Tag Archives: Chemo Alternative

Cancer Care Tips, Cancer Research, Living with Cancer

The Diabetes and Cancer Connection Is It Real?

Diabetes Linked To Cancer
Diabetes Linked To Cancer

With more information about cancer, people can make better decisions regarding their health. Considering the evidence of a link between increased cancer risks and diabetes, people with high blood sugar have even more reason to start taking action.

The diabetes and cancer connection does not necessarily mean that diabetes itself causes cancer. Rather, scientists believe that people who exhibit high blood sugar — a resting level of 100 mg/dl or greater — tend to be more likely to develop certain forms of cancer.

One reason for the connection: insulin plays an important role in cell growth. With insulin problems, the body may be less equipped to fight the growth of cancer cells.

While the link is still not fully understood, some key medical facts have been established regarding diabetes and cancer:

  • High blood sugar levels are believed to increase your cancer risk by up to 15%.
  • The link between cancer and diabetes holds true for people who are not overweight.
  • People with prediabetes show higher rates for liver, colorectal and stomach cancers.
  • Diabetes has also been linked with higher risks of heart disease and other serious conditions.

Whether diabetes has a causal relationship with cancer remains unclear. However, enough evidence has mounted to suggest that risk groups for diabetes likely have higher risk for cancer as well.

If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with prediabetes, consider the potential risk of cancer as another reason to make changes to diet and exercise.

Healthy habits play an important part in the holistic, comprehensive fight against cancer—you can contact us to learn more about advanced therapies and alternative cancer treatments.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Living with Cancer, Stress Management

Alternative Cancer Treatment Is Popular with Patients

Alternative Cancer Therapy
Alternative Cancer Therapy

Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation have dominated Western medicine for decades. But a new player on the cancer team is earning cheers from patients. An estimated half of cancer patients now include some form of alternative cancer treatment in their cancer treatment program.

Alternative Treatments Go Mainstream

Many alternative cancer treatments are not actually “new,” although their therapeutic value has only recently been recognized by Western oncologists. Acupuncture, massage, nutritional immunotherapy and meditation are just some of the alternative therapies now being employed at university hospitals and U.S. cancer centers that have a long history of successful therapeutic treatment of disease in other cultures.

What’s Old Is New Again

Traditional medicine’s focus on immunotherapy as the future of cancer treatment is another example of mainstream medicine’s belated acceptance of alternative cancer treatment. Genetic and cellular research have added scientific proof to the experiential findings of alternative therapy practitioners who have long understood the critical role the body’s immune system plays in cancer treatment. While many U.S. cancer researchers are heralding immunotherapy as “new,” integrative immunotherapy has been practiced with beneficial results at Issels Oncology Centers for more than 60 years.

Merging Two Approaches

Cancer patients are benefiting from traditional medicine’s broadening view of cancer treatment. When used in conjunction with traditional cancer treatments, alternative therapies have been shown to greatly reduce the painful and unpleasant side effects of traditional treatments. More importantly, merging traditional and alternative cancer treatments improves your immune system response and enhances the effectiveness of cancer treatment.

Issels Oncology Centers works with many patients undergoing traditional cancer treatment. Contact us today for information about adding alternative cancer therapies to your cancer treatment program.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research

Pennsylvania Teen Suggests DNA Mining Solution to Cancer Treatment

Teenager Suggests Cancer Treatment
Teenager Suggests Cancer Treatment

A Lancaster, Pennsylvania teen is all smiles these days. Marissa Witmer, a sophomore at Solanco High School, has been selected one of 12 teen semi-finalists in the National Academy Medical School Scholarship Challenge to find a cure for cancer. (Click to watch the WGAL News report.) The teen with the winning idea will receive a $185,000 scholarship to the medical school of their choice.

“I have been motivated to find an alternative treatment for breast cancer,” Marissa said. “All the women in my family have had some sort of cancer, so it’s like my mom and I are kind of next, and it would be kind of nice to figure something out before that happens.”

Traditional cancer treatments attack cancer cells from the outside, pummeling them with chemotherapy or radiation or removing them surgically. While current research has brought the cancer fight down to the cellular level, most new treatments seem to be focused on changing cancer cell behavior by manipulating external cell triggers.

Mining Cancer DNA

Marissa’s proposal would attack cancer cells internally, literally ripping their guts out. The teen wants to develop an alternative cancer treatment that would pull the DNA out of cancer cells, either killing them immediately or at least rending them harmless.

DNA manipulation of cells is already a laboratory reality so there’s every reason to believe that when Marissa is ready to enter medical school in seven years she’ll have the opportunity to make her dreams come true!

