Astragalus is a very sweet-tasting herb found to be high in silicon, zinc, magnesium, and iron.

It’s possible that the bitterness of a diagnosis of cancer can be relieved with the sweetness of this Chinese herb that has been used medicinally for thousands of years. One of the properties of Astragalus is that it enhances the body’s natural defense mechanisms.

Scientists have discovered that the antioxidant, antiviral, and immune modulator activity of Astragalus are primary ways that the all natural herb helps alleviate the negative side effects of chemotherapy drugs. Immune modulators are substances that affect the immune system in some way to make it more active. By using immune modulators, a cancer patient on chemotherapy feels less toxic side effects and experiences a greater quality of life.

The big problem with chemotherapy is that it depresses the immune system, leaving cancer patients prone to infections that can become opportunistic. By using immune system modulators, such as the herb Astragalus, a cancer patient can become less prone to infections.

Herbalists consider Astragalus an herb great for not only the immune system, but also helpful as an adaptogen. An adaptogen helps the body adapt well to external circumstances, encouraging the system to function correctly.

The Research Studies Show Positive Benefits

One clinical study of 115 patients receiving various forms of chemotherapy found 83% higher white blood cell counts from the use of Astragalus, exactly what is needed to fight the battle of cancer. When white blood cell counts are higher, then it is possible to strongly ward off infections.

In another study, Astragalus was added to a petri dish containing white blood cells and tumor cells. The white blood cells began attacking the tumor cells. This is an important finding because tumor cells usually produce chemicals that turn off the white blood cells’ ability to attack tumors. Astragalus clearly helps the white blood cells become faster and more efficient at fighting the tumor cells.

One study showed that lung cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, radiation and immunotherapy who were given Astragalus improved their overall response rate to all four treatments. In another study, patients with small cell lung cancer who took standard chemotherapy drugs like vincristine, carmustine and cyclophosphamide along with Astragalus and ginseng survived as long as 17 years from the combined therapy.

Astragalus was also found to stop the spread of cancers known to respond to the p53 gene, a tumor-suppressing gene that keeps defective cells from multiplying.

The fact that Astragalus is helpful, either with or without chemotherapy, makes this sweet-tasting herb an herb that should be considered in many cancer cases. If the toxic side effects of chemotherapy can be lessened by the addition of a simple herb, why not consider it?

Herbalists are finding though that the mixture of several herbs together, one of them Astragalus, can make even more impact than with Astragalus by itself! It’s exciting research that will only benefit chemotherapy patients who wish to add an all natural approach to cancer treatment.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dr._Donna_Schwontkowski
Technorati Tag: Chemotherapy

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Let’s just start this by saying it straight out. Chemotherapy drugs are poison and should be avoided at all costs when trying to cure yourself of cancer. Countless doctors and drug companies around the world would argue that point to the bitter end, but that doesn’t make it any less true. In fact, certain polls and questionnaires show that upwards of 75% of doctors would refuse the very chemo drugs they prescribe for you. Isn’t that interesting?

Chemo Kills…Everything

The problem with chemotherapy is it’s extremely toxic nature. It will obliterate cancer cells and will also obliterate healthy cells. It’s a killing machine. If your body is able to survive, if the cancer is gone before you are, then it’s deemed a success. Ever hear of so and so passing away from complications due to colon cancer, or lung cancer, or whatever cancer? What do you think that means? They were poisoned, my friend. Now, how in the holy hell can you expect to eradicate this condition and restore yourself to health with poison? It’s ridiculous!

Add to its toxicity the fact that chemotherapy generally has a very low five year survival rate, and the fact that chemo becomes less and less effective as you go along, and you can begin to see why it’s never a good choice. Anyone who has undergone chemotherapy also knows that there can be terrible side effects that go far beyond nausea and hair loss.

It’s All About the Money

So…why would any self respecting doctor prescribe for you a “treatment” that poisons your healthy cells, has awful side effects, and a poor record of success? One word. Money! Cancer management, I hesitate to call it treatment, rakes in billions and billions of dollars every year. We’ve been duped by the medical establishment, and the media to believe these ridiculous treatments actually make a difference. There’s no money in natural treatments. Drug companies can’t patent a plant or an herb. And we’re the ones who end up suffering.

The Key To Success

Some experts even go so far as to say that cancer really isn’t a disease at all. It’s a symptom, or result of some imbalance happening inside your body. The key is to treat the underlying causes of the problem, and the problem will no longer exist. That may be simplifying it a little, but not by much. Cancer lives and thrives in certain environments. It loves low oxygen levels. It loves high acidity. It loves sugar. It grows and feeds off sugar. It loves a weakened immune system. If you change the environment to one where cancer simply cannot survive, it will no longer feel the need to live inside your body. Killing cancer cells without harming healthy cells is the key to success.

Despite what anyone, and I mean anyone tells you, cancer is cured by natural means all the time. There’s a whole world of gentle, non-toxic treatments out there that will do what chemotherapy never could. All you have to do is take action.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joshua_McCarron
Technorati Tag: Chemotherapy

Over the past 13 years, I’ve lost 7 close family members due to cancer. I have devoted the last decade of my life to medical research to find alternative cancer treatments & cures so you and your family don’t have to experience the same thing…

Why wait till you or someone you love is diagnosed with cancer and doctors are trying to hustle you onto the operating table? Find out about your options now, and be ready. My book, Cancer – Step Outside the Box, will set your mind at ease, even if you don’t need treatment now.

Ty Bollinger
Alternative Health Researcher and Author

These days people spend more money then ever for prescription drugs and it seems for every health problem doctors suggest some kind of a drug. So if doctors suggest drugs for most health problems, then certainly these drugs should be very effective, right? Well, if you think about how many people are using chemotherapy to treat cancer and how many people beat cancer with it, then it is clear that drugs do not work very well.

