[anador]

So, I realize this is not exactly the best place to ask about these things, but I feel that some of you guys have more experience with this than I do, and I would like your opinions.

6 months ago my mother was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer, she had a complete hysterectomy and initially recovered quite well. She is 50 and in great shape, went to the gym every day, ate very healthy.

She decided she wanted to take a treatment approach that was open to alternative therapies, and initially sought balance: a doctor who would allow certain therapies from conventional medicine in moderation, with properly reviewed holistic treatments.

Apparently, due to the vitriol of the discussion, most Doctors choose a camp and don't cross party lines.

She found a guy she thought she liked and started treatment at his clinic. He had her taking over 120 capsules a day! I had no idea this was going on until 2 weeks later, she was in intense abdominal pain and could not eat or pass stools. We later found out her body could not process all that gelatin and the pill casings had compacted and filled her colon.

She fired the doctor and is now admitted to a 100% alternative clinic in florida called utopia wellness, run by a doctor Garcia.

There is next to no information about this place online other than from their website. They helped her clear out her system and she has passed the dangerous stage of compaction and can eat normally now but she is very weak.

Now the tricky part. My dad was telling me about some of the therapies they are doing and it was raising serious red flags. Most notably the Ionic Footbath treatment they had her paying for once a day. http://curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=567466

I remember hearing about these scams on television, they sold foot pats or a bath system that past electricity in salt water through iron electrodes. This caused rapid rusting of the electrodes turning the water brown. Then they say they have sucked toxins from your feet and show you the water as proof. Total bullsh*t!

Anyway, I respect the efficacy of certain holistic treatments, as I accept the efficacy of certain medical treatments, I think Balance should be the rule, and I think peer review should be the basis of determining how effective something is. Not blind faith. A combination of both is the best option in my opinion.

However now my parents are dismissing me as an over-educated skeptic (my dad, I havent told my mom as I respect her desire for this place to work and it is her choice) In my opinion distrust of the educated is no reason to embrace ignorance!

What should I do, Im so confused and I feel very helpless.

I realize im not buddy buddy with many of you on here and I dont post often, but I would appreciate any advice you can offer.

[davep]

It's tough to know what is effective and what isn't.

I'd suggest following the standard medical path plus following a ketogenic diet.

Most cancers cannot use the krebs cycle (I heard 76% - test for it first). In that case they use glucose instead of oxygen for respiration, called aerobic glycolysis (this is the Warburg Effect). The idea of a ketogenic diet is to massively reduce the available glucose for cancer respiration, but leaving ketone bodies for food.

If this dietary regime is followed, it is best not to wait for the terminal phase as the person tends to be too emaciated to be able to cope well with it.

Here's one trial http://www.asco.org/ASCOv2/Meetings/Abstracts?&vmview=abst_detail_view&confID=74&abstractID=49752 but there is plenty more out there.

Apparently drinking vinegar or lemon juice on an empty stomach in the morning also helps as they help to inhibit glycolysis.

Best of luck.

Edit: here's a good blog outlining some of the studies http://www.2abd.com/food/food-science/r-i-p-steve-jobs-and-the-ketogenic-diet-versus-pancreatic-cancer/

[anador]

Thanks Davep, Ill check that out.

Its weird, I almost cannot bring myself to have this conversation with my family and friends, I try to keep a calm exterior but Im a storm inside.

I guess the anonymity of the internet makes this much easier.

[Tanada]

My father passed away in September at age 85 and a half, he would buy every pseudo science capsule advertized in magazines and on TV, take it for about two weeks and then stick it on the shelf and move on to the next thing. I hated it and tried to talk him out of it but ultimately it was his life and his decision. I personally think he lived so long because a visiting nurse made him take his prescription medication most of the time coupled with the fact he was just plain stubborn and was not ready to die.

Best of luck, my advise for whatever it is worth, tread lightly but don't be silent either.

[jupiters_release]

She found a guy she thought she liked and started treatment at his clinic. He had her taking over 120 capsules a day! I had no idea this was going on until 2 weeks later, she was in intense abdominal pain and could not eat or pass stools. We later found out her body could not process all that gelatin and the pill casings had compacted and filled her colon.

This was from a conventional doctor?

[jupiters_release]

I haven't heard of ketogenic diet but I've been eating either pork jowl or shank which has the most tasty pig fat upwards of four times a week. This doesn't include all the other leaner meats I eat including goatburgers, lambburgers, sausages, etc. I still have a couple pig heads in the freezer I have to carve up.

[jupiters_release]

I'd suggest following the standard medical path plus following a ketogenic diet.

I got banned from another site for recommending not following any standard medical path.

120 pills a day coated with polypropylene glycol? No thanks.

[anador]

She found a guy she thought she liked and started treatment at his clinic. He had her taking over 120 capsules a day! I had no idea this was going on until 2 weeks later, she was in intense abdominal pain and could not eat or pass stools. We later found out her body could not process all that gelatin and the pill casings had compacted and filled her colon.

This was from a conventional doctor?

No this was a doctor who said he was open to both conventional and holistic treatment. He sold her a ton of supplements and was planning on starting her on a reduced chemo regimen. which i supported. but had i known how many supplements she was taking I would have said something immediately.

