Category Archives: Alternative Cancer Treatment

Alternative Cancer Treatment

Gerson Diet Can Help Fight Obesity, Decrease Cancer Risk

Image of an apple
Gerson Diet Can Help Fight Obesity, Decrease Cancer Risk

Over the past few decades adult obesity in the U.S. has doubled and childhood obesity has tripled. Cancer researchers warn that unless Americans can trim down and learn to manage their weight more effectively, the obesity epidemic is likely to cause a spike in cancer diagnoses and cancer deaths.

While researchers are still working to understand how obesity promotes cancer development, it appears that fat tissue creates an ideal environment for the development and growth of numerous types of cancer. Obesity has been linked to an increased risk of developing breast cancer, colorectal cancer, kidney cancer, pancreatic cancer, esophageal cancer, thyroid cancer, gallbladder cancer, endometrial cancer and liver cancer.

An excess of fat cells can result in metabolic dysfunction, compromising the body’s immune system and its ability to fight cancer. Researchers have discovered that fat tissue stimulates the production of estrogen and other cancer-related hormones; can disrupt insulin production which can lead to chronic inflammation; and interferes with cytokines, disrupting vital cell communication and opening another door to cancer-related inflammation.

Eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly to maintain a healthy weight promote a healthy immune system and can help prevent cancer. More and more oncologists recommend diet and exercise goals for cancer survivors to reduce the risk of cancer’s return. Issels cancer treatment specialists recommend to their patients, according to their individual needs, an organic vegetarian diet that is high in immune-boosting vitamins, minerals, enzymes and micronutrients.

Next time: The benefits of exercise

 

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Immunotherapy

Cancer Report: Immunotherapy Yields ‘Remarkable’ Long-Term Results

Two physicians back to back.
Immunotherapy is in the news

After an intense review of cancer statistics and research conducted since 1990, the American Association for Cancer Research has issued a sobering progress report on the state of cancer and cancer treatments in the U.S. The report is of particular interest in light of a recent Institute of Medicine study warning that the U.S. is on the brink of a critical cancer care crisis that is expected to escalate as more baby boomers enter their senior years when cancer is more likely to occur. Despite progress being made in cancer awareness and treatment, cancer will strike more than 1.6 million Americans this year alone and kill more than 580,000.

As reported by CBS News, two key findings emerged from the report:

  1. Compared to 1990, cancer survival rates have increased by more than 1 million; but, as we discussed last time, the U.S. is falling behind in cancer prevention. According to the report, three lifestyle changes could prevent 50% of current cancer deaths.
  2. Advanced immunotherapy cancer treatments that employ the body’s own immune system to attack cancer are producing “remarkable,” long-term results without the difficult side effects that plague traditional cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation. The report notes that immunotherapies are in part responsible for the both the increase in cancer survival rates and the fact that survivors are living longer.

Issels Integrative Oncology has more than 60 years of experience using advanced immunotherapies as an essential part of integrative cancer treatment. As Issels treatment reviews indicate, we have a unique history of achieving complete, long-term remissions of advanced and standard-therapy resistant cancers. Visit our website to find out more about integrative immunotherapy cancer treatments.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research

How Autohemotherapy Bolsters Immune Response

Tube containing a blood sample
Autohemotherapy may boost immune response.

Autohemotherapy is a self-blood therapy that can be used in cancer treatment to help boost the body’s immune system response. Autohemotherapy is one of a number of beneficial cancer therapies that Issels cancer treatment teams may integrate into a patient’s comprehensive immunobiologic core treatment program.

Described in Mainstream Medicine Since 1913

First described by French physician Paul Ravaut in 1913, autohemotherapy is not an “alternative therapy,” but a mainstream medical “serum therapy” that has been used to treat a wide range of chronic disease conditions. Hundreds of articles on its use can be found in mainstream medical journals, including the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Used in Europe and South America

More commonly used in Europe and South America than in the United States, autohemotherapy involves the withdrawal of a small amount of the patient’s blood and its reinjection; usually back into the vein or into a muscle. When disease, including cancer, attacks the body, the body fights back; producing antigens and other metabolic by-products that are present in the patient’s blood.

Triggering Immune Response

By removing and then reintroducing cancer by-products back into the patient’s body, the goal of autohemotherapy is to stimulate a fresh immune system response. To enhance the immunobiologic effect of autohemotherapy, sometimes the removed blood is mixed with a homeopathic remedy or ozone before it is injected into the patient.

Many Issels patients have benefited from the inclusion of autohemotherapy in their integrative immunotherapy program (see Issels treatment reviews). However, as is true in all cancer therapies, treatment response varies with each patient. Talk to your Issels cancer treatment team about the value of including autohemotherapy in your cancer treatment program.

