podcasts

And then, of course, I pursued naturopathic medical school. After that, I decided to go to the Cancer Treatment Centers of America to focus more on getting a better understanding of cancer treatment, which was phenomenal, because you are able to see all different cancer types that people have. And then, of course, while I was there, Dr. Jeffrey Bland came and did a talk at CTCA, which was awesome and really, really sparked my interest in functional medicine. The whole approach, the framework, the matrix, all of it. It is a very similar system to naturopathic medicine, but it’s more dynamic in certain ways, in certain aspects, and I feel like the tools that functional medicine docs are given really help to allow you to bring in some of the targeted therapies, especially when we talk about modifiable lifestyle factors, and then looking at those antecedents and triggers and mediators, all of it combined. And so for me, I’m pretty passionate about mixing the two, if you will, my naturopathic oncology experience along with functional medicine. 

Kalea Wattles:
That’s fantastic. And I think functional medicine can really work alongside conventional cancer treatment like radiation or chemotherapy, and it seems that there’s a twofold benefit. I’d love your thoughts on this, because on one side, lifestyle-based therapeutics may enhance the efficacy of a conventional therapy, and then we also see that they may help with side effects of these treatments, which may be severe in some cases. So will you talk to us a little bit about this fusion that you’ve just described, and also why lifestyle choices are particularly important when we’re supporting patients who are going through cancer treatment? 

Aisha Chilcoat:
Well, lifestyle factors are going to be important for everybody, whether people have been diagnosed with cancer or not. We know that cancer is more serious along the continuum of people who have not been practicing some lifestyle factors. And there’s different exceptions to that, but generally, we know that environment and lifestyle have a lot to do with it. So I think when we can support the basic things like sleep and relaxation, I mean, these are huge. They’re things that everyone knows, “Oh, yeah, I should sleep every night.” However, they may or may not do that, or their sleep is interrupted and they really don’t know why. They don’t really know what to do about it. They may be relying on certain medications or supplements to help them sleep that may or may not be the best thing for them. So for example, when people are going through cancer treatment, I love to give melatonin, a high dose of melatonin, for several reasons. Sleep is one. It helps to improve natural killer cells. It also helps the effectiveness of chemotherapy and radiation. More so the radiation piece. Especially when people are going through a long stand of it, I want to make sure that they’re getting that level of support.   

Just nutrition. Nutrition is another huge aspect to this. When we talk about those lifestyle factors, we want to make sure that people are getting things nutritionally that they may not normally get. So I focus a lot on those polyphenols, anthocyanins, those things that are going to help with that oxidative stress and oxidative damage. That can be incredibly supportive. So you’re really going to be pointing people back to simple things like organic blueberries and raspberries for that ellagic acid. There’s so many amazing things that people can do simply, which is like a medicine and a therapy. So all the things that we get trained on in functional medicine can be incredibly beneficial, especially during radiation therapy. If you think, depending on the amount of sessions somebody has, this is a time where energy might go down. This is a time when it takes a lot. You’re basically introducing more oxidative stress on the body in a targeted area. But it’s a time where you definitely need to replenish and do some things that we know are helpful for the support of the body. 

Kalea Wattles:
Well, I love that you highlighted some of our foundational functional medicine tools, and I’ll give a shout out to the functional medicine matrix, which you mentioned, and it really speaks to this whole-person approach where you are looking at how all of the nodes of the matrix are affected. So just in what you’ve said, I’ve captured defense and repair, your biotransformation, energy, assimilation. You really just did a tour of all of these different body systems, and I think that’s where functional medicine really shines. So thank you for that beautiful answer. Along those lines, can you talk us through some of the downstream implications of cancer or cancer treatment on our various body systems? 

