Complementary therapies are types of therapies not scientifically proven but accepted as ways that may help treat a certain condition.
Alternative therapies are used in place of conventional therapies and the risks may be unknown. You should always consult your treating clinician when considering complementary and/or alternative therapies.
The following complementary therapies are examples that can be used in combination with conventional medicine for those with melanoma.
To maintain energy levels and enhance your immune system it is important to have a nutritionally balanced diet. This should include fresh fruit and vegetables, healthy carbohydrates that are low in fats and sugar (bread, pasta, rice, cereals) and protein (lean meat, eggs, milk, beans/lentils). Alcohol and caffeine should be kept to a minimum. Discussing your diet with a dietitian may be helpful.
Dietitians Association of Australia www.daa.asn.au
Exercise can have a positive impact on your mood and wellbeing but you should be active at a level that is comfortable for you. Even small amounts of activity may make you feel better and improve your sleep.
Evidence shows that physical activity can be effective in lifting low mood, improving sleep, lowering blood pressure and reducing stress.
Discussing your physical activity with a physiotherapist may be helpful.
Australian Physiotherapy Association www.physiotherapy.asn.au
Fatigue is commonly experienced by people with melanoma and can be a side effect of melanoma treatments. It is important to allow yourself adequate time to rest and recuperate. To manage excessive fatigue you should talk with your treating clinician.
Research has shown that relaxation and mindfulness techniques can counter the harmful physical effects of stress. Methods to elicit deep relaxation include guided imagery, visualisation, meditation, progressive muscle relaxation, massage, breathing techniques, yoga, Tai Chi and prayer.
Ensuring a healthy mind and spirit are important and self-care is essential, especially when dealing with the stress of melanoma. Self-care is any activity that helps you maintain your physical, mental or emotional health and is best when practised routinely.
Connecting with communities of faith or accessing local counsellors may also help in anxiety and stress reduction as well as enabling avenues to discuss difficult and often avoided issues such as the meaning of life, death and dying.
“By having a short walk outside each day I feel better in myself and have noticed that I am less stressed and sleeping better at night.” – Chris
Melanoma Patients Australia
Mater Foundation
620 Stanley Street
Woolloongabba
Brisbane, 4102
A potential therapy is being tested in clinical studies: fecal transplants. Early results from two groups at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) suggest some melanoma patients who initially did not benefit from immunotherapy drugs saw their tumors stop growing or even shrink after receiving a stool sample from patients for whom the drugs worked. However, researchers caution, the results are preliminary.
Fecal transplants could help patients on cancer immunotherapy drugs
sciencemag.org
Early results hint that benefits seen in mice could extend to people
Let's hope my nivo keeps working !
Eat fibre/inulin, fermented foods and drinks, resistant starch, kyolic aged garlic clinically proven to improve gut microbiota etc, feed those good bacteria with plenty of prebiotic high fibre foods. We aren't waiting for the results on long drawn out trials we had my partners stool tested and he has very high amounts of the bacteria identified in some of the studies of responders. He has responded really well also. Not only has he had a good result with the immunotherapy his blood pressure has improved dramatically. Wouldn't it make sense along with the fecal transplant put people onto a diet that improves their gut bacteria also so those good bacteria continue to thrive.
I ate whatever I felt like, almost everything on a list of what not eat as these are foods I enjoy, and the drugs worked for me. Enjoy life happy body and mind work wonders. I did give up grog long before treatment and don't smoke, I walk my dog daily and work full time, stage 4 since November 2013 NED 18months (I think) off treatment now.
Let's hope my nivo keeps working !
it works with animals!
È in fase sperimentale aspettiamo lo studio
Lo stanno provando adesso sulle persone
👍
Melanoma Patients Australia, along with Melanoma Research Victoria and Prof Grant McArthur, was delighted to welcome Jay Allen on his Melbourne stop over at Peter Mac tonight. Emotional and heartfelt speeches followed the celebrations.
Jay is truly inspirational walking 2000kms from Adelaide to raise melanoma awareness and funds for research. We wish him and his team all the best on their journey back to Sydney.
Have been watching along the whole walk, well done Jay and everyone involved!
Go Jay & Grant!!! Best Melanoma.
