Athens — Ignoring the symptoms won’t help you beat cancer, Todd Sigmon, vice president of the ETMC Cancer Institute, told the Athens Noon Kiwanis, Tuesday. Check-ups and early detection will give a better chance of surviving most forms, and can turn a potential death sentence into a manageable, chronic disease. “Cancer is an abnormal growth of cells, and if you don’t treat them they’ll go crazy,” Sigmon said. Cancer is actually an umbrella term that covers many different diseases. “Breast cancer is not the same thing as lung cancer,” Sigmon said. “I don’t really mean just the organ it originates in, but there are actually cells that are different.” if someone gets breast cancer and it spreads to the bones, it does not become bone cancer. “That’s important because different cancers respond to different treatments,” Sigmon said. there are multiple factors that can lead to a person being stricken with cancer, Sigmon said. there are genetic causes. Lifestyle choices, like smoking can increase its likelihood. Infections can play a role, as can environmental conditions. Men and women are affected by cancers at different rates, Sigmon said. Common among men is prostate cancer, which accounts for 28 percent of the cases. Lung cancer is the second most common among male cases with 15 percent. Twenty-eight percent of the malignancies among women are breast cancer cases. Lung cancer is also the second most likely to affect women, accounting for 14 percent of the cancer diagnoses. “many cancers are curable now, especially with early detection,” Sigmon said. Breast cancer and colon cancer are among those where early detection is critical. they are easily treatable in their early stages, but potentially fatal, if allowed to grow and metastasize. Prostate cancer and skin cancer patients also fare well if treatment is started early, Sigmon said. There’s nothing sadder for a doctor than to look into the eyes of someone who has terminal cancer, knowing they could have been treated with a simple surgery, had they had it examined earlier. Fighting cancer is a team effort. some team members you see, but many you don’t. besides the doctor and oncologist, there are pathologists, radiologists and maybe 20 others who could be involved in your case, Sigmon said. “I would want to know that there’s more than one person who’s going to decide what is best for me,” Sigmon said. there are multiple treatments for cancer. Surgery gives the patient the best chance of living cancer free.  “It’s typically the most curative,” Sigmon said. “it allows the surgeon the opportunity to remove as much of the tumor as is necessary, and even a little sliver of healthy tissues to make sure the cancer hasn’t invaded anything around it. Surgery ceases to be an option when the cancer has spread to other locations in the body. Chemotherapy, drug therapy and radiation may be used in those locations.  “The technology you’d get if you get it in Athens is the same as in Tyler or Dallas,” Sigmon said. “The chemo they use, and the radiation is the same.” The ETMC Cancer Center at their location is at 2000 S. Palestine St. across from ETMC Athens.  

Not in the way that Western medicine conceptualizes disease, as a set of numbers and symptoms. but for many diseases — Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer and others that are the result of genetic vulnerabilities coupled with lifestyle choices, improving your diet can bend the curve to lessen, postpone and even prevent disease.

It’s a matter of balance in the body, says Esther Cohen, founder of Seven Bowls School of Nutrition and a registered dietitian with a private practice in Longmont.

“When we’re eating so many highly processed foods, with sugar, preservatives, colorings and additives, we deplete the nutrients necessary to maintain homeostasis or balance in the body,” she says.

Focus on veggies

Improving nutrition is very much part of the complementary approach that HealthLinks Clinic uses in treating patients with cancer and other conditions.

“We focus on a vegetarian diet, gluten free,” says Registered Dietitian Megan Forbes. “We use vegetables as medicine in bringing down inflammation. “The different phytonutrients involved literally change how DNA functions.”

She says there’s less emphasis on taking away nutritionally empty and harmful foods — although minimizing these is an important goal. instead, the focus is on adding a variety of highly nutritious and delicious vegetables.

“We eat foods to help the body. It’s a huge pendulum shift,” she says, adding that an occasional treat doesn’t do harm.

“Getting on track is savoring being in the moment,” she says. that means it’s OK to have one of your mother’s awesome homemade cookies every now and then.

“It’s really important to enjoy and taste and live in the moment when you’re doing it,” Forbes says.

They key is to enjoy the cookie, but also to enjoy the healthful, energy-giving foods you’re eating. To that end, Forbes encourages clients to expand their repertoire of recipes and to try new foods.

“People get in a rut. They eat carrots, celery, onions and spinach,” she says.

Trying new vegetables and eating in season to get veggies at the peak of taste and nutrition adds to the experience, she says.

Finding balance

Cohen of Seven Bowls Nutrition says Chinese medicine recommends getting a balance of the five elements every day.

Pungent foods such as garlic, onions and cayenne peppers are associated with the metal element and are useful for cleansing the blood, she says. Bitter foods such as certain greens are considered cleansing and are associated with the fire element.

“They’re also high in mineral content,” Cohen says. “Minerals are like the spark plugs in our bodies. They ignite all the enzymatic and hormonal responses in the body.”

Those who feel lethargic and who don’t have the energy to think clearly should look at balancing the bitter element, she says.

Salt is another taste, which is related to the water element. Cohen recommends using sea salts that have diverse minerals. Sweet is related to the earth element.

“It’s very harmonizing, which is why we tend to go for sweet in our diets,” she says.

However, the sweet elements should be from unprocessed foods such as honey or maple syrup or people should try to get their sweet taste from fruits, she adds.

The sour taste, which is the one Cohen says is most commonly missing from the Western diet, is associated with the wood element. Sour foods, such as lemons, yogurt and fermented foods like sauerkraut stimulate the liver to cleanse, drawing in impurities and allowing them to be released through the lymphatic system or in urine.

Color your world

If Chinese elements seem too complicated, Cohen has another framework: color.

Not only do you eat a diversity of vitamins and minerals in your diet by eating a colorful variety of fruits and vegetables, Cohen says.

“You nourish yourself through all your senses. It’s just quite beautiful.”

Eating with consciousness and awareness means that you’re taking in the sight, smell and texture of your food, she adds.

Eating in this way is self-reinforcing, she adds.

“There’s this point when you just feel better. People say this is how they want to eat for life. their food tastes different. They feel better. their energy level is better. It’s not a condition they’re trying to heal, but a lifestyle.”