Aisha Chilcoat:
Sure, so you just mentioned defense and repair, which is great, because one of the things I didn’t mention with radiation therapy, depending on where somebody’s getting the radiation, if it’s breast cancer, they’re having it targeted to maybe a certain area of their breast. So this is an important time to think about what is happening, where those radiation beams are going and what it’s going to affect. So I think in terms of, yes, the skin, but also the digestive system, I think about the esophagus that could be treated just from those radiation beams. So I like to give something protective like L-glutamine to help with the protecting of that. So I think part of it, when I look at the implications, it’s, what are the side effects of this treatment? What is going on right now in terms of a disease process? And then, what are things that we can anticipate and say, okay, we want to make sure that we’re supporting you through this? 

And then there are other things like, let’s say certain treatments for, let’s say breast cancer again, where you can give Adriamycin, Cytoxan, you can give things that are very damaging to the heart, the heart muscle. And so you want to do protective things that can be helpful, like CoQ10, L-carnitine, that are going to give the heart the support that it needs, because if not, downstream from that, people do have cardiac issues, that does develop. And at first, when I first got into this oncology space, I’m like, yeah, they say side effects, and this could happen. It actually does happen. And so, as a functional medicine doc and also a naturopathic oncologist, those are the types of things that are going through my mind. What is physiologically taking place right now in this organ system? And also, what is going to be the effect if they do receive radiation or another chemotherapy agent, what could possibly happen from that point forward?  

And so, of course, as a functional medicine doc, you’re also looking at everything else. You’re looking at that mental, emotional, you’re looking at everything, right? That whole 360 approach. And so for most people, that looks like making sure you’re protecting the heart, making sure you’re protecting that digestive pathway. And then also, I think probiotics are huge. This is great for not only immune system and immune function but also to help with just making sure that things are flowing right. So I think probiotics oftentimes get a little bit, kind of the backseat sometimes in cancer therapy, but I think it’s incredibly important, especially with the targeted agents. So immune checkpoint inhibitors, one of the main things, one of the main side effects that people can develop, autoimmune-type related reactions. And so you want to make sure that you’re definitely supporting digestive and immune function. So I think that probiotics are one of the best ways to start that. And that’s another real thing that people do develop—immune, immune-mediated issues that are mostly related to the digestive system from those targeted agents also.  

Kalea Wattles:
Yeah, well, I mean, in my mind, this is a very well-rounded approach. And I’m always having the conversation, we don’t have to have this either/or mindset. You’re really doing a both/and scenario, right? And that makes so much sense and I think really benefits the patient. As the provider delivering this type of care that’s maybe a new paradigm, a new way of thinking, what are some challenges you face as a practitioner delivering care in this way?  

Aisha Chilcoat:
For me, I’m not sure even how to articulate challenges. I think I’ve seen thousands of patients who have been battling with cancer or who’ve been walking through this journey. So I think maybe the biggest challenge is meeting patients where they are. Because sometimes, I’ve got this whole arsenal of what I want to do and what I know needs to be done, but sometimes patients are not ready for that, or it’s too much. For example, like doing a ketogenic diet and saying, this is really great. There’s some literature that shows that, some research shows that this is going to be really helpful, it’s going to create like an anti-tumor environment, it’s going to… but if somebody’s not ready to do that or they try to do it and they start to feel, they place themselves kind of in a judgmental place or getting really anxious, to me that’s counterproductive, because then you’re introducing stress into this journey.   

And so stress is another big one that I think functional medicine really works to help support when you’re looking at that 360 approach. Because we know if we have HPA-axis dysregulation and people aren’t sleeping and there’s all this cortisol going on, all this stuff, what is the point if they’re not going to, if that’s going on and they don’t want to do a diet or they’re not able to do something because of other things going on in their life? So I would say challenge-wise, that’s probably the biggest challenge is convincing people sometimes of the need, of the importance of what they should do at a certain particular time. Because I know what those downstream implications will be, but at the same time, I’ve got to balance where somebody is at the moment and make it real for them and make it most impactful for them. Because to be honest, a provider and the patient, that whole relationship has to be built on trust and a level of understanding. So that’s also getting cultivated along with the functional, functional medicine matrix. So it’s a tricky dance, but I would say that’s probably the biggest challenge.  

