I've always heard the use of herbs and supplements and alternative therapies can be a potentially dangerous pursuit when combined with cancer treatment. But this may not be entirely true.

Think about this:

Using Chinese herbs alone or in conjunction with chemotherapy may help protect a breast cancer patient's bone marrow and immune system. It may also improve the overall quality of life for women, say researchers at the Chinese Cochrane Centre in Chengdu, China.

It is well known that women receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer experience significant short term side effects such as nausea, vomiting, fatigue, inflammation of the gut lining, decreased numbers of red and white blood cells, and decreased numbers of blood platelets. Those is search of some relief may wish to give Chinese medicinal herbs a try.

Researchers say there is conventional evidence indicating that these medicines are safe and effective. Still, "further trials are needed before the effects of traditional Chinese medicines for people with breast cancer can be evaluated with any real confidence," says one professor involved in this area of study.

From houseplants to raised beds, to plant a seed, tend the soil, and watch a plant grow is one of the most inspiringly hopeful of activities. In hopefulness is found a kind of healing. According to the American Horticultural Therapy Association, horticulture therapy is defined as "a process utilizing plants and horticultural activities to improve social, educational, psychological and physical adjustment of persons thus improving their body, mind, and spirit." The American Cancer Society offers a list of some of horticulture therapy benefits one can expect from gardening that include:

• Feelings of hope.
• Stress reduction.
• Social interaction.
• Pain relief.
• Improved muscle tone, flexibility, and cardiopulmonary capability.
• Creativity and self-expression.
• Enhanced self-esteem and improved mood.
• Motor skill development.
  

As the New Year arrives, so do the gardening catalogs in the mail. Interested in receiving gardening catalogs but not certain where to start? Cyndi's Catalog of Garden Catalogs lists over 2,000 mail-order gardening catalogs for the home gardener.

Two of my favorite gardening websites and online catalogs are found at Seeds of Change and Seed Savers Exchange.

At Seeds of Change, you can find garden seeds, seed collections, cover crops, seedlings, fruit trees, garden tools, kitchen items, and a bookstore. All organic. In addition, Seeds of Change publishes a newsletter.

Seed Savers Exchange is a nonprofit organization that saves and shares heirloom seeds. According to Seed Savers Exchange, "Our organization is saving the world's diverse, but endangered, garden heritage for future generations by building a network of people committed to collecting, conserving and sharing heirloom seeds and plants, while educating people about the value of genetic and cultural diversity."

But, wherever you start, once you catch the gardening bug, you will understand why horticulture therapy is becoming an integrated part in healing programs adopted at some of the medical centers across the country.

Deep within the pages of ancient texts detailing the remedies used by Chinese medicine practitioners, is there a cure for cancer waiting to be rediscovered? The global pharmaceutical company Merck thinks there might be a reference or two to natural cancer-fighting products used by healers then that is obscurely hidden and not known now in modern western medicine.

Merck has entered into a deal with Hong Kong's Chi-Med to look for evidence of promising products that the pharmaceutical company can research and test in clinical trials. According to the article Merck looks for ancient Chinese cancer cure written by Susie Mesure, "Western pharmaceutical companies are increasingly outsourcing their drug discovery work, with many looking east for the solution to medical mysteries that Western doctors cannot solve."

Traditional Chinese Medicine, TCM, is a practice of medicine that combines medicinal herbs, nutrition, meditation, massage, exercise and acupuncture with an applied philosophy in the harmonious balance of yin and yang for treating illness. In all fairness, because this system of medicine has developed over thousands of years, and my understanding limited by Western educational influence, the definition I have given is a very brief, and possibly incomplete, overview of TCM. If you are interested in learning more about TCM, begin by visiting Traditional Chinese Medicine at Wikipedia.

Chi-Med will be scanning information in a library of 10,000 natural substances for those that might hold potential in a cure for cancer. It will be interesting what they find.

For women with estrogen-driven breast cancer suffering the symptoms of menopause, being prescribed traditional hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is out of the question. The risks are simply too great in introducing any estrogen into the body. There are few alternatives and many women decide to suffer with hot flashes, flushes, night sweats and cold flashes, a clammy feeling, sporadic rapid heart beat, irritability, mood swings, sudden tears, insomnia, fatigue, feelings of anxiety, dread, apprehension, difficulty concentrating, disorientation, depression and mental confusion -- without any significant relief. One of the alternatives is personalized natural hormone replacement therapy that is individually mixed specific to each woman's needs.

