12
Cancer

Treating cancer with integrative medicine

The painful urination did not seem like anything to worry about. Twenty-two-year-old Jamie Ingersol dismissed the symptom as a bladder infection, as she had had similar episodes in the past. In early February 1998 she was treated at a student clinic, but the condition did not resolve. When a clinic doctor performed a pelvic exam, he noticed a mass over her left ovary and referred her to a gynecologist.

After a physical exam and an ultrasound of the area, the gynecologist was not concerned. He explained that Jamie had a dermoid cyst. A dermoid cyst is a fairly rare, nonmalignant cystic tumor created when an unfertilized egg begins to replicate. The cysts often contain elements derived from the cells of a developing embryo, such as hair, teeth and skin. Although benign, the doctor felt the cyst should be surgically removed and that she should wait no longer than six months.

It was one of those perfect southern California days in July 1999 when Jamie recounted her story. Her smile, slightly tentative, belied the depth of trauma she had gone through over the past year and a half. “When the doctor told me about the dermoid cyst, I was frightened of the idea of surgery,” she explained. “But I thought that since he didn't seem concerned I really shouldn't worry.” Jamie, a second-year student of Chinese medicine, knew there were treatment modalities outside of Western medicine to explore before immediately going ahead with the surgery. She began asking around. “I talked to a woman who had a dermoid cyst who had shrunk it by changing her diet. So I decided to cut out red meat, dairy products, sugar and processed foods. I ate a lot of whole grains, vegetables, tofu and fish.”

Four months passed. Every morning Jamie awoke and felt the growing mound with her fingers. She went back to her doctor in late July 1998. The cyst had grown considerably and was now the size of a small grapefruit. The second ultrasound showed fluid accumulation in her abdominal cavity. Again, the doctor did not appear to show significant concern, though he urged her once again to have the cyst surgically removed. He spent a few minutes explaining the surgery.

With the doctor's apparent lack of concern, Jamie was mostly worried about the scar the incision would leave. She had heard about laparoscopic surgery and wanted to check out that option. Her mother went into high gear, making phone calls and inquiries to find another doctor who could perform the laparoscopy. Over the phone, another doctor told her that the presence of fluid surrounding a mass could be a very serious situation. It was the first time the word cancer was mentioned. Jamie and her mother were both stunned.

Jamie immediately went to see the second gynecologist. He ordered a C-125 blood test, the commonly used ovarian cancer marker. Jamie's test result showed the C-125 to be significantly elevated. The doctor explained that an elevated level meant that the mass could be cancerous. Jamie was referred to a gynecologic oncologist. Jamie and her parents sat in terrified silence as the oncologist explained that the lab results and the ultrasound indicated that surgery was imperative but that they could not know for sure if she had ovarian cancer until after they operated. Biopsies and the subsequent pathology report would provide a definitive diagnosis. Jamie explained that, even with this sobering discussion, the urgency of her situation did not fully sink in. “It was the end of the semester, and final exams were coming up. It was a lot of memo-rization—a lot of hard work. I wanted to put the surgery off for two weeks so I could take my finals.”

But the surgeon did not want to wait that long. Ovarian cancer is an aggressive cancer with a high degree of malignancy. The abdominal cavity is large and loosely filled with organs that can easily move around to accommodate a growing tumor. By the time the tumor grows to a size that causes discomfort and is subsequently diagnosed, it has usually metastasized. It is one of the few cancers that afflict young women. The five-year survival rate, after aggressive intervention with Western medical treatment, is only 5 percent.

Jamie had only a few days to prepare for major surgery. She went to see Dr. Han because she knew that herbal treatments would be helpful in her situation. She also wanted to know if Dr. Han thought she could put off the surgery.

