Urinary Incontinence

When I started my radiotherapy treatment Macmillan gave me a credit card that I could wave at folk to get urgent access to a loo. I never tested it to see if it worked!  Nevertheless radiation treatment certainly impacted on me - I am fortunate to not be among those that are having a whole range of more serious issues - although I am certainly going more frequently and with more urgency. Indeed it is said that post-surgery or radiation, almost every man experiences urinary incontinence.

This issue isn't talked about enough - one in three men over 65 have a urinary incontinence problem while one in 25 aged over 40 will have some urinary leakage every year. It can be hard to find good info, it was therefore great to come across this week a 30 min video with Consultant Urological Surgeon, Ms. Tamsin Greenwell - see below. 

Ms. Greenwell explains the link between prostate cancer treatments and urinary incontinence and shares practical advice on how to manage urinary frequency and urgency. Learn what to ask your doctor and get insights into effective treatments to regain control over your life - several of them I had not heard of - but also there is a mention of how acupuncture can help some. I like this straight-talking video from Malecare - they are one of the world's leading cancer patient support and advocacy nonprofit organizations. It is worth checking out some of their other videos too.

Prostate Cancer UK also have some good advice: https://prostatecanceruk.org/

Book of Cancer blogs just out

I've just seen that Yes to Life's new book is out..."Kitchen Cancer Talks. Shared Stories, Same Experiences" with a foreword from Patricia Peat. It will no doubt help to raise funds for the charity.

I've not seen it but I understand it has several of my blogs in the book along with many others from Yes to Life's Wigwam group members and supporters including nutritionists and even a Naturopathic Oncologist. While everyone’s story is unique to them, the experiences and emotions that accompany being diagnosed with cancer and the journey to find an integrative path will be recognized by many. The power of shared experiences enables us to see we are not alone in our thinking.

Robin Daly, the Chair and Founder off the charity writes: "These posts are simply too valuable to pass by as ephemera. The quality of the writing is consistently high, and the sheer breadth of the content results in an inspirational resource that you can dip into at any time. Open up anywhere and you are likely to be led into territory you’ve not explored, and to have new avenues to health and wellbeing open up."

Get book (£6 kindle and £20 paperback) at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C2RHK145?

‘Could this be the day the World changes (for people with cancer)’

The title of this blog post was by health author, Jerome Burne, taken from his blog on the Yes to Life website (i). The title makes a big big claim - but I think it really could be one of those moments in history. On 12th February, at a specially put together Yes to Life online forum with three panels of cancer experts (Scientists, Clinicians and Patient Experts) and an invited audience of some 200  cancer specialists, a new way of thinking about cancer was proposed.

Mark Lintern presented his findings that have resulted from eight years of intensive research into the origin and mechanisms of cancer. He had been hugely frustrated by the lack of understanding he encountered when dealing with his own and a friends cancer. It drove him to explore more - in what has been described as a ‘Herculean’ effort, he has come up with findings that could lead to an enduring change in the direction of cancer care, to potentially prevent cancers and to lead to groundbreaking new treatments.

In another blog by Jerome, 'Revealing the Dark Matter of Cancer’, he sets out to share the approach and how it came about. It is very worth a read: https://healthinsightuk.org/2023/04/12/revealing-the-dark-matter-of-cancer/

Cancer is widely regarded as a genetic disease. Mark, like many of us who have looked at the causes of cancer, couldn’t understand how changes to DNA were supposedly random and just the result of bad luck. Indeed these are the very words my oncologist used when I was diagnosed. It just didn’t sit right. One of the problems is that there are around 1,000 genes that can become cancerous when mutated, and it typically takes at least two different mutations within these cells for cancer to grow. That means there are a million potential mutation pairs, and it becomes hopeless to narrow down the possibilities when seeking new treatments.

There are other theories of cancer but the one that many integrative health professionals seem to favour (at least until now), is the metabolic theory. This approach looks at the abnormal energy use of cancer cells.  See a good description of the metabolic theory at: https://foundationformetaboliccancertherapies.com/metabolic-cancer-therapies and Prof Thomas Siegfried talking about this approach: https://youtu.be/APwnkpD_BfI

New paradigm

Mark looked at all this and info that seems to have been overlooked from other medical fields and he suggests that cancer can be caused by multiple factors that can trigger the infectious process of an opportunistic pathogen. There is effectively a battle between the pathogen, the cell and the immune system. A victorious immune system can remove the tumour. 

One of the ways of assessing new theories about cancer is how many of the so-called hallmarks of cancer – the changes a cancer makes to a cell – the theory can explain. This new pathogen theory comes out top. It can account for 9 out of the ten, more than both the genetic or metabolic approaches. Of course, Mark is now keen to see his theories tested, but already the reception from this first meeting to these ideas has been very positive.

Find out more

Mark Lintern shares his story of 8 years’ research into the mechanisms and origin of cancer in 6 Health Radio shows with Robin Daly, Chair and Founder of Yes to Life: 

https://yestolife.org.uk/radio_shows/through-another-lens-part-1/

Cancer Through Another Lens - Professional pre-release version

https://www.yestolifeshop.org/product-page/cancer-through-another-lens-professional-pre-release-version

Update 29.09.23: I liked this article as an additional perspective on cancer: https://www.anhinternational.org/news/opinion-cancer-as-a-survival-and-healing-mechanism/

Note

(i) https://yestolife.org.uk/could-this-be-the-day-the-world-changed/