cancer -alternative therapies?
 

A very close relative has been diagnosed with cancer and basically told its incurable and has spread-ruffly given a year to live -thats with chemo and radiation.Ive heard many stories of people given 6 months to live and going to somewhere like mexico for alternative therapies ie-diets,IV etc and then lasting 5-6 yrs.Of course until it happens to someone close to you -u never really pay attention.I am wondering if anyone has any expeience with any alternative cancer therapies (non chemo/radiation)and or can recommend any clinics.With all the scammers out there its a tough situation.But when you are in dire need you'll try anything.

thanks

Re: cancer -alternative therapies?
 

from what I've heard you have to totally change your lifestyle and diet as a prerequisite for any of the alt thera;pies, and most poeple are unable to do so.

Re: cancer -alternative therapies?
 

I have some close family experience with this. The alternative treatments are basically bogus. There is no huge conspiracy going on by the drug companies to keep legitimate treatment out of the hands of normal people. Sorry. Cancer treatment is anything but an exact science, and even the best doctors are mostly guessing at what will work.

If I were given only a year to live and had to have chemo and radiation, I would rather die within a month than deal with the side effects of those treatments.

Re: cancer -alternative therapies?
 

[ QUOTE ]
A very close relative has been diagnosed with cancer and basically told its incurable and has spread-ruffly given a year to live -thats with chemo and radiation.Ive heard many stories of people given 6 months to live and going to somewhere like mexico for alternative therapies ie-diets,IV etc and then lasting 5-6 yrs.Of course until it happens to someone close to you -u never really pay attention.I am wondering if anyone has any expeience with any alternative cancer therapies (non chemo/radiation)and or can recommend any clinics.With all the scammers out there its a tough situation.But when you are in dire need you'll try anything.

thanks

[/ QUOTE ]

don't be fooled by the alternative therapies. cancer has nothing to you with your body's pH or how much calcium you get. i would shoot kevin trudeau in the face with a shotgun without blinking.

chemo + radiation is the best bet for your loved one to live the longest, most normal life they can. maybe they'll live 2 years. enjoy it while you can.

Re: cancer -alternative therapies?
 

[ QUOTE ]
If I were given only a year to live and had to have chemo and radiation, I would rather die within a month than deal with the side effects of those treatments.

[/ QUOTE ]

i don't think so. my dad was in pretty much the same situation as op, and chemo and radiation kept him alive 18 months, and all but maybe 2-3 months of that he was in pretty good shape. obviously the chemo is a grind, but his quality of life was remarkably good really.

btw op, what type of cancer. my dad died of pancreatic cancer a couple years ago beginning from a similar prognosis, i can probably answer any other questions you might have.

Re: cancer -alternative therapies?
 

kevin,

That is my stance on it. Of course there are many variables involved. My family has had very adverse reactions to chemo and radiation.

Re: cancer -alternative therapies?
 

I watched both of my parents die of cancer.

Maybe they can fix it in Mexico. I honestly don't know.

I do wish you all the best.

Re: cancer -alternative therapies?
 

the cancer is in the esophagus and has spread to some lymphnodes.

Re: cancer -alternative therapies?
 

[ QUOTE ]
kevin,

That is my stance on it. Of course there are many variables involved. My family has had very adverse reactions to chemo and radiation.

[/ QUOTE ]

sorry if i came off as authoritative on it. of course, everyone reacts differently to different things. I just commented because i think a lot of people have the perception that chemo is all evil and not worth doing, but in my experience it was a very positive thing.

Re: cancer -alternative therapies?
 

some info, guy has good info but like I said he states clearly that most people can't make the radical dietary changes necessary. like way most. also his wife had/has cancer so maybe he knows what he's talking about.

http://georgegordon.org/Radio_Archives.htm#Archives

[ QUOTE ]
3 - Broadband - Dial -up -- The Essiac Report - Part 1 of 7

4 - Broadband - Dial -up -- The Essiac Report - Part 2 of 7

5 - Broadband - Dial -up -- The Essiac Report - Part 3 of 7

6 - Broadband - Dial -up -- The Essiac Report - Part 4 of 7

7 - Broadband - Dial -up -- The Essiac Report - Part 5 of 7

8 - Broadband - Dial -up -- The Essiac Report - Part 6 of 7

9 - Broadband - Dial -up -- The Essiac Report - Part 7 of 7

[/ QUOTE ]

Re: cancer -alternative therapies?
 