According to Sydney Menopause Centre at Randwick's Royal Hospital for Women director Dr John Eden, who has diagnosed two women patients with uterine cancer, believes the cancer is linked to natural hormone replacement therapy. Australian doctors are warning women to think twice before taking handmade hormone compounds prepared by chemists, due to the danger that these preparations can lead to elevated hormone levels that could lead to excessive bleeding, increased risk of breast and uterine cancer and blood clots.

"Many women think they are getting a herbal treatment and are shocked to learn they are getting a hormone treatment," stated Dr Eden. Dr Helena Teede, research director at the Jean Hailes Foundation, also added that many women were unaware these preparations were not approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

Taking its name from the breast cancer awareness pink ribbon, Ribbon Nutrition, is a dietary supplement company that offers 40 products -- such as Fish Oil, Earth Energy Multi-Vitamin, Milk Thistle, Green Tea and Saw Palmetto. Each member of the company has been touched by a personal experience with breast cancer. Ten percent of the profit from the sale of Ribbon Nutrition products goes to cancer charity for education and research in the fight against breast cancer.

The statistics for breast cancer are still grim. It is estimated 1,150,000 women worldwide will be diagnosed with breast cancer, and 411,000 women will die from the disease. It is now the leading cause of death among US women aged 20 to 59. Why are the products turned upside down? In the Million Dollar Flip challenge, when the profits donated from the product sold reach one million dollars, the product will get turned right-side up.

According to the Ribbon Nutrition company, prevention is the key and by making better lifestyle choices, whether it's concerning your diet or the cleaners you use in your home or the deodorant you roll-on every morning, you can make a difference in your health and your family's health. Self-education and self-empowerment are at the heart of the company's efforts. They are not setting out to tell people what to think or what choices to make, but to provide access to the information individuals need to make their own informed, healthy decisions. On the Ribbon Nutrition company store website it state that the mission is to eradicate breast cancer through education, awareness, nutrition, prevention, and charity.

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Information Resource Herbs, Botanicals & Other Products database provides clinical information for each agent and details about constituents, adverse effects, interactions, and potential benefits or problems of herbs and botanicals for consumers, oncologists and healthcare professionals -- including evaluations of alternative or unproven cancer therapies. According to the cancer center who provides this database, the information is objective and they state that the Integrative Medicine Service staff, led by an oncology-trained pharmacist and botanicals expert, manages the database, which is continually updated as new information becomes available.

For each herb and botanical, they list a clinical summary; give the scientific name and brand name; purported uses; constituents; mechanism of action; warnings; contraindications; adverse reactions; drug interactions; lab interactions; literature summary and critique; and references.

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, one of 39 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, is an established and well-known cancer center providing patient care, involved in cancer research and educational programs for physicians and scientists.

In the phenomenal bestseller Foods That Fight Cancer: Preventing Cancer Through Diet, written by Montreal biochemist Richard Beliveau with fellow scientist Denis Gingras, the authors refer to fruits and vegetables as a preventative non-toxic version of chemotherapy.

Originally published in French, the book has recently been translated into English. Based on scientific studies in food chemistry, the book's two main goals are to educate people about what cancer is -- and how to eat for cancer prevention.

Beliveau explains in layman's terms how cancer develops, how it takes years for cancer to develop, how tumors form spontaneously, and how most cancers remain insignificant. He says, "Preventing cancer is destroying these microtumors and blocking them from reaching a stage where they become clinically relevant." There are foods with the biochemical capacity to block some cancers. He wants the reader to realize that we cannot eat as badly as we do and expect medicine to come up with a miracle pill when something goes wrong.

Following is an excerpt of some of the information the reader will find in Foods That Fight Cancer: Preventing Cancer Through Diet:

While many cancer patients use, or are interested in, herbal remedies to improve the quality of life during cancer treatments and beyond into cancer survivorship, research-based evidence in how and why herbs work is still largely ignored as scientific study. In my opinion, not nearly enough rigid investigation is going on in relation to herbal therapies even though, from a patient's perspective, there is much interest. I become very intrigued when I do read that a study will be done to further the knowledge into the validity -- or not -- of age-old herbal remedies. If it works, I want to know why.

Researchers at the Medical College of Georgia will be studying several herbs, ginseng and valerian, that might be of significant benefit to cancer patients undergoing cancer treatment to off-set some of the common troublesome symptoms like insomnia and fatigue. Ginseng is believed to fight fatigue and improve the immune system. Valerian is known to relax and calm, and act as a sleep aid. Perhaps while they are investigating these two herbs, they can figure out a novel way of toning down the smelly gym sock phenomenon associated with valerian. I still haven't found a way to use it without encountering its most unpleasant aroma.

Stress is not good. Long-term stress can suppress the immune system. Part of cancer prevention is supporting a healthy immune system so it can do the job of stopping cancer before it has a chance to develop into disease.

