What Alter Treatments ARE We Using & as Alternatives to What?

labelle

_{Like many I started out with conventional treatments: surgery-they took extra because they thought I had DCIS around a small 7mm tumor, not so, just the wee tumor per final pathology report. So basically, my conventional surgery treatment involved taking lots more tissue than needed. Then I had RADS-abscessed/walled off and infected seroma plus cellulitis, ER surgery and an open wound followed. Nice! Not really.}

_{And then I was done with conventional treatments. My OC (former OC as she says there is no reason to see her anymore and I agree) recommended tamoxifen or ovarian suppression + AI treatments, but also said there is a very good chance (80-85%) that even w/out these additional treatments I will never be bothered with BC again-surgery and RADS will have cured me. I know lots of people on here say there is no cure for BC, but if you have treatment and it never comes back, I'd call that cured and it's the word my OC used. I like it!}

_{So out of 100 women with my stats, 85 (I like the bigger number) will not be diagnosed again with BC even without using Tamox or AI. They work for about 1/2 the women who take them (that 50% reduction is not a personal number, they will work or not-) so seven or eight women out of 100 with my stats will be spared a recurrence if they take one of these drugs, seven or eight will reoccur even if they take them, meaning 92-93% of the time these drugs don't change anything. That doesn't meet my criteria for effective and safe so I passed .}

_{Still, refusing these drugs was rather difficult although the OC didn't push me very hard compared to some stories I've read on here, but I do think I need something else (an alternative plan to conventional hormone suppression) and have settled on a bunch of supplements, some for BC prevention, others like time released B12 I take for other reasons (pernicious anemia), and some like melatonin for a combination of reasons (to stave off anxiety and sleep-an alternative to the Xanax I used to take in the evening-and to help prevent a reccurrence).}

_{So here's what I take daily, along with exercise (never did prior to diagnosis) and following a Paleo diet (the no sugar and organic only meats parts of it are probably the most important in terms of BC). I put 3 TBSP freshly ground flaxseed in my smoothie every morning, take vitamin d3, magnesium and calcuim, turmeric (dissolved in olive oil w pepper), milk thistle, coQ10, DIM, d-calcium glucarate, multi vitamin, B12, selenium, extra vitamin c, 2 low dose (81) mg aspirin (more than recommended to keep BC at bay, but I have an orthopedic problem that causes pain) and melatonin . I also use natural progesterone cream to balance hormones.}

_{Anyway, I'm curious about others' alternative choices or activities and am wondering if anyone else is willing to share what they are doing. No judgments, please. Just sharing. I'm sure all of us have done plenty of research on our own and/or consulted alternative practitioners before settling on our own plans. I'm just curious about what we are doing or considered doing and if a lot of us are doing the same things or not. I know a few have posted about using cannabis oil, a very interesting choice I think, but not legal in lots of places including where I live, so that was off the table for me right away.}

lightandwind

Hi Labelle, just wanted to drop in and say hi. You looked pretty lonely over here. Hope some others show up soon!

labelle

Yeah, maybe the alternative folks aren't doing anything these days. It's a pretty slow board, I guess. Oh well, so much for idle curiosity.Thanks for the company though, LOL.

juneping

okay I'll share. Hopefully no one comes in and say no scientific proof blah blah rude stuff

Morning - lemon juice with raw honey and black seed oil. Black seed oil seems to keep my thyroid hormone in balance. Lemon alkaline my body. Raw honey helps my seasonal allergy

Shower....after my exercise.

Then I have a smoothie: strawberry, blueberries, banana and raw milk (goat or sheep) w 1 tablespoon flaxseed. And a dash of cinnamon and orange peel powder.

A medium slice of whole grain bread w apricot kennel butter and a free ranged egg

Lunch: juice. I blend baby kale and other green veggi with with a banana or kiwi. And kind of snack all day with some nuts and dried fruits (mango...theses days) and also two servings of fruits....just what I see what's at the supermarkets...recently berries and cherries.

Night: pasta with two kinds of veggi. I seldom cook meat nowadays. I use four kinds of seasoning as recommended by Rachel Beller, turmeric, black pepper, ginger and garlic powder.

