Right or wrong, I don't take any pill other then the tiny white pill to adjust my thyroid. I bought bunches of this stuff right after radiation ended, even took it for awhile. I bought boxes and boxes of Ginseng and Green tea also. Eventually as cancer allowed me back into the drivers seat, I just stopped taking them. I can honestly say that I didn't notice. Boy, I sure do remember the Chocks vitamins my mom used to give us as kids, they tasted so good.
Is there one certain thing that EVERYONE is taking or that is PROVEN to help?

I have been praying a lot and I think that has helped me the most.

I stopped taking everything except the mixture of 19 Chinese herbs my Accupuncturist mixes up from herbs that come only from Taiwan. I also have a special Accupuncture treatment twice weekly that is intended to boost the immune system. I will admit that there are only two cases of total cure, one was base of tongue tumor with lymph node involvement in a 17 year old. I can't remember if it is 19 herbs or I am confusing it with Colonel Sanders 19 herbs and spices and I want fried chicken almost every day, too.

Does all this work? It makes the Accupuncturist beam with excitement and I see his love when he gives me the herbs and treatment (at no cost, by the way). He has invited me over to a pure vegetarian Chinese feast prepared by his wife. He also diagnosed my cancer. I had been to many, many doctors over 7 months or so and when I was telling him about it, he placed his hands on my neck, grabbed my hands and made me promise I would go straight home and make an appointment. He is always jovial and laughing and I could see the tears in his eyes and the fear. It frightened me and I went immediately and had a plastic surgeon remove the lump which turned out to be metastatic SCC. My Accupuncturist was an MD in Taiwan for the US Air Force.

Besides all of the above, I eat 3-5 types of vegetables a day and cook most of them with fresh garlic and wash them down with green tea. My mother survived both atomic bombs and she told me as hard as they had to scrounge for vegetables for months afterwards, they always tried to eat each meal with 5 vegetables, even in small portions. One always had to be a long root as long roots were good for a long life in Japanese culture. She died of cancer at 66 so I don't know if it helped her but my grandmother lived to be 94 and my uncles are in their 70's and 80's.

Ed

dear brian,

i entirely disagree with your decision to remove the link in my post. [if anybody wants the link, e-mail me and i'll send it to you personally.] i find this to be a rather patronizing attitude that underestimates the intelligence of people in this forum. there have been other articles posted elsewhree by ohter people, so posting a link to an article by itself is not against OCF's rules of use. you have made a decision on the basis of the article's content alone not with regards to the rules.

as for the links in the original article's website, i wonder if would you disallow a link to say an article in "washington post" because their pages are riddled with commercials and advertisement links?

in your justification, you state your personal bias more than anything else. allow me to provide an example of why there is no reason to consider NCI and ACS, etc. with any less degree of critical doubt:

in the nutrition guide on NCI site which i posted in another thread, in one part of the document they advise against refined sugar intake, while in another part they recommend muffins and ice cream as foods to sustain while you're sore post treatment. of course, anybody can see the glaring contradiction here, no? why are we to believe that NCI and ACS and others like them have no agenda? why shouldn't we ask the doctors why they recommend "ensure," a product that many people here have lived on for long periods at a time, knowing that it is high in refined sugar content?

cancer is not just a disease. it's an entire industry that generates quite a lot of profit for many, whether they're in the mainstream medical establishment or on the fringes. should we ignore this fact and put our blind trust in this industry? for whose benefit?

be well.

gita

We have visited this sugar thing before. Clearly, limiting the intake of refined sugars is one of the cornerstones of a healthy diet and a healthy diet is key to cancer prevention. The problem here is that one of the major recovery issues faced by Head and Neck cancer patients in difficulty eating and weight loss. Excessive weight loss and malnutrition inhibits the healing process. In other words, does the good outweigh the bad. In our situations the fact that you can eat something is more important than what is in it. I lived on Carvel shakes, I know they are bad for me but, as I said I lived on them. I had a look at the nutritional site and, if you read it, they point out the need to eat what you CAN eat and, additionally, they stress the need to enjoy what you eat. You will need to come up with a better reason for Brian to allow a "free for all" environment in a web site that has clearly cost him so much.

