Help Your Healer Heal You

The role of the patient has changed dramatically over the last several centuries. The Industrial Revolution created labor specialization and division in all spheres including healthcare. Suddenly, there was not one doctor but many subcategories responsible for different parts of the body. The structure of healthcare also changed significantly: hospitals became more accessible and seeing a doctor doesn’t require traveling long distance.

Living in the wilderness without access to immediate medical help, our ancestors once had a deep awareness of their bodies, which allowed them to notice the slightest shifts of their health and take appropriate steps to stay healthy. Now there is no survival requirement to develop such awareness. Over time we got used to relying on external cues about our health and courageously handed over the responsibility for our health to the doctors. Everything is “diagnosed” and treated by a third party. First it was another human and now it is often a computer. Our internal awareness – the most efficient diagnostician – is put to sleep. The only part that we are doing actively now is “popping pills.” Unfortunately, this approach rarely brings back our innate health.

Why our current approach to health is failing

- Doctors don’t have time to treat every human according to his/her unique conditions and point out all disease causes. As a result, we get a general diagnosis and a general prescription.

- Specialists have a limited understanding of how internal body systems can influence each other. Connecting the dots can take months or years. As a result, a dermatologist will prescribe a steroid treatment for acne instead of finding a root cause and maybe offering dietary advice.

- Most treatments used by modern medicine are symptoms-oriented. They rarely get to the root cause of the ailment because that is more time-consuming and labor-intensive.

- Our own passivity encourages us to wait for someone to make us better. The “pop a pill” approach encourages this. No matter how long it took us to make our body sick, we impatiently demand doctors to make it better immediately. We rarely ask ourselves about our own role in the healing process.

Fortunately, more people are choosing natural ways of treatment and healing with acupuncture, herbs and diet. However, natural medicine requires a different stance from a patient to be successful. A passive “I am here, treat me” won’t get you far.

What does it mean to be a good patient? These five tips will help you get the best results from working with an integrative medicine practitioner.

Be a student of your body. No one has more incentive or resources to understand your body than you. Ayurveda says that we are all unique and need to be treated with this idea in mind. To function at the most efficient level, discover your unique diet and lifestyle routine through trial and observation. For example, while some people thrive on 100 percent raw food, some feel better if they eat cooked food. Reading about other people’s experiences and doing research can point to a new direction, but nothing should be accepted as the final truth unless your body agrees with it. All you need is an attentive, curious mind and an independent variable such as a diet. Proceed with every experiment mindfully. If you are juicing for the first time, pay attention to your body’s reaction. Have your juice room temperature one day and cold the next. Take note of how it affects your energy and digestion.

Be open to new concepts and ideas. Integrative methods of healing often rely on different philosophies about the world than the ones we were brought up with. Most of them are ancient but nevertheless logical and reliable. During my “treatment” year I learned that our body can heal itself if we create a good environment for it. This idea might seem simple but it is fundamentally different from the way most western doctors think. Integrative practitioners believe in our innate body intelligence. For me it meant shifting my focus from a search for the right magic herb that would solve all my problems to focusing on creating a nurturing space, a positive outlook and trust in my body.

Be ready to actively change. If you are sick, your current lifestyle, diet and/or exercise regimens don’t suit you. Something has to change to create a healthy you. You might have to give up something that you liked or think that you like and adopt new ways. You are the only one responsible for your choices. Start experimenting. Remember that you are unique and your body knows best. You just need to learn its language!

Be patient. Herbs and dietary changes might take longer to alleviate symptoms than traditional pills. They eradicate the cause, not just the symptoms. For example, if you experience allergies, integrative medicine will focus on cleaning your body and improving liver and spleen functions, not just stopping the itch and sneezing. Don’t expect overnight changes. The ailment will be less likely to come back. It took me over a year of incremental changes in my body to get back to normal.

