For Informed People Using Alternative Treatments

Hi Kireeus Wow your naturopath sounds amazing!   I am considering colon hydrotherapy myself. Overall, did you think it was helpful?

Ponyo,

One thing that helped me give up alcohol was reading about the "feminization" of men who drink a lot of alchohol (man boobs).  There's a few theories about why this happens, one is that alcohol is a powerful phytoestrogen because of the plants it's made from.  Another is that alcohol impedes the liver's ability to get rid of estrogen.  So, whenever I consider drinking a glass of wine, I think of it as a glass of estrogen, and that stops me cold. At restaurants with friends I order sparking mineral water.  At first I feel deprived, but later in the evening when everybody else looks kind of saggy, and I still feel pretty good, I'm glad I avoided the alcohol.

Ponyo-regarding the citrus pectin, I mix one scoop with a very small amount of water, stir that up, then add more water.  Kind of like making gravy.  Sometimes I get a couple lumps, but I smash them out then lick the spoon to make sure I'm getting it all.  I first started taking it when I asked Dr Darvish about getting something to be radio-protective when I decided to get the pet/ct scan.  But I was really impressed when I read the research about it and breast cancer, and I've been testing positive for it ever since.

I admire your ability to meditate.  I'm hoping to start.  At my naturopath's clinic, there is one person who specializes in helping people do "emotional releases".  I haven't gotten to this phase of treatment yet.  But I met and talked with her when she was the substitute technician for my Ondemed treatment.  I was telling her about how my white blood cells had gone up after taking a homeopathic remedy that basically has nothing in it -  the original drops of something are diluted down 300 to 700 times by nothing.  She said that it was energy medicine, and that our minds have the ability to be even more powerful.  She started having me think of my white blood cells as employees of mine, directing them what to do, praising them.  She told me to think of how I would motivate my real (human) employees to work, and treat the white blood cells the same way.  So now, when I make my green juice in the morning, I tell my white blood cells that it's pay day!  And sometimes I think of my body being like spinach when you wash it.  I breath in the clean water, and when I breath out, all the silt and dirt fall into the earth.  

Shiraz - I spent twelve years, and have seen many naturopaths before my current one without being able to raise my white blood cells much.  I sympathize with your friend.  I have no idea if the homeopathic remedy I took will work for her.  My naturopath thinks it's the combination of the poly MVA and the Medullosseinum. But I also think it's transdermal magnesium.  Before I started seeing  this naturopath I did manage to once get my WBC up to 2.3 (normally 1.3 to 1.8) when I worked on absorbing  transdermal magnesium In a big way 4 or 5 epsom salt bathes a day, plus massages with magnesium oil, but I couldn't keep that up long term. But I still do some, so now, in addition to everything else, i'm also taking one 20 minute daily epsom salt baths and having my husband give me a daily massage with magnesium oil, just before bed -  we bought a gallon size jug of Ancient Minerals Magnesium oil.  I feel like for me problems with magnesium absorption have been part of my white blood cell problem.  I have celiac, which impedes absorption of minerals.  And I also have chronic lyme disease which depletes magnesium.  My naturopath thinks i've had the lyme disease for thirty years, and that it "opened the door" for the leukemia to happen after I was exposed to a big dose of radiation at work. I imagine the leukemia then "opened the door" for the breast cancer.  Now I'm trying to usher them all out and close the door.  A kind of cheap thing to try for your friend would be try out doing two or three epsom salt baths a day(epsom salt is cheapest from Costco), try out the Medullosseinum, and get a bottle of Poly MVA and try it orally.  And see what happens. Also, if she hasn't already, she should try giving up gluten and dairy. She too may have absorption problems.  And she might want to try 5-L-MTHF.  But working with someone would be best.  Her insurance may pay for a naturopath, she might want to check. It took me a long time to find a naturopath who could substantially help me, but everyone i saw along the way was able to contribute to some degree.  And at least they can order the test to see if she needs 5-MTHF, and figure out if maybe she's got allergies that are getting in the way.  Also, there's a pretty cheap juicer at Costco that she might want to get, the jack lalaine one (about $100) was my first one - the plastic got kind of dis-colored afer a year , so I replaced it with a stainlesss steel one,  She might want to try to juice greens every morning, spinach, celery, cucumbers, ginger, and half a green apple.  No fruit, no sugar, and no alcohol.  Good luck to your friend! 

Kireeus - Thank you so much for that information.  I want to go ahead with it. Sounds like the perfect detox!

