![View from Shore Road, Magnolica, MA By John Phelan (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://health-boundaries.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/View_from_Shore_Road_Magnolia_MA.jpg)
I loved that she and friends had planted huge areas adjacent to roads with daffodil bulbs, to surprise people come spring. I loved that she had painted a church door red, to show disapproval.
Her great, great, great, etc. grandfather was Cotton Mather. Mine was John Robinson. So we each had an ancestrial connection to religion. My grandfather had led the Pilgrims out of Scrooby, England. Hers, I had learned in Catholic grade school and high school, was an early American philosopher and thinker. I didn’t know until recently when I googled him, to remind myself of the spelling of his name and his accomplishments, that he was a prolific pamphlet writing minister, responsible for the Salem Witch Trials. Now I more clearly understand why she painted the church door red, I think it was red.
Her friend with cancer
Her story that is most useful is about a friend who was diagnosed with cancer. This is many years ago, in the Sixties. He was not young, nor particularly old. When he learned of his health predicament he bought cases of yogurt and went to his isolated cottage by the seashore. He stayed there for a period of time, eating yogurt as his main sustenance. I forget whether it was three months or six months, but it was a substantial amount of time, not a few days.
When he returned to his prior life, he was cancer free. Tests no longer detected any cancer.
I have always remembered that story as one showing the healing power of yogurt, though I had no idea why it should be a healing thing to eat. My friend had friends in Cambridge, and participated in some Harvard studies, so she may have understood what made yogurt potent. It was only recently that I read about micro-organisms in yogurt promoting health.
Eating yogurt
I found the following on the internet after my cousin wrote saying her doctors told her should would not have a long life because she’d had cancer twice. I was shocked at the callous statement, especially when she beat the previous cancers. I sent her the following excerpt in hopes of counteracting the depression caused by her doctor’s statement,
Eating yogurt with live bacteria when you have cold or flu is a good way to improve your health. Friendly bacteria stimulate the production of white blood cells, which fight off the diseases. People, who ate yogurt with live bacteria on a regular basis, had higher levels of immune system T cells, which keep our body from disease-causing germs. Bacteria in yogurt also help to absorb many nutrients, which are important for our immune system.
Today, when I think about the man who healed his cancer by eating yogurt, I think also about how he went away to his isolated cottage. He may have freed himself from stress by doing that, which may also have contributed to his recovery.