Kalea Wattles:
Yeah, I’ve heard, I’ve heard people say the best treatment plan is the one that the patient can do. And it sounds like that’s what you’re saying. And lifestyle change is hard anyway. And then when you add this layer on of cancer treatment, and I’m sure there’s schedule changes and just the mental, emotional, spiritual component, I imagine that that makes it of utmost important to really meet patients where they’re at. So I appreciate you sharing that, and I think that’s a great lead in to my next question, which is about stress. You touched on this, I’m sure this is a big topic in your world. I can just sense that there’s a great emotional weight that comes with a cancer diagnosis, both for patients, their caregivers, their family, their friends, their community. We know that chronic stress can impact the body. You mentioned this already through increased inflammation, hormonal dysregulation. How does stress management fit into your approach to cancer care? Are you making referrals? Do you have a network? Is this part of your treatment with every patient? Give us the scoop of how that fits into what you’re doing.  

Aisha Chilcoat:
I think that this is probably the main focus of my treatment, to be honest with you. And it didn’t used to be. Now I’ve been doing this for, since I graduated naturopathic school, and one of the things I’ve noticed is just that impact of stress. And it goes beyond people that have been diagnosed with cancer. This is something that people, even kids are dealing with it. I talked to my niece yesterday, she’s second year of college, but she was like, “2020 was the worst year of my life,” because she was in high school. So people are dealing with stress in different ways. And I didn’t even get to mention trauma. So one of the things that I love about the functional medicine matrix is that it looks at those antecedents, those triggers and mediators, because trauma can be this underlying undercurrent to everything that never even gets looked at, which is creating and feeding stress in people. And so until you can work, until patients can really truly work with a functional medicine doc who can really understand that piece, you can be looking at stress just from a job, but they may have some real serious childhood trauma. It could’ve been a divorce that went bad, it could be a number of things that people have had to just filter through their whole life. And then it’s like, there’s no more filtering. It just all bubbles up.   

So when we look at that HPA-axis dysregulation, yes, we know that there’s an increase in cortisol. We know that you can have the weight gain around the middle, but what else is it doing emotionally and mentally? What is that creating? What does that look like? So that’s generally where I found my work to be. I didn’t know that at the time, like earlier on in my career. But for example, I work a lot with African American women who have been diagnosed with cancer. And so one of the things that has been, has come up for me as a practitioner and as a doc is people in different cultures experience these words that we talk about in different ways. So when we say anxiety, I was working with a woman, “Oh, we don’t have anxiety.” And I’m thinking, oh gosh, we just, they just don’t have anxiety. Well, in going deeper with this, there are ways that anxiety can manifest. Like in terms of headaches, in terms of stomachaches, in terms of different physical manifestations where the person may not feel anxious, they may not even describe themselves as being anxious. They may not even know, that doesn’t mean anything to them. So I think when we work with people in different groups or from different backgrounds or different cultures, stress can manifest in different ways. And it may not just be as explicit, it may not be as clear as, “Yes, I’m stressed.” They may not, it may not happen like that.  

So this is the undercurrent again of trying to look at cancer care, looking at the health of someone in front of me and really addressing some of those factors. The modifiable lifestyle factors I think should be required. They should be just requirements, because they really help to drive that down. Relaxation is something that I work with my patients. Just to relax can be a challenge for people, to ground, to go out and ground, to be connected to the earth. Things like that are the things that I usually recommend. But there is evidence that, you know, qigong, Tai Chi, yoga, these things can really drive down some of those inflammatory markers like IL-6, which is, which are great. If people align with that and are able to have some sort of practice like that, that would be incredibly supportive. Meditative practices. Some patients are more religious-based and they want to do scriptural readings. We’ll read a scripture, meditate on it, think about it. Anything that can get you out of this mind chatter place to get you to a more relaxation place would be helpful. So that’s what I generally work on with patients, because like you mentioned, it can be a heavy weight. It can be a huge weight, and for some people, it can be a weight, but they have, let’s say, the nutritional balance, the lifestyle balance to be able to help with that a little bit. Or then you have some people, they’re like a complete fish out of water, they’re having to learn everything new. And so that just makes, it makes it a lot more challenging. 

