Creating a Healing Environment

Making changes in your environment

Creating a healing environment invites a four-pronged approach: 

1. Creating a personal sanctuary—a place that feels safe, calm, and healing for you.
2. Adjusting your living space to be safe, especially if you’re experiencing debilitating side effects.
3. Increasing beneficial exposures such as nature and bright light during the day (but not bright light before bedtime).
4. Minimizing potentially harmful exposures including chemical pollutants and radiation. 

We provide a few suggestions for making the last three a part of your daily habits.

For a summary of the evidence connecting these exposures to cancer, see How can Creating a Healing Environment help me? What the research says ›

Home comfort and safety

As Michael Lerner says in his letter introducing this topic, “Creating a sense of healing or sacred space depends deeply on what you find healing.”

• What makes a space feel healing for me? Darkness or light? Quiet or soft sounds? Solitude or loved ones? Stillness or activity? Indoors or outdoors?
• Where do I find that my breath deepens, I relax, and I allow the flow of life energy to move through me?

Your living spaces also need to be physically safe for you. As a result of cancer or treatments, you may have impaired balance, vision, or hearing. You may have lost a body part or suffered nerve damage that can affect your mobility and physical function. You may experience weakness or disability. You may need to adjust your home environment to make it safer for you.

Safety precautions include installing handrails in the bathroom or along stairs, removing throw rugs that can slip, adding extra lighting, and checking water temperature with your elbow instead of your hands to prevent burns.¹Cancer.Net. Nervous System Side Effects. American Society of Clinical Oncology. February 2018. Viewed May 4, 2022. Ask your oncology team if you need any further safety adjustments at home.

Your exposure to nature

Your exposures to light and other radiation

Bright light

Bright light during daytime hours comes naturally from the sun. Light from sources such as indoor lighting can also produce a similar light spectrum. Although bright light in daytime can improve sleep-wake rhythms, bright light—and especially blue-spectrum light—in the evening can interfere with your natural melatonin production. Higher concentrations of melatonin promote sleep, so bright light should be limited before sleep time.

• Can I increase my exposure to bright light in the morning? 
• Can I avoid screen time for at least 30 minutes before bed? 
• Can I reduce my exposure to white or blue artificial light in the evening, choosing more yellow light? 
• If I work at night and must sleep during daylight, can I make my bedroom as dark as possible, ideally not being able to see across the room, even after adjusting to the dark? 

Ionizing radiation

Sources of ionizing radiation include heat or light from the sun, medical diagnostic scans such as x-rays and CT scans, and gamma rays from radioactive elements. By 2006, almost half of the typical American exposure to ionizing radiation had come from medical imaging, such as x-rays and especially from computed tomography (CT) scans.²Laffall LD, Kripke ML. Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk: What We Can Do Now. President’s Cancer Panel. 2010.

• Can I limit my time in the sun, especially at midday?
• Can I limit or eliminate indoor tanning?
• Can I find out if my house has high amounts of radon and how to address it?
• Can I verify that any medical imaging is necessary, and ask to protect my thyroid during imaging?

Your exposures to chemicals and other substances

We focus on the chemicals and substances with the strongest connection to cancer and which you’re most likely to be exposed to at home.

Air pollution

Outdoor air pollution comes to mind when many people think of air pollution, and without a doubt air toxicants from vehicles, industry, burning, and mining create an unhealthy environment. However, indoor air in many buildings is also likely to contain particulates in harmful concentrations.

Making lifestyle choices to reduce particulates in indoor air:

• If anyone in my household smokes cigarettes or vapes, can we all agree that they do it outside?  
• Can I avoid burning candles and incense? 
• If I use gas or wood stoves, furnaces, fireplaces, or space heaters, can I make sure they are adequately vented and maintained? 
• Can I open my windows more frequently, especially when cleaning or doing any home repair work such as painting, installing carpeting, or staining wood? 
• If the outdoor air in my neighborhood isn’t clean, or if I’m not able to ventilate adequately using windows or fans, can I consider getting an air purifier?

Arsenic

The main source of arsenic exposures is through drinking water. 

• Can I find out from my water utility if my community’s water is naturally high in arsenic? 
• Can I filter water to remove arsenic if the levels are high?

Asbestos

The main source of asbestos exposures is through insulation in building materials, especially paint, insulation, and floor tiles in older houses.

• Can I find out if asbestos is in my home or workplace?
• Can I have asbestos-containing materials removed?
• Can I hire out any remodeling work to professionals qualified to work with asbestos?

Benzene

The major sources of benzene exposure are tobacco smoke, automobile service stations, exhaust from motor vehicles, and industrial emissions. Forest fires also produce benzene. 

• Can I remove sources of smoke from inside my home?
• Can I reduce my time in auto exhaust and near gas pumps?

