Category Archives: Alternative Cancer Treatment

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Care Tips

Take Steps to Prevent Skin Cancer

Melanoma Prevention
Melanoma Prevention

While common and sometimes deadly when untreated, skin cancer is largely preventable. Wearing broad-spectrum sunscreen outdoors provides significant protection from the sun’s damaging ultraviolet rays; yet an American Cancer Society survey found that 31% of people never wear sunscreen.

Unprotected exposure to ultraviolet radiation, either from the sun or tanning beds, can significantly increase melanoma risk. People with pale skin, multiple moles or a family history of skin cancer are also at increased risk.

Early detection and treatment can usually halt skin cancer. Watch for skin changes, particularly the development of new growths or changes in the size or color of a mole, growth or spot. Warning signs include:

  • Scaling, bleeding or oozing.
  • The spread of color beyond the borders of a mole or spot.
  • Changes in sensation such as tenderness, pain or itching.

You can prevent skin cancer by following these recommendations from Issels’ alternative cancer treatment teams:

  • Stay in the shade and avoid direct sun exposure, especially between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. when the sun’s rays are most intense.
  • Wear wide-brimmed hats and cover skin with protective clothing when outdoors.
  • Protect your eyes with sunglasses that provide UVA/UVB protection.
  • Wear broad-spectrum sunscreen and lip balm that provide both UVA and UVB protection. Choose products with SPF 30 or higher. Apply sunscreen generously (about an ounce per application) 30 minutes before going outdoors to give it time to soak into your skin. Reapply every 2 hours and after swimming, toweling off or sweating. Be aware that water-resistant sunscreen only provides about 40 minutes of protection and should be reapplied frequently.
Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research

Summer Sun Can Cause Skin Cancer

Protect Yourself From The Sun
Protect Yourself From The Sun

With the first spell of hot weather finally here, we’re spending more time outdoors soaking up the sunshine. But without proper protection sun exposure carries the risk of skin cancer. The most common of all cancers, skin cancer accounts for about half of U.S. cancer cases, according to the American Cancer Society. Every year, more than 3.5 million new cases of basal and squamous cell skin cancer and more than 76,000 new cases of potentially-deadly melanoma are diagnosed in America.

Most basal and squamous cell skin cancers are caused by sun exposure and are most likely to develop on the face, ears, neck, lips or backs of the hands, the areas of the bodies most frequently exposed to the sun. These cancers begin in the basal and squamous cells — from which they get their name — that form the base of the skin’s outer layer. Discovered and treated early, basal and squamous cell cancers are highly treatable, offering an excellent prognosis for complete recovery. However, if ignored and untreated, these cancers can spread to other parts of the body.

Melanoma skin cancer is the most serious form of skin cancer, killing an average 10,000 Americans each year. Melanoma occurs in the skin’s deeper layers and targets the melanocyte cells that produce skin pigment, or melanin. Melanin is the skin’s natural protectant from sun exposure. Caught early, recovery from this invasive form of skin cancer is quite good. The 5-year survival rate is 91% for melanoma victims.  However, melanoma often goes undetected in its early stages and can be an aggressive spreader.

To be continued

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.
Alternative Cancer Treatment, Immuno-Oncology

Alternative Therapies Help Relieve Cancer Symptoms, Promote Healing

Artistic Therapy
Artistic Therapy

Cancer is a disease of the physical body, but it permeates every aspect of life, coloring the way we think and feel and even how we relate to ourselves and others. Many cancer patients are so overwhelmed by the burden of cancer that they feel as if they have lost control not only of their health and body but of life itself.

Conventional cancer treatments that focus on treating the body fail to address the emotional, psychological and what some might call the spiritual forces that can have an even greater impact than physical health on an individual’s ability to fight and survive cancer. Alternative cancer treatment centers like Issels Integrative Oncology recognize the power of the mind-body connection to promote healing.

