Integrative Health Blog

Integrative Cancer Care at National Integrated Health Associates

Posted by admin on Thu, Aug 18, 2016

Dr. Charles Gant, MD, practices functional medicine, an emerging field of medicine which specializes in diagnosing the precise metabolic, allergic, immune, infectious, nutritional, toxicological and genetic uniqueness of each patient.

As a physician member of the NIHA Integrative Cancer Care team, he is happy to blend his work with some extraordinary skills of other team members to provide our patients with what may be one of the most comprehensive approaches to cancer care in the area.

Integrative Cancer Care

Integrative Cancer Care begins with a careful evaluation, and his role is to assess 600 to even a thousand independent medical laboratory results , which allows me to contribute critical information to the team as we craft a treatment plan which is personalized to every individual. The objective of this exhaustive assessment is two-fold; first of all, since everyone's immune system is very active in destroying cancer cells, we want to determine if there are any obstacles to this process and remove them as quickly as possible so that our patients’ immune systems can more aggressively deal with cancer, secondly; working with your oncologist if possible, we want to be sure that everything is being done by conventional health care to destroy cancer which sometimes involves surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy and genetically and metabolically sub-typing the potential unique vulnerabilities of each individual's cancer.

The Integrative Cancer Care Model is a Two-Pronged Approach:

  1. Strengthening the immune system to more effectively destroy cancer cells, and

  2. Assisting you in getting the best of conventional care to support your immune system and its efforts.

At NIHA, we support the integration of the cancer killing treatments of conventional care with the immune strengthening approaches of CAM, or Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and precision medicine. For instance, chronic infections can burden and distract the immune system in four primary locations in the body; the gastrointestinal tract, dental infections in the mouth, chronic infections in the sinuses and tick-borne infections in the bloodstream such as Lyme Disease.These must all be removed or controlled so that one's immune system is not distracted and can more fully devote its attention to its primary role: destroying cancer cells.

Many toxins such as lead and pesticides can make the immune system sluggish and also act as carcinogens causing cancer cells to grow faster in the body. One of Dr.Gant's roles as a member of the NIHA Integrative Cancer Care Team entails carefully assessing such toxins and designing ways to destroy them. The immune system is a living, breathing part of you and must be nurtured properly, so another function is to carefully diagnose nutritional deficiencies, metabolic disturbances and genetic variables which might prevent our patients with cancer from enjoying immunological competence.

Individual Treatment Plan for the Whole Person

This, along with other extensive evaluations provided by the NIHA Integrative Cancer Care team, can take several weeks to complete but this is necessary, so that we have a complete and personalized understanding of each patient's situation. From that we put our heads together and craft an integrated individualized treatment plan which is unique to each individual with cancer. During the initial assessment period however, we will begin intensive care and immediately kick off a plan for starting your recovery journey by assisting you with healthy life choices that universally promote immune system viability in everyone such as drinking enough clean filtered water, sleeping better, exercising some, eating organic food and managing stress. These lifestyle changes, when added to a personalized plan designed by the NIHA Integrative Cancer Care team, is what makes our care so comprehensive.  The doctors and other practitioners on the NIHA Integrative Cancer Care team invite you to further explore how personalized Comprehensive Cancer Care will work for you.

Learn more about integrative cancer care or click to request an appointment.

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Gant_blog.jpgCharles Gant MD, PhD, has practiced Integrative and Functional Medicine for over three decades. He specializes in molecular health and healing, especially as it supports growth and health recovery from problems such as ADHD, brain health, mood problems, addictionschronic diseases, metabolic and immune disorders, infectious disease, and more. He is an expert in interpretation of functional medicine testing to diagnose precisely what is deficient in each patient, and then replenish those missing, essential items. Testing and treating for the root cause of illness is also known as precision medicine.

 

 

Topics: cancer, integrative cancer treatment