quality of life Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Researchers Admit: Chemo Worsens Quality of Life with No Benefit of Overall Survival in Advanced Stage Cancer

The AHA! Team — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 05:22:16 +0000

Dena Schmidt via NaturalHealth365 – Chemo, as a treatment for cancer, has always been controversial with many patients and healthcare providers doubting its efficacy and safety as a cancer treatment. Bottom line: chemotherapy does trigger more harmful effects than beneficial ones, in many cases. Now, researchers admit that chemotherapy can actually accelerate deterioration in cases of late-stage cancer who still have the mobility and energy for daily activities. Another study published in JAMA Oncology also showed that cancer patients with limited or moderate functioning ability feel worse when undergoing chemotherapy. Is chemo worth the effort? The risks and side effects exposed In the words of the study author and lead researcher, Dr. Holly Prigerson, cancer patients who feel good have “the most to lose and the least to gain” through undergoing chemotherapy. Prigerson is a palliative care researcher at New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York and Weill Cornell Medical College. The side effects of chemotherapy are numerous and include loss of appetite, vomiting, diarrhea, anemia, constipation, bladder issues, bleeding, bruising, edema, hair loss, fatigue, infections, neutropenia, lymphedema, memory loss, difficulty concentrating, throat and mouth issues, nerve issues, pain, sexual and fertility issues, insomnia, and more. Other medical professionals have expressed similar concerns regarding chemotherapy administered near a patient’s death. Doctors have long debated whether the strong, toxic chemicals used in chemotherapy bring enough positive effects to justify the debilitating side effects of chemotherapy. Some have referred to this practice of administering chemo to clients with late-stage cancers as harmful at worst and wasteful at best. Cancer patient warning: Chemotherapy hazards outweigh gains and benefits The above study monitored the chemotherapy effects that 312 cancer patients experienced in their final week of life at six oncology clinics in the United States. Within this group, chemotherapy tended to be administered most often to those who were younger, more educated, receiving treatment at a university medical facility, had pancreatic or breast tumors, and presented additional issues besides cancer. They also were able to engage in their normal daily activities. To assess chemotherapy’s impact, caregivers were interviewed shortly after these patients died. Among those who had high functionality in their last week of life, chemotherapy was shown to reduce their quality of life dramatically, even beyond the impact of being in intensive care or on a ventilator. A lower quality of life was reported versus similar patients who didn’t receive chemo. Sound the alarm: Quality of life should be considered in end-stage cancer cases At the very least, clinical guidelines should be reviewed and revised to adjust for this potential harm from chemotherapy near the end of life. After all, quality of life matters in all cancer cases, and areas like pain control, addressing insomnia, and boosting mood, as well as the potential side effects of chemotherapy, should be given greater consideration. Clearly, chemotherapy isn’t helping patients feel better or live longer in many cases. While the objective is often to fight cancer and tumors with every option, terrible side effects and erosion of quality of life are a heavy price to pay. We would hope that medical professionals take a more cautious approach to prescribing chemotherapy, especially in late-stage cases. Editor’s note: Discover the best ways to avoid cancer cell growth naturally, own the Stop Cancer Docu-Class created by NaturalHealth365 Programs. Sources for this article include: NIH.gov Jamanetwork.com Cancer.gov Reuters.com To read the original article click here.

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How Exercise Interventions Could Help People With Asthma

AHA Publisher — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 08:00:01 +0000

