Cervical Cancer Week

Cytological Specimen Showing Cervical Cancer Description Cytological specimen showing cervical cancer specifically squamous cell carcinoma in the cervix. Tissue is stained with pap stain and magnified x200. Topics/Categories Cancer Types — Cervical Cancer Cells or Tissue — Abnormal Cells or Tissue  Source National Cancer Institute

This week is apparently Cervical Cancer Prevention Week.

Here and now I can say that we don’t teach our students that they can ‘cure’ cancer with herbs.

What we do teach our students is that medicinal herbs can help the general health of patients with cancer, and possibly help mitigate some of the side effects of orthodox treatment. What we can say is that we can use medicinal herbs as an adjunct to orthodox treatment, and to help in the management of the symptoms of cancer treatment and to aid recuperation post-radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy.

To aid the treatment of patients who have cancer we have to understand what cancer is, how it has developed and to see if there is a way herbs can help the patient get their body into a state where they can be in the best shape possible to survive orthodox treatment, and the ravages that the tumours themselves inflict on the human body.

As Christopher Menzies-Trull quotes in his book Herbal Medicine – Keys to Physiomedicalism 2nd Ed.;

“Cancer is not a symptom to be treated, nor a specific disease but the reactions and functions of the entire body that have to be transformed and restored.”

Cancer causes 20-25% of deaths [Medicine at a Glance 2nd Ed. Patrick Davey] so sooner or later our students will be involved with patients who are suffering from some type of malignancy.

Cancer is a broad term that includes a wide range of related diseases, but in all types it will involve some cells dividing uncontrollably and invading surrounding tissues and organs. The orderly process of a cell’s life-cycle where it grows, divides, grows old then dies and is replaced by a new cell, will have broken down for some reason.

When these abnormal cells divide without stopping they may form a physical tumour or mass. When there is a cancer of the blood, no mass may be formed but these cells will spread and invade nearby tissue or inhibit healthy blood cell formation.

There is no average cancer patient, and indeed as herbalists we see each patient as an individual and a whole person. If a patient comes to us with cervical cancer we would not just see one type of tissue, one organ or one system. We would look at their lifestyle, their diet, their outlook on life and their personality. When we come to understand the actual individual we are caring for then we can construct a package for them that will support them the best.

What can a herbalist do to contribute to treatment for a person with cancer?

1. supportive diet regime – this would include citrus fruits and grapes, fresh vegetables. Encourage the patient to increase the intake of onions, cabbage, green tea and garlic. Advise the intake of psyllium husk or linseed in plenty of water if orthodox meds have left them with constipation

2. support depleted resources – bolster endogenous defences using immune tonics, especially Echinacea and herbs with similar actions

3. support the liver – if the patient is on a heavy orthodox meds regime then Milk Thistle will protect the liver from damage. We would not use herbs like St John’s Wort to stimulate the action of the liver as this may rid the body of any orthodox medicine that they are taking

4. support the body’s own ‘cleansing mechanisms’ by using alteratives such as Cleavers, Stinging Nettle, Echinacea, Garlic, Burdock, and Pokeroot

5. use specific tonics for individual needs – these will often be nutritive, such as Nettle Seed

There are, of course, specific herbs that are said to provide a cytotoxic action towards cancer cells, and some that can alter the action of hormonal receptor-type cancers. On the internet and within herbal literature there have been many treatments and cancer cures that have no real basis in reality. I do believe that there are herbs which can profoundly affect the course of tumour progression in some cases in some people, such as Artemisisa annua in the treatment of leukaemias, but I would never ‘treat’ cancer, and I would never give the patient the impression that I could.

Herbalists treat people, not diseases. When we look at the individual and see how their body is coping with a disease process, and more importantly, how it got to that place, then maybe we can contribute to the healing journey in some way.

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