Natural Mouth Care During and After Radiation for Throat & Neck Cancer

This post is in addition to the youtube video 

"Natural Mouth Care During and After Radiation for Throat & Neck Cancer"

It shares the recipe's I used to take care of my dear friend Peter while he was undergoing radiation (neck an throat cancer).


Background information:

Peter, at age 72, underwent a major change in lifestyle to support his healing from neck and throat cancer as well as the side effects of the radiation treatments. In this video we share what we learned about healing the mouth and throat using only natural solutions.


The information in the video is based on our personal experiences. Neither of us have any degrees in medicine and we recommend you always make your own decisions based on your own research, experiences, and common sense. We suggest you compare all options (both popular and alternative) and choose that which resonates most with you. 

I work as an artist/designer and life style coach (organic lifestyle and energy consciousness) and have had many personal experiences with natural healing in my own life, which eventually led me to the path of creative life-coaching - which is why I started this blog :)

With Peter I was helping out a dear friend who was committed to a more healthier way of living to combat his neck and throat cancer as well as the side effects of the radiation treatments he was about to begin. After I arrived from Amsterdam in the US where he lives, we experimented for 6 weeks with some incredible results, as you will see in the video. 

We decided to discuss our experiences in 3 videos in total (on mouth care / skin care and healthy nutrition) after many of the doctors and nurses at the Cancer Center in Sedona (AZ), where Peter had his 8-week daily treatments, strongly recommended that we share our remarkable results with the rest of the world.

Below here you will find the list of recipe's from the video on natural mouth care,
I have put links, recipe's and further explanation on the following topics: 


- all organic natural toothpaste

- the mouth-rinse we used

- the Tumeric juice (to gurgle with)
- the dry-mouth spray
- general tips to naturally soothe and heal a dry irritated mouth
- a list of the drinks that were most gentle during and after radiation.
  
DO-IT-YOURSELF-RECIPE: (link) ALL ORGANIC NATURAL TOOTHPASTE

 
MOUTH-RINSE 

Simple and easy mouth-rinse to disinfect the mouth, soothe and lower the PH to prevent bacterial and viral infections.

- 1/3rd cup of luke warm water
- 1 dessertspoon of Sodium Bicabonate or bakingsoda*
- optional: if experienced as pleasant you can add a teaspoon of any natural salt -
like organic Himalayan or organic Celtic seasalt.


* Check on the label of your bakingsoda to make sure Sodium Bicarbonate is the ONLY ingredient, sometimes cheaper versions also contain aluminium to prevent lumping -
these versions are often used for cleaning the house - and not ment for internal use.


Why Baking soda?

Like in the home made toothpaste, for the rinse we used bakingsoda, to learn more about this quite remarkable ingredient for mouth and dental care - I found this following website very informative :) Healing Teeth Naturally.

Quote from that website:

Dr. Paul H. Keyes D.D.S., clinical investigator at the National Institute of Dental Research, maintained that regular brushing with salt and/or [baking] soda absolutely prevents all destructive periodontal (gum) disease, and said that he had "never seen periodontal (gum) problems in patients who used salt or baking soda dentifrice with any degree of regularity" (compare quote).


TUMERIC-JUICE-GURGLE

During the 8 weeks of radiation my friend was undergoing, we used on a daily base a juice from tumeric-root.

We juiced about a handfull of the fresh organic roots per week - using a regular fruit/vegetables juicer. Note; you may need quite a lot, it is easiest to pre-juice in advance and make a week's supply all at once. To get all the juice out of the juicer we would poor in 1/10th of a glass of coconut water to 'rinse it out' at the end of the juicing session.

He would take a modest sip a.s.a.p. after every radiation session, move it around in his mouth a while and gurgle with it for as long as possible, before swallowing it. 


Next to the home made aloe-spray we used on his skin (see video on skin care during radiation),
this is what the Tumeric juice looked like. We kept it in the fridge.


Why Tumeric?

Tumeric contains Curcumin. This study is one of many performed on people that shows that curcumin can work in the mouths of patients with head and neck malignancies and reduce activities that promote cancer growth. 


Additional to the rinse, Peter was taking curcumin capsules (pure and organic) of 500 mg each, 5 times a day during the radiation therapy.  He lowered this amount after radiation - sticking to a 2 capsules per day maintenance dose for recovery and cancer-prevention.
More about this in our video on keeping up your immune and healthy nutrition during radiation.


On www.cancer.org you will also find a whole page on the incredible benefits of curcumin, note that this page is pretty outdated, being last revised and updated on 12/07/2012- and even though it mentions how successful this substance was in tests on tumors in animal tests - this page is unfortunately missing the promising results of many of the studies that by now have been done on humans.

A lot more complete and up-to-date is this incredible website - fully devoted to the cancer-healing-benefits of both the concentrated curcumin and fresh tumeric root - (we used both) written by
Brian D. Lawenda, M.D. an integrative oncologist. He was trained at Massachusetts General Hospital (Harvard Medical School) in radiation oncology and through Stanford-UCLA (Helms Medical Institute) in medical acupuncture.
And he is the founder of
IntegrativeOncology-Essentials.



