Budwig diet started 6 weeks ago

Cricketlynn

Hi everyone. I have stage 4 bc with liver mets. I was on herceptin until sept. 2012, when I became allergic to it and got a rash and burns on my arms and hands. I was really doing good on it too, liver enzymes and tumor marker all went to normal range. But, now I'm on nothing, since sept. I started the budwig diet feb. 27th. The problem is....my blood work was done before I started the budwig diet ad liver enzymes were in normal range, but the tumor marker was high at 74. So, I started this diet and just had blood tests done Friday, and the liver enzymes went up (pretty much doubled) and now my tumor marker is at 94. I don't get it, shouldn't my blood test numbers be better or at least be the same? /p>

exbrnxgrl

Hi Cricketlynn,

I'm sorry that you're going through this. I only have a superficial knowledge of the Budwig diet so forgive for asking, but did you think it would definitely keep you stable? Our reality, at stage IV, is that there is no holding the beast at bay forever. Are you considering any other tx beside Budwig?

Caryn

Cricketlynn

Actually, I did think it would help. By reading all the positive things about it and the testimonials from cancer patients. After all, it doesn't look like chemo is doing the trick either. I'm on this site to find other alternatives and what people have to say about them.

HLB

Its hard to know what is going to work for each individual person when we do alternatives because unfortunately there aren't many studies. Maybe you are just a person that Budwig doesn't work for. There are many other alternative treatments worth trying though. You might be interested in my post called "my meeting with a survivor that used alternatives". When I met her and her husband, the first thing he said to me was "you never know what's going to work". Which is why she ended up doing a huge list of things. I posted everything she told me about so maybe there's something in there you might find worth trying. I don't know much about her2 but isn't there another drug called perjeta? Maybe its too similar to herceptin for you to tolerate but just throwing it out there just in case. I'm doing essiac tea and alkaline diet and some supplements. I'm doing Letrozole too so I don't really know if the alts are working as well. I'm hoping they can at least extend my time on conventional treatments.

cheery

I'm HER2+ with liver met, almost 5 years out with Herceptin and chemo (on-off) and TCM.  

Liver enzymes reflect liver function and disease. I've had elevated liver enzymes on 3 occasions, liver met progression, liver injury and chemo tumour flare. If your liver enzymes had doubled, it could possibly be that the liver mets aren't effectively being controlled by the Budwig diet alone and the disease is affecting the liver function. Compared to normal liver enzymes when you were on Herceptin and the liver mets was getting treated. Best way to confirm effectiveness of the Budwig diet is by way of CT/PET scans to see if there is control of your liver mets. I get scans every 6-8 weeks.  

For Her2+ BC, there's the newly approved TDM-1/Kadcyla which has been a life saver for many ladies with manageable side effects compared to Tykerb and Perjeta, based on what I've read. 

But I'm no doctor and am not familiar with Budwig diet. Please consult your doctor/naturopath on the treatment options. Hope this helps. 

Rgds