Side Effect Reduction

Before delving into discussions about side effects in Episode 4 of PROSPER Natural Cancer CARE, Carla takes a moment to define and elaborate on Naturopathic Medicine and Integrative Oncology. Naturopathic medicine is described as a comprehensive approach to primary healthcare, focusing on education, prevention, treatment and holistic health of mind, body and spirit. Carla explains the various therapies involved, including clinical nutrition, botanical medicine, physical movement prescriptions and lifestyle counselling.

Integrative Oncology, on the other hand, combines conventional and complementary medicines to provide patient-centred care aimed at optimising outcomes. Carla emphasises the collaborative nature of integrative oncology, where all healthcare providers work together to support patients physically, mentally and emotionally.

Throughout the episode, Carla stresses the importance of addressing side effects experienced by cancer patients, which can vary in type and severity depending on the cancer type, diagnosis and treatment received. She acknowledges the fear patients often have regarding side effects and expresses her passion for providing suggestions to minimise or avoid them.

Carla highlights the significance of evidence-based complementary medicine in helping patients feel better daily, manage treatment side effects and supporting recovery. She shares some of her favourite evidence-based therapies for minimising side effects, including nutritional powders for bowel function, unique formulations for hot flashes and herbal medicines for fatigue and radiation dermatitis.

Additionally, Carla discusses the importance of lifestyle medicine strategies in managing side effects and improving quality of life for cancer patients. She touches on rest, movement, fasting and specific diets as factors that can make a significant difference in patient experiences.

Next Episode Preview: Join Carla in the next episode as she shares her lifestyle medicine tips and tricks to support patients with cancer, helping them manage side effects and improve their overall health and wellbeing.

Find PROSPER Natural Cancer CARE on Instagram @prosper.cancer.care or visit www.prospercancercare.co.

For more information or to get in touch, connect with Carla on Instagram @carlawrenn or visit www.carlawrenn.com.

Disclaimer: This podcast is intended to be informational only and represents the opinion of the participants, but not necessarily their workplace. It is not intended to be used as medical advice and does not take the place of advice from a qualified health care practitioner in a clinical setting. Please check with your healthcare practitioner before embarking upon any of the treatments or lifestyle changes discussed.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Welcome to Prosper Natural Cancer Care. I'm Carla Wren. We discuss naturopathic cancer care, integrative oncology and lifestyle medicine. Examining complimentary medicine tradition, science, evidence-based personalised health care for people with cancer. If you or a loved one has a cancer diagnosis, or you're a professional with an interest in complementary medicine or cancer care, you've come to the right place. Let's prosper. But before we start today, let's take a moment to define the word prosper and why it's an important word for me in the work I do. Prosper is defined as to flourish physically, grow strong and healthy, to become strong and flourishing, to cause to succeed or thrive. These words and words like choose hope are important to me as I aim to empower, educate and encourage people in my practice and on this podcast. Please be sure to take a moment at the end of today's show to listen to the very important disclaimer. Today on Prosper and Natural Cancer Care, we're going to talk about using complementary medicine to reduce side effects of treatment. Before we dive into discussing side effects today, I want to define naturopathic medicine and integrative oncology a little more. Naturopathic medicine is a distinct primary healthcare profession emphasizing education, prevention, treatment, and optimal health, mind, body, and spirit. Therapies include clinical nutrition, herbal medicine, physical movement prescription, and lifestyle counseling. Integrative oncology is a patient-centered care combining conventional medicine and naturopathic medicine alongside other care to support the pursuit of best possible outcomes for the patient. With an integrative oncology approach, all providers work together to improve quality of life. The goal of a collaboration is to support optimal health and well-being physically, mentally, and emotionally. Research shows patients benefit from collaborative care at all stages, at the time of diagnosis, during active treatment, and post-treatment. In all these stages, patients can experience side effects from their cancer andor treatment. The types and level of side effects patients may experience will depend on the type and treatment given and may vary from person to person. Side effects can be physical or emotional. On visiting oncologists, patients must, of course, be informed of all the side effects possible with their recommended treatment. This is part of the oncology's duty of care. I find patients present to me very fearful of these side effects, and being able to present suggestions that might help patients support and minimize these side effects is a real passion of mine. Cancer treatments which commonly cause side effects include surgery, chemiotherapy, immunotherapy, and radiation therapy, or ongoing endocrine therapy. But they can occur with any treatment. It can take time to get over the side effects of cancer and treatment, even when treatment comes to an end. Side effects can go away quickly while others can take weeks, months, or even years to improve. Every person's experience will be different, and so it's important to listen to everyone's unique story. Side effects can range from mouth ulcers to dry skin, changes in taste and smell, neuropathy, hair loss, sleep changes, diarrhea or constipation, to fertility issues, prolonged pain, fatigue, mood changes, brain fog, hormonal symptoms, sexual health problems, and more. Side effects can stack up too. A typical example of this is nausea, causing low appetite, causing weight loss, causing fatigue, and bow changes, which all affect the patient's general quality of life. The amount of evidence on how complementary medicine can help patients to feel better on a daily basis, to reduce and manage side effects of the treatment, and support recovery from treatment is exceptional, and it grows weekly. Some of my favorite examples include the following: a food as medicine approach with fiber and nutritional powder to balance bowflora to avoid and or minimize significant diarrhoea or constipation. A great clinically trialed homeopathic formula to minimize hot flushes in patients being treated for hormonal cancers or having had surgery that led to surgical metopauses. This safe and effective formulization can be combined with other safe evidence-informed therapies such as zysiphus, black kohosh, passion flower, or nutritionals like DL-phenylalanine to achieve great improvement superfast. This is one of the therapies my patients rave about the most. From manuka honey to zinc, topical green tea, calendula or topical melatonin, there are so many great options and many wonderful products I love to recommend. A condition known shortly as PPE from a treatment called capsetabine is another side effect with much research, including vitamin B6 and topical urea cream. Many cream options and internal prescriptions are now well researched for vaginal dryness and sexual health changes that may occur with some cancers or treatment types. Peripheral neuropathy can be supported by topical creams like ingestibles, including lipoic acid, vitamin B6, glutamine, PEA, omega-3, vitamin E, and acupuncture is also great here, as is acupuncture, ginger, and homeopathics in nausea. Using complementary medicines to help patients prepare and recover from surgery well is also very rewarding. These therapies are all prescribed in a personalized manner in a safe window around conventional treatment schedules. Getting this right is a big part of my practice. Understanding half-lifes and metabolism of pharmaceuticals and complementary medicine is a topic for another day, but it is essential to understand or to get assistance for before starting any complementary medicines while undergoing active cancer treatment. Lifestyle medicine strategies can also make a huge difference to side effect experience. Ideas on rest, convalescence, movement types, fasting windows, or particular diets can all make a difference in side effect experience. Most of all, the patient's quality of life improves. Join me for the next episode to hear more about my lifestyle medicine tips and tricks to support patients with cancer. For more information on Prosper Natural Cancer Care, visit ProsperCancercare.co. For more information and to get in touch, please visit Carlarren.com. Disclaimer. This podcast is intended to be informational only and represents the opinion of the participants, but not necessarily their workplace. It is not intended to be used as medical advice and does not take the place of advice from a qualified health practitioner in a clinical setting. Please check with your healthcare practitioner before embarking upon any of the treatments or lifestyle changes discussed.