Recently Diagnosed or Relapsed? Stop Looking For a Miracle Cure, and Use Evidence-Based Therapies To Enhance Your Treatment and Prolong Your Remission
Multiple Myeloma an incurable disease, but I have spent the last 25 years in remission using a blend of conventional oncology and evidence-based nutrition, supplementation, and lifestyle therapies from peer-reviewed studies that your oncologist probably hasn't told you about.
Click the orange button to the right to learn more about what you can start doing today.
“Patients with myeloma undergoing autologous SCT (ASCT) experience treatment-related morbidity and reduction in function and well-being for many months post-treatment.”
Granted, the first study linked and excerpted below is only a clinical trial. But I’m posting it because it means that conventional multiple myeloma oncology is beginning to understand
prehabilitation
the importance of exercise and
the short, long-term and late stage damage caused by multiple myeloma stem cell transplant aka ASCT.
The second article below is from 2013. The article refers to “multimodal prehabilitation.” Multiple myeloma patients preparing for both induction therapy and possibly a stem cell transplant (ASCT) should, in my opinion, think beyond exercise to prehabilitate. Multimodal can mean everything from:
exercise to
anti-angiogenic nutrition to
anti-inflammatory, anti-angiogenic supplementation to
detoxification (WBH) to
evidence-based mind-body therapies
and more.
My point is that each of the evidence-based non-conventional therapies outlined in the MM CC program can be considered to be prehabilitation.
Newly diagnosed MM patients must wrap their brain around the fact that conventional MM oncology considers MM to be incurable. If you stick only to conventional MM therapies you will relapse until MDR, and end-stage MM. Prehabilitation can enhance efficacy while it reduces adverse events.
Have you been diagnosed with MM? To learn more about evidence-based therapies to manage your blood cancer, scroll down the page, post a question or comment and I will reply to you ASAP.
“PERCEPT myeloma: a protocol for a pilot randomised controlled trial of exercise prehabilitation before and during autologous stem cell transplantation in patients with multiple myeloma.
INTRODUCTION: Myeloma, a blood cancer originating from plasma cells, is the most common indication for autologous stem cell transplantation (SCT). Patients with myeloma undergoing autologous SCT (ASCT) experience treatment-related morbidity and reduction in function and well-being for many months post-treatment.
Interventions targeting physical functioning delivered prior to and during SCT have shown promising results in mixed haematological populations and may offer a non-pharmacological solution to physically optimising and preparing patients for SCT. The aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility of a physiotherapist-led exercise intervention as an integral part of the myeloma ASCT pathway at a UK tertiary centre.
Secondary end points will evaluate differences between the exercise intervention group and the usual care control group in
cancer-related fatigue,
quality of life,
functional capacity (6 min walk test; handheld dynamometry; a timed sit-to-stand test)
objective and self-reported physical activity.
Outcomes will be assessed at four time points, approximately
6-8 weeks prior to SCT,
on/around day of SCT,
on discharge from SCT hospital admission and
12 weeks post-discharge.
The exercise intervention comprises of partly supervised physiotherapist-led aerobic and resistance exercise including behaviour change techniques to promote change in exercise behaviour. The primary outcomes from the trial will be summarised as percentages or mean values with 95% CIs. Group differences for secondary outcomes at each time point will be analysed using appropriate statistical models.”
“Cancer prehabilitation, a process on the continuum of care that occurs between the time of cancer diagnosis and the beginning of acute treatment, includes physical and psychological assessments that establish a baseline functional level, identifies impairments, and provides targeted interventions that improve a patient’s health to reduce the incidence and the severity of current and future impairments.
There is a growing body of scientific evidence that supports preparing newly diagnosed cancer patients for and optimizing their health before starting acute treatments…
More recent research shows that opportunities exist to use other unimodal or multimodal prehabilitation interventions to decrease morbidity, improve physical and psychological health outcomes, increase the number of potential treatment options, decrease hospital readmissions, and reduce both direct and indirect healthcare costs attributed to cancer…”
“New studies suggest that a multimodal approach that incorporates both physical and psychological prehabilitation interventions may be more effective than a unimodal approach that addresses just one or the other.
