Battling Cancer

How come Sherlock Holmes never paid any income taxes?

Brilliant deductions.

Laughter therapy is one of my personal favorite complementary and alternative medicine therapies.

Laughter has been proven through clinical trials to boost endorphins, our natural pain killers, and suppress epinephrine the stress hormone. The result is less pain and less stress. Less pain and less stress is an obvious boost for the immune system. A very good thing.

Once again the healing power of the mind comes into play here. Laughter is not proven to cure but it certainly is a tool, part of your arsenal in the battle against cancer.

Laughter the Best Medicine, Research Points to the Power of a Good Giggle. This report by ABC News shares that “a study of 20 men and women conducted at the University of Maryland School of Medicine found that 95 percent of the volunteers experienced increased blood flow while watching a funny movie, such as There’s Something About Mary, while 74 percent had decreased blood flow during a heavier picture, such as Saving Private Ryan. The results lasted about 12 to 24 hours.”

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Who remembers playing Pac-Man? Come on, ‘fess up. Basically Pac-Man moves through the maze eating the dots.

If you need a refresher, here’s a Tribute to Pac-Man from YouTube.

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Hi there, readers! Since I’ll be on the road travelling for the next two days, I asked Amanda Devereaux, one of my former bosses and best friends, to step in for me for the following guest post.   Amanda, who is blessed with both beauty and brains, has a Ph.D. in Microbiology and is currently working in a cancer research laboratory.  I’m sure you’ll find her opinions as entertaining as I do!

If any of you reading this are like me, there are two words that should never be spoken in the same sentence:  acupuncture (Aka: sharp, steel needles) and breast (soft, nerve-filled mammary tissue that hurts when poked with a sharp, steel needle).  I guess the British have a different approach on how to get their kicks than I do.  Different strokes for different folks, as the saying goes. 

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Score one major point for alternative cancer care: Dr. Judah Folkman, widely considered the father of anti-angiogenesis cancer therapeutics, recently gave the keynote address to a standing-room only crowd of complementary medicine supporters at the 8th annual lecture series for the Lenny Zakim Center for Integrative Therapies.

His talk, which covered his research interests and the emerging role of nutritional supplements in anti-angiogenic therapy, helped further validate the importance of integrative approaches alongside traditional cancer care. Dr. Folkman gave even more encouraging news to practitioners who gathered at Boston’s Dana Farber Cancer Institute by describing recent research that connects moderate exercise to the release of natural anti-angiogenic factors that may inhibit some tumor growth.

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