Be willing to overcome discomfort. Integrative medicine often uses methods that might seem unpleasant. Whether it comes to fasting, enemas or acupuncture needles, it takes getting used to. Chinese and ayurvedic medicine believe that herbs taken in a tea, brew, jam or wine form are more effective than when packed in a pill. Some herbs do not taste like nectar but the taste has its own medicinal effects. Fortunately, our taste buds adjust quickly. Initially, I couldn’t stand the taste of Triphala, a bowel tonic and a strong detoxifying herb, but after slowly sipping it many nights in a row it grew on me. Give yourself enough time and space to adjust.

If you made a shifted from a Western medicine approach and are working with an alternative medicine practitioner, take a new approach to being a patient also. Stay healthy and share your experiences!

Nadya Andreeva is a yoga instructor and ayurveda enthusiast who creates a wholesome path to wellness through yoga and nutrition workshops. Her articles are featured on MindBodyGreen, Modern Hippie Mag, and YogaCity NYC. Nadya holds an MA in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from NYU and hopes to bring holistic approach to wellness into the corporate world.

Cancer Care in China vs. North America

by Erin Moran

In the spring of 2010, I traveled to China to complete my residency for Bastyr University’s doctoral program in Chinese medicine. Our team studied and worked in Chengdu and Shanghai, specifically in the oncology departments of two local hospitals.

I noticed three startling differences between cancer care in China and the United States and Canada. The first is how diagnoses may be kept from the patient in China, the second is that cancer is treated as a chronic illness in China, and the third is the integrated use of chemotherapy and Chinese herbal medicine.

Cancer? What Cancer?
Often when people are diagnosed with cancer in China, they are not told. The family may be told, but they keep the news from their loved one. The underlying motive is to remove the stress element of the diagnosis. This would obviously never be done here in the West for legal reasons (holy lawsuit, Batman!), but it goes without saying that patients are far more relaxed.

Even for the patients who knew of their cancer diagnosis, there was generally a mindset (among both patients and doctors) that this would be a chronic illness requiring a long-term approach. Patients would often check into a hospital and stay for a few weeks of chemotherapy on a revolving schedule depending on their type and grade of cancer.

I will never forget one patient with pancreatic cancer. She had been given this diagnosis 12 years earlier! She was thriving and took Chinese herbal medicine between her cycles of chemotherapy. She continued to work and had a very positive outlook on life.

Another remarkable patient had liver cancer. Every few months he would check into the hospital for his treatments, faithfully drinking his Chinese herbal medicine at home between treatments. He also worked, and his condition remained stable.

Mix Me a Cocktail
As a researcher and herbalist, it was so inspiring to learn how doctors were combining chemotherapies with Chinese herbal medicine. While in the hospital, patients would drink a decoction of Chinese herbs specific to their condition and may also have received “herbal chemotherapy.” Ironically, this herbal chemotherapy might consist of toxic herbs, Ya Dan Zi (Brucea fruit) or Chan Su (toad venom), given intravenously in addition to a typical chemotherapy drug. These are toxic herbs that are not available in the United States or Canada.

It was exciting that doctors did not fear combining certain herbs with chemotherapy and saw improved results as compared to using herbs or chemotherapy alone. Some studies had been done or were underway, but I got the impression that most decisions were based on empirical evidence. Because of the different medical paradigm in China, most patients are ready and willing to be treated with herbs. Consequently doctors are getting more and more proficient and experienced in the art of combining. Since patients are closely monitored during their hospital stays, adjustments in dosage could be easily made.

In Chinese medicine, there are two goals of treatment:
1. Fight the xie qi (translated as “evil qi”), meaning kill cancer cells.
2. Boost the zheng qi (translated as “true qi”), meaning rebuild the body’s core energy.

It is generally agreed that surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation are currently the best techniques around for fighting the evil qi. But we are challenged by the fact that these techniques are killing normal, healthy cells including cells needed for strong immunity and digestion. In the East, they consider this an absolute insult to our essential zheng qi. In the West, our oncologists have no prescriptions for rebuilding this core energy.

