At the time of my diagnosis I was shell shocked, as most of us are. I was even more confused by the variety of treatment choices offered me. Decisions about a lumpectomy or mastectomy, a TRAM flap or silicone or saline implants were all part of this challenging time.

While I’m a big proponent of having choice, after all, it is our body, it was one of the few times in my life where I would have loved to have passed off the decisions to someone else. But that wasn’t an option and so I made my own decision, after lots of reading and interviewing.

While no one had an issue with my choices, this isn’t always the case. I had a friend who chose alternative cancer treatments, to many of her friends dismay. My own Mom, after two brutual rounds of chemotherapy announced that she was done regardless of what her oncologist said. Her decision was incredibly upsetting to me, but as someone who had just gone through her own cancer journey, I felt strongly that the decision around her cancer treatment was hers to make.

In situations like these, what are the steps you should take to help the cancer patient through their treatment journey? The following nine tips will help you navigate this challenging time.

1. Realize that it’s not your treatment decision, no matter how invested you may be. The responsibility for their cancer treatment is theirs and only theirs to make.

2. Be open to expressing but not determined to have your opinion heard. It’s the cancer patient’s right to ask you for your opinion if they want it, not your right to offer unsolicited advice. Remember how you feel when people give you unsolicited advice when you don’t ask for it.

3. Acknowledge your own fears. It’s hard to be impartial if you’re fearful yourself. Determine whether the cancer patient is open to hearing your fears, or whether you need to go somewhere else to talk with someone who’s less involved and removed a degree or two.

4. Don’t feel bad if you’re not up to being the patient’s sounding board. It’s not uncommon for patients’ families and loved ones to be triggered by the cancer diagnosis and consequently emotionally unavailable to help. If you can’t provide the support needed, get the name of a therapist who can and refer your loved one to her.

5. If you feel like you can handle discussing their treatment options, ask if they would like help with the decision-making process. Alternatively, ask what other information they need and if you can get it for them.

6. If they are open to it and you’re available emotionally, review the pros and cons of the treatments being considered. Treatments are like medication, they have pros and cons, and side effects.

7. Trust their judgment. The patient is a better expert on their body and on themselves than others will ever be. Although you might not understand their reasoning, remember the old saying about not being able to judge someone until you walk a mile in their shoes.

8. Know that there’s power in having a patient choose their treatment. Studies on placebos prove that by choosing a treatment, the efficacy of the treatment increases in the patient’s mind, which is the place where all true healing really begins.

9. Whatever their choice, support them to the max. Your opposing their choices will undermine their chances of recovery by instilling doubts or fears about their plan of attack.

Letting the patient decide how much input you have into their cancer treatment is a supreme act of love, and often challenging to do. But by doing so you acknowledge their competence and a true understanding that these decisions are the cancer survivor’s to make. And some day others might do the same for you when you’re facing a major decision.

Kathy Santini is a 10-year cancer survivor who is a life, business and results coach and the owner of Arbutus Coaching. Kathy is the author of the e-book: Live Your Best Life Now! The Cancer Survivor’s Guide to Creating a Happy and Meaningful Life, holds workshops for cancer survivors across North America and is a popular guest on radio and news programs. Some of the things Kathy has done in living her happy and meaningful life after cancer include: doing humanitarian work in Sierra Leone, building a house, nursing her dying mother at home during the last week of her life, working in a war zone in Kabul, Afghanistan as an editor and creating a successful coaching business.

To view reviews of her book for cancer survivors or to purchase it, visit http://arbutuscoaching.com/products.php

To join her twice-monthly newsletter, full of coaching tips, visit http://arbutuscoaching.com

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What is usually associated with chemotherapy is tiredness and lack of stamina in the long run. Fertility can be affected in the long term with certain types of kemo therapy. You really need to do some research on these side effects with the particular kind of treatment to be received.

It has been known that millions of women over 40 have experienced hair loss when undergoing chemotherapy. However there have been some ways found that will prevent this in some cases. That too can and should be researched.

