For seven years, Hope Nemiroff, cancer survivor, founder and executive director of Breast Cancer Options, has organized a conference that encourages women — and doctors – to respond holistically to a diagnosis of breast cancer. In other words, rather than focus so tightly on the tumor – how best to eradicate it and keep it from coming back or spreading to other parts of the body – attention is given to the woman as a unique, complex being.
What is needed immediately to save her life? What are her beliefs about what it means to be healthy and what it takes to get there? What does ‘quality of life’ mean to her in the context of cancer treatment? What is her state of mind right now? How does she believe she can best be helped medically? Psychologically? Spiritually? Does she see herself as an active participant in these efforts? Does she believe she has the power to dramatically affect her health?
The Seventh Annual Complementary Medicine Conference will explore these questions and more from many different angles. The conference – “A Holistic Approach to Breast Health” – will take place Sunday, April 13, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the SUNY New Paltz Lecture Center. It is co-sponsored by the college’s department of nursing.
Complementary medicine describes an approach in which treatment commonly accepted by the conventional (Western) medical community is supported by alternative practices – such as acupuncture, yoga, meditation, massage, and certain food supplements – that have been shown to be effective in clinical studies. Integrative medicine combines the two approaches.
Nemiroff says that, among breast cancer survivors (she was diagnosed in 1995), there has always been a desire for a more integrative approach to prevention and treatment, one that makes use of a number of different disciplines. Doctors of conventional medicine, however, have generally not been so quick to include alternative modalities in a treatment plan.
That’s changing, says Nemiroff. “Many doctors are more receptive to alternative methods,” she says, “especially those that have to do with the mind-body connection.” But, unless you live in an area where there are many different practitioners to choose from, she says, it can be difficult to find a doctor who will employ a broad-spectrum approach.
“Even those doctors who might want to be more inclusive,” says Nemiroff, “don’t know how to.” They’re swamped with patients and paper work and might not have to the time to investigate what’s available, credible and safe – outside their offices – for their patients. And it’s hard to know who, among alternative practitioners, is credible and who isn’t.
Proper advice is important
Nemiroff says that many people these days are fairly well-informed about how alternative treatments might support their doctor’s prescribed treatments. “But there are also women who will walk into a health-food store and take advice from a clerk, and that’s very dangerous,” she says.
Nemiroff says it’s usually after her doctor’s course of treatment is over that a woman begins to ask questions: ‘OK, I’ve done everything I’ve been told to do, what do I do now? What can I do that’s different so that I don’t end up here again?’
Nemiroff says that doctors’ responses, unfortunately, are uneven. Some are ready with advice about nutrition and stress control, says Nemiroff, and some are not. “Some doctors say, ‘Oh, don’t worry, just live your life, when the woman wants more.’”
The conference is not only for women who have been diagnosed with cancer, says Nemiroff. A good part of the day is dedicated to a discussion of factors – environmental, genetic and life-style-related choices – currently understood to contribute to a malignancy and how a woman can mitigate the effect of those factors. And it’s designed to help the woman with cancer negotiate the choices available to help her regain and keep her health.
“Breast cancer is the disease women fear most, even though they may not come from high-risk families,” says Nemiroff. (More women die from cardiovascular disease.) Fear of breast cancer, she says, “is best overcome by having lots of good, scientifically based information on how to build a healthy lifestyle. If a woman gets the diagnosis, however, then she needs information about her options for treatment and how to live post-breast cancer treatment.”
The conference comprises twelve workshops that cover four main areas of interest: risk reduction strategies, stress reduction, how best to proceed after a breast cancer diagnosis and what lifestyle changes are helpful to incorporate. Nemiroff promises “the newest evidence-based information in these areas.”
The opening plenary, “Treating The Whole Person,” will be delivered by Sheldon Feldman, MD, Chief of Breast Surgery, Beth Israel Hospital, NYC. Other speakers include Scott Berliner, RPh, owner of Life Science Pharmacy, Life Science Nutrition; Doni Wilson, ND, President of the NY Association of Naturopathic Physicians; as well as Nemiroff.
The conference costs $35, which includes lunch. Seniors and students pay $20; a limited number of scholarships are available. For a complete description of the workshops, and to register, call Breast Cancer Options at 845-339-HOPE or visit the Web site: http://www.breastcanceroptions.org.