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Posts in ‘prevention’

Cancer survivors: Take care of your body after treatment

Sep 26

From MayoClinic.com
Special to CNN.com

After your cancer treatment, you were eager to nurse your body back to health. But beyond your initial recovery, you might be interested in ways to improve your long-term health so that you can enjoy the years ahead as a cancer survivor.

The advice for cancer survivors is no different than the advice for anyone who wants to improve their health: Exercise and improve your diet. But for cancer survivors these strategies have added benefits — research shows these simple steps can improve your quality of life, smoothing your transition into survivorship. Follow this guide to what you can do to take care of your body after cancer treatment.

Exercise

Regular exercise increases your sense of well-being after cancer treatment and can speed your recovery. Cancer survivors who exercise often experience:

  • Increased strength and endurance
  • Stronger immune systems
  • Fewer signs and symptoms of depression
  • Less anxiety
  • Reduced fatigue
  • Less difficulty sleeping
  • Improved mood
  • Higher self-esteem

Adding physical activity to your daily routine won’t take a lot of extra work. Focus on small steps to make your life more active. Take the stairs more often or park farther from your destination and walk the rest of the way. Check with your doctor before you begin any exercise program.

With your doctor’s approval, start slowly and work your way up. The American Cancer Society recommends adult cancer survivors exercise for at least 30 minutes five or more days a week. As you recover and adjust, you might find more exercise makes you feel even better.

Sometimes you won’t feel like exercising, and that’s OK. Don’t feel guilty if lingering treatment side effects, such as fatigue, keep you sidelined. When you feel up to it, take a walk around the block. Do what you can, but know that rest is important to your recovery as well.

While exercise has many benefits, there’s no evidence that exercise can keep your cancer from coming back. Many cancer survivors are concerned about cancer recurrence and want to do all they can to avoid it. It’s not clear why cancer recurs in some people but not in others. Exercise won’t stop your cancer from recurring, but it can make you feel better and help prevent other diseases, such as heart disease.

Eat a balanced diet

Vary your diet to include lots of fruits and vegetables, as well as whole grains. When it comes to selecting your entrees, the American Cancer Society recommends that cancer survivors:

  • Eat five or more servings of fruits and vegetables every day
  • Choose healthy fats, including omega-3 fatty acids, rather than saturated fats or trans fats
  • Select proteins that are low in saturated fat, such as fish, lean meats, eggs, nuts, seeds and legumes
  • Opt for healthy sources of carbohydrates, such as whole grains, legumes, and fruits and vegetables

This combination of foods will ensure that you’re eating plenty of the vitamins and nutrients you need to help make your body strong.

While it may be tempting to supplement your diet with a host of vitamin and mineral supplements, resist that urge. Some cancer survivors think that if a small amount of vitamins is good, a large amount must be even better. But that isn’t the case. In fact, large amounts of certain nutrients can hurt you. If you’re concerned about getting all the vitamins you need, ask your doctor if taking a daily multivitamin is right for you.

No special diet is known to prevent cancer from recurring. However, some preliminary research in breast cancer survivors indicates that a low-fat diet may reduce the chance of breast cancer recurring. In this study, which has yet to be completed, it isn’t clear whether the slight reduction in breast cancer recurrence was from women eating less fat or from women losing weight on the restricted diet. It also isn’t clear if a low-fat diet has any application to other cancer survivors.

Maintain a healthy weight

You may have gained or lost weight during treatment. Try to get your weight to a healthy level. Talk to your doctor about what a healthy weight is for you and the best way to go about achieving that goal weight.

For cancer survivors who need to gain weight, this will likely involve coming up with ways to make food more appealing and easier to eat. You and your doctor can work together to control nausea, pain or other side effects of cancer treatment that are preventing you from getting the nutrition you need. Losing even more weight can reduce your quality of life and make recovery more difficult.

For cancer survivors who need to lose weight, take steps to lose weight slowly — no more than 2 pounds a week. Control the number of calories you eat and balance this with exercise. If you need to lose a lot of weight, it can seem daunting. Take it slowly and stick to it. Any amount of weight loss can help you feel better about yourself and improve your health.

Stop using tobacco

Kick the habit once and for all. Smoking or using chewing tobacco puts you at risk of several types of cancer. Stopping now could reduce your risk of cancer recurrence and also reduce your risk of developing a second type of cancer (second primary cancer).

