Season 8 Episode 12: Holistic Cancer Care with Chanchal Cabrera

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Would you prefer watching or reading this episode? If so, click here for the 'Holistic Cancer Care' video and transcript.

Episode Summary

Cancer. The very word can strike fear in the heart—and unfortunately, it touches many of us at some point in our lives, whether directly or indirectly through family and friends.

But cancer… and herbs? What role can herbs possibly play in a big, scary, potentially deadly  disease like that?

If you’re faced with a cancer diagnosis, what can you do to take control of your journey and feel empowered?

Just as important, what steps can you take to help prevent cancer in the first place?

These are just some of the issues covered in today’s episode with Chanchal Cabrera—an herbalist with 35 years of clinical practice who specializes in holistic oncology. It was so good! And Chanchal’s new book, Holistic Cancer Care, needs to be on everyone’s bookshelf. It’s an impressive and helpful book for anyone who’s ever been touched by cancer, and even those who want to prevent it.

By the end of this episode, you’ll know:

► What is patient-centered medicine, and why is it so vitally important when crafting a treatment plan?

► Is it true that lymphatic herbs shouldn’t be used by cancer patients? Why or why not?

► Why sunscreen doesn’t give you the protection you might think it does (and what you can do instead)

► How can herbal medicine be included in cancer care, and what are some specific herbs that have been researched for this purpose?

► Depending on the treatments selected and the cancer itself, patients may suffer with radiation burns and/or neuropathic pain. As a listener, you’ll also receive free access to not one, but two downloadable recipe cards from Chanchal for soothing herbal creams.

For those who don’t already know her, Chanchal is a medical herbalist and has been in clinical practice for 35 years with a specialty in holistic oncology. She is the author of Fibromyalgia: A Journey towards Healing and her latest book, Holistic Cancer Care: An Herbal Approach to Preventing Cancer, Helping Patients Thrive during Treatment, and Minimizing the Risk of Recurrence, launched in April. She held the faculty chair in Botanical Medicine at the Boucher Institute of Naturopathic Medicine in New Westminster 2004-2016. She serves on the board of advisors of Dominion Herbal College in Burnaby, on the editorial board of Medical Herbalism clinical newsletter, and she publishes widely in professional journals and lectures internationally on medical herbalism, nutrition, and health.

Chanchal is also a certified Shinrin Yoku (forest bathing) practitioner, a certified Master Gardener and a certified Horticulture Therapist. She lives on Vancouver Island, British Columbia where she and her husband manage Innisfree Farm and Botanic Garden, a 7 acre internationally registered botanic garden specializing in food and medicine plants, and where they host apprenticeships in sustainable food production and herbal medicine. The farm also hosts Gardens without Borders, a federally registered not-for-profit society established to run the botanic garden and provide horticulture therapy.

I’m beyond thrilled to share our conversation with you today!

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What You'll Learn from This Episode

• [01:09] Introduction to Chanchal Cabrera
• [03:46] Growing up on a farm, meeting David Hoffmann, and a TB clinic
• [09:25] How needing a new challenge led to an entirely new relationship with herbal medicine
• [15:20] Chanchal’s typical patient
• [17:37] Holistic Cancer Care
• [25:25] Sunlight, sunscreen, and cancer
• [31:27] What herbs are for cancer?
• [36:44] Chanchal’s big mistake
• [40:04] The importance of getting dosage right
• [43:24] Do lymphatic herbs promote the spread of cancer?
• [48:23] Two recipes from Chanchal
• [48:57] Empowering yourself as a patient
• [54:45] Herbal love letters
• [55:10] Herbal tidbit

Get Your Free Recipes!

Herbal Cream for Radiation Burn

This cooling, soothing, and healing cream will promote tissue repair, inhibit infection, and minimize scarring.

Ingredients:

• 5 mL sea buckthorn oil
• 5 mL vitamin E oil
• 1 mL vitamin A liquid
• 5 mL propolis tincture
• 20 drops lavender essential oil
• 10 drops blue chamomile essential oil
• 10 drops helichrysum essential oil
• 5 mL manuka honey (or other raw, unpasteurized honey)
• 50 g calendula cream
• 10 mL colloidal silver gel
• 10 mL aloe gel
• 5 mL calendula juice (of flowers)
• 2 g comfrey root powder

Instructions:

1. Blend the sea buckthorn oil, vitamin E, vitamin A, propolis, essential oils, and honey together. 
2. Slowly add this mixture to the calendula cream, stirring well, then set aside. 
3. In a separate bowl blend the silver and aloe gels with the calendula juice and add the comfrey powder. Then fold the two mixes together and stir well. 
4. Apply over closed skin (not over open wounds, to avoid absorption of comfrey).

Herbal Lotion for Neuropathic Pain 

This is a rich and creamy formula that soothes and numbs the skin. St. John’s wort and gotu kola both have a nerve-healing, restorative action, while the cayenne and aconite inhibit pain impulse transmission. Magnesium gel is cooling and soothing, vitamin E is anti-inflammatory, and the essential oils are numbing, cooling, and pain relieving.

Ingredients:

• 15 mL St. John’s wort–infused oil
• 10 mL gotu kola–infused oil
• 5 mL vitamin E oil
• 10 drops each (2 mL total) essential oils of bay laurel, nutmeg, wintergreen, and peppermint
• 50 g neutral base cream
• 5 mL capsicum tincture
• 2 mL aconite tincture (1:10 tincture made with 60% ethyl alcohol; this is a toxic herb, so use it only topically)
• 10 mL magnesium gel
  

Instructions:

1. Blend the oils into the base cream, then add the tinctures slowly, followed by the magnesium gel, and mix until all is smoothly incorporated. 
2. Apply to the affected part as needed. Wash hands after applying.

Connect with Chanchal

• Website | ChanchalCabrera.com
• Instagram | @chanchal.cabrera
• Facebook | @chanchal.cabrera

Connect with Rosalee

• On Instagram | @rosaleedelaforet

• On Facebook | Herbs With Rosalee
• On YouTube | Herbs With Rosalee

• Website | herbswithrosalee.com


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