Issels Integrative Oncology has been a leader in the fields of integrative immunotherapy and alternative cancer treatment for more than 60 years. Visit our website to find out more about us.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research, Cancer Survivors, News

Joan Luden Poses Bald to Promote Breast Cancer Awareness

The Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Ribbon
The Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Ribbon

Former Good Morning America co-host Joan Luden shocked many fans when she recently posed bald on the cover of People magazine to promote cancer awareness. In an interview on Today, Joan, who lost her hair while undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer, told fans, “We’re losing our hair in order to live and survive.”

Not an Easy Decision

While talking about her cancer journey and decision to bare her bald head in public, Joan admitted to Hoda Kotb that she was initially reluctant to pose for the magazine. “You just are never prepared for it,” she said about losing her hair during chemo. “You feel less like a woman. You feel less feminine. You feel less beautiful. You feel kind of embarrassed. You feel kind of like the ugly duckling. You lose a part of your sense of yourself.”

One More Loss

In the grand scale of things, you would think hair loss would be a small matter for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. But you have only to think how it feels to find a few gray hairs or notice a little thinning on top to realize how important our hair is to our appearance and sense of self. Its sudden loss during cancer treatment can be devastating to someone already struggling with the fear and loss that accompany cancer diagnosis.

A Better Solution

Non-toxic alternative cancer treatment offers a kinder, gentler way to combat cancer. Issels integrative immunotherapy works with your body to fight cancer. Our alternative cancer treatment battles cancer without the horrendous side effects, pain and embarrassing hair loss typical of chemotherapy. Find out more about the benefits of integrative immunotherapy at Issels.com.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Care Tips, Cancer Research, Living with Cancer

Five Things to Know About Lung Cancer

Things To Know About Lung Cancer
Things To Know About Lung Cancer

Perhaps you’re feeling overwhelmed and you’re struggling to learn all you can about your lung cancer diagnosis. There is a great deal of information available online, however, we would like to offer you five facts you should know about lung cancer.

Fact #1: Smoking isn’t the only cause of lung cancer

While it’s true that smoking causes around 87% of all cases, it’s not the only cause. Lung cancer occurs when the cells in the lungs mutate, and this is often caused by breathing in toxic chemicals, but it can also be due to genetics.

Fact #2: Lung cancer symptoms usually do not appear until the cancer has spread

Early cases of lung cancer generally produce no symptoms, which is why it can sometimes take years for doctors to find the cancer.

Fact #3: Researchers are working to find ways to diagnose lung cancer early on

Lung cancer is most successfully treated when it’s found early. Researchers are looking for more ways to perform early diagnostic tests. Lose dose CT scans might be one option.

Fact #4: There are many different types of lung cancer

Small cell and non-small cell are both types of lung cancer, but there are many more variables involved that will help your doctor decide which lung cancer treatment is right for you.

Fact #5: There are many effective alternative lung cancer treatments available

Chemo and radiation are no longer your only options. Alternative treatments are getting great results.

If you would like more information about Issels, we would love to talk with you and answer any questions you might have about available lung cancer treatment options. Please contact us today.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research

How Is Systemic Hyperthermia Used for Cancer Treatment?

What Is Hyperthermia?
What Is Hyperthermia?

Heat is one of the natural tools your body uses to fight disease. The fever generated by bacterial infections, flu and other viruses indicate not only that your body’s immune system is under attack but that it is fighting back. Raising your body’s internal temperature is like taking a flame-thrower to the attacking disease. Uncontrolled fever can, of course, have serious consequences for the patient. But carefully administered and controlled heating of the body – called systemic hyperthermia — can produce therapeutic benefits in the treatment of cancer tumors.

What Is Hyperthermia?

Issels extensive experience using systemic hyperthermia as part of our integrative immunotherapy program for cancer treatment is now being replicated at university hospital centers in the United States and Europe. Also called Thermal Therapy, systemic hyperthermia is the deliberate heating of the whole body for the therapeutic treatment of disease. Over our 60 years of experience using thermal therapy to treat cancer, Issels has found that thermal therapy can also be applied to affected parts of the body with similar benefit.

How Does Hyperthermia Fight Cancer?

Used in cancer treatment, the deliberate heating of the body promotes a beneficial general stimulation of the body’s innate immune system. But thermal therapy also triggers immune system responses that specifically target cancer tumors, allowing the body to vigorously and effectively attack cancer tumors. Research has shown that systemic hyperthermia has a positive effect on cancer-fighting immune system components, including accelerated maturation of dendritic cells, activation of T-cells, increased production of T-lymphocytes and accelerated production of Natural Killer Cells.

Visit our website to find out more about alternative cancer treatments that offer cancer patients quality of life benefits.