Melanoma Contributions by vikdad1

Nutrition can play a large role in your ability to prevent cancer. Some studies have shown that right nutritional program can reduce the chances that you get certain cancers by over 60%. In addition, nutrition can also help significantly in your battle to fight melanoma, or manage the side effects of some of the treatments you may try.

Melanoma and Diet

There is a lot of evidence that suggests that the foods you eat, and the manner in which you eat them, may be able to help prevent cancer and melanoma from occurring. Diet may also help you fight and beat melanoma once a tumor has formed. There are two ways that diet can be helpful. First, there are specific foods that can help prevent and fight melanoma. Additionally, there are specific diets that many believe can be even more effective.

Foods that help Prevent and Fight Melanoma

Many individual foods are purported to help prevent and fight cancer, with varying levels of concrete scientific evidence. Here are some of the most promising foods that have either been scientifically studied, or have garnered anecdotal evidence of their potency.

Melanoma-Fighting Food!

• Broccoli
• Flax Seeds
• Kale
• Blueberries
• Apples
• Watercress

A nutrient called sulforaphane, contained in broccoli sprouts as well as other cabbage-family vegetables such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, and kale has been shown in observational studies to help prevent cancer.

Melanoma and Supplements

There are a variety of vitamins and minerals that can potentially help prevent and fight cancer and melanoma. Some may also be helpful in managing side effects of a variety of cancer treatments.

• Melatonin: Dozens of studies and a wide range of clinical evidence suggests that high doses of melatonin not only help prevent melanoma, but also may help kill melanoma tumors and prevent them from spreading. Read more about melatonin and melanoma.
• Vitamin D (Specifically Vitamin D3): Studies and anecdotal evidence around the use of Vitamin D in fighting melanoma, and specifically the D3 form, reveal that it is a promising supplement. There are over 3,500 PubMed articles on Vitamin D3 and cancer, including over 80 clinical trials. Many studies cite the positive effect that Vitamin D3 has on killing melanoma cells, and animal studies that suggest that it may play a role in helping to prevent the spread of melanoma. Read more about Vitamin D3 and melanoma.
• Selenium: The effect of selenium on fighting melanoma is a subject of a lot of recent studies. Many patients tend to deficient in selenium, which is an important micronutrient.¹ Some studies on mice suggest that various selenium compounds may prevent the spreading of melanoma. Additionally, several studies have suggested that selenium vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale and Brussels sprouts, can help your body target melanoma.
• Other promising supplements include
  • CoQ10
  • N-Acetyl Cysteine
  • Flax Seed Oil
  • Lycopene
  • Alpha Lipoic Acid

Overview

The There has been a lot of evidence that suggests that vitamin D plays an important part in the prevention and fighting of melanoma. This may seem surprising since the main way people get vitamin D is through exposure to the sun, and sun exposure is something commonly know to cause skin cancer.

Vitamin D is good for preventing melanoma

The key distinction is between sun exposure and sun over-exposure. In other words, normal sun exposure has not been shown to have any negative effect on melanoma, and in fact, due to the positive effect of producing vitamin D, has actually been show to reduce the risk of melanoma⁽¹⁾. However, over-exposure (i.e. sunburning) has been shown to have a negative effect and is correlated to higher risk of developing melanoma.

Vitamin D3 may be very good at fighting melanoma

There have been many scientific studies done that show the D3 version of vitamin D can be very helpful for some in fighting melanoma. It has been show in some melanoma lines, to stop the melanoma from growing ⁽³⁾, ⁽⁴⁾, ⁽⁶⁾, ⁽⁷⁾. It has also been shown that other mechanisms help to kill melanoma cells⁽⁵⁾. Further, another study showed decreased levels of vitamin D3 are associated with increased risk of melanoma. Hence, while it is certainly not guaranteed to work, vitamin D3 should be seriously considered as something to take when fighting melanoma, or trying to prevent its recurrence.

