We’re all going to die sometime, of something. That’s just realistic. And yet, a diagnosis of cancer is almost universally associated with fear. Fear is contagious and stressful, and it can trick you into relinquishing ultimate control of your health care. The next thing you know, you’re caught in a machine built on the premise that “all that alternative stuff” is fine to “play” with when you’re basically healthy, but when you’ve got cancer, brother, it’s time to “get serious.” What gets chewed up first in that machine is your quality of life, and that’s what scares people most about cancer. Not the prospect of death. It’s the pain, debility, and indignity of cancer and its treatment.

I’ve written before about some of the causes of cancer, including inflammation, stress, toxins, and bad food. These things weaken your most powerful guard against cancer: your immune system. And, with all due respect to the intentions of oncologists and the very limited successes they do manage to achieve, what they sell is, in itself, a risk factor for treatment failure. That’s because conventional cancer treatment increases your burden of inflammation, stress, and toxins. It decimates your nutritional status. It takes a flame-thrower to your immune system. And it can devastate your quality of life — as much as, if not more than, the disease itself.

So let’s set aside the issue of cancer treatment for now, and talk about ways to preserve your quality of life, no matter what course of treatment you choose. This will immediately make you happier and more comfortable, and have an ironic side effect: It’ll make you healthier and stronger — emotionally, spiritually, and physically. You’ll become better able to tolerate whatever treatment you’re taking. Better able to heal and, yes, to survive. And that, my friends, is just plain good medicine.

What exactly is quality of life?

It’s different for everybody, but there are common elements. If you’re like me, you want to be able to:

• Get around;
• Feel stimulated and able to do things that are enjoyable and satisfying;
• Be free of pain, worry, and stress;
• Feel safe and loved;
• Feel like you can cope, and, if you can’t cope, to have someone you can call for help;
• Believe that your life is worthwhile — that you can still learn and grow and make a meaningful contribution, with your ethics and morality intact; and
• Feel content, and at peace.

Here are some of the best ways the cancer patients in my personal and professional circles have improved their quality of life:

Meditate. Meditation strengthens your immune system, reduces pain, improves sleep, enhances wellbeing, improves attention, and significantly decreases stress. It also helps you remember to appreciate what’s most important in your life, which is often the stuff on that back burner you’ll get to “whenever.”