One of The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine’s Fellows and Board Examiners Recognized in Aetna’s African American History Calendar

Cynthia Shelby-Lane, MD is featured in Aetna’s calendar celebrating African American physicians specializing in physical and alternative healing

For the past 32 years, Aetna has released a calendar featuring different African American doctors who excel in alternative medicine. The regenerative healing remedies in this year’s calendar include art therapy, yoga, aromatherapy, herbal remedies, meditation, Homeopathic remedies, and chiropractic medicine.

It took for Dr. Cynthia Shelby-Lane to battle through her own personal tragedy, in order to find out that laughter can be the perfect remedy. “Laughter is part of our human spirit. We need to laugh and be happy to heal ourselves,” she said in her profile on the Aetna calendar website. Shelby-Lane was grieving over the sudden loss of her best friend. She enrolled in the Second City Comedy School in Chicago where she became full time doctor, part time comedienne. She found that laughing really helped with all the pain and sadness she was feeling. “Two weeks after her funeral, I couldn’t stop crying. So I went to Ridley’s comedy club. I sat there laughing and crying, and realized that laughter truly is the best medicine,” she said.

As an emergency room and trauma doctor, Shelby-Lane looked towards integrative solutions in place of traditional medicine for healing the loss of her best friend. She began the fellowship program with The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine in 2007. The fellowship offered Dr. Shelby-Lane hands on clinical training to prevent age related diseases.

Shelby-Lane is featured as “Ms. Dr. April” in the calendar and graduated as an advanced fellow in 2010. She now serves as an oral examiner for A4M and continues to practice and educate on the importance of incorporating regenerative and functional medicine into one’s practice.

Cancer Patients Finding New Treatments are Just as Effective and Less Toxic than Traditional Methods

The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine supports new innovative cancer treatments that cause less harm to the body than chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, and other methods

 When we think of cancer treatments, the first thing that comes to mind may be chemotherapy, horrible side effects, and difficult survival. According to NaturalNews.com, based on a study conducted in Britain in 2004, with one in every four cancer deaths, chemotherapy had either sped up or caused the death of the patient. The study also found that two out of every five of the patients had acquired significant poisoning from the chemotherapy.

According to Aetna.com, over 1.4 million new cancer cases are diagnosed every year in the United States. With side effects and death rates from chemo being so extreme, medical experts have turned to other possible methods when threating cancer patients.

Mark Rosenberg MD. has a personal relationship to the disease that jump started vigorous research for a new treatment method. After his mother died from lung cancer, Rosenberg decided to dedicate his time and resources to finding healthier, more innovative methods of cancer treatment.

Rosenberg’s innovative treatments consist of immunotherapy, which stimulates the innate immune system. Glycolytic inhibitors prevent cancer cells from utilizing sugar within the body, and inhibit the release of tissue that destroys enzymes.

According to the Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M), “Traditional cancer treatment is efficacious for early stage cancer. Unfortunately, in the U.S., we have made little progress in the treatment of advanced stage cancers in the past twenty years. A study was published in the British journal, “Clinical Oncology,” in December, 2004, entitled, “The Contribution of Cytotoxic Chemotherapy to 5-Year Survival in Adult Malignancies.” The authors, one medical oncologist and two radiation oncologists, analyzed the results of all randomized clinical trials performed in the U.S. and Australia, that reported a statistically significant increase in 5-year survival due to the use of chemotherapy in adult malignancies. The trials that were analyzed were performed between 1990 and 2004. Overall survival benefit of less than 5% has been achieved in the adjuvant treatment of breast, colon, and head and neck cancers. Clearly, the need for an alternative form of cancer treatment is great and imminent.”

For over 70 years, chemotherapy has been used to treat cancer. According to an article written by Dr. Rosenberg, chemo adds two or three months onto the estimated survival time. While this method does extend the life expectancy when used in vitro, chemotherapy takes an aggressive toll on a patient’s internal organs while treated inside the body. Rosenberg developed several methods of new integrative treatment that he found has a more positive effect on the body’s overall well- being as opposed to chemotherapy and radiation.