Hi All- Like many others in this situation, I am OD-ing on reading any and everything I can about this, and one thing that has piqued my interest is the role of Vit D3 in treating cancer. Does anyone have any info or experience with this? I meet with RO tomorrow, and want to ask him about supplementing my treatments with D3. I am considering going that route whether he gives his nod of approval or not- unless he can show me that taking it will somehow interfere with planned rad/chemo that is.
Also, knowing that sugar is food to cancer, has anyone had experience with lemons? Yes, lemons. As acidic as they are, once they hit the intestines they have an alkalizing effect that neutralizes PH balance.
I may be sounding a little "out there", but I have never been a fan of "Big Pharma" and want to look at alternatives in conjunction with planned therapies.
Thx in advance....
Lyn
Lyn
While it's great to read up on this cancer, it's important that you don't get sucked up by the overly simplistic "solutions" that abound on the internet. Strictly speaking: there are no alternatives to surgery, radiation and chemo except death. If only a vitamin & lemon helped cure cancer, what a wonderful world this would be. Color me cynical.
Good for you on checking with your doctor to make sure that real treatment will not be affected. Everything that interferes with radiation is not cataloged as since the internet too many "alternatives" are bandied about and it's not worth anyone's time or money to do studies that "show they interfere". Actually, logic dictates the burden is on the "alternative" or adjunctive pill to show it's harmless.
Posters are always surprised to find out that the much touted antioxidants can help the tumor.
As far as Vitamin D3, there is a simple blood test that can measure your blood level of D3. Lots of studies show D3 is important to heart health and my cardiologist has had me taking 4000 IU of Vitamin D a day . My blood levels are great, way over the lab range limits, but Vitamin D did not prevent my cancer from coming back twice.
That's my experience.
Neither my wife nor I ate sugar or sugar substitutes for over 20 years. While we were incredibly healthy, avoiding sugar didn't stop me from getting cancer either. I'm unaware of any studies that the PH balance of your intestines has any relationship at all to oral cancer.
Charm
Thank you for your response; believe me, I am not about to for-go any of the traditional treatments for Anything. I have seen that there have been clinical trials involving Vit D., so I wanted to know about anyone's thoughts/experiences; and I appreciate yours. My thought process is that if there is anything I can do to "enhance" treatment, then I would like to take advantage. For instance, one of my questions tomorrow at my rad simulation appt is to ask if there is anything I can start doing/taking now to be proactive, so that when treatments start I am that much further along in the game. So far the only thing I have done is stock up on some supplies- many of which I saw suggested on this forum.
As I have said, I feel the more I learn, the more I don't know, and I appreciate the wisdom of those who have gone before me.
Lynney, PLEASE be very careful!!! Im glad to see you will ask your doctor about things prior to using them. What you wrote does concern me. Do NOT go against doctors orders regarding adding supplements. If your doc says NO then there must be a reason why he would say NO. By going ahead anyway could put you into a dangerous situation. Certain things can interfere with your radiation/chemo treatments. You dont want to go thru tx to make yourself well only only to find out your treatments didnt work. If you had gone against your doctors orders you would always be wondering if what you took caused a problem. There are too many variables in this to not follow your doctors orders.
When I was getting ready to begin my treatments I started taking lots of vitamins to try to boost myself up. My doc told me to only take a regular multi vitamin, nothing extra.
Thanks for you wisdom guys, believe me, I take what you say to heart. (And thank you for "moving" me- I hadn't noticed the Adjunctive Therapies thread! )
Lyn
As I posted, I do take Vitamin D. I have been following a Brigham & Young clinical trial but the results won't be done until 2016. It has placebo groups as well as vitamin groups which is really essential since just believing in a sugar pill being called something else often gets the same results as the pill being tested. (the reason people believe in woo woo & quackademic medicine, even more and more doctors & hospitals). Unfortunately, placebos don't seem to work for oral cancer.
Here's the info on the clinical trial. I see there are 39 other Vitamin D clinical trials but for other things, including one on breast cancer.
Vitamin D -clinical trial Also, don't forget my prior advice to you to get your exact thyroid level now, before treatment. It's very very important.
Just a simple blood test to get your personal number. I get both my Vitamin D and TSH levels checked in one blood test every six months now, although it was every 3 months at first
Charm
We, this site, haven't found any supplemental "treatements" to recommend to newbies other than 1. Fluoride trays, 2. light exercise, 3. at least 48 ozs of water each and every day and 4. Appx 2500 + calories each and every day. Even with these we advise they get their Tx doctors' blessing.
My RO gave me a list of vitamins and minerals to avoid during treatment. To Christine's point, the RO said that the items on the list would work against the treatments so she advised begin careful about them. If they haven't given you a list, you may want to see if they can so you know what to avoid.
Hi All- I asked all 3 docs about Vit D3, and they all gave the go ahead, as long as I don't go overboard with it. They suggested against A, C, and E unless it is just part of a multi-vitamin I take. (anti-oxidents are a no-no)
Charm- what is the purpose of the TSH test? And if they are going to do it after treatment, why wouldnt they do it prior to have a baseline? Sorry, so much of this is new to me, and I am up to here (on tippy- toes, hand held as high as possible over head) with a whole new vocabulary and world of tests and doctors and statistics and...and....and...............
I do appreciate all of you and your help- and I wish the best for all.
You will want to have a thyroid base line for after radiation. Your post rad thyroid numbers are not always your pre rad numbers so having a pre rad baseline is very important. It is very common for OC patients to have thyroid problems after rads. Seems like most of us end up taking thyroid meds.
Lyn
You are right that the doctors should do a TSH test BEFORE treatment and the guidelines suggest that but in practice, many many posters here did not get such the TSH test before starting radiation. Since most doctors working now went to medical school back in the 20th century instead of this century, they falsely assume that giving their patients a TSH test AFTER treatment will identify if there is a thyroid issue. But all a test afterwards does is tell them whether or not you are in a super wide range of "normal" which is worthless information to you as an individual. The better doctors just go ahead and prescribe thyroid meds if the patient has symptoms but some are overly cautious or still relying on last century's information. Bottom line: you need and want your post treatment TSH level to be the same as it was before your treatment. If you do not know your actual TSH level number before TX, then it's only a guess .
Charm