By Dr Kelly McGuire and Dr Payam Kiani
Overcoming breast cancer is a tremendous personal and medical endeavor. Naturopathic Medicine has a lot to offer those patient’s facing this daunting task. Whether you are faced with surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, or recovery after your conventional care, our naturopathic doctors can help you stay healthy and have better outcomes.
Some of the most common tools used to help support your care and help you to navigate your journey towards remission include:
- Nutritional assessment – You are what you eat, digest and assimilate into your cells! Optimizing your diet pre- and post- surgery can improve healing and speed up recovery. A healthy diet is the root of a healthy life in the long term.
- Nutritional supplementation – undergoing chemotherapy or radiation is necessary for cancer survival but also very damaging to healthy cells. Using selected nutritional supplements before and after your conventional treatment can help lessen the fatigue and other unpleasant side effects of your entire healing process.
- Lifestyle suggestions – Exercise, meditation, prayer, and other lifestyle techniques can greatly influence a healthy recovery. Discussion about healthy habits is integral to a Naturopathic treatment plan.
- Acupuncture – This ancient Chinese practice is a large part of a Naturopathic Doctor’s training. We use acupuncture needles to relax muscles, balance physical symptoms and access subtle mental/emotional channels that exist in our bodies. The balance of yin, yang, qi and blood ban bring profound strength to a healing body.
- IV therapy – Giving nutrients to your cells is a complex process when we eat food. Delivering specific nutrients like Vitamin C directly to the blood stream is a safe and effective treatment option.