Don

Having a graduate degree from the University of Pittsburgh,I am familiar with that book by a Psychology Professor who teaches there and consider it more brain "junk food". The usual miracle story:French doctor gets brain cancer, does conventional treatment which cures him, then gets superstitious in trying to avoid a recurrence, so "discovers" food with magical properties which prevent cancer. But let me tell the story with quoted excerpts from the very book you recommend. At least he is gentleman enough to admit that it was standard treatment that cured him. [quote]It must be stated at the outset that there is no alternative approach to cancer that can cure the illness. It would be madness not to use the best of conventional Western medicine such as surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy and soon molecular genetics.[/quote]
Too bad he fell victim to a childlike attribution of a culinary totem that wards off the cancer coming back with his list of "superfoods".
Actually, getting a recurrence was liberating as it is so clear to those of us whose cancer came back, just how frightened and willing to believe almost anything our first time brothers and sisters are. David Servan-Schreiber is particularly amusing in that he touts super foods and warns of pesticides; he then basically says stress and improper breathing cause cancer also.
[quote]A significant number of brain tumours such as mine are sensitive to xenoestrogens, such as the pesticide atrazine, which is so powerful that it is capable of changing the sex of fish in the rivers it ends up contaminating. Between 1963 and 1970 from the age of two to nine, I played in cornfields sprayed with atrazine surrounding our country house in Normandy[/quote]
[quote]The mind-body connection
It usually takes anywhere from ten to 40 years for the �seed� of cancer in the form of a cellular anomaly to become a detectable cancerous tumour. No psychological factor has been identified as being capable of creating that cancer seed. However, stress profoundly influences the soil in which that seed develops. Most patients I�ve known remember a period of particular stress in the months or years preceding the diagnosis of their cancer. These situations don�t spark off cancer, but, as an article published in Nature in 2006 observes, they can give it an opportunity to grow faster. Stress causes the release of hormones which trigger inflammation and slows down digestion, tissue repair and the immune system. A study of more than 10,000 women at the University of Helsinki in Finland has shown that the loss of an important emotional relationship doubles the risk of breast cancer.

The factors contributing to cancer are so varied that no one should blame themselves for developing the disease. But anyone who has been diagnosed with cancer can learn to live differently. After my relapse and a year of chemotherapy, I had to stop working. My wife Anna and I couldn�t agree on our son�s upbringing and we were having problems in our marriage. I was losing my wife, my family, my work and my health. I could feel my life slipping through my hands. Then I met Michael Lerner, a sociologist and psychotherapist. He helped me to focus on what gave me the most satisfaction rather than what was going wrong.

Health does not depend on any one organ or function but on relations between them. Everyone can learn how to foster that balance. All of the great medical and spiritual traditions in the East � yoga, meditation, t�ai chi, qigong � teach people how to take over the reins of their inner being, concentrating the mind and focusing on the breath. This mastery is one of the best ways to reduce the impact of stress and helps re-establish harmony in a person�s physiology and stimulate the body�s natural defenses.

The body is a huge system in equilibrium. Alter just one thing � diet, exercise, stress � and the whole is affected.

[/quote]
So in the end, I have to agree with him that there is no one cause of cancer, and just shake my head and wonder how he then can ignore his own insights. His web site blog is entertaining also, ranging from agave syrup to lack of sleep causing cancer. Oh, and don't forget his other (even better selling ) book: Healing Without Freud or Prozac" just in case these "foolish hobgoblin" of consistency drive you crazy.
Charm