 THE DRY-MOUTH-SPRAY

I would make a supply in advance for my friend that lasted him for about 2 to 3 weeks. 

Spray-recipe

- Fill a full pan with filtered water (about 3/4 of a litre)

- Add 2 or 3 teabags of organic chamomile tea and half a hand full
(or another 2 to 3 teabags) of organic sage-leaves :)


- Bring to a boil and let boil for about 10 minutes on low heat.

- Strain and filter all bits and pieces out of the tea leaving a clear (dark yellow) liquid.

- Let cool and poor into a clean glass bottle to keep your supply in - keep in the fridge.
 

Making your spray:

Refill a small store-bought spray bottle as often as needed.

Can be used throughout the day to refresh, soothe and cleanse the mouth.

Note; obviously not recommended for those rare few that are allergic to chamomile or sage ;)

Why camomile and Sage?

Both camomile as well as sage are famous for their anti-fungal and anti-viral properties.
They soothe both mentally as well as physically.


'Chamomile's popularity grew throughout the Middle Ages when people turned to it as a remedy for numerous medical complaints including asthma, colic, fevers, inflammations, nausea, nervous complaints, children's ailments, skin diseases and cancer. As a popular remedy, it may be thought of as the European counterpart of the Chinese tonic Ginseng.'

More about the benefits of camomile can be found on this website (source of the information about camomile quoted above).

 'Sage has one of the longest histories of use of any culinary or medicinal herb. Ancient Egyptians used it as a fertility drug (Bown, 1995). In the first century C.E. Greek physician Dioscorides reported that the aqueous decoction of sage stopped bleeding of wounds and cleaned ulcers and sores. He also recommended sage juice in warm water for hoarseness and coughs. It was used by herbalists externally to treat sprains, swelling, ulcers, and bleeding. Internally, a tea made from sage leaves has had a long history of use to treat sore throats and coughs; often by gargling. It was also used by herbalists for rheumatism, excessive menstrual bleeding, and to dry up a mother's milk when nursing was stopped. It was particularly noted for strengthening the nervous system, improving memory, and sharpening the senses. Sage was officially listed in the United States Pharmacopoeia from 1840 to 1900.'

More about the benefits of sage can be found on this website (source of the information about sage quoted above).

GENERAL TIPS TO NATURALLY SOOTHE AND HEAL A DRY, IRRITATED MOUTH

Apart from all the above we discovered that also using (Pure organic and unrefined) COCONUT OIL, straight from the jar, had an incredible healing and soothing effect, that lasted for a while after taking it.

Simply dissolve a spoonful in your mouth and let it slowly roll down the throat.
This will
fight any infection, coat and protect the throat and boost the health of mucus membranes.

Coconut oil is not only delicious, but has many antimicrobial properties - it is detoxifying and lowers cholesterol :) It even contains strong antifungal agents, and can be safely used to address fungal infections such as athlete’s foot, ringworm, thrush and yeast infections. You can take it internally and use it topically for these conditions. You can also use it as a lipbalm :) 


And of course to heal a dry, irritated throat staying away from certain things can be highly recommended such as:

- smoking
- alcohol
- caffeine (in coffee, but also in most kinds of cola and energy-drinks)
- theine (similar to caffeine but found in black tea and slightly in green tea and some herbal teas - generally in the kinds of tea that turn black, and leave your mouth feeling dry after drinking)
- regular kitchen salt (instead buy an organic land- or seasalt with no added artificial iodine)
- irritating spices (if you take them as medicinal supplements - take them in capsules)
- food with aggressive taste enhancers
- anything too sour (in case of throat radiation; this can come very precise from the 'sour-ness' of an apple to the impossible use of vinegar in a dressing), too spicy, too bitter or too sweet - so basically any strong flavors. The natural salt may actually help heal the throat though - as you can read in the mouth-spray part above :)

Consider using a humidifier

And last but not least (especially in winter or for those who have a house with dry air) you may want to consider using a humidifier - particularly in the bedroom and during the night. When you sleep you go without water for hours, and your mouth may get very dry because of this. A way to prevent this is to use a humidifier in the bedroom at night. Make sure to get one with enough water-storage to continue working throughout the whole night.

Sleeping with your mouth open?

And this may sound silly but we heared it from more people; if you snore, or sleep with your mouth open, it may be interesting to get yourself a chin-strap (online). This is a friendly tool (compared to operations or aggressive chemical solutions that you spray inside your mouth) to keep your mouth from drying out due to sleeping with your mouth open ;)


SOOTHING DRINKS DURING AND AFTER RADIATION 

A whole new world opens up when you spend a lot of time with someone undergoing weeks of radiation of the throat. I think I read about a dozen articles daily (in several languages) about the experiences of other people undergoing the same kind of radiation and what they used as solutions. Like many of them, at some point my friend started to feel annoyed by having to swallow - and even simply taking a sip of water became something he had to more or less mentally prepare for... 

