I'm happy to be promoting good nutrition as a step toward wellness for people with cancer.

Although my experience in medicine began with acquiring skills necessary to nurture and heal people in need, over time I've realized an increasing need to empower patients with knowledge. Knowledge helps patients work through some of the overwhelming emotions experienced when given a diagnosis of cancer. Allowing people to proactively manage aspects of their treatment can help them alleviate these feelings of shock and helplessness, and move forward in facing the challenges ahead. This blog will be dedicated to the benefits of nutrition in cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and recovery.

Questions are welcome and answers will be directed toward educating patients about a general issue in a future blog, or occasionally providing information and resources prior to a visit with a personal physician. This blog cannot be used for individual consultation.

Amy Thomas, MD., is on staff in the Department of Emergency Medicine at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital in Saint Louis, Missouri and currently serves as an editor for Health Day. Her interests in medicine include nutrition, obesity, wellness, emergency medicine, imaging, Child Health, and Women's Health.

Dr. Thomas graduated magna cum laude from the medical school of the University of Missouri, Columbia. In 2000, Dr. Thomas was selected for membership in Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society. Her post-graduate training includes radiology at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University Saint Louis, and pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego, where she was Chief Resident in Pediatrics.

Dr. Thomas' medical writing experience includes consulting for Haines Medical Communications, Inc. and Nutrition Analyst, LLC; content editing for the Physician's Briefing section of Health Day News; and case writing for medical students at the University of Missouri, Columbia School of Medicine. She is also an author of several research publications on a number of topics, including pediatric critical care, dermatology, and neurosurgery.

In the service sector, she has volunteered for Child Health Advocacy Medical Program; Head Start; Cole County Free Clinic; and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).