing of “seek and you shall find.”
This book shares what I learned and weaves together science, Scripture and my own interactive miracle. Soon, I found myself praying I might live and become an encourager to others being bullied by cancer. Once my scans consistently read, “No evidence of recurrent or residual disease,” I began a simple blog, www.realhealthhope.com which surprised me by reaching many thousands worldwide. Thus, I realized there was value in organizing the information to share in book form. God nudged me to write the book for quite a while before I obeyed. Once I began writing, it flowed with almost daily “downloads” and good people seemed to “happen” into my life at just the right time for editing, formatting, and encouraging.
It’s really not my book, but I’m blessed beyond measure through writing it down, and I pray it is an encouraging instrument for a growing “Body of Christ.”
Why are so many more people today having cancer than 50 years ago?
I could mention increased toxins in environment and food or the stressful pace of modern society; however, I believe there is something more insidious to consider and it is two-fold–fear and lack of knowledge:
Fear: Job said, “For the thing which I greatly fear comes upon me, and that of which I am afraid befalls me. Job was describing the natural “Law of Attraction.” Quantum mechanics teaches the same lesson explaining that energy flows where we pay attention and what we intend creates the end result. Statistics tell us that fear of cancer is pervasive and intensive worldwide. I personally believe that “cancer awareness” publicity campaigns rather than “health awareness” initiatives focus a staggering amount of energy on fear-fueled issues. Believers know the enemy of our souls craves attention and color-coded “branding” of his work feeds his craving. Fear separates us from God. I wrote this book to undermine fear of cancer.
Lack of Knowledge: Isaiah and Hosea point to God’s people going into captivity or perishing “for lack of knowledge.” I was forced to do a lot of research. However, the knowledge that unfolded to me would have meant little had not the Lord woven “science” (facts) together with His Word (truth). I learned that neither cancer (indeed disease) nor healing is a random occurrence, which is the first layer of powerful knowledge. The book unpeels other critical layers.
How did God heal you of cancer?
My healing has been an adventure with God leading the way, and any believer can have such a personal journey. Mine began with a “foxhole prayer” during a CT scan and it will never end because, ultimately, the substance of healing is falling in love with the Healer, Christ, at every level of our being. My lack of medical options helped me escape the trap of a hurried, fear-based “treatment decision” so commonly followed by a desperate prayer list scramble hoping to convince God to make our decision work.
As rusty as my faith was, monologue prayer quickly became dialogue, and He provided me a “connect the dots” interactive healing miracle with body, soul, and spirit “dots.”
I was led to declare with certainty that “I would learn how to make my body a place cancer could not live, period!” Along the way, I came to understand that health is part of God’s identity. He moves through the matter He’s created such as air, water and food, as well as through the rhythms of life (sleeping, breathing, laughing, working, etc.). As I developed a voracious appetite for God’s Word, I learned that vibrant health is untold energy. It’s like the “sword of the Spirit” which pierces through our body and soul into our spirit (His Spirit) allowing it to leak God’s own energy back into our souls.
The tipping point of my healing was ridding my soul of bitterness, resentment and unforgiveness. Learning to “take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” was divine chemotherapy because the connection of body and soul (mind, will, emotions) is, in fact, biochemical.
What are the most important things to know regarding harnessing one’s emotional power to receive healing?
In the book I describe a “deal” made between a leading scientist (Descartes) and the pope of his day in which the soul essentially became a step-child of both. This issue persists today despite its conflict with both science and Scripture. King David knew better! In Ps 41, he asks God to heal his soul at a time when he was physically sick in bed. David says he needs this soul healing because of his sin.
Sin gives the enemy a legal landing strip on our soul. It can be our own sin or bitterness from sin against us. Our souls become chronically wounded and these wounds must be healed so our bodies can heal. I believe it is less “harnessing emotions” than honestly and prayerfully dealing with them. The acts of repenting or forgiving initiate healing to a soul wound that is blocking physical healing.
Jesus teaches us the importance of forgiveness. Mark 11: 23-26 shows Jesus teaching that unforgiveness is not an option.
How exactly does the body heal itself of cancer?