Kalea Wattles:
Well it’s interesting that you mentioned the trauma component, because I think sometimes when someone has a health crisis, like you said, that’s the first time they enter the medical system in a really meaningful way. And now there’s this opportunity to kind of face all of these things that have been underlying factors for years. What are some tools that you use when you’re working with patients who have a trauma history or they just need some stress transformation strategies? Is it guided imagery or meditation? You mentioned some exercise. What are some of your go-tos?  

Aisha Chilcoat:
Great question. So depending on what the trauma is and what they’re living through, I may not be the best person equipped to help. So that may be a referral. There are some people who are social workers. There are some really good licensed psychologists, psychiatrists that can be really great. So that’s usually what I do. In my instance here, I have a great access to a great woman. She is a social worker, but her focus is on trauma, and she does trauma research, and she’s worked in a lot of marginalized, and with vulnerable communities. So I think it’s just about picking out someone who works best with your patient population that you currently serve, but that, you have to kind of know your limits with that, because it’s not something, if you do know somebody has trauma and depending on the extent of it, say, “Oh you should do guided imagery, you need to do this.” People need to have that support. And it’s that serious because you don’t want to exacerbate it or retraumatize anyone while they’re already going through treatment.  

Kalea Wattles:
Yeah, building that collaborative care team. So important.  

Aisha Chilcoat:
So important, yeah. 

Kalea Wattles:
I can’t move on from talking about stress without mentioning ashwagandha, which I think is a favorite of so many naturopathic, the whole naturopathic community loves ashwagandha, it seems, including myself. There’s some interesting clinical evidence about ashwagandha mitigating the side effects of chemotherapy. So wanted to just bring that up and see if there are some favorite supplements, herbs, nutraceuticals that you’re using often in your practice.  

Aisha Chilcoat:
Let’s talk about it. I made notes on these because I wanted to make sure we can talk about some. Ashwagandha is great. So you have, it’s more of a hepatoprotective, it can protect the liver, it can help with immune function, it can help with, it’s an antimicrobial. It’s more of an anti-stress adaptogen. I used to use it more in my practice to help people who, what I would consider, fit in the ashwagandha picture. So I don’t just use one herb just for everybody because it’s a good herb to use. But this one particularly has been demonstrated to benefit women who have ER/PR-positive breast cancer. So if someone fits that clinical picture, it’s like, this is just right. You give it to them, and you can see it, because you can give it to some other people, and you may not see the same results. That doesn’t mean that something’s not happening on a cellular level to still help with offsetting some of the effects of chemotherapy, but there may be some other things going on that may fit their clinical picture a little bit better. Ashwagandha is a great one.  

Curcumin is another one that I love to use. So cooking with turmeric is great. People who love to have curry or anything like that. But I do caution in using it depending on what somebody’s getting in terms of a chemotherapy. So there are some cautions around that one. But it works really well when people are going through radiation. I absolutely want people to be on curcumin when they’re going through radiation. So as long as they’re not getting chemo, radiation, anything is interfering. So that’s another good one.  

Turkey tail, which is also known as Coriolus versicolor. But this is a great one, especially with breast cancer patients. I love turkey tail. There’s a lot of data, a lot of research around it, around breast cancer, especially hormone-positive breast cancer. Reishi mushroom is another one great for women with HER2-positive breast cancer. So I really like mushrooms a lot. I mean, for several reasons, but it really helps to restore immune function. And then there is some, there is some clinical data showing that benefit with regards to certain cancer types. 

