Cancer News

Trouble Sleeping Leads To Increased Ratings Of Pain In Cancer Patients, Study Suggests

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:14:01 +0000

ScienceDaily
A new study suggests that sleep problems lead to increased pain and fatigue in cancer patients. The results indicate that interventions aimed at trouble sleeping would be expected to improve both pain and fatigue in this patient population.
Results show that more than half the sample reported having trouble sleeping, with 26 percent reporting moderate or severe trouble sleeping. Compared with patients who reported no trouble sleeping, patients with moderate to severe trouble sleeping reported significantly more fatigue, pain and depressed mood. Using structural equation modeling analysis to evaluate causal relations and directions of effect, the best-fitting model indicates that trouble sleeping led to increased ratings of pain.
According to the authors, the relationship between pain and sleep often has been assumed to be reciprocal. In the present study, however, a model of reciprocal causation could not be fit to the data, and models in which pain caused trouble sleeping did not fit as well as the model in which trouble sleeping caused pain.
“We believed we would find a bi-directional relationship between insomnia and pain, but instead found that trouble sleeping was more likely a cause, rather than a consequence, of pain in patients with cancer,” said lead author Edward J. Stepanski, chief operational officer at the Accelerated Community Oncology Research Network in Memphis, Tenn.
The study included demographic, clinical and patient-reported outcomes data from 11,445 cancer patients undergoing treatment at the West Clinic, a large community oncology practice in Memphis. Participants had an average age of 61.5 years, and 74 percent were female. Breast cancer was the most common form of cancer, and about 25 percent of study subjects had received chemotherapy in the last 30 days. Increases in depressed mood also led to increased ratings of pain.
Younger age and recent administration of chemotherapy were both associated with increased trouble sleeping. According to the authors, younger patients often receive more aggressive chemotherapy than older patients; therefore, younger patients may be exposed to more treatment-related toxicity.
Stepanski stated that several studies have shown that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) improves sleep in cancer patients who have insomnia. He believes that this type of intervention may decrease patients’ pain and fatigue by improving their sleep.

Adapted from materials provided by American Academy of Sleep Medicine, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Journal Reference:
1.The Relation of Trouble Sleeping, Depressed Mood, Pain, and Fatigue in Patients with Cancer. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, April 15, 2009

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An Apple a Day? Study Shows Soluble Fiber Boosts Immune System

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:42:40 +0000

ScienceDaily (Mar. 2, 2010) — A new University of Illinois study touts the benefits of soluble fiber — found in oats, apples, and nuts, for starters — saying that it reduces the inflammation associated with obesity-related diseases and strengthens the immune system.
“Soluble fiber changes the personality of immune cells — they go from being pro-inflammatory, angry cells to anti-inflammatory, healing cells that help us recover faster from infection,” said Gregory Freund, a professor in the U of I’s College of Medicine and a faculty member in the College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences’ Division of Nutritional Sciences.
This happens because soluble fiber causes increased production of an anti-inflammatory protein called interleukin-4, he said.
The study will appear in the May 2010 issue of Brain, Behavior, and Immunity and is available online now.
In the experiment, laboratory mice consumed low-fat diets that were identical except that they contained either soluble or insoluble fiber. After six weeks on the diet, the animals had distinctly different responses when the scientists induced illness by introducing a substance (lipopolysaccharide) that causes the body to mimic a bacterial infection.
“Two hours after lipopolysaccharide injection, the mice fed soluble fiber were only half as sick as the other group, and they recovered 50 percent sooner. And the differences between the groups continued to be pronounced all the way out to 24 hours,” said Christina Sherry, who also worked on the study.
“In only six weeks, these animals had profound, positive changes in their immune systems,” she said.
known that obesity is linked to inflammatory conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease.
Yet, in a recent study, the U of I scientists demonstrated that fat tissue produces hormones that appear to compensate for this inflammation. “There are significant anti-inflammatory components in fat tissue and, if they were strategically unleashed, they could potentially protect obese people from further inflammatory insults, such as a heart attack or stroke. In obese animals, you can see the body compensating in an effort to protect itself,” he said.
Not all fat is bad, the researcher noted. The Mediterranean diet, which receives high marks for its health benefits, includes such foods as olive oil; salmon, tuna, sardines, and trout, which contain important omega-3 and -6 fatty acids; and plant sources of fat, such as flaxseed.
“Now we’d like to find a way to keep some of the anti-inflammatory, positive effects that develop over time with a high-fat diet while reducing that diet’s negative effects, such as high blood glucose and high triglycerides. It’s possible that supplementing a high-fat diet with soluble fiber could do that, even delaying the onset of diabetes,” he said.
This study is one of the first to provide two valuable lessons, said Sherry. The first, already noted, is that soluble fiber has direct anti-inflammatory effects and builds up the immune system. The second is that the amount of soluble fiber necessary to achieve these health benefits is a reasonable, not a pharmacological, amount.
The recommended daily dietary recommendation is 28 to 35 grams of total fiber, but most of the FDA’s health claims are for insoluble fiber, and that’s where things get a bit complicated, she said.
“Not all fiber is created equal, although you wouldn’t know that by reading nutrition labels,” said Sherry. “Most manufacturers don’t tell you how much of each type of fiber a food contains, and we think it’s important that this information be included on a product’s packaging.”
Good sources of soluble fiber are oat bran, barley, nuts, seeds, lentils, citrus fruits, apples, strawberries, and carrots. “We used a citrus-based pectin in our study,” Sherry said.
Insoluble fiber, found in whole wheat and whole-grain products, wheat bran, and green, leafy vegetables, is also valuable for providing bulk and helping food move through the digestive system, but it doesn’t provide the boost to the immune system that soluble fiber provides.
Co-authors are Stephanie S. Kim, Ryan N. Dilger, Laura L. Bauer, Morgan L. Moon, Richard I. Tapping, George C. Fahey Jr., and Kelly A. Tappenden, all from the U of I. Sherry is now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association, and the USDA among others.

