Posts Tagged ‘Cancer Patient’

The Most Important Question to a Cancer Patient – What’s Your White Blood Cell Count?

Comments: 0May 5th, 2011 by admin



When a person has cancer, their entire life changes quickly. There are many decisions to make including where to get a second opinion, how to make arrangements for care during treatment, if alternative medical treatments should be attempted and when, and even decisions that occur during preparation of a will. Also, will you opt for no treatment, care in a hospice setting, chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery? What are the implications of each of these treatments or lack of treatments? For example, if irradiation of the prostate is accepted as treatment, will it ruin the sex drive and cause impotency later? How will my wife handle that type of side effect?

What About the Family?
There are questions to answer such as what should you tell your children? Are there certain children that should know and others that need to be guarded? If the prognosis is negative, should there be a family meeting about the situation? How can you run the meeting without crying? What will you tell your parents and grandparents? Will you tell your friends that are generally not that supportive the truth or leave them out of the loop? What about the neighbors? Who should know? If you tell some of the neighbors, is it possible that they will be able to help you while you’re recovering?

How Will Your Nutritional Needs Be Met?
There are nutritional questions such as what will you eat when you have no appetite? Will you opt to continue to take your supplements? Will you take new supplements to address this new problem? Who can help you determine what your nutritional needs are? How much will it cost? Will you be able to cut the costs of the supplements? Why does it take so long to recover? What type of shortcuts can be made?

How Will You Address Spiritual Concerns?
There are spiritual issues to work out as well; ones such as are you ready to meet your Maker, did your life matter to others, and did you love enough people along the way. Is it possible that you can be ‘granted’ extra time? How can you get closer to your Maker now? Should you have certain people praying for you now? How effective are prayer rings and how does one get plugged into them? What about the healing effects of laughter?

How Does the Cancer Diagnosis Affect Your Job?
It’s often difficult to continue many normal daily routines knowing that there is now a diagnosis of cancer. For example, will you continue working at your present job? Will you reduce your hours at the job or quit altogether? Does the diagnosis give you a good excuse to finally quit a job you never really cared for but needed to bring home a paycheck? Are there other more important things on your dream list that you want to accomplish? If so, when can you schedule them? Will it be risky to your health to do some of the things on your list? Can you contact the Make a Wish Foundation? Are there projects you still want to complete? What about the fact that many people with cancer have taken up a mission greater than themselves after receiving a diagnosis of cancer, and ended up living five or ten years beyond what was expected? Is it time to start that program where you send dolls to the children in Africa? While you address all these issues, your doctor is spending time looking at your blood. Your blood is made of white blood cells, red blood cells, platelets, and plasma.

Blood Means Life
Every part of the blood gives you life. Your blood cells are related to your immunity. The white blood cells keep your immunity high so that you aren’t susceptible to infections and kill cancer cells and tumors. Your red blood cells give you endurance and strength. Platelets form clots that prevent you from bleeding. The plasma is the liquid component of blood that allows the blood cells to travel through the arteries and veins. Without plasma, your blood cells can do nothing.

Blood Count Important to Cancer Patients
And to a cancer patient, it’s the white blood cells that are the most important. When someone is originally diagnosed with cancer, their white blood cell count may be too low or too high, depending on the type of cancer. Normal levels are generally considered to be 4300 to 10,800 cells per cubic millimeter per liter. Low white blood cell count is less than 5000 cells per cubic millimeter per liter. High white blood cell count is 11,000 and above. What’s your white blood cell count?

Chemotherapy Lowers White Blood Cell Count
It’s a well known fact that chemotherapy results in a lowered white blood cell count. The chemotherapy kills stem cells in the bone marrow that produce white blood cells. The low levels of white blood cells start showing up a few days after the chemotherapy is given. The levels of white blood cells continue their downward trend for the next three or more weeks. The disadvantage of this is that the low white blood cells predispose someone to infection. When the white blood cells are low, then any bacteria, virus, fungus or parasite that the person is exposed to can become life-threatening. An infection during this time could result in the administration of antibiotics and corticosteroids.