Whether stress is related to work or family life, most of us experience too much stress in our daily life. Why the same events will cause some people stress and not others, or why the same event can cause us to experience stress at one time but not seem to bother us as much at a different time, is largely based on our perception of the event and how we define what is happening.

One of the best ways to escape stress? Never personalize what is taking place. Easier said than done, but with practice, it works in reducing the amount of stress and the number of times you experience stress in a day. Still, easier said than done.

Abraham Starchild Cherrix was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma last summer and went through three months of chemotherapy. Early this year, tests showed the chemotherapy had not achieved the goal of cancer remission and his doctors recommended more chemotherapy and radiation. Since being diagnosed with cancer, Cherrix has done his research, and when the doctors told him they would like him to undergo additional chemotherapy and radiation, he said thanks but no thanks. He has lost faith in conventional medicine to help him, and he is concerned about the poisonous damage chemotherapy and radiation will do to his body. He is not alone.

Cherrix wants to try alternative therapies now to combat a cancer that chemotherapy has failed to defeat. He is interested in a bible-based diet, and the Hoxsey formula involving herbs and nutrition. He has contacted the Association for Research and Enlightenment, a center founded by Christian psychic Edgar Cayce and a clinic in Tijuana, Mexico. Like I said, he is not alone. The interest and use of alternative therapies is a choice some cancer patients make to treat their cancer. Ultimately it is up to the cancer patient how the cancer is treated. So what is the big deal that Cherrix has chosen this route? He is 15 years-old. So when he made his intentions clear, with the support of his parents, child services and the court stepped in and legally ordered him to begin chemotherapy and radiation. His parents have been threatened with losing custody of their son.

It's a tough call. There is a cancer patient who does not believe in a treatment he is being forced to undergo -- and having faith in your doctors and treatment can affect how well a treatment works -- and life and death decisions and courses of action that often do not come with a second chance. If Cherrix were an adult, none of this would be a legal issue. Do you think the courts have a right to intervene?

Two years ago, my father was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Shortly after he began radiation and hormone treatment for his cancer, I got an interesting call from him. He was suddenly experiencing symptoms normally associated with menopause -- in particular -- he was having hot flashes. He knew I had been suffering through hot flashes as a result of chemo-induced menopause. It's an interesting, if not unusual, father-daughter bonding when they both can share the trials and tribulations of menopause. Our telephone calls became conversations of possible solutions and relief during the sleeping and waking hours of a personal summer not in sync with the seasonal temperature outside. In the middle of winter, I joked my hot flashes were saving me money on my home heating bill.

Yesterday, Vicki posted tropical vacations and hot flashes, in which she shared a few natural herbal remedies for women suffering from hot flashes associated with menopause. For many women breast cancer survivors, chemo-induced menopause is a real problem. Today, I will share some of the natural remedies for men suffering from hot flashes associated with prostate cancer treatment and male menopause. Yes, it's a real condition. Jed Diamond, author of Male Menopause, offers these herbals as possible relief from male menopausal hot flashes:

• Wild Yam for hormone building assistance.
• Black cohosh for a relaxant and normalizer.
• Damiana as a prostate tonic, antidepressant and nutrient for sluggish sexual organs.
• St. John's Wort and Oat for nerve tonics to help deal with any depression and other stress due to the changes.
• Saw Palmetto for a reproductive system nutrient.
  

Of course, if you have been diagnosed with prostate cancer, you need to speak with your oncologist and primary care physician concerning the safety of combining herbs with any drug treatment you are currently prescribed. In addition, the Mayo Clinic did research that suggested antidepressants can alleviate the severity of hot flashes for men. My father has reported some relief from both herbs and antidepressants, but he still has a personal summer now and then.

Are those mini-tropical vacations, aka hot flashes, getting unbearable? Many women have made the decision not to take hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to reduce hot flashes since news came out stating that women who took HRT were slightly more likely to develop certain illnesses such as breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and stroke compared with those who didn't take HRT. So what are the options to those unbearable night sweats and those red-faced moments in public that have you fanning your face? Take a deep breath, let it out slowly, and read on.

Certain herbs and supplements such as black cohosh, red clover, and soy products may help relieve hot flashes in some women. However, research in this area has only just begun and the effectiveness and safety of these products have not been proven. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) is currently conducting research on these products to examine their ability to reduce the frequency and severity of hot flashes. Further research is also needed to determine if these products are safe to take for long periods of time. Acupuncture is another CAM therapy that women have tried and some have found relief. But acupuncture has also not been proven to be helpful with hot flashes at this point.