The UK Sunbed Association has been slammed for threatening to sue a leading skin cancer charity for suggesting that regular use of sunbeds increases the risk of developing melanoma and other skin cancers.
Following medical advice, the Australian govt banned commercial use of sunbeds in 2016.
Sunbed firms threaten to sue skin cancer charity for link to devices
dailymail.co.uk
In a move branded ‘unacceptable’ by an MP, the Sunbed Association has warned Melanoma UK it faces action for ‘malicious falsehood’ over its call to ban sunbeds.
If you have ever watch someone die from this horrid Cancer you wouldn’t even go in the sun. Banned in Australia
My mum was born in England, her and one of her sisters had to have sun ray treatment when they were children due to the lack of sunlight in England. Mum and my Aunty recall sitting in their knickers with sun ray lamps glaring on them. My mum passed away 9 weeks ago from Melanoma. Primary was on the bottom of her foot. ?????????
Are you kidding me?? The medical evidence is there. The response from these cowboys is all bluff and bullshit and not surprisingly not a single reference to support their claim.
Thanks for the support guys. We appreciate it, we really do. We are desperately trying to save lives here, the last thing you’d imagine is that someone would use the British legal system to try and stop us giving out information which is already in the public domain! ☹️
Being a beauty therapist in the 80s I was convinced they were safer than the sun ... stage 4 melanoma ... I now take vitamin d tablets !
patients with melanoma should be taking the tanning bed folks for damages...
It’s what gave me my melanoma!!! Where my melanoma started would never of been exposed publically!!!
Don’t use sun beds. Very dangerous! Banned in Australia!
Don't use sunbeds. The evidence is in.
Especially on European skin! Silly
Gillian Nuttall Australian institutes are backing you all the way.
Are you kidding it is a proven fact!!! Please don't be reckless, do not use them!!!! Thankyou Jay. 👍🏻✋🏻😘
You want a melanoma They only want your. Money
It was Christmas Eve 1994, and James P. Allison was testing his theory that T cells, a type of white blood cell that fights viral and bacterial infections, could help the immune system fight cancer. That week, he was covering for his research aide on leave who’d injected cancerous mice with an antibody to activate T cells to go after tumours. The results were stunning: All of those given the antibody became cancer-free, while the mice not provided with the antibody saw their tumours grow until they eventually died.
washingtonpost.com
To date, Ipilimumab, known as “Ipi,” and other immuno-oncology drugs developed since then have treated nearly 1 million patients worldwide.
Wasn't it the work of William B. Coley, MD, now known as the Father of Immunotherapy, who first attempted to harness the immune system for treating cancer in the late 19th century. Which got rejected for surgery and radiotherapy etc.
So grateful I still have my son. Lots of hiccups as he calls them but he here six years after being told three months. Bless all researchers and trialers.
So grateful. I was cured after 35 years
So thankful for his amazing research and findings
I’ve been on Immunetherapy Keytruda since 2016 as a stage 4 metatassis lung cancer it has been great for me with no side effects but in January 19 it metatassis to my brain which they did Specific Radiation and I’m waiting to have MRI for results hopefully good
Truly an amazing man!
Grateful for this research & now benefiting,❤❤
So sorry Larnie that all this has happen to you hoping the future is better xxxx
This man... there are no words, eternally grateful ❤️
Grateful for his persistence and inginuity!
Amazing!!! forever grateful xx
Melanie Cooper
Truly an amazing man!
My personal hero. Thanks mate
I greatly admitted this man.
We're forever in his debt!
Kimberley Grant Leigh Posa
In the series, called RAW, photographer Pierre-Louis Ferrer took ultraviolet, close-up portraits of 20 people to show the reality of sun damage invisible to the human eye. Shot with special camera equipment, the pictures show the marks and spots on the skin that are caused by UV light. Please share with family/friends.
Protect your skin with sunscreen, a hat, sunglasses, protective clothing and seek shade when outdoors.
Ultraviolet photos reveal how sun exposure damages our skin
news.yahoo.com
Just because you can't always see sun damage doesn't mean it isn't there!
I would die if I had mine done. Fell asleep in sun approx. 5 hours as a child. Now the parts of my face arms legs a jigsaw puzzle from skin cancer.
please use suncream...Australian!!!!!!
Liam Mock Lily Mock
We need the normal every day photo so that we can compare