Chinese medicine is close to 5,000 years old but is modernizing. In modern Chinese medicine we use herbal formulae and acupuncture in addition to chemotherapy and radiation. The herbs and acupuncture both work to do what conventional medicine does not do: boost immunity, reduce cancer growth, improve digestion, improve immunity, and decrease the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation.

Understandably, many oncologists are not comfortable with herbs being taken during active chemotherapy (due to the lack of reliable studies of such combinations).

Moving Forward in the West
My recommendations if you are considering using Chinese herbal medicine during cancer treatment would be:
1. Work with an experienced Chinese herbalist, one who is licensed or has completed an accredited program and who will support you during your chemo and radiation. An elegant and simple herbal formula may be called for to help manage the sometimes difficult side effects of drugs and to rebuild your system.
2. Ask your oncologist what they are comfortable with. If your oncologist does not agree with you taking herbs during chemo, inquire about taking them when you have finished.
3. Always let your Chinese herbalist know of any side effects you may have related to the herbs. Natural does not equal safe!
4. If herbs are not right for you, consider acupuncture. Acupuncture and moxibustion can greatly help the zheng qi bounce back. Other methods to rebuild include eating well, practicing qigong or tai chi, letting go of emotional pain and grudges, meditating, and surrounding yourself with positivity.

Erin Moran, DOAM, MSN, LAc, holds a doctorate in acupuncture and Oriental medicine with a focus in integrative oncology. She is a member of the Society of Integrative Oncology and lives and practices in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Photo credit: HKPuiPui27

Nutrition: The Future of Medicine

I doubt that few would disagree with the observation that nutrition is one of the most confusing words or concepts in the English language. What we choose to eat also is one of the most emotionally intense topics of human discourse, ranking up there with sex, religion and politics. Yet, properly practiced nutrition, as a dietary lifestyle, can do more to create health and save health care costs than all the contemporary medical interventions put together.

I know well this story. Having started a research and teaching career in nutrition over 50 years ago, I have seen the passion, the frivolity and the arrogance over and over and over when people talk about their food choices. This topic is very, very personal. It’s sad because I do not see very much progress over these last four to five decades. Lots of shouting and not much constructive thought.

It is true that we have discovered a tremendous amount of information but this does not mean discovering what it all means. Indeed, our focus on details has created an enormous pile of contradictory observations ? permitting too many people to construct ideas that please their palates and wallets more than educate their brains.

I don’t care to pass personal blame or pose conspiracies, for we are all participants in this great war of words of what nutrition really means. Nonetheless, somewhere there is an origin and it is fostered by our professions, my nutrition and medical research community, and my clinical colleagues’ medical practice community. This is not surprising. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is the most influential research funding agency in the world, is comprised of 27 institutes, centers and programs and not one is named the Institute of Nutrition. Research funding is a mere pittance in a couple of the institutes and most of this is dedicated to the study of individual nutrients that I consider pharmacology, not nutrition.

Further, there is not a single medical school in the country that teaches nutrition as a basic medical science. At best, a few may have an elective course that treats the subject in a most superficial manner. Public citizens, therefore, are left to fend for themselves against the hyped up claims of the food and drug industries.

If we are to understand the true value of nutrition, we must begin by considering the health value of whole foods, not the nutrient parts extracted from them. In that context it is whole, plant-based foods that express an effect that is far more than the sum of its parts. When done right, advanced heart disease can be cured, type 2 diabetes stopped and reversed, cancer can be prevented and, with some newer evidence, controlled after it appears. The range of diseases that can be prevented is more than impressive. The breadth and rapidity of the nutritional effect not only prevents disease but actually treats many of these diseases while restoring and maintaining health. The totality of these health effects are far more than almost anyone knows.

It is terribly frustrating when I know these effects, I know the savings in health care costs that can be had and I know the personal responses that virtually everyone experiences when they try this for a week or so. I also know that, historically, we have been slaves to a nutrition-less health information system that, in effect, is designed to keep us in mental chains, thus to maintain the status quo.