Money and power are the main driving forces behind the production of drugs. The goal for drug companies is to make as much profits as possible, because it is all a business. The more people are ill, the more potential customers there are. Treating cancer with chemotherapy is a great way to make money.

Big drug companies make the rules and break the rules. What ever they decide is the best way to treat cancer stays that way and other cancer treatment options, that are a lot of safer and much more effective are neglected. The reason why natural and alternative treatments for cancer are not in the mainstream, is not because they are not working, but because you can not patent nature.

When you can not patent something, then you also can not make money. But you can make huge amount of profits selling drugs, that are patented, the problem is getting worse all the time. Most Americans use some kind of a prescription drug and therefore drug companies make a lot of money with it.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Randy_Meresmaa
Technorati Tag: Chemotherapy

Over the past 13 years, I’ve lost 7 close family members due to cancer. I have devoted the last decade of my life to medical research to find alternative cancer treatments & cures so you and your family don’t have to experience the same thing…

Why wait till you or someone you love is diagnosed with cancer and doctors are trying to hustle you onto the operating table? Find out about your options now, and be ready. My book, Cancer – Step Outside the Box, will set your mind at ease, even if you don’t need treatment now.

Ty Bollinger
Alternative Health Researcher and Author

Chemotherapy is the procedure to treat cancer cells by using chemicals. Cancer cells have the ability to divide rapidly. But in this procedure, both the good and bad cells are being killed although it is really aimed at killing the cancerous ones. There are a number of ways chemotherapy drugs are taken. It may be by mouth, by injection on the muscle or vein, by catheter inserted into our bladder, abdomen, chest cavity, spinal cord, liver and brain.

When oral chemotherapy is done, a patient is given a certain dosage to take. It may be daily, weekly or monthly. Most medications are advised to be taken on an empty stomach. There are times drinking juice is also recommended after taking in a medicine. The downside of an oral therapy is the possibility of a patient not to follow the prescribed dosage and time of medication. If done so, it may result to a less effective treatment or more severe consequences.

Intravenous chemotherapy is done through inserting a catheter. It may be inserted on any one of his body parts such as bladder, abdomen or chest. Every time a patient visits the clinic/hospital for treatment, the device where the medicine is placed is just inserted into the opening of the catheter. This enables the medicine to efficiently flow to the bloodstream of the body.

Injection chemotherapy is done usually after doing the intravenous chemotherapy. The patient undergoes a series of injection of medicines. Depending on the dosing cycle instructions, it is done a number of times in a day. The patient can do this procedure either at home or in a clinic.

Topical chemotherapy is done when a patient has skin cancer. The patient is advised to apply cream chemotherapy drugs on a cancerous area. Again, the frequency and dosage is determined by the oncologist. The patient is also advised not to be in direct contact with anybody/anything within the first hour of application. Some cream dries up faster but others take around an hour.

Doctors usually recommend full cycle chemotherapy. A full cycle is taken six times. But this is still dependent on the advice of the oncologist. Some of them may only recommend that some patients may only have three. Though this only happens when the patient’s cancer cell isn’t that fast-growing. The most common side effect of chemotherapy known to us is hair loss. There are other side effects of chemo. This includes nausea or vomiting, appetite loss, anemia, weakened immune system, easy bruising or bleeding, kidney and heart muscle damage, infertility and stop of menstrual cycle. The number of these after-effects is the reason why cancer patients sometimes want a partial chemo instead. Some of them think that the reaction of their body to the treatment is just unbearable.

One chemo treatment can actually cost close to $50,000. This doesn’t include several tests yet such as MRIs and PET Scan. And of course, a daily dose of medicine is still required. There are citizens who depend on their health insurance. However, to undergo chemotherapy treatment is just too expensive for many American cancer patients.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brent_McNutt
Technorati Tag: Chemotherapy

Over the past 13 years, I’ve lost 7 close family members due to cancer. I have devoted the last decade of my life to medical research to find alternative cancer treatments & cures so you and your family don’t have to experience the same thing…

Why wait till you or someone you love is diagnosed with cancer and doctors are trying to hustle you onto the operating table? Find out about your options now, and be ready. My book, Cancer – Step Outside the Box, will set your mind at ease, even if you don’t need treatment now.

Ty Bollinger
Alternative Health Researcher and Author

One of the techniques employed to cure cancer is chemotherapy. The anti cancer drugs are inserted into the body and they spread all over the body to destroy the cancer cells present inside the body. Chemotherapy employs so many drugs for this purpose. One of them is the Carboplatin chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy is classified into many types and the Carboplatin drug medication belongs to the alkylating agent group. The Carboplatin drug is primarily used for the treatment of ovarian cancer. But it is also used in the treatments of lung, neck, head, abdominal, bladder, breast cancers too.

Carboplatin drug is passed through the body with help of an injection directly into the abdominal peritoneal cavity. It is the medical practitioner who chooses the amount of the drug to be used. It depends on the age, health and stage of the cancer.

The side effects produced by using this type of chemotherapy will disappear after the treatment is over. But general symptom found during the usage of this drug is Hair loss, vomiting, low blood counts, taste changes and weakness.

The patient has to contact a medical practitioner if he experiences the following side effects as a result of the Carboplatin chemotherapy method.

If the patient experiences a very high fever, difficulty in breathing, chest pain, unusual bleeding, diarrhea, muscle cramps, severe abdominal pain and extreme fatigue, then he has to rush to the nearby hospital to consult a physician.

Before subjecting to the Carboplatin chemotherapy method, the patients have to clear it out with the physician about the medications they have been taking so far, and what they are allergic to.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Anand_Prabhakar
Technorati Tag: Chemotherapy

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• Insomnia Common with Chemotherapy (blisstree.com)
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