What causes a survivor to become a thriver? Some might say hope, and specifically the hope for a cure. Yes, hope is important. But from our perspective, it is not the hope for a cure that encourages us as much as hope for a change – a change in the way cancer, cancer treatment and healing are viewed. Our hope is that collaboration becomes the cornerstone of cancer care in the future. Not just collaboration that mirrors our very own internal systems – a web of interconnectedness, a rhythmic flow that comes naturally. This is not simply teamwork involving treatment. It is an alliance that encompasses body, mind, and spirit. It is a consistent, overarching effort that combines the best of conventional and complementary medicine with the proactive efforts of the patient, which must include a healthy diet, positive lifestyle choices, and appropriate dietary supplements. This is integrated medicine, and it is the future of cancer care.

Conventional medicine has delivered many advances over the past decade. Areas that hold promise for the future of cancer treatment include utilizing nanotechnology for more pinpointed treatments and the study of the biological actions of proteins, known as proteomics. Just as genomics has helped medical science in many ways, proteomics is quickly becoming an important focus in cancer diagnosis and treatment.

In the future, diet, lifestyle, and dietary supplements will go beyond merely supporting and sustaining. These controllable factors will be viewed as significant complementary treatment techniques to reverse cancer. More funding is needed for researching integrative approaches. Our present system primarily rewards those who can substantiate the performance of isolated synthetic drugs that can be patented. Research into combined approaches or utilizing a healthy diet, positive lifestyle choices, and supplements, all of which cannot be patented, is presently not being supported as much as it could be, or should be. Read the rest of this entry »