Severe joint pain is a common side-effect of tamoxifen therapy for breast cancer, and it is associated with vitamin D deficiency. Supplementation aimed at pushing serum vitamin D levels over 40 ng/ml can prevent or attenuate the pain.
Despite the Institute of Medicine’s recent report, many nutrition-minded oncologists believe high-dose vitamin D supplementation—upwards of 4,000 IU/day—has potential to markedly reduce risk of primary breast cancer as well as breast cancer recurrence, with minimal risk of toxicity.
The vast majority of men with prostate cancer do not need surgery, toxic drugs or other invasive treatments, according to Aaron Katz, MD, founder of the new Society of Integrative Oncology. He believes most can be safely treated for decades with dietary changes and intensive use of plant-based anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds. The new organization’s prime goal is to educate doctors about the non-invasive, non-pharmaceutical options.
Primary care doctors have a vital role to play in helping patients with cancer, even if they are not directly involved in treatment of the cancer itself. The key, says Dr. Isaac Eliaz, is for doctors to confront their own mortality and become comfortable with the reality of impermanence.
Cancer doesn’t “just happen.” It occurs in a physiological environment characterized by chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, pH changes, and ischemia. Interestingly, Candida albicans also thrives in and contributes to this inner environment. The good news is that this is reversible through hormone balancing, and dietary changes aimed at reducing inflammation.
New findings that ultra-dilute homeopathic preparations could induce apoptosis in human breast cancer cell lines have energized the field of homeopathy, dashing critics’ oft-heard argument that homeopathy—if it works at all—is naught but a “placebo effect.”
Estrogenic and hormonally-active environmental toxins from plastics, pesticides, animal feed, and cosmetics play a key role in precocious puberty—on the rise in young girls—as well many forms of cancer, says Dr. Devra Lee Davis, of the University of Pittsburgh’s new Center for Environmental Oncology.
The recent National Cancer Institute report showing a major downturn in breast cancer rates in 2003 had a lot of people saying “I told you so,” and attributing the downturn to a drop-off in hormone replacement therapy. But it may not be that simple. Dr. Tori Hudson offers her thoughts on this hot topic.
A recent National Cancer Institute sponsored study has challenged the notion that increased lycopene consumption can prevent prostate cancer. But on closer analysis of the data, that conclusion is hardly written in stone. A wealth of other research shows that this valuable nutrient, found abundantly in tomatoes, can lower blood pressure, reduce cardiac events, and even protect against sunburn.
Most people think of melatonin as a sleep aid and jet lag remedy, owing to its ability to regulate circadian rhythms. But this compound has many other benefits, including regulation of blood pressure and slowing the growth of several types of cancer.
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