A Nurse Refuses Conventional Cancer Therapy to Choose a Natural Health Journey

As a registered nurse working in palliative care with cancer patients, Phyllis Enns saw a bleak future for herself when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001. At 49 years old she had seen too many patients suffer from the side effects of radiation and chemotherapy. She made a courageous decision to try something else.

“Most of my patients said they felt worse after chemo and believed the treatment actually worsened their condition,” says Phyllis who is now cancer-free.

After surgery to remove the tumor Phyllis sought advice from a Naturopath who specializes in cancer. She quickly began a regime which included nutrients, herbs, homeopathy and far-infrared therapy.

“There were a lot of things I did at that time, but I really feel that the Infrared therapy helped a lot, says Enns. “ I think it accelerated my healing.”

Her entire upper body was in pain after the surgery, to ease that pain and help detoxify her body she started using far-infrared heat.

Infrared rays are warm healing rays from the sun. They penetrate the skin by 1-2 inches. By using ceramic heaters these rays can be created inside an infrared sauna. The FIR Sauna uses lower heat than a traditional sauna but promotes profuse sweating which expunges toxins from fat cells. Regular exposure to these rays will improve lymph function which is crucial to surviving breast cancer.

There was a breast cancer laboratory study involving far infrared heat at Meiji University in Japan in 1999. Scientists heated mice up to 41C and exposed them to infrared rays. They examined tumors in the mammary glands and concluded that the treatment “strongly inhibited the tumor growth, without deleterious side effects.”

The scientists have since recommended long term studies using the combination of heat with infrared waves as a non-invasive treatment for breast cancer in women.

Enns regimen included one hour of infrared heat a day, a half hour in the morning and at night. It’s a protocol she still follows, taking enzymes and vitamin C before and after each session.

She also took herbs and nutrients including Tahebo tea, astragalus, Co-enzyme Q10. and oregano oil. She had her mercury fillings removed. Along with this she

took homeopathic drainage remedies, did daily rebounding on a mini-trampoline which also improvers lymph function and took lymph drainage massage.

Her gamble clearly paid off but she felt hostility from the traditional medical system she had worked in her entire life. “They all told me if I didn’t take chemo I’d be dying in two years,” she said. And now Enns , who gets regular infrared thermography to check that she remains cancer free, is switching careers.

“I’ve just seen so many people suffer from the medical treatment,” she said, “I could nolonger participate in that kind of care.” Instead she now works with disabled children and will begin a career counseling people who want to try alternatives to chemotherapy. She is also buying a far in Durham where she’ll start growing organic berries.

by Margaret Hinz

Margaret Hinz is a science journalist who writes about alternative approaches to healing. She lives in Orillia, Ontario.