If you’ve tried quitting in the past but haven’t had much success, seek help. Talk to your doctor about resources to help you quit.

Drink alcohol in moderation, if at all

If you choose to drink alcohol, keep it to a minimum. At most, women and anyone over 65 should drink no more than one drink a day, and men should drink no more than two drinks a day.

Alcohol does have health benefits in some people — for instance, consuming a drink or two a day can reduce your risk of heart disease. But it also increases the risk of certain cancers, including those of the mouth, throat, liver and breast. While it isn’t clear whether drinking alcohol can cause cancer recurrence, it can increase your risk of a second primary cancer.

Weigh the risks and benefits of drinking alcohol carefully and talk it over with your doctor.

Do what you can

While you may fear it will take an entire overhaul of your lifestyle to achieve all these goals, do what you can and make changes slowly. Easing into a healthy diet or regular exercise will make it more likely that you’ll stick with these changes for the rest of your life.

· Cancer survivors: What to expect with follow-up care

· On the job with cancer: Managing common workplace challenges

· Cancer survivors: Relationships with family and friends after treatment

· Cancer survivors: Late effects of cancer treatment

· Cancer survivors: Managing your emotions after cancer treatment

· Sexuality after cancer treatment: What women can expect

· Sexuality after cancer treatment: What men can expect

· Cancer recurrence: What it means and how to cope

October 05, 2005

Complementary medicines, Uncategorized, alternative, anti-cancer food, antioxidants, appetite change, excercise, herbs, immune system, insomnia, men, natural healing, nervous system, prevention, sleeping trouble, survival, vitamin C, whole grains, women     0 Comments

Pomegranate Juice Keeps PSA Levels Stable in Men Treated for Prostate Cancer

Dec 07

 


Source: UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (7/06)

Drinking an eight ounce glass of pomegranate juice daily increased by nearly four times the period during which PSA levels in men treated for prostate cancer remained stable, a three-year UCLA study has found.

The study involved 50 men who had undergone surgery or radiation but quickly experienced increases in prostate-specific antigen or PSA, a biomarker that indicates the presence of cancer. UCLA researchers measured “doubling time,” how long it takes for PSA levels to double, a signal that the cancer is progressing, said Dr. Allan Pantuck, an associate professor of urology, a Jonsson Cancer Center researcher and lead author of the study.

Doubling time is crucial in prostate cancer, Pantuck said, because patients who have short doubling times are more likely to die from their cancer. The average doubling time is about 15 months. In the UCLA study, Pantuck and his team observed increases in doubling times from 15 months to 54 months, an almost four-fold increase.

“That’s a big increase. I was surprised when I saw such an improvement in PSA numbers,” Pantuck said. “In older men 65 to 70 who have been treated for prostate cancer, we can give them pomegranate juice and it may be possible for them to outlive their risk of dying from their cancer. We’re hoping we may be able to prevent or delay the need for other therapies usually used in this population such as hormone treatment or chemotherapy, both of which bring with them harmful side effects.”

The study appears in the July 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research, the peer-reviewed journal of the American Association of Cancer Research.

“This is not a cure, but we may be able to change the way prostate cancer grows,” Pantuck said. “We don’t know yet the specific factors behind this response - that’s our next step in this research. We want to find out what cell signaling pathways might be affected, what is happening to keep PSA levels stable.”

Pomegranate juice is known to have anti-inflammatory effects and high levels of anti-oxidants, which are believed to protect the body from free-radical damage. It also contains poly-phenols, natural antioxidant compounds found in green tea, as well as isoflavones commonly found in soy, and ellagic acid, which is believed to play a role in cancer cell death.

“There are many substances in pomegranate juice that may be prompting this response,” Pantuck said. “We don’t know if it’s one magic bullet or the combination of everything we know is in this juice. My guess is that it’s probably a combination of elements, rather than a single component.”

The levels of PSA in men immediately following treatment should be undetectable, Pantuck said. If PSA can be detected, it’s an indication of an aggressive cancer that is likely to progress. The men in Pantuck’s study all had detectable PSA following treatment. Of the 50 men enrolled, more than 80 percent experienced improvement in doubling times.

Conventional treatment for men with recurrent prostate cancer includes hormonal therapy, a chemical castration which removes testosterone from the system. Men treated with hormonal therapy can experience hot flashes, osteoporosis, fatigue, depression, muscle wasting, loss of libido and erectile dysfunction. If drinking pomegranate juice can delay or prevent the need for hormonal therapy, patients would experience a better quality of life for a longer time, Pantuck said.

