Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Cancer Prevention with Inspire Health



On April 11th 2012 Bentall Kennedy’s Fitness month hosted Dr. Janice Wright to tell us about evidence based cancer care and prevention. Dr. Wright is a physician with Inspire Health which is a non-profit society established in 1997 which is recognized as a national leader in Cancer care. Here is a summary of the principles at Inspire Health which they use as a platform for wellness promotion and cancer prevention & treatment.

         Person empowerment and the right to choose
         Whole-person approach – Not just the sum of the parts
         Self-efficacy and engagement vs. passive and dependent
         Belief in our body’s ability to heal
         Focus on prevention
         Healthy role modeling by health care professionals
         Transforming fear associated with a cancer diagnosis into inspired action
         The optimal time-frame to engage and be inspired is during the ‘window of opportunity’ soon after diagnosis
         Ripple effect to family, friends and community
         Group work provides support for this shift
         Evidence based, wisdom-informed: 7,000+ research abstracts

For more information regarding Inspire Health’s unique life-changing cancer care and recovery programs they can be reached online at www.inspirehealth.ca or by calling 604 734 7125. There office is located at 200-1330 West 8th Avenue, Vancouver, BC, V6H 4A6.

So, here’s a summary of 5 interesting points regarding cancer care that Dr. Wright addressed in her talk. *** This (of course) is in conjunction to participation in regular vigorous physical activity and stretching!!

1) Don’t eat Peanuts or Peanut butter. Period.
Aflatoxins clearly linked to liver cancer
Recommendations: avoid peanuts or peanut butter.
*Safe, healthy tree nut butter options: almond butter, cashew butter

2) Broccoli and Green tea
Not necessarily to be eaten together, but they have been shown to be cancer reducing for both men and women by regularly including them in your diet. 

3) Sleep
Lack of sleep and stress are some of the leading causes of immune- suppression. Try to get as much undisturbed, high quality sleep, with uninterrupted darkness... It is an unappreciated endogenous mechanism of cancer prevention. ( That means if your body is adequately rested your immune system can fight illness better)

4) Laughter
Sing, Dance, Laugh. Basically have some fun.

5) Minimize Toxin Exposure
This is a no brainer: Don’t Smoke Tobacco.

Another underappreciated way to minimize toxin exposure is to watch what you put on your skin. The average person uses 12 products a day on their skin from hand soap, body soap to shampoo & conditioner, shaving cream and cosmetics. In this stuff is a cesspool of mineral oil and nasty chemicals that end up directly in your bloodstream through contact with your skin and can directly affect your body’s health. To find out more about the worlds healthiest skin care products from Arbonne click: http://welcomeyourwellness.myarbonne.ca/ or contact johanna@myarbonne.ca (ID:115531483) 
                                    
Dirty Dozen:
Here is a list of the common fruits containing the most pesticides and harmful residues. Y’know… the ones at the supermarket that don’t have the organic label! Additionally,  Dr. Wright mentioned imported grapes are some of the worst culprits for holding chemicals with in due to the thinness of the skin. Wash them all before you eat them, and avoid the ones listed below if you are unsure of its origins or farming practice.
  1.  Peach
  2. Apple
  3. Bell Pepper
  4. Celery
  5. Nectarine
  6. Strawberries
  7. Cherries
  8. Kale
  9. Lettuce
  10. Grapes (Imported)
  11. Carrot
  12. Pear

That’s about it for now. Thanks to Inspire Health and Dr. Janice Wright for speaking to us about how we can stay healthy and live longer.

CH

7 comments:

  1. It is wonderful to know that this clinic is here for us. I moved a couple of years ago to Vancouver, I love it! It also brought me the most important lesson of this lifetime, I was diagnosed recently and am in recovery of my surgery. Thank you Dr. Wright what a noble wonderful accomplishment, I will see you soon!
    Rozhy T.

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    Replies
    1. I had good experiences with Dr. Janice Wright. She offers excellent integrative care.

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  2. Inspire Health was a warm and welcoming place when I joined in the fall of 2012, but due to major changes last yr, this is not the case today. They kept promising to replace programs taken away last Oct.2013, but broke that promise. Moreover, the support group was anything but supportive for me. They made me feel like an outcast because I was "off topic", which means I wasn't talking about cancer treatments. They were, for the most part unempathetic to my issues. So much so, that I felt practically pushed out the door.
    The final blow was this: After leaving Inspire, I left Thank You cards and enclosed small tokens of appreciation for 2 nutritionist there, but they chose to ignore me - can you believe it ? I can't, but it happened last month. They're all smiles and good cheer when you're there, but obviously don't give a damn about you after you decide to quit membership - and God forbid, you say anything negative - there's no room for that. Lousy PR, too. There's no "sorry, we couldn't be of help" - nothing.

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    Replies
    1. First off- Thanks for your comments. Clearly you've had a bad experience with Inspire Health we appreciate you telling us about it.

      Although I can't fix those problems, I can offer one piece of advice that might help you... After working with thousands of athletes from beginner to expert I can honestly say that it is a different combination of treatment and modalities that is effective for each individual. The reality is that their program has a system that works for most, but clearly didn't work for you. Not to say that their program is bad, or that you are a bad person, it wasn't a good fit as it did not have the intended effect of enlightenment, empowerment and belonging. I might suggest you find a one on one coach or therapist that might be better suited for your needs. It would make all the difference in your treatment or recovery.

      Last: Stay positive!!! - Cancer feeds on negativity. I trust this was their intention... to try to instill hope, and not reinforce hopelessness.

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    2. Thanks for replying, Cameron.

      I can appreciate the fact that Inspire Health does not fit everyone - and that different things work for different people. Well, it used to work for me until they decided to take away and not replace certain programs.
      It's interesting that you glossed right over that. "Enlightenment and belonging"? No way! They were rude to me because I made mention of the fact I'm not happy with the programs - and I'm not the only one. And by the way: I'v known positive people who came down with cancer.

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  3. They made me pretty upset and knew it - then disallowed me from talking about the upset.

    Nice going, Inspire Health!

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    ReplyDelete