Cancer Treatment Damage Control
Cancer treatments can be damaging. Besides your hair falling out, nausea, fatigue and other distressing cancer treatment problems, how do cancer treatments potentially damage you? Chemotherapy and radiation are designed to destroy fast growing cells. Some of your fastest growing cells include heart cells, brain cells, capillary and artery cells and kidney cells. This means cancer treatments may cause or accelerate heart disease and stroke risk or symptoms.
Have you ever noticed heart disease, cancer and stroke are the number 1, 2 & 3 killers in America? Why would that be so? First, many of our lifestyle choices contribute to these killers. Treatable obesity, insulin or glucose abnormalities, smoking and other lifestyle choices can be modified or managed to minimize risks of heart disease, cancer or stroke.
Next, medical scans done with injected contrast dyes often silently damage the circulation and kidney systems. Silent but progressive kidney damage or disease is very common and accelerates circulation damage, increasing stroke and heart disease symptoms and risks. Circulation damage from your head to your toes can be silent with normal blood pressure or cholesterol right up until a heart attack or stroke occurs.
Sound far fetched? Recent announcements reveal medical scans done with injected contrast dye may damage the kidneys by causing renal ischemia. Renal ischemia means depleted blood flow and oxygen in the kidneys. Symptoms during a scan could be nothing or a mild to severe reaction which is dismissed as an allergy. Renal ischemia may cause silent but progressive damage that accelerates circulation damage, anywhere from your head to your toes. Silent but treatable kidney damage is diagnosed and managed by testing kidney functions properly. We do this routinely in our office.
Worse yet, the FDA recently warned cardiologists some heart scan dyes may damage heart circulation. We routinely test and manage for damage from cardiology scans.
Recent announcements reveal some chemotherapy treatments are causing heart disease in women. Why? Radiation and chemotherapy can destroy or impair the delicate and hard working cells in the kidneys, brain, capillaries, arteries and heart. This can be silent, with no symptoms or the symptoms can be vague in the early stages. Heart disease is the #1 killer of women, yet only 1/3 of women experience classic symptoms. Common heart disease symptoms in women include fatigue, disturbed sleep, anxiety, indigestion or heartburn and sometimes vague breathing symptoms. Stroke symptoms or damaged brain circulation can be vague with headaches, poor vision, memory or balance problems.
We test for circulation damage from the head to toes in women, especially those with cancer. Impairments or damage is treated with education, lifestyle changes, conventional and alternative methods as needed. We diagnose damage so frequently I’ve begun to say to patients: what good is it to survive a cancer just to suffer or die prematurely from heart disease or stroke? If you or a loved one has cancer or survived cancer, consider thorough evaluation for any kidney or circulation damage control.
David Overton, PA-C works at Natural Medicines & Family Practice providing integrated conventional and alternative care under the supervision of Dr. Richard Faiola, MD, ABFM at 360-357-8054.