Natural Treatment of Cancer: Boost the Immune System

by Dr. Donna Schwonthowski, Master Herbalist, D.C. (ret)

One of the first things that a person given a diagnosis of cancer thinks about is why. Why me? What could I have done to prevent it? Was there something that I didn't do or did do to cause it? The reason why cancer appears in a person varies from patient to patient and it is because of this fact that there will never be one cure-all treatment for cancer.

Another thought of many diagnosed with cancer is what to do about it. Discussions with the medical doctors often result in patients feeling that there must be an all natural approach to cancer. The treatment options may not look good. They wonder what the alternative health practitioners do to treat cancer patients. The question opens up a whole new world to the cancer patient and his or her family as they search for solutions for the cancer itself and if none are found, they opt for the compassionate thing to do, increase the person's quality of life.

What Do Alternative Health Care Practitioners Do For Cancer?

An all natural approach to cancer developed by an alternative health care practitioner often includes herbs, supplements, IV's, diet changes, and stress reduction/relaxation or visualization exercises. Many alternative health care practitioners treating cancer search for the reasons why the person developed cancer in the first place.

When alternative health practitioners use a natural approach for cancer, they have three major goals:

• boost the immune system
• detoxify the body
• fortify the body with nutrients from foods, nutritional supplements, and herbs

This article will focus on the purpose of boosting the immune system and how to actually boost the immune system using all natural herbs, foods and products.

Why is Boosting the Immune System Important for Cancer Patients?

Our immune system has been very intricately designed. There are many cells that directly attack cancer cells and others that assist in immobilizing aggressive cancer cells. By increasing the numbers of these cells, you boost the body's immune system. This prevents the body from being in a weakened state during the cancer treatment phases.

Natural killer cells are one of the most important parts of our body's white blood cell army and are known to kill cancer cells. Natural killer cells increase their activity naturally when the body has the right amount of selenium, vitamin C and germanium. Reishi mushrooms contain chemical constituents that will also increase natural killer cell count in the body. By increasing the cell count numbers of natural killer cells using an all natural approach to cancer, positive steps toward recovery can often be seen.

Other all natural approaches to cancer include consumption of plenty of organic fruits and vegetables which supply the body with not only vitamin C and other antioxidants, but also plant phytonutrients that fill in the gaps of nutrition that every cancer patient needs.

All Natural Herbs Have Their Place

In the last decade, many herbal formulas have come into the limelight to show how they can decrease chemotherapy side effects. These products help by boosting the immune system of the patient, who is usually suffering from a weakened immune system because of chemotherapy and radiation.

Leucozepin(R) is an all natural herbal formula that contains herbs which have been shown in clinical studies to boost the immune system. These herbs include Astragalus, licorice, dong quai, reishi mushroom, tangerine, codonopsis root, psoralea fruit, poria seed, dendroblum stem, ligustrum lucidum fruit, bai-zhu-atractylodes root, rehmannia root and spatholobus stem. The combination together is what results in a boost of the immune system, restoring a healthy balanced state of the activation of T and B cells, macrophages, and natural killer cells. Clinically, this resulted in less fatigue, increased energy levels, recovery of blood cell counts, and the ability to get up out of bed and get back to work.

As more and more patients choose an all natural approach to cancer treatment, they may decide on using the best of both the medical and the alternative health world together. The idea of boosting the immune system will be integral to their success. The all natural herbal formulas that are available on the market are there for the benefit of all.

To obtain more information on all natural herbal formulas that assist in decreasing the side effects of chemotherapy, see All Natural Herbal Formulas here
or read additional articles on reducing chemotherapy side effects