Mediterranian Diet

LaCh
LaCh Member Posts: 557
in Anal Cancer #1
So I went to an hour-long lecture about diet for cancer patients in treatment and after. Forty-five minutes of the hour-long lecture, more or less, were devoted to plant-based diets and the Mediterranian Diet and it's cancer-protective properties. The lecturer was passionate and animated. There was no new or useful information and that nothing that couldn't be found with a google search or just watching the nightly news. I didn't have the heart (or the energy) to tell him that I've eaten a fruit, plant and grain-based diet for 35 years, starting well before it was called the Mediterranian Diet (as well as low sugar and the last few years, no sugar). My cousin eats bacon cheeseburgers, cake and cookies and is as healthy as a horse. Sometimes people want to find reasons for things and sometimes, there just aren't any ready answers. Diet is important, both what you eat and what you don't eat, but it's no magic bullet and no guarantee that it's as protective as one might hope. Good idea? Sure. More than that? Who knows. It wasn't for me.

Comments

  • Marynb
    Marynb Member Posts: 1,118
    #2
    LaCh

    The best we can do with cancer is draw correlations. It would be impossible to isolate all the factors. Anal cancer is most likely caused by the Hpv virus. Not always, but some say 85% of anal cancer is related to hpv. We all know people who smoked their entire lives and die of old age. Actually, LaCh, think of the cancers that you did not get. This may be due to healthy eating habits. Please do not think that if you have one cancer, that you couldn't get another. Keep eating healthy foods. A plant based diet is best, if you sitck to organic. Otherwise, pesticides used defeat the purpose.

    Anal cancer is most likely caused by hpv. For those who do not test positive to hpv presently, it does not mean that you never had the virus that could have caused the cancer. Anal cancer is highly curable. The treatment is not bad, relatively easy as far as as cancer treatments go. What will get you through this treatment and keep you healthy is to have a positive attitude. Thank God that you got diagnosed on time and that there are doctors nearby who can cure you. Be optimistic. Consider yourself blessed, because you really, really are!

    Western medicine is still in its infancy. We live in a chemical world and our bodies are exposed to carcinogens that weaken our immune system daily. You are in New York City, with some of the best medical care in the world. Cancer patients from all over the world fly to NYC to get treatment. You have a really good shot at a cure! All will be well. Believe! You can do this! Save all of your energy to getting the cure and then healing.
  • LaCh
    LaCh Member Posts: 557
    #3
    Marynb said:

    LaCh

    The best we can do with cancer is draw correlations. It would be impossible to isolate all the factors. Anal cancer is most likely caused by the Hpv virus. Not always, but some say 85% of anal cancer is related to hpv. We all know people who smoked their entire lives and die of old age. Actually, LaCh, think of the cancers that you did not get. This may be due to healthy eating habits. Please do not think that if you have one cancer, that you couldn't get another. Keep eating healthy foods. A plant based diet is best, if you sitck to organic. Otherwise, pesticides used defeat the purpose.

    Anal cancer is most likely caused by hpv. For those who do not test positive to hpv presently, it does not mean that you never had the virus that could have caused the cancer. Anal cancer is highly curable. The treatment is not bad, relatively easy as far as as cancer treatments go. What will get you through this treatment and keep you healthy is to have a positive attitude. Thank God that you got diagnosed on time and that there are doctors nearby who can cure you. Be optimistic. Consider yourself blessed, because you really, really are!

    Western medicine is still in its infancy. We live in a chemical world and our bodies are exposed to carcinogens that weaken our immune system daily. You are in New York City, with some of the best medical care in the world. Cancer patients from all over the world fly to NYC to get treatment. You have a really good shot at a cure! All will be well. Believe! You can do this! Save all of your energy to getting the cure and then healing.

