Integrative Medicine in Action: Joy’s Recovery from Cancer
Science can never be a closed book. It is like a tree, ever growing, ever reaching new heights. Occasionally the lower branches, no longer giving nourishment to the tree, slough off. We should not be ashamed to change our methods; rather we should be ashamed never to do so.
—CHARLES V. CHAPIN, FORMER PRESIDENT, AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION
NOW THAT I’VE DISCUSSED THE PHILOSOPHY AND PRINCIPLES OF self-healing in detail, I’d like to conclude the first part of this book with an example that demonstrates the power of integrative medicine.
My first clinical experience with cancer was during my postgraduate residency at Zhong Shan Hospital, the teaching hospital of Shanghai Medical University. I learned firsthand how chemotherapy and radiation therapy can be used in conjunction with Chinese medicine.
The increased efficacy of using Western and Eastern medicine together in cancer care has been extensively documented in Chinese studies. One study involved 285 people with a variety of cancers that had metastasized to the lymph nodes above the collarbone. The patients were divided into three groups: those who received a single treatment of either chemotherapy, radiation, or Chinese medicine; those who received chemotherapy and Chinese medicine; and those who received radiation and Chinese medicine. The group in which patients received a single treatment produced less than a 25 percent shrink age of the lymphnodes. The group in which chemotherapy was combined with Chinese medicine showed 55 percent shrinkage, and the group that was given radiation combined with Chinese medicine showed a 75 percent shrinkage.
More important, I witnessed the increased quality of life of patients treated with integrative medicine. I was touched by how integrating the two medical traditions brought humanity back into cancer care and restored faith and peace in cancer patients. What I experienced during my residency in China convinced me that in some ways cancer care in China is ahead of cancer care in the United States because of the effectiveness of the East-West combination treatment.
Upon returning to the United States in the mid-eighties, I began to apply what I learned in Shanghai to my patients who were seeking to get through their cancer therapies alive and in halfway decent shape. Very quickly several oncologists got wind of my work and began to refer their patients to me while they were undergoing conventional cancer treatments. As more oncologists sent me their patients, the Wellness Community—a community support center for cancer patients—also began to refer patients to me. My cancer patients over the years have included doctors, even oncologists.
There is no question of the value of integrative cancer care. Nearly all the cancer survivors I’ve treated will tell you that the integrative approach to their treatment was essential in their triumph over their illness and that it improved their overall quality of life. I now want to share a story with you that shows integrative medicine at its best.
THE SHOCKING NEWS
JOY CAME TO MY OFFICE ONE OVERCAST WINTER DAY. Her face was pale and her demeanor hesitant. Clutching a peacoat close to her body, she was trembling slightly. I asked her if she needed anything before we began our consultation. She politely declined but then asked for a cup of hot tea. She said that she was referred to me by a friend of hers who had breast cancer two years earlier and who was helped by my treatments while going through her anticancer therapies.
Joy was diagnosed with breast cancer one month before. She was in her mid-forties, and she wasn’t ready for this devastating news. She tried to be strong, and she consulted several well-known oncologists, all of whom I’ve worked with. One oncologist told her that she needed a lumpectomy followed by eight weeks of chemotherapy and six weeks of five-times-per-week radiation. And since her breast cancer was estrogen-receptor positive, the doctor recommended that she take tamoxifen, an estrogen blocker, for five years after her treatments. Another oncologist advised her to get a radical mastectomy. Since she had only one positive lymph node out of twelve, she would need only six chemotherapy treatments and no radiation treatments. A third oncologist thought that since her one lymph node was barely positive, she needed only the six-week radiation treatment and not the chemotherapy. Each doctor wanted her to take tamoxifen for periods of three to five years. Some also suggested that she undergo genetic testing to see if she possessed the breast cancer gene, and if she tested positive, to consider double mastectomy even though her cancer was found only in one breast.
Joy was frightened and confused. She wanted to make the right decision for her kids, for her husband, for her parents, and for herself. She wanted to do everything she could to increase her chances of survival, but she was reluctant to cause unnecessary and potentially permanent damage to her health. She was scared to make the wrong decision, and she wanted to know my opinion. I explained to her that since each of the oncologists was reputable, they likely made their recommendations based on their clinical experience. The more aggressive the treatment method, the more likely that any remaining cancer cells would be permanently destroyed—a sort of insurance policy against recurrence. However, the more aggressive the therapy, the more injury there would be to the body.
THE ROLE OF CHINESE MEDICINE IN CANCER CARE
SHE THEN WANTED TO KNOW WHAT I COULD DO to help combat the side effects of the treatments and minimize the damage. I told her that over most of my career in Chinese medicine, I had worked with oncologists to help patients improve their quality of life during and after anticancer treatments. I would use acupuncture to reduce the nausea, vomiting, and other gastric distress that often accompanies chemotherapy. Acupuncture also helps to increase energy and improve mood, sleep, and appetite. I would also advise patients on a diet plan to support the body during chemotherapy and an anticancer diet plan to prevent recurrence.
