An Alternative approach to Stage IV Health and choices

The Manganiya Seduction by Roysten Able....performed in Melbourne recently..I missed it...the producer was discussing on the ABC how he believes the music has a healing quality, as i was listening to it, i believed him!. http://youtu.be/UxxdLfawoWo

Something that has had me chuckling since last night. I have started writing a blog. Something completely new to me, but im finding it very therapeutic. I hope my daughter can keep it as a record of me, she is more likely to click onto it online than she is to read a diary that will probably end up in the bottom of a box somewhere. Im not very good at diaries...its been months since i have made an entry into the paper version. Anyway, i have been a bit shy about making the blog 'public', and only 2 friends are 'following' it. The other day i thought i would add a blog by the author of the book that really helped me come to terms with this dx, in  'blogs i follow'...and i added a speel about how i found his book invaluable. Last night i was reading over my last entry, and on the right of it i read "orgasm or the moment of death"...i jumped six feet..thought 'what the?..' i clicked to read his latest entry..and its all about good orgasms and the death experience. ok, each to their own...but just my luck that the moment i publicly recommend someone, its going to loook like im a weird follower of a sex guru....lol...I swear that his book is about diet, meditation, and coming to terms with cancer.....lol..

the Women's Healthy Eating and Living Study showed not much benefit at all re recurrence of BC with high vegetable/low carb diet....Though this link shows a positive benefit for those on tamoxifen and the 'healthy' diet. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20607600 ....?

I think jlw is right, that it is a 3 pronged approach to this disease that will encourage benefit, and not just feed the cancer cells.

sstefano...hi and i hope you get to hear from other triple negs who do alternative treatments. sorry to hear you had progression on xeloda, and that your supps havent prevented a progression. With all the things we look at on this thread, i have seen a number of articles on triple neg and the benefits of a low carb/fat diet..for earlier stages, a 40+% decrease in recurrences..who knows with stage IV, but we can try hey!...

I am suspicious of supps too. especially with all the media coverage lately about multi vitamins, and supps increasing our chances of dying by 45% !?..i really want to look into it here, though it will probably freak us out a bit as so many of us use supps...but its important to face the facts i think. I remember seeing info on multivitamins last year and a connection between them and an increased breast cancer risk. There followed a huge advertising campaign by vitamin companies, and it drowned out, or obscured the information. I would love it if there was someone here who could help work through this issue.   I have been a bit anti supps since i used to work in a pharmacy...dont laugh too loudly, but i was given a title and a badge saying 'senior vitamin adviser' based on 3 x 2day training sessions with each major vitamin company. That enough scared me...who was i to offer advice on such potentially dangerous products with 6 days training! (i ended up leaving the job) but during the training. we were told that if something only has a placebo effect with recent trials, still recommend it. also, there was a general belief that very large concentrated doses of substances that have shown to be effective in nature, will have benefit...now it seems maybe not...anyway, any triple negs have any handy hints/lifestyle choices that they believe have helped them living at stage IV?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2qbelbuECo&feature=fvst

3littlegirls: i dont know about the powder form of wheatgrass. But i did read that anything new we take on should be introduced slowly...an eighth of the recommended dose on the bottle or of any new diet protocol. If these things do work...at stage IV, we need to slowly kill off the microbes..and not in a big hit (same with chemo..) so its recommended to drink heaps of water while changing to a diet or supp...to help eliminate debris. Apparently wheatgrass works best with an alkaline diet...i.e. no sugar, white flour, dairy, meat etc. I found this link which i thought was really interesting:

 http://www.asco.org/ascov2/Meetings/Abstracts?&vmview=abst_detail_view&confID=40&abstractID=33403

and this one, a trial on the potential benefits while on chemo :

http://69.164.208.4/files/Wheat%20Grass%20Juice%20May%20Improve%20Hematological%20Toxicity%20Related%20to%20Chemotherapy%20in%20Breast%20Cancer%20Patients:%20A%20Pilot%20Study.pdf

I was just reading up on how much to add to a juice, i think i will start very slowly!..im just going to add a tiny bit to a juice till i know how it affects me. ..like 25mls ...I am interested to hear what the powdered recommendation is per day?...I want to grow alfalfa too...its the live food thing again.

 hi impositive...im glad you are here..well, im excited for you trying the new treatment center, i hope you get excellent results, i hope you share your journey with us too...i was looking around Aus for treatment centers, and theres not much available. I think theres an issue with the dsmo thing here...but The Ian gawler foundation has a conference on soon, and im going to try to go. I just today read on his blog about a trial on meditation ..this is a snippet:

 "If meditation can lengthen your telomeres, does this mean it lengthens your life? A major new study from America, involving Australian Noble Laureate Prof Elizabeth Blackburn, is one of a number of recent studies that tantalisingly suggests this may well be so.

