hello viewers i'm your host dr heidi and you are watching the nature of path today i am thrilled to introduce to you two of my nature past the colleagues from cancer treatment centers of america dr murray winters and dr veronica stevens who flew in from philadelphia this morning just to be on the show today we will be discussing an integrative approach to cancer if you or a loved one is living with cancer this show will be of interest to you at the end of the show i was also be discussing our nature past the conference that will be held in green tree on september twenty second and twenty third and it will be open to the public welcome doctors i'm so glad to have you all thank you for being here today and would you explain to viewers the unique approach to treating cancer that separates cancer treatment centers of america t and work alongside the north can manager and we work together as a team and console to every patient and that's very very unique to a hospital actually other hospitals may have a dietitian and they may have actually the ecologists working together with the nurse that's typical but what is unique and special about the dca is that they have the natural perfect doctor on staff consulting on patients helping them get them side effects helping to expand the benefit of conventional therapy and helping support that they have a good quality of life through as they go through treatment ok but many of the oncologist in the pittsburgh area will advise patients not to use natural therapies during their conventional treatments  i radiation or chemotherapy and can you explain to these doctors into the audience as well integrating nature pasig treatment can actually help patients during their their conventional regimens absolutely heidi and that's a common response to for colleges outside of c t c aid like i'm really not familiar with this and i have a what i know is the treatment that i'm giving and i don't want anything to interfere because i don't know how to advise you on it poser con so the best way my safe way is to say don't do it and so that's that that's the typical advice but two ways that it helps patients when you add now to patty care why that helps patien continue with the treatment without interruptions a specific goal of the natural path the doctor is to be we're well educated on whatever that what we call the dose limiting side effects and two chemotherapy per se so what that means is that if the blood count is too low that those limiting a patient will not get a dose and specifically with chemotherapy you need to finish the course to get the best benefit and so adding me to patrick medicine to that our goal is we want to reduce these dose limiting side effects from happening and we use natural path medicine very safely and we help patients not get reduction in their treatment cycle or slow their treatment cycle down or have dose reduction so instead of getting let's say fifteen milligrams of a dose they were now going to get five and so that's going to be less effective or another way they do it you know what your blood counts aren't high enough today come back in two weeks so they've missed their regiment and with chemotherapy staying on top of the cycle that is how you get the best outcome and so that's really really primarily one of our big goals in that regard to medicine is to keep the patient from getting a dose reduction or schedule change diagnosis that can't sleep at night and is going to be getting a c that's something that we can use to help improve the fact that's that's that's wonderful doctor robin roberts there's been a lot of publicity she's very very public and she has educated the public about her the six most common type of cancer is actually secondary cancers from radiation  chemotherapy can nature a path of medicine incorporating that help reduce the risk of developing a secondary cancer i would definitely i mean there what i'd like to do once people have finished a course of care once they've finished say their chemotherapy and radiation for breast cancer i like to do a comprehensive detoxification with them to support their liver and their kidneys and all their essential organs after chemotherapy kind of to help every anything that chemotherapy may have impacted but then there are so many things that we can or incorporate that are common preventive so many things like drinking green tea every day different spices to your the foods that you eat taking different supplements that have been shown to prevent cancer and these are things that we can do unfettered once chemotherapy and radiation is out of the way so there's so much that you can do and you say detoxification you're not talking about going to for an ionic footbath no no i'm not talking about it regulating the livers pathways of detoxification this is there there's so much misinformation out there and i would like to get into a little bit of that later and just to discern that the differences  so are the oncologist cancer treatment centers in america are they supportive of having neutral pathic doctors on staff absolutely we have many who want like if they could have you in the meeting together with them you know it makes it easier for them where you know what they can focus specifically on treating the cancer because when you have a person and you're treating them with cancer so many other things come about for them so there they need to address their blood  blood work they need to address some grief that's happening and they have social issues and that all can be a distraction to the oncologist from focusing on what can happen what am i doing with the cancer and so does that i work he was like you know what this makes my thing that we can deal with the rest of the person yes and so we're not just looking at a person's cancer we're not just looking