An Alternative approach to Stage IV Health and choices

Hi there!

 Avemar is a fermented wheat germ product that works in a couple of ways.  First, it works synergystically with Tamoxifen to make the Tamoxifen more effective.  Second, it is a natural PARP inhibitor.  PARP is a type of protein that is necessary for damaged cells (ie. cancer cells) to multiply.  Inhibit the production of the PARP protein and the cells go into apoptosis.  PARP inhibitors are all the rage in clinical trials right now..

  It's not cheap, though - the cheapest price I found on-line was $140/month.  However, there have been a lot of clinical trials with Avemar and a number of different cancers and the research is really encouraging.  I definitely think it is worth while and would recommend it to anyone.   

It is a bit of pain to schedule, as you have to take it 2 hours before and after any supplements/medication and 1 hour before or after a meal.  So I generally eat breakfast around 7am, take all my meds, and then do the Avemar around 9:30-10am.  If I wait later, then I have to wait to eat lunch and I don't like that.

Yes, I do the protein mix because of the vegan diet.  Just want to make sure I am getting enough. My smoothie includes protein mix, broccoli sprouts, Amazing Grass ORAC blend, bee pollen, blueberries, and soy milk.  It's not bad.  It's not French toast, though!  lol

I generally eat 2, maybe 3 pieces of fruit per day, plus a zillion vegetables and one big green drink - today's had kale, chard, broccoli, cucumber, tomato, celery, and apple.  I'm actually starting to look forward to it!   When I was diagnosed, I cleaned up my diet and lost 11-12 pounds. I was surprised, because I hadn't thought my eating habits were causing me to gain weight, but there I was.  So even though I thought I was a health nut, I obviously had some areas for improvement.  Interesting, you know?  

LOL....thanks, that's life!  bee pollen is one of nature's greatest sources of amino acids and vitamins.  bees go from flower to flower, choosing only the best ones to gather pollen from.   so you get this highly concentrated, very nutrient dense substance in the form of tiny yellow pollen balls.  I take about a teaspoon a day.   

Thats-life, I sent a request to join.  I think that's a great idea. 

I am allergic to pollen. I wonder if taking bee pollen would desensitize me?

There's news today on a Swedish study combining antivirals and NSAIDs to reduce brain tumor growth.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110927072612.htm

"Our experiments on mice show that tumour growth declines by around 40 per cent when antiviral drugs or COX-2 inhibitors are used separately, and by no less than 72 per cent when used in combination," says Professor Söderberg-Nauclér, adding that this effect is achieved without using chemotherapy.

Since both the drugs used in the study, an NSAID that inhibits CMV replication and inflammation, and the antiviral Valcyte (Valganciclovir) for CMV infection, have relatively good adverse effect profiles, the researchers now see immediate opportunities for studying their impact on different forms of tumour. Antiviral drugs are also selective and largely affect infected cells.

"These are very promising and exciting results," says Professor Söderberg-Nauclér. "The virus infection isn't cured by the treatment, nor is the tumour, but the virus in the tumour decreases, which affects its growth. This therefore presents a new approach to treating tumours and could henceforth be used as a possible complementary therapy."

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This is interesting because a friend of mine got BC at the same time I did. She and I were on vacation together with our families the year before our diagnosis when my daughter came down with chickenpox. Most likely coincidence, but makes you think if there is a viral element to our BC.

Hi Ladies,

Hope you dont mind me joining your thread, sounds interesting, I am also at stage IV with it on my lungs from the start, just got out of hosptial after having a MX with lymph node clearance. I'm up for trying both conventional and unconventional treatments to try and fight against this nightmare.

I have been juicing mainly organic carrots, brockli, curly kale, cucumber, celery, apples, oranges, wheat grass, beetroot, I do at least one green juice a day then the other in the evening. Feel more invigorated after wards and have more energy. I've also cut out sugar and only use the xylitol natural sweetner, i think its made from birch sap, looks like sugar and taste ok. Cut out drinking tea and coffee unless its green tea or a herbal one. Take a lot of supplements mainly evening primrose oil, acai berry, cranberry, vit c,e,b6, selenium with zinc, probiotics, co-enzyme q10, homemade hemp oil capsule. 

Try to get a crystal healing session in at least once a week or go to a spiritual healer, also want to try acupuncture and yoga once my surgery is all healed up.

Thats - Life - Your thoughts on cancer being brought on by a virus got me thinking and last year I caught a really nasty virus, was very sick with it and spent the whole of november ill in bed, then this year end of feb got dx with BC. Its an interesting theory. 