Jamie's case is an example of how both Chinese and Western medicine can work together in a patient's treatment. Dr. Han had her diagnostic test results from Western medicine. The Western medical diagnosis of an elevated C-125 and fluid surrounding a growing mass in her abdomen presented a definitive picture that carried a great sense of urgency. He advised her to go ahead with the surgery as planned. But because of the clarity of the Western medical diagnosis, Dr. Han was also able to immediately access his knowledge of Chinese herbs to aid in preparing her for that surgery. In addition to her Western medical reports, he used Chinese medical diagnostic methods, which focus on the relationship between cancer and the whole body. Because Dr. Han had seen the results of Jamie's Western diagnostic tests, he had a clear picture of the existence of the malignancy. The result was a treatment plan that was based on the overall picture of the deficiency and stagnation of her Energy.

While a common prescription will include ten to fifteen herbs, because of the severity and complexity of Jamie's condition, Dr. Han used a combination of twenty-three different herbs in creating her formula, which was designed to reduce bleeding during the operation, to promote tissue healing and to strengthen and support her immune system. Almost half of the herbs in her formula had anticancer properties, which would help to contain or suppress the growth of malignant cancer cells.

Jamie was to prepare a pot of herbal tea daily. She would reheat and drink three cups of tea during the day. She was vigilant about preparing and drinking the tea prior to her surgery.

On August 1, six months after she first noticed the mass in her abdomen, Jamie checked into the hospital for surgery. In a radical, three-hour procedure, the surgeon began by draining over a liter of fluid from her abdomen. Cancerous tissue often has the appearance of cottage cheese, which makes it discernible from normal tissue. At first glance, the surgeon must have seen that the cancer had, indeed, metastasized and invaded multiple sites in her abdominal cavity. He removed the grapefruit-sized tumor, along with three-quarters of her right ovary, and a tumor the size of a large egg, as well as a quarter of her left ovary. The entire greater omentum—the sheet of connective tissue that covers the abdominal organs—was implanted with metastasized tumors, and had to be removed. With a laser beam, the surgeon burned off two BB-sized lesions deep in the right lobe of her liver, and peeled off a marble-sized metastasized tumor from her right kidney. The surgeon then excised three quail-egg-sized cancerous implants—two from her abdominal wall and one from her pelvic wall—as well as three marble-sized implants from her sigmoid colon. Tenlymph nodes from her pelvic and abdominal cavities were removed.

Jamie awoke in the recovery room with an incision from her groin to her navel, too drugged and too sick to talk. She was hospitalized for a week. It was a difficult recovery. It was only when she felt strong enough to visit the surgical oncologist's office, two weeks after she went home, that he explained the results of her surgical report and outlined his recommended course of chemotherapy. He had been able to remove the visible cancer tissue during surgery, but given the widespread nature of her cancer, it was all but inevitable that microscopic cancer cells remained throughout Jamie's abdominal cavity. The only way to eradicate those cells was for her to undergo an arduous course of chemotherapy.

During this visit, Jamie's mother appeared more shaken than her daughter. Chemotherapy was something she had not considered. “My parents had supported the surgery, but they were adamantly opposed to chemotherapy and thought it was going to kill me,” Jamie said. “They fought it tooth and nail. My mom had been raised with natural foods and didn't even use antibiotics. In many ways, I agreed with her philosophy, but I was also just scared.”

Jamie's mother launched into research on natural alternatives to chemotherapy, spending hundreds of dollars on books and talking to everyone she could find who would listen or offer information. Jamie, her two older sisters and her parents would get together to heatedly discuss what Jamie should or should not do regarding further medical treatments. “My mom and dad were totally on the natural side, and one of my sisters was totally fighting for the Western side. My other sister was just trying to figure it out and kind of going in between. And then I'm stuck there listening to all of them. We went through endless hours of discussion.”

Jamie's case presented an interesting twist. She was training in Chinese medicine, yet she was not opposed to Western medicine. Her parents were pressuring her to pursue a natural alternative to chemotherapy. Regardless of the sides they chose to defend, the Ingersol family's debate over Western versus natural medical approaches is a microcosm for the debate going on now in the United States. Advocates of each approach have mostly gotten stuck in camps where the other side is viewed with suspicion, even disdain. Once camps get established and battle lines drawn, it is difficult to move from either/or thinking to also/and reasoning.