at a person's chemotherapy but if a person comes in with uncontrolled diabetes we can work with them and we can make them stronger we can make their blood sugar better regulated and they're going to have a better outcome and so we do this all the time with you know whatever person comes in when we can make that whole person stronger and so they they come there for cancer but ideally i would like them to leave health care yes i've heard you use the words synergy you're treatments are work you work synergistically in natural treatments with conventional therapies and you're giving it an example before the show of somebody that you had was suffering from a lot of diarrhea recently there was a patient who had diarrhea for for about eight weeks and the patient was you know new to c t ca and they came and stayed like looking you know for the whole and can you help me with with the diarrhea particular patient had cancer he was very very sick and so he was in an out of it and he opened his eyes and he looked at me and said you know what i don't have the diary anymore and that was a proud doctor gets caught to console a case of diarrhea that had not resolved in eight weeks but resolved in three days under an after packet care at t t c hospital it's wonderful do patients cancer treatment centers  america do they receive nutritional advice on income mentioned earlier every team of college just has a natural path like doctor and a dietitian that being said you know obviously within our training we have a work with but i was you know in my experience in private practice for five years before i would always tell patients to have died that's based in a wide variety of seasonal fruits and vegetables eating as many different colors as possible eating whole grains and some lean protein sources and i think that's probably the healthiest diet and i think i think that's important also to address because a lot there's a lot of information about there about they call it the hallelujah diet where they're just eating you know all vegetables or all fruits and can you address this because you mentioned about protein and how important protein is just to maintain your your muscle energy in your strength salut lee i mean patients that have cancer have a tendency to lose weight i mean you're going to you need more calories with chemotherapy with radiation you need more calories to be able to fight you need protein in order to like you said maintain muscle weight in order for you to have the right a night and he was talking about d d t as it is illegal now in this country but we make it and we ship it to other countries and then they put it on their vegetables and when it shipped that back to your local store that's what you're eating  and that's horrible so we're getting ready we're going to cut to a break but i want the viewers to just stay with me when we have so much more to talk about as a parent i know one of the most important time to speak with your children is when they are down for many families is a place they can go to find the support they need ronald mcdonald house charities programs provide that supportive environment so families can be together while their children  dr heidi weinhold and you were watching asked the nature of path today i'm here with two of my colleagues from cancer treatment centers of america and philadelphia and today we are we're discussing an integrative approach to treating cancer and i have with me dr veronica stevens and dr marie winters and we're going to i would like to take this opportunity to dip debunk some of the m associated with cancer and natural treatments that's you know people will google natural cures and one of the first things to appear is the miracle of b seventeen and apricot seeds what can you explain to the audience with this is and is there is there any benefit from from taking this actually be seventy later to a when when the hospital first started they were very interested in this and they looked at it and they studied it and then they just found out that the evidence just didn't support it and as an actor private doctor at our role is to talk to patients and give them the natural medicines they have the best evidence for it and in really with the seventeen if anyone can say is because when the hospital first started they invested in this you know let's let's look at what's happening and that's one of the  benefits because they know the answer to cancer is still a question and so we're always looking and we're always open but at the same time we want to be responsible and give patients to the best the what we know to this date  so right now so because anyone who gets a diagnosis of cancer and the question is is there a cure is there a cure it that's the question that's on everyone will we ever find it so you're likely to be more vulnerable to someone saying yes this is a cure when your question is is there a cure but when you work with doctors nach other doctors as you say we like look we have this is the best evidence that we know so far no to this date with natural medicines and we're going to put together a plan that's specific for you and tailored for you with the use of natural medicine the has good evidence behind it and so specifically would be seventeen it doesn't really have the evidence to support it and that's our role to support you in canada actually be toxic because i heard that  it's best to invest your money your tie your heart and your hope into something that you know that has some evidence to support that is so well said ok thank thank you for that  another common question for you dr winners is there any benefit of mixing flax seed oil with cottage cheese to get this question all the time i mean i personally think that if you like to eat flax seed and cottage cheese that and then fine go ahead and