My mom has cancer...have nutrition suggestions for recovery? page 3

[Paleobird]

As to this I have no idea why your survival with tradition treatment (great!) invalidates the survival of others through nontraditional treatment (which has plenty of testimonials also). Don't feel threatened. Both are looking to save lives in my view. Which you pick is more a matter of your own philosophy and comfort along with your research and ability to process/comfort with your own knowledge. Don't let anyone tell you one trumps the other. Do your own research.

I went through eight surgeries plus chemo over the course of two and a half years. I had a lot of time on my hands in between to do a lot of research and I did.

The only threat here is to the lives of anyone who buys snake oil "miracle cures" and forgoes real treatment.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against alternative treatments such as diet and supplements being a helpful adjunct form of treatment but they do not and can not replace it. Helping to keep you strong while the medical treatment works, great. Going off treatment and buying some tea because a website said so, that is dangerous and deadly.

This doesn't have anything to do with philosophy but it does have a lot to do with my ability to process knowledge. I am a retired academic. I know how to read an alleged piece of research and pick out it's flaws. I know the difference between anecdotal stories and verifiable results. I know what a double blind placebo controlled study means.

And I know that there is a person on the internet selling something he calls MMS which stands for Miracle Mineral Supplement. Know what it is when you look at the chemical content? POOL DISINFECTANT. According to his website it cures cancer and toenail fungus. (Not making this up)

Then there are people on the net telling desperate cancer patients to fire their oncologists and buy a juicer, it will solve everything. Or better yet, fire your oncologist and come to our wonderful spa and we will serve you healing juices, for a price of course. But it's those *nasty doctors* who are the evil money grubbers who just want you to buy their pills.

Yeah, I can process information. It's called being intelligent and having a well functioning BS filter. I know all the pain and desperation involved in having cancer up close and personal. Seeing snake oil salesmen prey upon people going through this just infuriates me.

Oh yeah, and CANCER IS STILL NOT A FUNGUS

[BestBetter]

Lots of great sugggestions, thanks folks...

I ordered a copy of Anticancer and had it shipped to my mom, along with The Cancer Fighting Kitchen cookbook that looks to be paleo/primal (and a copy of my one of my favorite books, The Glass Castle, because hey, just sending cancer books is a downer!)

Neckhammer, I'll do some reading about ketogenic diets and cancer, and do the best I can on that front. If she's nauseous and feeling crappy, I may need to just feed her whatever healthy thing she can handle, though, so I'll see if she's able to handle low/no carb. If not, Jammies, you had a lot of good advice, I'll see if I can maybe get a little ice cream maker and make small batches with raw milk, and keep some potatoes and rice on hand. The tip about small portions was good - I would have never thought of that. Fiercehunter, I'll be sure to stock on on the raw organic coconut oil (I'm pretty sure there's some at her apartment from my last visit) and I'll see about getting some raw grassfed butter.

And Paleobird, I defintely understand your concern about the snake oil cures. I know that it can't be cured with some smoothies and a handful of supplements. And even though I might not choose the radiation/chemo route for myself, that's what she's going to do, and I'm seeing my role as her supporter; I just want to reduce her stress and help her recover from the ravaging effects the treatment will have so her immune system can be functional and strong again, so you don't have to worry or get too upset here.

[mom5booklover]

Cancer is not a fungus

My goodness the level of medical mis-information out there is astounding. As a cancer survivor myself, my heart goes out to your mom.

I second the bone broth and bone marrow ideas but more than anything, I want to impress upon you that there is a miracle cure for cancer but you won't find it on any website. What you will find there is snake oil for sale. The miracle is at your mom's oncologist's office. Real doctors curing real cancers all the time.

I wish both of you well.

.......And we all used to believe that fat was bad for us and grains were a necessity. Our eyes have been opened by unconventional wisdom so.....why should we believe that CW medicine isn't exactly the same. I am not judging anyone for believing that oncologists aren't money grubbing doctors just like the "snake oil" distributors you speak of. I am simply suggesting that she read a book that may help her mothers serious condition. There is no harm in reading and getting knowledge to make yourself a better supporter and possibly arm yourself with information that your doctors will never have the unconventional wisdom to look into.

[activia]

There isnt a lot of support for doubly blind placebo trials when it comes to diet. It's very difficult, expensive, and no one gets to make millions off it. It doesnt mean that diet can't help people with a lot of conditions.

Now I'm incredibly skeptical when I hear people talking about taking some herb or tea, etc. How is that better then a pill? But real food? I dont see that could be harmful I'm not sure what I would do if I had cancer. I think it would depend on what stage it was in, and what kind of cancer it was, what the the conventional treatment success rate was... and side effects.

Either way I'd eat the best I could.

[Wrenwood]

Wishing the very best of luck and results to your mom and kudos to you for the approach you are taking.

My husband was on chemo for almost two years and here's what worked for us (though side effects vary greatly by chemo agents used, and we had no experience with radiation at all):
1. Definitely the small portions as suggested, especially if appetite is low.
2. Sense of smell and taste may be altered and strong tastes/smells may be intolerable (e.g., spicy, or cruciferous veggies).
3. We used ginger for nausea, it didn't handle it entirely but helped until he was finally prescribed ondansetron when it became intractable. It was a godsend.
4. I made bone broth a few times but he didn't want to drink it, so I used it where possible in cooking.
5. We dealt with mouth sores (may be similar to the throat pain you mentioned) by blenderizing foods and then thinning them with water or broth (another way to sneak in more of that good stuff). This kept him from living on carb-y soft foods.
6. When blenderized solid foods were too much, he loved shakes made with coconut milk (this was before I knew about the value of coconut oil or I would have added that too). Plus you can put a lot of calories into a shake with banana and nut butters, if weight loss is a problem.