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Story Source:
Adapted from materials provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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Appetite Loss and Chemo: How to Make Foods More Appealing

admin — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:00:35 +0000

Apazin

Fight Nausea, Vomiting, IBS

Regulates GI system
Eases diarrhea and constipation
Curbs body fluid loss due to diarrhea
Alleviates mouth sores and dry mouth
Stimulates appetite-increases the secretion of digestive enzymes

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Having a decreased appetite during chemotherapy is common, and there are many different causes of this problem. Some chemotherapy drugs cause taste alterations or a change in a patient’s sense of smell. They can also cause dry mouth, mouth sores, nausea, and vomiting. In other instances, a patient’s appetite is affected by an early sense of satiety or a persistent sense of always being full. Depression may also alter a patient’s desire to eat.

Here are some quick and easy ways you and your caregivers can make the most of meal times:

Try eating small meals frequently. Snacking every 2 to 3 hours throughout the day can be easier to digest; the smaller portions will also be less overwhelming.
Start out the day strong with a well balanced breakfast. Oftentimes, your appetite will wane by the end of the day. Eating a healthy breakfast such as peanut butter or eggs on toast, or toast with fruit, can help get the needed calories in your system.
Eat foods at room temperature to increase their palatability.
If tastes or smell is off, add extra seasonings to meats.
Using plastic utensils to decrease the metallic taste in the mouth.
Using a salt water rinse or brushing teeth with a mint-based paste may also help food taste better.
If feeling full is a problem, try eating small frequent meals that are low in fat but high in carbohydrates and protein.
Drinking fluids between meals may also help prevent feeling overly full at meal times. Use friends and family to help in the meal preparation and shopping. Go through recipe books to look for new concoctions that may be appealing to you.
Make meal time an enjoyable event. Eat with friends and family members or listen to your favorite music or television show.

Speak to your physician if your appetite is affected by nausea, vomiting, constipation, diarrhea, or pain. There are many medications as well as appetite stimulants that may help maximize your appetite. Eating well during cancer therapy will help you maintain weight and quicken the recovery time when your treatment has finished.

Nutrition is an integral part of the cancer treatment process. Without proper nutrition you may alter your immune system and potentially delay the recovery process.

For more information on tips for improving your appetite during cancer treatment see the following article from TheDietChannel: Increase Your Calories and Protein during Cancer Treatment.

The Dietchannel.com

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Pain Relief For Cancer Patients?

admin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:27:44 +0000

Eezapein

Ease Pain Naturally: neck,back, shoulder,arms, hands & fingers, menstrual cramping

Benefits

Non-addictive hot tea
Stimulates the body’s natural healing response
Calms the mind and body
Natural herbal remedies

Karen had an advanced case of breast cancer when her friend asked her to see me. Doctors had given up hope on her and wouldn’t operate and told her it was too late to treat her. She was looking for some sort of alternative health solution for the pain she was in, not the cancer, since she knew her time was limited.

At the time, I knew of nothing that could be used for the pain. In alternative health practice, the answer to reducing pain is to eliminate the cause of the pain, and in Karen’s case, this solution looked pretty grim. Certainly one could try supportive measures such as increase CoQ10 and germanium levels that would oxygenate the tissues and possibly activate some healing, or try using acupuncture to open all the right energy channels for healing energy to flow through. But as far as an actual pain relief formula for cancer goes, that drew a big blank.

I find that by posing questions during the day in my mind, answers always seem to pop up and sometimes they do within a few days. Sometimes the answer comes in a matter of minutes.

How can cancer patients get pain relief? Certainly there must be an answer out there. Enough people have gone through the ravages of cancer and someone must have tried something that worked for at least 10 to 25% of those suffering from cancer.