University of East Anglia via Newswise – Interventions aimed at promoting physical activity in people with asthma could improve their symptoms and quality of life – according to new research from the University of East Anglia. Researchers looked at whether interventions such as aerobic and strength or resistance training, had helped participants with asthma. Although they found that these interventions worked, patients with asthma may have had difficulty undertaking them because of their difficulty travelling to fitness groups or because the interventions were not suitable for people with additional health conditions. But the team say that digital interventions – such as video appointments, smartwatches and mobile apps – could remove some of these barriers and enable patients to carry out home-based programmes in future. Prof Andrew Wilson, from UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said: “Being physically active is widely recommended for people with asthma. Doing more than 150 minutes a week of moderate to vigorous physical activity has extensive benefits including improved lung function and asthma control. “But research has shown that people living with asthma engage in less physical activity and are more sedentary than people without asthma. “We wanted to find out whether interventions – such as being asked to perform aerobic exercise a few times a week in group sessions, together with ‘goal setting’ – are effective in helping people with asthma be more active.” The team studied interventions that were designed to promote physical activity in adults with asthma. They looked at 25 separate studies from around the world involving 1,849 participants with asthma, to see whether their symptoms and quality of life were changed thanks to the interventions. Postgraduate researcher Leanne Tyson, also from UEA’s Norwich Medical School said: “We found that interventions that promote physical activity had significant benefits in terms of increasing physical activity, decreasing time spent sedentary, improving quality of life, and decreasing asthma symptoms. “This is really important because helping patients make significant behaviour changes could really improve their outcomes in the long term. “Our review also highlights the potential use of digital interventions, which were notably absent. “This is important now more than ever as patients have not been able to attend face-to-face support during the Covid-19 pandemic, and services will likely become overwhelmed. Therefore, alternative interventions and methods of delivery need to be considered.” To read the original article click here.

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Could Vitamin A Help to Regain Your Smell Loss After COVID-19?

AHA Publisher — Fri, 01 Oct 2021 07:00:23 +0000

University of East Anglia via News-Medical – Researchers at the University of East Anglia and James Paget University Hospital are launching a new project to see whether Vitamin A could help people regain their sense of smell after viral infections including COVID-19. We also spoke exclusively to Professor Carl Philpott who is leading the study to find out more. Smell loss is a common symptom of COVID-19, but even before COVID, many viruses had been causing smell loss and distortion and while most people naturally regain their sense of smell within a couple of weeks, many have been left with ongoing smell disorders. We asked Lead researcher Prof Carl Philpott, from UEA’s Norwich Medical School and James Paget University Hospitals NHS Trust why this is and he said the following; “Viruses may differ in their mechanisms of action but they are generally thought to cause the fine hair like endings (cilia) of the smell receptors to fall away, leading to loss of function. “It is not clear why some people are left with ongoing smell disorders and others are not. It is possible some who have persistent problems have greater numbers of the ACE2 receptors that allow the spike protein to enter and infect the smell.” Previous research from Germany has shown the potential benefit of Vitamin-A, and the UEA team will explore how this treatment works to help repair tissues in the nose damaged by viruses. They hope that the study, which has been funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), could one day help improve the lives of millions around the world who suffer from smell loss, by returning their fifth sense. The Apollo research team will work with patients who have lost their sense of smell due to a viral infection. They will either receive a 12-week course of nasal vitamin A drops or inactive equivalent drops and have their brains scanned before and after the treatment. The scans will be compared to those of a control group who have not been treated with vitamin A drops. When asking Professor Carl Philpott about what the study will be looking for, and how to get involved, he said the following; “We will be measuring the size of the olfactory bulbs and also brain activity in response to varying smells. “You can get involved in the Apollo Study using the following link: https://rhinology-group.uea.ac.uk/apollo-trial/“ Duncan Boak, Founder, and Chair of Fifth Sense said: “At Fifth Sense we have engaged with thousands of people who have experienced changes in their ability to smell or taste as a result of the COVID-19 virus. They join an already large community of people with a smell disorder that pre-dates the pandemic. “The question we are most often asked is about available treatments to support recovery. Not being able to smell is not only physically distressing but can affect the enjoyment of social occasions and present hazards and risks that might never have been previously considered such as not being able to detect gas leaks or spoiled food. “Research into potentially successful interventions is vital to help people feeling the impact of smell disorders that affects the quality and enjoyment of their life.” To take part in this trial, patients need to be referred to The Smell and Taste Clinic at the James Paget University Hospital by their GP. Recruitment is expected to begin in December 2021. Following this study, Professor Carl Philpott aims to “keep developing new treatment options and coping strategies”. To read the original article click here.