Again, wishing you the best.

[BestBetter]

I've actually been reading about high dose intravenous vitamin c as a cure for cancer...it sounds like it could be a valid, credible alternate to chemo...if it was me, I'd probably go the route of alternate treatments, but ultimately this is not my decision to make. She's seen how in 2 years I've been able to put my MS in remission using diet, and she's a big believer that food is really important to health.

Activia, you are absolutely right about the lack of controlled studies on diet due to lack of funding...I had this same issue when I got diagnosed with MS and every doctor and website kept repeating 'there is no proof that diet makes any difference' because of course no one has been able to pursue this kind of study (with the exception of the Swank diet). Just because there isn't proof in the way of valid scientific studies doesn't mean that an approach doesn't work. My n=1 diet experience so far is all I need as proof that diet does make a difference

[Grizz]

My mom just got diagnosed with a form of skin cancer that supposedly responds very well to chemo radiation, so that's the route she decided to go. I'm going to stay with her during the last 3 weeks of her treatment, which is when it will probably be the worst. Honestly, as a recovering alcoholic and smoker, I'm a little surprised that she didn't develop something worse.

So, I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions or resources they can point me toward to figure out the best way to rebuild her immune system afterward, as well as some recipe ideas for things that will be easy for her to consume when she's got a burning throat (I'm thinking cold/liquids) and nauseous, and generally feeling crappy. Her diet overall is pretty decent, and she's very open-minded when it comes to trying new foods/things in general.

If she has not started her chemo yet, STOP HER so she can study the alternative! Iodine applied to the skin and taken internally has proven VERY effective at stopping skin cancers.

Dr. Derry:
In addition, iodine's ability to trigger natural cell death (apoptosis) (5) makes it effective against all pre-cancerous skin lesions and likely many cancerous lesions. The local site is replaced with normal skin. However, even lesser doses of topical iodine seem to reverse the ominous appearance of skin lesions.
Dr. David Derry Answers Reader Questions -- Disappearing Iodine Test

Please see the many doctor articles on CANCER here: Click on the Table of Contents to navigate.
http://tinyurl.com/iodine-references

Also see this website, where iodine has been successful treating breast cancer, as well:
Iodine-related bromide detox symptoms and strategies

From the Yahoo Iodine group:

Hello:
> I have been dabbing Iodine on several skin lesions (I know that one is
> Cancer) and they seem to be slowly shrinking HOWEVER, am I doing it
> the right way? Is it IMPORTANT to add a carrier oil than to not add
> one? Thanks, Bonnie
Bonnie, just to reiterate, for skin lesions, where you are daubing the iodine on
specific spots, you DO NOT want to use a carrier oil. You actually want to let
the iodine react with the skin.

The carrier oil is for when people are painting large areas with the goal of
penetrating the skin and getting the iodine inside the body.
--Victoria
iodine : Iodine

Just my 2nd opinion.

Also, Iodine & Vitamin D3 are required to boost the immune system.

Grizz

[Paleobird]

.......And we all used to believe that fat was bad for us and grains were a necessity. Our eyes have been opened by unconventional wisdom so.....why should we believe that CW medicine isn't exactly the same. I am not judging anyone for believing that oncologists aren't money grubbing doctors just like the "snake oil" distributors you speak of. I am simply suggesting that she read a book that may help her mothers serious condition. There is no harm in reading and getting knowledge to make yourself a better supporter and possibly arm yourself with information that your doctors will never have the unconventional wisdom to look into.

There is unconventional which can be great and then there is just factually incorrect. Put a fungus and a cancer cell under a microscope. A first year biology student could see it. Cancer is not a fungus. Any "unconventional" book based on the premise that cancer is a fungus is just wrong. Also the person selling it to you is probably not stupid enough to actually believe that cancer is a fungus so they are therefore lying through their teeth to you in order to get your money.

We love to be unconventional around here. Cool. But let's not take that to the stupid extreme of ignoring people (doctors) who have studied these things for decades and have records decades long of successful cures. Real ones. Not some tear jerking anecdotes.

As I said before I have nothing against augmenting and supplementing medical care with unconventional methods. Just not replacing real medical care with snake oil

[Paleobird]

And Paleobird, I defintely understand your concern about the snake oil cures. I know that it can't be cured with some smoothies and a handful of supplements. And even though I might not choose the radiation/chemo route for myself, that's what she's going to do, and I'm seeing my role as her supporter; I just want to reduce her stress and help her recover from the ravaging effects the treatment will have so her immune system can be functional and strong again, so you don't have to worry or get too upset here.

I'm glad to hear that. FWIW, I think that there is definitely some merit in the ketogenic diet as an adjunct to medical treatment.
I also agree with Jammies however about eating what you can and keeping the portions small.

[Paleobird]

If she has not started her chemo yet, STOP HER so she can study the alternative! Iodine applied to the skin and taken internally has proven VERY effective at stopping skin cancers.



Please see the many doctor articles on CANCER here: Click on the Table of Contents to navigate.
http://tinyurl.com/iodine-references

Also see this website, where iodine has been successful treating breast cancer, as well:
Iodine-related bromide detox symptoms and strategies

From the Yahoo Iodine group:



Just my 2nd opinion.

Also, Iodine & Vitamin D3 are required to boost the immune system.

Grizz

Captain Iodine to the Rescue!

Grizz, give it up. You are acting like an idiot. How is anyone supposed to take a forum poster seriously who doles out advice about painting one's testicles with iodine and claims it is the cure for just about every disease known to humanity?