Category Archives: Cancer Care Tips

Cancer Care Tips, Living with Cancer

Eating Tips for While You’re In Cancer Treatment

1 Comment
Be The Healthiest You Can Be With These Eating Tips!
Be The Healthiest You Can Be With These Eating Tips!

Cancer treatment can be very hard on your body, especially if you’re undergoing intensive chemotherapy or taking medicine with extreme side effects. Many times, cancer patients will go through a dramatic loss of appetite, which can make keeping your body healthy even more difficult if you don’t have the strength to eat, or keep down, a minimal amount of food.

Cancer Treatment Tips for Meals

Many of these tips work well for anyone who is ill, not just cancer patients, but it’s especially important for you to stay strong during your treatment.

  • Eat smaller meals – Smaller meals are more likely to stay down and it doesn’t take as much strength to eat them.
  • Eat what you like – If you’re going to be eating less, stick to foods you like since it can make it worse if you force yourself to eat foods you don’t enjoy.
  • Salty foods are healthy – The extra salt content of some foods, especially saltine crackers, tend to improve water retention, which can be an issue if you have other side effects such as diarrhea.
  • Avoid spicy foods – These types of foods are harder to digest, especially when you’re undergoing cancer treatment. A little bit of chili powder may be OK, but you may want to cut the jalapenos out of your diet.

Our team at Issels® is committed to giving you the best possible outlook for your cancer diagnosis. We customize non-toxic treatment plans to best fit every individual. Give us a call at 1-888-447-7357, or visit us at Issels.com, to find out more about how we can help you fight your cancer with advanced immunotherapy techniques.

Cancer Care Tips, Cancer Caregivers, Living with Cancer

Tips for Long Distance Cancer Caregiving

Long Distance Caregiving
Long Distance Caregiving

If a loved one receives a diagnosis of cancer, you want to be at their side offering care and assistance. Unfortunately, in many cases the realities of life may prevent that. You can still be a source of support when you follow these long-distance cancer caregiver tips.

Providing Effective Long-Distance Cancer Care

  • Contact the hospital discharge planner to coordinate the patient’s return to home.
  • Arrange for a home health aide to assist the patient until permanent plans are settled. An aide is also a good option to fill in the gaps or provide other caregivers with a break.
  • Create a network of friends and family members who can help, and set up a phone tree for quick and efficient communication.
  • Keep a bag at the ready packed with toiletries and clothes so you’re ready to travel at short notice.
  • Consider the distance to be traveled and whether ground or air is your better option.
  • If you have children or pets, have a contingency plan in place regarding their care in your absence.
  • Talk to your boss and co-workers about your situation. You may be able to continue your work offsite, but review your workload and deadlines in case someone else needs to step in for you.

What is the Issels® Difference?

At Issels®, our immunotherapy for cancer treatments are personally designed to meet each patient’s individual needs. Visit our blog for more cancer caregiver tips and information about our cutting-edge non-toxic therapies, including cancer vaccines and LAK cells.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Care Tips, Living with Cancer

Common Digestive Problems during Cancer Treatment, What to Do to Solve Them

Waking from Cancer Related Digestive Issues
Waking from Cancer Related Digestive Issues

Going through cancer treatment can feel as though you’re fighting an uphill battle. Several different kinds of problems may arise during your course of treatment, but there are ways to lessen their effects or eliminate them entirely. Your friends at Issels® have put together a list of three cancer treatment tips that can help you along the way, allowing you to remain comfortable as you get back to feeling better.

  1. Changing Appetites

A decrease in appetite is normal immediately following an intensive round of treatment. Counteracting this might include eating several small meals a day, as well as eating foods with a high caloric value. Staying hydrated is important even if you’re not eating a lot, which usually means drinking lots of water.

  1. Constipation

Fruits, fiber, vegetables and fluids are what you need to consume if you are having constipation problems. Coupled with a lack of appetite, you might find it hard to get your body moving, and in extreme cases you should consult with your doctor about finding a laxative that will work best for you.

  1. Diarrhea

If your bowel movements are too frequent and too loose, you may want to cut down on the foods mentioned above, though you should still be drinking plenty of fluids. Constant diarrhea should be discussed with your doctor, who may put you on a prescription or recommend an over-the-counter medication to help with it.

To find out more about how Issels® can help treat cancer in any stage or for more cancer treatment tips, give us a call at 1-888-447-7357 or use the contact form on our website.

Cancer Care Tips, Cancer Research, News, Uncategorized

Alcohol Use is linked to Seven Different Types of Cancers

1 Comment
Alcohol Linked to Seven Different Types of Cancer
Alcohol Linked to Seven Different Types of Cancer

It’s time to acknowledge that alcohol consumption has an overall negative effect on health. Based on recent research in Addiction, alcohol has a direct causal effect on seven types of cancer.