I remembered reading a comment of a woman who's husband had been undergoing throat radiation and their discovery of the fact that coconut water seemed easier to drink than straight water from the tap (or filtered water- which is what we used / we also used an alkalising stick by the way ;))

The coconut water was a good solution - we diluted it by 50% with the alkaline water if the flavor was too strong. We bought organic pure coconut water in cartons from the whole food store.

Another great succes was our own discovery of using cucumberwater. I would use about a third of a (organic) cucumber (rinsing it before use - but leaving the skin on) and cut it into small slices. Then I would just put the slices into a water pitcher together with about a litre of water and leaving it stand overnight in the fridge. The next morning I would throw out the slices of cucumber and use the, now cucumber-flavoured, water for that and the next two days (still store in the fridge).

Many of these recipe's come to me intuitively, but having been partially raised with a lot of home remedies and still studying herbal remedies on a daily base, I know the information must come from somewhere inside my brain haha. In this case I only discovered much later how healing and amazing the properties of the cucumber actually are :) Here is one out of many nice links on the web to the benefits of cucumber :)
Juicing cucumber directly is also a great option when the person undergoing radiation / or with a sore throat, likes to have an even more nutritional and refreshing drink :)

Also look into the great benefits of aloe vera water, but - since it might be hard to find one from a store that has no additives like artificial sugars or sugar-replaces such as corn-syrop or agave...best would be to see if you could make your own fresh aloe water :)

How to make Aloe Vera water (1 glass recipe):


- Cut a piece of aloe leaf from the base of the plant using a sharp knife (be careful ;))
- 'scrape' out the 'gel' that is inside the leave and put this into a glass untill you have about two table spoons of gel in there.
- add filtered water to fill up the glass
- if you are not suffering from a sore throat due to radiation you may additionally want to add some fresh lemon juice (about a tablespoon) to the mix.
- poor this mix into a blender and blend for about a minute
- your additive-free and throat healing Aloe drink is ready to be served :)


Read more on this website about Aloe as a sore throat remedy :)
an aloe leaf from the plant near the base using a sharp knife - See more at: http://blog.diynetwork.com/maderemade/2014/01/01/diy-detox-make-your-own-aloe-water/#sthash.XmY9FvGZ.dpuf


HOT OR COLD?

The next drinks can be drank both warm or cold, you may find out that this will depend on the mood of the person with the sore throat. At one point warm may seem better and the next moment it is better lukewarm or cold. We found that drinks that were too hot tended to dry out the throat even more, so luke-warm or cold seemed better. And by cold, for some icecold is good (adding ice) but for more severe cases (when there is already infection or sores in the throat) this can be painful as well. Then it is better to avoid all extremes and instead of cold drink a drink at room temperature ;)

- Chamomile tea    healing, soothing and desinfecting (as strong as possible)

- Sage tea              healing, soothing refreshing and desinfecting (not too strong)

- Tulsi tea              healing, soothing and desinfecting (not too strong)


Preferably get your ingredients organic and free of additives, especially when you are healing from cancer.


Now, of course I hope you won't need these tips and you are doing great without them ;)

But if you do, either for yourself or for another person, please share your experiences and maybe even the other natural solutions that you may have found yourself :)

For now I wish you all the best and 

so much health
so much balance
and 

so-much-love


~ ꒰ღ˘‿˘ற꒱ ~
 


















 
an integrative oncologist. I trained at Massachusetts General Hospital (Harvard Medical School) in radiation oncology and through Stanford-UCLA (Helms Medical Institute) in medical acupuncture. I am the founder of - See more at: http://www.integrativeoncology-essentials.com/2013/03/is-there-any-other-anti-cancer-botanical-compound-as-exciting-as-curcumin/#sthash.n9ALMbPt.dpuf

About Brian D. Lawenda, M.D.

I am an integrative oncologist. I trained at Massachusetts General Hospital (Harvard Medical School) in radiation oncology and through Stanford-UCLA (Helms Medical Institute) in medical acupuncture. I am the founder of IntegrativeOncology-Essentials.
- See more at: http://www.integrativeoncology-essentials.com/2013/03/is-there-any-other-anti-cancer-botanical-compound-as-exciting-as-curcumin/#sthash.n9ALMbPt.dpuf

About Brian D. Lawenda, M.D.

I am an integrative oncologist. I trained at Massachusetts General Hospital (Harvard Medical School) in radiation oncology and through Stanford-UCLA (Helms Medical Institute) in medical acupuncture. I am the founder of IntegrativeOncology-Essentials.
- See more at: http://www.integrativeoncology-essentials.com/2013/03/is-there-any-other-anti-cancer-botanical-compound-as-exciting-as-curcumin/#sthash.n9ALMbPt.dpuf


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