Cancer Support

Happy Chinese New Year – Year of the Water Snake

The Chinese lunar Year of the Water Snake began February 10th.  The Chinese New Year's Days are also called the Spring Festival. The Spring Festival lasts 10 days, the Snake Year lasts one lunar year (12 months) until Jan. 30, 2014.The Chinese lunar calendar began in 2697 BC when the Yellow Emperor (Huang Di) became king. The Yellow Emperor is important for Chinese medicine as he is credited for coalescing the Chinese medical knowledge at that time into one volume, The Yellow's Emperor's Classic (Huang Di Nei Jing) which lays out the basic theory of Chinese medicine. This volume is credited with being the world's oldest medical text. Chinese medical practitioners continue to study the this text today to gain a deeper understanding of the medicine.Wikipedia tells…

Continue ReadingHappy Chinese New Year – Year of the Water Snake

Cancer Study Says Avoid Red Meat

This post comes from my colleague, Dr. Marty Eisen. A new study by the American Association for Cancer Research supports recommendations by the World Cancer Research Fund to limit red meat intake and avoid processes meats to reduce risk of digestive organ cancer.Dietary protein is made up of amino acids, which can be turned into "biogenicamines." Previous research has shown that the processing and storage of red meat, like liver and salami, increases amine concentrations. When these amines are in the presence of nitrites, they create "nitrosamines,"which have been linked to cancer. Moreover, the heme iron (found in red meat) may increase the formation of nitrosamines. A new study investigated whether people's DNA-repairing enzymes could limit the damage. A wide array of genetic variables were tested by using…

Continue ReadingCancer Study Says Avoid Red Meat

Anti Cancer Effects of Maitake Mushroom

From my colleague Marty Eisen, LAc:Research by Hiroaki Nanba, Ph.D., a professor of microbial chemistry at Kobe Pharmaceutical University in Japan, shows that one powerful mushroom can be used to treat cancer. Dr. Nanba administered Maitake mushroom to cancer patients. The patients took no anticancer drugs. Yet the mushroom helped to halt the cancer’s progression. Memorial Sloan-Kettering is one of the world’s premier cancer centers. Their experts are also recognizing the anticancer effects of this mushroom. They’ve completed trials that show it helps breast cancer patients.  Researchers found that this mushroom had anti-tumor effects also enhances immune function. Maitake also contains a highly-concentrated cancer-fighting compound known as D-Fraction. According to a 2009 study published the Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology, Maitake D-Fraction activates cells that…

Continue ReadingAnti Cancer Effects of Maitake Mushroom

Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine for Patients with Blood Cancers

I am giving a talk about acupuncture and Chinese medicine for patients with lymphomas and blood cancers on Monday, September 12 at 5p at the Wellness Resource Center, 50 Doctor's Drive, West Annex, Asheville, 28801.This will be for a family support group for patients with blood cancers and their caregivers, offered through Mission Hospitals Cancer Services and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.    "This group is for people living with Leukemia, Lymphoma, Multiple Myeloma, Myelodysplastic Syndrome, or Primary Amyloidosis and also their caregivers who live in the Asheville area and surrounding counties of western North Carolina." Group Facilitators:   Leslie Verner, RN, BSN, OCN, CCRP - Cancer Outreach Coordinator                                               Jere Howell, MS -Clinical Psychologist       Date:  Monday, Sept 12, 2011       (Meets the 2nd Monday of every month)       Time:  4:00…

Continue ReadingAcupuncture and Chinese Medicine for Patients with Blood Cancers

FDA Warns Against Anemia Drugs for Cancer Patients: Chinese Medicine Effective Treatment

The FDA issued a strong warning that will go on labels for three widely used drugs that treat anemia for cancer and dialysis patients: Procrit, Aranesp and Epogen, saying the drugs cause stokes and cardiac problems and speed the growth of malignant tumors. Fortunately for these patients there is a safer therapy available that effectively increases blood cell production: Chinese medicine.Several organizations have endorsed the use of acupuncture for cancer treatment. The National Cancer Institute notes western studies are beginning to be done that show efficacy of acupuncture in increasing blood cell counts:Scientific studies on the use of acupuncture to treat cancer and side effects of cancer began only recently. Laboratory and animal studies suggest that acupuncture can reduce vomiting caused by chemotherapy and may help the…

Continue ReadingFDA Warns Against Anemia Drugs for Cancer Patients: Chinese Medicine Effective Treatment

Chinese Medicine Helps Cancer Patients

Chemotherapy and radiation are treatments of last resort, but for those with cancer these standard western medical treatments may seem to be the only options. Because western medicine does not have a way to target only the cancer cells, both treatment kill off all cells in the attempt to kill the cancer cells. Chemo side effects include nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite, due to the killing of cells in the G/I tract, hair loss (hair follicles cells affected) anemia and blood cell problems due to damage to blood cells and the immune system, and hot flashes. Radiation causes burns to the affected area and dry mouth and throat.Chinese medicine is effective in alleviating these side affects of chemo/radiation therapies, decreases pain caused by tumors, increases immune…

Continue ReadingChinese Medicine Helps Cancer Patients

Acupuncture Reduces Treatment Side-Effects in Breast Cancer Patients

Here's another study showing the benefits of acupuncture in supporting breast cancer patients in comparison to those on drug therapy. The chemo drugs typically cause hot flashes for women being treated for breast cancer. To address the hot flashes, the women are given another drug, Venlafaxine (Effexor) which also has side effects. So Dr. Eleanor Walker and her team decided to study acupuncture's effect in treating hot flashes for breast cancer patients.The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, found that the acupuncture and drug group had similar results in reduction of symptoms (mainly hot flashes and depression are noted here) during treatment. But the post treatment follow-up is where it gets interesting. The drug patients symptoms returned within two weeks from when they stopped taking…

Continue ReadingAcupuncture Reduces Treatment Side-Effects in Breast Cancer Patients

Study Shows Qi Gong Effective for Cancer Patients

A recent study published in Annals of Oncology shows that medical Qi Gong improves the quality of life, mood and inflammation in cancer patients. There is no definition given for medical (vs non-medical?) Qi Gong, but I understand that the patients in the study practiced 2x/week with an instructor and were asked to do additional practice at home between classes. If you are interested in taking qi gong classes with a teacher be sure to tell the instructor about your disease and purpose for learning qi gong so that more specific instruction can be tailored to your needs. In fact, a private or series of private lessons, interspersed with group lessons might be optimal. If for whatever reason working with an instructor in person is not an option…

Continue ReadingStudy Shows Qi Gong Effective for Cancer Patients