Bisphenol A (BPA)

Bisphenol A, or BPA, is a synthetic chemical used in plastics and resins and added to many everyday items, including cash register receipts. Most exposure comes from eating food or drinking water stored in containers that have BPA.

• Do my food containers contain BPA? 
• How can I reduce the amount of food I eat from BPA containers?

Dioxins

Dioxins occur in nature but are also created by human processes. They accumulate in animal fats, including in animal-derived foods high in fat.

• Can I cut away excess fat from meats before cooking?
• Can I reduce the amount of animal fat I eat in meats—including poultry and fatty fish—and dairy products?

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs)

You can be exposed to EDCs through water, air, food, consumer products, or contaminated soil.

• Can I find out if my personal-care products or cleaners contain endocrine-disrupting chemicals?
• Can I reduce my use of plastic food containers?
• Can I reduce my use of fragrances, both in cosmetics and in other products such as air fresheners, candles, laundry supplies, and cleaners?

Formaldehyde

Formaldehyde is used in building materials and in many cosmetic products as a preservative. Formaldehyde is also produced when smoking tobacco or using unvented fuel-burning appliances such as gas stoves or kerosene space heaters. 

• Can I reduce tobacco smoking in my home?
• Can I increase the ventilation in my home to prevent formaldehyde from building up?

Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)

PFAS are manufactured chemicals used widely in non-stick cookware, stain-resistant fabrics, and fire-fighting foams. 

• Can I cut down on buying foods in packages containing PFAS, such as microwave popcorn and fast-food wrappers?
• Can I avoid buying fabrics, including clothing, upholstered furniture, and carpeting, that are treated to be stain-resistant?
• Do I know if my water supply is contaminated?

Pesticides

The most common exposures at home are through chemical treatments in homes and on lawns.

• Can I try to avoid pest problems in my home by removing entry points and sources of food and water? 
• Can I try non-chemical or less-toxic remedies for any pests in or around my home? 
• Can everyone entering my home remove shoes before entering to reduce pesticides that are tracked in from outdoors?

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are toxic substances formed during combustion, including burning tobacco and when smoking or grilling meat.

• Can I avoid cooking food at very high temperatures and avoid contacting foods to open flames when cooking?
• Can I avoid using an open fireplace or an inefficient wood stove? Can I reduce the amount of smoke produced in my fireplace, wood stove, or other fire by managing fuel and oxygen flow?
• Can I minimize my exposure to car exhaust?

Viruses and bacteria

Even though some types of cancer are caused by viruses or bacteria, in general most infected people will not develop a cancer related to the infection.³The American Cancer Society medical and editorial content team. Viruses that can lead to cancer. American Cancer Society. March 31, 2022. Viewed April 11, 2022. Some of the cancer-causing (oncogenic) viruses and bacteria are avoidable or treatable.

As the world was reminded during the COVID-19 pandemic, viruses can spread easily from one person to another. Many oncogenic viruses reside in the skin or body fluids of an infected person. Viruses can be spread by coughing, sneezing, touching, or even sharing drinking or eating utensils. Unprotected sexual contact, such as without a condom, is another frequent exposure route.

Steps you can take to reduce your risk of infection:⁴The American Cancer Society medical and editorial content team. Viruses that can lead to cancer. American Cancer Society. March 31, 2022. Viewed April 11, 2022; Blackburn K. 7 viruses that cause cancer. MD Anderson Cancer Center. August 2018. Viewed April 11, 2022.

• Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination for persons under age 26, and preferably between ages 9 and 12
• Stop contact with body fluids of others, such as unprotected sexual contact or sharing eating utensils or hypodermic needles

If you are infected, steps you can take to reduce your risk of infecting others:⁵The American Cancer Society medical and editorial content team. Viruses that can lead to cancer. American Cancer Society. March 31, 2022. Viewed April 11, 2022; Blackburn K. 7 viruses that cause cancer. MD Anderson Cancer Center. August 2018. Viewed April 11, 2022.

• Hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination for all children, for adults up to age 59, and older adults at risk of HBV exposure
• Screening for hepatitis C virus (HCV); because most people infected with HCV aren’t aware that they’re infected, the  US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all people 18 years of age or older get tested for HCV at least once, and that some groups of people get tested more often. 
• Treat known infections if possible; hepatitis C is highly treatable, for example, and eradication therapy for Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) not only reduces spread but can reduce incidence and mortality from stomach cancer among treated people⁶Ford AC, Yuan Y, Moayyedi P. Helicobacter pylori eradication therapy to prevent gastric cancer: systematic review and meta-analysis. Gut. 2020 Dec;69(12):2113-2121.
• Stop contact with body fluids of others, such as unprotected sexual contact or sharing eating utensils or hypodermic needles

Resources

Continue exploring