Medicinal Mushrooms can Improve Quality of Life in Liver Cancer Patients

Medicinal mushrooms are a potent medicine that we recommend to many patients. These include mushrooms such as Lingzhi (Ganoderma lucidum), Chaga (Inonotus obliquus), Lion’s mane (Hericium erinaceus), Turkey Tail (Trametes of Coriolus versicolor), Shiitake (Lentinula edodes), Maitake or Hen-of-the-Wood (Grifola frondosa), and more! These medicinal mushrooms have many anti-cancer actions including inhibition of many cancer promoting molecular pathways and boosting the immune system to help find and eliminate cancer cells. 

A randomized placebo-controlled study published a few years ago wanted to assess the use of Turkey Tail (Trametes of Coriolus versicolor) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma that were not good candidates for conventional therapy or had exhausted their conventional options. Researchers were interested in assessing the impact of Turkey Tail mushrooms on time until disease progression while on therapy, progression free survival, overall survival, quality of life, and toxicity. Treatment was given until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity occurred which was 5.9 weeks for the placebo group and 12.1 weeks for the mushroom group. Unfortunately, there was no difference in time to progression between the mushroom and placebo group. There was, however, a trend towards improvement in over-all and progression-free survival in the treatment arm. The most impressing result from this study was that there was significant improvements in quality of life in the mushrooms group, with subjects reporting better physical, emotional, cognitive and social functioning.

 This study helps solidify the role of medicinal mushrooms, specifically Coriolus versicolor, in cancer care!

DOI: 10.1089/acm.2016.0136

DOI: 10.1016/j.fct.2018.04.038

DISCLAIMER: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. There are no financial ties to any supplement companies, pharmaceutical companies, or to any of the products mentioned in this post. This post is not meant to treat, cure, prevent, or diagnose conditions or diseases and is meant for educational purposes. As always, please consult your doctor before trying any new treatments or supplements.

The Benefits of Forest Bathing

“In every walk in with nature one receives far more than he seeks” - John Muir

I’m sure that you’ve heard that getting out into nature is good for you, but maybe you don’t know why? There are many, many reasons including lowering blood pressure and stress hormone levels, reducing nervous system arousal, enhanced immune system function, increased self-esteem, reduced anxiety, and improved mood. The research on this topic is continuing to grow everyday as researchers around the world discover more and more ways being in nature changes our physiology. The Japanese coined the term “Forest Bathing”, which is defined as making contact with and taking in the atmosphere of the forest, and are at the forefront of research into this topic.

So how does this play a role in cancer care/healing? Researchers in Japan found that spending time in nature increased levels important components of the immune system, Natural Killer (NK) cells. NK cells help find and eliminate cancer cells in the body and are key to a properly functioning immune system! Therefore, spending time in nature can help your body fight cancer! How cool is that?!

This doesn’t mean you have to drive to your closest forest (which may not be close at all) to gleam these benefits. These positive effects also happen when you spend time in any green space, including parks or simply sitting underneath a tree.

DOI: 10.1177/03946320070200S202

DISCLAIMER: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. There are no financial ties to any supplement companies, pharmaceutical companies, or to any of the products mentioned in this post. This post is not meant to treat, cure, prevent, or diagnose conditions or diseases and is meant for educational purposes. As always, please consult your doctor before trying any new treatments or supplements.

General Nutrition and Cancer

One of our favorite things to talk to patients about is the role of nutrition in cancer care, which has certainly changed over the years. For a long time, many oncologists thought that diet and nutrition did not matter and had no effect on a patient’s health or outcomes. This belief is starting to change as doctors begin to recognize the importance and role of a healthy diet. On the other side of the spectrum you have people like Chris Wark from Chris Beat Cancer who claim that diet and lifestyle changes alone can cure cancer. We believe the role of nutrition is somewhere in the middle, it is likely not a silver bullet for most people, but it can have a significant impact on overall health.