I try mostly organic but I love cherries so I bought those unrated at the whole food hopefully the organic will come out soon.

Recently I've been having some issue overeating at dinner. I find the spicyness of black pepper really appetizing

juneping

supplement: vit B C D3 DIM I3C fish oil, green tea extract, MSM...

MSM really makes my skin soft, tamoxifen made my skin really coarse and dry...and gave me edema (so i stopped it back in March). and after taking MSM my skin is soft again. i still don't have my period and no hot flashes. i really think exercise has everything to do with it.

juneping

labella,

i read somewhere that flaxseed was recommended two tablespoon max a day....did you consult your naturalpath about it? i would like to know more.

DaniellaD

so far I have refused tamoxifen. My tumor was weakly estrogen receptive. I'm taking DIM, D3, b complex, magnesium (to help me sleep), melatonin, fish oil, d-calcium glucarate, zinc, biotin and turmeric. What dosage of DIM are you taking? Have you had your hormone level checked? I havent and am thinking I should. Thanks for sharing!

pipers_dream

Well I've been alt from almost the beginning and taking all the same supps as you all, plus Holy Basil and the methylated forms of B-12 and folate.

I'm going to level and say that I had a scary night about a month and a half ago--I had been under some very severe stress on my job (special ed teacher!) and I began to gain some of my weight back rather quickly and my periods came back and were spaced 3 weeks apart. I was not amused and I was scared and my breast bone began to be sore and I was convinced I had mets. I was at a dance one night and had to leave early b/c I was too tired to dance or to socialize so I took off early and went to bed and cried and prayed for guidance. Then the next day my period started and I was kind of relieved on the one hand b/c it meant my little breakdown the night before was PMS but I also said quite a few bad words b/c I am 56 dammit.

Well guidance did come and what I began to feel very strongly was that I need to fast and for an extended length of time so I am on day 14 of a 21 day fast. I felt I could do this as I had some extra pounds to give up and when I did the research I discovered that fasting can cure many ills, including assisting your body to get rid of tumors. In fact, the list of what it can do for you is amazing and already I have seen some real changes. For one, the sinus infection I started out with was gone within 24 hours, though it was going strong when I started. Also I cannot remember for the life of me when I have managed to wake up in the am without having to blow my nose to clear it but I haven't had to do that for the last 10 days or so. My skin is clearing and not sagging as you would expect. And. . . the tumor seems to be shrinking but I can't be for sure sure b/c it does that sometimes and then reacts to hormonal changes. But, fasting can balance hormones and I certainly have an excess of estrogen. I had begun to get sloppy with my diet when I was under all that stress but I will not do that now--consequences are too scary. Since I'm a teacher I can do this fast b/c of the time off--it would be too difficult for someone if they have a job where there is stress or you have to deal with people--I'm better now but was very weak for most of this.

Also, I've been talking to a lot of alt folks, since we have a support group in St. Louis, and many of them swear by the Eat Right 4 Your Type diet--I had always thought it was just another weight loss gimmick, but it actually is a health care plan and they do discuss cancer. I seem to fit the profile quite neatly for type A and will go and get onto that after the fast. Also I've been trying to like green tea, but according to this diet, coffee is actually beneficial for me. Yay! Oh and according to this diet, if you're type A and have cancer, some of the most beneficial foods you can eat are lima beans (normally bad for type A but good for getting rid of cancer) and snails, lol. Also, lentils are quite good. Interesting stuff.

One more thing--I've always had digestive issues and constipation is my normal state of affairs. I decided the fast is a good time to reset my digestive system so I got some bentonite clay liquid and mix that up in water about 1x/day and it has a few minerals in it too. What it does is act as a sponge to suck up toxins off the intestines and carry them out. Then as my fast ends I'll hit the fiber and probiotics pretty hard and hopefully things will work much better in the future lol.

