PowerLiving with Kimberlee Langford
PowerLiving with Kimberlee Langford
Understanding Ovarian and Testicular Cancer and Staying Healthy During the Festive Season
Today we are talking about ovarian and testicular cancer with our resident oncology expert, Stephanie. She sheds light on early warning signs, self-examinations, and lifestyle measures that can help prevent these cancers. Learn why individuals who've had a transplant need to be extra vigilant due to their heightened cancer risk.
Ever wondered how to stay healthy during the festive season? We all struggle with maintaining a balanced diet while enjoying holiday feasts. Let's explore practical ways to manage portion sizes, maximize nutritional intake, and avoid hidden sodium traps. Plus, we'll guide you through the art of the plate method for blood sugar control and discuss how experimenting with different foods and flavors can help you discover what works best for your body. An episode chock-full of tips, whether you're handling kidney disease, at risk, or simply looking to make healthier choices this holiday season.
Hey, hey, hey. We are back for our nurses round table and happy almost Thanksgiving. Can you believe we're already in the holiday season?
Speaker 2:I know came quickly.
Speaker 1:Holy smokes, I tell you, every year I get older and then come faster and faster. So how are you, ladies? I'm good, nice. Well, this is a perfect month for us. We're talking about a few things in our round table this month. We're going to talk a little bit about danger signals and just being increasing our awareness about two types of cancer in particular ovarian cancer and testicular cancer. Ovarian cancer is near and dear to my heart. I have a really good friend who died of ovarian cancer, so it's kind of near and dear to my heart. So, with our leading oncology expert here, stephanie, what should we be aware of, when it comes to just being aware of early things that maybe we might want to ask our doctor about?
Speaker 2:Typically, women who are already at risk for any kind of cancers are already at higher risk for ovarian cancer. So if you have a familiar family history of breast cancer, for example, then it might be a good idea to get checked and know that you might be at higher risk of getting ovarian cancer. Typically there is not a routine screen for ovarian cancer, but there are other methods and symptoms too that people might be having, and the quicker we get checked the better.
Speaker 1:That seems to be the key with so many cancers being aware of bringing things to your provider's attention so that the screenings that are right for you can be performed. Cancers, when they're caught early so many of them are highly treatable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can absolutely beat that, and so yeah, and the problem is, a lot of the symptoms for a lot of the cancers are very simple and kind of overlooked sometimes because they can mimic other diseases or mimic other things and you think nothing of it. But when you start adding them up, then you can get the clearer picture of maybe what's perhaps going on.
Speaker 1:Right and having a mindset of prevention, I think, is really important. It's like making sure that if you have diabetes, work on type 2 diabetes, work on putting it in remission, keep diabetes in good control. Cancer cells of any kind they love sugar. So 15 times they eat up 15 times of sugar that a regular cell will eat up. So keeping a healthy weight is important. Eating a healthy diet, all those things that our moms taught us right. Yeah, eat your fruits and vegetables. Go to bed early.
Speaker 2:Healthy, being healthy is prevention and key. And, ironically enough, as you guys know, I just had a baby and I met with a lactation consultant and she brought up a good point about the lymphatic system and when you apply to cancer. She said to me she was an RN as well and she said there's been trials, clinical trials, on people just bouncing on a trampoline and how that has impacted their lymphatic system and the drainage and preventing and cancer or helping manage cancer. And I was looking into it. I was like, wow, that's crazy, it's a crazy thought. But think about it. You're on the treadmill, you're working out, you're exercising. Doesn't have to be trampoline, but just the activity of it just helps your lymphatic system move along.
Speaker 1:You know when she gone. We have a move. It's called shaking the tree and it looks kind of funny, but you stand and you just sit there and bounce yeah to your point now, that being said, I love my rebounder. I will go jump on my trampoline to blow off some steam. So there you go. Awesome, these are great tips. What can you tell us about testicular cancer? What should guys do? What should they be alert for?