Some areas that proper nutrition can help in include:

• Help the body heal from surgery

• Reduce toxicity from chemo and radiation

• Improve quality of life in categories such as energy, sleep, physical function, cognition, nausea, pain, appetite, and diarrhea/constipation

• Provide extra cancer fighting nutrients, vitamins, and minerals

• Change the terrain of the body to help prevent recurrence

The focus of conventional medicine with respect to cancer is the maintenance of body weight and BMI as this can significantly impact outcomes, but what if we took it a step further and focused not just on maintaining weight but incorporating healthy and cancer fighting foods?

One important thing to point out is that there is not one diet that works best for everyone. For example, while one person may feel incredible on a completely plant-based diet, another person may feel depleted and that they can never quite get all the nutrients they need. It is important to experiment and find the diet that works best of you.

Here are some general rules that mostly good for everyone

• Eat fresh, unprocessed foods.

• Eat organically whenever possible.We say whenever possible because eating vegetables in general is better than not eating vegetables if you don’t have an organic option, but pesticides contain chemical compounds that increase one’s risk for cancer.

• Eat the rainbow: diversify the color of your foods. Each color or pigment in a fruit of vegetable has different phyto-nutrient, many of which have inherent anti-cancer properties. It is best to get a wide variety of these instead of just focusing on one color or one nutrient.

• Eat adequate protein: around .8-1 gram/kilo of weight for average adult (.36-0.45 gram/pound body weight). You may want to increase this amount if after surgery or if you are noticing weight loss

• Focus on omega 3 fatty acids from fish, seeds, and nuts. Diets high in omega-3 fatty acids are anti-inflammatory, can help maintain a stable weight, improve blood count numbers, improve appetite, improve energy, and improved quality of life. There is also some evidence that high omega 3 intake improves response and tolerance of chemotherapy

• Eat at least 35 grams of fiber daily (mostlyfrom vegetables, fruits, legumes and/or whole grains)

• Eat slowly. Take the time to chew your food and enjoy it to maximize digestion.

• Do not drink large amounts (over 6 ounces) of water with meals. Don’t drink ice water with meals.Water and ice can dilute stomach acid which compromises your body’s ability to breakdown and process the food you eat.

• Make sure you eat regularly throughout the day. This can be three larger meals, or more smaller meals spread out. If you need to, set alarms on your phone to remind you to eat.

• Avoid foods you know you are allergic or intolerant of. When we eat foods that don’t agree with us it causes added inflammation in the body which promotes an environment in which cancer thrives

In general, the diet with some of the best research to support its cancer fighting ability is the Mediterranean diet (see the food pyramid below) which focuses on whole foods, lots of fruits and veggies, legumes, fish, some lean meat, and whole grains. Additionally, the pyramid stresses the importance of daily movement, water, and community. 

As a final note we want to leave you with this: making dietary changes can be very hard for a number of reasons including time, money, energy, cultural traditions, and emotional ties to food. Therefore, be kind to yourself when making changes to the ways you eat. Start slow, making small changes at a time. Making changes in this way is more likely to lead to sustainable change than a complete overnight overhaul. Food should not be a source of added stress, but rather a form of empowerment that you are taking healthy steps to achieve your optimum health.

doi: 10.1016/j.critrevonc.2013.03.006.

doi:10.21873/cgp.20050

DISCLAIMER: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. There are no financial ties to any supplement companies, pharmaceutical companies, or to any of the products mentioned in this post. This post is not meant to treat, cure, prevent, or diagnose conditions or diseases and is meant for educational purposes. As always, please consult your doctor before trying any new treatments or supplements.

Improving Immunotherapy with Sodium Bicarbonate

Cancer cells often adapt and develop new ways of evading the body’s immune system in an attempt to continue carrying on their un-checked growth and proliferation. One way they do this is to express inhibitory receptors, such as PD-1, Lag-3, Tim-3, BTLA, and CTLA4, which help hide the cells from the immune system’s T-cells whose role is to find and eliminate cancer cells. These receptors have become targets for a growing group of conventional therapies called immunotherapies. There are more and more clinical trials looking at the efficacy of these drugs in fighting cancer and they are slowly being incorporated into many patient’s treatment plans.

Another way cancer cells evade the immune system is to create an acidic environment around themselves by pumping acidic compounds into the surrounding tissue. This acidic environment can suppress T-cell function, as well as other immune cells, and promote metastasis. This provides an opportunity for another treatment angle, which is to alkalize the tumor environment and reverse these processes.

