Amy Nett: I actually refer out for cancer patients. I work with patients who have cancer doing the basic Functional Medicine approach, so I’m making sure that they don’t have a heavy metal toxicity, that the mitochondria look like they’re working well. But I’m also asking patients who have cancer or who have recently gotten over cancer to also work with a Functional Medicine practitioner with a particular focus or interest in oncology because I think that this is kind of a field in and of itself and there’s a huge body of literature to keep up with. Of course, in terms of the supplements that I would recommend after breast cancer, I’m going to be thinking about all of your basic nutrients in terms of B vitamins, making sure the vitamin D level is optimized, magnesium. I’d probably throw in diindolylmethane to help support healthy estrogen metabolism. I recommend against alcohol intake. Think about diet, stress management—it’s huge—exercise, sleep, all of these things.
But in terms of the specifics that are more directed towards cancer, I probably would refer out. It’s just, for me personally, it’s outside of my comfort zone and I don’t feel I’m able to keep up with all of the oncology literature in addition to the more general Functional Medicine literature. Yes, unfortunately, and I ran this by Chris. He said the same thing, he tends to refer out. There are great resources. There are plenty of practitioners who do have that cancer focus, but to me this is … We take cancer really seriously and there are a lot of different theories on cancer and how to approach it. If it were me, I would want someone who’s really investing their time and understanding that.