Speaker 2:Well, testicular cancer is relatively uncommon and for all male tumors, but typically the common solid tumors do happen with 20 to 34 year olds, and that's the case. That's typically where we see it the most. It does not mean that you are not going to see it in the elderly individuals, but, like anything else, you know, self-examination is key and although it's not, you know the recommended diagnostic tool. Everyone knows your body better than anyone else. So if you know that something was there that was not there, it's a good time to go and have it checked out by a physician or a practitioner, whoever you go to, because that little thing that might you know, you might rub off and think it's nothing, might end up being something, and prevention is key, as we keep saying.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so important, and you know it used to be. We taught women to do breast exams and men to do testicular exams and the guidelines for those have kind of gone away, but the premise is still there. To your point earlier is that you know we should be familiar with our bodies. You know I kind of like we're familiar with our cars, right, I know where there is a bumper scratching my car. You'd think we would take at least that much care with our bodies.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the shower is the best time to do it because sometimes with the daily basis, it's very hard for us to get into a routine of things. But it takes 30 days to, you know, start a routine. So while you're in the shower you're already washing your parts. Might as well just self-examine, touch, make sure there's no bumps, lumps, irregularities, discoloration, just anything that's odd and was not prior. There is an indicator to go get it checked out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and have it checked out. Interesting you know where we also specialize in kidney disease. When folks have had a transplant, it's really important for people to remember because of the immunosuppressant therapy that they're on, they do have a higher risk for cancer. So even some of these cancers that are rare it's really important to just be aware of and screen for. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, because even those people. I think the guidelines when I was in the hospital was five years. So if you had had cancer anywhere within the five year work you were not adequate enough to receive the transplant. But you know you could have had cancer six years, qualified for a kidney and then all of a sudden in your remission because you're taking immunosuppressant. So being more mindful of it and knowing that reoccurrence can happen, especially after years of being in remission, is important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, vigilance. We don't want people to be worried about things, but we just want to be aware, right? So we don't have to freak out and it'll have to be like a monk, right, we're all afraid about things, just to be aware. Well, if we could switch gears and talk about. One of my favorite things is we come into the holidays Thanksgiving and Christmas oh, I love baking bread and you've got the turkey, and I love making homemade cranberry sauce and cheesecake, and I've you guys know I could absolutely slip away into a coma with praline pie, right, so I don't touch it anymore.
Speaker 1:But you know, holidays can be a really tough time for folks who either have kidney disease or have a risk for kidney disease, or folks with cancer. We've talked about how, you know, maintaining appropriate sugar levels is important also for cancer and, to be honest, diabetes is so rampant globally even that I think it it. Who's us to take a minute to talk about, you know, maybe some strategies, some of our favorite things that we can do to help folks who you know, maybe we're still I'm still working on a goal to lose the weight after my baby. We don't have to mention that she's in college now, right, we start off the year with a really good intention we're going to eat healthier, we're going to lose weight or we're going to get our A1C down and we're going to do good things with her.
Speaker 1:Oh, and then we got Halloween, and now we got Thanksgiving, and now we got Christmas. What are some of your favorite strategies? And then we can pick it off with you, nancy. What are some of your favorite strategies that you'd like to share with folks to help them not fall off the wagon too far during the holidays?
Speaker 3:Right. Well, I think first and foremost is portion control, because there's so many different dishes and we want to try all of them. Of course we should stay away from the ones that will really do harm that day, but it's okay to have a little bit of the sweet. You know portions, you know that's my favorite thing. You know because you don't want to always feel as if you can't have anything, or you can't have anything sweet or you can't have. You know certain things because I don't know about anybody else, but that just makes me want it even more.
Speaker 2:Yeah it's a deal for failure.
Speaker 3:Right, right. So I feel that portion control is a really big strategy that you can have. You know this little. You know Thanksgiving plates are usually big, you know. So just, you know a little here, a little here, a little there. You know protein turkey yeah, I mean it's lean turkey I usually have. You know a good amount. But if it's, you know things like sweets, like sweet potato casserole, which I love, you know. But again, portion control. When it comes to desserts, portion control, you know, we could, like we were talking earlier, we can make a dish to bring. You know, if I'm a diabetic, you know, let me make a dish to bring that I can enjoy without the guilt. So that's, that's definitely a good strategy there as well.
Speaker 1:So that's, that's what it's interesting that you talked about portion controls because you know, many years ago, when I, many years ago, we removed all of our our regular plates and we put in salad plates, because you know you look at a regular to your point, some of them are like trough right, maybe setting the plate, your your dinner table with a salad plate is, you know, because it's nice, you want to look at it, nice full plate, what can be full. And I know, for me this month, my challenge for myself has been one serving and one plate, so I don't have seconds, I have one plate, move my dish and then I picked up pickleball so I like I'm learning to play pickleball on the VR so that I do something active after dinner. But you know, portion control, I love that yeah and to add to that.
