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Cancer Care Tips, Living with Cancer, Stage Four Cancer Treatment

Tips for Telling Your Family You Have Received a Diagnosis of Cancer

Telling Your Family Of Your Diagnosis
Telling Your Family Of Your Diagnosis

Discussing cancer with your family is akin to walking in an emotional mine field. Once you make it known you have been diagnosed with cancer, you must be prepared to navigate carefully in response to different reactions.

What to Do

Take time to come to terms with how you feel. If you’re angry and afraid, that’s okay. Don’t hold it in. It’s important to have someone you trust to talk to that will listen and be supportive.

Don’t attempt to go through it alone. Decide who you will tell, first, and how much information you want to initially share. The news will have a decided effect and those you tell may not react in the same way. You’ll need to be prepared, as best as possible, for addressing each individual.

Discussing your condition, within your comfort zone, is beneficial. By talking about it, you can move forward with a plan of action.

Don’t be afraid to let people know the limits you’re willing to discuss your condition. Repeating the same information over and over can become tiring and emotionally draining for you. Delegate a friend or family member to relay the news to others.

While you may not want to talk to your closest family members, it’s important that you talk to someone. If you’re not ready to let your family know of your condition, join a cancer support group where you can discuss your feelings, ask questions, and get advice from others.

Keep your daily routine as near normal as possible and encourage and support your family in doing the same.

Contact Issels Integrative Oncology Centers for any questions or information about available treatments.

Living with Cancer, Stage Four Cancer Treatment

Planning Ahead – 3 Tips for Those with Stage Four Cancer

Planning Ahead
Planning Ahead

If you or a loved one have been diagnosed with stage four cancer, your initial reaction is no doubt an overwhelming mix of emotions. Once your thoughts begin to settle, you’ll begin to wonder what comes next. Developing a plan of action plays a big part in maintaining a positive outlook, which benefits you physically as well.

First of all, keep in mind that remarkable advances in immunotherapy and natural cancer treatments are allowing many stage four patients to live longer. These three tips will help you stay strong by dealing with your health care needs proactively.

  • Your comfort is of utmost importance. Be honest with your physician or caregiver about any pain you feel so you can discuss ways of dealing with it. Sharing accurate information about your discomfort will also enable your doctor to treat you more efficiently.
  • Make sure you and your physician are on the same page regarding levels of communication. Do you want to know every detail, no matter how small? Would you prefer that your doctor talk to your spouse or other family member? People can’t honor your wishes unless you make them known.
  • For most patients, family is their greatest support system. Talk to your loved ones so you can decide together how they will deal with ongoing information and any decisions to be made.

We have been providing cancer patients with non-toxic and effective alternative cancer treatments for more than 60 years. Visit our website to read and hear testimonials from people who have achieved remarkable results with our individualized immunotherapy programs.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research

Toothpaste May Contain a Cancer Causing Chemical

Toothpaste Linked To Cancer
Toothpaste Linked To Cancer

Having a fresh breath is an excellent feeling, but finding out your gum disease-fighting toothpaste may cause cancer is frightening. Read on, about one of the top toothpaste brands that may make you take a second look at your toothpaste.

Colgate Total is an extremely popular toothpaste brand in America. However, very few users know this toothpaste uses a chemical known as Triclosan, that has antibacterial properties that help fight gum disease. It now turns out Triclosan is linked to growth of cancerous cells and problems with development in animals. In fact, this has prompted regulators to take a second look at this chemical and determine whether it is safe to add this chemical into soaps and cutting-boards.

Toothpaste-and-Risk-of-Cancer

Colgate-Total is one of the most popular toothpaste brands in the country. While Colgate Palmolive Co. got the U.S. FDA approval in 1997 to market this antibacterial toothpaste as OTC drug, the toxicology report submitted by the company to the FDA was not made public until 2014.

Our website found the report contained information pertaining to malformation of bones in rats and mice. While Colgate claims the toothpaste is completely safe, scientists who reviewed the report reckon Triclosan disrupts the endocrine system, thereby adversely affecting the functioning of hormones.

Colgate Total has been in the market for 18 years, but there has been no report adverse side effect, according to a Colgate spokesperson. Our cancer news team believes if animal studies show risk then the human population also is at a high risk. So, what does using Colgate Total mean to those millions of people who are trying to keep gum disease and plaque at bay?

