WELLNESS AND QUALITY OF LIFE
Wellness can be dehned as an overall feeling of well-being due to a healthy balance of mind, body, and spirit. How one perceives his or her well-being, or lack thereof, is called quality of life. The following section describes various evidence-based options to improve health, wellness, and components of one’s quality of life.
Natural Products
While it is true that many people cannot afford to pay more for quality food, many more of us can. Per Michael Pollan,10 . .just in the last decade or two we’ve somehow found ... spending more for better food is less a matter of ability than priority.” Additionally, female sex, ethnicity, low income, and limited education contribute to nutritional inadequacy.11 Furthermore, there are several other barriers to eating appropriate foods and supplements to support health and well-being: lack of sense of urgency, social and cultural symbolism, poor taste, and lack of information.12
Dietary Supplements and Nutritional Therapies
28.2.1.1.1 Probiotics
A double-blind randomized study of colorectal cancer survivors 56.18 ± 0.86 years old were supplemented probiotics twice daily for 12 weeks with a signihcant improvement in irritable bowel symptoms, fatigue- and colorectal cancer-related quality of life, and functional well-being scores.13
28.2.1.1.2 Eicosapentaenoic Acid
Nutritional interventions have shown increased subjective energy and less fatigue, but not improvement in quality of life or prognosis in nonsmall-cell lung cancer patients. A randomized prospective trial on supplementation with eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) in 46 patients with advanced nonsmallcell lung cancer on paclitaxel and cisplatin/carboplatin treatment showed that patients receiving the supplement gained lean body mass, as well as had decreases in fatigue, loss of appetite, and neuropathy.14 However, there were no differences noted in response rate or overall survival, as compared to the control group.
