Category Archives: After Cancer

After Cancer, Cancer Survivors

Cancer Survivors Find Relief in Yoga

Yoga Helps Cancer Survivors
Yoga Helps Cancer Survivors

Yoga may help recovering breast cancer patients fight the fatigue and inflammation that follows surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. Exercise is known to help alleviate post-treatment symptoms, but many cancer patients are simply too exhausted to participate in regular exercise. For these cancer patients, one option is low-impact hatha yoga which boosts strength and flexibility while enhancing mind-body awareness without taxing the body.

In a recently published study designed to test yoga’s benefits for cancer patients, Ohio State University researchers tracked 200 breast cancer survivors. According to a report on Boston.com, cancer patients who participated in 90-minute restorative yoga classes twice a week for 12 weeks following cancer treatment reported a nearly 50% reduction in fatigue. Blood tests of yoga participants also revealed a 15% reduction in three proteins that are markers for inflammation.

Interestingly, the study found that yoga continued to benefit cancer survivors even if they stopped participating in yoga after the initial test period. After six months, fatigue and inflammation continued to decrease with those who continued practicing yoga realizing the greatest benefits.

Yoga participants also benefited from improved sleep which study leader Jan Kiecolt-Glaser, a professor of psychiatry and psychology at OSU, linked to the decrease in inflammation. “Part of the idea with yoga and related kinds of practices is it may make people less stress-responsive overall. If you can turn down the thermostat in terms of reacting to stressors, you may be able to lower inflammation,” Kiecolt-Glaser told the Columbus Dispatch. Inflammation has been linked to a higher risk of cancer recurrence and spread.

Issels Integrative Oncology embraces a comprehensive strategy of non-toxic cancer treatment that encompasses body, mind and spirit to restore the body’s own immune system. Visit our website to find out more about our integrative immunotherapy cancer treatments.

After Cancer, Cancer Survivors, Living with Cancer

Valerie Harper on Cancer: Prepare for Tomorrow But Live for Today! – Part One

Surviving Cancer
Surviving Cancer

Valerie Harper refuses to be cowed by cancer. Battling incurable cancer, the 74-year-old Emmy-award winning actress is living each day to the fullest. She’s prepared for the inevitable end of life but has already outlived doctors’ predictions.

“This diagnosis makes you live one day at a time, and that’s what everyone should do: Live moment to moment to moment,” Valerie told AARP Magazine in an interview.

Although never a smoker, in 2009 Valerie was diagnosed with lung cancer, the same cancer that killed her mother (also a non-smoker). After surgery to remove the tumor, she returned to acting. While rehearsing for the Broadway show Looped early in 2013, she started having memory problems. Doctors in New York found cancer cells in the meninges tissue that surrounds the brain, leading the press to report that she had brain cancer. When she returned home to Los Angeles, Valerie’s oncologist diagnosed her condition as inoperable metastasis of her earlier lung cancer.

Since then Valerie has been treating her cancer with a combination of traditional and alternatives at an alternative cancer treatment center and says she is so far holding her own. “This diagnosis makes you live one day at a time, and that’s what everyone should do,” Valerie counsels; “Live moment to moment to moment.”

But Valerie has also insisted on preparing for the end of life whenever it comes. That part of dealing with cancer has been difficult for her husband of 26 years, Tony Cacciotti. “Valerie is a realist,” Tony told AARP. “And she worries more about others than herself. She worries about what’s going to happen to us when she’s gone.”

To be continued

After Cancer, Cancer Survivors

Scientists Find Similar Patterns in Multiple Types of Cancer Tumors

DNA
Genome Mapping

Scientists mapping cancer genomes have found surprising similarities between cancer tumors that originate in different organs. Their findings could one day lead to genetically engineered cancer treatments capable of targeting specific cancer genes. Advanced targeted cell therapy now allows cancer treatment specialists to target specific types of tissue at the cellular level; but this research breakthrough could lead to treatments that can turn on or off specific genes that initiate cancer and govern the growth of cancer cells. The discovery was made by biomolecular engineers working on the National Institutes of Health sponsored Cancer Genome Atlas which seeks to catalog the DNA of the thousands of tumor types included in the many varieties of cancer.

Shifting the focus of cancer research and treatment from the cellular to the genetic level could also lead to new treatments for cancers that have so far failed to respond to treatment, study co-author Josh Stuart of the University of California-Santa Cruz told the Los Angeles Times. Typically, the cancer drugs currently used in traditional medicine are designed to treat cancers of a specific organ or tissue type, such as breast cancer or lung cancer. Based on this new research, scientists hope to develop cross-cancer treatments that can cross organ and tissue boundaries to attack tumors with genetic similarities no matter where in the body they are located. In the future, cancer may be identified and treated by tumor type rather than body location.