The Medical Solution to Increasing White Blood Cell Count after Chemotherapy
It’s because of this relationship between chemotherapy and low white blood cell count that the doctor will check cell counts at regular intervals during chemotherapy. He’s thinking, “What’s this patient’s white blood cell count?” If the white blood cell count is too low, there’s a possibility that the next round of chemotherapy will be delayed. Another option is that additional drugs can be given that increase white blood cell counts. And the final option is to treat the patient with antibiotics, but only if there are signs of infection in the body. This tells you something important: increasing white blood cell count after chemotherapy is one of the most important things you can do.

Natural Options are Simple
If you want a natural option for doing this, there are solutions. One company has created a product called Leucozepin that is composed of 15 different types of Chinese herbs. Many of the herbs have been studied over the last 50 years and have been found to naturally increase white blood cell counts. There are no known side effects. The herbs are not addictive in any way.

When a natural product such as this one is used, it can often be used at the same time that chemo treatments are given. The result of this is that the usual low white blood cell counts are not seen, and the patient has enough energy, endurance and stamina to continue the treatments.

However, many times, the physician is not educated in herbs and cannot make an educated decision about them. His scope of practice does not include herbs or nutrition and legally, he cannot condone them. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider them. Instead, you must do your homework and decide for yourself.

So when your doctor asks himself, “What is this patient’s white blood cell count?”, what will the answer be regarding you? You really do have a choice in the matter. Make an educated decision. Check out the options.

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Vitamin C – Nature’s Immune System

Comments: 0October 14th, 2010 by admin



Vitamin C is in almost everyone’s medicine cabinet or supplement shelf in the kitchen or pantry. It’s the number one supplement people grab for when they are coming down with a cold, flu or infection of any type. And rightfully so, since vitamin C plays an important role in fighting bacterial and viral infections and boosting the immune system as an antioxidant.

Many childhood diseases can be prevented with vitamin C, including measles, polio, encephalitis, tuberculosis, diphtheria, staphylococcus, herpes, pneumonia and tetanus. When vitamin C therapy was given to those who had whooping cough, the vitamin prevented the disease from progressing to the spasmodic stage in 75% of the cases.

Vitamin C plays such a strong role in the immune system that researchers in Arizona checked levels of the vitamin in the blood of those with cancer. Every cancer patient checked had levels that were extremely low, and amounts of 46 grams per day were given in an IV for two weeks before levels came back to normal. In some cases, vitamin C stopped the metastases of cancer.

In February 2007, researchers reported an improvement in health, daily function and cancer symptoms after administration of high doses vitamin C through IVs. In 2008, a reported 50% decrease in tumor weight and growth rate in mice was discussed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The cancers were that of the brain, ovaries and pancreas.

Role in Healing Exceeds All Other Vitamins

It also helps heal wounds and burns because it is an essential component of collagen and connective tissue such as joints, tendons, and ligaments. As an integral part of skin, vitamin C can help slow down aging and the formation of wrinkles. Many beauty spas across the U.S. utilize topical applications of vitamin C in facials for reversing signs of aging. Often a difference is seen with one treatment. Many people injure their backs at one time or another during life. Higher levels of vitamin C have been found to preserve the disks in the back, as reported in a study at Baylor University.

Anemia May Result From Not Enough Vitamin C

Many people are not aware of the little known functions of vitamin C. It aids in the formation of red blood cells and helps prevent hemorrhaging in the intestinal tract from alcohol or aspirin. It activates the inactive form of folic acid as well. These two functions are important to prevent anemia.

Smarter With Vitamin C

As an antioxidant, vitamin C protects vitamin B1, B2, folic acid, pantothenic acid, and vitamins A and E from oxidation. The brain and spinal cord are also protected from oxidation from vitamin C. And also as an antioxidant, vitamin C also can assist the brain in performing its functions at optimum levels. Research has found that IQ levels rose about 3 points when vitamin C levels were increased in the diets of volunteers.

Since studies have shown that those with mental illness have much higher needs for vitamin C, supplements are often part of nutritional protocols for treating anxiety and schizophrenia.

The body’s heat-regulating centers are located in the brain. Vitamin C influences these centers and can prevent heat stroke and prickly heat rash, and also protects against frostbite.

Stress-Reducing, Detoxifying Effects

As a stress-buster, vitamin C is used up rapidly by the adrenal gland when someone is under stress. The adrenal gland only stores 50 mg although the entire body stores up to 5000 mg. Poisons are neutralized with this vitamin C because the vitamin is is a strong detoxifier in the body, participating in reactions that detoxify carcinogenic nitrosamines and nitrates found in some foods such as lunch meats. It also has been used successfully to neutralize the venom of snake and spider bites, insect stings and rabies. A topical solution can clear up poison ivy or poison oak if the vitamin is taken orally as well.

