Supporting clients with a cancer diagnosis
I am now qualified to support clients with a new or suspected diagnosis of cancer. My regulatory body, the British Association for Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine (BANT), requires registered nutritional therapists to undergo additional training in order to work with clients with a new or suspected diagnosis of cancer to ensure safe and effective advice is provided.
I was inspired to accept the challenge of this specialist education by the idea that if I could understand the ways in which diet, lifestyle factors and carefully chosen supplements can support people with active cancer safely, perhaps I could work backwards and use the research and my clinical experience to make the development of cancer less likely in my clients. I have been so impressed by the variety of ways in which diet and lifestyle factors can have a beneficial impact on the lived experience during treatment and the risk of recurrence of cancer that I hope this work will also become a significant part of my practice. There is such potential here to make a positive impact on people’s lives through careful, thorough, personalised approaches to health.
It is important to be clear that our work together is not an alternative to medical treatment. I will only offer to work with clients who accept medical care and are happy for me to liaise with their medical team to keep them informed of our work. This collaborative approach increases the likelihood of better outcomes.
The value of nutritional therapy in cancer
The research is clear that metabolic health impacts the risk of developing cancer and response to treatment.
What is metabolic health and how do you know if you have it?
Whilst there is no universally accepted definition of metabolic health, you can feel if you are metabolically healthy:
you wake up refreshed after a night’s sleep
you have consistent, satisfactory energy levels throughout the day
you have good circulation
you have reliable brain function
you have reliable bowel movements (no diarrhoea, no constipation).
If you are metabolically healthy, there will be:
no concerns about your blood sugar levels, your blood pressure, the fat around your liver or the weight around your middle,
no elevation of inflammatory markers on your blood panel (ESR, CRP, ferritin).
If you don’t feel that you are in the best metabolic health, do not panic. This is truly where nutritional therapy shines. As part of my comprehensive assessment of new clients, I ask them to complete a Metabolic Assessment Form. It is a quick and easy process - you are invited to rate signs and symptoms associated with 14 different areas of metabolic health. The rating system is simple - is this something that never happens to you (0) through to something that always happens (3). I put the answers together with blood test results and we start tackling the areas of concern. I will then invite my clients to fill in the same form again in order to ensure that we are doing enough to reduce the frequency of concerning symptoms. You are very welcome to email me at hello@midlifemanagement.com if you would like to see the Metabolic Assessment Form.
By way of illustration, here are examples of the impact of metabolic health on breast cancer.
Metabolic health & breast cancer
Research suggests that a diagnosis of diabetes is associated with increased risk of, and inferior prognosis of, breast cancer (see, for example, Xiong et. al. (2024) “Diabetes and incidence of breast cancer and its molecular subtypes: a systematic review and meta-analysis”, Diabetes Metabolism Research & Reviews, 40(1) e3709)).
One of the diagnostic markers for diabetes is called HbA1c. You may have seen this on the bloods which your GP has run for you. HbA1c of 48mmol/mol or above is the threshold used to diagnose diabetes in the NHS. Levels of HbA1c below this threshold - at 39mmol/mol or above - are also relevant to breast cancer. A recent paper reported that for women with primary breast cancer and no known diagnosis of diabetes, higher levels of HbA1c [39 or above] were associated with an increased risk of new breast cancer events, but not all-cause mortality (Holm et. al. (2025) “HbA1C and breast cancer prognosis in women without diabetes”, BMC Cancer, 25(790)).
The research also suggests that high blood glucose levels impair responsiveness to tamoxifen (Ambrosio et. al. (2017) “Glucose impairs tamoxifen responsiveness modulating connective tissue growth factor in breast cancer cells”, Oncotarget, 8(65):109000–109017).
Again, please do not panic. This research is empowering - there are many nutritional therapy tools which can be deployed to support blood glucose control and thereby impact risk and prognosis.
Concluding thoughts
To quote one of my heros, Dawn Waldron, who has devoted her life to identifying the ways in which nutrition and lifestyle factors can influence cancer outcomes: “the path to cancer is a complex interaction of genetic and metabolic factors…but there is a mass of evidence for diet and lifestyle in improving cancer outcomes”. My mission is to empower, support and guide you to better health.
If you are interested in working with me, you are very welcome to book a free 20 minute strategy call using the button below.
