We all know of someone who has died of cancer or is battling it right now. In this article I want to give you a few more tools to put in your preventive health insurance toolbox. By taking charge of your health and using preventive medicine you can live your lives doing the best you can with the resources that you have at hand. As our planet becomes more polluted and the more we listen to the failings of mankind to live with mother nature in a mutually beneficial way, it is heartening to know that there is something you can do to lower your risk of getting cancer from the environment. Among alternative medical practitioners it is common knowledge that genetic expression can be influenced by nutrition. So if you have a family history of an illness, you may be more susceptible to getting that illness, but if you take proper nutritional steps you may prevent that gene from expressing.

Most people also feel that getting cancer is the luck of the draw. One in four of us will get it in our lifetime, no matter what. Well this just isn't true. You can prevent it and here is how.

One of the key causes of cancer is our environment. When our bodies are bombarded with the hundreds of chemicals per day that there are today, our genes are damaged. When genes are damaged they then become tumor promoting. These genes can be reverted back to healthy genes in the right nutritional environment, or they can be prevented from forming altogether.

What nutrients can be this powerful? Well we have heard a lot about broccoli lately. It has been shown that a couple of servings of this Brassica family, which includes cabbage, broccoli sprouts, watercress, kale, chard, mustard greens, turnips and kohlrabi stimulates the two phases of detoxification which take place in the liver. This is crucial for the elimination of all those chemicals from the body. No drug can do this, however there are nutritional medicines that can.

High doses of carotene found in carrot juice can cause reprogramming of the tumor-causing gene making it so that it becomes a tumor suppressor gene. This gene will then seek out cancer cells and cause them to commit suicide! All it takes is 11 ounces of carrot juice a day to reduce the gene mutations by one third. If you have cancer, you should increase this dosage by four times. There are supplements on the market, which may also suffice. I prescribe a natural carotene complex in a liquid form and recommend at least 50,000UI's per day for prevention, and much more for specific treatments. It is water-soluble and non-toxic in these high doses.

Selenium retards cancer growth, and is also important in the detoxification pathways in the liver. Deficiency can cause enlarged hearts, underactive thyroid function, osteoporosis, depression, and prostate cancer. Selenium is not present in the soils on Vancouver Island, another good reason to supplement with this trace mineral. I recommend 200mcg per day, a very inexpensive tool in your preventive health insurance toolbox. There isn't enough in most multivitamins.

Your cancer prevention program should also include extra Vitamin C and E, which are good antioxidants that also prevent abnormal cell mutations. Take all four of the above in addition to what is in your multivitamin for optimal dosage levels. Not only will you help prevent cancer but you will slow the aging process, improve your energy, and your friends and family will comment on how young and healthy you look!