Speaker 2:So what is portion control? Because Portion control to everyone might mean different amounts. You know you want to quantify that amount. Yeah, as she was saying. Nancy was saying it. Just you know you want to do at least. If you have a normal plate, half of your plate should be, you know, protein if you want, and then you can do the next. You know little what would be half of the other half be veggies and then a little quarter be Starches or a fist. You can use fistfuls as well. So if it's something that you know is I don't want to say bad, not great you know. Just, portion control with the fist, the size of your fist, that's your serving size and that's what you should get and that's the only thing you should get. There you go.
Speaker 1:Yep, just for many years ago. The plate method is one of my favorite tools and, matter of fact, when my kids were little. You know how kids are. They don't want to eat anything that you make for dinner. So I'd say I don't care, make whatever you want, but it has to look like this I Point half of your plate. If you look at your plate and half of its vegetables, you're most of the way there. I think you know too, especially when it comes to folks with kidney disease. You know protein. We need protein.
Speaker 1:Yeah don't need to eat like half of a cow, right? Right, it should be into your point earlier a fistful, right. So two fistfuls for your vegetables, a fistful for your bread or your starch or your grain, fistfully for your protein protein versus a lot longer than. Then your starches, and of course your vegetables kind of have it in between burn kind of like kindling or newspaper, and then your starches are like your, your kindling, right, they burn real fast and then you have your kindling Sorry, newspaper kindling your vegetables and then you have your log. Protein takes a lot longer to turn into sugar.
Speaker 1:So one of my favorite tips is to make sure people have a protein at every single meal. Don't skip Right. So breakfast is not just a bowl of cereal. You have a bowl of cereal. All you've had is this. All you've had is newspaper on your fire. It's gonna go out. Now you got to relight it All over again. We wonder why we're out of energy midday. So you know, a protein at every meal is gonna give some stability. And so the other thing that I find that a lot of people do during the holidays is and we talked about this earlier too but Folks will I had used to do that all the time he would starve himself, so that he could really sit down and pack it on at the home you know, and what we end up doing is we put our bodies on this roller coaster.
Speaker 1:That's just really hard.
Speaker 1:It's so much better. You know, on a holiday meal we should you just reverence ourselves a little bit, right? So, starting off the day with some healthy exercise. It's definitely not a day to skip your exercise and it's definitely not a day to skip a meal, making sure that we're getting plenty of fluids and we can enjoy a meal. And when we sit down to the table and we're not ravenous, we don't need a trough. We're gonna feel satisfied. We're gonna be able to enjoy and savor the flavors, not wolf them down because we're starving.
Speaker 2:And to add to your plate method. I'm sorry, but, like the vegetables, a big thing that I like to tell folks is that salad dressing does not count as the vegetables. That sweet potato casserole I know sweet potatoes are starch but also a veggie you wanna be very mindful on what kind of vegetables you're eating. You don't want vegetables that are overly processed. Can vegetables have a lot of sodium? So if you're eating green beans on a Thanksgiving dinner, those green beans, although they are veggies, they have a lot of sodium. That salad, although it might have kale and carrots, it has a lot of dressing. So you wanna be mindful on what's in your veggies as well. Hopefully you're just eating fresh, fresh veggies Evening, because I know, because if not, you might be thinking you're eating very healthy and you're eating your sweet potato casserole as a veggie and you might be doing more harm to yourself than you think.
Speaker 1:You know that brings up really good, because I haven't really seen that before. But one of the things that I love is when people use the Healthy App and they're able to take a picture of their meal and jot down what their sugars are and you can take to your point. Take your salad, have it with a bunch of dressing on there and then check your blood sugar an hour or two after. Do the same thing with a naked salad. Then you'll definitely see the difference, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my 10 different salads, by the way. A little bit of salt and a lot of lime or lemon, or, if you wanna, add a little bit of vinegar too, like a vinaigrette typically does very well. Just a little salt. I know, especially with Kenny you're salt restricted. But a pinch of salt.
Speaker 1:I promise you has less sodium than the container of the salad dressing and you know the salt that we can see, we can control that, but it's the hidden, sneaky sources of salt that'll get you in the behind every time.
Speaker 3:And to add to that. You know salads. I've spoken to members who you know like oh yeah, I have a big salad in my dressing room like, well, what kind of dressing do you use? Oh, I use like the blue cheese. Well, I'm like, well, how much do you use? Like, well, I just put you know as much as I want because I'm eating a salad. It tastes good, so yeah, so it's like you're sort of the intention is good, but then you add all that dressing and it just dilutes the whole purpose, right and.
