What your doctor won't discuss about cancer
A cancer diagnosis can make you feel as though your entire world has suddenly changed.
There are appointments to make, tests to understand, treatment decisions to consider and an overwhelming amount of information coming at you from every direction. In the middle of all of this, it is very easy to hand over your health decisions to your medical team and simply do what you are told.
But there is something important every person facing cancer needs to understand:
Your doctor doesn't need to be the only member of your healthcare team.
Your doctor did not study nutrition
One of the most surprising things many people discover after a cancer diagnosis is how little nutritional education can be included in conventional medical training. Here in Canada, that translates to about 25 hours in their first 4 years of medical school.
This means that nutrition is not their area of expertise.
When nutrition comes up during cancer treatment, the conversation may therefore be relatively limited. If someone is losing weight, struggling to eat or experiencing treatment-related appetite changes, the recommendation may be to increase calories with "shelf-stable" energy protein drinks — which are truly some of the most unhealthy drinks you can take, at a time your body is trying to heal.
Nutrition is about considerably more than calories and protein. Food provides vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, fibre, phytonutrients and countless other compounds that interact with the body in complex ways.
Questions about your overall dietary pattern, blood glucose, carbohydrate intake, metabolic health, food quality and individual nutritional deficiencies fall outside the scope of your physician's knowledge.
Your doctor is not a naturopathic practitioner
A conventional medical doctor is trained to diagnose and treat disease using the tools of "modern medicine" (ie: medications). A naturopathic practitioner is trained to consider areas such as nutrition, lifestyle, botanical medicine, supplementation and other complementary approaches.
When you are going through cancer treatment, there are nutritional gaps, lifestyle factors or other areas of wellness that deserve attention. For example, someone experiencing significant dietary restriction or poor appetite may benefit from having their nutritional status assessed more comprehensively. Someone else may need help developing a realistic food strategy that works around nausea, fatigue or changes in appetite.
These are questions worth asking, and your physician does not have the training to answer them. It means you need another qualified person on your team.
Your doctor does not believe in the mind–body connection
Cancer is not only a physical experience. A diagnosis can affect your emotional wellbeing, relationships, sleep, stress levels, work, finances, sense of security and your entire perception of the future. And part of healing from cancer involves your mental state, and dealing with much more than just "burning or cutting out a tumour".
Yet these aspects have become secondary to the medical urgency of diagnosing and treating the disease.
Your medical appointments focus on scans, bloodwork, pathology, medications and treatment schedules. The person experiencing these things — and their mental state, matters more.
This is where a broader approach to wellness is valuable. Creating more space for rest, reducing unnecessary commitments, spending time in nature, addressing chronic stress, seeking emotional support or counselling... even practicing meditation and breathwork have been shown to be extremely healing!
Mental and emotional health deserve attention, and are part of healing the whole person.
Your doctor doesn't know natural alternatives
Healing has an enormous toolbox, and pharmaceutical medicine is not "the only way"; this is why most countries (except for Canada) now offer "Integrative Care". Integrative care is a patient-centered approach that incudes complementary therapies, such as mind-body practices (yoga, tai chi, music therapy, mindfulness meditation), physical touch therapies (acupuncture, osteopathy), counselling, and nutrition.
Physicians are trained in medications – what they do, how they are prescribed, their potential benefits, contraindications, interactions and adverse effects. They are not trained in herbs, nutritional supplements, medicinal mushrooms, traditional healing practices or other natural approaches.
Our team is extremely knowledgeable about Essiac teas, repurposed medications, CBD, medicinal mushrooms, and many other products that offer success, while your doctor is not, and will likely fearmonger you against them.
Instead of asking one person to have every answer, build a team of people who collectively have the knowledge you need.
Don't expect your doctor to be your nutrition researcher
If you ask your physician about how glucose affects cancer, or why you should refrain from consuming carbohydrates during cancer healing, or ask about ketogenic diets or specific nutritional strategies for cancer, you may receive a very straightforward answer – and often that answer is dismissive — even rude.
There are legitimate areas of ongoing research around cancer metabolism, dietary patterns, glucose regulation and ketogenic approaches. The evidence is complex and varies considerably depending on the cancer type, treatment and individual circumstances. Our team is very experienced in these various modalities, but your doctor is probably not.
Become your own health advocate
One of the most important shifts you can make after a cancer diagnosis is to stop thinking of yourself as a passive recipient of healthcare and instead recognize that you have an active role in understanding, questioning and participating in the decisions being made about your health.
This means recognizing that there may be important questions about nutrition, lifestyle, emotional wellbeing, supplementation and complementary approaches that require additional expertise.
You are the person living in your body, experiencing the effects of your diagnosis and treatment, and ultimately living with the decisions that are made. For that reason, you have every right to ask your healthcare providers why a particular treatment has been recommended, what the potential benefits and risks are, what alternatives may exist and whether there are additional approaches that could support your overall wellbeing alongside your medical care.
It is also reasonable to seek guidance from other disciplines when you need information that falls outside your physician's area of expertise. A naturopathic practitioner may bring knowledge of nutritional supplementation and botanical medicine, while a mental health professional may be better equipped to help you navigate the psychological and emotional effects of your diagnosis. In many cases, the greatest value comes from having different areas of expertise working together, with you remaining at the centre of the conversation.
Most importantly, becoming your own health advocate means learning enough about your diagnosis and your available options that you can participate meaningfully in those conversations rather than feeling that decisions are simply being made for you.
In cancer, it truly takes a village
A cancer diagnosis is one of those moments in life when the expression "it takes a village" can become very real. The physical, emotional, nutritional and practical demands of cancer can be enormous, and expecting one person, even a physician, to address every aspect of your wellbeing is unrealistic.
The purpose of building this kind of team is not to create competing healthcare systems or to follow every recommendation that comes your way. It is to recognize that cancer affects far more than one isolated part of the body, and that supporting a person through cancer may require knowledge and care from several different disciplines.
You may also discover that some practitioners have very different opinions from one another. That can feel confusing, particularly when you are already overwhelmed, but it is another reason why becoming informed and asking questions is so important. Rather than looking for one person who has every answer, look for practitioners who are willing to explain their reasoning, acknowledge the limits of their expertise and work respectfully alongside the other members of your care team.
Where Ezra Healing fits into your journey
At Ezra Healing, we believe that people deserve the opportunity to become informed participants in their own healthcare rather than feeling that they have to surrender their autonomy the moment they receive a diagnosis.
Our private consultations provide an opportunity to step outside the pressure and urgency that can accompany a cancer diagnosis and take a broader look at your individual situation. We can help you explore questions surrounding nutrition, lifestyle, supplementation, stress, emotional wellbeing and complementary approaches, while helping you identify areas that you may wish to discuss further with your medical and other qualified healthcare providers.
We do not believe that there should be a one-size-fits-all approach to cancer support, because every person's diagnosis, treatment plan, nutritional status, lifestyle, circumstances and priorities are different. Our role is to help you ask better questions, understand the different areas that may deserve consideration and become more informed about the choices available to you.
Cancer can be an overwhelming and frightening experience, but you do not have to face it as a passive participant. Building a knowledgeable, supportive team around yourself can help you feel more informed, more prepared and more involved in the journey ahead.
Your health is your responsibility, but you do not have to carry that responsibility alone. Build your village, seek out the expertise you need and remain at the centre of your own healthcare decisions.
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