    marynb
    Hi Marynb,
    Thanks for your comments. I think that my take is a bit different. Men and women who test positive for HPV seem predisposed to this tumor, that's true, but to assume that I might have had it because I have this tumor is putting effect before cause and is conjecture at best. There's no reason to think that ever had it since I test negative now and tested negative many years ago. Of course, anything is possible, but there's no evidence to support it. I'd need a reason to think that I ever had it and for me, that's the key. A REASON to think that I ever had it. There's none. As for living a healthy lifestyle, my feelings (always evolving) are that if I want to eat something, I'm going to eat it. Life is short and even if the cycle of reincarnation is real, as I believe it to be, each single lifetime is finite and brief. Better to enjoy it in every way possible while one can. (A plant-based diet is actually the diet that I prefer for taste, it's what I enjoy so it was never difficult for me to follow it and did so naturally, simply because I gravitated to those foods and away from others). I can't think of the cancers I never got because there's no way to know about what never was, only what is. The rest is conjecture and I can only deal with what I know. My personal take on why I have the tumor is inflammation from stress, and stress from chronic, unrelenting insomnia over the last 10 years. Do I know that for sure? No. But that's what I think.
    As far as considering myself blessed, I've had a difficult life at times (most people have) but a very good life over all, and count myself extremely lucky, extremely fortunate in many, many ways and there are many times when I scratch my head and wonder at how lucky I've been when so many have not. Having this tumor doesn't change my opinion. I am and have been crazy lucky in my life. My take on life in nroader terms is that life is good. I cherish my life, but might not so much if it were severly compromised. I'm not there yet and hopefully will never be, so I can't say for sure how I'd feel if I were but my outlook might not be so bright if I had a poor quality of life. My biggest fear at the moment is an acute, life-threatening reaction to the chemo while I'm alone in my house (and the second would be an acute, life-threatening reaction when I'm not). I have underlying asthma and mild heart issues, both of which can be factors with Mitomycin and 5FU and (more worrisome to me) a long history of unexpected and hyper reactive reesponses to drugs. I'll speak to the medical oncologist about my concerns since the port goes in on Friday and treatments are scheduled to begin Monday. NYC isn't all it's cracked up to be, not as a place to live nor in what it has to offer. As I've mentioned before, Western Medicine and I have never been happy bedfellows (and western medicine is the same in Ohio, in Wisconsin, in Illinois and NYC) and my current situation is just confirming the feelings that I already had, it's the lens through which my feelings are being magnified a thousand fold. I think that I have a curable cancer. I'm not so sure I can survive the treatments, not because of the treatments, per se, because people survive them, but because of the way in which my body responds. My apologies in advance to W. Shakespeare but at the end of the day, there are only two choices: To treat or not to treat, and that is, indeed, the only question to consider at this point. My hope is that a year from now, (or next Spring) I'll look back and say, "Man! That was a doozie! Glad that's over with. Beautiful day!" and head to Central Park with my dog.
  • sephie
    sephie Member Posts: 650 Member
    #4
    LaCh said:

    marynb
    Hi Marynb,
    Thanks for your comments. I think that my take is a bit different. Men and women who test positive for HPV seem predisposed to this tumor, that's true, but to assume that I might have had it because I have this tumor is putting effect before cause and is conjecture at best. There's no reason to think that ever had it since I test negative now and tested negative many years ago. Of course, anything is possible, but there's no evidence to support it. I'd need a reason to think that I ever had it and for me, that's the key. A REASON to think that I ever had it. There's none. As for living a healthy lifestyle, my feelings (always evolving) are that if I want to eat something, I'm going to eat it. Life is short and even if the cycle of reincarnation is real, as I believe it to be, each single lifetime is finite and brief. Better to enjoy it in every way possible while one can. (A plant-based diet is actually the diet that I prefer for taste, it's what I enjoy so it was never difficult for me to follow it and did so naturally, simply because I gravitated to those foods and away from others). I can't think of the cancers I never got because there's no way to know about what never was, only what is. The rest is conjecture and I can only deal with what I know. My personal take on why I have the tumor is inflammation from stress, and stress from chronic, unrelenting insomnia over the last 10 years. Do I know that for sure? No. But that's what I think.
    As far as considering myself blessed, I've had a difficult life at times (most people have) but a very good life over all, and count myself extremely lucky, extremely fortunate in many, many ways and there are many times when I scratch my head and wonder at how lucky I've been when so many have not. Having this tumor doesn't change my opinion. I am and have been crazy lucky in my life. My take on life in nroader terms is that life is good. I cherish my life, but might not so much if it were severly compromised. I'm not there yet and hopefully will never be, so I can't say for sure how I'd feel if I were but my outlook might not be so bright if I had a poor quality of life. My biggest fear at the moment is an acute, life-threatening reaction to the chemo while I'm alone in my house (and the second would be an acute, life-threatening reaction when I'm not). I have underlying asthma and mild heart issues, both of which can be factors with Mitomycin and 5FU and (more worrisome to me) a long history of unexpected and hyper reactive reesponses to drugs. I'll speak to the medical oncologist about my concerns since the port goes in on Friday and treatments are scheduled to begin Monday. NYC isn't all it's cracked up to be, not as a place to live nor in what it has to offer. As I've mentioned before, Western Medicine and I have never been happy bedfellows (and western medicine is the same in Ohio, in Wisconsin, in Illinois and NYC) and my current situation is just confirming the feelings that I already had, it's the lens through which my feelings are being magnified a thousand fold. I think that I have a curable cancer. I'm not so sure I can survive the treatments, not because of the treatments, per se, because people survive them, but because of the way in which my body responds. My apologies in advance to W. Shakespeare but at the end of the day, there are only two choices: To treat or not to treat, and that is, indeed, the only question to consider at this point. My hope is that a year from now, (or next Spring) I'll look back and say, "Man! That was a doozie! Glad that's over with. Beautiful day!" and head to Central Park with my dog.