Large doses of vitamin C have been used in the detoxification process of those addicted to methadone, heroin and barbiturates. Researchers reported that the users were calmer, had their appetite restored, and the vitamin eliminated abnormal thoughts during the detox.

Vitamin C also detoxifies the body of harmful effects from alcohol.

Vitamin C can reduce the amount of some drugs that are needed; for example, painkillers and L-Dopa. In the case of painkillers, the natural endorphins are protected from being broken down by vitamin C.

Ascorbic acid acts as an electron donor in biochemical reactions for eight different enzymes. Two of them are in the synthesis of carnitine which transports fats into the mitochondria so they can be broken down and used for energy. Another one is important for the production of the neurotransmitter dopamine.

There are different forms of vitamin C available on the market: ascorbic acid, ester-C, calcium ascorbate, sodium ascorbate, potassium ascorbate, The ascorbate forms are not as effective as ascorbic acid.

Food Sources of Vitamin C

The camu camu fruit contains the highest amount of vitamin C (2800 mg per 100 grams) besides the Kakadu plum (3100 mg per 100 grams). Rose hips and acerola berries are also rich in vitamin C. Lemons, grapefruit, oranges and tangerines contain smaller amounts of vitamin C, around 30 mg per 100 grams. Black currants provide 200 mg; red pepper 190 mg, and parsley 130 mg. The persimmon provides 60 mg.

How Much Vitamin C Do You Need Each Day?

The North American Dietary Reference Intake recommends between 90 mg and 2000 mg vitamin C per day for adults. Nutritionists may recommend more to remedy specific diseases.

Vitamin C Deficiency

Those who are vitamin C deficient bruise easily, even after just brushing up hard against a coffee table. Their joints hurt, they may suffer from nosebleeds, and any new wounds or fractures heal slowly. Gums bleed, tooth enamel weakens, digestion is impaired and the person may also have shortness of breath. Often there is depression and the appearance of liver spots on the skin can also be considered a deficiency sign.
Vitamin C deficiency is called scurvy. In advanced cases, there is loss of teeth.

Toxicity of Vitamin C

Vitamin C is not toxic although large doses can cause loose stools. Because of this, most practitioners recommend that the amount taken is divided into smaller doses. Side effects of high doses may include skin rashes, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, fatigue, flushed face, and disturbed sleep. However, these side effects are generally not seen in those who are sick, only those who are healthy.

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Natural Therapies – Alternative Treatment For Ovarian Cancer

Comments: 0April 28th, 2009 by admin



Ovarian cancer is a type cancer that is caused due to the abnormal growth of ovarian cells on the tissues of a woman’s ovary and thereby production of malignant tumors. Ovaries are a pair of female reproductive glands located on either side of a woman’s uterus. According to type of formation/origination of cells the this can be categorized into the following 3 types:
Epithelial ovarian cancer: The common type of cancer that which develops on the outer surface of the ovary, accounts for 90% of ovarian cancer Germ cell tumor cancer: That which develops on the egg-producing cells (ova’s) Stromal tumor cancer: That which originates around the ovarian tissues The rest two types rarely occur in humans. The various treatments to curb this type of cancer these days are surgery, radiation and intraperitoneal chemotherapy. Apart from these conventional medical treatments various alternative treatments for ovarian cancer are available to ease out the stress, relieve the pain and minimize the symptoms of routine medical treatments. Nutrition therapy is well-known alternative treatment for ovarian cancer.

In this treatment optimized nutritious diet is provided to the cancer patient to increase the body’s metabolism.For this a nutrition assessment is performed, which involves blood test for determining the immunity and protein stores. This is followed by nutrition interview and computerized diet profile to assess nutritious intake by the patient and nutrition anthropometrics to determine body fat and the number of lost lean tissues. It is necessary that the following nutrients in a subscribed dosage are advised by the physician. These include the following:
Selenium Vitamin C and E Beta carotene Eicosapentaenoic acid and others as and when needed. Hence this article stresses the need for consuming optimized nutritional foods in order to curb ovarian cancer, even though the fact still remains unproved that it can be also treated naturally to a certain extent.

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