Healing happens through creation rather than destruction. God creates. The enemy destroys. Cancer is the ultimate result of inflammation (meant to be the immune system’s temporary first responder) becoming persistently sustained as a result of repeated insult (stress or trauma) which keeps inflammatory chemicals churning through blood vessels until a cascade of events occur in body tissue (at the weakest location for some reason). Those events are listed in Appendix 5 of the book. The result is that body cells have oxygen and nutrient supply compromised and toxins can’t be carried off. The area stagnates and cells desperately try to survive by tricking the body to grow more blood vessels to the tumorous cells while they live on fermented sugar (which is acid forming) rather than their normal function.
Removing the cause of the inflammatory persistence (toxins, insults); supporting the lymphatic system in evacuating inflammatory by-products; supplying body cells with essential nutrients, oxygen, and water; and ceasing the assault on the DNA give our “fearfully and wonderfully made bodies” the terrain in which they can heal. Damaged cells can be killed off and new cells produced. Pain is relieved as oxygen is supplied. Balance is restored and energy is again generated. Life at every level is a creative process. We are more than chemical beings. We are electrical and vibrational beings as well. Only our Creator can synchronize all this and He always wants to do it because He IS love—creative love. Love is “how” He is.
Give us a list of foods to stay away from in order to prevent cancer?
My purpose is for the reader to see restoration of their health as rooted in opportunity rather than denial. I avoid lists of “don’ts”; however there are some “no brainers” which include avoiding: sugar, caffeine, alcohol, refined and processed foods, soft drinks and sports or energy drinks (including the pink ones), and white table salt. Sugar is “cancer fertilizer” and a principle component or by-product in most of the other items on this list.
The substances I’ve mentioned are not actually foods but rather factory made materials the body “reads” as “foreign toxic matter” and inflammation is a response to such material. Meat and dairy can inflame as well.
Are diet sodas harmful?
The book includes a specific explanation of the various common artificial sweeteners used in “diet sodas” citing well-credentialed “experts.” All such sweeteners are “read” by our bodies as poison and the impact is cumulatively negative.
What are the best vegetables and fruits to eat to prevent cancer?
The book and website have several very useful appendices grouping vegetables, fruits, herbs and spices according to specific health supporting molecules they contain particularly regarding cancer.
Colorful organic vegetables and fruits including berries, cruciferous vegetables (cabbage family), large stone fruits, leafy greens, and whole or sprouted grains are essential. Pure water is critical. A balance of essential fatty acids is critical. Any meat or dairy absolutely needs to be from animals fed a plant-based diet.
Eating God-made food in the form closest to the way He created it is a sure way of taking in essential complete molecules in the exact combinations body cells need them. We have thousands of chemical, electrical, and vibrational actions and reactions going on in our bodies all the time so that ONLY the Creator of both the body and the food could make them able to constantly adjust to ever-changing needs. Synthetic nutrients are incomplete and cannot adjust.
Give us a list of full meals for breakfast that are safe to prevent cancer?
Suggestions—God may have others just for you:
-A lot of fresh homemade vegetable juice.
-Sprouted & whole grain cereals with almond or coconut milk, nuts, berries, good cinnamon, and pure stevia.
-Sprouted grain toast, organic coconut oil as butter or fresh ground raw almond butter (not hydrogenated). Good cinnamon and maybe a tiny bit of raw honey or fresh berries spread on top.
-Fresh smoothies with frozen organic berries and/or large stone fruit like peach or mango, avocado, a little spinach, coconut milk or water and stevia. (Breakfast or Lunch)
I name an amazing coffee substitute in the book that can be drip brewed like coffee or used from a “tea bag”—plain or flavored. I like it with stevia and coconut milk. It made me give up coffee “cold turkey.” Herbal teas are good too. I love fresh squeezed lemonade made with filtered water and stevia hot or cold.
Give us a list of full meals for lunch that are safe to prevent cancer?
-Salads with dressings like a brand of Healthy Vinaigrette I name in the book (not refrigerated so portable). Herb sprinkles, nuts, all kinds of vegetable combinations the more colorful the better. Slaw is good –skip the mayo and use other dressings like one I give the recipe for in the book.