The whole thing is that kemo therapy was designed to kill off the cancerous cells in the body. The negative side of that is that it also damages the healthy cells in the body. This is what causes the byproducts of the therapy.

How many side effects will you have? Good question. Some patients have considerable side effects while others have relatively few. It is a crap shoot.

We have listed the lack of stamina and the hair loss. Some other well known results are nausea, vomiting and pain. The healthy cells usually recover so as time goes on the side effects will gradually disappear.

The chemotherapy you have to undergo will have its own regimen and its own scheduled times. You may have to have a treatment every day, every week or every month. You may take the drugs you need by mouth or by a shot or intravenously.

So whichever way you may spell it is up to you. Just do your research, ask a lot of questions, and keep a positive attitude.

M.L. Lane writes for http://www.kemotherapy.org.

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Natural medicine has an alternative for every type of medical treatment, including the ones for cancer. Quite a number of herbs and common items have enzymes and components that harm cancer cells through constant exposure. Many of them will surprise you, since they are often used in our day to day activities. To give you a clear view, here are some of the products you need to consume, to beat cancer:

· Green Tea – Green tea cleans the digestive system, flushing toxins out of the body. Not only that, some researchers claim that its effects against cancer are significant. It can harm cancer cells and eventually flush them out, if you consume the morning beverage daily.

· Baking Soda – Among all household products, baking soda has the most number of alternative uses. Eliminating cancer tissue happens to be one of them. Make a solution consisting of baking soda and a little water. Mix the two well, and then consume the solution daily.

· Noni Juice and Mangosteen – Noni juice and mangosteen are wonder drugs. They are delectable and at the same time contain anti-cancer properties. Both contain enzymes that repel the effects of cancer, eliminating tainted tissue in the process. By consuming them regularly, you just might achieve recovery.

· Vitamin C – Vitamin C is known to treat all sorts of respiratory problems, including cancer. Highly acidic, the corrosive substance harms and eventually obliterates cancer tissue, until the affected organ is free from the disease. It can also help you lose weight, since fruits, which contain large amounts of the nutrient, are high in fiber, eliminating fats and toxins from your body.

There are more alternative cancer treatments aside from the ones mentioned. Just search the internet you will be familiarized with all of them.

Greg J Thompson is an expert in this field. If you want great alternative cancer treatment articles or some good, reliable bladder cancer symptoms information then visit his site now.

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When a person is diagnosed of cancer or any other diseases, then the person would rightful expect, to be given the best and most effective treatment. If a doctor says that chemotherapy, surgery or any other type of treatment is the best option, then naturally we would think this is the case.

Unfortunately this is not always the case and the treatments that are used by conventional medicine, are not always the most effective. Another aspect, that is even more important than the health and well-being of the patient, is money. Without a doubt big pharmaceutical companies make a huge amount of money selling drugs to the people, including cancer drugs, which are not cheap.

Naturally if there were other more effective, safer and cheaper treatments and cures available, then people would choose these. So the owners of the big drug companies making billions and billions of dollars each year, would not be very happy if these alternative treatments would reach the mainstream.

What I am trying to tell you is that, alternative medicine as such, can not become mainstream, because that simple would not be allowed to happen, unless people demand it. We the people have to do our research and bring alternative medicine for cancer treatment to the open and let doctors know about them.

Ideally the best option of a cancer patient, is to learn as much as possible of alternative cancer treatments and then apply them with their doctor. Beating cancer is a team effort and you should to your part, by pointing out the positive sides of alternative medicine to the doctors.

Over 350 gentle and non-toxic natural and alternative cancer treatments. Over 2,000 testimonials from people who used these treatments to beat their cancer. If cancer has touched your life ” please, download these ebooks NOW. http://www.natural-cancer-treatments.info

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Hyperthermia in cancer treatment
Hyperthermia (also called thermal therapy or thermotherapy) is an acute condition which occurs when the body produces or absorbs more heat than it can dissipate. It is usually caused by prolonged exposure to high temperatures. The heat-regulating mechanisms of the body eventually become overwhelmed and unable to effectively deal with the heat, causing the body temperature to climb uncontrollably.