There are a variety of meditation techniques used today. The Chinese, who originated many of the meditative techniques, describe meditation in simple terms as “sitting still, doing nothing” or “mental fasting.” The basic idea is to clear you your mind of all of thoughts and give your conscious mind a rest. By doing this, we begin to be able to train the two aspects of our temporal mind that govern our lives: emotion and intent⁽¹⁾. Here are some of the many techniques used for meditation. Keep in mind that you may find that one type of meditation works better than another for you. So feel free to try a few of them until you find the one that fits best:

• Transcendental Meditation – This is probably one of, if not the, most popular and well studied form of mediation.
• Concentrative Meditation – The most simple form of meditation. You sit in a relaxed pose and clear your mind of all thoughts. You then focus on your breath – : in – and - out -. You keep focusing on your breath until all you are thinking about is the air coming in and going out.
• Mindfulness Meditation – This is, in some ways, the opposite of Concentrative Meditation because rather than focusing on just one thing, you focus on everything – all of the thoughts, feelings, sensations, sounds, etc. that pass through your mind. In this form, you sit in a comfortable position, in a quiet spot, and witness all of the thoughts passing through your mind. The goal is to not react to, think about, or become stuck on any of them. Rather, you would simply become aware of them as they pass through.

Believe in yourself: It’s your body, and your life, and you are in control. Sometimes all of us need a little help, and that’s what your doctors are doing – giving you a little help. But remember, it’s your body. You are as much a part of this fight against melanoma and as any drugs, medicines, or supplements. You can be in control: remember, you are the one who is going to beat cancer, because you are the most powerful weapon of all! Of course, sometimes when you’re feeling down, its hard to believe in yourself all the time. Here are some tips you can try in those moments:

• Get a little exercise, even if it’s just a walk around the house. Remember, you’re in control of your body and you can get out and do that, even when you’re not feeling well.
• Lift your arms and legs, flex your muscles, move your hands and feet. Remind yourself that it’s your body and you are in control.
• Remember some of those times when you got sick in the past – maybe it was a flu, maybe it was a cold. You couldn’t see those little viruses in you, but your body could – and it beat them. You body is incredibly powerful, and you can win the fights when you set your mind to it.
• Think about challenges you have overcome in the past. Maybe a big test at school. Maybe some personal hardship. Maybe an athletic goal. We all have challenges we’ve faced, and I’m sure you have had them too. Now remember how at the time, it seemed almost insurmountable. And yet now, after you’ve gotten through, it is well in your past. Remember that sometimes when you’re in the middle of a battle, the challenge seems too great, but you have gotten through before, and you can get through again.

Think Positively – Maintaining a positive attitude, even in the face of great challenge, is an important part of navigating life’s complexities, and an important part of healing. Positive thinking can be an important tool in your fight against melanoma. Here are some ideas for how you can maintain a positive attitude and positive thinking:

• Practice eliminating negative thoughts about this challenge. Sometimes that can be hard to do, so one technique you can use is called “The Doubling Game.” Make a pact with yourself that every time you have a negative thought and catch yourself, you’re going to force yourself to have two positive thoughts. It’s ok if you repeat the same positive thoughts over and over, just make sure you tell yourself positive thoughts twice as many times as the negative ones. For example.

• If you think, “I am scared” then force yourself to think, “I am brave” two times. * If you think, “I don’t think I can beat this”, then force yourself to think, “I can win this fight” and repeat it two times. * If you think, “I’m too tired, I can’t go on” then force yourself to think, “I can find the strength to get through this” and repeat it two times.

• Find stories of other people out there who have faces challenges that go far against the odds, and yet they prevailed. Use those stories as inspiration and guidance about your own battle and challenge. There are thousands and thousands of stories like this out there, but here are some examples of stories you can explore: * * The story of Ernest Shackleton – He attempted to explore Antarctica in 1914 when his boat got stuck in the ice. He was stranded there, with little food or hope of ever escaping. Yet he kept a positive attitude and against all odds, he and many of his men, survived and escaped. There is a fantastic movie about this called “The Endurance”⁽⁵⁾. * The story of Helen Keller. She was born deaf and blind, yet she had the will and the attitude to get past her health challenges. She learned to read, speak, and write, and soon became an author, political activist, and inspiration for an entire nation⁽⁶⁾. * Franklin Roosevelt – At the age of 39, he contracted an illness that left him paralyzed from the waist down. He would be in a wheel chair for the rest of his life, and suffer increasingly debilitated health. Yet he did not let this stop him, and he went on to become one of the greatest Presidents of the United States. * Lance Armstrong - at age 25, Armstrong was diagnosed with stage three testicular cancer. The cancer had spread to his lungs, abdomen and brain. His chances of survival were bleak. Yet maintained a positive attitude and fought hard. He went on to not only beat the cancer, but to win the Tour de France seven times in a row! * Stephen Hawking – just after arriving at graduate school as a young man, he was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease, which subsequently caused him to lose almost all neuromuscular control. However, he did not let this stop him, and is now regarded as one of the most important and influential scientists the world has ever known.