-Sandwiches with sprouted grain bread and various vegetable combinations, hummus spread, guacamole spread, occasionally organic cheese, sprouts. Olive oil and herbs are good sprinkled on – no mayo. Chopped salads are quick to prepare in a food processor and quick to eat.
Soups such as fresh gazpacho in summer and, any season go with healthy minestrone, various vegetable soups, bean, onion, tomato, vegetarian chili, etc. There are excellent vegetable recipes online and many good vegan cookbooks.
-Smoothies eaten with crackers or nuts because chewing aids digestion.
Give us a list of full meals for dinner that are safe to prevent cancer?
-Again, salads of various vegetable combinations and textures and slaws using cruciferous vegetables (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower) are filling and actively anti-cancer (and many other diseases).
-Stir-fry dishes using various vegetables, herbs, mushrooms, (tofu) are great. Use only grape, olive or coconut oil and even a little filtered water to steam/stir fry. Olives, capers, infused olive oils can jazz up these dishes.
-Steamed vegetables seasoned with herbs or coconut oil with herbs/spices.
-Whole or sprouted grain pastas with tomatoes and other vegetables, herbs. (Sprouted grains still have their enzymes and good protein). However, white flour pastas and breads convert quickly to sugar in digestion.
-I’m learning to cook vegan Indian recipes using spices with potent anti-cancer molecules like turmeric. This is very interesting food and many recipes come from areas of the world where cancer is hardly ever seen.
-Tacos and wraps using sprouted or whole grain soft shells and wild caught salmon and vegetables.
-Homegrown vegetables like green beans, new potatoes, sliced tomatoes, squash, corn, etc.
-Spaghetti squash with fresh marinara, mushroom, or other sauce is excellent.
-Mashed potatoes and cauliflower with herbs and soy sour cream.
Vegetables are very filling and satisfy for a long time between meals.
I love to munch on raw vegetables like cauliflower, which is loaded with good molecules.
Finally, what are the essential things that you eat every day to prevent cancer?
I eat what I’ve listed in answers to earlier questions plus I make sure to get organic flax oil mixed with high sulfur protein such as cottage cheese or yogurt once a day. And the importance of this combination is explained in the book. I keep my body chemistry slightly alkaline because cancer simply cannot live in an alkaline internal environment
I might eat 2 ounces of meat a month and a little bit of organic cheese without hormones or antibiotics. I eat some wild caught salmon occasionally. In the book I explain the importance of salmon being wild-caught.
Every day, I drink at least a pint of fresh vegetable juice I make from carrots, celery, cucumbers, and sometimes bell peppers.
I drink lots of water that I either distill or filter (more in book on this). I keep fresh squeezed organic lemon juice in fridge all the time and make good lemonade sweetened with stevia, which is my important anti-cancer source of vitamin C. I use coconut or almond milk rather than animal dairy. I try to eat 75% of my food raw to keep enzymes working in food. I eat a little dark chocolate (85% cocoa) sweetened with stevia. I keep homegrown broccoli sprouts and toss them into all kinds of dishes because they are packed with good anti-cancer molecules and very tasty. They are very inexpensive food and easy to grow in a glass jar.
I’m 71 years old and have more energy than ever in my life. Once I got healthy, I no longer “needed” two prescription medicines I’d been on for decades. There is NOTHING like feeling really good.
Enjoying food is a wonderful thing but using food for entertainment is not. Approaching a meal considering the creative elements within the food means asking, “what ‘raw material’ does my body need me to send in so the cells can efficiently create my health?” Our cells are little factories awaiting our “just in time” delivery of the only useful molecules. They are as dependent on us as fish in an aquarium are on their caretaker.
Why do you think so many Christians who have cancer today pray earnestly but don’t receive healing from God?
The answer to this question pervades the entire book, I hope, with constructive insight. And, in my seminars, I really focus on changing several perceptions that I’m convinced contribute to this issue; the first is that the miracle of healing must be an event. I have seen such miracles and each is wonderful. Yet such healing can be lost if root issues aren’t dealt with. I believe Christians can benefit from learning to co-labor with God in their healing process beginning before treatment decisions are made.