continue to flax seed and cottage cheese but there's no evidence to say that mixing flax seed and cottage cheese together every day and eating it is going to cure your cancer and it's real specific they have a specific recipe and it has to be i'm all supplied in writing over the internet and one of the troubling things that i've seen very often is that a lot of times when patients have cancer they don't have a very big appetite and so they'll be focusing all of their energy on trying to get in this cottage cheese and flaxseed and that's really all they can eat they feel bloated afterwards and they're not getting those fruits and vegetables that i talked about earlier ok and so i think it's very important again just like veronica said so eloquently that if you're going to invest your time and your money in something go to someone who's you know job it is to research and understand what works and what doesn't work dr stephen she did she she mentioned it about people saying well  the cure and they put on the internet there's pages and pages and they'll say things like oh the baking soda killing cancer and there's pages of this and you can you address this cancer we would not be able to keep it a secret it would be hiding in the pages internet on page twenty five the answer there was a cure for cancer it would be like trying to keep the internet a secret or trying to keep  and there are a lot of really good mailorder nature past their advising people living with cancer and they may direct them to things like these ionic footbaths you know i've actually had a case where state nature pathing medicine is is not licensed and anybody can call themselves a nature path a doctor and hang out a shingle and advise people they don't have to go to college could have a high school degree and you know they from you know why did cancer treatment centers of america hire you what's your education and treating cancer versus somebody that just you know walked out the door and put up a shingle as a as a licensed actor patrick dr we have a four year n this extensive over eight year education and then if you get a chance to do a residency as another two to two years a ten year education to advise and consult and give proper information to someone with with cancer verses because of the nature of education right now you can get ashore in six weeks two months credentials and be called the natural path medicine that's just the nature of things in this country with license or protection and so you have to be able to go and find is this a licensable natural profit doctor that has a four year degree and four year undergrad degree and four years imagine patrick medical school and there's a big distinction between the two with their education and their knowledge and how they're going to safely advise you ok and to work at the cancer treatment centers that's the level of education that you need four years of don't think that you know people with a high school education have the skills or the training to treat people safely with complex diseases like like cancer one of the hardest things for me to see is when people do go you practitioners that call themselves natural pads and they have a treatable curable cancer at the time that they go it's caught early and over the course of months or years their cancer progresses and then they come to for our stay in association i'm really fighting for licensure so that you know that the public is educated and they know the difference in the qualification there are some standards met out there to protect the public is right now that that just does not exist  and i do want to thank both of you for for making the trip to to pittsburgh and i really wanted to emphasize at the end that we're also going to have a nature a path a conference and it will be held on september twenty second and twenty third at the doubletree pittsburgh greentree and for more information and i'm going to have them flash it on underneath the screen here but we have a website  dot org slash the two thousand and twelve conference and you can click on there and find more information but this year our conference is open to the public as well as all health care professionals and for thirty dollars you can sit in on one of the presentations and this year the topic is a holistic approach to cardiovascular disease and cancer and dr stevens and dr winters are both one of our featured speakers for for this event and if you want to hear more you know we really we encourage you to attend and then how the viewers at home how can they find out more information about cancer treatment centers in america what can they learn about you what's the best way i think of the the best way is probably to go online so just the time siap go to go outside cancer center dot com and they have any more questions about that there is one eight hundred number that they can call twenty four hours a day and ask representatives and we will be speaking on it at the conference this year that's what your topic my topic is going to be cardiovascular diseases or cardio cardio toxicity with chemotherapy and how support for patients that are undergoing treatment and how to prevent pretty mild conditions from progressing to cancer that's wonderful that is so so important before we end you just have a minute about how you would approach it naturally and things like melatonin you would want to avoid because it has the potential to stimulate the bone marrow and for someone with multiple myeloma or lymphoma with their bone marrow is already very stimulated so a lot of the things that are fall at the doubletree september twenty second twenty third and ladies you are so impressive thank you so much for for traveling in being here today answering these questions yes this was wonderful thank you for having us thank you thank you u