AHCC along with chemo

offthewall
offthewall Member Posts: 4
in Colorectal Cancer #1
My husband (age 78) has stage 4 colon cancer - diagnosed 2 1/2 years ago. Transverse colon was removed. He is on his 3rd round of chemo (5-FU) - and has been taking AHCC (active hexose correlated compounds) with the chemo. Takes about 3 grams per day. His CEA goes steadily down when on chemo & AHCC - but he stopped the chemo early the 1st 2 times due to his weight falling too low and digestive distress. Cancer had spread to peritoneal membrane after 1st remission - but not to lungs or liver.

AHCC (mushroom derivitive) used widely in Japan. Husband oncologist approves - but it does cost us about $120/month. He also takes many other supplements - mostly anti-oxidents. Unhappily he has to take about a dozen digestive aids to be able to eat and function.

Looks like he might go into remission again (much to the surprise of the doctors) - I will check in again if his next PET is clear. It does look like the AHCC is doing the job - but it is to be taken WITH chemo. However the chemo dosage was reduced this time - so less nausea and he is actually maintaining his weight, altho with some difficulty. He eats whatever he thinks can stay down and this includes ice-cream and fruit pies. (before the cancer he was off sugar 100% for 15 years).

Comments

  • Buckwirth
    Buckwirth Member Posts: 1,258 Member
    #2
    Off the Wall,
    Thank you for your post, and welcome to board. I am very happy to hear your husband is doing well.

    Here is a link to the Sloan Kettering page on AHCC:

    AHCC at MSKCC

    Based on the studies mentioned, it looks like it can help with platin based drugs, and that it does cut back on some of the side effects. As a cautionary note, it has a bad interaction with Zofran, so if anyone is using that as an anti-nausea drug they might want to switch to one of the other options if they choose to use AHCC.

    Blake
  • tanstaafl
    tanstaafl Member Posts: 1,313 Member
    #3
    WBC, RBC, platelets - building high rises
    One way to monitor these special glycan supplements' effect is to make a spreadsheet of the (bi/monthly?) CBC results and watch WBC, RBC and platelets over any previous chemo history without the glycans. We had an experience with generic PSP where stronger WBC effects at high doses traded off with RBC and platelets due the particular proteoglycan extracted. We are starting our third major glycan trial, with the yeast based BetaRight WGP manfactured by Biothera (available as several brands?), along with the current JHS Coriolus Versicolor PSK clone. (major = large quantity containing more than 1 gram per day of active components with proteo/peptido - glucan/glycans. ~5 grams of 20% strength PSP [generic Turkey Tail mushroom extract], ~2.5 grams of 40% strength PSK, ~1.25 grams of 80% strength WGP, per gram of active content)

    I'm thinking about my wife's WBC perhaps being "dressed to the 9s" while still on immunochemo (vs others' chemo'd WBC with nadirs getting nuked down to 0.x - 2). Wife's WBC have mostly been 5.5 - 8 while on chemo, once up to 9.3 when double loaded with PSP and PSK. The biggest problem is taking the powder pills on an empty stomach, she often misses half her PSK. With the more concentrated WGP, I'm thinking to buy however much WGP needed, and "wastefully" ($$$) putting it in the protein-supplements shake if it's platable, not too filling, and yields a balanced WBC, RBC, platelets profile.

    Glycans, typically beta glucan fractions, are an underutilized immune building technology, on or off chemo. Good for your husband.

    N.B. WBC white blood cells, RBC red blood cells, CBC complete blood count (a common blood test while on chemo), immune building glucans and glycans are frequently mushroom extracts
  • Bob_C
    Bob_C Member Posts: 2
    #4
    tanstaafl said:

    WBC, RBC, platelets - building high rises
    One way to monitor these special glycan supplements' effect is to make a spreadsheet of the (bi/monthly?) CBC results and watch WBC, RBC and platelets over any previous chemo history without the glycans. We had an experience with generic PSP where stronger WBC effects at high doses traded off with RBC and platelets due the particular proteoglycan extracted. We are starting our third major glycan trial, with the yeast based BetaRight WGP manfactured by Biothera (available as several brands?), along with the current JHS Coriolus Versicolor PSK clone. (major = large quantity containing more than 1 gram per day of active components with proteo/peptido - glucan/glycans. ~5 grams of 20% strength PSP [generic Turkey Tail mushroom extract], ~2.5 grams of 40% strength PSK, ~1.25 grams of 80% strength WGP, per gram of active content)

    I'm thinking about my wife's WBC perhaps being "dressed to the 9s" while still on immunochemo (vs others' chemo'd WBC with nadirs getting nuked down to 0.x - 2). Wife's WBC have mostly been 5.5 - 8 while on chemo, once up to 9.3 when double loaded with PSP and PSK. The biggest problem is taking the powder pills on an empty stomach, she often misses half her PSK. With the more concentrated WGP, I'm thinking to buy however much WGP needed, and "wastefully" ($$$) putting it in the protein-supplements shake if it's platable, not too filling, and yields a balanced WBC, RBC, platelets profile.

    Glycans, typically beta glucan fractions, are an underutilized immune building technology, on or off chemo. Good for your husband.

    N.B. WBC white blood cells, RBC red blood cells, CBC complete blood count (a common blood test while on chemo), immune building glucans and glycans are frequently mushroom extracts

    Coriolus PSP
    I would like to mention a new supplement I came across recently - a very powerful PSP product that outclasses JHS' Coriolus PSK clone many times.
    It is identical to the original Coriolus PSP 100% production wise but has a significantly higher % of polysaccharides/beta-glucans due to improved production techniques. Another good thing is that the price is very reasonable.

    The brand name is Oriveda PSP-50. The oriveda website also has a lot of relevant scientific data available, free to download.

    I am convinced PSP is a very very powerful tool when battling with cancer - it will neutralize a lot if not all of the side effects of chemo (like the loss of appetite and vitality) and also appears to have a direct effect on cancer itself. Another great thing is the absolute lack of side effects and the lack of any negative interaction with regular mediciation like chemo, a problem with AHCC.

    A recent animal study showed the potential with regard to prostate cancer:

    http://www.oriveda.com/zips/PSP_prostate1.pdf

    I also want to quote from a study done with PSP in China:
    ------

    A report from the Suzhou Institute for Traditional Chinese Drugs suggests that larger doses of PSP at 5 grams (equivalent to 12 capsules of Yun Zhi) three times per day might be more effective than the routine doses used at present. Another individual trial on high dose therapy with PSP was done by B.Y. Li using a dose of 5.1 g three times a day. Since to date, no marked toxicity has been observed in any of the cases treated by these authors, it can be concluded that higher dosage would yield better results to the cancer patient.
    ------

    source:

    http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.supremehealthfoods.com/corpweb/study.html

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