To the extent that individuals have available to them complementary options, their chances of considering and receiving comprehensive medical treatment are enhanced. But just as Jamie had to negotiate the high-volume discussion within her family, Americans must navigate the biased voices that, for the most part, insist that one approach is the only way. In case after case it can be shown that the use of complementary approaches enhances the treatment, recovery and wellness of patients with a wide range of disorders. Unfortunately, Jamie did not have the luxury of having a complementary team of doctors conferring with one another and advising and reassuring her. She had to go it alone.

One of the approaches Jamie's mother heard about was injecting the pa-tient's blood into a lactating cow that would then produce specific antibodies in her milk. “My mother was presenting these options to me and to everybody else around, like my boyfriend and my sisters, anybody who'd listen to her. We would find holes in every solution, so she was getting really frustrated.”

Jamie was more circumspect. “When I originally thought I had a dermoid cyst, I tried dealing with it naturally with diet and so forth, and that didn't work. I didn't want to make the mistake of trying to do just herbs and diet and different things like that and have the cancer spread all over my body. On the other hand, I wanted to make sure Western medicine wasn't overtreating me with chemo when it wasn't really necessary.”

She went back to Dr. Han, who she assumed would side with her mother and suggest an herbal alternative to chemotherapy. “I hadn't really discussed Western medicine with Dr. Han before. So I didn't know where he'd be coming from. But you have a certain picture of people who are in alternative medicine, that most of them are against using Western medicine.”

It was understandable that Jamie resisted chemotherapy, as it is an invasive and often debilitating treatment protocol. In Dr. Han's opinion, she had very little chance of survival without this treatment. Although Chinese medicine alone has been known to be effective in treating many types of cancers, he did not know of any documented cases of advanced ovarian cancer being cured with Chinese herbal medicine alone. To make sure, he consulted with his mother, Dr. Huiwen Luo, a Western-trained gynecologist and surgical oncologist in practice in China.

Dr. Luo had extensive experience in treating ovarian cancer. In 1966, at the onset of the Cultural Revolution, the then forty-five-year-old Dr. Luo was charged as a “bourgeois counter-revolutionary scholastic authority,” stripped of her right to practice medicine and led away to prison. Four years later, she was exiled to western China for “reeducation” through forced labor. She was sent to the remote Hui County, which was inexplicably plagued with a high rate of uterine, ovarian and especially cervical cancers. Dr. Luo requested and was granted the right to return to medical practice because of the dire situation there. Girls as young as twelve years old were dying of cancer. Dr. Luo, in 2001, at seventy-nine years old, remembered clearly how thirty years ago she spearheaded a small but devoted band of doctors in an effort to stave off the slippery slope of death in Hui County. “The total number of patients my team diagnosed with cancer was in the thousands,” Dr. Luo said. The conventional approach for cervical cancer is surgery during the early stage, and for terminal patients, radiation therapy. As a result of inadequate medical services, when village women developed cancer they would usually not survive. Dr. Luo developed an integrative medical approach that she called comprehensive therapy, which included surgery, chemotherapy, immunotherapy and Chinese herbal medicine.

The first step was to assess each patient's stage of cancer. Uterine cervical cancer is categorized into stage I, II, III and IV depending on the severity. Categorizing stages is valuable in deciding on the type of therapy the patient needs. Stages I and II are generally curable. Stage III and IV cancer are both considered advanced with a guarded prognosis, but stage IV is usually considered terminal. These patients were not good candidates for surgery, as their bodies were significantly weakened by widespread metastasis and they were not likely to survive surgery. “But I didn't give up on these patients. All of my patients, especially those with advanced stages of cancer and those with extremely weakened immune systems, were treated with comprehensive therapy in an effort to improve their conditions and prepare them for surgery.”

In addition to chemotherapy, Dr. Luo used immunotherapy and Chinese herbal medicine to bolster patients' immune systems. Immunotherapy is thought to stimulate the immune system to produce large amounts of antibodies against cancer cells. Dr. Luo began by taking a sample of cancerous tissue from a patient. She then mixed this tissue with tuberculosis vaccination, which is made of tuberculosis bacteria that has been treated to reduce its ability to cause disease. She injected patients with this preparation. After using extensive herbal therapy, immunotherapy and chemotherapy, many previously inoperable patients became operable. In addition to taking herbs before the surgery, Dr. Luo typically asked the patient to take herbs for at least a year postsurgery to aid in recovery and significantly reduce the possibility of recurrence.

