Donnie Yance is an internationally known master herbalist and nutritionist. He is the author of the book, "Herbal Medicine, Healing and Cancer" and "Adaptogens in Medical Herbalism"
“All cancers are alike but they are alike in a unique way.”― Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
Last September, I came across an excellent article written by George Lundberg, MD, a board-certified pathologist and former long-time editor of both the Journal of the American Medical Association and Medscape, a highly respected web resource for health professionals (http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/809982).
It’s well known that elevated fasting blood sugar is a precursor to diabetes. Less well known, but increasingly recognized, is that elevated fasting serum glucose and/or insulin levels are also risk factors for cancer, and the risk grows as fasting blood sugar and insulin levels rise. With the escalation of obesity and diabetes worldwide, it is important to recognize these diseases as causative factors for cancer development, especially for older individuals.
Continue reading “The Relationship of Insulin Resistance and Cancer: A Botanical Approach”
In my clinical practice, I have had the great pleasure of collaborating with Dwight McKee, M.D., a wise and compassionate oncologist who approaches the treatment of cancer in a truly integrative manner. Dr. McKee has written the forward for my new book, Adaptogens in Medical Herbalism: Elite Herbs and Natural Compounds for Mastering Stress, Aging, and Chronic Disease (September 2013, Healing Arts Press), which I would like to share with you here.
For years, “routine” PSA screening was considered a standard part of prudent, preventive medicine, and surveillance was commonly encouraged by doctors for men beginning in their 50’s. About a year ago, in May of 2012, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) came out with a new recommendation—namely that all men, regardless of their age, should not regularly have PSA screening tests performed unless they are determined to be at increased risk for prostate cancer. What changed, and why the new guidelines? Let’s see if we can understand this whole situation a little better!
Continue reading “Evaluating New Guidelines for PSA Screening”
I believe that we are at a crossroads in oncology and our approach to cancer, where a total paradigm shift in philosophy, strategy, science, and medicine is needed to replace the prevailing “War on Cancer.” This war, declared by Congress in 1971, has yielded little real benefit, despite four decades of effort by conventional medicine and more than $100 billion tax dollars.
I’ve recently received a number of queries from patients and practitioners who are curious about a handful of studies and anecdotal reports that indicate a ketogenic diet may help to curtail cancer growth. For those not familiar with the ketogenic diet, it’s a very low carbohydrate diet that contains moderate amounts of protein and a high percentage of fats.
I prefer to think of foods in their whole, natural forms (for example, almonds, apples, asparagus, blueberries, oatmeal, olives, potatoes, rye, and salmon) instead of in reductionist terms of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Keeping this in mind, the primary purpose of dietary carbohydrates is for fuel—the body converts carbohydrates via the liver into glucose, which is used for everything from powering muscles to brain function. When confronted with a lack of carbohydrates, the body switches to burning fats for energy by converting fats (again via the liver) into ketone bodies.