An Alternative approach to Stage IV Health and choices

Probably not a good idea to fast and take metformin at the same time, but who knows? I will try intermittent fasting again next month. I have a bit more stress these days and need to be able to snack all day.

There are side effects to metformin as with all drugs. My sister's skin color started changing, so her doctor stopped it and said the exercise was enough to keep her blood glucose under control.

that's life,

I had seen the same study. It is yet another indicator that the easy-to-sell, easy-to-buy-into sales pitch we get, that we can get rid of our cancer by using toxic (nasty) chemo to kill each cancer cell as it is dividing, may be more myth than truth.

Chemotherapy apparently does not kill stem cells. So all that trauma and drama of heroically marching through chemotherapy to be "saved" by it seems pretty unlikely to me.

In hindsight after having done chemotherapy, I think maybe oncologists should quit pretending chemo does much at all other than wipe out most of the other kinds of cancer cells and buy time until they build up again. Maybe they should have taken a much closer look at the study of endocrine processes like metabolism in the first place, to find a more permanent solution to the problem.

A.A.

Taxanes, from what I recall, do kill stem cells but not as effectively as we would want. Blood boosters and steroids have also been shown in some studies to kill cancer stem cells. For a person who needs fast-acting therapy at stage 4 and can tolerate it, this combination may be called for. I certainly don't regret receiving it. My onc admits it was about buying time. If I feel better and live to see my daughter reach adulthood, I'm happy. in general, I feel we shouldn't minimize the importance of killing normal cancer cells even if stem cells remain. It's possible normal cells provide a reserve pool of stem cells to grow, so why not get rid of them? Do we know that hormonal therapy kills stem cells? It certainly can keep cancer dormant for extended periods. Having said that, I think we at all stages should be looking at metabolic solutions to keep cancer dormant or kill stray cells. A combined approach is probably best. I'm doing an AI, intermittent intermittent fasting, daily exercise, low-carb.

I also think there is something to hyperthermia for breast cancer. More on this later.

Sweetbean I think the idea of the Gerson diet is to have no protein. I could be wrong.

Seriously.  Good Lord.  I had radiation.  How terrifying.

At age 49 I thought maybe I was doing pretty well. I'd had one mammogram at age 38 and the next one at age 49, which picked up the cancer. Since then I have been toasted, roasted and filleted. Sad to say, I more or less figured that radiation I got are what are so innocently called "second tumors" locally, and that I am close to the head of the line for one eventually.

The funny thing about it is that the chief of the rads center who did the calculations for my treatment at the brand new rads center managed to fry my newly lumpectomized, previously perky and proud breast. So maybe cooking it and making it hard and painful cooked the stem cells too?

A.A.

Perhaps when they talk about fasting, they mean a green juice fast.  When I was first dx with bc, I went on a juice fast to cleanse my body and put it in an alkaline state so that cancer would have difficullty growing.

 Cancer feeds on glucose that is converted from the simple carbs that we eat daily, like rice, pasta, potatoes, white flour, sugar, etc.  By eliminating all of this from your diet, you are getting nutrient dense foods, but the cancer doesn't thrive in an alkaline environment.  You can test to see if your body has reached that state with strips that you buy at the local health food store.  I reached the optimal state in about a week, and my body was detoxed.  After that I switched to an anti cancer diet of mainly veggies, lean protein, and some fruit and nuts (gluten free).  I wasn't overweight, but I lost about 12 pounds and then leveled off.  Most of it was around my middle where the fat cells are stored, and also where the estrogen that feeds my type of bc is found.  Along with diet I take a lot of supplements prescribed by my naturopathic doctor, along with weekly IV infusions with cancer preventive meds.  No guarantees it will work, but there are no guarantees with conventional treatments either.  I'm feeling great!

I think diet is the first line of defense, and hopefully the medical field is beginning to recognize that.  Why not just acknowledge that the Gerson Therapy was on the right track all along. 

Heidi, your story is fascinating, and encouraging.  I would really like to know more about your history along the way with supplementation, fasting, and diet.

Kaara, you too -- I would like to hear what supplements you take and what infusions you are getting weekly.  

If y'all have already spelled this out elsewhere or earlier on this thread, please don't spend valuable time reinventing those posts on my account -- just maybe tell me some search clues and I'll gladly look up your posts myself. 

I've been at this for almost five years, and I'm still tweaking my supplement regimen every few weeks.  I still have much to learn -- and I suspect my young ND does, too.  So I like to hear other perspectives.

Sweetbean, I think Kaara mentioned lean protein -- just emphasizing the need to get rid of the white starches/sugars and then focusing on the pH, eating mostly veggies, with some fruit. I haven't focused on the pH myself but it may be mine is correct just by eating primarily vegetarian and organic.

(Wow, did I ever get some really good wild red salmon at the store this week...!!)

Had I not spent time around rads people and looked into it previously I would have been more horrified about the stem cell issue. I never have been able to comprehend the casual acceptance by patients but even more so of care providers, of radiation. I think about the multiplying effect for those in Japan of rads from WWII and rads from the reactors and my soul hurts for the animals of all kinds that have been caught up in it.

A.A.

AA, I think you have to factor in age.  Young women under 40 generally get chemo, even if they are Stage 1, because their prognosis is historically worse than women over 40.  And many come out of chemopause - I did at 38.  (I was quite surprised.)  I haven't gained any weight as a result of chemo.  But for older women, there may indeed be overkill.

However, I am quite happy about the oncotype test because I think it helps people weed out who doesn't need chemo.  Hopefully, we will continue in the direction of more efficient and less toxic treatments.