But there is light at the end of this tunnel. Former President Clinton recently discovered and used this information and, much to his credit, told his truly impressive results on “CNN” to Wolf Blitzer.

I am not sure he knows how far reaching is his contribution. It is time for the rest of the public to get to know this as well. This information is on the right side of history! Mark my word.

Originally published at HuffingtonPost.com.

Photo credit: karimian

12 Steps to Create an Integrative Cancer Care Plan

Identifying quality providers is essential to optimally supporting health and healing through cancer. The full spectrum of comprehensive whole-person cancer care will not come from one professional, but instead through a team.

Integrative cancer care is a dynamic medical practice. Providers have different concepts about what that means. You will find a lot of variability in the services integrative providers offer to cancer patients. Feel empowered to thoroughly research providers to make informed decisions.

Know that integrative cancer care optimally tends to you as a whole person – body, mind and spirit, including social and environmental health. Consider what this means to you and the areas where you need more support. Recognize that every health and healing equation is unique to each individual.

Here are some important tips to help you in choosing integrative cancer care providers and creating an integrative cancer care plan.

1. Give yourself self-care. Before you begin your research process, throughout your cancer journey and beyond, find ways to relax and resource yourself. You must feel calm enough to access and use your skills for evaluating options and navigating cancer as well as living your life to the fullest.

2. Identify support. Ask for help from family and friends. Meaningful time together, a healthy meal, playful excursion, errands, research about the diagnosis and treatments, and a companion at appointments are some possibilities. Seek knowledge about health and healing through cancer from new contacts too.

3. Consult with cancer professionals. Services through cancer guides and patient navigators can help with research of treatment options along with other components of integrative cancer care. Consider finding someone with this expertise.

4. Identify questions to evaluate cancer treatments and providers. Take the time to create a list of important questions for your research process. Questions should include the safety and efficacy of cancer treatments, quality of evidence, and qualifications and experience of cancer providers including integrity, consistency and reliability.

5. Research your diagnosis and cancer treatment options. Explore cancer resources through government agencies, non-profit organizations, PubMed (an online database), other online databases and journals. Apply your questions to evaluating cancer treatments and providers.

6. Research oncologists and choose one. Learn about oncologists with expertise in your cancer diagnosis, especially since treatment recommendations often vary. Identifying several oncologists will allow you to collect multiple opinions. After consulting with several providers and confirming your diagnosis, select an oncologist. Know that only a limited number of oncologists practice varying degrees of integrative cancer care.

7. Find providers for whole body health care. Even if you find an oncologist working within integrative cancer care, you will most likely need additional integrative providers with expertise in cancer to address your entire physical body. Consider integrative medicine systems such as naturopathy, functional medicine, traditional Chinese medicine and ayurveda.

8. Support your mind-body health. Caring for your mental and emotional inner life will support your health and healing. Incorporate ways to optimize your mind-body balance and vitality. You can do this through self-care as well as working with providers. Some strategies from providers include massage, biofeedback, and psychological support. Meditation, breathing techniques, imagery, movement, creative expression and other approaches can be done alone, in groups or with providers.

9. Tend to your spirit. The spiritual dimensions of life often become more prominent when dealing with cancer. As spiritual questions surface, opportunities for new knowledge about religion and spirituality emerge. Find spiritual support within yourself and from others.

10. Improve your environment. With nearly 80,000 chemicals today considered potential environmental carcinogens, steps must be taken to safeguard against contaminants. Create a healthier environment using non-toxic products for personal care, household cleaning, water and air purification, as well as protection against other everyday exposures.

11. Focus on what you love. Give your attention to what you enjoy and feel passionate about. The people, activities, places and anything else that brings you joy will help ground you in yourself and give strength as you navigate any challenges. Focusing your attention on what you love will bring light to your spirit and life.

12. Trust. Release any fear that you experience. Feel your strength. Trust yourself and the process.

Continue to support your health and healing daily through self-care. Know that you can make modifications at any time with your providers and integrative cancer care plan. Embrace your journey. Life is yours to claim more deeply. Live it to the fullest.