Glenn

Gita,

I am sorry you feel so strongly about the link but I understand somewhat. Like it or not, we are at the mercy of a moderator on any message board and even if we don't agree 100%, there are still avenues to express our views and share information. I recently was directed to all of the rules of posting here and I had not previously or don't remember seeing them much less agreeing with them. I had to agree to get back on the board but I don't like to agree with something unless I really do agree. I may have taken exception with the part of not expressing any specific religious beliefs but I have tried dilligently to adhere to the rules of engagement, if you will.

That being said, do not underestimate the value of all the work Brian has put into this whole process. Likewise, do not underestimate the value of your contributions as they build into a community of contributions with a diverse mix of people. The main topic of Adjunctive Therapy has a reminder that no links are allowed under this topic. You can always mention something controversial and ask anyone to email you or private message you for details.

I know from experience that anything beyond NCCC guidelines is not very popular. I have had my butt kicked up and down the street like a tin can on several occasions. However, I will continue to post and try hard(er) to not take it personally. There is much too much valuable contribution from all here to let any one thing deter me from my two cents worth.

One person will never fully determine a community or a culture. If so, why do we have literally thousands if not millions of cultures and sub-cultures in the world? Brian has a vision and from what I have seen, he has created an incredible thing that provides loads of information and a support community! His choice to not make it a free for all is certainly justified given his level of blood, sweat and tears, not to mention the financial burden he has endured to keep this thing going.

You don't have to agree with everyone. Nobody ever will. Just recognize the the path of least resistance. You have enough to deal with right now.

By the way, I will email you a link you may enjoy.

Ed

a few clarifications are necessary:

1- i'm sorry i did not state this earlier: i DO value brian's work in creation and maintenance of this site. and i DO understand his concerns and reservations. nevertheless, i disagree with his method and decision in this case.

2- i DO NOT advocate a "free for all." i'm no more interested in junk science than anybody else, and it's great to have informed moderators in a setting like this. however, no moderator in any setting can be assumed to be fully objective and that's human. in a case like this, many of us would learn a lot more from a healthy debate around the issues that have been raised than from staying in the dark. for example, it would be helpful to know what glaring "inaccuracies" there were in that article which, by brian's own admission was not too poorly researched. the issue seems to have been more with the other stuff in the site than with the content of the article itself.

3- had i not posted another article link in another nutrition thread on "adjunctive therapies" board i would not raise the question of inconsisency in this case. if it is a rule to not post links to this board why wasn't the other link removed? was it because it was to a page on NCI site? hmmm...

be well.

gita

I have to agree with gita on this subject. We can determine thriugh research and follow-ups to alternative trearments. I don't think we need everything screened. Nothing wrong with a healthy debate.
However more times than not the "Magic Potions"
some of the vulgers tout out there do create a hope where none really exists. This is crule!!!
Not to mention expensive,

Dan

It has been some time since we had a good debate on here!

I am not and have never been a follower in life. I like to have things my way and work hard to make sure I get that as much as possible. Where this board is concerned I am a respectful follower and will follow whatever decision Brian makes. It's a privilege to be allowed to be a member of this board that Brian maintains and pays for. If I want links to other websites, I will go to a search engine and get them.
Minie

ALRIGHT! a good debate, let me in here!

Gita your points are well taken. You are fairly new here and I want you to feel welcome. The fact that there is a section here for "Adjunctive" therapy is testimony that the minds here are open. This site is visited by millions of people (or 1000 people thousands of times) monthly. They are sometimes brand new to this disease and are hurting. OCF has a reputation of not allowing anything that might confuse or mislead them in the path of their learning. In addition there are directors of OCF that are the tops in the various medical fields associated with this disease. We all need to be sure that we respect their good names otherwise they would be reluctant to offer their help. You needn't feel singled out in this bit of censorship, many of us have had our wild hairs trimed. In fact if you look back in the archives there are some doosies (if they are still there) When I first started posting here within weeks I was crossing lines and getting shot at. (I fired back too ) As Greg points out it has been a while since we had a "good one"

As Ed said It is still a worthwhile effort for you to be here and for us to be here. There is a need for new information to find it's way here and it is also probably better to be overly cautious in screening that information. I believe we should still discuss the subjects at hand even if we don't have a web site to zap to. You can still cut excerpts out and paste them here for us to ponder. You could also mention a key search word or phrase for us to try.

Be well enough to be able to give some wellness away.