Page 26 - Winter2009

A Holistic Approach to Cancer

The Disease of Civilization

By Thomas Cowan, MD

et’s begin with a definition of cancer. Cancer is
the situation that occurs when a certain type of

Lcell out of the many different types of cells in our
body—such as blood cells, pancreas cells, brain cells,

liver cells, connective tissue cells—decides to grow in an
uncontrolled way, in an excessive way, and at the expense

of all the other types of cells in the body.

If you had one word or brief phrase to answer the question, “What
causes cancer?” what might it be? You might respond with “emotions,”
“toxins,” “fungus,” “stress,” or “bad terrain of the body.” Those are all
great answers. But they are not my answer. In my twenty-five years of
being a doctor and thinking about food and cancer and health issues
for pretty much every day of those twenty-five years, I can say—and
I don’t wish to say this in an arrogant way—that I have no doubt in
my mind that I know what causes cancer. I have come to the conclu-
sion that I have this one right. My answer in one word is “civilization.”
24 Wise Traditions WINTER 2009