The patients in Pantuck’s study experienced no side effects and none of the participants had cancers that metastasized during the study.

Pantuck, along with UCLA colleagues including Dr. Arie Belldegrun, professor and chief of urologic oncology, and Dr. David Heber, professor and director of the Center for Human Nutrition, first began research on pomegranate juice in prostate cancer about six years ago, conducting preclinical research in cell cultures and in animals. Those studies showed pomegranate juice slowed the growth of prostate cancer, Pantuck said.

The data was impressive enough to test pomegranate juice in clinical trials, Pantuck said. To confirm their findings, a larger Phase III study, headed up by UCLA, will be conducted at ten centers across the county. UCLA is the only Southern California center involved in the study. For more information on the Phase III trial, call (310) 825-5538.

Pantuck said he has men on the study more than three years out who are not being treated for prostate cancer other than drinking pomegranate juice and their PSA levels continue to be suppressed.

“The juice seems to be working,” he said.

The study, performed at the Clark Urology Center, was funded by the Stewart and Lynda Resnick Trust. The Resnicks own POM Wonderful, which provided the juice from the Wonderful variety of pomegranate for the study.

UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center comprises more than 240 researchers and clinicians engaged in research, prevention, detection, control, treatment and education. One of the nation’s largest comprehensive cancer centers, the Jonsson center is dedicated to promoting research and translating the results into leading-edge clinical studies. In July 2005, the Jonsson Cancer Center was named the best cancer center in the western United States by U.S. News & World Report, a ranking it has held for six consecutive years.

 

 

PSA, antioxidants, poly-phenols, pomegranate juice, prevention     0 Comments

Eat Your Broccoli: Study Finds Strong Anti-Cancer Properties In Cruciferous Veggies

Dec 05

ScienceDaily (May 18, 2007) — It turns out Mom was right – you should eat your broccoli. But what Mom may not have known is why broccoli is so healthy, and how its lesser known, younger offshoot may be a powerful anti-cancer agent.

Researchers at the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University have found that sulforaphane – a compound found in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, bok choy and brussels sprouts – has strong anti-cancer properties.

Even more promising results have been found in broccoli sprouts. The tiny, thread-like broccoli sprouts sold at stores next to alfalfa sprouts have more than 50 times the amount of sulforaphane than found in mature broccoli.

Emily Ho, a researcher with the Linus Pauling Institute and an assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition and Exercise Sciences at OSU, will describe these dietary inhibitors for cancer prevention at the conference on “Diet and Optimum Health,” organized by the Linus Pauling Institute. The conference will be held May 16-19 at the Hilton Hotel in Portland. Ho will speak at 10:30 a.m. Friday, May 18.

Ho’s main area of research is on the dietary prevention of prostate cancer. The Asian diet could be a key in this prevention. White males born in the United States have dramatically higher rates of prostate cancer than Asian men. But when Asian men live in the U.S. for five years or more, their rates of prostate cancer rise significantly, Ho says.

Past studies in Ho’s lab have focused on dietary elements in cancer prevention such as green tea and soy.

In her new study, which was published in the Journal of the Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine, Ho and her colleagues at Linus Pauling Institute looked at cruciferous vegetables. While many cruciferous vegetables have sulforaphane, broccoli and broccoli sprouts have the highest amount and thus could be a major player in the prevention of prostate and colon cancer.

Ho said drugs classified as histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors are being looked at as potentially preventing cancer. She said their research shows that these same effects of inhibiting HDAC might be obtained by consumption of cruciferous vegetables.

“I would say if you’re at all worried about cancer or at high risk of cancer, especially of prostate or colon cancer, then increasing your dietary intake of broccoli and other vegetables could be a good idea,” Ho said.

“It certainly can’t hurt. And drugs can have negative side effects and be difficult to administer.”

While Ho said the research is not at the point where she can make a specific recommendation on how much broccoli or bok choy to eat, she personally tries to have two servings of cruciferous vegetables a day.

In human subjects, just eating some broccoli sprouts on top of a bagel with cream cheese resulted in HDAC inhibition.

“The compound in broccoli may be one of the strongest anti-cancer fighters we have,” Ho said.

Adapted from materials provided by Oregon State University

anti-cancer food, colon cancer, diets, men, prevention, prostate cancer     1 Comment