[jupiters_release]

She found a guy she thought she liked and started treatment at his clinic. He had her taking over 120 capsules a day! I had no idea this was going on until 2 weeks later, she was in intense abdominal pain and could not eat or pass stools. We later found out her body could not process all that gelatin and the pill casings had compacted and filled her colon.

This was from a conventional doctor?

No this was a doctor who said he was open to both conventional and holistic treatment. He sold her a ton of supplements and was planning on starting her on a reduced chemo regimen. which i supported. but had i known how many supplements she was taking I would have said something immediately.

If you think about it, there's no real money in curing people. You gotta keep'em sick to keep paying.

I would say no to any chemo, I've read long term, chemo patients have higher mortality than people who refuse.

I did research recently for a friend's father diagnosed with cancer, there definitely are medicines available but none of that matters unless the diet's healthy. I'd recommend looking into a partial raw food diet in addition to high quality non-industrial pasture range organic meat with high fat content.

It would be smart to identify and remove any major environmental toxins perhaps present around your mother.

[ColossalContrarian]

Thanks for this. I have been on a low-carb high fat/protein diet for the last year. (Just amazing. More energy, no more naps, lost 12 pounds, little hunger, very satiated, improved lipid measures.) Everyone should read Gary Taubes books on the subject. For some reason Taubes doesn't go into the cancer connection very deeply, other than to recount observations early in the 20th century that the Inuits in Alaska primarily ate seal blubber, and were virtually cancer-free. This was well-known/studied in the medical community at the time, and the rare case of cancer was so unusual that it was always noted in medical journals

The stuff you linked to suggested however that protein is converted to glucose and so is bad. Am I being instructed to eat more fat? Yikes? I was enjoying the bacon, sausage, ham, and steaks.

Thanks pstarr, did you find yourself craving anything in the beginning or was this diet easy for you to transition to?

It look easy except I like dairy and cashews a lot.

[dissident]

Thanks for this. I have been on a low-carb high fat/protein diet for the last year. (Just amazing. More energy, no more naps, lost 12 pounds, little hunger, very satiated, improved lipid measures.) Everyone should read Gary Taubes books on the subject. For some reason Taubes doesn't go into the cancer connection very deeply, other than to recount observations early in the 20th century that the Inuits in Alaska primarily ate seal blubber, and were virtually cancer-free. This was well-known/studied in the medical community at the time, and the rare case of cancer was so unusual that it was always noted in medical journals

The stuff you linked to suggested however that protein is converted to glucose and so is bad. Am I being instructed to eat more fat? Yikes? I was enjoying the bacon, sausage, ham, and steaks.

Be careful with such anecdotes, it is often a case of correlation instead of causation. For example, genetics affects cancer rates. These Inuit also did not breath daily urban doses of free radical agents such as NOx and outright carcinogens from the VOC spew (i.e. aromatic, aka reactive, hydrocarbons). Free radical stress is associated with DNA damage.

To control for some of the free radical stress take non trivial doses of vitamin C, E and D3. D3 is also an immune system booster which is often ignored.

[jupiters_release]

While well-intentioned I am sure, there is little or no good science to support a raw food diet. Nor do I see any value to pasture/range meats specifically for cancer. While such fats have a better omega-3/6 ratio, and reduce inflammation, I don't see how that plays into cancer cure or prevention?

I only have my own personal experience to go by. I did a 'vegan' raw food diet, with a smidgeon of both cooked and raw meat/fish throughout the week, for about half a year. My energy level was off the charts, my immune system was in the best shape ever. You won't find many drug companies funding university research in holistic medicine either. I guess it's not much different from the recently in fashion 'paleolithic' diet?

I sure wouldn't advise chemotherapy for anything, bombing the body to save it? Of course everyone does it so it can't be bad.

[kublikhan]

I assume you pointed them at articles explaining this is a scam and they still rejected your view? If the treatment is not overly expensive, I would not worry about it too much. Even if it does not purge toxins, it sounds like it is buying them some peace of mind. Yes, it's sorry to see ignorance embraced, but it they are pigheaded about it there is not much you can do about it. At least they are maintaining a positive attitude, which can be vitally important in recovery. I would probably just let the issue lie, you don't want your parents thinking of you as a downer. Instead, offer some advice that you think might actually help.

"Better the illusions that exalt us than 10,000 truths" - Alexander Pushkin

[dissident]

Did you read what I wrote? The Inuit studies were from 1900. How much NOx, outright carcinogens, VOC spew was in the arctic air back then? Not much. How much was in the air in New York City? Not much

SInce you are getting all defensive even though my post was not an attack: why did you bring it up in the first place? You were insinuating that it was due to their diet and that is far from obvious.

A more modern study of diet and disease is also quite instructive; The Tokelau Island Migrant Study: Cholesterol and Cardiovascular Health

That's better.

Edit: I forgot to add that there was very low air quality in most urban centers around 1900 due to coal burning. Plenty of NOx anv volatile organic compounds forming via smog chemistry in the urban air. People just did not live long enough around 1900 for the cancer rate to be really high since they succumbed to other common diseases. For some reason people assume that western Europe and Anglophone North America weren't de facto 3rd countries back then and were just like they are today.