Surround yourself with positive people. The people around you can have a profound influence on your own life and attitude. When you are facing a difficult challenge like melanoma, it’s important to surround yourself with the people in your life who are positive thinkers with positive attitudes. When you do spend more and more time with positive people, you will find that their attitude starts to transfer to you.

Maintain a Positive Self-Image – Maintaining a positive self image is an important tool in your battle. Just because you are feeling ill, tired, etc. doesn’t mean you have to feel bad about yourself. Additionally, it is important that you not “spiral” down as you fight your battle with melanoma. Some tools that might help you are: dressing up, keeping yourself groomed and clean, wearing your favorite clothes, going out with friends, and more. You don’t, and shouldn’t let your fight with melanoma stop you from taking care of yourself in a broader sense.

Remember, you can win! – There are thousands of people out there who have faced the same challenge you are facing, and beat it. You can do that too, so believe in yourself and your ability to heal.

Many patients who beat melanoma say that one of the most important things they did that helped a lot was maintaining and positive attitude and positive thinking. The most important attitude of all is to remember and repeat to yourself that you can win! So don’t ever give up. Take mental breaks from your fight with melanoma to get out, get away and forget it about it. And when you start feeling down, repeat positive thoughts to yourself. Remember this: if you think it, you can make it happen.

Maintaining a positive attitude, and positive thinking as you fight melanoma is sometimes hard to do, but very important to the success of your treatment. Those who fight and beat melanoma, even at Stage 4, often cite their ability to think positive thoughts, and stay positive overall, as on one of the most important tools in their melanoma treatment fight. Remember: many people before you have beaten melanoma, and you can too! Don’t ever forget that.

Fighting a challenge like melanoma can be very difficult and cause a significant amount of stress. Unfortunately, as you have probably heard, stress doesn’t help your fight. In fact, too much stress can sometimes have a negative impact. Hence, managing your stress level is an important part of what you can do to help. The good news is that there are many well tested methods for stress management that work. Not all of them will work well for all people, but the important part is to try a number of them until you find the right ones for you.

We manage stress successfully when we learn to control our responses and avoid overreaction. Hence, stress management is a skill, like riding a bike, and once you learn the techniques, they will stay will with you forever. Keep in mind, however, that learning the techniques usually requires regular practice – once a week is not enough for most people in the beginning. Once a day is more appropriate if you want to see dramatic improvement in your skills².

Friend and family Family –

Your friends a and family can become an enormously powerful and helpful support for you. But in order to make the as helpful as possible, you need to tell them what you need from them. And you need to set up your “ground rules” for being helpful. The fact is, they want to help you, but they don’t really know how – they need your help with this and will appreciate it when you tell them what you want and need.

Here are some examples of ground rules you could set up and communicate to them:

• "Don’t act like I’m always sick. I am living this every day and I don’t want to sit there and talk about how I’m feeling with everyone. Tell me about what you’re up to. Tell me about the funny things going on in your life. I don’t mind telling you how I’m feeling, but I don’t want it to be the focus of our conversation.”

• “Don’t tell me you’re worried about me. Because if I think you’re worried about me, then I start to worry about me to, and that’s not a good part of my healing process. Tell me that you know how strong I am, and all of the good care I’m getting, and you know I can beat it.”

• "Don’t every refer to it as “your melanoma” – this is NOT my melanoma. I didn’t invite this melanoma into my body, it is not welcome here, and it is not mine at all. If you want to talk about it, you can call it “the melanoma” or just “melanoma.”

• “Don’t capitalize “melanoma” with a capital “M.” This melanoma doesn’t deserve the same respect that other things that get capitalized receive”

• “Don’t tell me I look bad. The fact is that for someone like me who is going through this, I look pretty darn good!”