Three areas of focus form the basis of this guidance:
● Physical activity and exercise ● Nutrition ● Psychological support and behaviour change
Cancer Prehabilitation- Multiple Myeloma Therapy Better, Faster
Cancer prehabilitation is emerging as a method of better preparing patients for the often toxic and disabling effects of cancer treatment. Its place within the continuum of cancer care is rapidly being established.
If you’ve been diagnosed with an incurable blood cancer you’ll need every possible advantage. Before you undergo any multiple myeloma therapy prehabilitate.
Whether it’s induction therapy, an autologous stem cell transplant, surgery to stabilize your spine- any multiple myeloma therapy, prehabilitate.
If you were about to go on a ski trip but you hadn’t been on the slopes for a few years you might head to the gym to get your legs in shape. I have lots of friends who try to lose a few pounds before summer in an effort to look better when they put on a swimsuit. Both of these examples are prehabilitation.
Granted, a cancer diagnosis is much more serious than a ski trip or the beach but the idea is the same.
Cancer Prehabilitation is one or more therapies that each of us understands intuitively. Performing a certain exercise to prepare for surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiation to improve the healing or the recovery time just makes sense. Learning about your cancer diagnosis in order to prepare emotionally and reduce anxiety and stress also makes sense.
Getting in shape aka preparing for your cancer therapy, be it surgery, radiation or chemotherapy, improves:
“Early data suggest that this “bundled” approach is effective. In a study published last October, colorectal cancer patients who took part in a prehab program that included regular aerobic exercise and strength training, a personalized nutrition program and protein supplementation, and guided relaxation, performed better on the six-minute walk test both before and after surgery than patients who received only standard postsurgical rehabilitation (Anesthesiology 2014;121[5]:937-947, PMID: 25076007)
“Prehabilitation is one or more interventions performed in a newly diagnosed cancer patient that are designed to improve physical and mental health outcomes as the patient undergoes treatment and beyond. Cancer prehabilitation uses a multidisciplinary approach combining exercise, nutritional, and psychological strategies to prepare patients for the challenges of cancer treatment, such as surgery, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and radiation therapy…
In addition to improved physical and psychological health outcomes for oncology patients, cancer prehabilitation can reduce morbidity, increase treatment options, prevent hospital readmissions, and lower both direct and indirect healthcare costs attributed to cancer treatment...
“Meeting non-medical needs and improving quality of life ahead of (multiple myeloma therapy ) operations can aid recovery and cut health care costs, a new study suggests. Quality of life as measured in the study is about more than happiness and how well people feel physically, a researcher says. It also includes the financial, spiritual, emotional, mental and social aspects of their lives and whether their needs are being met.”
“Elderly patients can be at risk of protein catabolism and malnutrition in the early postoperative period. Whey protein includes most essential amino acids and stimulates the synthesis of muscle protein. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of resistance training in combination with whey protein intake in the early postoperative period…”
“After cancer treatment, our rehabilitation program can help a person regain strength, physical functioning, and independence. However, there has recently been a new interest in prehabilitation, which is a personalized program of nutrition, exercise, and emotional support to help a person diagnosed with cancer prepare for treatment, such as surgery or radiation therapy…”
Leave a Comment:
1 comment
Venessa Hofmann says
last year
I am so grateful to have stumbled upon your website as I have recently been diagnosed with MM and am trying to find out as much about it as I can. I am not keen on traditional chemotherapy as I believe it not only destroys the cancer cells , or supposed to, but kills your immune system as well. I am very keen to know all about non – traditional or natural therapies that could help. I have just started with bone pain in my left shoulder and feeling quite fatigued. Presently I do not take any meds for anything, only supplements : vit C,Vit D , Quercetin, Nac, vit B, Zinc . I am 70 years old.
Thank you so much.