 Sending love and light to all

Sarah sweety xxx 

Hi thats-life,

Thank you for giving me a warm welcome to this thread, and for asking about my lung mets, so far they do not cause me any trouble I can hike, ride my bike, and walking absolutely fine, its the thought of it on my lungs that does my head in, but at least as time goes by I am learning to live with it and try to get it out of my head, if I think about it too much I find my breathing starts to play up.

Food wise I have changed for the better but it takes a lot of perserverance and positivity to stay on such a diet even I falter some times but i am trying my best to help myself. Even looking for soy free meat although I dont really eat that much meat anyway certainly no red meat. Looking at trying to find a supplier of wild meat ie: pheasant or rabbit (i'm in the uk) as this is not fed on soy based pellets.

Love and light

Sarah sweety xxx 

The Biology Behind
Mouse Mammary Tumor Virus-Like Viral Infection and Human Breast Cancer
James F. Holland and Beatriz G. T. Pogo
Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York In the last half of the 20th century the possibility that human breast cancer might be intimately associated with oncogenic viruses was often suggested. This followed naturally on Bittner's demonstration (1) that a virus caused breast cancer in mice. Convincing data, however, eluded workers before the molecular biological revolution. Robust evidence has now been presented in a series of papers demonstrating that a sequence highly homologous to a unique 660-bp segment of the mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV) envelope gene is present in 38% of American women's breast cancer (2, 3). The sequences were found to be expressed in most of the positive tumors (4)

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This is where I heard this story in 2007:

Catalyst, (Science show), ABC TV, Australia

CANCER CLUSTERS (11/10/2007) 

TRANSCRIPT
Narration ABC's Brisbane headquarters at Toowong used to be a hive of activity.

Around 500 staff worked here every day. But now, it's an eerie ghost town.

In December 2006 the entire facility was shutdown due to fears it was home to a cancer cluster......an unusually high number of cancer cases in the one environment.

Dr. Maryanne Demasi About 50 Meters away behind me is the Toowong news room. Now ABC management is so certain that it's an unsafe environment that no women are allowed anywhere on site. So my all male crew will go in without me for a look.

Narration Since 1994 sixteen women who worked here have developed breast cancer. A further twelve are known to have developed non-cancerous breast abnormalities.

And of those 28 women, 22 worked here in the television and radio newsroom. Even more chilling is that 10 of those with breast cancer worked much of their time at this single group of desks.

Lisa Backhouse There was no family history, predominantly young, healthy women and in such a small confined space and in such large numbers we knew there must have been a problem.

Narration A breast cancer scare of these proportions is unprecedented in Australia and probably the world. But to these women the experience has been all too real.

..... snip ....

Narration ... One other thing not investigated was the possibility that a virus could have induced the cancers. Professor Bill Rawlinson is head of the Virology division at Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney.

Prof. William Rawlinson There's no doubt in my mind that we will find viruses in a number of conditions that are currently of unknown cause.

Narration It has been known for decades that a virus in mice, called ‘Mouse mammary tumor virus', or MMTV causes breast cancer in these laboratory aminals.

Professor Rawlinson's team and other international scientists have discovered a similar virus exists in humans.

Prof. William Rawlinson We have no direct evidence that the MMTV like virus causes breast cancer in women.

Prof. William Rawlinson In women with breast cancer we find the MMTV like virus in around 40 to 45% of their tumours. The association does not prove causation.

Narration But further investigations will continue.Pathologists at Princess Alexandra Hospital are about to begin examining biopsies from the Toowong women looking for a range of things including a mammary tumour virus.

I am more than halfway through Suzanne Summers book "Knockout", and find the information in there to be very educational.  I would suggest that anyone facing or living with any kind of cancer diagnosis read this book and the interviews with the alternative and integrative medicine professionals that deal with their treatment methods and the testimonies from their patients.

I have always been a fan of healthy eating and exercise, as well as detoxification and taking supplements, and this book further drives that point home.  Whether you opt for conventional treatment or alternative treatment, nutrition is such an important part of managing the disease.

I'm sure there are many books similar to this one out there, but I just happened to pick this one up over the weekend and it confirmed a lot of what I was already thinking. 

thatslife   ...  I read this article and found it interesting that the story of this man, who had bone cancer, had a bone marrow transplant.

 http://stanfordhospital.org/newsEvents/newsletters/healthnotes/rewriting-immunitys-rules.html

I' know that the bone marrow produces needed cells for our immune system. I'm an advocate for building our immune system...and  if we can get our immune system doing its job then we're the better for it.

I'm not aware of the drugs you mentioned, but love that you are really thinking it through.