Wow.  This current discussion is way over my head!  I don't know what half of this stuff is. hahahaha  

On a different note I just wanted to say as a second time BC survivor the more I am reading about mammograms the more bothered I am becoming that I was subjected to so many from ages 28 to 41.   I just got done with the book "Breast Cancer: 50 Essential Things You Can Do" and am now reading "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Breast Cancer" and both books mention how harmful the continued radiation is -- especially for younger women!  Ugh! Not to mention that neither time did a mammogram even help- I found my cancer both times on my own even with recent mammograms done.   On a positive note, both books are making me feel even better about my decision to skip chemotherapy both times. 

Kireeus, that is an amazing regimen you are on. I have to say, I'm not sure I would have the self-discipline to do all those things, even with so much at stake. I am thinking of convincing my husband of the need to do daily magnesium oil massages, though  

hpjz, I'm with you on the mammograms. They have given me no helpful information in my life (dense breasts, found lump myself), yet I can't get an ultrasound without having a mammogram first according to my doctors and insurance! Really irritating. I think I will qualify for a yearly MRI, which I plan on availing myself of. 

I got both books from the library so you may want to check yours if you use it. I am only 50 pages into the second book so can't fairly judge yet but will keep you updated. The 50 Essential things book was good but I think the other one is going to be a little more informative about how to live/ eat to control hormones which I am interested in. Both books stated there is no medical evidence that chemo is effective in breast cancer.  Neither are fans of Tamoxifen either, which I am on so I need to check into this more.  

Lightandwind, thank you for creating this place.  It does help me to feel less alone.  Which really helps.

GlobalGirly, I know exactly what you mean.  I wanted oncologists and oncology clinics to be about figuring out why I have cancer, and how to get me healthy.  But in my experience, they're limited to deciding what chemo will work best,, and then administering it.  I've begun to think of oncologists as chemo therapists. In my experience, they don't have any interest in me unless I'm willing to do chemo.  But they hold the keys to the technology, the scans and the more expensive blood tests.  So I still make appointments with the onc, but I feel kind of guilty about it.  I suspect that they make quite a bit of money from chemo, and oddly enough  I feel kind of guilty about being a low profit patient.  I wonder if they feel that  people like me, are a waste of their time. 

When my white blood cells went up, I thought the onc and the surgeon would be interested in knowing how it had been achieved.  But they had no interest.  When I told this to my naturopath, she said that western medicine is about treating emergencies, not about getting to the root of why you're having the problems. So, I suppose that's why they don't know what to do with me if I don't want the chemo. Chemo is kind of the emergency treatment for cancer.  And I think that only we ourselves can decide whether to get the emergency treatment, or  work on figuring out and treating the root cause or some combo of both.

juneping - thanks for calling me eloquent instead of long-winded!

I think talking about this is helping me to kind of be at peace with the idea of being a disappointment to oncologists. Partly because I've begun to accept that all they really have to offer is chemo, and their experience is all limited to treating people with chemo. And, who knows, maybe having to deal with somebody like me who comes in begging for them to just order up a scan or a lab kind of breaks up the monotony of just prescribing chemo and dealing with side effects. 

Lacking an oncologist to kind of direct the operation, I rely a lot on my naturopath, but i have devised my overall strategy for myself.  After all, no doctor in the US, not even a naturopath, is allowed to tell you not to get chemo.  And I don't really disagree with that policy, because I do think it has to be your own decision.

In a nutshell, my overal strategy is:  I will monitor for local recurrences with ultrasounds and thermography, probably every three months.  

For distant metastasis I will monitor CTCs in my blood every 3 months.  The results my first RGCC (Greek test) showed that the CTCs in my blood (8.2/7.5 ml blood) were completely different from the cancer in my tumor.  They were triple negative, whereas my tumor was triple positive.  The chemo that  MO wanted to give me wouldn't have killed them.  But I'm hoping that building up my immune system will.

And in the months between monitoring, I will devote myself to getting healthy doing everything the naturopath prescribes.

I recently found out about two websites where women who were treated with chemo and declared cancer free then found out about the Greek test and discovered that they still had CTCs in their blood.  I found the websites kind of inspirational because the women worked on their health, and in follow up tests, they bought down their CTC counts. 

In case you're interested, the websites are:

http://cancerfree-areyousure.com

http://healingprovisionsforyou.com

researchers have known about DACH1 for years. it is a tumor supressor, that can be present in estrogen positive and low grade BC. lots of research out there on it.

question...while reading the book. 

If tamoxifen can only put cancer cells to sleep, what happen after we stop taking it? I asked dr Wong and hopefully he'll get back to me. What did your doc say? C is a nightmare 

I will for my second opinion appt in feb.

At the meantime I hope dr Wong gets back to me as well.

I don't mind Dr. Wong's herbs/teas!  I actually drink them room temp out of the bag!