In addition to liver cancer, frequent drinkers are more likely to develop cancer in the colon, bowel, mouth and throat, and breast cancer in women.

The Link between Alcohol and Cancer

While past analyses have concluded that the link between alcohol use and cancer may not be causal, the latest research indicates that the statistics are simply not strong enough for the link to be explained by other factors.

A report, written by New Zealand’s Jennie Connor of the University of Otago, explains the connection:

• Alcohol caused about 6% of cancer deaths in 2012.

• Women who consume 2 drinks per day have a 16% higher risk of dying from breast cancer compared to non-drinkers.

• Heavy drinkers (averaging 5 drinks per day) have a 40% increased risk of cancer.

• Mouth, throat, and esophagus cancers are more strongly linked to alcohol (the risk of colon and breast cancer are heightened, but less so).

Is Moderate Drinking Safe?

Research doesn’t rule out the safety of drinking moderately — defined as an average of 14 drinks per week or less. However, the report stresses that alcohol is linked to other cancers, besides liver cancer, and that these risks outweigh anecdotal evidence like wine being good for the heart.

Emerging Science: Immunotherapy for Cancer

Immunotherapy for cancer may help patients interested in non-toxic, forward-thinking treatment options such as cancer vaccines and immune cell therapies. Contact us at Issels® for information about our individualized cancer care.

Cancer Care Tips, Cancer Research, News

Eating Fish with Omega-3 May Cut Bowel Cancer Risk

1 Comment
Omega 3's Cut Bowel Cancer Risk
Omega 3’s Cut Bowel Cancer Risk

More than 49,000 people in the U.S. will die this year from bowel cancer, making it the second leading cancer-related cause of death among people aged 40+. Exciting new findings from a British research team have shown that Omega-3 fatty acids can drastically reduce the chances of dying from bowel cancer by up to 41%.

Importance of Omega-3

Commonly found in certain fish, this fatty acid appears to have a wide variety of health benefits. Omega-3 tends to lower triglycerides, slow memory loss, reduce inflammation, and even improve symptoms of depression as well as ADHD in both children and adults.

Immunotherapy for Cancer and Other Treatments

The amount of research going into cancer treatment is great news for those at risk of developing cancer in their lifetime. Immunotherapy for cancer is experiencing multiple breakthroughs every year, and studies into Omega-3s and other natural remedies are picking up steam. A cure still seems elusive, but cancer patients have seen enormous quality of life improvements over the past two decades.

What Do Omega-3 Supplements Mean in the Long-term?

They mean that while your risk of dying from bowel cancer may go down significantly, they do not seem to help prevent cancer from forming. As you age, your body loses its ability to properly rid itself of cancerous cells before they turn into a problem. While this research is promising, there’s still a lot of work to be done in analyzing the relationship between Omega-3 fatty acids and cancer.

Issels® has been helping individuals with cancer develop personalized treatment plans for the last 60 years. Let our decades of experience work for you.

 

Cancer Care Tips, Cancer Research, News

National Cancer Institute: Vitamin D and the Cancer Risk Connection

Vitamin D To Reduce Risks of Cancer
Vitamin D To Reduce Risks of Cancer

Remember how Mom always told you to drink your milk so you would have strong bones? Researchers have discovered that vitamin D, found in fortified milk and other sources, may also reduce your risk of getting cancer.

Can Vitamin D Lower Your Risk of Cancer?

Vitamin D is actually a group of fat-soluble prohormones that the body uses to synthesize hormones. In addition to foods, sunshine is a valuable source of vitamin D, which is absorbed through the skin.

The possible link between vitamin D and cancer risk first arose during studies of cancer incidence and death rates based on geographic location. Numbers were found to be lower among people living in southern latitudes, where exposure to sunlight is more frequent.

Analysis of the results led researchers to consider the possibility of different vitamin D levels accounting for the incidence rates. Tests on mice have shown that vitamin D intake can slow down or prevent cancer cell growth, tumor blood vessel formation, and other processes that aid the development of cancer.

Ongoing Vitamin D Clinical Trials

At this point, most of the medical evidence has come from tests designed to study other health-related issues. Clinical researchers are now conducting tests specifically focused on the relationship between vitamin D and cancer. These studies include trials of vitamin D supplements and vitamin D analogs, which are substances that resemble the chemical but don’t have the calcium-boosting properties.

State-of-the-Art Immunotherapy for Cancer

Immunotherapy for cancer at Issels® incorporates the latest findings on non-toxic treatments that help your body’s own immune system to fight cancer. Contact us for more information.