Further, since research done in China and Japan has confirmed the immune-stimulating properties of certain Chinese herbs, I would also formulate a synergistically combined herbal prescription to help support her immune functions and the production of red and white blood cells by the bone marrow. This herbal formula would also protect nerve endings, lessen fatigue, and improve concentration and memory. I explained that some herbs used in China have well-documented anticancer properties but aren’t allowed to be used here without FDA approval. Finally I would teach her, or arrange for her to learn, meditation and qi gong exercises. Tens of thousands of cancer patients in China experience an increased sense of well-being and better control of their health and destiny with mind-body meditation and exercise. Chinese studies show that qi gong and tai chi stimulate the activities of lymphocytes, neutrophils, natural killer cells, and other immune cells that play a role in fighting cancer.
CANCER WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE—FOR THE BETTER
AS WE’VE SEEN, CHINESE MEDICINE doesn’t consider the body to be separate from the mind. Physical ailments may have their origin in the mind, and mental-emotional disorders may stem from physical imbalances. I asked Joy where she thought her cancer came from. At first she wasn’t sure what I meant. She repeated what her oncologists had told her, which was essentially “unknown.” I asked again, emphasizing that I wanted to know what she herself thought. Her eyes welled up with tears and then came an outpouring of anger and resentment toward people in her life and her feeling of being helpless and trapped and unable to do anything to change it. I let her talk for as long as she felt comfortable sharing.
Afterward I explained to her that according to Chinese medicine, the seed of cancer is planted by exposure to negativity, be it physical toxins, a virus, or emotional stress such as the suppression of negative emotions like anger and sadness, which block energy flow and, in turn, force the energy to be expressed through the growth of abnormal cells and tissues. I told her about a visualization meditation and a ritual that would help release her pent-up feelings, and I suggested a psychotherapist who specializes in patients with cancer. Additionally, I talked to Joy about cancer being a wake-up call for her to change her life so that she would no longer be unhappy—cancer is her spirit screaming that she is unhappy. Cancer can be empowering—it can provide the courage and the impetus to make changes that people usually don’t make out of fear or apathy—like resolving a long-standing conflict with another person or pursuing a dream that had become crushed under the weight of an unfulfilling life.
At the end of her visit, Joy was noticeably more relaxed. Her face had warmed to a subtle red glow. Since all three oncologists were highly reputable and qualified, I encouraged her to work with the one she could best communicate with and connect with. And when she decided on one, I advised her to trust the doctor implicitly and to embrace his or her protocol 100 percent. She said she would make a final decision within the next week and return to see me the following week.
My parting words were that getting cancer would change her life forever, for the better.
SUPPORTIVE STRATEGIES DURING CHEMOTHERAPY AND RADIATION
DURING OUR SECOND VISIT, I mapped out a treatment course for her based on the protocol she’d be undergoing. She decided to have only the cancerous lump removed, followed by chemotherapy and radiation, saving her breast. Her treatment plan with me included weekly acupuncture treatments before her surgery to help her immune-system, after surgery to speed her recovery, and during chemotherapy and radiation. I gave her a diet plan to support her vital functions during the anticancer treatments, and I put together a customized formulation of herbs based on a number of criteria, including her age, constitution, the type of chemotherapy agent, and the length of her anticancer treatments.
Over the next nine months, Joy came in for her acupuncture and herbal treatments weekly—sometimes on the day after her chemotherapy, when she was throwing up and had lost her appetite. But consistently she reported that the acupuncture and the herbal therapy immediately made her feel much better. Often she would get off the acupuncture treatment table with a sense of well-being, in a better mood, and with more energy. Joy continued to work throughout her nine-month ordeal even though we discussed the virtue of having some downtime to rest and reevaluate her life. She felt strongly that by continuing to work she would have a reason to get up every day. Her white blood cells remained within normal range most of the time, and during the entire treatment she only had to receive one shot of Neupogen, a drug used to increase white blood cell production in the bone marrow to counter the immune-suppressing side effects of the chemo agents.
Although Joy did have a couple of emotional breakdowns in my office, her energy and outlook stayed strong through both chemotherapy and radiation. She was quite disciplined and followed her diet, acupuncture, and herbal therapies as prescribed. I encouraged her to reevaluate her life and to rediscover her life’s purpose and what was important to her. I told her that all disease is simply symptomatic of life out of balance. She began to see a psychotherapist and to attend cancer support groups at the local Wellness Community and at her church.
