This area of Dr Alex’s work is about cancer, and all the different cancers she works with, BUT from the perspective of the ‘BACKDROP’ of the person and their wellbeing, and physical welfare, during and after cancer treatment. There are several facets to this.
1. MITIGATION OF ACUTE TREATMENT-INDUCED PROBLEMS:
Dr Alex is often consulted about a problem that has been encountered during mainstream treatment for which there are no viable / inadequate routes forward medically, but which can be tackled by Specialist Naturopathic Medicine (for example, this month Dr Alex has been working with a patient in a hospital who was unable to swallow from inflammation and raw mucous membranes for 4 weeks after STEM cell transplantation; she couldn’t have steroids, and she bled with NSAIDs… This was easily addressed naturopathically using a single preparation costing £25 which took all of 2 days to work, 3 days later allowing for discharge, with potential savings of 3 weeks of NHS costs and more crucially the avoidance of loss of 20% of the patient’s body weight had Dr Alex been asked 4 weeks earlier)
2. MITIGATION OF CHRONIC TREATMENT-INDUCED PROBLEMS:
There are many problems that arise as a backlash of treatment, especially after medical and/or radiation treatments for cancer. These ill-effects can last for years. They range from very specific issues eg lymphoedoma, vaginal soreness, chronic cough, irritable bladder …. through to globalising issues eg recurrent miscellaneous infections, devastating debilitation, reactive depression secondary to overwhelming depletion (we treat both psych- and bio-generated depression, but here we are referring to the bio type which can be even more difficult to tackle), and so on.
There are Specialist Naturopathic and Functional Medicine options for almost all of these sorts of problems – yet comparatively very few options in mainstream medicine. Because of this, within the NHS, as a result, there is an ongoing accrual of many ‘cancer-treated’ patients who are symptomatic with other ‘fallout’ problems (many of whom feel guilty for complaining, having ‘had their life saved’). We urge anyone with such a problem to seek Dr Alex’s help.
Please note for the record that when looking to mitigate treatment-induced problems, it is essential that you consult a professional who is aware of the exact ‘patho-physiology’ involved and the exact ‘mechanism of action’ of the prescription – which will inevitably be a specialist physician. Dr Alex often hears of ‘naturopaths’ suggesting ‘immune boosters’ that risk aggravating the actual cancer, or ‘antioxidants’ too soon after chemotherapy or radiotherapy (thereby diluting the impact of therapy). With respect.
3. SUPPORTING YOUR BODY DURING CONVENTIONAL TREATMENT:
Clearly one imperative here is knowing how to counter the adverse impacts of chemotherapy or radiotherapy, or surgical and peri-surgical interventions, without getting in the way of the benefits of the treatment.
Another imperative involves a more generalistic – but also very specialised – field of Naturopathic Medicine. For example, the gut is very vulnerable during conventional treatment. The gut is also the engine of balanced and optimal immunology. A cancer patient has an increased risk of infections – which is due to many different factors. So one prerogative is to mitigate against the erosion of gut-enabled, individually-optimised immunity. And another is to address as many other factors as possible that affect immunity during cancer treatment, to be working maximally to minimise the overall risks.
Maintaining your ideal weight, as far as possible, is also a very important consideration, because significant weight loss during treatment can have unwanted effects. In this way you can avoid, for example, the downgrading of repairs, as happens when overall calorific- or nutrient-value decreases – including repairs to the bowel lining, which is essential to nutrient absorption, as well as immunology. But you can also avoid pivotal issues such as not having the brain switch the body’s immune system into ‘I’m in a crisis’ mode, which also leave you vulnerable immunologically.
4. RESTORING YOUR BODY AFTER CONVENTIONAL TREATMENT:
This is a very important area of consideration. Ideally this will:
a. be restorative, generally, and
b. regenerate you in a way that minimises your risks of developing unwanted chronic side-effects of the treatment, and
c. also address (rebalance, recalibrate) any of the things that may have led you to have been vulnerable to cancer in the first instance (please see below).
5. MITIGATING AFTER THE TREATMENT, THE FACTORS THAT COULD HAVE BEEN IMPLICATED IN YOU GETTING CANCER IN THE FIRST PLACE:
Because obviously if you don’t change anything that may have added to your initial risks, and ultimately possibly helped generate your cancer, then you are theoretically going to be at risk of recurrence.
In summary the point of this category of Dr Alex’s work is to maximise your chance of not only not having problems as a result of mainstream treatment, and not having too much downtime to recovery, but also putting as much distance as possible between you and cancer. Full stop.
Needless to say having all this in hand not only ‘pays for itself’, in every possible sense, but also adds to the individual feeling that they are NOT at the mercy of cancer, have NOT lost life as they knew it, have NOT lost their grip on their own destiny and life intentions, have NOT lost sight of themselves, and ARE able to get on as speedily as realistically possible. In all that, there is HOPE.
HOPE is not only priceless in cancer – it’s fundamental to positive psychology and therefore brings with it the full benefits of Psycho-neuroimmunology. Another huge advantage. And as PNI doesn’t usually enter into ‘medical statistics’ as to how well people do after treatment for cancer, you can be reassured that your own prognosis stands to be better than most, as you will have had additional weapons in your armoury. And of course those stats won’t have factored in all of the cumulative value of the measures highlighted above.
It is because of all this that Dr Alex now offers the ‘INITIAL CANCER DIAGNOSIS – STRATEGIC’ consultative sessions… to prevent the foggy-mindedness, to spare you the locked-in trauma… and to have all this mapped out so that you know who is in charge! YOU !
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