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Healing Trauma: Research Links PTSD, Emotion Regulation and Quality of Life

AHA Publisher — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 07:00:28 +0000

Binghamton University via EurekAlert – We often talk about the coronavirus pandemic in terms of health or economic impacts: the numbers of cases and deaths, the persistence of long-haul COVID, lost jobs and toilet paper shortages. But there is another crisis, too… [t]he pandemic is a type of mass trauma, explained Binghamton University doctoral candidate in psychology Craig Polizzi. And trauma can and does give rise to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and potentially problematic behaviors and a lower quality of life. Recent research from Polizzi, fellow graduate student Damla Aksen and Distinguished Professor of Psychology Steven Jay Lynn provides insight into the impact PTSD has on emotional regulation and quality of life, and points to ways to improve both. Their article, “Quality of Life, Emotion Regulation Dissociation: Evaluating Unique Relations in an Undergraduate Sample and Probable PTSD Subsample,” was published in a recent issue of the journal Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice and Policy. Their research fills some of the gaps left by previous studies into PTSD, emotion regulation and quality of life. Previous studies mainly focused on older adults and individuals with medical problems, and tested emotion regulation strategies or difficulties separately; they also didn’t account for important variables that may explain the relation between emotion regulation and quality of life. Polizzi, Aksen and Lynn instead take a more comprehensive approach and include such critical variables as dissociation, neuroticism and PTSD symptoms in addition to dimensions of emotion regulation. Using questionnaires and personal narratives, the researchers identified participating college students who potentially met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD. The traumatic events these students experienced ranged from physical or sexual assault to car accidents, abuse, severe illness and witnessing suffering. The researchers then used a series of self-report surveys to measure difficulties in emotional regulation, positive and negative coping strategies and dissociative experiences with the participants. It’s eye-opening to see how much trauma college students — and the U.S. population in general — are exposed to, Polizzi acknowledged. “The positive side to these statistics, though, is how remarkably resilient people can be following traumatic events, especially during this pandemic,” he said. What Is Quality of Life? “Quality of life” isn’t an amorphous concept, although researchers can have different definitions, including improved function related to physical health and psychological well-being. It can actually be measured in many ways, such as through self-report surveys, physician ratings or direct observation, Polizzi explained. In the study, the researchers relied on a broad definition informed by the World Health Organization (WHO), which defines quality of life as healthy functioning across mental processing, life activities, physical mobility, participating in society, self-care and social skills. In particular, they administered a questionnaire, the WHO Disability Assessment Schedule, based on the organization’s definition of this concept. Closely associated with quality of life is emotion regulation, or the ability to alter your emotional state to better cope with the situation at hand. People with enhanced emotion regulation tend to have greater psychological health, whereas problems in this area are associated with psychological difficulties, Polizzi explained. During and following traumatic events, many people dissociate — or distance themselves from their emotions, body, mind and even personal identity — to escape overwhelming feelings such as shame, fear and anger. People who experience dissociation may lose focus, forget people and events, have out-of-body experiences or extreme daydreaming, and feel a sense of unreality and detachment from their immediate surroundings. While some researchers have argued that dissociation is an emotion regulation strategy, it typically has negative effects, including interfering with emotional awareness, sense of self, social bonds and engagement in daily activities. In fact, it was surprising how strongly dissociation was related to quality of life, Polizzi acknowledged. Rather than just a part of other unhealthy emotion regulation strategies, it appears to play a disruptive role in daily activities and everyday behaviors. Overall, their research suggests that decreased emotion regulation is related to a lower quality of life, although not necessarily a sole cause. People may experience a lowered quality of life for many reasons, one of which could be the inability to effectively regulate their emotions; conversely, the lack of psychological resources — for example, from stress, pain or physical health issues — could also limit a person’s ability to emotionally regulate. “These variables could exist in a vicious cycle, in which lack of emotion regulation contributes to lowering quality of life, which in turn reduces emotion regulation skills,” said Polizzi, adding that further research is needed to confirm this idea. On the plus side, emotion regulation is something that people can learn. “Many techniques used in psychological treatments are designed to help individuals enhance their emotion regulation. For example, learning to accept and re-interpret emotions in realistic ways rather than avoiding emotions and blaming them on others can improve people’s psychological functioning and their quality of life,” Polizzi said. Three Main Symptoms In their research, Polizzi, Aksen and Lynn provide information that could refine the current evidence-based practices for treating PTSD by focusing on a trio of symptoms that have a strong impact on an individual’s quality of life: namely, dissociation, impulsivity and blaming others. Used as a coping strategy for negative emotions, impulsive behaviors can lead to physical injury, substance abuse and other health concerns, while dissociation may make it even more difficult for people with PTSD to be emotionally engaged, cope with stress, set goals and have a healthy sense of self. Individuals with PTSD also tend to mistrust others, which could lead to blame in interpersonal interactions and the further erosion of social bonds. That doesn’t mean, however, that trauma is a one-way street to a diminished life. Many individuals can learn how to successfully cope with such experiences, and treatment can lead to a greatly improved quality of life. For those diagnosed with PTSD, focusing on these three factors would be especially helpful during the later phases of treatment, when the individual has improved their coping skills and stability, Polizzi said. If the pandemic’s aftermath has you feeling not quite yourself, it might be helpful to take an honest look at how you’re really feeling and the strategies — good and bad — that you’re using to cope. “People experiencing increased psychological stress during this pandemic may look to improve their quality of life by focusing on ways to enhance their emotion regulation skills via reducing dissociation, impulsivity and blaming others, such as increasing emotional engagement, planning goal-directed behaviors and fostering compassion toward others, respectively,” Polizzi said. To read the original article click here.

