Feng Shui

Ba gua map

Feng shui is a Chinese practice that uses the laws of both Heaven and Earth to improve life by receiving positive chi. Chi means energy and there is both positive and negative chi. In nature, most chi is positive. However, as humans build houses and buildings, the positive chi might be blocked out, and negative chi might be trapped in.To avoid trapping negative chi, buildings can be constructed in alignment with the environment's chi. For buildings that already exist, practitioners of Feng Shui can adjust interior decorations to change the flow of chi.

Many people believe that by adjusting the environment according to the beliefs of Feng Shui, a person suffering from a disease may show improvement from the flow of positive chi. Sometimes increasing the flow of positive energy is as easy as adding a few plants or rearranging the furniture. (In addition to increasing the flow of chi, plants also increase the flow of oxygen!)

While people who practice Feng Shui note that it can have a positive effect on a person's health or overall wellbeing, there is no scientific evidence proving Feng Shui can cure cancer such as mesothelioma. There is no harm in trying Feng Shui as a complementary therapy along with traditional treatments. Mesothelioma patients who practiced Feng Shui have said that they feel less stress and anxiety knowing that there is a positive flow of energy. 

Massage Your Pain Away

Massage had always been a way of relaxing and relieving pain. Mesothelioma patients frequently suffer pain as a result of their disease. Thus massage therapy might be a good palliative treatment option.

Massages manipulate body tissues and blood vessels and work to increase blood flow. Oxygen supply can improve and this, in turn, can ease pains, aches and soreness.

There are various massage options available, such as the traditional Swedish massage, Shiatsu, deep tissue massage, hot stone massage, and Thai massage, among others.

Massages can be helpful in alleviating, at least temporarily, a patient’s anxiety, and stress. It induces peacefulness and balances the mind.

The patient should always consult their medical professional before starting any massage therapy.

Maintaining a Healthy Mind and Body

Yoga is a popular exercise that helps strengthen the muscles and improve flexibility. Yoga originated in India, where it was practiced more for spiritual reasons than physical reasons. As yoga spreads, it is known as an exercise that helps calm the mind and improve general health. Yoga can also help patients with cancers, such as mesothelioma.

Yoga cannot cure diseases but it is extremely helpful for patients suffering pain and discomfort. For cancer patients it is especially important to keep a healthy mind and body to battle the disease. Cancer patients often go through treatment such as chemotherapy, where the patient suffers from weakness of body and distress. Therefore, it is helpful for the patient to practice yoga where it induces relaxation of the muscle and mind. Yoga's meditative poses also help lower blood pressures, reduce stress, improve flexibility, and improve quality of sleep.

The results of practicing yoga vary from person to person. A cancer patient should consult a doctor before beginning to practice yoga. A patient should be in good physical condition and under the supervision of an experienced instructor to practice yoga.

Natural ways to relieve mesothelioma pain

When a person has mesothelioma, often they are hospitalized because of the intense pain and suffering caused by the disease itself. Still other pain (discomfort, nausea, assorted health problems) come as a result of chemotherapy treatments and radiation treatments.

Someone who is in pain because of their cancer (and cancer treatments) can take alternative treatment along with the medical treatment they are already getting--i.e., complementary medicine.

These forms vary because some involve the interaction of your senses with the world as the primary source of wellness,as with meditation and aromatherapy, and some are administered by doctors or other professionals, as with acupuncture andTranscutaneous electrical stimulation.

Acupuncture is the concept of releasing impurities by the insertion of a needle into a acupuncture point. Acupuncture is based off ancient Chinese medicine to increase the flow of Qi (in this case, blood). Modern medicine has determined that acupuncture increases the micro-circulation and the oxygenation of tissues improving their overall function.

On the other hand, there is transcutaneous electrical stimulation that uses the electricity from an object to stimulate the nerves. Typically two electrodes are attached to the patient's bare skin, and electric currents(non-lethal) surge through the body providing relaxation of nerves, which in turn causes the pain to decrease.

Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy concept of using the bodies' own immune system to defend and differentiate cancer cells from normal cells. The body already produces BRM's (Biological Response Modifiers) but to increase effectiveness of these BRM's are reproduced in the lab increasing the count so BRM's wont have to work as hard to fight cancerous cells. The results are mixed and BRM's MAY:

-Enhance the immune system to fight cancer cell growth.
-Eliminate, regulate, or suppress body responses that permit cancer growth.
-Make cancer cells more susceptible to destruction by the immune system.
-Alter cancer cell’s growth patterns to behave like normal cells.
-Block or reverse the process that changes a normal cell into a cancer cell.
-Prevent a cancer cell from spreading to other sites.

Tea For Treatment

According to Purdue University researchers, Dorothy Morre and D. James Morre, green tea contains the compound EGCg, an enzyme that can kill cultured cancer cells without harming healthy cells. This discovery offers the first scientific evidence to explain precisely how this compound works within a cell to ward off many  types of cancer, such as mesothelioma.

"Our research shows that green tea leaves are rich in this anti-cancer compound, with concentrations high enough to reduce anti-cancer effects in the body," says Dorothy Morre. Drinking more than four cups of green tea a day could provide enough of the active compound to slow and prevent the growth of cancer cells.

Lycopene in tomatoes fights prostate, lung, and stomach cancer

Tomatoes can do more than liven up a salad or sandwich--they are strong antioxidants.

Good news for African American men at risk of prostate cancer (a cancer for which asbestos exposure is a risk factor): a tomato a day may keep the tumors away.


Cancer Prevention Research published a study ("Antioxidant Effects of Lycopene in African American Men with Prostate Cancer or Benign Prostate Hyperplasia: A Randomized, Controlled Trial") led by Richard van Breemen of the University of Chicago. The research team found that lycopene, the pigment that gives tomatoes their red hue, could help prevent prostate cancer in African American men.

Lycopene is a known antioxidant. Other studies have shown that diets rich in tomatoes (and other sources of lycopene) may lower the risk of certain cancers, especially cancers of the prostate, lung and stomach. 

"We're not setting out to treat cancer, but to prevent it, and we're hoping to do so with lycopene."

--Richard van Breemen

Lycopene gives tomatoes and other fruits/ vegetables their distinctive red color.

According to van Breemen, this study was the first of its kind to focus exclusively on African American men, who are at a higher risk than other American men for prostate cancer. One hundred and five African American men, ranging from the age of 50 to 83, all of whom had abnormalities of the prostate, were recruited from two Chicago veterans' hospitals for the study.

According to the University of Chicago, each day, half of the participants "received two gel capsules containing 30 milligrams of lycopene, while the other half received placebo capsules that contained only soybean oil." The lycopene approximated the amount a person would digest daily by eating foods that use tomato sauce, such as pasta with sauce and pizza, van Breemen said. 

The lycopene in the pills was the amount in pizza or pasta with tomato sauce.

The researchers wanted to see if lycopene would rise in the blood and prostate tissue, and if raised lycopene blood levels could lower markers of oxidative stress. Oxidative stress injures the body's cells, while antioxidants help cells heal from the damage. It is a factor in cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and in the natural aging process.

Compared to the placebo group, the men who took the lycopene showed a significant increase of the antioxidant in their blood, van Breemen said. Though the men in the study were all over the age of fifty, it is never too late to start using preventative and natural medicine. 

Preventative medicine is incredibly important. For any male readers out there, take the doctor's advice and have a bowl of gazpacho, some bruschetta, spaghetti with red sauce, or even a slice of pizza (blot the grease, please). It just may save you trouble up the road.