Dr. Luo documented the results of her treatment plan in a study involving patients in the third and fourth stages of cervical cancer. With a ten-year survival rate, the survival rate of her patients was 42 percent in stage III patients and 37 percent in stage IV. (For a ten-year survival of ovarian carcinoma that has reached stage III or IV, 5 to 7 percent is considered optimistic.)

When Dr. Han discussed Jamie Ingersol's case with his mother, Dr. Luo, she confirmed that in her fifty years of experience treating gynecological cancers she had rarely seen cases of advanced ovarian cancer successfully treated with Chinese medicine alone. He knew, however, that even with aggressive Western medical intervention, the survival rate was still very low and that the best chance for Jamie would be a combination of Chinese medicine and Western medicine.

There were several crucial reasons to combine these two approaches. It was vital to Jamie's survival that all existing cancer cells in her system be eradicated. The most reliable treatment available was chemotherapy. What often makes chemotherapy a success or failure is how well a patient tolerates the treatment. Chinese medicine can reduce many of the side effects and make it possible for patients to tolerate higher doses of chemotherapy by sensitizing the cancer cells. Herbal treatment can also enhance the therapeutic efficacy of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The dose of chemotherapy can sometimes be significantly reduced and still attain the targeted therapeutic effect. In the meantime, Chinese herbal medicine can support and strengthen the immune system and give the patient a much better sense of well-being during treatment. Chinese herbal medicine can also help reduce the possibility of the recurrence of cancer.

Discussing her options with Dr. Han gave Jamie the perspective she needed to make her decision. “It felt so good to hear Dr. Han's opinion about chemotherapy,” Jamie said. “I felt secure in knowing that he knew about both medicines and that his mother was trained in both Chinese and Western medicine. She didn't just say,‘Oh, do it the Western way because that's all I know’ or ‘Do the Chinese way because that's all I know. ’ Since she knew both, she knew what was the best thing to do.”

Jamie's mother had accompanied her on her visits with Dr. Han. “She wanted to hear his side of it,” Jamie said. “She wanted to be there so she could ask questions and debate with him. She didn't really say anything while we were there, but I thought she felt more reassured when we left his office.” In fact, Jamie had made up her mind to go forward with the chemotherapy, but her mother was still not convinced. “I think she felt a little bit better knowing that Dr. Han was in favor of the chemo. But she was still scared about it. There was nothing we could say that would subdue her emotions at all, even to the last minute of my last treatment.”

Jamie was living at home and had to deal with the strain of her parents' disapproval of her choice. “It was harder to deal with my family's opposition than it was to deal with the cancer. It was a really difficult time. Even when I was about to get the chemo, I still wasn't one hundred percent behind it. I thought

that it was what I should do, but it's hard to be one hundred percent behind something that's so intense.”

Dr. Glenn E. Miller has counseled many patients in preparation for chemotherapy treatments. The majority of chemotherapy agents are delivered into the bloodstream intravenously. Many believe that the experience in itself will be painful and potentially life threatening. A surprising number of patients have described their fears to Dr. Miller in almost exactly the same words: “The needle is going to go in and I'm going to feel the chemo going in like a burning poison. I'm going to feel it burning through my veins.” In reality, because the drug has been hanging on the IV pole in the air-conditioned hospital room and is much colder than the bloodstream, patients end up reporting that the drug actually feels a bit cool as it goes in. There is no sense of the chemo agent coursing through their bodies. Knowing this to be true and easing a patient's fears are two entirely different things. Psychologically, the first treatment is usually the worst because the patient is scared to death of the unknown. In Jamie's case, she had the added stress of the conflict with her family regarding her choice of treatment. To make matters worse, she had not fully recovered from major surgery.

Jamie was scheduled for six chemotherapy treatments, three weeks apart. Her first treatment was on August 31, four weeks after her surgery. Given the severity and widespread nature of her particular cancer, a highly aggressive chemotherapy regimen was required. She was given a combination of carboplatin and Taxol, which are often used for ovarian cancer.

