So, What Is Your Chemotherapy?
Updated: 17h
This article was restored from an archived copy; part of the original text could not be recovered.
Many people after telling me how good I look, ask me what I'm doing to treat my cancer. (They're more subtle then that of course, but not by much.) So with the understanding that I consider everything I put in my mouth my Chemotherapy, and also that I that I am tweaking it as I learn more, here is what I'm taking at the moment to treat my cancer. (Remember, I am not a physician and also that I look at doctors as vehicles of healing, but that the only true healer is G-d.)
First and foremost I am on a Ketogenic Diet (this is my Metabolic Chemotherapy), the same one used by epileptics. The version I use is Ellen Davis's "Fighting Cancer with a Ketogenic Diet". This diet makes the efficacy of everything else I'm on better. It makes normal cells more robust and cancer cells live on the edge so that any other "Adjuvants" will not only work better but you'll get a bigger bang with smaller amounts.
When you go through my list, it may seem that I'm taking a great many medications and supplements (but know that it is nothing compared to what an Oncology patient takes). A ketogenic diet necessitates that I don't eat fruits at all, (Okay, I do cheat with a strawberry now and then.) And since I am limited to 12g of carbs a day,( I don't eat starchy or high glycemic vegetables at all), my allowed veggies are limited. (This is where I explain to people "Yes salad ingredients are carbs too.")
Since my cancer is Estrogen and Progesterone positive as well as Her2/neu amplified, I will try to give you the sources of what I take and why.
Anastrozole: This is the generic of Arimidex. It is a generic estrogen hormone inhibitor. It seems that a lot of it is made in India. If you don't know already (and most Americans don't), there are problems with drugs made in India and China. After some (difficult) conversations with my Insurance company and my mail order pharmacy (that only carries Anastrozole made in India from different distributors), I now get my generic at my local pharmacy from Teva, an Israeli manufacturer (Arimidex was invented in Israel).
Prolia: (denosumab) This is an progesterone hormone inhibitor. It is also a "Bisphosphonate". This is very helpful if you are on Anastrozole, since one of it's side effects is bone loss. It has a completely different method of action then other bisphosphoates. It's anti-rank/rankl (RANK is an acronym for Receptor Activator of Nuclear factor -KB. Prevention of the RANKL/RANK interaction inhibits osteoclastic formation, function, and survival, thereby decreasing bone resorption and increasing bone mass and strength in both cortical and trabecular bone. (This is just a fancy way of saying that denosumab binds to a protein called RANKL, which cells called osteoclasts need to break down bone as part of the bone remodeling process.) This drug is also used (same drug in a higher dose under the name "Xgeva") to help stop cancer that has spread to the bones. So I use it for all the above reasons. The Her2 amplification of my cancer makes it easily metastatic to the bone and this drug prevents that. It is expensive. The last dose cost me $950, (my insurance company won't pay for it) but, the way I look at it is that it's a twice a year dose, so divided by 6 it costs me $158 a month.
After I started the Prolia, I started to develop bone pain. My initial fear was that the cancer had metastasized to my rib cage. What was really going on was that I wasn't absorbing the calcium that I was taking that was in the Prolia protocol. Herb (a doctor friend and hospitalist) put me on Biosil and Strontium twice a day. This solved the problem of calcium absorption and the bone pain disappeared.
The next 8 "Adjuvant" drugs that I started on are:
Metformin: You need to be on 1000mg to 1500mg a day. I take 1000mg a day
Vitamin C: This is a water soluble vitamin so what ever your body doesn't use goes out through your urine. I take C-salts 1 tsp daily which is about 4000mg. The more the better.
Vitamin D: According to Herb my blood level needs to be around 80, so I take what I need to maintain that goal.
Vitamin E: There has been a lot of bad press on this vitamin in the last few years. As usual it all depends on the questions asked by the study and what you are testing for. Vitamin E has a very specific use in my case. It has been shown to have the anti-angiogenic properties I'm looking for. This means that it inhibits the ability of cancer tumor cells to grow blood vessels to feed themselves.
Curcumin: This is turmeric. I take it every day by emptying the capsule into a hot cup of chicken broth with 3 tablespoons of chicken schmaltz and an 1/8 of a tsp of black pepper. Make sure that you don't buy a supplement with carb fillers like rice etc. they will elevate you glucose levels.
DCA: This is the most controversial drug I take. And the only side effect I have from time to time is temporary peripheral neuropathy, which is numb tingling sensation in my fingertips. This is dose related, so I stop till the sensation goes away and then start again. The does I take is 6.25mg per Kilo of body weight twice a day. (I need 305mg twice a day, but since I fill my own capsules I try to get as close to this as I can. A .001mg accuracy is hard to get to every time.)
AHCC:
Milk Thistle:
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