Melanoma and diet
My wife is 49 and very fit and active. She has just been diagnosed as suffering from melanoma skin cancer. Although she eats a healthy vegetarian and organic diet, we would like to know more about alternatives. She will have the conventional surgery, drugs and treatment. How can she support these?
There is now an embarrassment of information about how both nutrition and herbs can be used to help support conventional cancer treatment. Rather than highlighting just a few, I am going to recommend some resources which will help your wife to make the choices that are right for her.
I have, for example, just finished reading Dr Rosy Daniel’s new book, Living With Cancer (Robinson, £7.99) and this is the first book I would pass on to anyone newly diagnosed with any type of cancer. Dr Daniel was medical director of the pioneering Bristol Cancer Help Centre (Helpline: 0117-980-9505), which has just celebrated its 20th anniversary with its patron, Prince Charles.
The centre, which supports those having conventional cancer therapies, as well as those who have opted out of mainstream treatments, maintains a huge database of complementary remedies and therapies and is said to “Set the gold standard in complementary care in cancer” according to Professor Karol Sikora, director of cancer services at the World Health Organisation.
There is a key emphasis on nutrition and the best-thumbed recipe book in my house is Jane Sen’s Healing Foods Cookbook, (Thorsons, £12.99). Jane is the Centre’s executive chef and this book is a brilliant introduction to using nourishing foods like mung beans and the traditional Aztec grain, Quinoa, for those who are nervous of cooking with unfamiliar grains and pulses.
Another excellent book to invest in is The Cancer Handbook - a What Doctors Don’t Tell You publication edited by the founder of that organisation, Lynne McTaggart, which provides a comprehensive review of what is really working in cancer treatments. (To order, call 020-8944-9555). Also, since you are clearly both interested in nutrition, get a copy of Sandra Goodman’s book, Nutrition and Cancer: State of the Art. The author is the editor of Positive Health magazine and you can order the book, which costs £7.99, from 0117-983-8851.