Chemotherapy agents are designed to seek out and destroy rapidly dividing cells by interfering with their division. The human body is in a constant cycle of breaking down and building up as cells die and are replaced by new cells. Through this regenerative cycle, all cells divide to make new cells. Some healthy cells divide more rapidly than others, but in a controlled manner. Cancer cells also divide more rapidly than healthy cells, but in an uncontrolled manner.

Unfortunately, chemotherapy drugs attack both cancer cells and normal cells indiscriminately, and the more rapidly dividing the cells (both healthy and malignant) the more affected they are by chemotherapeutic agents. Some of the healthy, normal cells in the body that are most affected by chemotherapy agents are located in the bone marrow, the lining of the gastrointestinal tract, the lining of the bladder and the hair follicles.

Bone marrow suppression poses the greatest threat to chemotherapy patients. Bone marrow produces white blood cells, which are vital to the body's natural defense against infection. When the level of white blood cells drops below a certain point, the immune system is weakened and infection can set in; consequently the patient may run a low-grade fever. Bone marrow suppression can also result in anemia, occasionally severe enough to require a blood transfusion.

The mouth and gastrointestinal tract are both lined with a protective layer of rapidly regenerating cells. Because the mouth and gastrointestinal tract are exposed to a variety of potent enzymes and acids excreted to break down food, these cells are the first line of defense, preventing the acids and enzymes from corroding through the underlying layers of tissue. The protective cells are regularly sloughed off and an underlying layer of cells advances to take their place. As these rapidly dividing cells are targeted by chemotherapeutic agents, when enzymes and acids are next released, the protective barrier has been greatly weakened. The acids and enzymes then erode the unprotected tissue. Patients may experience a burning sensation inside the mouth and throat and may develop painful multiple ulcerations inside the mouth, tongue and lips that make it hard to eat or sleep. These ulcerations can occur in the intestinal tract, causing digestive problems such as cramping and diarrhea. Since chemotherapy agents are often filtered through the kidneys and then the bladder—which is protected in the same way by a lining of rapidly dividing cells, which are constantly sloughing off—patients can suffer from cystitis (inflammation of the bladder).

A legitimate, and the most common, fear of those facing chemotherapy is the resulting nausea and vomiting. The human body is magnificently designed so that all of its functions serve a biological purpose. When a poisonous substance is introduced into the body, nausea and vomiting are the body's attempt to expel the toxin. Chemotherapy, essentially a corrosive and poisonous agent, is something the body tries to reject. In fact, vomiting occurs in approximately two-thirds of patients.

Because cells within hair follicles are rapidly dividing, they are also affected by chemotherapy agents. Therefore, most patients receiving chemotherapy drugs will lose most of their hair. The cells that generate the gelatinous material that forms fingernails and toenails are also rapidly producing and targeted by chemotherapy drugs. As a result, the patient's nails will often turn yellow.

In addition, many patients complain of hypersensitivity of the skin, hot flashes, tenderness, even lesions of the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet, making it painful to walk. All of these symptoms add up to profound weakness and fatigue and an overall lack of a sense of well-being. It is important to note, however, that everyone has a different tolerance level. Some people have severe side effects from chemotherapy, others sail through with very little discomfort.

After Jamie's first chemotherapy treatment, she immediately returned to Dr. Han to discuss her side effects, including fatigue, abdominal cramping, diarrhea, low-grade fever and nausea. Jamie's low-grade fever indicated that her white blood cell count had dropped. A key criterion to whether a patient can continue chemotherapy is how quickly the patient's white blood cell count comes back up. Dr. Han increased the potency of her herbal formula to strengthen her immune system, counteract bone marrow suppression and bring her white blood cell count up. He increased the herbs to address her gastrointestinal symptoms.

From then on, during the five-hour chemotherapy treatments, Jamie sipped the herbal medicine. “My doctors knew what I was doing. In fact, I took my herbal tea to the hospital and asked the nurses to heat it up in their microwave. It would stink up the whole floor and I would be sitting there drinking this stuff that looked like mud.”