Hyperthermia can also be created artificially by drugs or medical devices. In these instances it may be used to treat cancer and other conditions. Cancer cells are more heat-sensitive than healthy cells and their structure reacts differently to overheating. In 1910 the possibility of overheating in order to increase the radiation effect on malicious tumors was described for the first time. This already well-known and applied method was rediscovered as so called “whole body hyperthermia” in the beginning of the 1960s. Since the 70s a number of studies were run to further investigate this therapy form.

Research has shown that high temperatures (up to 44°C) can damage and kill cancer cells, usually with minimal injury to normal tissues. By killing cancer cells and damaging proteins and structures within cells, hyperthermia may shrink tumors.

Hyperthermia is almost always used with other forms of cancer therapy, such as radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Hyperthermia may make some cancer cells more sensitive to radiation or harm other cancer cells that radiation cannot damage. When hyperthermia and radiation therapy are combined, they are often given within an hour of each other. Hyperthermia can also enhance the effects of certain anticancer drugs, which is mutually strengthened thereby and a healing more likely – the so-called synergistic effect of hyperthermia. It was found out that cytostatic drugs (chemotherapy substances) clearly act more aggressively at temperatures over 40° C than within the range of the normal body temperature.

LINKS:
Methothelioma Cancer
Diagnosis cancer
treatment

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Hyperthermia in cancer treatment
Hyperthermia (also called thermal therapy or thermotherapy) is an acute condition which occurs when the body produces or absorbs more heat than it can dissipate. It is usually caused by prolonged exposure to high temperatures. The heat-regulating mechanisms of the body eventually become overwhelmed and unable to effectively deal with the heat, causing the body temperature to climb uncontrollably.

Hyperthermia can also be created artificially by drugs or medical devices. In these instances it may be used to treat cancer and other conditions. Cancer cells are more heat-sensitive than healthy cells and their structure reacts differently to overheating. In 1910 the possibility of overheating in order to increase the radiation effect on malicious tumors was described for the first time. This already well-known and applied method was rediscovered as so called “whole body hyperthermia” in the beginning of the 1960s. Since the 70s a number of studies were run to further investigate this therapy form.

Research has shown that high temperatures (up to 44°C) can damage and kill cancer cells, usually with minimal injury to normal tissues. By killing cancer cells and damaging proteins and structures within cells, hyperthermia may shrink tumors.

Hyperthermia is almost always used with other forms of cancer therapy, such as radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Hyperthermia may make some cancer cells more sensitive to radiation or harm other cancer cells that radiation cannot damage. When hyperthermia and radiation therapy are combined, they are often given within an hour of each other. Hyperthermia can also enhance the effects of certain anticancer drugs, which is mutually strengthened thereby and a healing more likely – the so-called synergistic effect of hyperthermia. It was found out that cytostatic drugs (chemotherapy substances) clearly act more aggressively at temperatures over 40° C than within the range of the normal body temperature.

LINKS:
Methothelioma Cancer
Diagnosis cancer
treatment

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Genentech’s proposed study of Avastin (bevacizumab) in combination with paclitaxel in first-line metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC) does not justify continued approval of the indication because the trial is unlikely to substantiate the magnitude of progression-free survival benefit seen in the E2100 trial and there are multiple factors that could delay the new study’s completion, said the director of the division of biologic oncology products, Dr. Patricia Keegan.

Avastin (bevacizumab) is a Cancer medicine that interferes with the growth of cancer cells and slows their growth and spread in the body. The most common side effects of Avastin that occurred at greater than 10% and at least twice the control rate include nosebleeds, headache, high blood pressure, inflammation of the nose, too much protein in the urine, taste change, dry skin, rectal bleeding, tear production disorder, back pain, and inflammation of the skin. Treatment with Avastin also can result in serious and sometimes fatal bleeding. This includes coughing up blood, bleeding in the stomach, vomiting blood, bleeding in the brain, nosebleeds, and vaginal bleeding. People who have recently coughed up blood or have serious bleeding should not receive Avastin.

