Is There Anything Additional You Would Advise for Immune Support to Those Who Are Being Treated for Cancer?

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Is there anything additional you would advise for immune support to those who are being treated for cancer? This is jj Virgin, four time New York Times bestselling author, celebrity nutrition expert and fitness hall of famer. I've been on a lifelong quest for answers to the toughest health questions and now I'm sharing what I found with you. Welcome to Ask the Health Expert. Barb from my super Immune Secrets masterclass.

Asks.

Next week I'll be finished with six months of chemotherapy. Is there anything additional you would advise for immune support for those who are being treated? Treated for cancer? I've also been told I have high inflammation levels. Hey, it's JJ and I've got my friend Dr. Heather Paulson, board certified naturopathic oncologist with me to answer this question. After experiencing cancer with some loved ones, she made the change from being a marine biologist to a naturopathic doctor specializing in cancer. She teaches people how to get and stay healthy while undergoing cancer cancer treatments. She's also a long time yoga and meditation teacher and a new fur mom to a puppy in training to be a therapy dog. We'll be right back with the answer. Stay with us.

Hey, it's J.J. here.

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You know, this question about immune support is so, so important right now for all people, but especially if you're just finishing up chemotherapy. I know a lot of the patients in my office are a little more than just a little stressed about how their immune system is functioning and if they're at an increased risk of an infection from other outside sources. So I totally understand where this question is coming from. The first thing that you need to know about your immune system and if you need immune support, is looking at your white blood cell count and within your white blood cell count on your lab work that your oncologist runs on a per treatment basis or every two weeks or so. You're looking for the number of lymphocytes and neutrophils. So lymphocytes and neutrophils are part of the white blood cells and part of our immune system that helps us attack and address any invaders into our system that might be infectious in nature. There's a lot of things that have been studied for Improving white blood cell count with chemotherapy, during chemotherapy as well as after chemotherapy. If you're taking something during chemotherapy with. So important is to know exactly what drug you're on and know exactly what herbs and nutrients match up with that particular medication or group of medications, because there's a lot of opportunity for drug nutrient interactions. But if you've just completed chemotherapy, the things that have been looked at for improving bone marrow function and improving white blood cell counts, lymphocytes and neutrophils are things like coriolis versicolor, which is turkey tail mushroom, vitamin D, astragalus, panax, ginseng. And interestingly enough, a new study just came out on green jackfruit. So green jackfruit is something that is used a lot in vegan restaurants as a meat alternative. And it is something that you can get a typical health food store. It comes as a taco meat or a fake pulled pork. And what this study found is that the people who ate one serving of green jackfruit per day had a reduction in leukopenia from chemotherapy. Let me translate that for a second. All that means is that they were less likely to have white blood cell counts drop during chemotherapy, and it can maybe even help rebuild the system after chemotherapy. Another study looked at kids undergoing chemotherapy, and they found that when they took a chamomile syrup, that they had better neutrophil counts. So depending on how your blood counts are, that might direct exactly what might be the greatest thing for you to take. There's also studies that have shown that low neutrophil counts in women with breast cancer improved with just a multivitamin and vitamin E. So it might not be that special or weird of a supplement to take if you're looking to support your immune system during and after chemotherapy. And if all else fails, if these supplements aren't working for you or your blood counts aren't moving. In our office, I always love to use traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture. So if you're not seeing the needle move and you're not seeing the impact that you want with supplements alone, you can always add in some other therapies like acupuncture. You also mentioned having inflammation. And the things that we use in cancer care for inflammation are very similar to what other areas of specialty use for inflammation. So we mostly look at things like curcumin, fish oil, fruit, anthocyanins, and quercetin. And when I'm looking at these things for reducing inflammation, the cool part is, is that these products can also help improve cancer cell apoptosis or cancer cell death and reduce risk of cancer cells growing. So these are some of the things that you can talk about with your healthcare team and see if they're a good fit for you.

This is JJ with Ask the Health Expert. I do this five times a week, so make sure you never miss a show by going to subscribetojay.com.