Porter Hospital Presents Help Prevent Cancer Seminar with Dr. Vijaya Chapala

Porter Hospital Presents Help Prevent Cancer Seminar with Dr. Vijaya Chapala

Vijaya Chapala, M.D., recently joined Porter Physician Group and her impact on the community is already evident. 

“My passion is to make the community healthy and to reduce the cost and suffering of people from chronic diseases,” shared Dr. Chapala, a Board Certified Internal Medicine Physician with Portage Medical Group. “That is the reason I want to reach as many people as I can and as often as I can to make a difference.”

On Wednesday night, Dr. Chapala spoke to community members at Portage Hospital about cancer prevention.

“If your body is happy, your mind is happy. If your mind is happy, your body is happy. We must unify our body and mind,” Chapala explained.

With the number of Americans living with cancer expected to increase by 2024, Dr. Chapala believes that it is important to focus on the prevention of cancer and not just the treatment of it.Her presentation focused on simplifying the pathophysiology of cancer, often using analogies to make the disease more understandable. For example, the spreading of cancer through the blood was compared to contamination traveling along a river.

Following the presentation, Cathy Haworth said, “I wanted to learn a little bit about cancer and staying healthy. I thought it was really great the way Dr. Chapala broke things down and had different points.”

Dr. Chapala also explained the many triggers of cancer, including a highly acidic cell environment, overwhelming inflammation, toxic substances, and poor immunity. All of these triggers lead to a depleted ability to repair cell damage.

“Every part of our life is bathing in toxic substances. We have to live in a toxic world so we have to see how to protect ourselves,” she said.

Following the ayurvedic perspective, which originated from India and promotes the use of herbs and specialty diets, Dr. Chapala said that cancer prevention is a balancing act. "Through a change in diet and an increase in exercise, we can take some of the necessary steps to reduce our chance of cancer without taking any sort of medication."

She also stressed the importance of Hatha yoga and Pranayam yoga.

For more information about Porter Physician Group, call 1-800-PPG-DOCS, or visit PorterPhysicianGroup.com.

To learn more about upcoming events at Porter, visit PorterHealth.com.