By using Chinese herbs along with her chemotherapy treatments, Jamie In-gersol had a very different experience. “I had a frame of reference because during the first treatment I wasn't really drinking that many herbs. Throughout the rest of the treatments, Dr. Han increased the amount of herbs I used and each treatment got easier. I got sick to my stomach after the first treatment. That was basically my only serious problem through the five months I went through chemo.” Between treatments, Jamie's white blood count was monitored. “My white blood cell count was hopping back pretty quickly, and the doctors were happy with that.”

The herbal tea did not prevent Jamie's luxurious mane of black hair from falling out. “It started about three weeks after my first chemo. I started cutting it then. I tried different styles as I was losing it. But after a while I could grab a handful and pull out a clump of hair. At that point, I said, ‘Okay, let's get rid of it. ’ One of my sisters shaved my head. She did all these funny patterns on my head with the hair that was there, and it was kind of fun. Luckily, I have a good-shaped head. Everybody complimented me on it, so that was easier.”

In October 1998, after three treatments, Jamie's chemotherapy was interrupted by a second surgery, initially intended as an exploratory laparoscopy, which is a less invasive surgical procedure in which a thin fiber-optic tube and probe are used. However, when the surgeon inserted the fiber-optic scope through the small incision, he ran into a honeycomb of scar tissue that prevented exploration. He had no other choice but to make a large incision. The surgeon biopsied Jamie's transverse colon, sigmoid colon, left and right ovaries, left pelvic area and small bowel. He removed approximately two inches of her small bowel, which was densely knotted with adhesions. He rinsed her pelvic organs with saline solution and collected that fluid for lab analysis.

This time Jamie woke up in recovery with a fresh vertical incision running all the way from her groin to two inches above her navel. The good news was that the pathology report showed no recurrence of cancer. After her second surgery, Jamie had three more chemotherapy treatments before she was declared in remission. Her last treatment was January 1999.

Causes and Treatments for Cancer

“I was in great shape before this happened,” Jamie said. “I swam and hiked and did something physical six out of seven days. I ate really well. I don't smoke or drink. I don't know what causes cancer, but I shouldn't have gotten it.”

Many people believe that trying to be healthy by eating well, exercising and avoiding the factors we know cause cancer such as smoking and consuming processed foods, should protect us from acquiring diseases, particularly cancer. Reality, however, is harsh. Even when we do all the right things, cancer can still rear its ugly head.

Cancer rates have risen along with the accumulation of toxins in our food and environment. Lorne Feldman, M.D., founder of BIOS—B'shert Integrative Oncology Services—in Los Angeles, integrates Western medicine with complementary medicines in the treatment of cancer. Feldman is a four-time cancer survivor, having survived kidney cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and two kidney metastases. “I see the causes of cancer being one-third genetic base, one-third toxin exposure from either food or environmental toxins and another third tobacco related,” Feldman said.“You can't do anything about your genes— you are born with them—but you can do something about the other exposures. We need to learn how to educate the population on the importance of a healthy lifestyle. My biggest fear is what will happen to our kids' generation who are weaned on fast food. When we grew up there weren't as many trips to fast-food restaurants. Now kids go there every day for lunch. The fast-food industry is currently coming under the same scrutiny as the tobacco industry. People are beginning to understand how fast food contributes to the development of disease and are questioning why it is so prevalent in our society.”

The exact cause of cancer has evaded both Chinese and Western medicines. Both systems provide only partial answers. The Chinese medical view sees cancer as a continuous process that begins with a minor imbalance. If the balance of Qi is upset, there will be a slowing down of the Energy flow, which prevents toxins and metabolic waste from being sufficiently removed. This slowing down can evolve into stagnation if it is not corrected. The stagnation can then develop into a blockage of Qi. The blocked energy can become concentrated to form a mass. In the case of cancer, when the mass absorbs certain toxins, it can become malignant. Because of the nature of this process, active intervention can change the course of the development of this imbalance. Chinese medicine pays attention to the relationship between cancer and the entire body, particularly the condition of the immune system. Strengthening the immune system is pivotal in prevention, treatment and improving the quality of the patient's life.