Vitamin D3, which I know that everybody on this call probably has heard about and knows benefits of vitamin D3, but it’s really, I mean, it’s just like almost completely essential to just be on that during cancer treatment. It works as an anti-cancer agent in and of itself, but especially for breast, colon, prostate cancer, that’s like a mainstay, definitely. There’s so many studies around this that it’s just important to be on. And then just spices, cooking with spices. There’s an excellent book, it’s by Rebecca Katz, called The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen. I don’t know if everyone’s heard of it. It’s an awesome book. And I love the way the book is laid out, because it’s laid out to explain what different spices do. But also, she also demonstrates, if you’re just getting chemo this week or after chemo, what to eat, how are you feeling? Do you have any nausea? Are you having fatigue? It’s really laid out to help specifically with symptoms and offering certain, certain recipes to help with that. So for me, those are kind of like my main go-tos.   

Oh, and the other thing is, I didn’t even mention this, is EPA/DHA. So omega-3s are just crucial. There are studies that just being on that alone can help with cancer-related fatigue. So omega-3s are really huge, and I’ve actually got a study that we’re working on with regards to this, but I think if people are able to, or they’re not able to get enough of that through their diet, that’s usually something that I will put somebody on that supplement just to make sure that they’re getting that, because this is essential, right? Our bodies don’t make omega-3s, so it’s important for us to make sure that we’re getting that. It is hard sometimes, I will say for some patients to do that, depending on if they are experiencing nausea, if they don’t have an appetite, in which case there are other things they can do like taking that. Sometimes ginger tea, something to help stimulate appetite and sort of like quell the nausea, you can do that. But I definitely think that if people can get on omega-3s, that’s going to be so important.  

Kalea Wattles:
Yeah, that was very helpful. I’m hearing there’s a degree of personalization here. Choose the botanicals that fit the clinical picture, choose the nutraceuticals that fit the patient’s needs. So for someone like me that is in a primary care setting and doesn’t see oncology patients with any frequency, do you have any advice for how someone like me might navigate that situation? How did you pick up all this knowledge? You’ve acquired this from your years of clinical experience. Are there some resources you might be able to direct us to? 

Aisha Chilcoat:
Yes, that’s a great question. So for me, I was at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America for about five years. So you see just a lot of patients, and you, there’s a whole, I did a residency there, so there’s a whole training piece to that. And then also staying on staff there after the residency. But there are some really good books that some naturopathic doctors have written. And one is by Dr. Lise Alschuler, it’s called Five to Thrive. And it’s a really good approach looking at the epigenetics and how to make those lifestyle modifications that can affect those epigenetics. She talks about the stress and the sleep and nutrition. So all of the things I think that go really in tandem with this functional medicine matrix would be a great book to start with.  

Another one is the, I think it’s called The Metabolic Approach to Cancer. It’s by Nasha Winters and another really great book. I know Dr. Winters, and she has really laid out very well, very eloquently for people who are providers who want to support patients or for patients themselves. She has been inundated. I know she’s gotten so many patients through her practice, but she can’t see every patient, right? So she has written this amazing book that a lot of naturopathic doctors use as another resource. So this is a book that I usually just recommend to people if they’re very excited and want to know, what can I do? What can I do? What should I do? How should I do it? This is a really good approach to also mimic. 

Kalea Wattles:
Thank you. Downloading on Kindle immediately. So we’ve covered the modifiable lifestyle factors. We’ve taken a tour through the functional medicine matrix. We’ve talked about some nutraceuticals and botanicals. Now I want to shift our focus to that mental, emotional, spiritual node which you’ve talked about. But I really think that this is crucial for everyone but I imagine is even more important when someone’s going through a really life-changing event like a cancer diagnosis or cancer treatment. There was a study about breast cancer patients, and the study found that survival rates improved when the patients engaged in prayer or spiritual practice. 