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Do You Suffer from Chronic Pain? Try THESE Drug-Free, Non-Invasive Natural Interventions to Get Relief

AHA Publisher — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 07:00:56 +0000

Lori Alton via NaturalHealth365 – Over 20 percent of American adults suffer from chronic pain – defined as pain lasting longer than three months, or pain that persists beyond the normal healing time for an underlying condition or injury. A debilitating and frustrating condition, chronic pain exacts a serious toll on sleep, job performance, interpersonal relationships, and quality of life. While researchers report that chronic pain is one of the leading reasons for individuals to seek medical care, all too often the treatment they receive appears to be sadly inadequate. A newly published study shows that the number of people living with chronic pain significantly increased across every US adult demographic in the years 2002 through 2018, with researchers calling the rise “steep, sustained and pervasive.” STAGGERING Statistics: The Number of Chronic Pain Sufferers Exceeds Those Affected by Heart Disease, Cancer, and Diabetes Combined, Study Reveals In a study involving over 400,000 participants ages 25 to 84 and published in Demography, the researchers relied on data and questionnaires from the National Health Interview Survey. The survey asked about five common sites of pain: the lower back, the neck, the face and jaw, the joints, and the head. Researchers took into consideration the following factors: age, gender, race, ethnicity, education, and income. The team found that chronic pain increased “across the board” in the years of the study. While it rose the most among people of lower income, those of more comfortable means weren’t immune. People with household incomes of roughly twice the poverty level saw an increase of 42 percent in chronic pain, while people whose household income was four times the poverty level saw a 14 percent increase. The results were apparently not what the researchers had been expecting. “You might think that with medical advances, we’d be getting healthier and experiencing less pain, but the data strongly suggest the exact opposite,” commented co-author Dr. Hanna Grol-Prokopcyk, associate professor of sociology at the University of Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences. The joints and the lower back were the most prevalent sources of pain, researchers found. And, reports of chronic pain increased by 10 percent during the study period, which represents 10.5 million more people in pain. The Institutes of Medicine reported that the number of people experiencing chronic pain exceeds those affected by heart disease, cancer, and diabetes combined. While Pain Increased for all Groups, Factors for Chronic Pain Varied by Age Brackets Older participants, those between 65 and 84 years, had physical health issues associated with their chronic pain – such as obesity, diabetes, kidney issues, and high blood pressure. (In fact, 20 percent of pain increase in people aged 45 to 64 are due to arthritis, which becomes more common as people age). Younger and middle-aged people “felt the hurt” through mental health issues such as distress and alcohol abuse. Dr. Grol-Prokopcyk said that the results involving younger age groups demonstrated that pain can be as much a mental health problem as a physical issue. She called for healthcare providers to focus on prevention and management of pain – rather than procedures and medications – and urged an interdisciplinary approach. The “Dark Side” of Prescription Medications Features Abuse, Addiction, and Toxic Side Effects