There are several ways of making the tumor environment less acidic: taking oral sodium bicarbonate (aka baking soda), intravenous sodium bicarbonate, and oral proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) such as omeprazole. These all have proven effective in alkalizing the tumor environment and improving the immune response to cancer. Additionally, these therapies work synergistically with immunotherapies, such as check point inhibitors (PD-1 and CTLA4) and adoptive cell transfer, to improve response rate to these therapies. This provides a great opportunity for an integrative approach to immune enhancement and helping the body recognize and eliminate cancer cells.

Now before you go off and start ingesting a bunch of baking soda you have sitting in the pantry, check with an integrative healthcare provider to ensure this is the correct and safe therapy for you!

DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-15-1743

PMID: 21155627

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semcancer.2017.03.001

DISCLAIMER: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. There are no financial ties to any supplement companies, pharmaceutical companies, or to any of the products mentioned in this post. This post is not meant to treat, cure, prevent, or diagnose conditions or diseases and is meant for educational purposes. As always, please consult your doctor before trying any new treatments or supplements.

Mistletoe Therapy and Cancer

Background on Mistletoe Therapy

Now you may be thinking: “Mistletoe, like the one you kiss under on Christmas?” Well, no, not exactly. This mistletoe is a different species whose Latin name is Viscum album (European mistletoe). Mistletoe has been used as medicine since roughly 300 BCE as a cure-all for many conditions. In modern history, mistletoe has become a potent adjunctive anti-cancer therapy. This use was pioneered by Rudolf Steiner in the early 1920’s, before the introduction of chemotherapy and radiation as conventional cancer treatments. It is now produced and used through the medicinal teachings of Steiner, called Anthroposophic Medicine. (To learn more about Anthroposophic Medicine please visit https://paam.wildapricot.org)

Mistletoe grows as a semi-parasite on host trees, meaning it needs the tree to grow but does not destroy the host in the process. Host trees include apple, pine, fir, hawthorn, poplar, oak, willow, linden, ash, and elm.

Mistletoe and Cancer

Mistletoe has over 170 biologically active ingredients, including alkaloids (viscotoxins), lectins, glycoproteins, poly- and oligosaccharides, flavonoids, and triterpenes. These active constituents help fight cancer by inhibiting cancer cell protein synthesis, causing cancer cell membranes to become leaky, inducing tumor cell death, modulating the immune system to better recognize cancer cells, inhibiting new blood vessel formation in tumors, and protecting DNA in healthy cells. Mistletoe therapy can be used on its own but has shown more potent results when combined with conventional therapy such as chemotherapy or immunotherapy. It also can be used to prevent recurrence of previously diagnosed and treated cancer.

Mistletoe therapy can also help improve quality of life for cancer patients, including improvement of general well-being, more energy, improved sleep, improved appetite, less pain, better tolerance of conventional therapy side effects, improved mood, and more independence. Although not anticipated, it is important to note that there are some potential side effects including a rise in body temperature, allergic reaction, or local inflammation at the injection site with swelling, redness, tenderness, and itchiness.

How Can You Gain the Benefits of Mistletoe Therapy?

Mistletoe is created as a homeopathic preparation and is approved for oral consumption. For cancer treatment, however, this medicine is used “off label” as either a subcutaneous or intravenous injection. To see if you or a loved one are a good candidate for mistletoe therapy and for physician supervision while receiving treatment, please contact our clinic and meet with one of our providers.

References:

• Kienle GS, Kiene H. Influence of Viscum album L (European Mistletoe) Extracts on Quality of Life in Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review of Controlled Clinical Studies. Integrative Cancer Therapies. 2010;9(2):142:157.

• Berg PA, Stein GM. Does mistletoe therapy influence the defense of epithelial tumors? A critical immunological analysis: DMW. 2001;126(12):339-345.

DISCLAIMER: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. There are no financial ties to any supplement companies, pharmaceutical companies, or to any of the products mentioned in this post. This post is not meant to treat, cure, prevent, or diagnose conditions or diseases and is meant for educational purposes. As always, please consult your doctor before trying any new treatments or supplements.