The answer came through an indirect way. A friend had told me about her journey through life the last year, watching four of her good friends die of cancer. It was heart-wrenching to see her friends suffer. She began searching for pain relief solutions for cancer patients. After a few months, she found one.

I learned that pain from cancer ruins the quality of life they have, and does it rapidly. One-third to almost a half of all cancer patients experience moderate to severe pain during their bout of cancer. In those with advanced cases of cancer, that percentage jumps to between 70 and 90%. The sad news is that cancer survivors can continue to suffer from the pain years later. What an unfair situation that is, to have recovered from cancer and then be left with the pain and no solution for pain relief anywhere!

My friend found an herbal combination that was specifically designed by Chinese herbalists to control the cancer pain. It was actually designed as a pain relief solution for cancer victims. She had recommended it to some people who used the herbal pain relief formula and it had worked quite well, she said.

Some of the herbs included in the formula are Notoginseng, Red Sage, Red Peony, Cnidium and other analgesic herbs. As a master herbalist, I knew there were herbs that could interact with the nervous system and some that had the capability to decrease substance P, the substance responsible for pain sensations, but had never been taught what herbs to mix together to accomplish the degree of pain relief that cancer patients needed. It makes total sense physiologically and herbally that an all natural herbal formula could make a difference in pain management.

The good news was that the Chinese had already created the pain relief formula for cancer pain. As an herbalist, if you come across a formula that works, the rule is leave it alone! Use it.

I was sad that Karen, the woman with advanced breast cancer, moved away and was unreachable for me to share the good news. But the thought of helping others find a solution for pain relief for cancer was important enough to write this article.

Herbs are the way of life for many of the world’s populations. There’s a reason for it: they work. Even in difficult cases of cancer, it is possible to get some cancer relief. For more info, visit http://www.immuneenhance.com/products/eezapein/

Dr. Donna Schwontkowski is a retired chiropractic physician and also a Master Herbalist. For more info or to sign up for regular updates on herbs and cancer, visit her website at http://www.drdonna.net

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Skin / Nails and Chemotherapy

admin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:26:49 +0000

Enerhance contains natural herbs,vitamins & minerals

People have reported stronger nails & hair growth after 60 days

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Skin / Nails and Chemotherapy

The side effects of chemotherapy depend on the type of chemotherapy and the amount given. Anticipating and managing side effects can help to minimize them and provide the best possible experience for the person receiving chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy’s potential effects on the skin and nails:

As each person’s individual medical profile and diagnosis is different, so is his/her reaction to treatment. Side effects may be severe, mild, or absent. Be sure to discuss with your cancer care team any/all possible side effects of treatment before the treatment begins.

Chemotherapy can affect both the skin and nails. It may cause an increased sensitivity to the sun as well as redness, rashes, itching, peeling, dryness, or acne. Nails may become darkened, yellow, brittle, or cracked, and may also develop vertical lines or ridges.

Sometimes, chemotherapy causes the skin along the vein to darken, especially in people who have very dark skin. Cosmetics or makeup may be used to cover the darkened area, but this can take a lot of time if more than one vein is affected. After treatment ends, the darkened areas often fade in a few months.

Although some side effects can be self-managed, some conditions require immediate medical attention. If you are receiving intravenous (IV) drugs, be sure that you immediately report any burning or pain to your physician. Sometimes, intravenous drugs can leak out of the vein, potentially causing tissue damage. These symptoms need to be reported to your physician right away.

Other skin and nail symptoms may indicate an allergic reaction. Consult your physician or cancer care team immediately if you develop sudden or severe itching, rash or hives, wheezing, or any other labored breathing.

How can I manage skin and nail problems?

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) recommends the following strategies for reducing skin and nail problems related to chemotherapy:

Acne

Keep your face clean and dry.
Discuss with your physician the use of any over-the-counter medicated creams or soaps before using them.

Itching and dryness

Apply cornstarch like you would using a dusting powder.
Take quick showers or sponge baths, not long, hot baths. Use a moisturizing soap.
Apply cream or lotion to your skin while it is still moist.
Avoid perfume, cologne, or aftershave lotions that contain alcohol.

Nail problems

Avoid nail-strengthening products as they may bother your skin and nails.
Wear gloves when doing housework or working in the garden.
If you note redness, pain, or changes around the cuticles, consult your physician.

Sunlight sensitivity

Avoid direct sunlight as much as possible, and especially stay out of the sun between the peak hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. when the sun’s rays are the strongest. Even if you have dark skin, protect yourself from the sun.
Use a sunscreen lotion with a skin protection factor (SPF) of 15 or higher. Zinc oxide, sold over the counter, can block the sun’s rays completely.
Use a lip balm with a high sun protection factor.
Wear long-sleeve cotton shirts, pants, and hats with a wide brim (especially if you are experiencing hair loss) to prevent your skin and scalp from sunburn.

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