Where do I start?
hi girls,
I am into my 4th week of radiation and will start Tamoxifen in about 4 weeks. I want to start taking the right supplements, etc. I read sooooooooooo much and then I get overwhelmed and I don't know what to take.
I need to know what interferes with Tamox effectiveness. Where is a good place to start? What are the top
and most important supplements to start taking first?
Thanks,
Diane
Comments
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I would suggest you have a complete blood work up either by your doctor or a naturalpathic doctor. I did this after my recurrence and learned that I had a thyroid problem. I had almost no Vitamin D and needed iodine. Becuase I'm hypothyroid, my colesterol was extremely high (average weight) and taking tamoxifin would had put me at high risk for a stroke. They know what we should take and how much.
There is a lot of good information on the alternative threads. Just remember, what works for one persona doesn't always work for another. In the beginning, I took too many supplements. My stomach felt nausea most of the time so I cut back and take only what is absolutely necessary.
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Read the thread on Vitamin D3 and look at this chart.
http://www.grassrootshealth.net/media/download/disease_incidence_prev_chart_101608.pdf
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I would recommend making an appointment with a well-respected naturopath! Ask local people you know for recommendations on who to see, if you don't have anyone in mind.
I know that the potentially high cost of seeing a naturopath makes it tempting to just try natural remedies on your own, but this can be dangerous and actually worse for your health, or ineffective. Each woman's body is very different, and there are also over 2 dozen different types of breast cancer, so there is no one-size-fits-all natural treatment program for breast cancer. There are some changes you can make on your own that are totally safe and non-controversial, such as cutting sugar out of your diet completely. (People in the alternative health world have endless debates about whether soy is good or bad for us - but have you ever heard any health professional say that sugar is a good thing??) A naturopath, of course, could take it even further and make dietary recommendations specific to you.
If you just semi-randomly start taking some herbs and supplements that you've heard good things about, you may end up taking a dosage that is too high and thus dangerous, or too low and thus ineffective. For example - my naturopath has me taking green tea capsules that are the equivalent of 10 cups of the tea per day. Before that, I had heard/read about the anti-cancer properties of green tea, so I had started drinking maybe 2 cups a day, and was proud of myself for this! But it turns out I need at least TEN cups to get a therapeutic dose. My naturopath has also prescribed a very high dose of Vitamin D for me, after testing my blood and finding out how deficient I was. If I were taking this high of a dose WITHOUT a Vit D deficiency, it would be very bad for my health.
So, that's my advice in a nutshell - on your own, do the "common sense" things that we know will not harm us, such as eating more vegetables, sleeping more, exercising, avoiding sugar, etc. But for specifics beyond that, consult a professional naturopath. Even something as simple as taking a multi-vitamin can becomplicated - turns out the multi-vit I'd chosen on my own is EXCELLENT - but only for women without the kind of breast cancer I have, since it contains an herb that increases estrogen. I never would have known this, if it weren't for my naturopath, because as far as I knew, I had Done My Research - I had asked family and friends which women's multivitamin they take, then I had Googled this one, read the bottle in the store, talked with employees of the company about it, researched how it is processed and formulated, etc., etc. But regardless of the fact that it was the multi-vit that had the best reputation for being high-quality, was organic, was great for my friends, etc., it wasn't the right one for ME. This really isn't something that you can do by asking strangers on the Internet. You need someone who will get to know YOUR body.
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