Cancer care and management

 

Cancer is known as Dres in Tibetan Medical System. The name Dres was given following its resemblance to the shape of fruit: like a coconut fruit, or like a solid mass of outgrowth from the internodes of big tree branches. The 63rd chapter from the “Oral transmission Tantra”, of the 4 Great Tantra, the classical Tibetan medical text explains in some details about this dreadful disease.

 

CAUSE:

 

The general cause of the cancer is given as follows:

. Severe blow or forceful shock to the body due to vehicular accident, & fall from some steep height,

. Improper food leading to chronic indigestion that ultimately leads to an accumulation of impure blood in the body.

. This impure blood gradually multiplies & solidifies because of the action of an aggravated rLung which results from high stress & tension.

. Harmful Spirits: black magic, a curse, naga influence etc.

 

TYPE:

 

There are 18 different type of cancer which are identified according to its location & predominance of Nes-pas.

Location of the cancer is mainly: Outer & Inner body organs.

Outer location comprises of: 1.Muscle, 2. bone, 3. & rTsa.

Inner location comprises of internal organs such as: 4. Lung, 5. Heart, 6. Liver, 7. Spleen, 8. Kidney, 9. Stomach, 10. Intestines, 11. Rectum, 12. bladder.

 

These 12 different cancers can be of following types depending upon the action of the predominating Nes-pas: 13. rLung, 14. mKrispa, 15. Khrag (Blood), 16. Badkan

17. Injury, 18. Je-Des( Lymphnode).  It is interesting to find that the breast & uterus cancer is included in the Khrag or blood type.

 

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURE OF CANCER:

 

According to the medical text, the nature of the tumor is hard & well defined.

. Tumor is hard to dissolve with the hot medicinal bath or with any external application.

. Once established in the body organs, the cancerous cells drain out all the nutritional essence of the body for its growth.

. Once matured, it has the tendency to come out with pus from both upper & lower ends.

. The advanced cancer becomes extremely difficult to treat.  Therefore, an early treatment is strongly advised.

Desi Sangye Gyatso, in his supplementary commentary on Gyud-bShi, called Man-nag lhan-thap, underscores 3 important points relating to the understanding of the cancer as follows:

 

1. The underlying source of the cancer is blood & hence, the blood should be purified by giving frequent venesection to the nearest source of development.

2. The supporting cause is an infection & hence, it calls for anti-inflammatory medicine, & in cleansing the body channels.

3. The resultant disease is malignant tumor & hence, should be dissolved with hot medicinal compression & moxabustion.

 

 

TREATMENT PORTFOLIO:

 

. Inorder to restore the balance of the Nes-pas, to improve the immune mechanisms, & for the healing to take place, herbal formulations in the form of pills & decoction should be given orally.

. Since the nature of tumor is solid hard, hot medicine bath, or an external application should be employed to dissolve the tumor.

. To flush out the dissolved cancerous cells or tissues from the body channels,  vene – cleansing is strongly advised with the help of experienced practitioner.

. To reduce the pace of infection & inflammation, & to curb the speed of progression of cancerous cells, vene-section is frequently advised with the expert’s help.

.To slow down or to stop the pathways of proliferation or angio-genesis, moxabustion is highly advised.

 

Enlightened Lamas & the respected Sangha community are also being consulted for the following reasons:

 

1. To counteract the harmful spirits that sometimes get total hold over the whole disease process & its treatment response.

2. To minimize one’s bad Karmic effects, & to remove any hidden obstacles to the treatment response.

3.To uplift patient’s aura & positive spirit.

 

 

 

 

 

Preliminary clinical Cancer Research project, Bangalore Branch Clinic

Nov 2002 to Feb. ‘05.)

 

. Patient resource: Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad.

 

 

OBJECTIVES:

 Comprehensive treatments, control & care of the cancer through Traditional Tibetan Herbal remedies.

 METHODOLOGY:

 

This is not a controlled research in its strict sense.  The whole exercise was limited to the close observation of the clinical effects of Tibetan Herbal Medicines on 640 cancer patients spread over a period of 3 years from November 2002 to February 2005. However, some of the near- cured cases & good cases have been continuing TM between 5 to 12 years. They are also included in the research study because of the good follow-up & good improvement too. 
 90% of the patients were post operative, post chemotherapy, post radiation therapy or either one or two or all three of them. 8% were on other Alternative therapies like Ayurveda, Sidda & Homeopathy prior to TM.

2% without having taken any therapies prior to TM.

Patients were given Tibetan Medicines(TM) to take 3 or more times a day with an average of 15 to 30 days course.

 They are also being given dietary restrictions & recommendations. Change in the lifestyles & mental attitudes are being encouraged.

Some self-healing techniques like guided visualizing meditation, breathing exercises, recitation of Medicine Buddha’s Mantra were also advised.

 

 

MAINTAINING RECORDS:

 

Each patient has a separate case file with a common treatment study form with his or her medical history, discharge summary, pathological & radiological reports. Patients were asked to bring their complete blood test every 3 months & radiological reports every six months to evaluate the progress. However, patient compliance rate is poor.

No controlled or standard technique was followed while bringing their medical reports.

 

 All other system of Alternative Therapies is discouraged while on TM.

However, standard conventional treatments like chemo & radiation therapy(C & R), & some other new generation drugs are also allowed in-between the study as per the patient’s request. However, TM was asked to stop while the patients were on C & R therapy.  Most of them were given only supporting or immune boosting herbal pills during the intervals of C & R Therapies.

 

STATISTICS:

 

 

 

Total No. of  patients	647	Percentage
No. of  Male patient	309	48%
No. of  Female patient	338	52%

 

Summary in area wise :-

 

PLACE	Discontinued	Good case	Control        case	Near cured case	Bad case	Expired	TOTAL
Chennai	168	32	43	7	2	62	314
B’lore	102	17	25	1	—	39	184
Hyd.	70	21	40	4	—	14	149
Total	340	70	108	12	2	115	647

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Most  common cases of the diseases :-

 

 

S.No	Disease	Cases		S.No	Disease	Cases
1.	Ca. breast	74		11.	Ca. oesophagus	13
2.	Ca. lung	42		12.	Ca. cervix	12
3.	Ca. liver	35		13.	Ca. mouth	11
4.	Ca. stomach	30		14.	Ca. prostate	10
5.	Ca. brain	27		15.	Ca. pancreas	9
6.	Ca. ovarian	25		16.	Ca. bone	7
7.	Ca. colon	17		17.	Ca. tongue	8
8.	Ca. Lymphoma	15		18.	Ca. urinary bladder	6
9.	Ca. leukemia	14		19.	Ca. caecum	3
10.	Ca. rectum	13		20.	Ca. uterus	2

 

 

 

CONCLUSION:

 

1.TM greatly helps in improving the immune system & general health condition of the patient.

 2.Helps to slow down or delay the progression of the cancer.

3.Helps to avoid or effectively control any secondary infections.
4. Minimizes both the physical & mental suffering, particularly the severe cancer pain.
5. Minimizes side effects of C&R Therapy when taken complementary with each other.
6. Extends the life-span significantly.

 

 

Acknowledgement: I am very thankful to Dr. Passang Lhamo, Dr. Nawang Jinpa, Dr. Namdol, & Mr. Tenzin Choephel (Bangalore research assistant) for their support & hard work. We worked as a team & their hard work put into this clinical trial is very encouraging.

 

Dr. Dorjee Rapten Neshar,

CMO, Mentsee-khang,

Bnagalore, South India.