CANCER EMPOWERS POSITIVE CHANGES
ABOUT EIGHT MONTHS AFTER HER DIAGNOSIS, Joy came into my office and declared that she had decided to quit her job. She had come to the realization that her boss was emotionally abusive and that she was not nurturing herself by staying at her job. Since the breast is an organ that provides nourishment for a baby, she reasoned, the problem with her breast was symbolic of the fact that she had stopped nurturing herself a long time ago. This realization empowered her to make a change that she had been afraid to make for many years. Likewise, she began to make changes at home, carving out time for pottery and other interests, which she couldn’t find time for before. Her kids became more responsible and engaged in their individual and family chores. Joy became more intimate with her husband, demanding and spending more quality time with him and the family. This is not to say that there weren’t painful adjustments for Joy and others in her life, but the changes were well worth it, as evidenced by the increased happiness and fulfillment in her life.
After her second chemotherapy treatment, Joy came in with her head shaved and covered by a wig. That was a very sad day for her. She cried and was afraid that her hair would never come back. I assured her that her hair would come back, and I gave her an herbal hair tonic—a formula passed down through my family’s medical lineage—to massage into her scalp daily. To her amazement, by the fifth month her hair began to grow back. One year after her diagnosis and three months after finishing her anticancer treatments, she stopped wearing her wig. Strangely, her hair was thicker and curlier than it had been before. I had never seen her so happy as the day, when her oncologist told her that she was free of cancer.
Around the middle of her treatment course, Joy received a big blow to her confidence. Her sister-in-law back East, who was also battling breast cancer, had died of complications. Joy sat in my treatment room that day, depressed and deflated, feeling that her efforts would be in vain and that she would lose the battle as well. I asked her to focus on herself one day at a time, and to think positively and believe in her innate powers. She had not been diligent in her meditation and qi gong practices up to this point, so I gently reminded her about the power of gaining self-control through these ancient practices. I then gave her an acupuncture treatment specifically to uplift her mood and energy. She left that day feeling more peaceful and positive in her outlook. The acupuncture helped regulate serotonin levels in her brain and released endorphins that elevated her mood instantly.
DEALING WITH INSTANT MENOPAUSE AND THE LIFE THEREAFTER
AFTER THE NINE-MONTH ANTICANCER TREATMENT COURSE, Joy went on tamoxifen, which caused severe menopausal symptoms. The constant hot flashes, night sweats, frequent headaches, sleeplessness, and moodiness were sometimes unbearable. Joy had experienced artificial menopause earlier during her chemotherapy—her periods had abruptly stopped and the symptoms of menopause had begun. With acupuncture and herbal treatments, we managed to restore her periods. However, with the use of tamoxifen, which inhibited the production of estrogen in Joy’s body, menopause was now in full rage. Joy continued to come in for acupuncture and herbal treatments twice monthly, and she kept up her dietary and qi gong practices for relief of her menopausal symptoms and prevention of breast cancer recurrence.
It has been seven years since Joy was first diagnosed with breast cancer. She continues to be cancer-free. She has started her own pottery business. Her kids are in college and she has become closer with her husband. Her relationships with others are more meaningful and she doesn’t rush around like she used to. She takes time to smell the roses and to nurture herself. When I spoke to her last she said to me, “I didn’t believe it when you first told me that my life would change for the better with cancer. But now I see what you mean. Getting cancer was truly a blessing in disguise for my life.” Joy is more happy and fulfilled today, after surviving cancer, because she chose to approach it in a positive way. She used everything available to her to combat her disease. She was the beneficiary of a carefully implemented union of East and West, ancient and modern.
Joy’s story is a powerful example of Chinese medicine working with Western medicine to battle a devasting disease. But the potential of integrative medicine goes beyond cancer care. Every day at Tao of Wellness in Santa Monica, California, our acupuncturists work with orthopedists on sports injury and pain management, with rheumatologists on arthritis and autoimmune diseases, with gynecologists on menstrual disorders and menopause, with reproductive endocrinologists on male and female infertility, with neurologists on Parkinson’s disease and stroke complications, with endocrinologists on diabetes and thyroid disorders, with cardiologists on cardiac rehabilitation and hypertension, with gastroenterologists on gastric reflux disorder and irritable bowel syndrome, with mental health professionals on depression and anxiety disorders, with pulmonary and immunologists on asthma, allergies, and viral infections—with many kinds of doctors on many different health conditions.
The key to successful collaboration between Eastern and Western medicine is patient-centered focus—working together and doing what each medical tradition does best to serve the health and well-being of the patient. I see a model in which we first use the diagnostic technologies of Western medicine to determine the disease and the cause. Then, as the first line of treatment, we use the noninvasive, side-effect-free approaches of natural medicine like acupuncture, herbal and nutritional therapies, mind-body exercise, and bodywork that are offered by Chinese medicine. Finally, we bring in drugs and surgery and other biotechnological treatments as the situation calls for them. I am happy to see that an increasing number of integrative medicine centers and clinics are now being established, many with close ties to medical schools and teaching hospitals like Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, UCLA, and the Mayo Clinic. To me this represents the emergence of a new medical paradigm of patient-centered and wellness-promoting care.