Issels cancer treatment teams take a holistic approach to cancer treatment that nurtures the complete individual. We employ advanced science-based treatment protocols to address the physical aspects of cancer while building up the individual’s immune system and nurturing each patient’s emotional health. We want our patients to leave us with a renewed sense of well-being and hope so they can focus on healing.

Employing the creative arts to aid cancer patients in expressing their emotions and conquering their fear of cancer is one of the alternative cancer therapies that are finding success in helping cancer patients strengthen the mind-body connection that promotes wellness. The use of art, dance, drama, music and writing therapy has been remarkably successful in helping cancer patients manage the stress of treatment, achieve a more positive attitude about cancer outcomes, achieve a higher state of wellness that promotes recovery and increase post-cancer life expectancy.

More next time

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research

Link between Cancer and Fitness Affects Men

Staying Fit
Staying Fit

Men have another reason to hit the treadmill. A new study has found an intriguing link between physical fitness and cancer risk in middle-aged men. Scheduled for presentation at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in early June, the study tracked the relationship between physical fitness and the development of the prostate, colorectal and lung cancer (the 3 most common male cancers) in a group of 7,000 healthy, 45-year-old men over a period of 20 years.

At age 65, men who had remained physically fit over the intervening 20 years were less likely to develop cancer. Additionally, among those study participants that did develop cancer, men who were physically fit experienced more positive outcomes.

In an interview with PBS NewsHour, the study’s lead researcher, Dr. Susan Lakoski of the University of Vermont College of Medicine noted:

“This is the first study that really addresses the issue of fitness being a prognostic marker of cancer risk in men, and then a marker of prognosis after a cancer diagnosis. . . . People who had lower fitness, or went less time on the treadmill, were more at risk for developing cancer later in life.”

Asked why fitness has such a noticeable impact on cancer, Dr. Lakoski equated fitness with the body’s ability to maximize efficient oxygen delivery to the organs. As she pointed out, oxygen delivery “is very important in modulating different pathways involved in inflammation, hormone levels, immune surveillance, [and] oxidative damage. All of these things play into reducing cancer risk.”

These findings add further support to the value of taking a holistic approach to cancer treatment.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Survivors

Book Profiles Doctors Using Alternative Cancer Treatments to ‘Knockout’ Cancer

Alternative Healing
Alternative Healing

Better known today for her fitness videos and self-help books on diet and nutrition, Suzanne Somers rose to fame as ditzy blonde bombshell Chrissy on the 1977 hit sitcom Three’s Company. A frightening brush with breast cancer in 2001 changed Suzanne’s life.

After a lumpectomy to remove the tumor, her poor experience with radiation treatment led her to choose alternative cancer treatments over chemotherapy. Ten years after her successful recovery, Suzanne wrote Knockout: Interviews with Doctors Who Are Curing Cancer — and How to Prevent Getting It in the First Place (available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle).

Using her personal journey with breast cancer and her own experiences with alternative cancer treatments and alternative methods of cancer prevention as a springboard, in Knockout Suzanne puts the spotlight on innovative alternative cancer treatments and preventative measures that focus on building up the body and immune system.

In interviews with doctors who are successfully using alternative medical methods that are not yet part of Western medicine’s mainstream to knockout cancer, Suzanne explores the cutting-edge science and forward-reaching medical theories that are driving innovation in cancer treatment.

Among the alternative cancer treatments reviewed in Knockout are many of those  developed and employed at Issels Cancer Treatment Centers in Santa Barbara, California and Tijuana, Mexico, including modern integrative oncology, immunotherapy, cell therapy, cancer vaccines and gene-based therapies. In fact, Suzanne notes the role of our founder, Dr. Josef Issels, in pioneering integrative immunotherapy in the fight against cancer.

In Knockout, Suzanne says, “Cancer kills and continues to kill. But there is hope, and this book offers new choices.”  Issels Integrative Oncology is one of those new choices.