The world is changing. Some treatments that were considered quackery in the past are being seriously considered and investigated today. Under the sponsorship of the World Health Organization (WHO) many herbal treatments are being researched by the National Cancer Institute. There are now University Departments of Complementary Medicine as well as organizations dealing with bringing an evidence based perspective on the myriad of modalities in Complementary Medicines. Here at Complementary Healing Arts we bring you up to date therapeutic modalities to bear on your particular diagnosis. Each person is unique and cancers vary widely in their pathological picture. One treatment does not fit everyone and in fact may even be harmful to the persons situation. It is important to tailor the complementary therapy to work with the best traditional strategies available in mainstream medicine.

Everyone is biochemically unique. Requirements for certain nutrients may vary many hundred fold from one person to the next. A person may have optimal levels of most nutrients, but if one critical nutrient is not available to the bodys biochemistry there can be wide ranging,negative effects. The first step is to assess your nutritional status through blood tests. This will guide our efforts to replenish and optimize vitamin, mineral and where appropriate, hormone levels. Abundant scientific evidence shows that a well nourished cancer patient can better manage the disease and its treatments. Nutritional counselling is an important part of the complementary approach to cancer in order to 1) prevent or reverse malnutrition 2) reduce the toxic side effects of chemotherapy and radiation, if these are employed 3) help improve immune function 4)starve the cancer by reducing blood glucose levels, 5) introduce or optimized those nutrients that work as biological response modifiers in cancer treatment.

Most cancer cells are obligate glucose metabolizers having a 300 - 500% increase in glucose metabolism when compared to normal cells. What this means is that normal non cancerous cells can live and grow without glucose. Cancer cells are dependent solely on glucose. This helps a person understand why improving blood glucose levels by stressing a low glycemic diet and providing optimum micronutrients to improve insulin sensitivity and lower blood glucose is one of the starting points we take in our multi pronged efforts to help with cancer outcomes.

Intravenous vitamin C has now been in use in the complementary medicine community as an adjunctive treatment for cancer for the past 3 decades. There are a number of ways in which physiological levels of vitamin C can be helpful for the person healing from cancer. Vitamin C is required by the immune system cells in order to function optimally. The Natural Killer cells require higher levels of vitamin C than do other cells in order to do their job which includes identifying and destroying altered cells such as cancer cells. Vitamin C is also essential in forming crosslinking of collagen molecules which adds to the strength and integrity of tissue (including bones) thus inhibiting the metastatic invasion of cancer cells. Normal cells use vitamin C to form hydrogen peroxide which is then utilized in the lysosomal mechanism of destroying foreign invaders such as viruses and bacteria. Excess vitamin C in this pathway is broken down by the enzyme catalase found within normal cells. Cancer cells have lost their ability to form catalase. High doses of vitamin C achievable by intravenous administration is taken up at much higher conceentrations by cancer cells compared to normal cells. In the vicinity of cancer cells the excess vitamin C, through a chemical reaction, converts to hydrogen peroxide. Cancer cells cannot destroy the excess hydrogen peroxide because of lack of the catalase enzyme, and consequently are crippled and destroyed by these high levels. Many in the complementary medical community see this as a selective method of targeting cancer cells. Intravenous Vitamin C is infused slowly in increasing dosages 2 or 3 times weekly according to the individual therapy situation. The Integrative Medicine Programme at the University of Kansas Medical Centre is utilizing intravenous VitaminC along with appropriate chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy in early stage cancers in order to augment the killing of cancer cells. In late stage cancer intravenous vitamin C improves the quality of life. This type of pro oxidant effect is not easily achieved with oral vitaminC as absorption orally is tightly controlled. By administering intravenously in pharmacological doses the serum concentration, and tissue concentration, is many times above oral dosing . The protocol for administering intravenous vitamin C has been shown to be safe in a number of clinical studies (including a Canadian study, Hoffer Ann Onc (19) 11, 2008).

 

 

 

An exciting new development in the application of Vitamin C at pharmacologic levels as a selective cancer-toxic therapy is the formulation of a lypospherical form of the vitamin packed in nano-sized spheres of liposomes. One way to visualize this is to imagine vitamin C packages of extremely small (thousands of times smaller than a human hair) water balloons-the 'balloon' being composed of a membrane of essential fatty acid phospholipids which is utilized in the liver for building blocks of healthy cells, and the 'water' being the vitamin C. The advantage of this formulation is that the vitamin C never comes in contact with the stomach-intestinal lining (thus bowl effects such as diarrhea, irritation are avoided) the 'water balloons' are transported to the liver where the outer phospholipid membrane is dismantled for use in general upkeep and the vitamin C is liberated directly into the systemic blood circulation. Consequently the concentration of Vitamin C in the blood is much higher than achievable by standard oral supplements. By adding such nutrients as Vitamin K3 andLipoic Acid the ability of Vitamin C to generate free radicals in the vicinity of cancers by the Fenton reaction is greatly increased. This approach may be utilized in the future as an alternative to, or in conjunction with intravenously administered Vitamin C. (For a discussion of these approaches see the book The Cancer Breakthrough by Steve Hicky and Hilary Roberts 2005. For a technical discussion of Fenton Reactions and the cancer-catalase connection see Free Radicals in Biology and Medicine by Halliwell and Gutterridge, 2007.)

 

Throughout traditional societies there have been herbal preparations, alone or in combination, which have been used in the treatment of cancer. With today's scientific methods, many of these traditional herbs are being tested in attempts to categorize and elucidate the efficacy and mechanisms of action. Some of these herbs have been found to indeed be active and useful in a treatment program for cancers. One such herb is an extract of the Paw Paw tree. Paw Paw, also known as Indian Banana is an indigenous tree which grows in the Eastern Regions of North America, with some varieties found in the tropics and the South American Rain Forest. Graviola is member of this family. In exciting research done at Purdue University it has been found that an extract of Paw Paw twigs harvested at a particular time of year has high levels of a compound which has very specific actions on cancer cells. This preparation is well tolerated and does not interfere with other therapies such as chemotherapy and radiation.

 

Diet, nutritional repletion, mind-body interventions and specific therapeutics coordinated with other aspects of a person's treatment program is the core approach applied at the clinic for an individual's cancer recovery/maintenance program.

 

 

Modalities which may be employed

Vitamin and Minerals replenished and optimized.

Intravenous Vitamin C and/or High dose oral Vitamin C

Herbs helpful in Cancer Therapies

714X (Subject to availability from Health Canada)

Inositol Hexaphosphate (IP6)

Carnivora (Iscadora)

Infrared Sauna detoxification