Another damaging perspective is that cancer (disease) is a random act of violence against our bodies or, worse, that God might have somehow allowed or caused the disease and we don’t deserve to be healed. It is impossible to ask God to do something we doubt He wants to do. These perceptions render us “helpless” in our souls; even scientific studies indicate that feeling helpless is a common emotion among patients who lose their battle to cancer. There is always a root cause that must be reversed.
Just as we repent and walk out our spiritual salvation ( i.e. spiritual healing), we do the same in our physical health. There is neither future nor power in killing off or cutting out cancer and returning to the same life that led to its arising. I know this truth from experience which I share in the book. Remission failure is too common and unnecessary!
The perception that a certain “kind” of cancer (like pancreatic) is an absolute death sentence actually makes it a death sentence in most cases. Our bodies believe every word they hear and obey them even if they know the source is dubious. Words heal or kill—all of them count!
Another perception that sabotages healing is that cancer is a purely physical disease in which some “alien other” has mysteriously invaded the body. This perception is common in the medical culture also. Jesus always healed both body and soul, which is observed in the book.
Our prayer must be more dialogue than monologue so that we can participate in our own healing, and health will be the result rather than merely remission. Additionally, I believe we need to be careful who we enlist to pray for us because quantum science and Scripture both demonstrate the power of intent and we absolutely want ONLY those praying for us who believe we will return to health. Hope against hope prayers can actually undermine healing. This may be the most important topic in the book.
Where can people buy your book?
On my website, www.slamthedooroncancer.com, it is available in paperback format individually or discounted in bundles of 5 copies (because I am finding that readers like to gift it to others.) Paperbacks purchased on the website include a free bonus CD from a recent seminar and free shipping in USA. It is also available as a PDF download on the website for $5.
The Kindle and paperback versions are listed with Amazon.com worldwide.
I just want to say that, during my “intense searching,” Frank’s books were very important to me. I recall listening to From Eternity to Here during the 3+ hour journey home from having routine follow up CT scans (which I don’t have any more).
Jesus Manifesto absolutely changed my life and I still refer to it often as well as recommending it to many.
I believe I’ve read every one of Frank’s books and each blesses uniquely.
Sally
Frank, I heard you say in a recent podcast about “Rethinking the Will of God” that you have eaten meals with many Christians, yet you never saw them ask God what they should order from the menu.
Many people should ask!
Food abuse and addiction destroys a walk with God. Food is a distraction and an obsession. Carrying around an extra 50 to 100 pounds of weight, for some it’s an extra 200 or more, distracts others from our message and distracts us from serving others and seeking God’s Will.
It’s hard to be an effective servant of God when you spend many hours visiting doctors, worrying about your health and taking unnecessary medicines to combat the effects of too much food. It’s even harder to be an effective servant when you’re dead, which will happen far too soon in the lives of people abusing food.
Food is fuel, pure and simple. Yes, we should enjoy what we eat! But it should not be used for comfort, entertainment, to blot out loneliness and pain as many do.
Advertisers maintain a steady campaign to convince us that we SHOULD eat factory produced junk, that it’s FUN, that everyone’s doing it.
Food manufacturers use the cheapest ingredients that are often toxic in themselves, and spend billions on the creation of laboratory formulas to make it taste good, even irresistible, and addictive. These toxic lab chemicals cause the brain to crave more and destroy our bodies a little at a time.
So, next time you’re looking at the menu, it might help ask if God’s Will for us furthered or hindered by all the stuff that the food industry wants us to eat but that will ruin our lives.
Frank Viola
Every person I know … including myself … does not need a supernatural revelation to order food, thus there’s no need to tell the server, “Come back until God reveals to me what to eat. I need to time to pray about it and hear from God.”
This is an area where wisdom and knowledge come into play, which is the focus of my book. Ordering food was just an illustration to represent a point. That God OFTEN reveals His will to us via wisdom and knowledge.
Kalil
I really enjoyed this interview. I love how the author keeps Christ at the center of the whole healing process but at the same time teaches how we play a role in walking along side Him in it. In addition, I totally agree with not focusing on cancer awareness but rather health awareness. Looking forward to reading the book.