Anti-Cancer Medicine Park Ridge IL

Alternative Medicine Cabinet - Top Cancer-Fighting Supplements

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By Catherine Guthrie

If you swallow echinacea at the first sign of a cold, visit an acupuncturist for that nagging pain in your knee, or say “energy healing” without giggling, you’re probably the type of person who would search high and low for an alternative to chemotherapy should the word “cancer” ever escape your doctor’s lips. But in this case, sticking only with alternative therapies may cost you your life.

There’s no shortage of alternative treatments that combat cancer in one way or another, including several supplements. But according to Timothy Birdsall, a naturopath and vice president of integrative medicine at Cancer Treatment Centers of America, in Zion, Illinois, none have been proven effective enough to work on their own. He still recommends chemotherapy, radiation or both for most of the hundreds of patients he sees each year.

But he generally adds some combination of supplements to the mix. They don’t cure the cancer, but some have been proven to impede tumor growth, increase chemotherapy’s effectiveness, or wipe out those cancer cells conventional therapies leave behind. Once treatment is over, they may also help prevent recurrences, says Charlotte Gyllenhaal, a research assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who studies plants with purported cancer-fighting properties. “Supplements can make the body’s internal environment less hospitable to new tumor growth,” she says.

Below are three of Birdsall’s favorites. All have been shown to promote general anti-cancer activity, meaning they can work against most types of cancer, and all have a low risk of side effects. Of course, it’s important to check with your doctor before tossing a supplement into the mix. Some may interfere with the effectiveness of chemotherapy drugs or cause other unwanted side effects, like blood thinning.

Melatonin: Not just for zzz’s
Melatonin is a popular sleep aid, but did you know the hormone also scores big when it comes to treating cancer? Its attack is twofold: Not only can melatonin increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy, it may also combat its toxicity, making side effects from the treatment less intense.

In one of the best studies to date on melatonin and cancer, Italian scientists enlisted a group of 100 patients with various types and stages of the disease. Half the volunteers received chemo- therapy; others were treated with chemo along with 20 milligrams of melatonin each night. Immediately and in the years that followed, the melatonin group not only had fewer side effects from their cancer treatment, they also lived longer than the patients who received chemotherapy alone.

Experts know melatonin is a powerful antioxidant, but they haven’t pinpointed exactly how it works against cancer. Some believe the key is melatonin’s double duty as both an antioxidant and a sleep aid. Since chemotherapy patients who slumber soundly have fewer complications than those who don’t, melatonin may encourage good sleep pa...

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