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NAVIGATOR SUCCESS OF THE MONTH
We have been working since September with a client new to the Washington, D.C area to help him resolve his multiple medical challenges. His out-of-state son sent us this message recently: "Thank you for the very thorough update from the Dr. XXX visit. The details and explanations and context really helped me to understand Dr. XXX's plan for my dad's treatment. Thank you so much!
Do you need help with your parents' care? As always, please call or write for a free consultation!
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Volume 2 Issue 1
| January 2011
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Dear Colleagues and Friends,
Welcome to the January 2011 issue of "Navigator Notes," a monthly newsletter designed to inform our readers about important health topics.
Patient Navigator's mission is to bring health care and life care together through advocacy, education and a patient-centered approach to solving problems and overcoming obstacles in the health care system. Founder and President Patient Navigator, LLC
Guiding your journey through illness .... |
Patient Navigator Launches New Website and Services
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Patient Navigator proudly announces the launch of our 2011 website offering new services and products to help our clients become empowered healthcare consumers.
Enjoy the same personal access you've always had to your navigator. Now, however, you can have more. If you become a member of the Patient Navigator network, you'll enjoy a 20% discount on our services, gain access to the library of how-to patient "roadmaps" we have written, plus discounts on products whose companies we support, such as the miCard emergency information card and the TherapEase Cuisine oncology nutrition program. You will also have access to our exclusive Patient Navigator "Medical Planner" designed by a physician just for our clients.
Come visit the new Patient Navigator and let us know what you think! We look forward to serving you as we have served others. Back to Top
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| Clinical Trials Reinvigorated | The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has announced major changes in the Clinical Trials Cooperative Group Program that conducts many of the nationwide trials of new cancer therapies. In a major transformation, NCI intends to consolidate the nine groups that currently conduct trials in adult cancer patients into four state-of-the-art entities that will design and perform improved cancer therapy trials. This system includes 3,100 institutions and 14,000 investigators.
The NCI director Dr. Harold Varmus, said, "The practice of oncology has changed significantly with the development of molecular oncology, therefore we need a modern system with modern trials that will maximally utilize the molecular characteristics of a patient's tumor and guide us to the best possible treatment." The restructuring will optimize
recent advancements in genetic profiling and personalized medicine which require a larger number of patients and tumor specimens.
The changes will improve the efficiency of operations centers, data management centers, and tumor banks. In addition, steps are being taken to streamline the clinical trial process, shorten the time required to initiate new clinical trials and expedite the time it takes to move a treatment from the laboratory to patient care
Cancer research has made tremendous breakthroughs in the past ten years. It is important and timely that NCI has decided to consolidate the cooperative groups that conduct trials to bring greater efficiency to oncological sciences.
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Food Science - Part 4 - Acid Balance Base
| In September, we began our series focused on the science and research of nutrition to help you become more informed about food choices. If you missed Part 1, you can read it here. If you missed Part 2, you can read it here. If you missed Part 3, you can read it here.
Today we add another element into our discussion of why it is important to eat a healthy, balanced diet: the acid-base balance. A normal healthy body has a ratio of alkaline to acid base of about 4 to 1. So we should be eating 4 times the amount of alkaline forming foods to acid forming foods. Foods we eat are digested and leave an acidic or an alkaline (base) residue which affects the acid-base balance of our tissues. The body works hard to maintain the right balance.
Most fruits and vegetables are alkali-forming, especially figs, soybeans, lima beans, apricots, spinach, turnip/beet tops, raisins, almonds, carrots, dates, celery, cucumber, cantaloupe, lettuce, watercress, potatoes, pineapple, cabbage, tomatoes, peaches, apples, grapes, bananas, watermelon, millet, Brazil nuts, coconuts and buckwheat.All vegetable and fruit juices are highly alkaline. Fresh fruit and vegetables (alkaline-producing) balance the necessary protein intake in our diet (acid-producing).
Acid-forming foods include veal, most fish, organ meats, poultry, most grains, rice, whole wheat or rye bread, most nuts (except almonds and Brazil nuts), natural cheese, lentils, peanuts and eggs. Coffee, black tea, alcohol, artificial sweeteners, sugary, processed and simple carbohydrate foods are also acid-producers.
There are proponents of a controversial "alkaline diet" who make broad health claims to support adherence to this diet. There is some evidence suggesting an alkaline diet might aid bone health, and that cancer cells in the laboratory grow more quickly in an acidic environment. However, the wide-ranging health claims made by proponents are not supported by science nor widely accepted in the medical community.
As always, beware of any new diets or supplements that make claims which are not supported by evidence-based science. That being said, knowing about the alkaline-acid balance in food gives us another indicator for healthy eating to prevent disease and stay well.
Reference: Acid-Alkaline Food Chart
Guest "Food Science" Columnist Deborah Roney holds a degree in biology and received her certification from the Food as Medicine program at the Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, D.C. in May 2010. |
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