• “Remind me that I can and will beat this thing. With everything I’m going through all day and night, sometimes its hard to remind myself of that. And knowing and hearing that you believe in me makes a huge difference here.”

• “Let me know how important I am to you, and all of the things you love about me. That makes me feel good and valuable in the world”

Support groups -

Some people find support groups to be very helpful to them in coping with the challenge of fighting melanoma.

Beyond the studies, however, the bottom line is that sometimes its hard for other people who have never faced this kind of challenge, to understand what you are going through. So some people find it comforting to connect with others who are facing the same challenge and can relate. Be careful though, to surround yourself with positive fighters, not people who are facing melanoma and have succumbed to the victim mentality.

Support groups tend to be organized by the doctors or hospitals for melanoma treatment. Ask your doctor if they are aware of any support groups in your area. If they are not, then check online or try contacting other doctors or hospitals in your area who are treating melanoma. If you can not find a local support group in your area, try contacting the American Cancer Society and try searching for “melanoma support group” on the web – with a little digging you are sure to find a group that you can join.

Be with people –

It may be the case that this challenge with melanoma has made you feel like you’re all alone, and that you’re different than the person you were before. But for the most part, that’s not true. You’re still the same person and your friends and family still love being with you just as much. So make sure to spend as much time with them as you want.

Don’t give up intimacy -

If you are married or have a significant other, remember, you don’t have to give up intimacy while your fighting this challenge. Hugging, kissing, caressing are all great ways to express intimacy while you’re fighting. And remember, that intimacy can return even stronger than it was before the challenge, once you have beaten melanoma.

Nutrition can play a large role in your ability to prevent cancer. Some studies have shown that right nutritional program can reduce the chances that you get certain cancers by over 60%. In addition, nutrition can also help significantly in your battle to fight melanoma, or manage the side effects of some of the treatments you may try.

Melanoma and Diet

There is a lot of evidence that suggests that the foods you eat, and the manner in which you eat them, may be able to help prevent cancer and melanoma from occurring. Diet may also help you fight and beat melanoma once a tumor has formed. There are two ways that diet can be helpful. First, there are specific foods that can help prevent and fight melanoma. Additionally, there are specific diets that many believe can be even more effective.

Foods that help Prevent and Fight Melanoma

Many individual foods are purported to help prevent and fight cancer, with varying levels of concrete scientific evidence. Here are some of the most promising foods that have either been scientifically studied, or have garnered anecdotal evidence of their potency.

Melanoma-Fighting Food!

• Broccoli
• Flax Seeds
• Kale
• Blueberries
• Apples
• Watercress

A nutrient called sulforaphane, contained in broccoli sprouts as well as other cabbage-family vegetables such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, and kale has been shown in observational studies to help prevent cancer.

Melanoma and Supplements

There are a variety of vitamins and minerals that can potentially help prevent and fight cancer and melanoma. Some may also be helpful in managing side effects of a variety of cancer treatments.

• Melatonin: Dozens of studies and a wide range of clinical evidence suggests that high doses of melatonin not only help prevent melanoma, but also may help kill melanoma tumors and prevent them from spreading. Read more about melatonin and melanoma.
• Vitamin D (Specifically Vitamin D3): Studies and anecdotal evidence around the use of Vitamin D in fighting melanoma, and specifically the D3 form, reveal that it is a promising supplement. There are over 3,500 PubMed articles on Vitamin D3 and cancer, including over 80 clinical trials. Many studies cite the positive effect that Vitamin D3 has on killing melanoma cells, and animal studies that suggest that it may play a role in helping to prevent the spread of melanoma. Read more about Vitamin D3 and melanoma.
• Selenium: The effect of selenium on fighting melanoma is a subject of a lot of recent studies. Many patients tend to deficient in selenium, which is an important micronutrient.¹ Some studies on mice suggest that various selenium compounds may prevent the spreading of melanoma. Additionally, several studies have suggested that selenium vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale and Brussels sprouts, can help your body target melanoma.
• Other promising supplements include
  • CoQ10
  • N-Acetyl Cysteine
  • Flax Seed Oil
  • Lycopene
  • Alpha Lipoic Acid