Why See A Naturopath If You Have Cancer?

By Author: Copa
Total Articles: 87
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One of the most confounding & confusing areas related to cancer support is nutrition.  Information abounds about cancer diets, supplements (vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, glyconutrients to name a few) and herbal remedies (Mistletoe, Red Clover, Essiac tea, Jason Winter’s Tea, Hoxey formula and on this list goes).  To matters worse books are written espousing this diet or that, this supplement or that, this regime or that.  One author claims one diet cured his or her cancer.  Another author takes a completely different approach and makes the same claim.  To make it even worse these approaches are often contradictory.  Even the “main stream” information about diets and nutritional approaches are full of controversy – the case of soy is a prime example.  Does it prevent cancer?  Does it feed hormonal cancers? Is it a dose dependent phenomenon?  There is no agreement on this topic and there is unlikely to be in the near future.  And of course if you really wish to be overwhelmed and confused try an internet search on the topic!! Of course ...
... hold onto your cheque book! Claims for cure abound – usually backed up by very questionable “research” and multiple “testimonials.”
Other than trying to shift through the mountains of information about nutrition in cancer and come to your own conclusions you basically have 2 options: see a nutritionally trained Naturopath or see a dietician.  What is the difference?  Well, in general, a dietician follows a mainstream approach to cancer nutrition which essentially to focus on avoiding weight loss & wasting (known as cachexia).  The recommendations are generally to eat a “healthy” diet and increase caloric intake.  In actual fact little credence is given to differentiating where those extra calories come from therefore it is not unusual for suggestions to be made that caloric dense foods such as ice cream, cakes, dairy and bread are good food sources in cancer management to keep weight on.  There is also wide spread use of liquid food supplements that are engineered “food” products full of sugars, dairy products and a host of high caloric but questionable ingredients. 
Although the avoidance of extreme weight loss is extremely important in most cancer situations there is a fundamental flaw to this “weight on from any source” approach – it ignores the fact that cancer loves sugar!  Cancer cells use anerobic glycolysis as their primary means of energy production.  This means they preferentially use glucose as an energy substrate.  Not to mention the fact that overloading the body with white flour, white sugar, processed foods and bad fats goes a long, long way to stressing the body’s immune system and capacity to cope with not only the cancer process itself but also the effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.  In addition, wasting is not only due to loss of appetite & lack of food intake.  It reflects a specific inflammatory syndrome in muscle fibres due to cell signaling molecules released from cancer cells.  Therefore, in addition to increasing caloric intake it is important to address this inflammatory process.  Several supplements have shown promise in this regard including specific fish oil fractions (DHA), luteolin and glutamine.
The Naturopathic, Natural Fertility Treatment & Herbal Medicine approach evaluates foods, diets and nutritional/herbal supplements in light of their impact on the individual’s system and situation – including whether they are undergoing surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Cancer is a biochemical event including failure of cellular control mechanisms & of the immune system.  Much of the current research in nutritional and herbal medicine (& there is a lot of valid scientific research underway) focuses on addressing cancer on the biochemical level. Modern naturopathic cancer care applies these current scientific findings to support normal cellular mechanisms, the body’s natural defense systems and the body’s ability to cope with the effects of treatment and the disease.  These goals are the same whether one is having surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy or any other medical treatment and irrespective of the type of cancer involved.    However, the fine tuning necessary to achieve this goal requires a very individualized approach – considering the person’s baseline health, their medical and nutritional history, the type of cancer involved and the stage of Cancer Counselling and medical treatment regimen.