    yes, to treat or not to treat
    well said ... you express yourself so well..... i have issues with all types of meds and do not heal like a normal person and here I am....3 years and 5 months after tx. you and your dog will be walking in Central Park during and after this. sephie
  • LaCh
    LaCh Member Posts: 557
    #5
    sephie said:

    yes, to treat or not to treat
    well said ... you express yourself so well..... i have issues with all types of meds and do not heal like a normal person and here I am....3 years and 5 months after tx. you and your dog will be walking in Central Park during and after this. sephie

    sephie
    Hey Sephie,
    Hearing that you have issues with all types of meds and yet have no lasting problems is very good, very helpful to know. Thanks for that. I'm not a real good "winter person" and in fact, I hate the winter and am setting my sights on the Spring, with my problem behind me (no pun intended), my butt and my spirits intact and Central Park in full flower with me and my dog walking all our old paths.

    After getting a tad bent out of shape yesterday when I learned that the port couldn't go in today, Friday, as I was counting on and planning for, but would be put in on Monday, setting back the Tx start-date as well, I'm feeling a lot better about it and about things in general. My feeling is, Hey, what are you gonna do? You can't change it so forget about it, just go with it and that's that, and in the end, one day here or there isn't going to matter or even stand out in memory. So forget it." And so I have. Anyway, no port today frees me up to go see The Hobbit, something that, as a 50+ year Tolkien/ Lord of the Rings fan is something I've been looking forward to quite a lot. So "very good," says I, here goes another homebody (me) who is, like Bilbo Baggins, off on an Unexpected Journey, There and Back Again, maybe a movie, maybe a walk through Central Park to GET to the movie, maybe cancer, maybe whatever Unexpected Journey comes my way.
  • mp327
    mp327 Member Posts: 4,440 Member
    #6
    LaCh said:

    sephie
    Hey Sephie,
    Hearing that you have issues with all types of meds and yet have no lasting problems is very good, very helpful to know. Thanks for that. I'm not a real good "winter person" and in fact, I hate the winter and am setting my sights on the Spring, with my problem behind me (no pun intended), my butt and my spirits intact and Central Park in full flower with me and my dog walking all our old paths.

    After getting a tad bent out of shape yesterday when I learned that the port couldn't go in today, Friday, as I was counting on and planning for, but would be put in on Monday, setting back the Tx start-date as well, I'm feeling a lot better about it and about things in general. My feeling is, Hey, what are you gonna do? You can't change it so forget about it, just go with it and that's that, and in the end, one day here or there isn't going to matter or even stand out in memory. So forget it." And so I have. Anyway, no port today frees me up to go see The Hobbit, something that, as a 50+ year Tolkien/ Lord of the Rings fan is something I've been looking forward to quite a lot. So "very good," says I, here goes another homebody (me) who is, like Bilbo Baggins, off on an Unexpected Journey, There and Back Again, maybe a movie, maybe a walk through Central Park to GET to the movie, maybe cancer, maybe whatever Unexpected Journey comes my way.

    LaCh
    I'm glad to see this post and hear you sounding much more accepting of your situation and the things you cannot change. I think that's key in getting through this.

    I hate winter too and woke up to a heavy layer of frost on my lawn. I'm SO not ready for that!

    Enjoy your day at the movies, have a relaxing weekend, and when Monday comes you'll be ready. You will get through this!
  • LaCh
    LaCh Member Posts: 557
    #7
    mp327 said:

    LaCh
    I'm glad to see this post and hear you sounding much more accepting of your situation and the things you cannot change. I think that's key in getting through this.

    I hate winter too and woke up to a heavy layer of frost on my lawn. I'm SO not ready for that!

    Enjoy your day at the movies, have a relaxing weekend, and when Monday comes you'll be ready. You will get through this!

    mp327 changes
    Schedule changed yet again. All taking place on Monday,
    1st radiation Tx, then straight to port placemant, then straight to 1st chemo.

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