
Cancer Diagnosis is an overwhelming process that takes toll on people’s minds and energies. Moreover, conventional Oncology Treatments such as Chemotherapy, Radiation, Targeted Therapies, Hormonal interventions, and any combination of those treatments carry many side effects and health issues that many people with cancer suffer for long periods of time.
The main question now: How Naturopathic Medicine helps Cancer Patients? To answer that question we need to understand how Conventional Oncology Measures work, and how do they affect the body negatively, so we can appreciate how the naturopathic interventions help.
Oncology Treatments such as Chemotherapy, and Radiation do not differentiate between normal and cancer cells when they are given to patients with Cancer. So, when Chemotherapy or Radiation kills Cancer Cells by damaging their basic living blocks (DNA) or at least stalling it from division or growth, it also affects the DNA of the normal cells in the gut, skin, bone marrow and nerves (these are only examples). So, after few cycles of chemotherapy or radiation sessions, the patient starts to develop mouth ulcers, burning sensation of the mouth and the throat, loose bowel motions, nausea and vomiting, and skin changes such as darkening of the skin and hair loss. These side effects can be the limiting factors to continue further chemotherapy and radiation, and hence poorer tumour control.
Moreover, after Chemotherapy and Radiation some cancer cells remain active and resist dying with these aggressive treatments and these cells are called (Resistant Clones) and they constitute the building blocks of recurrent or metastatic disease and they can actually represent the turning point of the cancer being initially treated for the purpose of cure and elimination of cancer to merely palliation and symptom control .
Naturopathic Medicine and Oncology
Naturopathic Medicine has been introduced to Canada and United States for more century since the early 1900s. Naturopathic Medicine helps Oncology patients in different stages of their disease and supports them during their chemotherapy and radiation.
With the basic principles of improving your nutrition and replacing the lost minerals and vitamins after receiving chemotherapy and radiation, Naturopathic Care can help you recover these nutritious elements and so lower the incidence and or the severity of side effects of the Oncology Treatments.
Many Naturopathic interventions can even help the chemotherapy and radiation to kill the cancer cells, such as using the supplement EGCG (Epigallocachetin Gallate) which is extracted from the green tea, it showed by research that it inhibits the growth and multiplication of the cancer cells of many cancer types such as Prostate Cancer https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2789276/ and Ovarian Cancer https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15350370/
The advantages of introducing Naturopathic Modalities to Oncology Care are so many, not only including supporting the health and the overall wellbeing of Cancer patients and fighting cancer as mentioned earlier, but also having a relatively safe profile that is safer than most chemotherapies and radiation treatments.
In conclusion, the integration of Naturopathic Treatment Modalities has a paramount significance in Oncology care not only helping mitigating the toxic effects of Conventional Oncology Treatments, but also supporting the fight against cancer and helping to achieve better response rates to the conventional oncology measures.
If you have any question, please don’t hesitate to contact us
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