Alternative cancer treatment claims in the media are damaging and misl
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Dear Jim~
First of all, thank you for your post. My husband and I are sitting in a hotel room in Houston (MD Anderson.) We learned nothing different here than we had at home: there is new mets to his lungs and the only treatment option right now is gem/cis. He gave us a death sentence yesterday….no cure, chemo will work for awhile. Neither of us are excited about repeating the same chemo that doesn’t seem to have worked in the first place, knowing it’s only going to be effective for a short time. In addition, our practices and medical beliefs tend to be on the nutritional side of things (well, that is, after our faith in our God) and so we’ve been looking into alternative nutritional methods. We spent the day yesterday researching all of them: Gerson, Gonzales, Optimum Health Institute, Budwig, and a few more. We prayed about it. We feel inert….like we’re all dressed up with no place to go….ready to begin but not sure which group to throw ourselves into. We do need a program, guidance…so, hopefully today, before we go home, we will have a wise decision in place. If anyone else has experiences to share….please do. We’re not interested in bashing alternative therapy methods now…we’re interested in hope. Thank you all…..blessings on your journey…
Thank you, Jim and Denise, for sharing your story here. I love to hear all about your “alternative” journey. We all try to decide what sorts of treatments to add to our regimens, or when to try other things entirely, but to know folks who are actually walking that walk, well, it is just really nice to know about, it is something to add to our thoughts. I am so happy to hear things are going well for you, Denise. I hope for all the time in the world for you!
marions,
Thank You for your kind words & support. It has been on my heart for some time to share my wife’s journey here on the forum. I will continue to post periodically and answer any questions that may come.holly22a,
Thanks for your kind words & I understand your frustration very well. I believe the reason for the lack of scientific evidence is due to the way our medical system works, and the cost.PCL1029,
Thank you for your response, & I’m glad your combination of traditional & CAM is working well for you. Everyone’s situation is unique, and thus their decision on how to treat themselves will be unique as well. I did not initially support my wife’s decision to do CAM, I felt we should do what the doctor said and start chemo. I have realized now that my role is to support her in whatever decision she makes.Thank You all & May God Bless You on your journey,
Jim & DeniseHi,
If I may, no one as a patient including me, not to seek CAM( complimentary and alternative) medicine to treated ourselves in addition to the western style traditional ” evidence base” medicine practice. According to one study, the higher education the patient or the caregiver has,the more likely they will seek additional CAM treatment for cancer and that is why so many money may be wasted on CAM.( study done by univ. of Pittsburg)
There are studies that indicate alternative treatment like yoga, meditation and acupuncture may help in palliative treatment setting. Moderate exercise like tai-chi may help too. Complimentary treatment like using Chinese herbal medication compounding prescriptions may improve overall well being of cancer patient with regard to shortness of breath symptom, fatigue ,diarrhea and nausea. But the key to Chinese herbal meds is to find someone who really know the stuff well over his or her lifetime practice by trail and error, more or less like phase one and two study conduct by the practitioner. in short, by experience. And for you to find a good and experienced one in the States is very tough. You may need a Chinese or Korean friend who is over 50 years old to help you to find one in San Fran,new York or in Toronto.
I am a patient of this cancer for 45 months. Recur once and resected , on adjuvant chemotherapy Xeloda for 10 month; clean PET scan last month; then start the low dose Xeloda as maintenance therapy twice daily for a couple years more. I take a Chinese medicine called yun-zhi( trade name Oncozac) 3 capsules twice a day as complimentary medicine ,for improving my immune system; i take vitamin D3 twice a day,and a COX-2 inhibitor like celebrex 200 mg twice daily.I also use Chinese Herbs in powder forms to compound my own Chinese herbal medicine once or twice a week to increase my overall well being and strength in fighting fatigue . This requires a lot of research and understanding of the Chinese herbal medicine. But it can be done by research thru the Sloan- Kettering web site for herbal medicine. It is a great site to start. In addition to the above, I keep my self hydrated all the time; I take naps when I feel tired and I go to bed early around 9 pm and try to get at least 8 -10 hour sleep.One word if I may say so, to treat cancer just by alternative treatment or/and CAM is not potent enough to fight the cancer. The adaptability of cancer is so great that even the targeted agents used in standard cancer protocol will lost their efficacy due to drug resistance, and therefore change in treatment plan including interventional radiation and new drugs are not uncommon ,not to mention if you just rely on CAM only .