Waterfalls

Hi Labelle,


I'm on board with you about nutritional supplements over caustic hormone therapy if you are a low enough score. In my Research and I did it professionally for 20 years (I'm a Yoga Teacher also) I have read most compelling research supporting Matcha green tea, Vit D3, turmuric (w/ a good fat like you are doing) and a low fat, high alkaline diet. I wanted to mention though that I recently did a liver detox after coming off of 6 months of Tamoxifen and read after the fact an article published in Univ. of Maryland Medical Center that people with a hormone related cancer should Not take Milk Thistle. www.umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/herb/milk-thistle May be valid, I'm not sure but I like to pass on info with my fellow health rebels. Namaste!

mjmoose

Hi all,

I've been using alternatives (with guidance from a homeopathic physician) from nearly the beginning. I confess to often feeling out, alone on a limb in the alternative category…but I feel great, so something must be working.

I have taken coQ10 (200mg) for years (for MVP and palpitations) and took it all thru chemo and rads. It kept/keeps my energy up. Never had any fatigue through either treatment.

After trying I, too, decided agains tamoxifen and A's. Side effects from both were not worth the benefits. Instead I take 3 capsules per day of Ganoderma (lucidum )- a reishi mushroom. No side effects, easy to take. Actual research on its effectiveness exists at National Library of Medicine see: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15489214

I also take D3 (3000), Vitamin k2 (10Mg) - these two have improved my bone density score by 6% - a lovely impact! Magnesium (4,000) , triple b12, cranberry tablets 3x weekly (to keep cystitis at bay), Benefiber (1t) (to keep my system regular) and collagen hydrolysate (2T) (skin, nails, connective tissues all improved). Since I am "older than dirt" I need all those extra system supports and they seem to be working.

Finally, I also drink decaf green tea and slippery elm bark tea (great for digestive issues - diverticulosis and sore throats and colds.)

I am so glad not to be alone in the refusal of these toxic - possibly somewhat useful - preventative drugs. Rads was a toxic-enough preventative as far as I am concerned. I welcome and look forward to the days when immune system therapy will be a more standard prevention and treatment for all cancers and the U.S. government finds a method to support natural treatments. (sorry - I know I'm dreaming)! Best wishes to all the sisters-in-alternatives.

NATSGSG

Maybe try immunotherapy (moving in the direction of custom cancer treatment)-- you can read all about it in the links I've posted here:

https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/62/topic/831945?page=1#idx_22

@ - you are not dreaming - they are working on it as you can see from the links . It's just that the National Cancer Institute (NCI) does not have sufficient funds to do all the research they want. If we as a group, we have what, like 157,000 members, and all Cancer Patient Groups, petition the Office of The President and Congress (especially the Appropriation Committee who allocates these Funds) and our state Senators and Representative and cut 1-2% from Defense Spending and move that towards Health and Cancer Research, then research for cancer patients (and other types of health research, not just cancer) can be speeded up.

Under the leadership of ex-National Health Institute and subsequently National Cancer Institute Director, Harold Eliot Varmus, he tried to get increased fundings for NIH and NCI. But his hands were tied as decreased funding made his job difficult. Still, Mr. Varmus managed to make many positive changes that are beneficial to The People. You can read about him here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_E._Varmus

I wish he's still with NIH or NCI. In my immunotherapy links that contains 2 videos of the Conference Meetings, you can observe his dynamic leadership skills and the respects his peers and staff conferred on him. I believe if all cancer patients as well as patients with other diseases get together to sign a petition asking for the re-allocation of funds, it will make a difference to health and lives of our American People.

I can guarantee you the lobbyist for the Defense Industry and others who supports them will be there to fight against the re-allocation of fhese funds - but do we really need a new $4 billion fighter plane (each)???

Hey, it is us, The People, who got the vote, not the Lobbyist. Can we not use it?

P.S. I'll try to find the farewell video of Mr. Varmus before he left for the Kettering Memorial Hospital position the end of March 2015. You can see and feel the sense of admiration his staff, colleagues and peers gave him. BTW, he's also a Nobel Prize winner. If we are able to do that, get our Senators, Representatives, Congress and OFTP to increase funding, it would be terrific to get Mr. Varmus back into Civil Service.

pipers_dream

Just popped in to say that I've been off the fast for over a month and eating lots of brown gritty organic food lol and the tumor seems to be shrinking. I also use a biomat to heat up my body and it's like an infrared sauna. It helps with the stress a lot. We'll see how it does when school starts back up.