Aisha Chilcoat:
Yeah. 

Kalea Wattles:
And I’ve always felt very proud of the way that functional medicine doesn’t shy away from asking those questions and digging into that mental, emotional, spiritual node that I think is so important. How do you guide your patients towards this sense of connection, whatever that means for them? 

Aisha Chilcoat:
Yeah, so that can be challenging sometimes. I personally have my own spiritual practice. So it’s one of the things where I feel like in that practice, I’m very open and receptive to where people are. And part of it is just sharing sometimes with them the importance of that connection. And everybody of course isn’t going to go to church. Everybody’s not going to a mosque, some people aren’t going to anything. They’re just going to be outside with the trees, whatever it is. Again, it’s slowing down. It’s the shifting from this mental chatter and it’s bringing, you’re bringing yourself into some level of alignment with whatever you believe, right? And so if that is being in nature, then that’s what you know, really focus, focus there. There are some studies, for yoga, then Tai chi and medical qigong, which are just incredible at reducing interleukin-6 which is, can be an indicator of inflammation in the body. So I also think that that is to me tangible evidence that these treatments and therapies do work. So sometimes that may conflict with someone’s spiritual practice. So I try to meet people again where they are. This is where the personalization comes in.  

I had a gentleman one time, and he was, I think it was prostate cancer. And he was just high anxiety, high stress. We talked about all these things. He wasn’t going to do any of it. And finally it came up that he was a Christian and he reads the Bible. And I said, oh, okay. I said, “Well, do you have a scripture you like?” “Well, I’ve got lots of ’em.” I’m like, “Why don’t you pick out one or two of those scriptures?” Because he also liked to walk. I said, “You can just meditate and think about that, whatever it is that’s bringing you peace.” But I think just making the connection with the pieces about what was important to him, what he was already doing, what he liked to do, and making it real for him to be able to explore that. Because sometimes people just need like, oh, I didn’t even think about doing that. So it’s just one of those things. The other thing I will say is affirmations are really good. So doing some level, not just positive affirmations, but really, I’ve had people that talk to their cells when they’re going through radiation, they’re directing the radiation beams. I’ve had, people are doing a lot of different things. And I think it’s important to guide patients who aren’t doing anything, because they really don’t know, and they’re not connected in that way, you have to give them certain things to explore. There may be things that they’re open to and then that may create more expansion for them to want to try something else. So just meeting people where they are and sharing in love, I think that’s the best answer.  

Kalea Wattles:
And you’ve highlighted, there are so many options that…that spiritual practice or just that feeling of connectivity. It means different things for everyone. I love how you said for some people, it’s just being with trees. Perfectly reasonable thing to do, right? If that’s what feels nurturing. 

Aisha Chilcoat:
Absolutely. I mean, you know, even just the feeling. I know I moved to North Carolina a couple years ago, and I got to go to the William Umstead State Park, and just when I was in there, you’re surrounded around these huge trees, like this huge forest, and I could feel a shift. It was instantaneous. So if somebody is like that, that can be incredibly beneficial to them. And when they’re going through treatment or they first find out about a diagnosis, and it’s also important to understand personality. Some people are more anxious. I want to do, da da da da. The main thing they need to do is relax, right? So you’ve got to help with shifting that into something that they like. And then you have people, it’s kind of like, well, I’ll do whatever, but you want them to also show a level of engagement and a presence in it. So it’s just, again, meeting people where they’re at. 

Kalea Wattles:
Yeah, and this high degree of individualization, which I think is so beautiful, and I’m just so grateful that you’re sharing that today. And now I think the ideal scenario is the treatments are successful, all of the interventions we’re using are helpful, and the patient enters remission, right? And I would be so interested to hear from you how you approach survivorship. How do you support your patients when they’re in remission?  