On the other hand, Western medicine is making rapid progress in researching how cancer occurs on a subcellular and molecular level, which is providing a more detailed, clearer picture of the pathology. As a result of this research, more effective drugs are being developed to target cancer cells.

Increasingly, Western scientific research is being done on Chinese herbs. Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston as well as a handful of other prominent cancer centers are now successfully treating a particularly virulent form of leukemia with intravenous arsenic trioxide. This drug is a purified version of a Chinese herbal decoction made from two types of ground rock and toad venom. Another Chinese herbal formula, known as PC SPES, has recently been shown, through multiple testing centers throughout the United States, to be effective in treating prostate cancer as well as lowering the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level, which is often used as a prostate cancer marker.

As Dr. Luo's work demonstrated, Western and Chinese medicine's very different views of cancer can complement one another by providing a more complete picture of malignancy and a well-rounded treatment program. Cancer treatment is an excellent example of the effectiveness of Chinese herbal medicine in working alongside Western medicine to make certain medical treatments and drugs more effective and to ease Western drug-related side effects. Yet until recently only the brave and pioneering, like Jamie, knew how to access Chinese herbal medicine. Still, her situation was not a true integration of Chinese and Western medicines. In addition to finding herself in the untenable position of having to defend her choice of chemotherapy to her family, it was up to Jamie to seek out and use Chinese herbs on her own. A true integration would have been an active communication and collaboration from doctors on both sides throughout her diagnosis, treatment and recovery.

Today, more and more doctors in both Western and Chinese practices are willing to work together to maximize the benefits of medical treatments. As this becomes the norm, people in Jamie's situation will have a comprehensive and allied medical team that can ameliorate the pressures she went through.

In a second interview, it was apparent that Jamie had come to terms with many of the events surrounding her cancer. Her voice was pleasant and her laugh melodic. Except for regular blood tests, life has returned to normal, and she appears determined to put her ordeal behind her. She refocused her energies on her studies and took the exams she missed the previous summer; she was working as an intern at a Chinese medical clinic. Her hair was growing in beautifully. The short style was flattering, and she smiled as she tugged on it as if to prove that it was there to stay. “If I hadn't gotten cancer, there's a lot of things in my life that I wouldn't have dealt with,”Jamie said.“I grew up in a spir itually oriented home. When I got sick, I decided that I could either be positive or I could feel sorry for myself and feel hopeless. I chose to believe that the cancer happened for a reason and that I could make use of the experience and learn from it. I was able to deal with a lot of issues in my life, and I think I am a happier person for it now.”

Jamie has never discussed her chemotherapy with her parents. “We don't really talk about it. I think they are glad that it's over, and if I had to go through it again, they would probably still be against it. But if I had to do it all over again, I would do both chemotherapy and herbs. Ultimately, I think the ideal is like in China, where they have hospitals that integrate both Chinese and Western medicines. I had a choice to make. For me, they worked well together.”

Ways to Strengthen Your Immune System

Focus on your spiritual connection

Focusing on your spiritual connection will assist you in combating the stress that accompanies a serious illness.

Protect yourself from further chemical exposure

Follow guidelines for environmental illnesses on page 167.

Modify your diet

Eliminate white sugar and refined white flour products, which rapidly turn into sugar in your system. It is known that sugar can accelerate tumor growth. Follow nutritional guidelines for environmental illnesses on pages 168–169.

Quit caffeine, nicotine or other stimulant chemicals

Guidelines for quitting caffeine and nicotine can be found on pages 151–155. If you are a coffee drinker and do not want to give up the ritual entirely, you may choose to switch to green tea. Green tea is produced from the tea plant, Camellia sinensis, an evergreen shrub. Green tea contains polyphenols (catechins), which have been shown to lower cholesterol and improve lipid metabolism. They also possess anticancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibiotic and antimicrobial properties. Considered a strong medicine, green tea has been part of the daily life of the Chinese for over four thousand years.

