Clinical Nutrition for Cancer Patients
The health of the digestive tract, the ability to break down and absorb nutrients and maintain the detoxification pathways of the liver, colon and skin are important to maintain health. Due to the rigors of chemotherapy, cancer patients have damage to the absorptive capacity of the small intestine and they often have problems in other areas of the digestive tract, including insulin sensitivity.
Knowing when to detox depends on the type of cancer, the individual’s constitution, the staging of the cancer and the stage of treatment.
Testing for key nutrients which are often depleted in cancer patients is a way to accurately target ways to jump start self-healing mechanisms.
In addition, many common foods and spices have specific action on certain types of cancer, both preventatively and for treatment. We take all of this into account when recommending dietary choices as part of the Cancer Recovery Program.
Targeted Nutrition and Herbs
Targeted nutrition aids in boosting the immune response as well as to help minimize myelosuppression (drug induced suppression of red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets). There are many situations in which a cancer patient can benefit from targeted nutritional supplements and herbs:
•Drug treatment side effects such as neuropathies, cardiotoxicity and constipation
•Energy improvement
•Hormonal balancing strategies for hot flashes, anxiety and insomnia
•Improving genetic expression with nutrition (nutrigenomics)
•Improving cellular matrix to heal and detoxify
•Improving mitochondrial function to improve cellular energy
•Improving absorption of nutrients that produce energy and blood and regulate the organs
There are ways in which nutritional supplements and herbs act similarly to the mechanism of drugs to fight and prevent cancer:
•Selective estrogen modulation (SERM) and aromatase inhibition
•Blocking new blood vessel growth (VEG-F)
•Promoting natural killer cell activity
•Anti-inflammation
•Mild chemotherapeutic agents