To keep up-to-date with more cancer news, make sure to visit our blog regularly.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Care Tips, Living with Cancer

Healthy Snacking Tips for Cancer Patients – When You Don’t Feel Like Eating

Tips For Healthy Snacking
Tips For Healthy Snacking

It’s important to eat a healthy diet to keep your body and immune system strong. But when you have cancer, there may be times when you don’t feel like eating. You may be too nauseated by traditional cancer treatments to eat. Stress and anxiety can also cause loss of appetite and nausea.

There are no hard and fast nutrition rules for cancer patients. It is common for appetites to fluctuate during cancer treatment. The key is to be flexible and maximize nutrition when you do feel like eating.

Snacking Tips

Try these healthy snacking tips to find out what works for you:

  • Eat your main meal when your appetite is biggest. Many cancer patients prefer a big morning meal and smaller or liquid meals at lunch and dinner.
  • Try sipping protein shakes or smoothies when you don’t feel like eating.
  • Use powdered or liquid meal replacements to boost calorie and protein intake.
  • Make sure you drink plenty of liquids to stay hydrated.
  • Eat the foods you can, even if it is just one or two foods. Add additional foods as your appetite improves.
  • Have small, frequent snacks instead of regular meals.
  • Keep snack foods in easy reach so you can nibble when you’re hungry.
  • Choose high-calorie, nutrient-rich foods to maximize nutrition when you do feel like eating.
  • Change the form of a food to make it more appetizing. Mix fruit and vegetables into a smoothie instead of eating them whole.

Avoid the debilitating side effects of traditional cancer treatments. Contact us for information about non-toxic alternative cancer treatments that have resulted in our unique record of complete, long-term remissions of advanced and standard therapy-resistant cancers.

Cancer Care Tips, Cancer Research, Living with Cancer

Three Foods That May Boost Your Immune System

Immune System Building Foods
Immune System Building Foods

The cells in your immune system are like an army that protects your body against disease. Whether your body is fighting a virus, bacteria or cancer cells, your immune system serves as your body’s first line of defense. It is your immune cells that seek out and attack cancer and disease cells.

Since an army marches on its stomach, it’s important to feed your immune system fighters well. To keep your immune system in peak fighting shape, a Mediterranean diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables with an emphasis on fish and lean proteins, whole grains, and healthy oils is generally recommended today.

Boost Your Immune System

  • Fresh fruits and vegetables contain important vitamins, antioxidants and micronutrients that feed the body’s immune system. For a healthy immune system, make citrus fruits, berries, carrots, tomatoes and cruciferous vegetables part of your daily diet.
  • Fish rich in omega 3 fatty acids help fuel a healthy immune system. Omega 3 rich fish include salmon, sardines, mackerel, black cod, anchovies, albacore tuna, rainbow trout, and halibut.
  • Dairy products fortified with vitamin D. Vitamin D helps regulate cell growth and may impact the growth of cancer cells. For extra benefit, choose dairy products that contain some fat. Dairy fat helps the body absorb carotenoids, antioxidants in vegetables that have been linked to good immune system health. Triple your immune boost by eating yogurt which contains probiotics in addition to dairy fat and vitamin D.

At Issels Integrative Oncology, nutritional immunotherapy to improve immune system function is offered as part of our immunobiologic core cancer treatment program. Contact us today to learn how integrative immunotherapy can benefit your cancer treatment plan.

Cancer Care Tips

Three Tips Every Cancer Caregiver Should Know

Tips For Cancer Caregivers
Tips For Cancer Caregivers

It is rewarding but challenging to be a cancer caregiver. Use our tips to meet the challenge successfully:

1. Try to stay positive. Focus on positive and hopeful thoughts and try to keep your sense of humor. While this may be easier said than done, maintaining a positive attitude can help you and the patient cope with cancer’s ups and downs. Find friends, family, clergy and counselors you can turn to when you need an emotional boost.

2. Take care of yourself. Being a cancer caregiver can be physically and emotionally exhausting. In order to care for someone else, you must first take care of yourself. To stay healthy and reduce stress, try to get some exercise every day, eat well-balanced meals and get 7 to 9 hours of sleep every night. If you are a full-time caregiver, enlist the aid of family and friends so you can take periodic breaks to relax and recharge.

3. Ask for help. Don’t go it alone. Create a support system of people you can talk to about your concerns and feelings. Many caregivers find it helpful to share experiences and encouragement with other caregivers through online cancer caregiver support groups. Invite friends and family members to be part of the caregiving team and ask them to help out with specific tasks such as grocery shopping, driving to doctor visits, taking children to activities, visiting with the patient, dropping off a meal, etc. It can be helpful to keep a go-to list of people who have volunteered to help and the tasks they are able to help with to forestall last-minute emergencies.

Click here for more cancer caregiver tips.