While undergoing breast cancer treatment, you need your body to be as strong as possible. At Rising Health, we offer additional therapies that can help support your whole body, lowering the possibility of cancer returning and boosting your immune system.
Our therapies also support post-treatment symptoms. Breast cancer treatment can take a toll on your body, but a holistic approach to health can help regulate your bodily systems and relieve discomfort.
Hormone Therapy
If your cancer is fueled by either progesterone or estrogen, meaning you are either ER or PR positive, hormone therapy can be extremely helpful. Mayo Clinic explains that hormone therapy is often used as a supplement breast cancer treatment either before or after surgery. It can raise the likelihood of removing the cancer completely during surgery by shrinking the tumor beforehand, or it can lower the risk of cancer returning after surgery. Hormone therapy has also been shown to lower the risk of cancer spreading by slowing or stopping the growth of existing cancer.
Gut Health
While surgery, chemo, and radiation are the typical thoughts that come to mind when we think of breast cancer treatments, gut health is also critical to recovery and remission. As mentioned above, your hormones have likely affected your cancer. Hormone imbalances or increased estrogen have been shown to increase your overall risk of cancer.
How can your gut negatively impact hormones? Four common culprits are nutritional deficiencies, gut inflammation, toxins, and impaired elimination.
You need a healthy gut in order to maintain a proper balance of good bacteria in your system and to eliminate estrogen through your stool. Without good bacteria (microbiome), you can re-absorb estrogen metabolites leading to an increased risk for cancer.
Rutkowski, Ph.D., of UVA's Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology, says that a healthy diet, high in fiber contributes to a healthy microbiome which “is very much associated with a favorable outcome in the long term for breast cancer."
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
While continued trials and ongoing studies provide new information about the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), it is currently approved and reimbursed by insurance companies for use in managing late radiation toxicity in the breast.
Radiation treatments for breast cancer are standard but bring a host of unwanted issues such as breast or chest wall pain, fibrosis, edema, and impaired arm mobility. At Rising Health in Salt Lake City, we provide hyperbaric oxygen therapy to help restore and heal damaged tissues.
As you lie in the chamber, it will pressurize to 100% pure oxygen. As you breathe the oxygen, your injured tissues will be infused with pure oxygen, giving them what they need to begin healing.
Vitamin C IV Therapy
Increased Vitamin C has been shown to have positive outcomes for breast cancer patients. However, our bodies do not produce vitamin C on their own, and ingesting food high in vitamin C is not enough. Only 18% of vitamin C can be absorbed when ingested but when received via intravenous infusions or IV therapy it is 100% bioavailable or actively available.
IV therapy is one of the fastest-growing forms of alternative medicine therapy. High-dose vitamin C IV therapy can bypass the digestive system and deliver the benefits directly into the bloodstream providing immediate results. An IV of Vitamin C provides overwhelming immune system support when your body is already weak. A vitamin IV therapy that includes vitamin C is ideal for addressing symptoms such as nausea and vomiting, low energy, and sleeplessness brought on by cancer treatments. Additionally, vitamin C brings therapeutic advantages against breast cancer cells and provides needed antioxidants.
Breast Cancer Awareness
Now is the time to understand how functional medicine provides options for supporting your body and giving you the best chance to prevent breast cancer or prevent its recurrence. Breast cancer prevention is personal as each person’s physical make-up is different. There is no single therapy or guarantee that will prevent breast cancer from recurring or developing, but your functional medicine doctor can personalize strategies and supportive therapies so that you feel heard, understood, and appreciated throughout this process.
Understanding your family medical history, your personal lifestyle choices, innovative early diagnostic detection, and nutrition and toxin awareness will all create a combined effect greater than any separate action you take.
Your doctors at Rising Health in Salt Lake City will walk you through all possible steps for improving your breast cancer prevention. Contact us today for a free 15-minute consultation.