Aisha Chilcoat:
I love survivorship. Some people are like, I’m done. And they run off, right? Then you have some people who really want to know, what can I do to get myself kind of back on track? And depending on what they’re dealing with, if they’re dealing with a chemotherapy-related, what do you call it, cognitive issues where, it’s called like brain fog or something like that. Or they have the cancer-related fatigue. So there are things that now that they’re not getting chemo that can be worked on. And this is to me where functional medicine can truly shine, because you’re looking at everything in that matrix, you’re looking at that, and you know that they probably have some level of mitochondrial dysfunction taking place, because those energy… They don’t have the energy stores that they once had and that what they had to go through during treatment. There are just certain things that you’re like, okay, I want to make sure that we can actually support you so that you’re living your best life. And this is not just a continuation of more treatment and more pills. So this is where the mental/emotional piece comes in too.   

I do sometimes give people a degree of detoxification-type things to engage in if they’re interested. There’s certain protein powders that are great that are vegan-based, they’re plant-based, that also contain all the vitamins, nutrients, minerals, amino acids, I think, that are very helpful and can give you a low-level degree of detoxification. This is also an important time and all through treatment that you need to be sure people are actually eliminating properly. Because sometimes people will go through cancer treatment, and they are still constipated. And this is another really huge concern. So I like to make sure that that, obviously, is happening and that people are sleeping. Sleep is so restorative, it helps, you know, again, for us to get back to that HPA-axis regulation. We’ve got to sleep. We’ve got to be having the melatonin. We need to be in a really dark room, it’s quiet. We need to get restful sleep. These are restorative things that can be done. I think even restorative yoga’s actually another good one. But things that can help people get back to a place of restoration.   

Sometimes if people have been making dietary changes, they continue that. Their family members and friends see that. They’re educating people on things to do, and their whole life is shifted, and they, and they’re just living a whole different way. So what I try to do is support people in that. But if some people are not quite there, maybe because they never really talked to a functional medicine doc during their treatment and they didn’t really know and they went through everything, it didn’t take one supplement. So then it’s like, okay, so that shifts my focus into what do they need, especially if somebody went through, let’s say a breast cancer treatment and I know that they were on medications that can be toxic to the heart muscle, like I mentioned before, like with Adriamycin. One of the things I will do is give them CoQ10. I mean that’s just to start, but they’ve got to do some things to be protective of some of the damage that could have been created from the treatments.  

So it’s looking again, and it is a little bit individualized, but I do want to make sure that people are still following a good kind of like more, I don’t want to say plant-based diet, but getting organic, green leafy vegetables, they’re getting good fruits, they’re concentrating on things like the blueberries and avocados and really creating a colorful plate to give them those polyphenols and anthocyanins. Those are, that’s to me, this is the most important thing to do in terms of survivorship. Because a lot of times people are very concerned with cancer returning. So it’s not like, hats off, I can eat all the birthday cake I want. It’s still, let’s make sure that we’re, we’re living in this blue zone here and we’re trying to continue the work that we’ve done while we were on treatment. 

Kalea Wattles:
So many of the interventions you just described are the same things I think about for supporting health span and longevity and resiliency in anyone. So how cool that you can then take these practices and carry them through the rest of your life.  

Aisha Chilcoat:
Yeah, and I work with breast cancer survivors a lot. I mentioned, and they told me, we don’t want to just survive. So I’ve actually shifted my language from survivors to thrivers. Like, we want to thrive, we want to know what it takes to thrive in life. And so I do a lot of talks around this, even just getting good water. I mean, some patients are, I mean, sad to say, drinking tap water, or they don’t really understand the importance of having good quality water. So all the things that we learn in functional medicine to do for our patients is pretty much the same things that you want to do with people, especially in survivorship. You just may have to filter it through a level of understanding where that person is and what they’ve been through rather than just say, okay, you need to do this, this, this, this, this, this, this. Because that may not be received in a way that they’re able to really do all of it at that time, but it can be done in doses. So that’s what I would say. I love working with women in survivorship.  