Jeannine Walston is co-founder and executive director of EmbodiWorks, a non-profit organization that provides integrative cancer-care education and advocacy. She is a cancer survivor and has worked in the U.S. Congress, government agencies, cancer non-profit organizations, and health care practices.

Photo credit: Gilberto Viciedo

Integrative Cancer Care for the Whole Person

Are you navigating cancer? What is your map toward wellness? Diagnostic tests, research, doctor’s appointments and evaluating cancer treatments are key components to optimize survival and quality of life. Anyone moving through a cancer journey needs the best conventional cancer care available, but that is only part of the equation.

Providing Whole Body Care

Research studies have shown for many years that cancer grows in “fertile soil” or a hospitable environment in the body that supports cancerous cells. The internal environment of the body strongly impacts whether or not cancer grows in each person. For many, cancer is a symptom of an altered, unbalanced system. Along with receiving treatment for the diagnosis and symptoms, people affected by cancer need whole person health care. This model is called integrative cancer care.

Defining Integrative Cancer Care

So, what is integrative cancer care for the whole person? Integrative cancer care addresses the totality of body, mind and spirit, including the social and environmental health of the individual. All of these aspects of your health and life are constantly interacting together, influencing one another, and interdependently shaping who you are.

Think about integrative cancer care using the example of diet. While what you eat impacts your physical body, food also strongly affects your thinking, your emotions, aspects of your spirituality, your relationship with yourself and other people, and the internal environment of your body. No separation exists between these elements. As a living system, your body and life are comprised of various networks constantly communicating with one another.

Understanding the other dimensions of integrative cancer care provides further insights for people living with cancer and advancing whole person health care.

Supporting Your Mind-Body Connection

What is the state of your mental and emotional wellness? The state of the mind and emotions affects health due to the mind-body connection. No separation exists between the mind and body. The body feeds the mind; the mind feeds the body. Thoughts and feelings, as well as beliefs and attitudes, impact and literally shape aspects of biological functioning. Mind-body approaches strengthen the mental and emotional inner life supporting health and healing.

Tending to Your Spirit

What is your relationship with spirit and your spirituality? Most people understand that they are connected to something larger than themselves and engage contact with spirit. There is a sense of being whole when spirit is united with the body. Since healing is about wholeness, spirituality is an essential component of an integrative cancer care plan addressing the whole person.

Caring for Your Social Wellness

How do you engage social support through cancer? For everyone, cancer is a social issue impacting their entire community. New perceptions and social experiences emerge. People dealing with cancer – patients, family members, friends – endure a range of social challenges and opportunities. Social issues that existed before cancer may also intensify during and after cancer. Learning about and providing support for social issues is a part of quality cancer care.

Addressing Your Environmental Health

How do you support your health through your environment? Today’s world contains high levels of carcinogens. Each person must take steps to safeguard against toxic chemicals associated with diseases such as cancer. The National Cancer Institute even refers to studies as far back as the 1960s concluding that the majority of cancers could be prevented by acting on what was known about the environmental causes of the disease. Addressing the link between cancer and the environment is central to advances in cancer risk reduction and for anyone already living with cancer.

Improving Cancer Care

Both women and men have the capacity to understand that health is about more than one part of their body or lifestyle and instead encompasses the many dimensions of self. This wisdom must be applied to cancer care especially as studies show that integrative cancer care reduces cancer risk, improves cancer survival and quality of life.

Now is the time for more widespread innovation in supporting people with cancer. Integrative cancer care is that model. You can play a key role in improving lives and advancing integrative cancer care for the whole person. What will you do for your health and the health of those you love?

Jeannine Walston is co-founder and executive director of EmbodiWorks, a non-profit organization offering integrative cancer care resources. Jeannine has extensive experience in cancer education and advocacy, health care policy, and both conventional and integrative cancer care.

Photo Credit: George Boyce