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  • Dietary Supplements

    Posted 5/22/2013 by hhill
      This is another controversial and frequently misunderstood topic. Many, if not most, cancer patients at least think about their diets and wonder if there are foods that can be added or subtracted that would make a difference in their cancer progression. As far as I know (and I do try to keep up), there is zero proof that anything we eat or don't eat causes cancer or cures cancer or even has an impact on recurrence risk or progression. Certainly there is a great deal known about healthy eating, and the usual advice is the usual advice: meaning eat lots of fruits and vegetables, minimize the amounts of red meat, white flour, sugar. Today's article takes this all a step further with a careful look by the Clinical Practice Committee of the Society of Integrative Oncology at commonly used nutritional supplements. Read more... Comments (0)
  • Diet and Cancer Risk

    Posted 4/9/2013 by hhill
      Once again, we have researchers telling us that we really don't know much, if anything, about the impact of diet on cancer risk. Note that this isn't about the possible associations between diet and risk of cancer recurrence--that is an even less well known and illusive topic. Once again, we do hear that a "healthy diet" is a good thing, and even that living a "heart healthy lifestyle" (healthy diet, exercise, don't smoke, weight control, etc.) is a good thing. I come back often to this topic because there is so much interest in the foods we eat and the magical wish that, by controlling our diets, we could control our risks. Read more... Comments (0)
  • Nutrition Guidelines are Inconsistent

    Posted 3/31/2013 by hhill
    In a nutshell, here is what we know about nutrition and cancer: Not Much. If you Google nutrition/cancer or stand in a bookstore or look on Amazon, you will be rapidly overwhelmed by all the advice. The problem is that very little of it is based on sound research and much of it is contradictory and misleading. Since diet is something that we can contol, most of us wonder what we should or should not be eating. Will be make the cancer grow if I eat sugar? What about dairy? (I chose those two examples as it is easy to find, in the unproven press, prohibitions against those foods) Read more... Comments (0)

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About the Blogger

Hester Hill Schnipper, LICSW, OSW-C is the Manager of Oncology Social Work at BIDMC. For more than thirty years, her daily work at BIDMC has been primarily focused on supporting women with breast cancer. A nationally known writer and speaker, she was the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation's first Hatcher Survivorship Professor. In 1993, and again in 2005, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and went through the standard treatments of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and hormonal therapy. These experiences have given her great credibility with her patients and transformed her life's work to her life. Ms. Schnipper lives gratefully with her husband in an ancient farmhouse outside of Boston and spends as much time as possible in a water front cottage on Mt Desert Island. Between them, they have five adult children and seven grandchildren; she claims biological responsibility for two and three of them.