Vitamins, supplements, foods to avoid/eat-What Do You Do?

Amelie, unfortunately the info available is contradictory. I am not sure what to tell you. Personally I avoid flax. Many people take chia seeds instead.

Yes, Amelie, I am sure we can all relate.

I've worked with holistic practioners, and had a lot of opinions from top hospitals because I was a young patient for whom they didn't quite know what the right protocol was.

One doctor sorta haunted me, she said that they will never be able to test all the herbal/supplement interactions with Tamoxifen, and so she recommended only doing 100% RDA of anything.  I was on a lot of stuff from the holistic doctor, and I rethought things.  First of all, I like to keep it simple, so I was thrilled with the idea of cutting my insane supplement budget. I decided to go with what I had consistently heard good things about.  So, to that end:

Fish oil--studies even indicate it increases the efficacy of Tamoxifen

D--a no brainer, though the actual blood serum levels are a source of contradictory studies

Magnesium--the only thing that keeps me regular with the Tamoxifen

Calcium--whole food, about 250 - 500 mgs a day per latest recommendations

Probiotic--when I travel

Melatonin--when I travel

Probiotics also may help "purge" hormones from the intestines and are thought to protect against colon cancer. Ditto for fibre, of course, and along with whatever supplements I take, I am conscious of picking high-fibre foods whenever practical, so wholegrain bread over white, sweet potato over white, quinoa over white rice - notice a pattern, btw? 

take cancer out of the scenario its always been the same, one decade they say 'this is good for you' next decade, sorry we were wrong.

now in australia they are saying coffee is good up to 3 cups a day, suits me fine, will always drink coffee.

xx

Claire, it will take a few good sized studies to keep me from taking my turmeric.

HI everyone:  I am new to commenting on these boards, although I read a lot of posts when I was first diagnosed with DCIS on the right side in late November 2012.  Long story short, I had a lumpectomy on Jan. 3, path reports came back that everything was removed with 9mm margins (most likely during the stereotactic biopsy!), no rads recommended.  For the left side, first path report came back hyperplasia no atypia, then 2nd path report suggested ADH, so my surgeon would like to take that stuff out as well to confirm that nothing worse is lurking.

I met with my MO this week, fully anticipating that she would push Tamox on me becasue of both breasts being involved, but to my surprise, what she told me was that 8 out of 10 months she would say not to take it for someone with my diagnosis!  She said in the months where she sees more recurrences with women who did not take Tamox, then she worries!  I am 52, pre-menopausal and no family history. She said I have to decide if I am more worried by the fairly low possibility of recurrence, or more worried about taking a pil that might have unpleasant side-effects.

I am not a big believer in supplements in general, as I know that getting vitamins, etc is best done through food consumption. That said, before my diagnosis, I was taking a black cohash/vitex based hormone blancer, Evening Primrose oil (both to manage extreme cyclical breast tenderness) and Omegas. Stopped everything except Omegas becasue I didn't know if they were contraindicated.  I have a very helathy diet overall, am probably a bit underweight if anything-we have a vegetable garden, buy organic for what we don't grow, all meats we consume are organic/pasture-raised, lots of veggies, beans, etc.  I drink a bit of wine and eat some dark chocolate, but not a lot of "white" stuff (e.g. breads, sugar, dairy etc). I juice nearly every morning with carrot, apple, kale, cucumber ginger and tumeric. Based on this, the MO felt that there was not much more that I could do to improve my eating habits in terms of risk reduction. So I asked her about supplements to help reduce/eliminate circulating estrogen-such as calcium d-glucarate and DIM. I am also considering olive leaf extract and/or green tea extract and tumeric.  I ordered them but have not started taking them.  She basically confirmed my belief and said that because supplements are not regulated like pharmaceuticals, there is no way to really know the levels and purity of many supplements.  Lot of ingredients come from China and are even less regulated.  She recommened Michael Pollan's books as well (which I have read), as well as "The Blue Zones", and trying to conume as much of the healthy stuff in original form as possible.  She did say that it would be great if there could be more studies on the value supplements (assuming that the ingredients could be regulated).  She said there was one breast cancer study going on with some supplement (can't recall which) in Australia that had to be halted becasue participants were suffering from renal failure from bad ingredients.

Anyway, was wanting to get some insight from you ladies to see if you are aware of any supplement companies that take extra steps to ensure that ingedients are local and that purity is tested?  This is a link I found that might seem like some kind of FDA scare tactic, but that also makes sense.  Thanks in advance for any insights!

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2012/09/10-surprising-dangers-of-vitamins-and-supplements/index.htm

HVV got it right.  Someone mentioned Vitamin E, I don't take that, I take fish oil.  Any additional information on that welcomed! Probiotics are super-helpful when traveling for a lot of things, including general travel upset, and even parasites in certain locations.  Melatonin sometimes helps me sleep.  Doesn't always work.

Eliza22: it is my understanding that EPO needs to be taken for months before an effect can be seen ( and there are a few studies that have failed to prove its effectiveness for breast pain).



I started taking it again a month or so ago, and am sorry to report that my breast tenderness may be worse than ever, which leads me to belirvr that what was really helping me was the black cohosh/vitex which balances the ratio between estorgen and progesterone. I'm begininng to feel that I may be low in progesterone and am going to explore the risks/benefits of progesterone cream, since black cohosh appears to be contraindicated for BC.



Bes of luck!

This thread has been inactive for a couple of years, but I am wondering about interaction of Cucumin/Tumeric and Arimidex?

My wife has been taking since March 2014:

• Metformin, 850 mg, twice a day;
• Curcumin complex 500 mg, three times/day;
• Ashwagandha 1200 mg, 5 caplets/day.

Besides the above, she's been taking the more usual vitmains and mineral complexes for years. Recently, her primary-care physician prescribed daily monitoring of her glycemia with a home gadget, perhaps because she's taking metformin; has anybody on metformin been suggested to monitor the glycemic index?

I am very concerned over the heart effects of doxorubicin. What does everyone take to counteract the damage? Still trying to find my way ... fran

MLP3, I would suggest you wait on adding supplements until you talk with your doctors. No, being estrogen positive, you need to get rid of estrogen, not add to it. Best of luck to you!