'A Great Example to Follow'
- TV Host Maria Menounos recently lost her mother to a five-year battle with brain cancer. During her mother’s struggle, Menounos had a surgery for a noncancerous brain tumor.
- She recently posted on Instagram sharing more information about her mother’s cancer journey in honor of brain tumor awareness month. She also urged her followers to complement the western treatments if you or a loved one is fighting cancer.
- Knowing the difference between alternative medicine and integrative medicine, a blend of conventional medicine and complementary therapies, is essential when considering treatment options.
The 42-year-old lost her mother, Litsa, to a type of brain cancer called glioblastoma, one of the most common and most aggressive types of brain tumors. She passed away on May 3 after a five-year battle with the disease.
Read More“Can't help but love this pic of mom. She was sooooo brave and sooooo positive. Always,” Menounos wrote on Instagram. “She was such a great example for me to follow in my own journey.”View this post on Instagram
Menounos refers to her “own journey” because she had a brain tumor of her own, but thankfully it was not cancerous. She started noticing strange symptoms like ear pain, dizziness and blurred vision while taking care of her mom. After an MRI, her doctors discovered she had a golf ball-sized benign (non-cancerous) tumor. She then underwent a 7-hour brain surgery on her 39th birthday in June 2017. She’s been doing well since, but the sting of her mother’s passing is still very real.
“This grieving process has a lot of twists and turns, many of which I will share on my show (@bettertogetherwithmaria )this week,” Menounos continued on Instagram. “It's hard to see someone so young leave your physical side. I know she's with me though.”
'Alternative' Verus ‘Integrative’ Medicine
Menounos continues her post by talking about all the approaches taken to try to extend her mother’s life for as long as possible.
“Please know there's hope,” she writes addressing other families dealing with cancer. “My mom made it almost five years. We did many things to achieve that. Whether it was a sugar free diet, optune, treatments to optimize her immune system in Mexico, vitamins and more. It takes a 360 approach and a lot of it is in you to research and apply. You have to compliment (sic) the western treatments.”
When Menounos says complement the western treatments, it’s important to understand what she means. By clearly not endorsing “alternatives” to western medicine, she is essentially promoting integrative medicine. According to Dr. Brian Berman of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, integrative medicine does not disregard more traditional treatment options, but attempts to mesh the best of conventional and complementary medicine.
Nowadays, many doctors support integrating other methods of care into their treatment plans for cancer patients. In a previous interview with SurvivorNet, Dr. Jason Westin, an oncologist at MD Anderson Cancer Center, explains alternative vs. complementary medicine.
The Difference Between Integrative Medicine and ‘Alternative Medicine’
"Integrative medicine is an approach to care that puts the patient in the center of care and everything flows from that," Dr. Westin explains. "It emphasizes lifestyle behavior, like diet, stress management, nutrition, and it also blends the best of conventional medicine and complementary therapies… It very much believes in the power of conventional medicine, but it's trying to bring in other evidence-based approaches, and to optimize people's health and well-being."
"Complementary medicine, which came out of Europe, is really a wide variety of therapies and approaches, from mind-body approaches, to Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, diet and nutrition. And then integrative medicine is a combination of the best of conventional medicine and complementary medicine, but places the patient in the center."
Alternative Therapies: Don't Believe Everything You Read on the Internet
“Alternative medicine,” on the other hand, is where people try to replace conventional care. Alternative medicine has not been shown to improve cancer outcomes. According to a study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, patients who chose to treat common cancers using only alternative medicine had a 2.5 times higher mortality rate than patients receiving standard cancer treatments.
Losing a Loved One to Cancer
Coping with the loss of a loved one to cancer can be a long journey. There are no right or wrong ways to grieve, but there are always things you can do to help yourself through the process. Opening up about the experience on social media, like Menounos, can help, but therapy and support groups can be wonderful options as well. It's also important to keep in mind that time does not heal everything, but it certainly helps.
In a previous interview with SurvivorNet, Camila Legaspi shared her own advice on grief after her mother died of breast cancer. She credits therapy for saving her life.
"Therapy Saved My Life": After Losing A Loved One, Don't Be Afraid To Ask For Help
"I was dealing with some really intense anxiety and depression at that point," Legaspi said. "It just changed my life, because I was so drained by all the negativity that was going on. Going to a therapist helped me realize that there was still so much out there for me, that I still had my family, that I still had my siblings."
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