After the fast I began to take high vitamin butter oil with my food for butyric acid, along with the pro and pre-biotics and I just bought a "potty stool"--good to elevate your feet somewhat during a BM. I found mine at Goodwill for $1.

BTW, I want to take issue with the line "as alternatives to what?" Holistic care is so different from conventional that it's not really alternative per se: it's not like you take red rice yeast as alt for statins, for instance. The goal of holistic medicine is to strengthen your entire body so it can fight off the cancer itself. While cancer can evade the immune system, NK cells can fight it off.

labelle

Well it is called alternative medicine, meaning an alternative to traditional medicine.

In my case, I use supplements as an alternative to the hormonal medicines offered to me by my traditional doctors. Others might use various things as alternatives to recommended chemo or surgery. Basically, what one might use to try to shrink a tumor (rather than having surgery) would be different than someone who has had surgery and is looking for an alternative to chemo might use-so that's why I asked not only what we are using but also what we are using it for (as an alternative to what) as I thought explaining why one uses something would be more informative for someone reading our posts.

HLB

Hi, I am taking metformin, meriva, melatonin (10mg) and celebrex. I did want to take afinitor so the holistic dr prescribed all of this as an alternative to it. I am taking aromasin but was just too afraid of afinitor. It is an Mtor inhibitor so he wanted to give me something else that was an mtor inhibitor, however I do not remember which one of those is. Also at least one is a cox2 inhibitor. These have all shown activity against cancer but not neccesarilly in humans.

pipers_dream

Sorry labelle, I didn't mean to offend--I see I used a poor choice of words. I was thinking more that the mainstream thinking (and not necessarily you) is that for each conventional therapy, we take an alternative therapy--a pill for a pill, so to speak. But much of what I have done holistically just doesn't make much sense to the conventional model at all b/c I'm strengthening my entire inner terrain and may be doing more to help my liver than to zap estrogen, but the liver is what detoxes and gets rid of extra estrogen. But please don't take this as an attack on your post--it was for others reading it as well and I was hoping to clarify.

bythemarina

I recently joined the forum, so will try to contribute. Before my BC diagnosis, I suffered from frozen shoulder for about 6 months. I burst into tears when the Ortho doctor told me the symptoms would last between 2 to 3 YEARS and there was nothing he could do, except to prescribe Celebrex and Lyrica, (an anti-seizure medication) to help me sleep at night.

Anyway, I was feeling awful in general, to say the least. It was painful getting into and out of bed. Getting dressed was painful, going to the loo was a mission. I didn't go anywhere without my heating pad - heat was the only thing that helped for the pain. Eventually the pain moved down my arm to the elbow and back of my hand, so I had to get 2 heating pads. My greatest fear before lumpectomy surgery, was that they would cause injury to my painful arm. Coming out of the operating theater, the pain in my shoulder was worse than the pain of the lumpectomy and lymph removal.

Changing my diet has been the best thing I could have done for myself. I drink 1t bicarb mixed in glass of water in morning and evening to keep my body PH alkaline. I also started on Vit B co because I am a bit under weight and had a poor appetite (I have lost 10kg's since December 2014). It's my third week on a fruit and veg diet and I have not felt this good in a long time. Since the beginning of this week, I also started taking Zinc tablets and eat 4 apricot kernels 3 times a day. I know about the controversy about Vit B17 but decided to try it anyway. My sister is sending me some cancer bush and 'katjie drie blaar', both indigenous herbs in Southern Africa. The 'katjie drie blaar' is used specifically as a hormone treatment. Since stopping HRT, I am now smack-bang menopausal. After one week without Estrofem, it felt as if my insides were frozen. I've not taken Estrofem for a month and can feel the difference. One moment I'm freezing cold, the next I take off the layers to cool down. I'm pain-free these days but only manage a few hours sleep at night.