The Cancer Genome Atlas project is expanding our knowledge of how cancerous tumors form and grow; but perhaps more importantly, it is allowing scientist to see connections between different types of cancer that could eventually lead to a cure for cancer.

After Cancer, News

Do Cancer Screenings Result in Overtreatment?

 

Medical Testing Results Review
Medical Testing Results Review

In recommending that cancer be redefined to reflect new knowledge and that certain conditions no longer be branded as cancer (see our previous post), a National Cancer Institute advisory panel expressed concern that America’s defensive approach to medicine has lead to over-screening for cancer and that cancer screenings are too often resulting in unnecessary treatment.

The panel’s concern was twofold:

  1. Today’s cancer screenings use a level of technology capable of detecting  abnormalities at the cellular level. The problem is that the human body is full of abnormalities; however, not all abnormalities are cancerous nor will most become cancerous.
  2. Americans are so conditioned to think worst-case scenario when cancer is diagnosed that they are unwilling to take a “wait and see” approach. They insist on surgery or other radical treatments such as chemotherapy and  radiation that carry their own significant health risks. In fact, fear of cancer is causing some people to undergo surgery even when no cancer is evident, as was the case earlier this year when actress Angelina Jolie underwent a preventative double mastectomy after discovering that she carries a gene that increases breast cancer risk.

In making its recommendation, the advisory panel stated:

“The word ‘cancer’ often invokes the specter of an inexorably lethal process. However, cancers are heterogeneous and can follow multiple paths, not all of which progress to metastases and death.”

As noted on CNN Health, 10% of localized lung cancer tumors, 20% to 30% of localized breast cancer tumors and 60% of prostate cancer tumors discovered by screening will never harm their victims.

Next time: Differentiating between harmful and benign tumors

After Cancer, Immunotherapy

Coming Back from Cancer Treatment: Boost Your Body’s Immunity

Boost your immunity after chemotherapy
Boost your immunity after chemotherapy

Call it chemotherapy’s double-edged sword: the same powerful drugs that kill malignant cancer cells also wreak havoc on the rest of your body’s systems. The side effects go beyond hair loss, nausea and fatigue – you may be at risk for a compromised immune system.

In fact, according to Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, 14th edition, “Autopsy studies show that most deaths from acute leukemia and half of deaths from lymphoma are caused directly by infection. With more intensive chemotherapy, patients with solid tumors have become more likely to die of infection rather than underlying disease.”

If you are undergoing or have recently completed a course of chemotherapy and radiation, you can take two important steps to boost your immune system and aid recovery.

  • Diet. A well-balanced diet rich in iron is a natural way to enrich your immune system. Maximize iron absorption  by drinking orange or grapefruit juice and adding sliced tomatoes or salsa to your entrée, and avoiding coffee, tea and milk with your meals. Herbs that boost immunity include astragalus, andrographis and ginseng. And a recent study pointed to fish oil as possibly beneficial to people with compromised immune systems.
  • Exercise. Getting your strength back after cancer treatment is a long process, but exercise can help you feel like your old self again. Harvard Medical School notes that “even though a direct beneficial link hasn’t been established, it’s reasonable to      consider moderate regular exercise to be a beneficial arrow in the quiver of healthy living, a potentially important means for keeping your immune   system healthy along with the rest of your body.”
After Cancer, Alternative Cancer Treatment

Creative Arts Therapies Aid Cancer Recovery

Artistic Expression Through Dance

The beauty of utilizing therapies based on the creative arts in alternative cancer treatment is that they require no talent, just the willingness to express oneself. Creative therapies focus not on the quality of the completed artistic endeavor, but on the expression of emotion and the psychological release it brings. In participating in therapies that promote artistic self-expression, cancer patients are able to develop a heightened sense of self-awareness and insight, control stress and anger, resolve personal conflicts and improve their sense of well-being and quality of life. The positive effect of creative therapies on healing can be pronounced.

The creativity of artistic expression has been linked to the release of certain stress-relieving and pleasure-producing neurotransmitters and hormones in the brain. As reported in Medical Daily, creative arts therapies embrace all forms of art:

  • Art therapy. The ability to give visual representation to their emotions through art can improve both the psychological and physical health of cancer patients.
  • Dance therapy. Engaging in expressive and uplifting exercise through dance promotes greater mind-body awareness and stress relief.
  • Drama therapy. Cancer patients were able to relieve stress, emotional anxiety and anger effectively through dramatic interpretation resulting in improved self-esteem and a more positive outlook on life.
  • Music therapy. Creating or listening to music can decrease depression, anxiety, stress and insomnia. During radiation treatment, music is often used to help alleviate nausea and vomiting.
  • Writing therapy. Cancer patients often find the ability to express their fears and feelings cathartic. Keeping records of symptoms, reactions and interactions with their cancer treatment team can also give cancer patients a sense of empowerment and control over their disease.