Another thing that I really encourage is exercise. Because exercise is really good with helping, again, with the immune system, stimulating, you know, all of that, driving down inflammation. I mean it’s just, it’s just great, especially in postmenopausal women. It’s really important for them to engage in some level of exercise, even weightbearing exercise. I didn’t mention this earlier, but if people are on some sort of hormone blockade treatment, you definitely want to make sure that you’re doing something to support the bone health. Like to prevent osteopenia, osteoporosis, because estrogen, a lot of times, is needed for our bones. If we don’t do, and we’re blocking all these hormones, this is a huge issue. So we always want to make sure that we’re doing things that are supportive of the bones.  

I usually will do some level, I mean definitely vitamin D3 for sure, but the exercise and the weight, exercise with resistance bands can be very supportive for that. So it’s like, we don’t want to forget, right, yes, you had breast cancer, but we don’t want you to have now osteoporosis because we gave you these treatments and we blocked all this stuff and nobody said anything. So it’s looking at sometimes the side effects of what a patient, like side effects of a medication that a patient may have been on to then see, okay, we definitely need to make sure that we’re addressing this, because this has been their journey. So we want to make sure that we’re doing that. 

Kalea Wattles:
Well, all of these pieces that you’ve given us to consider, I mean, my clinical takeaway here is there’s so much we can do from a functional medicine perspective to support patients on a spectrum of their treatment and then into thriver-ship, right? 

Aisha Chilcoat:
Yeah.  

Kalea Wattles:
And so I feel really inspired by that. As we wrap up our conversation, is there anything else you think we need to know or a clinical takeaway from our conversation today that you think is important to highlight as we part ways?  

Aisha Chilcoat:
I will just say that, just think creatively. I had a patient who was also kind of like a family friend, and he was diagnosed with CML pretty serious last year. And he had, it was basic, I think it was to Fusarium, which was in his lungs. And it’s not really an infection that people really ever come back from. And the doctors, of course, were like, “There’s nothing we can do. It’s in his lungs, that’s it.” And I remember talking to a colleague, and I said, “Are there any things we can do?” And he said, “Maybe some essential oils.” And I’m thinking like, is he going to just put him on? Is he going to just sniff it? And then something, I don’t know, I just started thinking about it, and I started looking it up on PubMed. Were there any essential oils that could actually address this particular infection that he had? And they had some that were available. And I was like, oh my God, it was like clove oil, thyme oil. Then I’m thinking, how do I get it down in his lungs? And then something said, “You could use a diffuser, you could just have him breathe it in.” Do you know the doctors, everybody was like, what are you doing? How is this person still alive? He lived an entire year later when this is something that should have ended it, you know, 10 months before.   

So I think just sometimes, even when nobody knows what to do, just thinking creatively using the tools that we’ve been trained in, in functional medicine. And sometimes it may not look like something that has been done before. But like I said, by using a diffuser, that seemed pretty safe to me to have such oils in the air and to try, and it actually worked. And to this day, his wife was just like, “Oh my God. Like, I don’t even know what would’ve happened if we hadn’t even done that.” We got a whole ‘nother year because he was able to move to the next step in his treatment. So I just, that would be my takeaway is think creatively and don’t forget the power of our medicine with functional medicine and this matrix. It’s incredible. Don’t get overwhelmed, because it can be overwhelming, but just start with what you know and what feels right and what people are able to receive at that point in time. So that’s what I would say my takeaways are. 

Kalea Wattles:
Excellent advice to wrap up the show, Dr. Chilcoat. Thank you so much for your insights and the work that you’re doing in the community. I so appreciate spending time with you today and just really appreciate everything you’ve shared on the show. 

Aisha Chilcoat:
Thank you so much for having me. I so appreciate being able to share, and it was nice to meet you as well.  

Kalea Wattles:
To join the conversation on this topic, visit IFM’s pages on Facebook and Instagram. For more information about functional medicine, visit IFM.org.