Regarding my painful shoulder, I made a paste with vaseline and tumeric. I rubbed this into my shoulder and stuck a big plaster on ... and then applied the heat pad. The following day I noticed that the pain in my shoulder was gone. My shoulder is still a bit stiff but I have started doing some exercise and have more mobility in my arm. Whatever it is that put me on the road to recovery with my frozen shoulder, I'm convinced it was not conventional medicine. Painkillers certainly did not cure the pain or the problem, nor has conventional anti-inflamatories like Brufen and Celebrex.

Thank you for starting this thread labelle. I am new to this but am seriously considering an alternative to Tamoxefen and the other hormone therapies.

Loral

 labelle...Thanks for starting this thread. I have stopped Tamoxifen in February and after having a total hip replacement in May, I don't think I will be continuing. I see my MO in 2 weeks and will let him know my decision. I take just about every supplement that you take and I am seriously trying to up the exercise and eat healthier.

labelle

juneping: I've done tons of research on the use of flaxseed and found recommendations ranging from 2-5 T daily as the best dosage. I worry more about using too little than too much, but I don't want to spend the rest of my life in the bathroom so 3T daily is what I'm using! The following article does a good job of discussing flaxseed and breast cancer.

RE: flaxseed

http://preventcancer.aicr.org/new/docs/pdf/AICR-InDepth-Issue-01-Flaxseed-and-Breast-Cancer.pdf

Daniella, I use 100 mg of DIM daily and eat plenty of good veggies (broccoli, cabbage, etc).

Turmeric-I keep reading it is not used properly unless mixed with an oil (olive oil, coconut oil, etc) and pepper, so I was breaking open my dry turmeric capsules, pouring the turmeric powder into a T of olive oil and sprinkling w pepper. Not very tasty and what a mess. Yellow kitchen syndrome bigtime! It stains everything it touches and then I found Sportsrearch brand turmeric/curcumin at Amazon-capsules filled w coconut oil and bioperine (pepper), ready to swallow and be absorbed. Yes!

DaniellaD

labelle I started taking Brevail instead of DIM. The DIM was giving me terrible stomach aches. Since I'm still receiving herceptin (1 more!) and already having severe stomach issues, I thought I'd give it a rest for now and double up on my veggies instead. Brevail is flaxseed based - I'm pretty sure at least. I'm typing this after a long day and brain fog has settled in. Sorry. I read that it was an excellent supplement for good breast health. Ive decided to try tamoxifen after herceptin is over. If the side effects a are too much, then I'll go backs to all natural. Maybe. I keep going back and forth with tamoxifen. Ugh!

Definitely going to try the turmeric with coconut oil capsules. Great info! Any other tamoxifen alternatives out there? I read not great reviews of IDC-3. Then reading on reiki mushrooms which are supposedly not good for er/pr+. Surprisingly button mushrooms are more beneficial for er/pr+!

labelle

I bought and took Brevail when on vacation. Since flaxseeds needs to be refrigerated and I grind mine fresh each morning traveling with it is a problem and someone else here recommended Brevail as an alternative. I still prefer the fresh ground, but Brevail travels better.

Pipers dream wrote about changing our terrain which reminded me of a book I've recently read Anti-Cancer: A New Way of Life by David Servan-Schreiber, MD, PhD. It's one of the better books I've read addressing the need to change the bodily terrain that allowed cancer to develop in the first place w diet, exercise, reducing our exposure to chemicals and emotional health/handling stress. The author is a survivor of brain cancer and tells his very interesting story throughout the book. An excellent read, but get the paper copy. I've been told the beautiful colored charts don't translate well in the e/kindle version.

d-calcium glucarate is another supplement recommended by some to modulate estrogen.

Loral

Walnuts???

http://breastcancer.about.com/od/cancerfightingfoods/a/walnuts.htm?utm_content=20150811&utm_medium=email&utm_source=cn_nl&utm_campaign=livinghealthy&utm_term=Living%20Healthy%20Daily%20Newsletter

Momine

Loral, that is nice to know. I eat walnuts daily. I add them to my breakfast, but I also use them for cooking in various ways, typically to thicken a dressing or raw sauce.