Lifestyle Medicine in Cancer CARE

In this episode of PROSPER Natural Cancer CARE, Carla focuses on the challenges patients face when dealing with life changes associated with a cancer diagnosis, both in the short and long term. She introduces the concept of lifestyle medicine, an extensively researched approach aimed at improving quality of life for cancer patients.

Lifestyle medicine encompasses various areas including sleep, movement and exercise, diet and nutrition, stress management, personal development, social and spiritual connection. Carla highlights the work of Dr. Lise Alchuler in this field, emphasizing the profound impact these lifestyle factors have on patients' cancer experiences and quality of life. She discusses how factors such as movement, nutrition, sleep and stress management can influence cancer outcomes.

Throughout the episode, Carla emphasises the importance of tailoring lifestyle interventions to each individual's preferences and needs, acknowledging that what works for one person may not work for another. She encourages listeners to consider their own preferences and habits when implementing lifestyle changes.

Key Points:

• Lifestyle medicine is a research-backed approach aimed at improving quality of life for all people, including those with cancer.
• Various lifestyle factors, including sleep, movement, diet, stress management, and social connection, can impact cancer outcomes and overall wellbeing.
• Tailoring lifestyle interventions to individual preferences and needs is crucial for success.
• The importance of optimism and positive thinking in dealing with cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Next Episode Preview: Join Carla in the next episode as she explores the concept of having your own "BIG Folder"…

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

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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 Natural Cancer Care, we're going to talk about lifestyle medicine in cancer care. The life changes associated with the cancer diagnosis in the short and long term can be incredibly frustrating for patients. They probably had dreams and goals of what they would achieve in the next months or years that might have been quite derailed by the diagnosis. Today we will discuss some helpful lifestyle steps and tips to assist patients in improving their quality of life. This is an extensively researched concept known as lifestyle medicine. Lifestyle medicine covers the areas of sleep, movement and exercise, diet and nutrition, stress and relaxation, personal development, purpose, or I like to use the term legacy, as well as social and spiritual connection. I love Dr. Lise Auschler's work in this area. How patients move, eat, sleep, relax, and connect all has a huge effect on their experience of cancer and their quality of life. In Lisa's research, she also discusses how even how a patient thinks affects their cancer outcome. Top tip, we want to find a way to feel optimistic. Let's take a moment to deep dive into each of the modifiable lifestyle factors. Remember, these tips are just general in nature. For these lifestyle medicine tips to help support a patient, we want to make sure that they're the type of lifestyle tips or ideas or things a patient enjoys to do. To help recommendations be really accurate, we really want to understand our patient and what they find helps them feel well, what makes them happy, what makes them feel relaxed, what they enjoy. When it comes to sleep, I like to recommend a way of creating a nice sleep environment, how we can reconnect to a circadian rhythm, how what we eat and when we eat has an impact on how we sleep, and some great apps like Insight Timer or Calm Mind that we can use to get improved sleep. I like to use the word movement more than exercise, because oncology patients sometimes can't exercise. I would always encourage a patient to access the support of an exercise physiologist. They're so brilliant at helping patients discover the type of exercise that can benefit them during their cancer treatment and beyond, but they also help to make sure that the patient accesses safe care, safe movement options. Movement can include all sorts of things from simple stretching to longer walks. My aim is to discover what patients like and encouraging them to do that more. We also have a yoga subscription that is available virtually to patients, and I find this is a great way to start to get patients moving, particularly around some of the more challenging times during their treatment or recovery. Diet nutrition is a big area to cover, and I'm going to give you some top tips on diet and nutrition in upcoming episodes. Stress and relaxation is again so personal. What one person does to relax might be completely different to another. I like listening to home styling tips and watching and reading about how to do beautiful home makeovers, but that might be super stressful for someone else. They might like to have walks on the beach or spend time with pets or do meditation or attend yoga classes or connect with loved ones. Speaking to your patients or your loved one about what makes them feel relaxed and reduces their stress is important to address. Lots of lifestyle medicine research has been done in this space too, and sometimes supplements might be indicated for a patient to help them relax, especially in the initial stages of diagnosis, which can of course be quite distressing. Purpose is something that I feel is really important. I often talk about purpose in regards to making a vision board with my patient. As I mentioned at the start of the show, it can really derail patients to have a cancer diagnosis or to have treatment extended, and what they thought they might have been doing over the coming months or years can really change. Having a purpose or a legacy or an aim of what they want to do to develop personally can really help to highlight the direction that they want to move in and help them feel more optimistic, which is that word that least encourages patients to feel. Could a vision board be something that you could create for yourself or loved one to help them find purpose and direction? Maybe feel hope. I find it's a real creative way to get some rest and relaxation in as well. Spiritual and social connection is another important idea. Sometimes social connection can be quite stressful for patients undergoing a cancer treatment. One of the ways of managing the social connection challenges that patients can feel is an app called Gather My Crew, which can sometimes help to allow smooth social connection without it being overwhelming. Spiritual connection is also a personalized preference for patients. It might be something of a religious nature, it might be a connection to mother nature, it might be being out in nature, but research suggests having a spiritual connection is also really important in lifestyle medicine to improve outcomes in cancer. I mentioned Dr. Lise Auschler, and I love her work in this area. So if you're interested in more, take a listen to Lise Auschla's podcast, Five to Thrive, or organize a time to have a chat with your loved ones or patients around lifestyle medicine. This is a great safe place to start for most patients when they're beginning to undergo treatment, where complimentary medicines such as supplements or big changes might not be as appropriate. Start gentle and build up and do things you enjoy. Join me for our next episode to chat about having a big folder. I'll leave this with you. It's a bit of a teaser, but join me next time to learn more about big folders. For more information on Prosper Natural Cancer Care, visit ProsperCancerCare.co. For more information and to get in touch, please visit Carlaren.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.