Category Archives: Alternative Cancer Treatment

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Immunotherapy

Integrative Immunotherapy: Cancer Treatment that Improves Quality of Life

Relax
Relax

Cancer treatment and quality of life often generally considered mutually exclusive terms. When surgery, chemotherapy and radiation are the only options, cancer patients often find the “cure” to be as painful and damaging to their well-being as — and sometimes worse — than the disease.

If the lessons of history hold true, today’s standard cancer treatments will someday be considered barbaric. Even if cancer is not completely preventable in the future, it is likely that surgery, chemotherapy and radiation will be replaced by kinder, gentler, more effective cancer treatments that do not rely on destroying the body to heal it. We are already heading in that direction.

Immunotherapy: Natural Defense

Integrative immunotherapy, which has formed the basis of Issels’ holistic cancer treatments for more than 60 years, has allowed many cancer patients to treat their cancer and enjoy a better quality of life. Issels’ unique record of complete and long-term remission of advanced cancers and cancers that had proven resistant to the standard cancer treatments favored by practitioners of Western medicine demonstrates that cancer can be successfully fought by tapping into the body’s own natural defense mechanism – our immune system.

Emphasis On Quality of Life

Increasingly, Western cancer researchers are coming to the same conclusions that have driven Issels’ alternative cancer therapies for decades:

  • They have begun to recognize the power of the body’s immune system to fight cancer without causing patients additional harm.
  • They have begun to realize that fighting cancer requires an integrative approach that attacks cancer on multiple levels.
  • They are beginning to understand that cancer patients want and deserve to enjoy a high quality of life both during and after treatment.

At Issels alternative cancer treatment centers, you do not have to choose between treatment and quality of life – we offer both!

Alternative Cancer Treatment

Highlighting Issels Santa Barbara

Cancer Treatment in Santa Barbara
Cancer Treatment in Santa Barbara

“At Issels Medical Center I was empowered by the calm, compassion, love and knowledge — and seeing very sick patients blossom and being able to walk and talk again within short three weeks.” — Issels Medical Center patient Barbara Humphrey

Barbara’s comment is a common sentiment among patients at Issels Medical Center in Santa Barbara, California. The compassionate encouragement of our staff is as integral to the treatment process as our more than six decades of experience with integrative immunotherapy.

Treating More Than Cancer

Issels Integrative Oncology in Tijuana, Mexico is an internationally known alternative cancer treatment center, but we realize that not every patient needs the intensive inpatient care, non-toxic cancer vaccines or advanced targeted cancer therapies available at our Mexico facility.

We have also found that our immunobiologic core treatment program can be beneficial in treating other immune system diseases, not just cancer. We opened our Santa Barbara outpatient center to make Issels’ unique individualized immunotherapy protocols and German homeopathic medicine more accessible.

On the American Riviera

While you are visiting our outpatient clinic, the focus will be on your health and ameliorating the condition that has brought you to Issels. But because we understand that your life is about more than your cancer or disease, we have located our outpatient facility in the beautiful coastal community of Santa Barbara in Southern California. Just north of Los Angeles in an area known as the American Riviera, Santa Barbara enjoys a Mediterranean climate and offers a wealth of outdoor and cultural pleasures.

For our patients’ convenience, Issels Medical Center is located close to major hospitals, fitness centers, health food stores and a variety of restaurants. Out-of-town patients can find comfortable accommodations nearby at special rates.

Click for more information about integrative treatments available at our outpatient clinic in Santa Barbara, California.

Alternative Cancer Treatment

Integrative Approach Pushes Cancer Survival Rates Beyond 10-Year Mark

10 is the Magic Number
10 is the Magic Number

Five years used to be the magical mark cancer survivors hoped to reach. If your cancer didn’t return within five years of completing treatment, you could start to breathe a little easier and feel hopeful about the future. Improvements in cancer treatment, early screening and cancer prevention have pushed the boundary between fear and hope back another five years.

Half of all newly diagnosed cancer patients now survive for at least 10 years, according to Cancer Research UK. With longer survival rates, some researchers are suggesting that many forms of cancer should now be considered and treated as chronic, rather than fatal, diseases.

War on Cancer Reaches Tipping Point

“The reason this 50% figure is an important tipping point is that it’s saying that now half of all patients will survive at least 10 years after a diagnosis and for many it will be very much longer than that,” Dr. Harpal Kumar, CEO of Cancer Research UK told London’s Daily & Sunday Express. I think that does represent a change in the way we should be thinking about cancer.”

Integrative Medicine Changing Treatment

The integrative approach toward treating cancer that has slowly been replacing Western medicine’s traditional reliance on surgery, chemotherapy and radiation may have much to do with the trend toward longer cancer survival rates. That has certainly been our experience at Issels Centers for Integrative Medicine in Tijuana, Mexico and Santa Barbara, California.