[ QUOTE ]
he states clearly that most people can't make the radical dietary changes necessary.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, of course not. It's a vacuously true statement.

[ QUOTE ]
The alternative treatments are basically bogus.

[/ QUOTE ]

Re: cancer -alternative therapies?
 

[ QUOTE ]
from what I've heard you have to totally change your lifestyle and diet as a prerequisite for any of the alt thera;pies, and most poeple are unable to do so.

[/ QUOTE ]

Right, so that way, when the alternative therapy fails, it is the patient's fault for not following the diet.

OP, sorry about the whole situation, but sadly, esophageal cancer that has spread is not curable. Like others have said, chemo and RT offer the best chance for prolonging life, and hopefully for controlling symptoms. The therapies are lousy and have a ton of side effects. My best advice is to go through the options with the oncologist and decide whether the possible benefits of treatment outweigh the negatives. There are no good choices and anyone who is offering up an easy cure is just selling snake oil.

Oh, and if there's a line, I'll be next to blast Kevin Trudeau in the face with a shotgun.

Re: cancer -alternative therapies?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Right, so that way, when the alternative therapy fails, it is the patient's fault for not following the diet.

[/ QUOTE ]

actually the OP best bet is to go to a naturpath for his cures and an M.D. for his cures, and then do a cost/benefit analysis.

Re: cancer -alternative therapies?
 

fwiw I've heard that naturpaths are licensed in oregon, not sure abouut other states.

Re: cancer -alternative therapies?
 

To the people who say alternative therapies are bogus, well that's a poor argument. I have access to thousands of peer reviewed studies that prove the opposite.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez/ Look for studies here.


Supplement wise, high dose vitamin d3(or a lot of sunlight), and if hes doing chemotherapy, Theanine. If I had cancer this is what I would do.

"There are also more than a dozen reports in the scientific literature which show a clear benefit of theanine in fighting various forms of experimental cancer. In many of these studies, theanine has been shown to enhance the anti-tumor activity of some cancer drugs such as pirarubicin, doxorubicin and adriamycin. It appears that theanine slows the ability of the tumor cells to eject the cancer drugs - so combination therapy with the chemotherapy agent plus theanine seems to maintain high levels of the drug in the tumor cells and both slow their growth and accelerate their death."

I would probably start consuming green tea and other antioxidant/anticancer foods by the handful.

If he's depressed or has anxiety, which is common for people with terminal diseases, something like rhodiola rosea, ashwagandha, lithium orotate, and/or high dose Taurine would be good.

If there is a will, there is a way. Don't give up, ever.

Re: cancer -alternative therapies?
 

I couldn't get into the link you're giving, but the one I have here puts D3 thusly:
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind.asp#h6

[ QUOTE ]
Laboratory, animal, and epidemiologic evidence suggests that vitamin D may be protective against some cancers. Epidemiologic studies suggest that a higher dietary intake of calcium and vitamin D, and/or sunlight-induced vitamin D synthesis, correlates with lower incidence of cancer [44-51].
[...]
Additional well-designed clinical trials need to be conducted to determine whether vitamin D deficiency increases cancer risk, or if an increased intake of vitamin D is protective against some cancers. Until such trials are conducted, it is premature to advise anyone to take vitamin D supplements for cancer prevention.

[/ QUOTE ]

Meanwhile, the more optimistic sites generally ping my quackery meter--the claims they make are absolutely beyond belief. What I'm seeing is that D3 might have some preventative value, but that's not what OP is looking for. Same goes for antioxidants--they've got preventative value, but I don't see it as a treatment.

That said, I agree with

[ QUOTE ]
If there is a will, there is a way. Don't give up, ever.

