Dr. Vohra

Being diagnosed with cancer is a scary thought but with medical intervention, most breast cancer cases can be treated. The most common forms of treatment are radiation and chemotherapy. Along with this, there are many forms of alternative and complementary treatment that may be followed. This can help reduce the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation and boost the immune system. Here are some things you can do as an alternative and complementary form of treatment.

1. Have a special diet: Having a healthy, well-balanced diet is necessary for everyone. This becomes more important when a person is recovering from cancer. Foods that have a high level of saturated fats and salt should be avoided. Intake of smoked, highly processed and pickled foods should also be reduced. On the other hand, you should increase your intake of vegetables, fruits and other foods derived directly from plants.
2. Get your antioxidants: Antioxidants can protect a person from the damage caused by free radicals. This aids in the treatment of breast cancer and speeds up the healing process. Some of the antioxidants that can be beneficial in treating breast cancer are vitamins A, C and E, Lycopene and Beta Carotene. This can be found in wild blueberries, pecans, dark chocolate, kidney beans and goji berries. You can also increase your antioxidant consumption with dietary supplements. However, consult your doctor before taking any antioxidant supplements as it can interact with other drugs.
3. Massage therapy: Massages can help relax the mind. They also have a number of other benefits. They are known as immunity boosters and can ease fatigue and pain. Thus a massage can also reduce the need for pain medication. It also helps increase the concentration of white blood cells in cases where women are being treated for stage I and stage II breast cancer.
4. Acupuncture: Acupuncture is an alternative form of treatment that is considered part of traditional Chinese medicine. This involves the placement of sterile, needles that are very thin into specific points on the skin. These are then gently moved to stimulate the nervous system. In some cases, herbal supplements may also be incorporated into the treatment. Acupuncture is believed to help relieve fatigue, control vomiting and hot flashes and reduce pain.

It is important to note that these forms of treatment should not replace medical treatment but should be carried out along with it. You must also ensure that your doctor is aware of any supplements of alternative forms of treatment that you may be taking along with the medical treatment.

In case you have a concern or query you can always consult an expert & get answers to your questions!

Breast cancer is characterized by an abnormal multiplication of cells in the tissues of the breast. The disease is the second most common cancer in women, and mostly affects women in the age group 55-65. However, the disease may occur in men as well.

Causes-

The exact cause of breast cancer is not known as of now. Some of the factors that influence multiplication of cells are your genes and the environment. Other factors such as late menopause, being subjected to hormone therapy post-menopause and dense breast tissues can be other triggers for this disease.

Symptoms-

The symptoms of breast cancer are:

1. Discharge from your nipples
2. A swelling in the breast
3. You may have a lump in your armpits
4. The skin around the breast may become flaky
5. The skin around the breast may be irritated

Treatments-

The treatment depends on the size, grade and stage of the breast cancer. The sensitivity of the cancerous cells to the hormones in the body is also considered in this regard. The various treatment methods are:

1. Surgery: There are multiple types of surgeries which may be used to treat breast cancer. In some cases, only a small area of the breast may be removed if the size of the tumor is small. Sometimes, mastectomy is performed where the entire breast tissue has to be removed.
2. Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy is a type of treatment in which the cancerous cells are targeted by using certain drugs which are injected in to the body. However, chemotherapy has its own share of side effects such as hair loss, sudden and drastic weight loss and persistent fatigue.
3. Radiation Therapy: This procedure involves using radiations such as x-rays to destroy cancer cells in the body. This procedure is carried out with the help of a machine that focuses radiation on the affected areas of the body. In case you have a concern or query you can always consult an expert & get answers to your questions!

Myth: Brain damage is always permanent.

Fact: The brain can repair or compensate for certain losses, and even generate new cells.
People once believed that we were born with a finite number of brain cells, and that was it for life; if you damaged any of them you could never get them back. Similarly, many scientists believed that the brain was unalterable; once it was" broken" it could not be fixed. 

Now, of course, we know that the brain remains plastic throughout life, and can rewire itself in response to learning. It can also generate new brain cells under the right circumstances.

Hi I am Dr. Kirti Yadav, senior physiotherapist from Mat-Harbor family clinic, Gurgaon.

Today I want to talk about a very common problem which every one, if we count about the population 100% then 70% of people they talk about Disk pain. So I want to enlighten this topic today. If there is a normal pain and ache in your neck or back you go to a doctor and the doctor assess you and tells you to get an MRI done. Whenever you get an MRI done there is some level of disk involvement and the doctor ask you to take rest, not to do exercise and all those things and then just being fear of disk pain you don’t exercise for the rest of your life.

So just to come onto that area, just to enlighten this topic, as a physiotherapist I want to tell you about the fact. Disk pain, YES it happens but it happens in 20% of the cases. The rest 50% of the cases have been misdiagnose, they take disk pain and they don’t do exercise all of their life. Now we don’t exercise, we don’t strengthen up our muscle that is the problem that we get these pains and aches and the muscle is being stretched which is counted to be as the disk pain. Now when we talk about this, when you get an MRI done even today if I get my MRI done I will have some level of disk involvement whether the disk is causing you pain or not that is more important. The nature of pain tells you about the disk involvement.

So if you have tingling sharp shooting burning kind of pain which travels through a nerve, which travels through area, it dignifies, it signifies the disk pain. But if you have a localized dull, aching kind of pain please don’t take it as a disk pain and don’t take it as a nerve pain. So just coming to the treatment part. About 50% of the people who don’t have disk pain, who says we have cervical spondylitis but they don’t have cervical spondylitis they have trapezius muscle involvement. In that case what we do please strengthen up your trapezius muscle, please strengthen up your shoulder muscle so that you don’t have these pains and aches again and again. Why this happens? This happens because of repetitive strain injuries that happens because of more of computer use more of mobile use, texting and other sedentary live cells which we are going in. So the ultimate solution for pains and aches muscular is strengthening the particular part.

If you want to know more about this, if you want to talk more about it you can contact me through Lybrate.