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Tips to Weathering Chemotherapy

Getting Through Chemotherapy
Getting Through Chemotherapy

When you go through cancer treatments, you’re not alone. Here are some great suggestions to help weather chemotherapy:

Know how to manage the nausea. Feeling ill and vomiting are the worst parts of chemotherapy for most people. Spread out your eating across many small meals instead of three regular meals, avoid beverages during mealtimes, and eat slowly.

Try out meditation and emotional exercises. Being in control of your emotions can help when side effects hit. Don’t be afraid to address your emotional hurdles through meditation, talk therapy, and alternative medicines.

Be prepared to try new foods. Many people undergoing chemo feel like foods taste different, even common and favorite foods. If what you eat tastes odd or foul, branch out and try lots of things—even foods you typically dislike—and find what works.

Stick with healthy foods to feel your best. Cupcakes may be tempting, but most people do best when avoiding junk foods, sweets, fatty foods, and fried foods. These treats should remain treats, while a generally healthy diet will keep you feeling best.

Get some hats, including one with a wide brim. Before chemotherapy, you may wish to shave your head and get a wig. Find some hats, too, including warm and comfy ones for when you feel chilly and a wide-brimmed hat to help with sun protection.

See the dentist first. Teeth cleanings are a bad idea during chemotherapy, so see the dentist a few weeks beforehand and use saltwater rinses to gently help with sores.

We’re also here to help with individualized, holistic treatments. Talk to us if you’re interested in learning about alternative cancer treatment options.

Tips to Boosting Weight Gain for Cancer Patients

peanut butter sandwich
Try to add calories as you can with easy to eat foods.

While eating is generally (and correctly) thought of by most as a pleasurable activity, its primary function is to provide your body with fuel and nutrients. This aspect becomes even more crucial when you’re undergoing cancer treatment. You may actually be losing weight at a time when it’s important to keep up your strength.

Eating properly boosts your energy levels, prevents muscle loss and fortifies your immune system.

Use these helpful tips to maintain a nutritious diet along with a healthy weight.

• It’s a basic formula: eating calorie-dense foods will make your weight go up. If you want to gain weight, add 500 to 1,000 calories to your normal daily intake. If your goal is maintenance, 15 calories per pound is a good rule of thumb.

• Protein is the building block of muscles. Rich sources include peanut butter, meats and seafood, nuts and cheese. If your system can’t tolerate high-protein foods, try low-fat cottage cheese, milk and yogurt. Protein powder is another method to increase your intake.

• Fruits and vegetables are chock-full of valuable vitamins and minerals. Choose dried fruits and 100 percent fruit juices along with starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes, corn and peas.

•  The American Cancer Society advises that it’s best to eat before you begin to feel hungry. If nausea is a problem, stick with sandwiches and other cold or room-temperature foods that don’t require cooking.

Our alternative cancer treatment includes non-toxic therapies with fewer side effects, making it easier to eat a healthy diet and maintain your weight. Visit our website to read real-life success stories from our patients.

Tips to Weathering Radiation

Getting Through Chemo
Getting Through Chemo

Radiation therapy uses high-energy X-rays to kill fast-growing cancer cells. But, as with other traditional cancer treatments, radiation also damages many healthy cells. This collateral damage can cause numerous aggravating side effects.

Boost Your Immune System

Side effects usually begin during or within the first six months following radiation treatment and may continue for months, sometimes years, after treatment ends. Maintaining a healthy immune system before, during and after radiation can help prevent or minimize adverse reactions and shorten their duration.

Many cancer patients benefit from a combination of radiation and integrative immunotherapy. Immunotherapy kicks your immune system into overdrive, allowing your body to fight cancer cells more effectively during treatment. Immunotherapy may also help prevent cancer recurrence.

Managing Radiation Side Effects

Use these cancer care tips to weather the most common radiation side effects:

  • Fatigue. Sleep and rest as much as possible. Eating a healthy diet and exercising can help boost energy and improve stamina.
  • Skin changes. Redness, dryness, itching, peeling and blistering may occur around the treatment site. To prevent irritation, wear soft, loose clothing. Bathing in lukewarm water can be soothing. Cover up and wear sunscreen outdoors, but check with your cancer team before applying lotions or sunscreens as some can interfere with treatment.
  • Swelling and soreness. Wear loose clothing to decrease discomfort. Symptoms gradually decrease after treatment but may persist for up to a year.
  • Hair loss. Hair loss at treatment sites usually grows back in 3-6 months but can be permanent in cases of high-dose radiation. Treat your hair gently. Avoid harsh products, curling irons and hot rollers.