Doctors are still free to prescribing Avastin as treatment to Breast Cancer patients without FDA approval, but it may be more difficult to secure insurance reimbursement without breast cancer data included in the FDA-cleared prescribing information. Insurers and government health programs likely will stop covering the drug, which comes with a hefty pricetag of $8,000 a month, or $96,000 a year. For now at least, the prescribing information still includes Breast Cancer as an approved use.

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Dietary Side Effects

Loss in appetite is a common side-effect experienced by patients who undergo chemotherapy. This loss in appetite results in a decreased protein and nutrient intake making the patient’s road to recovery more difficult. According to the National Cancer Institute, cancer patients complain that certain foods like meat may be bitter or taste metallic. A patient’s sense of smell may also be affected due to chemo treatment attacking healthy cells as well as diseased cells. Usually, these changes in sense of taste or smell will return to normal once treatment ends.

With the body already in a weakened state, caregivers will need to make sure patients not only eat their meals but also eat the “right” types of foods. A few recommended ways to combat the change in sense of taste or smell by the National Cancer Institute are the following:

Choose foods that look and smell good
Marinate foods with fruit juices, wine, salad dressing and other spices
Try tart foods and drinks
Make foods sweeter
Eat with plastic utensils rather than metal ones
Discuss meal and options with a dietician
To battle appetite loss, other suggested methods include:

Eat smaller meals, but more frequently
Drink liquids throughout the day
Drink a liquid or powdered replacement
Have easy-to-carry snacks readily available
Eating and getting the necessary amount of nutrition is extremely important for patients during the recovery and healing process.

Physical Side Effects

As part of chemo and radiation treatment therapy, most patients experience side-effects which affect their physical appearance, leaving them feeling depressed. Common physical side-effects include discolored or burnt skin, loss of eyebrows, hair follicles and acne. Fortunately, organizations like Look Good…Feel Better, a 501c3 non-profit organization, aim to help women cope with these terrible side effects. They understand that self-image and physical appearance have a direct impact on the patient’s self-esteem and in turns hinders the recovery process. The organization offers over 14,500 group workshops nationwide in more than 3,000 locations where beauty professional volunteers teach women beauty techniques to help them manage the appearance-related side effects.

Other institutions like DNI International offer reconstructive cosmetic products and services available to cancer patients at select institutions. David Nicholas and David Miranowicz, co-presidents of DNI International, empathize with patients on how a decreased physical appearance is directly linked to a lower quality of life. “Chemotherapy can yellow the skin; they often lose their eyebrows and eyelashes, and radiation burns the skin. But with some education, we can empower them to soften the effects of those treatments, and they can feel more like themselves again…which makes them feel better.” DNI’s user-friendly reconstructive cosmetic makeup products are available to cancer patients in the Rowley, MA and Massachusetts General Hospital-Oncology Unit.

Social and Emotional Side Effects

Newly diagnosed cancer patients and families may also experience role changes. Cancer patients, who were originally extremely independent pre-cancer, will now inevitably become more dependent on their family and loved ones. Patients are also likely to experience feelings of anxiety, depression, frustration, and hopelessness. Cancer survivors like Bill Gasperson stress the importance of joining support groups and that the larger the patient’s support group is the better. Support groups offer several benefits, some which include:

Learning tips and resources through sharing among peers
Connecting with cancer survivors and coaches for strength and encouragement
Finding inspiration through patient empowerment
Identifying the right questions across various stages in the disease
Companionship – rediscovering the ability to laugh despite the disease
A strong social support network most importantly provides the patient with the emotional support to help battle the hurdles of this terrible disease. Cancer survivors have stressed that perhaps the most important emotional support is needed when they experienced disease recurrence.

We hope this post was helpful and would love to hear some of your own lessons learned.