A close friend of Steve Jobs had cancer and he asked Steve( who was in his final months of the journey on earth) for advice; Jobs told his friend( who help Jobs to invent the mouse for the MAC) NOTto repeat the mistakes he made for treating his own pancreatic cancer. I think that was Jobs’ best advice to those who need his wisdom.
God bless.Jim: I am so happy to hear your wife is doing well on this regimen! As a biophysicist and cc patient myself, and one who uses accupuncture and diet as part of my overall approach to this disease, I was interested to read your posting here, a most welcome posting. My only question about ANY alternative therapy is, why no evidence? Why have these alternative therapies and their founders (or the folks making money from them) never been put to the very simple test of scientific randomized trials? Anecdotal stories like yours are wonderful. There are a lot of them out there. But who is to say that your wife’s tumor might have stabilized anyhow, or who is to say it’s the diet vs the prayers vs the machine?? I would LOVE to see these alternative therapies join the scientific world and be willing to be tested! To have actual DATA on any of them, as opposed to stories, would be the best thing ever and would be a tremendous service to all of us working to learn and to devise a plan for ourselves. So we all just try to pick and choose and use therapies where we can, kind of flying in the dark. Whereas traditional medicine is all about evidence and facts. That’s what bothers me. So keep up the really good work with your wife and thanks for listening to my little frustration rant! ~Holly
Jim… I am overjoyed to hear of Denise’s success with her alternative approach to this disease and wish for all good things to continue. To hear that she is feeling great and that her tumor is stable is incredible news to share with us. Congratulations.
Jim, please know that we don’t intentionally restrict our support to those choosing chemical treatments rather, we rarely receive member reports on alternative treatment methods. Therefore, I welcome your posting and would hope for you to continue to share your thoughts with us. In fact, it would be great to see our Complementary & Alternative Treatments growing in the time to come.
Again, congratulations to you both and please, stay in touch.
Hugs,
MarionGavin,
While not everything written about alternative treatments is valid, many of the protocols have been around longer than chemo and radiation. My wife was diagnosed with cc the end of June 2012, surgery and transplantation were not an option as she has a klatskin type tumor involving both the left & right bile ducts as well as the left main portal vein. All that was offered was chemo & she decided she did not want to do that. We began the Gerson therapy at home on the 1st of August. After 2 weeks we transitioned to the Budwig protocol because she was having intestinal issues doing that much juice each day. She has also done B-17, a rife machine, takes epsom salt/baking soda bath’s & see’s a homeopathic doctor who has a BioMeridian machine which can test different whole food supplements to see if they resonant with her body. Today her blood work is normal except her alk phos is still a little high. She eats mostly organic, takes her whole food supplements, does the rife machine every other day, & coffee enema’s every other day. She looks and feels great! Her last ct scan done last month when compared to the one 6 months ago shows no metasis and the tumor has not grown at all. We believe above all that her faith that God will heal her & all the prayers she has received is the most powerful thing of all. There is no doubt a lot of folks trying to make money with false claims, but there is also a lot of folks out there willing to share their testimonies on how they beat cancer using alternative treatments for free.
I have not posted on here since we decided to go alternative as I did not feel there was much support here for that. Cancer is a very personal journey and I would never discourage anyone from one treatment versus another. I will continue to post here periodically to update her progress and answer any question that I can.God Bless You All,
Jim & Denise BurkeAlternative cancer treatment claims in the media are damaging and misleading.
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