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Cancer Caregiver Lessons Learned

Cancer Caregivers
Cancer Caregivers

Alexandra Detwiler has many things in her life that she has planned for, worked for, and earned. She and her husband live in Manhattan, New York and she works in television development with NBC Universal. Alexandra also has something that she did not plan for and that no person deserves: A loved one diagnosed with terminal cancer.

She shares that life-altering predicament with millions of people across the globe, and in a recent article for Today Health, she shares her insights and the lessons learned as she and her family care for her mom who is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, a glioblastoma multiforme.

  • Firstly, maintain your sense of humor. You and your relatives deserve and need as much joy as can be found in every moment.
  • Find a support group of people who know what you are experiencing because they have experienced the same things. Some friends will want to be supportive, but will not understand your emotions and frustrations.
  • Be realistic with your expectations for yourself and others. You are not able to dictate how others will respond. Anticipating too much from people will set you up for disappointment.
  • Appreciate life’s simple moments.
  • Remember the healthy days and do not just focus on the cancer. It is a powerful disease and can easily overwhelm an entire family.
  • Appreciate the honor you have to know your loved one and to be in a position to care for and assist them.

Contact Issels Integrative Oncology for more information about our personalized non-toxic treatments.

New Melanoma Immunotherapy Shows Strong Promise

New Therapies for Melanoma Treatment
New Therapies for Melanoma Treatment

Traditional forms of cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation can be very effective for some patients, although they do have many severe side effects. In addition, not every patient responds well to these treatments, which is why there has been so much research done on various forms of alternative cancer treatment.

The FDA recently granted express approval to a new drug called Keytruda, which is chemically known as pembrolizumab. This powerful new drug treats cancer in a way that’s different from conventional cancer treatments. It actually boosts the body’s natural immune system and readies it to attack the cancer cells.

It’s common for patients receiving chemotherapy to suffer from side effects like nausea, vomiting and hair loss. Whereas in clinical trials, ninety percent of all patients who took Keytruda experienced no side effects whatsoever. The best part of the approval of this new drug is that Keytruda appears to be resulting in much longer life expectancy than other treatment methods. One study of 600 patients resulted in 62% of them making it past the 18-month mark.

Researchers are very hopeful that this is just the start of a great breakthrough in cancer treatment options. It is becoming increasingly apparent that immunotherapy, which is what Keytruda uses, is much more beneficial for patients both in terms of reducing their side effects and improving their overall life expectancy.

Alternative cancer treatments are quickly becoming the norm. It might only be a matter of time before they replace chemotherapy and radiation, simply because they really do work. If you or a loved one is looking for alternative cancer treatments, we would love to help you. Please contact us!

Alternative Cancer Treatment Is Popular with Patients

Alternative Cancer Therapy
Alternative Cancer Therapy

Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation have dominated Western medicine for decades. But a new player on the cancer team is earning cheers from patients. An estimated half of cancer patients now include some form of alternative cancer treatment in their cancer treatment program.

Alternative Treatments Go Mainstream

Many alternative cancer treatments are not actually “new,” although their therapeutic value has only recently been recognized by Western oncologists. Acupuncture, massage, nutritional immunotherapy and meditation are just some of the alternative therapies now being employed at university hospitals and U.S. cancer centers that have a long history of successful therapeutic treatment of disease in other cultures.

What’s Old Is New Again

Traditional medicine’s focus on immunotherapy as the future of cancer treatment is another example of mainstream medicine’s belated acceptance of alternative cancer treatment. Genetic and cellular research have added scientific proof to the experiential findings of alternative therapy practitioners who have long understood the critical role the body’s immune system plays in cancer treatment. While many U.S. cancer researchers are heralding immunotherapy as “new,” integrative immunotherapy has been practiced with beneficial results at Issels Oncology Centers for more than 60 years.

Merging Two Approaches

Cancer patients are benefiting from traditional medicine’s broadening view of cancer treatment. When used in conjunction with traditional cancer treatments, alternative therapies have been shown to greatly reduce the painful and unpleasant side effects of traditional treatments. More importantly, merging traditional and alternative cancer treatments improves your immune system response and enhances the effectiveness of cancer treatment.

Issels Oncology Centers works with many patients undergoing traditional cancer treatment. Contact us today for information about adding alternative cancer therapies to your cancer treatment program.