A leader in the field of integrative cancer treatments for more than 60 years, Issels’ cancer treatment teams have enjoyed unique success in the treatment of many forms of cancer using individualized immunotherapy. By integrating various alternative cancer treatments into our non-toxic immunobiologic core treatment program, Issels had been able to help many patients achieve complete long-term remission of their cancer.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Immunotherapy

Integrated Immunotherapy: A Safer Way to Fight Cancer

A Safer Treatment is a Better Treatment
A Safer Treatment is a Better Treatment

“When 14-year-old Nick Wilkins’ leukemia resisted chemotherapy, radiation and a bone marrow transplant, his doctors turned to the real pros: Nick’s own immune cells,” John Bonifield of CNN recently wrote on Click2Houston.com. After two months of targeted immunotherapy, Nick’s cancer “went into complete remission.”

Nick’s experience was not unique. Eighteen of the 21 other young cancer patients participating in a University of Pennsylvania study on the effectiveness of immunotherapy-based advanced targeted therapies also experienced complete remission of their cancer.

“This is absolutely one of the more exciting advances I’ve seen in cancer therapy in the last 20 years,” Dr. David Porter, Penn hematologist and oncologist, told CNN. “We’ve entered into a whole new realm of medicine.”

While some of the approaches to targeted cancer therapy are certainly new – recent advances in cellular and genetic medicine have made it possible to target specific genes and cell functions at a level not previously available – employing the body’s immune system to target cancer is a tried and true, rather than a “new,” approach. Issels Integrative Oncology Centers have been using individualized immunotherapy to treat cancer for more than 60 years! (Learn more about Issels’ history.)

Penn cancer researchers are not the only ones belatedly recognizing the advantages the immune system offers in the fight against cancer. In an earlier post on targeted therapy, we quoted immunologist Gordon Freeman of Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who presaged the Penn findings when he said:

“The immune system is an evolutionary learning system. If you can engage it and get it to work successfully, it learns how to attack the cancer. And the wonderful thing is that it works.”

Visit our website to find out about integrative immunotherapy, a safe, effective, non-toxic way to treat cancer that is revolutionizing cancer treatment.

Alternative Cancer Treatment

Exercise Tips for After Cancer Treatment

Exercise Tips After Cancer
Exercise Tips After Cancer

Going through cancer treatment can certainly feel like a workout. Afterwards, physical activity might be the last thing on your mind. However, starting an exercise program can be beneficial to both your physical and mental health.

Studies have demonstrated that increased physical activity can help prevent a recurrence of cancer while extending the life span of cancer survivors. Exercise can also boost your mental and emotional outlook, which is vital for maintaining quality of life. It helps promote production of serotonin and endorphins, chemicals that work in your brain to elevate mood and reduce pain.

Here are some tips to help you successfully incorporate regular exercise into your lifestyle.

  • Don’t overdo it, especially if exercise wasn’t a part of your pre-diagnosis routine. Start off with small, achievable goals. Your success at each step provides motivation to move up to the next level.
  • Find an activity you enjoy. Don’t feel obligated to use a particular form or style just because it works for others. Do you find treadmills boring? Try swimming or walking outdoors. You’ll be more likely to stick with it if you’re having fun.
  • Exercise doesn’t have to be formal to pay dividends. Look for little things you can do such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator.
  • Don’t feel guilty when you’re too fatigued for activity. Listen to your body and get some rest. Start up again once you’re feeling better.

Exercise is a healthy complement to the holistic cancer therapy offered at Issels alternative cancer treatment centers. Our integrative immunology approach focuses on a personalized program treating both mind and body. Please contact us to learn more.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research

Resistance Training and Cancer Treatment

Resistance Training
Resistance Training and Cancer Treatment

Exercise is an essential component of a healthy lifestyle, especially after a cancer diagnosis. It offers physical benefits such as boosting your immune system while fostering a positive mental attitude that’s so important to fighting cancer. Adding resistance training specifically targets some of the changes you may experience during treatment.

Resistance training uses weights, from either equipment or your own body, to supplement exercise moves. Its primary benefit is increasing muscle mass and tone. Cancer patients often lose muscle and gain fat as a side effect of treatment. Practicing resistance training can offset this tendency and help you maintain a better level of muscle tone.

This loss of muscle can be a contributing factor toward the fatigue suffered by patients in treatment. A 2012 study performed by Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center followed 221 cancer survivors in a 12-week strength training program. Participants showed major improvements in muscle mass along with blood pressure, body strength and flexibility.

Cancer can sometimes contribute to the development of osteoporosis. The disease itself can result in bone weakness, while radiation and hormone therapy can affect bone density. Weight training works your bones in the same way that it works your muscles, making it a powerful weapon against osteoporosis.

While aerobic exercise can be performed on a daily basis, strength training is best when done on a schedule that allows for intervening rest days. It’s a good idea to work with a trainer who can help you develop a program for maximum efficiency.

Resistance training benefits the mind-body connection that’s such an important part of the integrative immunotherapy provided at Issels alternative cancer treatment centers. Please contact us to learn more our individualized treatment programs.