This new study, conducted by a big team at UC Davis and led by Tonya Jacobs and Clifford Saron, measured telomerase activity in the participants of a three month, intensive meditation retreat. Known as the Shamatha project, and with the retreat itself led by the renowned B Alan Wallace, participants meditated in group sessions twice daily, and in individual practice for six hours each day.

The most comprehensive scientific study of a meditation retreat yet conducted, there have been some very interesting findings. Firstly, telomerase activity was 30% higher in those on the retreat compared to their matched controls. There was a positive relationship between these telomerase changes and positive psychological changes.

Saron speaking with the due caution of a scientist says " The take home message from this work is not that meditation directly increases telomerase activity and therefore a person's health and longevity. Rather, meditation may improve a person's psychological wellbeing and in turn these changes are related to telomerase activity in cells, which have the potential to promote longevity in those cells".

....anyway, maybe there is actual physical change and benefit from practicing meditation, though the participants meditated for about 6 hours a day!

Re coconut oil: I bought health reflections 100% pure organic cold pressed coconut oil, which is made in fiji. the only problem is its in a plastic jar...same as you impositive, i couldnt find one that ticks all the boxes. but i do know that cold pressed is important. The container does say 'contains no hexane'..whatever that means, and also 'fair trade organic'...which is good. I have a fijian friend who gets it in a jar, cold pressed, i will ask her what brand hers is. Maybe i could get some farmers involved in a 'live food' list ..i want to be able to pick it though...I will look into it tonight.

lulubee: check out impositive's antifungal thread. coconut oil has antifungal properties. I was freaking out the other day, as i had these huge C shaped things growing on me, and i thought they could be skin mets. I had never seen anything like them before. onc said ringworm, gp said shingles...canesten antifungal cream hardly made a difference, hence i was starting to worry, as they were spreading...my friend , and heidi, said to try coconut oil...and they are fading fast, almost gone....im so relieved. i have read heaps of things on coconut oil, im sure i read something about coconut oil and BC, but cant find it in my many notes anywhere...if i find it, i will write it here.(sometimes my brain is fried) if you search coconut oil in search...i know its spoken about often here. But as an alternative to toxic cosmetics, moisturisers etc..im really happy with the switch.

Hi all, hope you are doing well...:) Im having a brain MRI next wednesday...because i mentioned some odd headaches, vision issues, and fatigue to my onc....ooops..so will keep you posted on the result..if my BC has spread, then im going full on into an alt protocol..probably the budwig protocol, and serious relaxation..serious juicing..at the moment, i have been only exchanging crappy food for beautiful food...doing the physiochi..trying to meditate...but i have been a bit disheartened, and cranky the last few weeks...so if anyone wants to help me keep the faith..get motivated again, go for it

meanwhile i found this link to pick your own organic fruit, if anyone in Australia is interested in having access to live food  http://www.pickyourown.org/australiavic.htm

thought i would add this post that i posted for evie on another thread:

"This is a link titled 'what should breast cancer patients and survivors eat during Herceptin treatment:

http://foodforbreastcancer.com/articles/what-should-breast-cancer-patients-and-survivors-eat-during-herceptin-treatment%3F

seems like good information evie...There was a mention of using an antioxidant vitamin supplement while on herceptin may not be a good idea, anyway, read it if you are interested, and maybe google for more info. I dont think they are selling something!"

hi eve, i found this link of drugs affected by grapefruit, or grapefruit juice. Grapefruit should not be consumed while on tamoxifen either.

http://www.pharmacists.ca/content/hcp/resource_centre/drug_therapeutic_info/pdf/DrugAdministrationGrapefruitJuice.pdf