Speaker 1:I think that's where you know teaching folks to experiment, see for yourself what your body does with it. So you know. Definitely sometimes too, people when we have diabetes. You know, I know I had the pie. Why would I wanna check my blood sugars? I know they're gonna be bad.
Speaker 3:And that.
Speaker 1:To me that's like driving blindfolded it works great up until the time I hit a tree. And it does not hurt any less to hit the tree just cause I don't see it. It still hurts, right. So you know, really, I think it's so important. You know, if we're in this, develop a habit of checking our blood sugar before every single meal, you know, if you wanna be really diligent, you're gonna check your blood sugar before your meal and an hour or two. So in the States we usually go by two hours after meal. In Australia or other countries they go by one hour after meal. So depending on what you wanna do, one or two hours, I usually check it one hour. That's my favorite.
Speaker 1:But anyway, check your blood sugar before you eat, right down what you eat. Come the next meal, right down your blood sugar and that's gonna help you look back what did my body do with the meal before? And then you have your meal, you write down what you eat and come dinner time You're gonna check your blood sugar again and whatever it is, you're gonna say, huh, I wonder, how did the meal before? How did that impact the sugar? That I see now, when you do that for a couple of weeks. It is truly eye-opening, right. We've seen that happen with a lot of folks where, yeah, you got the salad, but gee, I wonder why your blood sugar was high. And then they try it again with less dressing and oh, we see members before.
Speaker 1:I still remember a guy who said gosh, I had no idea. Every time I have something with ketchup on it, my blood sugar goes. It must be something right. They don't have to look it up on a chart, they own it, and I think you know, really and truly, don't stop checking blood sugars during the holidays.
Speaker 1:Take the blame and the guilt off. It's like you're giving yourself the knowledge, the information that you need to make a decision, just like if I'm driving down the road and I'm blindfolded, I don't have the information I need to decide Do I need to turn right or left, or maybe I need to stop? But if my eyes are wide open, I can. I have all the information I need to make some decisions while I'm in the go or my. You know, if we check them, everyone's up. Well, I check my blood sugars a few times a week. Can you imagine driving down the road and only opening your eyes every third?
Speaker 3:block.
Speaker 2:Right, it's the same thing. That's like how I drive.
Speaker 1:Ah, or exercise One of my other favorite things Grab your sweetheart by the hand, go for an after dinner walk, isn't that right? Just get your steps in. Don't. Don't cheat on yourself. You'll feel so much better, right? I mean, haven't you had holidays where you did it? Right and you felt good yeah, hey, you've had other holidays where you don't do it right and you slug, you slug around holiday.
Speaker 2:It comes and goes and you spent the whole time in your pajamas, okay yeah, and just think that Jim's gonna be mostly empty when you go on a holiday, because a lot of people don't go. But if you're not going to go, you don't have to go.
Speaker 1:It's a determination for yourself. Yeah yeah, Absolutely yeah. So some of our favorite tips are we missing anything Any other?
Speaker 2:tips that we have to share.
Speaker 1:Um just drink your water, hydrate, hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Drink your water Absolutely Well. We hope everybody has a fantastic holiday. Holidays are a perfect holiday. You deserve to feel good and feel vibrant and you know, it's interesting too. We are where we are today because of the things that we did yesterday and the day before and the day before that, the things that we do without thinking.
Speaker 1:That's true, five years from now is coming, right Ten years from now is coming, and what that's gonna look like. What we're gonna do is we're gonna decide what we're choosing to do right now, today, and so if we didn't do it right yesterday, it's okay. You know that day's gone, but right now, today, we can choose to create a better tomorrow. Tomorrow can absolutely. If we're not happy with our life or health or finances, or a sex life or energy level, or whatever, we can choose right now, today to do something that we're gonna do next year, right Right, and don't be hard on yourself if.
Speaker 3:If you did something, you know that you're insupposed to today, tomorrow's another day. Yeah, I did a start, that's right Reset.
Speaker 2:I always say the morning is my reset button. If you've had a terrible day, absolutely, whether that's physically with food, emotionally whatever. Whatever trouble you're having, go to sleep wake up, reset, right.
Speaker 1:A new day, new day. Yeah, that's right. If you have a time given yourself permission, we'll call us right Now. Your nurse coach will absolutely give you that reset. There's no judgment here. Life is hard enough, and mastering ourselves, that is the ultimate challenge. Just figuring out what, what things do we need to do so we can be and enjoy our best selves, right? Yeah, well, ladies, until next month, have a great day.