While Western medicine attempts to treat chronic pain with medications such as opioids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) the side effects of these can be severe. Long-term acetaminophen use has been linked to heart attacks, gastrointestinal bleeding, and liver problems, while NSAIDs increase the risk of stomach ulcers, kidney failure, and stroke. Opioids can not only cause constipation, fatigue, and dizziness but carry the potential for abuse, overdose, and addiction. Ironically, studies have shown that opioids may be ultimately ineffective for chronic pain – and may even worsen it. In fact, the team noted that opioids “may have contributed” to the rise of pain prevalence in the United States. It’s no wonder that many people have turned to natural and alternative methods of pain control. While there is no one solution for the complex problem of chronic pain, natural methods can often help provide a measure of relief. Manage Chronic Pain Naturally With Drug-Free, Non-Invasive Techniques Relaxation techniques – such as guided meditation, biofeedback, and deep breathing exercises – can promote the release of endorphins, neurotransmitters with pain-killing properties. These techniques have been shown in some studies to alleviate muscle tension, muscle spasms, aches, and pains. Tai Chi – a system of slow, continuous movements combined with breathing and relaxation techniques – can improve strength, joint stability, and balance. One review published in Scientific Reports showed that Tai Chi was associated with improvements in chronic pain from arthritis and lower back pain. Other recent studies and reviews have demonstrated beneficial effects from yoga, a combination of specific poses, deep breathing, and relaxation. In one study, “hot” yoga, performed in a heated room, showed particularly promising results. And – while it may be the last thing you feel like doing when suffering from an aching back – moderate aerobic exercise(such as walking, jogging, dancing, and swimming) has been shown to improve chronic pain. (Conversely, inactivity appears to worsen chronic pain). Of course, seek the advice of an integrative physician familiar with your condition before trying a new exercise regimen. Lavender essential oil, inhaled through a diffuser, was shown in one study to lessen the use of painkillers after surgery. And, in one encouraging study, topically applied lavender oil was comparable to the effect of tramadol, a prescription analgesic. Finally, bergamot essential oil aromatherapy has been shown to reduce neuropathic (nerve) pain. For topical application, natural health experts advise blending 10 drops of essential oil to each tablespoonful of carrier oil, such as olive or coconut oil. Chronic pain is not only a leading cause of disability – but may even impact longevity. And, it imposes a huge financial burden. Treating chronic pain carried a staggering $600 billion price tag in 2012, the last year for which statistics were available. Clearly, there is much room for improvement in the treatment of chronic pain. Hopefully, emerging and traditional natural techniques will receive more attention as a tool against this serious public health problem. Of course, as a final thought, never underestimate the value of eating an “anti-inflammatory diet” – which includes staying well-hydrated with clean (pure) water and eating lots of organic vegetables and some fresh fruit. Sources for this article include: MedicalNewsToday.com NIH.gov NIH.gov MedicalNewsToday.com NIH.gov To read the original article click here. For more articles from NaturalHealth365 click here.

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