[/ QUOTE ]

because cancer predictions are so often wrong. Each case is different and pinning down how much of a chance someone has or how much time they have is, as mentioned, an inexact science.

Re: cancer -alternative therapies?
 

Vitamin D is extremely important to health. It's a 7 dollar supplement. It's free if you spend time outdoors.

It definitely has preventative value, and it probably has value when someone has cancer as well since it regulates the immune system and can turn genes on and off.

"In 1999, researchers in Israel, found that calcitriol(vit D) levels were twice as high in patients with less aggressive colon cancer but were quite low in those with advanced metastatic disease. They concluded that higher calcitriol levels may prevent further transformation of the cells or may induce cell differentiation, growth inhibition or apoptosis (normal cell death)."

So in colon cancer, higher vitamin d levels equated to slower cancer growth. Does this mean it will have the same effect in other cancers? Maybe not, but I think it's worth a shot, dont you?

Re: cancer -alternative therapies?
 

Further, vitamin D acts as an anti-depressant by increasing tyrosine hydroxylase which is the enzyme that increases conversion of amino acids into neurotransmitters.

Re: cancer -alternative therapies?
 

ginko, linking pubmed is useless. link a study. how you've been talking so far has been purely correlational, you're not describing studies showing that these things actually affect cancer.

Re: cancer -alternative therapies?
 

[ QUOTE ]
So in colon cancer, higher vitamin d levels equated to slower cancer growth. Does this mean it will have the same effect in other cancers? Maybe not, but I think it's worth a shot, dont you?

[/ QUOTE ]

if you've got a year to live you don't really have the luxury of self doctoring. you need to find an expert. seems to me 2 choices, m.d.(allopath) or naturpath. i know naturpaths are licensed in some states, not sure about cancer treatments though.

also something to consider, although it is distasteful, is the monetary cost.

I mean, basically the m.d.'s are telling him , hey, we can't cure you, but we can treat you for 1 year (then die), for a cost of X.

depending on his health insurance, X could be anywhere from 0 to everything he's got I suppose.

if the cost is high he may as well figure that he can just live 6-12 months with no treatment, die, and give the money to his family instead. farmer logic I suppose.

Re: cancer -alternative therapies?
 

zomg lifetilt, finally made my response sound good and lost it. anyway, my previous post sucks, ignore it.


ginko, the vast majority of alternative medicines are totally bogus and have been proven as such, making your first statement totally misleading and false.

secondly, while it seems as though for example theanine has been proven to increase the effectiveness of that chemotherapeutic agent, your talking about vitamin d is purely speculation. Basically what you're saying is that if you look through papers and find stuff that has not yet been thoroughly studied, you can make educated guesses that some of it might help you. more power to you i suppose, its better than taking medicine that's already been shown to have no effect, but you should phrase what you say as pure conjecture, rather than implying it is fact, which your authoritative tone set at the beginning of your posts has done.

Re: cancer -alternative therapies?
 

I never claimed vitamin D was a cure for cancer. I did quote an article that was talking about a study that showed a link between blood levels of calcitriol and progression of cancer.

You don't find it interesting that they report lower levels of blood vitamin D correlated with increased spreading of tumors?

If vitamin D can slow or stop the spreading of tumors in colon cancer(they concluded it might), don't you think it might prove useful for other forms of cancer?

I mean, what else are you expecting from me or anyone else? If there was a supplement or drug that cured cancer, we wouldn't even be having this conversation.

We need to be making educated guesses when we have no other options, especially when there is no downside to the "treatment" in question.

Vitamin D is paramount to health, more so than you realize. We should all be supplementing with a couple thousand IU's of vitamin D daily if we aren't getting sunlight(which studies show we aren't, glass and pollution block UV-B which is what our skin converts to vitamin D).

-------------------------------------------------------

"Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 Jul;84(1):18-28. Links
Estimation of optimal serum concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D for
multiple health outcomes.Bischoff-Ferrari HA, Giovannucci E, Willett
WC, Dietrich T, Dawson-Hughes B.
Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA.