Other benefits of drinking green tea daily:

Green tea contains caffeine and theophylline, which is a close relative to caffeine and is a stimulant. It is not advisable for non-caffeine drinkers to begin drinking green tea. However, if you are a caffeine drinker, green tea is an excellent alternative. Drink two to three cups of green tea a day instead of coffee. If you are not a coffee drinker, you can take 150 milligrams green tea extract per day, which contains 40 to 60 percent catechins.

Practice regular detoxification

Because detoxification can be hard on the body, you should follow the detoxification program on pages 291–296 with the supervision of your health R care professional. 1L

See a health care professional to be tested for food allergies or dysbiosis

If you have cancer, you need a health care professional to work with you and follow your healing progress. The goal is to optimize the function and decrease the toxin load of every system of your body and to keep your intestines as healthy as possible to optimize the absorption of nutrients.

Have your adrenal hormones tested, as depleted adrenals are a major contributing factor in lowered immunity. If you are extremely fatigued and suspect you are suffering from adrenal burnout, a simple blood or saliva test can check your cortisol and DHEA levels. If your cortisol is too high, with breakfast, lunch and dinner take 100 milligrams phosphatidyleserine to help lower cortisol levels.

If you have been under chronic stress and are over forty, your adrenal glands may have decreased DHEA production. DHEA is a balancing hormone to cortisol. It improves immunity, stimulates fat burning, improves energy and is reported to improve longevity, treat chronic fatigue and suppress autoimmune diseases. DHEA must be taken in physiologic doses, which is an amount that would be normal for your body to produce on its own. Pharmacological doses— above what a human body would normally make on its own—could have serious side effects. DHEA must be taken under the supervision of a doctor.

Have your amino acid levels tested. If your body is not breaking down the proteins you eat into amino acids, this can exacerbate fatigue and symptoms of depression. Amino acid supplementation can boost your energy as well as supply your body with the necessary precursors to neurotransmitters. Routinely, thirty to forty-five minutes before breakfast, lunch and dinner take 1,000 milligrams free-form amino acids.

Stool, hair and blood tests can determine if you have (1) high levels of accumulated heavy metals in your system, (2) sensitivities to foods or (3) dysbiosis, which is an imbalance of the healthy and unhealthy bacteria and yeast in the gut, any of which may be weakening your immune system and draining your energy.

See page 431 for a laboratory that can refer you to a health care provider in your area who does these types of tests. If you test positive for any of these factors, your health care practitioner can treat you on an individual basis.

Modify your diet

The Chinese approach to cancer is to support the body so that it can combat cancer cells. One of the critical factors in the development of cancer is tox-ins; thus a detoxifying diet is recommended.

It is well documented that people who eat a plant-rich diet suffer lower rates of cancer. Western studies have shown that cruciferous vegetables guard against cancer by stimulating protective enzymes that detoxify and flush carcinogens out of the body and that deeply colored vegetables and fruits contain phytonutrients that provide vital nutrition and antioxidants that neutralize free radicals. Follow the nutritional guidelines for environmental illnesses on page 169. Chapter 21 provides medicinal recipes to treat cancer.

Do not eat chicken skin

Chicken skin contains xenoestrogens—molecules that exert estrogenic influences on your body—which can stimulate the growth of certain cancers such as ovarian and breast cancer. It also contains an ingredient that accelerates mi-tosis—a stage of cell division—if that cell is abnormal. Avoid commercial chicken broth, which is processed using chicken skin. Be aware that restaurants often use chicken broth and order accordingly.

Seaweed: Most of the members of the seaweed family are excellent for reducing abnormal growths (benign or malignant), such as cancer, cystic tissue and fibroid tumors.

Seaweed (except Nori) must be soaked briefly before use (except when using in soup). After soaking, cook the seaweed for about 20 minutes or until tender. Eat seaweed two to three times per week for the greatest benefit.

Some of the health-giving properties of seaweed are:

Chinese herbs and Western supplements

You can take Chinese herbal formulas and Western supplements specifically formulated for cancer prevention, treatment and to take while undergoing chemotherapy and/or radiation. Formulas can be found online at ancientherbs modernmedicine.com.