Boosting the Immune System to Fight Cancer

Nearly every woman diagnosed with breast cancer feels conflicted about accepting treatment that knocks down her immune system. Intuition that tells you (more like SHOUTS at you) that you need to build up your immune system to combat the cancer and to restore your overall health. Once you understand that you need effective treatment to deal with a threat as serious as cancer, and you go ahead with your treatment, you still need to listen to your intuition. It does make sense that your immune system needs to be nurtured. Here are some practical ways to help you help yourself.
Complementary approaches to fighting infection and cancer
Nutrition, stress reduction, support groups, exercise—intriguing new studies suggest that these fundamental but non-traditional interventions may strengthen the immune system. For example, improved immune cell function has been documented after people with melanoma, a malignant skin cancer, attended regular support group meetings. Other studies find that women in breast cancer support groups live longer than those who don't join such groups. Researchers speculate that one reason is the stress-reducing, immune-supporting effects that these groups provide.
Nutrition
Any thing your body does is crippled by poor nutrition. This is true for healing a wound, building immune cell blood counts, and even managing stress. Attention to good nutrition makes sense whether it specifically benefits the immune system or not.
The power of nutrition to strengthen the immune function is not yet fully understood. But two leaders in the field: Dr. Keith Block (University of Illinois and the Block Medical Center, Evanston, Illinois), and Dr. Mitch Gaynor (Strang-Cornell Cancer Prevention Center, New York City), focus on nutrition as a means of reducing cancer risk and cancer death and increasing quality of life. Their work emphasizes vegetarian diets and fat restriction, coupled with stress reduction and other complementary medicine therapies. They believe these factors combine to strengthen the immune system.
Proponents of these innovative, non-traditional therapies say that excess weight and eating too much cholesterol and other fats are risk factors for cancer. They say that fat appears to reduce white cell production, affecting T-cell and macrophage activity. Further, they say, obesity and a poor diet compromise the lymphatic system, making the body more vulnerable to infection and disease. Eating large amounts of protein, such as that found in animal products, they believe, contributes to these undesirable effects. Thus, their nutritional programs strictly limit proteins that come from animal foods and unhealthy fats. In particular, stick to the monounsaturated fats like canola oil and olive oil, and avoid saturated fats like coconut oil, palm oils, and animal fats.