21 Aug Comprehensive Cancer Wellness Program – Alternative Cancer Treatment with Lifestyle Medicine at Life Change Health Institute

Having been diagnosed with cancer is like no other experience. It immediately scrambles our thoughts and dismantles our dreams and previous agendas. Our hearts and minds are lit with a burning and all encompassing fear. This occurs not because of the nature of cancer but rather is a consequence of a complete misunderstanding and lack of knowledge regarding biology, health and “disease”. It is essential to understand that our bodies function according to biological laws and are not arbitrary or doomed. Just as certain as a finger will heal, if cut with a knife, so can our bodies heal from cancer. Our aim is not only to treat the cancer, but to change the biochemistry of your body to a state of health and well being so the cancer will no longer flourish. What sets Life Change Health Institute apart from other centers is that we focus on providing you with this knowledge, to gain the understanding, the tools, and the direct experience, therefore the power to heal. When you understand how your body functions, how your brain and body are an organism functioning in unison, and how your mind and body have developed to the state it is today, then you can begin the process of healing, changing and transforming from a state of dis-ease to a state of vitality.
The Chronic psychological status of the individual may play an important role either in facilitating tumour promotion or in dampening or accentuating the impacts of environmental stress. Lipman, head of the breast cancer section of national cancer institute Maryland has written that the human endocrine system provides one critical mediator of interaction between psyche and tumor, it seems inescapable that psychic factors which can evoke endocrine changes will have effects on actual tumour biology. The effect of hormones on the growth  and spread of cancer is twofold. First, many tumours are directly hormone dependant , or they, arise in organs intimately involved in homonal interactions, such as the ovaries or teste. Hormone dependant cancer cells bear on their membranes receptors for various hormones capable of promoting cell growth.one example of a hormone dependant cancer is that of the breast. it is generally understood that many breast cancers are oestrogen dependant, this being the rational for the use of oestrogen blocking drug tamoxifen. less well known is that some breast cancers have receptors for a broad array of other information substances including androgens,progestins, prolactin, insulin, vitamin D and several more all of them secreted by the HPA axis or regulated by it. Stress is a powerful modulator of hormonal function. Gabor Mate 
One in three people in Ireland will develop cancer during their lifetime. In Ireland an average of 30,000 new cases of cancer are diagnosed each year. The number is expected to rise to over 40,000 per year by 2020. The five most common cancers in Ireland are Non melanoma skin cancer (the most common and treatable form of skin cancer), prostate cancer, breast cancer, bowel cancer and lung cancer. Up to 50% of all cancers are preventable, 30% are preventable through lifestyle changes alone. These Statistics are taken from cancer.ie. Cancer is formed from a stem cell where the Dna of the stem cell has been damaged through epigenitics, Diet, Lifestyle, stress or a combination of all. This damaged stem cell becomes immortal and starts to produce cells at a rapid rate, when the immune system is already compromised due to diet, lifestyle, infections, stress etc it does not detect the rapid growth of theses daughter cells produced by the stem cell, over time these cells produced at a rapid rate form a tumor . Conventional treatments aim to shrink the tumor , sometimes with success but these treatments never address the root problem of the stem cell and also attack surrounding healthy cells, further compromise the immune system and lymphatic system whilst feeding the body with a poisonous carcinogenic such as chemotherapy. Cancel cells are hypoxic and thrive in an anaerobic (without oxygen) unlike healthy cells which need oxygen supply, this means that cancer cells change their metabolism through a process called engiogenis and form their own blood vessels to supply the tumor with nutrients to survive. Cancer cells also thrive in acidic environment and feeds on sugar. For one who has developed a tumor means that the body has alreday been sick and the cancer is a result not the other way around where the cancer makes the body sick. Everybody has damaged stem cells and cancerous cells every day but they are detected and taken care of by our immune system.
“A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that is an agent directly involved in causing cancer. This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes.”

 
What is Lifestyle Medicine & Functional Health 
Lifestyle medicine is a branch of evidence-based medicine in which comprehensive lifestyle changes (including nutrition, physical activity, stress management, social support and environmental exposures) are used to prevent, treat and reverse the progression of chronic diseases by addressing their underlying causes. Lifestyle medicine is often prescribed in conjunction with our trauma recovery programs. Life Change Health Institute provides leadership in research, prevention and treatment of lifestyle-related diseases through lifestyle medicine. Lifestyle medicine includes functional health, plant based nutrition and complex trauma recovery.
Functional Health addresses the underlying causes of disease and weight gain, using a systems-oriented approach and engaging both client and functional health therapist in a therapeutic partnership. It is an evolution in the practice of medicine that better addresses the healthcare needs of the 21st century. By shifting the traditional disease-centered focus of medical practice to a more client-centered approach, Functional Health addresses the whole person, not just an isolated set of symptoms. Functional Health therapists spend time with their clients, listening to their histories and looking at the interactions among genetic, environmental, relational and lifestyle factors that can influence long-term health and complex, chronic disease, we also take a closer look at a clients relationship to food rather than just suggesting a diet, this is very effective for long term change, health and wellbeing. In this way, Functional Health supports the unique expression of health and vitality for each individual.
Functional Health offers a powerful new operating system and clinical model for assessment, treatment, and prevention of chronic disease to replace the outdated and ineffective acute-care models carried forward from the 20th century. Functional Health incorporates the latest in genetic science, systems biology, and understanding of how environmental and lifestyle factors influence the emergence and progression of disease. Functional Health enables health professionals to practice proactive, predictive, personalized health care and empowers clients to take an active role in their own health.
 

 
In order to keep a tree healthy and allow it to flourish, you need to support the most basic and essential elements first; the foundation: the roots and soil. Similarly, if a tree is not healthy, the first place you should look for answers is those same foundational elements. In Functional Health, the same approach applies to clients. The most important factors, and the ones we examine first when gathering information about the client, are the foundational lifestyle factors; sleep, exercise, nutrition, stress levels, relationships, and genetics. These are the roots and soil, which are in turn influenced by specific predisposing factors (antecedents), discrete events (triggers), and ongoing physiological processes (mediators), and may then result in fundamental imbalances at the trunk. These can eventually result in the signs and symptoms that are grouped into a diagnosable constellation that we call disease, represented by the branches and leaves.
 

“Functional Health is a personalized, systems-oriented model that empowers clients to achieve the highest expression of health by working in collaboration with a functional health therapist to address the underlying causes of disease.” Plant Based Academy