Overall, the research on acupuncture and hot flashes has not been of very good quality to date and further research is underway to determine if acupuncture might be helpful. Certain relaxation and breathing techniques may be helpful in reducing the severity and frequency of hot flashes. Both the relaxation response technique and a breathing technique that involves slow, deep breathing called paced respiration have been shown in small research studies to be helpful. So keep taking those slow deep breaths. When added with meditation time or yoga it can become quite fun, relaxing, healthy, and can get rid of some of those unwanted mini-tropical vacations.

Mike Adams starts Lying with statistics: How conventional medicine confuses the public by posing this question, "Which drug would you rather take? One that reduces your risk of cancer by 50 percent, or another drug that only eliminates cancer in one out of 100 people?" He believes most people would choose the drug that reduces the risk by half.

But both of these choices refer to the same drug and the same outcome. Curious? Here's how Adams explains it. Let's say a new breast cancer drug is being tested and there are 100 women in the clinical trial. At the beginning of the trial, two women are expected to get breast cancer. The other 98 women are not even expected to get breast cancer. Just two of them. At the end of the trial, only one woman gets breast cancer. If you interpret the results of this trial by absolute risk, then the reduction of breast cancer is one woman out of 100. However, if you interpret the results by relative risk -- that out of two women only one got breast cancer -- then the reduction of breast cancer with the new breast cancer drug being tested is an incredible 50 percent.

Remember, at the beginning of the trial, the researchers hypothesized that two women would get breast cancer and since only one did get breast cancer -- one out of two equals 50 percent. Now, if you are a pharmaceutical company who wants to extol the virtues of this new experimental drug, which risk -- absolute or relative -- would you use? Especially if you are trying to grab the interest and support of financial backers and the public? Relative -- of course. It sounds better. And it's true.

However, if you want to discredit a drug or therapy, you would use absolute risk. You would refer to the therapy in a framework of absolute risk. The one out of 100 statistical outcome, as in, it doesn't work very well -- only one out of 100 showed benefit from use. Adams points out this happens all the time when conventional medicine refers to claims made by alternative therapies in say, herbal remedies. And it's true. Nothing about absolute or relative risk is untrue but each can give a vastly different impression of what is true. Before you read another health news headline about another research study or new drug, go read his commentary in its entirety. It will make you pause -- it will make you think twice -- it will prompt you to ask, "what are we talking here -- absolute or relative risk?"

In a universal health system, care is rationed by medical priority when determining where health dollars will be spent and what types of treatment will be covered. In the UK, a debate is taking place between British scientists who are recommending that unproven or disproved complementary therapies not be funded and therapists of complementary medicine who argue that many of the alternative therapies have been proven effective and should be funded for patients who can benefit from such therapies. This has opened up a whole new discussion in defining exactly what alternative or complementary therapies are and what place they have in modern medical practice.

Meanwhile, Prince Charles, a strong advocate of alternative therapies and organic foods, spoke to World Health Assembly members of the World Health Organization about the need to consider making better use of traditional therapies, particularly acupuncture and herbal medicines, to improve health care around the world.

"I believe that the proper mix of proven complementary, traditional and modern remedies, which emphasizes the active participation of the patient, can help to create a powerful healing force in the world,'' Charles said. "This is where orthodox practice can learn from complementary medicine, the West can learn from the East and new from old traditions."

Prince Charles is concerned that if we do not recognize the wisdom and value of the past, much of that knowledge will be lost. Putting aside politics, monarchy and scandal, I am gaining more respect for the Prince of Wales the more I learn about his perspectives concerning health and the environment.

For a gardener, this is an exciting time of year. There is planning and planting and anticipation of the continuous summertime harvest bounty of fresh organic vegetables straight from the good earth of a home garden. If you have children, or grandchildren, it is an excellent opportunity in education and the lessons of tending and growing and benefiting from homegrown food. The wisdom of the garden and the gardener is the knowledge of life and living.

The Edible Schoolyard has brought all of this and more into the schoolyard at Martin Luther King Junior Middle School, where public school students are provided with a one-acre organic garden and a kitchen classroom. An explanation of the program is posted on The Edible Schoolyard website, where students learn how to grow, harvest, and prepare nutritious seasonal produce. Experiences in the kitchen and garden foster a better understanding of how the natural world sustains, and promotes the environmental and social well being of the school community.

As far as I can tell, much of the program is published online as a resource for parents and teachers interested in launching a similar program in community-area schools. I think, while reviewing the  extensive resources, that a parent could take advantage of the information and create an individualized homeschool-based program for their child, or children, if the local school does not provide this, or a similar program -- and include cancer prevention nutrition information about the organic produce grown -- for a lifetime of good health.