Recent evidence suggests that vitamin D intakes above current
recommendations may be associated with better health outcomes. However,
optimal serum concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] have not
been defined. This review summarizes evidence from studies that
evaluated thresholds for serum 25(OH)D concentrations in relation to
bone mineral density (BMD), lower-extremity function, dental health,
and risk of falls, fractures, and colorectal cancer. For all endpoints,
the most advantageous serum concentrations of 25(OH)D begin at 75
nmol/L (30 ng/mL), and the best are between 90 and 100 nmol/L (36-40
ng/mL). In most persons, these concentrations could not be reached with
the currently recommended intakes of 200 and 600 IU vitamin D/d for
younger and older adults, respectively. A comparison of vitamin D
intakes with achieved serum concentrations of 25(OH)D for the purpose
of estimating optimal intakes led us to suggest that, for bone health
in younger adults and all studied outcomes in older adults, an increase
in the currently recommended intake of vitamin D is warranted. An
intake for all adults of >/=1000 IU (40 mug) vitamin D
(cholecalciferol)/d is needed to bring vitamin D concentrations in no
less than 50% of the population up to 75 nmol/L. The implications of
higher doses for the entire adult population should be addressed in
future studies.

PMID: 16825677 [PubMed - in process]"


"Med Hypotheses. 2006 Dec 2

Vitamin D toxicity redefined: Vitamin K and the molecular mechanism.

Masterjohn C.
Weston A. Price Foundation, 4200 Wisconsin Ave., NW, Washington DC 20016, United States.

The dose of vitamin D that some researchers recommend as optimally therapeutic exceeds that officially recognized as safe by a factor of two; it is therefore important to determine the precise mechanism by which excessive doses of vitamin D exert toxicity so that physicians and other health care practitioners may understand how to use optimally therapeutic doses of this vitamin without the risk of adverse effects. Although the toxicity of vitamin D has conventionally been attributed to its induction of hypercalcemia, animal studies show that the toxic endpoints observed in response to hypervitaminosis D such as anorexia, lethargy, growth retardation, bone resorption, soft tissue calcification, and death can be dissociated from the hypercalcemia that usually accompanies them, demanding that an alternative explanation for the mechanism of vitamin D toxicity be developed. The hypothesis presented in this paper proposes the novel understanding that vitamin D exerts toxicity by inducing a deficiency of vitamin K. According to this model, vitamin D increases the expression of proteins whose activation depends on vitamin K-mediated carboxylation; as the demand for carboxylation increases, the pool of vitamin K is depleted. Since vitamin K is essential to the nervous system and plays important roles in protecting against bone loss and calcification of the peripheral soft tissues, its deficiency results in the symptoms associated with hypervitaminosis D. This hypothesis is circumstantially supported by the observation that animals deficient in vitamin K or vitamin K-dependent proteins exhibit remarkable similarities to animals fed toxic doses of vitamin D, and the observation that vitamin D and the vitamin K-inhibitor Warfarin have similar toxicity profiles and exert toxicity synergistically when combined. The hypothesis further proposes that vitamin A protects against the toxicity of vitamin D by decreasing the expression of vitamin K-dependent proteins and thereby exerting a vitamin K-sparing effect. If animal experiments can confirm this hypothesis, the models by which the maximum safe dose is determined would need to be revised. Physicians and other health care practitioners would be able to treat patients with doses of vitamin D that possess greater therapeutic value than those currently being used while avoiding the risk of adverse effects by administering vitamin D together with vitamins A and K.

PMID: 17145139 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]"

Re: cancer -alternative therapies?
 

Ashwagandha is an herb with many scientifically proven benefits..

"In addition to ashwagandha’s documented neuroprotective effects, exciting recent evidence suggests that it also has the potential to stop cancer cells in their tracks. For example, a recent analysis showed that ashwagandha extract inhibited the growth of human breast, lung, and colon cancer cell lines in the laboratory. This inhibition was comparable to that achieved with the common cancer chemotherapy drug doxorubicin (Caelyx®, Myocet®). In fact, researchers reported that withaferin A, a specific compound extracted from ashwagandha, was more effective than doxorubicin in inhibiting breast and colon cancer cell growth.11,14

Scientists in India recently conducted cell studies showing that ashwagandha extract disrupts cancer cells’ ability to reproduce—a key step in fighting cancer. Additionally, laboratory analysis indicates that ashwagandha extract possesses anti-angiogenic activity, also known as the ability to prevent cancer from forming new blood vessels to support its unbridled growth. These findings lend further support to ashwagandha’s potential role in fighting cancer.15 Based on these studies, research in this area continues.