Pulse of the Patient is an online cancer support community that is driven entirely by patients rather than by physicians, with a primary goal to improve cancer patients’ quality of life and care through knowledge-sharing based on the principle of “If I Knew Then, What I Know Now…”. We are the quality of life site for anyone touched by cancer. Please visit our blog at: Our Blog.

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There are ways to counter the adverse effects of cancer treatment, and one of them is by practicing Laughter Yoga. Laughter Yoga is a technique developed by Dr. Madan Kataria, a medical doctor from Mumbai, India. This unique exercise technique combines laughter exercises, created and developed by Dr. Kataria himself, and the ancient art of yogic breathing.

It is said that laughter is the best medicine, and it is not just some nonsense. Studies and researches indicate that laughter helps boost our immune system, therefore maintaining our health and well being. Dr. Kataria claims that laughter helps our lungs take in more O2 and expel more CO2 as well as other impurities than when we breathe normally. This leads to a better distribution of O2 in our blood system thus improving our blood circulation. Laughter also increases the production of endorphins – hormones that make us feel good or happy – in our body.

So how does this kind of Yoga benefit cancer sufferers? Regular Laughter Yoga can help boost their immune system of cancer sufferers and survivors and also decrease their stress level. The combination of Laughter Yoga and conventional cancer treatment can help fight cancer more efficiently. Laughter Yoga can also help cancer survivors regain their energy and improve their recovery process.

Laughter Yoga can also help cancer prevention for non-cancer sufferers. Cancer is caused by – among many contributing factors – lack of exercise and stress. Conventional exercise routines can take up some time and nowadays people are too busy and just don’t have much spare time. Dr. Kataria claims that 15 minutes of laughter exercises is equivalent to 30 minutes of cardio exercise. So why waste 30 minutes in the gym when you can laugh as much as you like for 15 minutes inside the comforts of your own house? Regular laughter exercises can help ward off stress hence preventing the cancer from occurring. Most importantly, Laughter Yoga is free of charge! You don’t have to invest in any sporting equipments, and you don’t have to pay a membership fee.

So what are you waiting for? Get to know Laughter Yoga now!

Boy Penulis

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Small Meals

When it comes to eating, one of the things that you get from the cancer treatment program guide is the fact that small meals are more appropriate when you are going through treatment. Eat several times a day to make sure you get the nutrients your body requires to heal after the treatment. When eating, make sure you do it slowly. Chew carefully to make it easy for your body to digest the foods. Foods that are sweet or salty are a great option during cancer treatment because they get help to get rid of the nauseous feeling. You can also eat some crackers and dry toast with some homemade soups when you are feeling nauseous.

Fluids

Fluids are also important and cancer treatment program guide can help to determine the appropriate number of water that you should take. A lot of fluids are necessary especially after you have gone through a treatment session. This will help to get rid of all the toxins that have accumulated in your body. Clear fluids should be taken all day. Avoid taking fluids when you are having your meals because this can increase nausea and bloating.

What to Avoid

Spicy foods are not suitable if you are going through treatment. You should also avoid foods that are greasy because this can make you feel more nauseous. Solid foods should also be avoided immediately after a treatment session because you are more prone to vomiting at this time. When cooking, you should also stay away from ingredients that have very powerful odors because this can increase your nausea. You can take some Beta Glucan at this point because you are not able to eat solids. Taking too much alcohol and coffee is also inappropriate.

Dealing with Vomiting

When you vomit after eating a meal or taking some Beta Glucan, you should try to sip some fluids or suck ice chips until you are able to take solids. When the vomiting is severe, broths, flat sodas and sports drinks are appropriate because they help to replace the electrolytes you have lost.

Follow Meal Plan

It is important to stick to your meal plan once you have determined the most appropriate foods to eat during the treatment period. Make sure you eat even when you do not feel hungry to ensure you are well nourished. A well nourished individual is able to handle the various side effects of surgery and chemotherapy better. This means that you have to plan your meals ahead of time to make sure there is always some food in the house.

You can use Bill Henderson cancer to come up with a suitable meal plan. Use the provided link to know more about Beta Glucan.

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