By Lindsay Kluge

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September 2, 2020

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Studies have found that integrative cancer therapy, which includes naturopathic cancer support or naturopathic oncology, is a growing area of oncology that can improve results by reducing negative side effects from conventional treatments, improving quality of life, and in some cases, potentially decrease the amount of medication needed for cancer treatment. At Richmond Natural Medicine, we provide holistic and naturopathic cancer support in conjunction with your oncology team to address your very individual needs during and after cancer treatments. We take into consideration more than just the diagnosis. We address emotional health, diet, lifestyle, sleep, stress, and family and community support. Learn more from our chief naturopathic doctor, Leah Hollon ND.

Naturopathic Cancer Care with Dr. Leah Hollon

When people seek naturopathic care from you for cancer support, what can they expect from their time working together with you?

They can expect to be heard and that we work in concert with their oncology team. Our purpose is often about maximizing their health at the present time to navigate and stay as healthy as possible through surgery, radiation, or even chemotherapy. They can also expect that if their health changes that we can also modify and shift with them. 

Read More: Naturopathic Cancer Support at RNM

How do you as a Naturopathic Doctor work with oncology teams?

The most important aspect of Naturopathic Cancer Support to obtain is information to work collaboratively. This includes obtaining the patient’s history, labs, chart records, and pathology reports. Without these, you cannot have a full sense of things. The oncology team that you work with typically will forward this information to us. Throughout someone’s care, their team will fax over ongoing labs or updated chart records so we are apprised of their ongoing health and any changes. Ongoing, we craft a plan that is individualized for that specific person based not just on their type of cancer but also on the markers or pathways that are contributing to their cancer and any changes that might occur during treatment. We also take into account if they are severely anemic or if they are having side effects of insomnia or anxiety and also work to lessen such side effects including nausea, vomiting, toxicity to the heart, lung, kidneys, or liver.

Our goal is to keep the body vital throughout therapy so that they can complete and receive the therapies without diminishing the effectiveness of the therapies that their oncology team has laid out. We must know the side effects, interactions, and contraindications of food, nutrients, chemotherapy, other drug therapy, radiation, prep for surgery, immunotherapy, and even botanical medicine. We have to know all of this. Thus, when the plan is initially and carefully crafted, we reach out to the patient’s oncology team to share the recommendations and provide the research and evidenced-based support for such choices.

We typically draft a letter and provide the concrete evidence for these choices. We often will also connect by phone to communicate if there is something urgent. Our recommendations may include nutrition, lifestyle including stress management, emotional support as well as even certain supplements. But it is based upon the specific person as well as the empirical evidence. Also due to the fact that we work in prevention, sometimes we would like specialized lab work where we may request their oncology team provide. Thus our goal is to serve as a bridge that is easily navigable for patients in their overall health and well-being which means collaborating with everyone on the team. It is hard dealing with a diagnosis of cancer, it can feel vulnerable and our job is to lessen the anxiety that can be created with the diagnosis of cancer. 

We also participate in annual continuing medical education hours with a number of local and regional oncology centers in order to continue our relationships with multiple providers and to continue to integrate a more holistic experience from a patient’s perspective.  

How might a Naturopathic approach to cancer differ from a conventional MD? And how do the two work best together for comprehensive care?

Prevention. I cannot prevent how and why someone got cancer. But with Naturopathic Cancer Support or Naturopathic Oncology, we can work to prevent harmful side effects that can occur secondarily from their cancer treatments. Thus often times we are preventing secondary harm to organs such as the liver, lung, heart, etc. We are also trying to prevent them from having to stop therapy due to the side effects being too much. This includes allowing the therapy to work to its best efficiency. Not all treatment is broken down by the body equally among all people. We can see people react or have side effects that only occur in 5% of the population. We work to understand why this is occurring for this patient and if we can further enhance the body’s ability to process a drug such as certain chemotherapies. We work to optimize their ability to respond to the therapy laid out by their oncology team. If they cannot process the therapy effectively then more harm occurs to secondary tissues which are harmful and put them at added risks for other chronic illnesses down the road. 

Additionally, many patients after treatment then feel as though after all the intense therapy that they are on their own. They may go for check-ins every 6 months or annually but they feel no one is really watching the subtle symptoms. This is where we also help with aftercare to make sure that very subtle changes are something alarming in between 6 months and 12-month check-ins. These times allow us to be additionally proactive for short and long term health. 

Read More: Putting Integrative Medicine Into Practice

Learn More about Naturopathic Cancer Support at Richmond Natural Medicine. If you are looking to include a skilled naturopathic doctor into your oncology care team, consider making an appointment with one of our naturopathic doctors at Richmond Natural Medicine. Learn More about making an appointment.