Rodney- please elaborate

rthornton said:

Hi, and thank you. I can elaborate on the changes that I made.

Following advice from the often-recommended book "Beating Cancer with Nutrition" (this book gets a lot of free advertising on this board!), I transitioned to a diet that is close to a whole foods diet. I'm far from perfect, so I haven't been entirely consistent and really was better about this in the beginning of treatment. Before my diagnosis, I had a horrible diet of restaurant take-out, fast food, frozen dinners, doughnuts and lots of sweets, etc. After diagnosis, I ditched that diet and started shopping from the perimeter of grocery stores, buying organic produce and fewer meats, certainly less red meat. I think there is a quote somewhere in that book "if it doesn't rot or sprout, throw it out." So, I stayed away from processed foods, especially foods high in processed sugar. In that book, there is a nice chart dividing foods into Best to Worst categories, and I wrote down this chart and take it with me when shopping. I stopped drinking sodas (well, I still have an occasional rootbeer), anything alcoholic, and mostly drink filtered water now. This is really all I have done as regards diet. I am living on a graduate student budget, which means a very small budget, so I haven't bothered with getting a juicer and I have to be selective what I buy (last night I spent way too much money stocking up on halibut steaks!).

As for supplements, that student budget thing kept me from buying the "Immunopower" product, but I did find a less expensive, high potency multivitamin called "Alive! by Nature's Way" that closely resembled Immunopower EZ but with fewer ingredients. For example, Alive! does not have CoQ10. Anyway, the daily supplement regimen that has evolved is this:

Twice daily, on an empty stomach (although I did not actually start these until after stopping chemotherapy):
*Aloe Vera stomach formula
*Essiac
*Colloidal Trace Minerals
*L-Glutamine

Before and after 1st and 2nd major meals of the day (these I did all along):
*1 Probiotic
*1 3-6-9 fish/flax/borage oil supplement
*fiber supplement (I cannot recommend fiber supplement enough! I use Metamucil, and it makes the greatest difference in how I digest foods without a colon. This is the best supplement ever!!)

1st major meal of the day (I've also done these all along):
*1 or 2 Beano (depending on what I am eating, and if it's notoriously gassy, like cabbage)
* 2 Loperamide (this is basically Immodium AD or a generic version, because my chemotherapy caused horrible diarrhea so I'd take these with meals, which may have helped a little)
*2 Alive! by Nature's Way (this product requires that users take three caplets daily)

2nd major meal of the day:
* 1 Beano
*2 Loperamide
*1 Alive! by Nature's Way

Along the way, I have also used garlic supplements, "Ultra Juice Green" by Nature's Plus, and I also bought a bike and now use that often instead of driving. I needed the exercise!

So, this is all I have done. Nothing dramatic, and I cannot say for certain if it helped at all. I know there is a debate in the oncology world about antioxidants, as some professionals say antioxidants interfere with chemotherapy and other professionals say that antioxidants enhance chemo while protecting patients. I showed the box of "Alive!" to my oncologist's nutritionist, and she said not to take them but that Centrum would be better. She said the supplements were too high in Vitamins C and E. I ignored her advice and took the pills anyway. Maybe they helped.

I hope this info helps. Like I said, my changes were not so dramatic and I don't know how much they helped, but if anything here helps anyone then it's all worth it. There are people on this board who know a LOT more than me about how to achieve profound changes in diet and supplementation.

Rodney