In another study, orally administered ashwagandha extract significantly inhibited experimentally induced stomach cancer in laboratory animals. Tumor incidence was reduced by 60% and tumor multiplicity (number) by 92%. Similarly, in a rodent model of skin cancer, ashwagandha inhibited tumor incidence and multiplicity by 45% and 71%, respectively.16 Ashwagandha’s protective effect against skin cancer has been shown in other studies as well.17

A recent experiment demonstrated that ashwagandha extract produced a marked increase in life span and a decrease in tumor weight in animals with experimentally induced cancer of the lymphatic system.18 This is an exciting finding, suggesting that ashwagandha could enhance survival in individuals with cancer."

"Ashwagandha extract may also have applications as an adjunct to cancer chemotherapy treatment. One of the consequences of chemotherapy is neutropenia, a decrease in white blood cells called neutrophils that can leave patients dangerously vulnerable to infection. A study of animals demonstrated that orally administered ashwagandha extract protected against this decline in infection-fighting neutrophils. While further human studies are needed, these findings suggest that ashwagandha may be an excellent adjunctive therapy to chemotherapy.19

Another animal study investigated ashwagandha extract’s effects in normalizing the immune-suppressing effects of chemotherapy. When test animals received a common chemotherapy drug, levels of the desirable immune factors interferon-gamma and interleukin-2 decreased.

When the animals also received orally administered ashwagandha extract, however, their immune system parameters remained normal. These findings add support to the idea that ashwagandha may help protect immune function during chemotherapy treatment.20"

-----------------------------------------------

"PURPOSE: Ashwagandha is regarded as a wonder shrub of India and is commonly used in Ayurvedic medicine and health tonics that claim its variety of health-promoting effects. Surprisingly, these claims are not well supported by adequate studies, and the molecular mechanisms of its action remain largely unexplored to date. We undertook a study to identify and characterize the antitumor activity of the leaf extract of ashwagandha. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Selective tumor-inhibitory activity of the leaf extract (i-Extract) was identified by in vivo tumor formation assays in nude mice and by in vitro growth assays of normal and human transformed cells. To investigate the cellular targets of i-Extract, we adopted a gene silencing approach using a selected small hairpin RNA library and found that p53 is required for the killing activity of i-Extract. RESULTS: By molecular analysis of p53 function in normal and a variety of tumor cells, we found that it is selectively activated in tumor cells, causing either their growth arrest or apoptosis. By fractionation, purification, and structural analysis of the i-Extract constituents, we have identified its p53-activating tumor-inhibiting factor as with a none. CONCLUSION: We provide the first molecular evidence that the leaf extract of ashwagandha selectively kills tumor cells and, thus, is a natural source for safe anticancer medicine.

PMID: 17404115 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]"

Re: cancer -alternative therapies?
 

lol. ok, my only problem is with your tone. you first started talking by making the blanket and totally incorrect statement that alternative medicine is not full of bs, then you proceed to say you have thousands of studies as proof, when in reality the studies you provide only suggest a possible benefit and the proof is just you guessing. yea, this is the best thing we have so far if you're desparate, but this isn't really alternative medicine (as most people think of it, i'd consider it more experimental medicine) and there is definitely not real proof of effectiveness as you claimed in the beginning.

also, "Vitamin D is paramount to health, more so than you realize." believe it or not, i already realized this, and you're not the only person who knows vitamin d is good for your health. but thanks for the tip.

Re: cancer -alternative therapies?
 

Huh? Alternative medicine is a huge field, if anyone is making blanket statements, its you.

Your post is all over the place and your logic is flawed, posting anymore here would be a waste of my time. So, good day sir.