A small study has found ginger supplements reduce markers of inflammation in the colon tissue of 30 healthy volunteers..

• Does this mean eating more ginger or taking ginger supplements will reduce colon cancer risk?  We don’t know, and this study doesn’t ask or answer that question?
• Does ginger actually reduce inflammation in the colon? Or just cut back  some inflammatory markers that it might be temporarily present?  We don’t know.
• Will ginger have similar side effects as other agents that we know do reduce inflammation like aspirin? We don’t know. For the short time volunteers were taking ginger there didn’t seem to be any difference in side effects, but what may happen long-term . . . We Just Don’t Know!

There is a lot we don’t know. Yet, ginger is being touted by the media as preventing or fighting colon cancer. True, many headlines are hedging bets with words like “may” but the implication is still there.

Read the rest of this entry »

Listening to just thirty minutes of music significantly reduced pain and distress for cancer patients.

The patients were receiving medication, but still had pain.

Music reduced pain scores by more than 50 percent for almost half of them compared to fewer than 1 in 10 similar patients who just rested in bed. Read the rest of this entry »

I have a patient, in fact a movie producer with metastatic colon cancer, who had liver metastases. He enrolled in a clinical trial (SWOG 80405) and responded very well to chemotherapy. His liver metastases were not resectable at first, but because his tumor shrank so dramatically, he became resectable. He underwent surgery with curative intent, meaning to remove all tumors, which was successful. He finished further chemotherapy and is right now cancer free. He is one of the success stories of aggressive chemotherapy.

He did very well with chemotherapy and he attributes his attitude and very few side effects to his regular tai chi. So I did some research on tai chi and found interesting information I wanted to share with you. Read the rest of this entry »

Patients recovering from abdominal surgery benefited from having plants in their hospital rooms.  They had less pain, needed lower doses of pain medicine, and had lower heart rates and blood pressure.  As they got better, they spent time watering and tending the plants.

In addition, patients with plants were less fatigued and anxious.   They were happier with their rooms, and 93 percent of them said that the plants were the best part of the room.  Patients without plants said that watching television was the most positive aspect of their hospital stay. Read the rest of this entry »