Note #3 Fighting Cancer 1
Both Western and Eastern for the best
Recently, I watched a documentary on a TV showing Brain Tumor and Liver Cancer. For the brain tumor part, they were showing Dr.Fukushima, who is a faculty of Duke University, doing operation. He was called in the show ‘ a man with god’s hands’. He is a sort of last of the defense in a way. When many of the doctors are reluctant to try a surgery, he is not. He is the one who can do such a highly skilled operation when nobody else can. Even though, as he was commenting in the show, there are kinds of tumors, such as malignant and metastasized multiple locations, too close to the very essential part of the brain such as brain stem, and so on, which even he can not operate.
Then at the end of the segment, they were showing a machine called ‘Cyber Knife’. There are 12 in Japan. This machine is incredible. This machine performs radiation therapy not like the radiation therapy before. It does really a pinpoint radiation therapy. A doctor programs to the computer the precise location of tumor and also program the location of the tissues which can not be damaged. Base on these information, the robot arm of this machine goes around the patient head and start shooting radiation that effect the very edge of the tumor, not the surrounding tissue. During the treatment, a patient does not feel any heat sensation or any kind. This was amazingly effective as far as it was shown on the TV.
The other cancer case on the TV was liver cancer. Liver is a very difficult organ to perform surgery due to its character of concentrate blood vessels. It can trigger massive bleeding which can be very fatal. But this Japanese doctor, Dr.Takayama, was able to perform a surgery. The key of his method is using a string to close all the major blood vessels one by one. So basically he doesn’t cause any bleeding and that allowed him to work on the area called Quadrate lobe. This was the area which was basically untouchable before due to its location and relation to the major blood vessels.
Oriental Approach
In the past, especially in Asia, Oriental Medicine was the only choice and it treated cancer as well. Basically everything was treated by Oriental medicine. But now, like above cases which I saw on the TV and as you know, Oriental medicine is not the main stream of present medicine. For certain conditions, it is still in Asia, but for cancer treatment, it is supportive treatment method which helps and enhance the Western treatment. Surgery, Chemotherapy and radiation therapy, they are the ones that should be the first choice. However, for aggressive and very progressive cancer/tumor, or time in remission, combining Oriental medicine can be a big support to your body.
The main course of treatment by Oriental medicine in this case will be herbal medicine. Acupuncture is good too. But herbs are the first choice(Little more info on Acupuncture in the last paragraph). Either bulk herb formula or powder formula will be the choice. Since cancer can be very aggressive sometimes, herbal treatment which is done for this type of case is also aggressive. Dosage will be bigger than the other formulas, with lots of anti-tumor and anti-cancer herbs. In this part of report, I would like to mention why Oriental herbal medicine can help treating cancer. There are functions that are known by lab test. (Here is a Japanese Kanpo book (ISBN4-7911-0361-0) which mentions about that.)
1) Anti-tumor/cancer function
2) Enhancing effect of Chemotherapy
For example, one formula called Jyuzen-daiho-tou is known to enhance the effect of drugs such as Mitemicine or 5FU. The result is much better than using them by themselves when it is combined.
3) Prevention and reduction of side-effects from Chemo-/Radiation therapy
Known side effects are nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, weight loss, lethargy, fatigue, hair loss, inflammation in mouth, diarrhea, edema, and sensitive colonitis. Or such lab test findings as reduced number of white blood cells or anemia. Oriental medicine is known to treat these side effects.
4) Immunity invigorating effect
There are known pharmaceuticals which do have this effect such as OK432, BCG, PSK and renchinan. But Oriental medicine is particularly good at this. It is known that the formula Jyuzen-daiho-tou, which is mentioned above also, enhance the production of cytokine such as interferon and interleukin, which stimulate production of specific antibodies.
5) Improvement of whole body conditions at late stage (improvement of quality of life)
Patients with progressive cancer or in terminal stage, different conditions appears. Nausea, vomiting, lethargy, loss of appetite, constipation, water retention in abdomen or limbs (edema). Treating this type of conditions, Oriental medicine is largely expected to give improvement.
6) Prevention of Cancer/Tumor
There are two major functions that I want to emphasize by taking herbal medicine because they are the major players as long as prevention goes. First one is that it stimulates and invigorates immune function which strengthens a human body’s defense mechanism, which is by tonifying Qi. The second thing is that it helps with patient’s physical strength, energy level, which is damaged by Chemo/radiation therapy, and this is also by tonifying Qi. This is very important part in the course of treating cancer/tumor. If you see the side effects from Chemo/radiation therapy, you will see why I emphasize the two functions of Herbal medicine and why we strongly recommend to combine both Western and Oriental treatment.
So the major side effects from Chemotherapy are;
①Bone marrow damage, which leads to lower white blood cell counts, lower platelets count, anemia and so on. ②GI damage, which leads to loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting and so on. ③Kidney damage, which leads to protein in urine, increased BUN and serum creatinine, and so on. ④Liver damage, which leads to increased liver enzymes(GOT,GPT) and so on. ⑤Lung toxicity, which leads to interstitial pneumonia and progression of emphysema. ⑥Heart disorders, and so on.
And the major side effects from Radiationtherapy are;
①Bone marrow damage. ②GI damage. ③Skin damage, and so on.
Lastly, we do acupuncture to treat cancer/tumor. Treatment principle is the same as when we prescribe herbal medicine. But we just do it by stimulating certain points of a body to achieve the same goal with needles. Only the problem is that a patient can’t have it done three times a day, which is what herbal medicine can do by taking it for 3 times a day. But other than that, acupuncture will be great to treat pain that is due to cancer/tumor, stress and depression from the condition which farther leads to negative side effects including decreased immune function. We can do that by tonifying Qi, clearing Heat, nourishing blood, opening the meridians and so on, with acupuncture. That is why we also recommend acupuncture treatment as well. If there is pain anywhere in the body, Acupuncture can be a great choice to treat it. Also due to a natural calming effect from acupuncture, it is good to treat mental stress, which is one major factor that prevents patients from fighting against cancer. A stress can decrease immune function.
more on Kanpo approach
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