Moms Alive!

I’ve been thinking a lot about balance. It’s easy after you get a cancer diagnosis to turn to extremes. I experienced this early on in my cancer journey, as I tried to read every book I could get my hands on about nutrition and cancer to give myself the best possible odds of beating this disease while undergoing chemotherapy. The end result, however, was that I put a lot of undue stress on myself during an already stressful time. Ironically, while extensively researching what I should be putting into my stomach, I got an ulcer!

I’m not saying that being concerned about nutrition during and after treatment is in itself a bad idea. It’s a great idea. I’m just saying that when you are in the midst of such a crisis, it’s easy to overdo things—and it’s not always clear when you’ve gone too far. More…

We all go through that phase after diagnosis: that horrible period of self-questioning. What is it that we did (or didn’t) do that caused us to end up with cancer?

We like to believe we have control over our lives. We like to think that if we eat right, exercise, avoid stress and pursue otherwise positive activities then we will be essentially healthy. The flipside of this logic is, of course, that if we’re not healthy, then we’ve done something wrong.

We are responsible for our bodies and our lives, but this responsibility doesn’t mean we have absolute control. To the best of my understanding, there are so many factors that contribute to the formation of cancer, and in most cases it usually is not just one thing that leads to the disease. This doesn’t mean that we should just lounge on the couch eating grease and smoking cigarettes, but it does mean that we can show ourselves a bit of compassion. Because the belief in total control, which we will never achieve, ends up being in the end a terribly self-hating ideal. More…

Debra Lynn Dadd has been proclaimed by The New York Times to be “the queen of green,” but she wasn’t always so environmentally aware. It wasn’t until Dadd, a trained classical musician, was diagnosed with multiple chemical sensitivities in the late 1970s that she began cleaning house. After removing the toxic chemicals from her home found in everyday products such as cleaning supplies and pesticides, her symptoms—including depression, fainting and headaches—disappeared and she regained her health. It was a process that took seven years.

During her recovery, Dadd conducted extensive research to uncover indoor contaminants and identify safe, effective replacements. The results of her efforts can be found in her book, “Home Safe Home,” which she wrote to help other people wanting to eliminate toxins in the home for health or environmental reasons.

I feel that as in-treatment or post-treatment cancer survivors, we can use all the help we can get in reducing the toxic burden on our bodies, and I was delighted when Debra agreed to speak with me about how we can clean up our own indoor environments to create healthier homes for our families and ourselves.

I’ve included links to further reading where I’ve felt it would be helpful or appropriate, and many more details about toxins and their alternatives can be found on Dadd’s Web site.
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