Alternative Cancer Treatment

What Is Chelation Therapy for Cancer?

IV fluid bag
Chelatione Therapy by IV Drip

While evidence of cancer has been traced to ancient times, many people suspect that there is a relationship between the changes we humans have made to our environment and the growth of cancer into one of the world’s most prevalent and potentially lethal diseases. Since the dawn of the industrial age, human exposure to heavy metals has risen dramatically.

The explosion of new products and materials that followed World War II took heavy metals exposure from the workplace into the home. Not only did workers in more than 50 professions including physicians, dentists, laboratory workers, printers, metalworkers, photographers and artists risk health consequences from on-the-job exposure to mercury, lead and other heavy metals; but consumers were also placed at risk by heavy metals present in common household goods, including paint, tap water, cosmetics, processed foods and amalgam dental fillings.

Chelation therapy is used to rid the body of undesirable substances such as heavy metals, chemical toxins, mineral deposits and fatty plaques. Derived from the Greek word for “claw,” chelation “grabs” the offending substance, encircling the metal or mineral ion and transporting it from the body in the urine or feces.

The synthetic amino acid EDTA (Ethylene Diamine Tetraacetic Acid) was first used in the treatment of lead poisoning in 1948. Intravenous EDTA chelation is now approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treatment for lead poisoning.

The use of chelation therapy gradually spread to the treatment of other heavy metals and conditions, including cardiovascular disease, diabetic arterial disease, vascular disease and cancer. For more information on the use of chelation therapy in cancer treatments, visit our website.

Alternative Cancer Treatment

Could Exercise Be the ‘Magic Pill’ that Wards Off Cancer?

Senior Minority Man Working Out Set On A White Background
Could exercise fight cancer?

Exercise could be the “magic pill” we’ve all been looking for that not only thwarts the growing incidence of chronic diseases but wards off cancer. Vital to good health, physical activity offers the mind and body a panacea of healthy benefits. Exercise promotes a healthy immune system, enhances positive mind-body connection, reduces stress and aids in weight control. Regular physical activity has also been strongly linked to both cancer prevention and reduced cancer recurrence among cancer survivors.

The importance of exercise in preventing obesity appears to be the key to its importance in preventing disease and maintaining a healthy body. As CBS News recently reported in a 2-part series on the connections between cancer and exercise, decreasing your obesity risk can reduce your risk of developing a life-threatening cancer.

Not only have the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention linked obesity, which affects more than a third of U.S. adults, to increased incidence of chronic disease, including heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, Type 2 diabetes and cancer; but the National Cancer Institute  has linked obesity to increased risk of specific cancers, including cancers of the esophagus, endometrium, pancreas, colon, rectum, kidney, thyroid, gall bladder and post-menopausal breast cancer.

Why does obesity have such a profound affect on our health? Obesity appears to cause significant disruption to the body’s normal metabolic functions, even interfering with basic cell processes. We’ll discuss that next time.

Issels Integrative Oncology uses beneficial immunotherapy to restore healthy, natural metabolic and cell function. To find out more about integrative immunotherapy, subscribe to our new email newsletter.

Alternative Cancer Treatment

Are Profit Margins Dictating Cancer Treatment Recommendations?

“We’re asking surgeons to buy a device that takes away profit margins and their next case but makes life and recovery easier for the patient. Why, in Israel and Europe, where no one is rewarded monetarily for second surgeries, do they embrace this tool?”

Man holding cash.
Are profit margins dictating cancer treatment?

That’s the telling question Newport Beach, California cancer surgeon Dr. Alice Police asked the Orange County Register while discussing the reluctance of U.S. hospitals and cancer surgeons to use a game-changing new breast cancer surgery tool that dramatically reduces the need for repeat surgeries.

Using the new MarginProbe System, surgeons can test removed tissue in the operating room to determine whether all cancer cells have been excised and, if necessary, remove additional tissue during a single surgery, negating the need for subsequent surgeries. While the cost of using the device is high, FDA approval means costs are covered by Medicare and most major health insurers. So why have only 4 U.S. hospitals purchased the MarginProbe System in the 8 months since FDA approval?

Dr. Michael J. Stamos of the University of California-Irvine Medical Center said UCI purchased the device “to improve patient care.” While admitting that the hospital loses money when repeat surgeries are not needed, he told the Register, “You have to look beyond the current economics and more at favorable outcomes.”

Concern that profit margins may be affecting hospitals’ and surgeons’ reluctance to adopt this new cancer treatment tool calls into question broader treatment recommendations made by practitioners of traditional Western medicine. Do profit margins play a role in their failure to offer cancer patients effective alternative cancer treatments from which they will not profit?