Tips for Cancer Patients
By scope of practice, acupuncturists do not treat cancer; we treat the person, and from the Classical Chinese medicine perspective, cancer occurs when latency of a pathogen is lost due to severe mediumship depletion. When we rebuild mediumship through divergent channel treatments, diet, and herbal medicine, we often (coincidentally) see cancers go into remission. When classical practitioners treat patients with cancers, what we are doing is not treating the cancer per se but restoring the mediumship needed to keep it at bay.
This is not a recommendation for any particular type of treatment but rather is an explanation of the ways we can support and rebuild mediumship at home in our daily lives from the Chinese medicine perspective. These suggestions will also be helpful for people with other chronic, degenerative diseases like autoimmune conditions.
Avoid/reduce sugar intake.
Who just rolled their eyes? I know I get so tired of hearing about sugar; I love baking and eating dessert! However, sugar is energetically hot, which leads to dryness, as it consumes fluid—just like water evaporates in hot temperatures.
Also, because sugar raises our yang energy, it depletes yin, as it (pathologically) creates what we call damp, in order to “cool” the heat that has been created. Damp then obstructs our qi, eventually creating pain, fatigue, and honestly, nearly any issue you can think of, including mental health problems.
Avoid alcohol & coffee.
Similar to sugar, alcohol and coffee raise our yang energy, which depletes the yin (yin supports yang), and will eventually result in damp. There are some differences between the two, though.
A little bit of alcohol ‘moves blood’, which can actually help build blood, a form of mediumship, but we’re talking a very small amount. It’s a similar concept to how you might feel after having one drink (ready to take on the world) versus the next day after having had four + drinks (feeling like you want to die). A hangover is the perfect example of damp.
While coffee also raises our yang energy—after all, we most often drink it as a part of morning routine—it is also bitter, which is also why we commonly add milk and sugar. The bitter flavor is energetically draining, and bitter is also the flavor associated with the heart. By regularly drinking coffee, we are chronically draining from the heart, which is a yin organ; the fluid of the heart inside the body is blood; outside the body, it’s sweat. Gives you a new perspective on the blood, sweat, and tears adage, right?
Drink bone broth.
Bone broth has become quite trendy as of late, which is amazing, because most of the advice I give is nowhere close to trendy—avoid sugar, coffee, alcohol…(insert laughter).
Bone broth literally utilizes the energetics of an animal to support our own vitality. Full of minerals and collagen, bone broth can be incredibly beneficial for soothing gut inflammation & enhancing our microbiome, which modern science now knows is intrinsically linked to good mental health, including neurological health. (You can learn more by listening to a variety of Dr. Mark Hyman’s podcasts here.)
Avoid excessive sweating.
Again, I know this is not popular advice, but activity or exercise that results in excessive sweating—weather that’s endurance sports, hot yoga, or sitting in a sauna—is not helpful. Excessive sweating means further depleting yourself.
Remember, if you’ve gotten a cancer diagnosis, the Chinese medicine view is that your mediumship is depleted, so to put the cancer back into latency (remission), we need to rebuild mediumship. Sweat is the fluid of the heart outside the body; inside the body it’s blood. Some people say that they don’t sweat, even in hot yoga or during a HIIT workout, and this is often an indicator that you are on the road to depleting mediumship—you don’t have enough fluids to produce a sweat in a healthy response to activity that should raise your body temperature.
You can still go for walks, bike rides, or practice yoga, since movement is important for moving your qi and blood, which promotes overall good health. Just avoid doing it in a way that leaves you extra sweaty.
Although some of these suggestions may feel like a huge lifestyle change, it can be extremely beneficial and ultimately, life giving. As usual, please feel free to reach out with questions via email or social media, and if you’d like to schedule an appointment for a tailored approach for you, you can do that at www.occasionallyeveryday.com.
