Inflammation & Cancer
Dr. Wendy Zhou, N
If your body is a garden, the cancer is the weeds, then having surgery is equivalent to pulling out the weeds. Your chemotherapy/radiation might be the weed-killer prior to or after your gardening sessions. Inflammation is a part of the neglect over time that makes weed grow again.
Are you following this analogy? Let’s keep on going and specifically talk about inflammation – it is like not watering your garden. By not watering the garden, it creates that dry environment where healthy roots cannot flourish and old/damaged plants cannot recover. Similarly, inflammation is a low broil which:
- damages DNA
- promotes fatigue related to cancer diagnosis
- increasing depression
- increasing the risk of tumour growth
- increasing angiogenesis (building roads for cancer to prioritize tumor cells when it comes to nutrient selection)
- immune suppression
In a typical conventional medicine model, inflammation in the body is not addressed. However, it has been researched vigorously. In a 2010 study, cancer patient’s survival over time is directly correlated with their level of inflammation in their body.
- What are some of the things that can cause inflammatory syndromes that also promotes cancer?
A lot of infections contributes to cancer:
- Hepatitis can contribute to liver cancer
- Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) can contribute to cervical cancer or head & neck cancer such as throat cancer
- Epstein Barr Virus contributes to lymphoma
- H. Pylori (bacteria in the stomach) contributes to stomach cancer or esophageal cancer
A lot of chronic diseases are inflammatory in nature and they may help raise your chance of developing cancer as well:
- Diabetes
- Inflammatory Bowel Syndrome or Inflammatory bowel Disease (IBS, IBD)
- Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver disease
- Alcoholic fatty liver disease
- Endometriosis
- Pancreatitis
- Obesity
- Autoimmune syndromes
Our lifestyle can contribute to inflammation:
- Cooking methods of our food: grilled, fried)
- Eating excessive amounts of red meats
- Stress
- Chemical stress from environment
- Mental stress
- Physical stress (by pushing your body beyond its limit)
- Environmental pollution
- Cigarette smoke
- Other toxin exposure
How can Naturopathic doctors help with decreasing inflammation for cancer care?
- Resolves infections (lingering effects from the past or currently active ones)
- Control inflammation coming from known sources such as other chronic diseases
- Modulate hormones and balance them
- Inhibit angiogenesis (more likely to have a metastatic event because of it)
- Help manage blood clotting risks (more than 40% of the cancer survivors have this as a common event)
- Modulate immune function
- Support detoxification (body’s natural function to get rid of toxins)
- Ease oxidative stress (reduce the amount of things that can harm your DNA)
- Promote regular and natural cell death (rather than forced cell death by inflammation)
- Regulate blood sugar
- Minimize any future chances of metastasis
Cancer diagnosis and cancer care is a relatively short period of time compared to all the time that you will have living with the diagnosis afterwards. At this point, this experience can either be supportive or return to the old lifestyle that resulted in the diagnosis in the first place. This is where a naturopathic doctor with a focus in cancer care can be the most beneficial.