MD Anderson and Dr. Servan Shreiber

colleen B
colleen B Member Posts: 25
edited March 2014 in Esophageal Cancer #1
If it can't hurt you why not try eating foods that might offer protection against cancer?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYSQMb64z8g

The above video will describe some research that is beginning at MD Anderson:

The Anticancer & MD Anderson Cancer Center Research Initiative

The book is here:
http://www.amazon.com/Anticancer-New-Way-Life/dp/0670021644/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280807606&sr=8-1



quotes from MD Anderson web site

"A new partnership between MD Anderson Cancer Center and two-time brain cancer survivor and author of a bestselling book entitled Anticancer: A New Way of Life, Dr. David Servan-Schreiber, will create a new integrative oncology program that aims to vastly improve cancer treatment worldwide. Dr. Servan-Schreiber and Dr. Lorenzo Cohen, a professor of behavioral science and oncology at MD Anderson, will use the guidelines offered in Anticancer: A New Way of Life to improve the lives of patients and cancer survivors.

Dr. Servan-Schreiber believes that the new initiative, called the Servan-Schreiber/Cohen Anticancer Fund, will, over a period of five years, “dramatically move the integrative medicine field forward through several groundbreaking strategies where previous research has fallen short.” The goals of the initiative are as follows:

· The development of an integrative oncology intervention program based on the guidelines offered in Dr. Servan-Schreiber’s book. It will include a special diet and incorporate exercise, stress management, emotional support, regulation of exposure to environmental toxins, and the administering of specific natural supplements like turmeric and fish oil.

· The assessment of a patient’s natural defenses against cancer [vitamin D levels, for example] with the goal of determining how these measurable items correlate with clinical results and biological markers.

· To test the integrative oncology intervention program and evaluate whether or not it is possible to increase a person’s natural defenses against cancer.

· Outline the effectiveness of the integrative oncology intervention program and determine if following the program can reduce the progression of cancer.

The program, which was announced in May of 2010, is seeking donations. Donations can be made by visiting the MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Servan-Schreiber/Cohen Anticancer Fund webpage.

Integrative oncology involves the implementation of traditional cancer treatment methods such as chemotherapy and radiation along with complementary therapies such as nutritional supplements, mediation, massage, and acupuncture, to name a few. Patients suffering from side effects of traditional treatments often experience relief following complementary therapy.

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Comments

  • BMGky
    BMGky Member Posts: 621
    Interesting
    I bought some tumeric supplements and haven't figured out the best way to take them. Should a post surgery recovering EC patient take fish oil supplements. We're still in the learning process of balancing his diet.
  • colleen B
    colleen B Member Posts: 25
    BMGky said:

    Interesting
    I bought some tumeric supplements and haven't figured out the best way to take them. Should a post surgery recovering EC patient take fish oil supplements. We're still in the learning process of balancing his diet.

    concerned
    Curcumin..the active ingredient in turmeric is a blood thinner..so it can affect the ability of blood to clot and if you are having surgery or need to heal that would not be the time to use curcumin.

    I am not at all an expert on any of this..It all needs to be looked at very carefully...but I will tell you what i have found out and what I think...

    What is a problem imo is that the government is not regulating the quality of food supplements and many oncologists say things like, "Eat whatever you want."

    It is very very clear that some foods are more nutritious than others and imo different foods affect different illnesses..that seems like common sense to me...


    You have to be careful with fish oil because too much of it can create problems too..Some foods like carrots and berries if taken to an extreme can create problems too. It seems like there has to be a balance of foods for this anti cancer effect to work...Look at the bottle and follow the recommended dosages for the fish oil...The fish oil I give my husband is 1 teaspoon a day. Sometimes though I give flax seed oil that is refrigerated..and I hear olive oil is also good.

    I use a juicer and make up a drink of one head of broccoli, one carrot, some cauliflower, and one shitake and one maitake mushroom for my husband in the morning. It tastes absolutely horrible..but he loves me so he drinks it : ) Also I use a garlic press and place the garlic into a capsule I bought at a health food store. He gets 1 clove of garlic after each meal every day...and thats when I give him some oil like flax seed oil and the curcumin supplements.


    I was learning about diet and trying to get my husband to eat a more balanced diet at a time when he was not interested in food at all while being undercut by the oncologist..who was saying to eat whatever...The amount of stress that created was terrible and I am on prozac now...but my husband is doing well...although we are still having a problem with his maintaining his weight...and he started out with a 10 centimeter long tumor in the esophagus and two tumors in his liver...but he is able to eat whatever he wants and the tumors are shrinking. Like everyone who has contact with someone with this disease I am frightened for the future and unsure of what will happen next...I understand that this could all turn very bad...

    It makes me angry that so little is known and so little guidance is being given...It reminds me of when women were advised to take hormone replacement therapy for hot flashes and told it would also help protect against heart attacks and cancer. How many women have died because they took hormone replacement therapy and then got cancer or had a heart attack because hormone replacement therapy actually increased the risk for those diseases. Where were the studies that were done to protect women and how many millions of women were affected over decades with bad advice from doctors?

    The study being done at MD Anderson is asking for donations from people like us to carry on the research into the effects of diet on cancer. No pharmaceutical giant will want to fund a study like that because it could potentially undercut their own drug products.

    Also suppose it was found that the quality of food was very important in protecting us from cancer. How would that affect food production in the US and the multi billion dollar food industry?

    This is what I was sent in an e mail..but this advice was for someone who was newly diagnosed with ec...and just starting chemo with oxaliplatin. You have to be careful that you don't interfere with the drugs and proceedures that are being used... so you have to talk to a doctor or pharmacist...and you have to be careful what you use as a source because some food supplements are contaminated.

    Consumer Reports has just done a report on the contamination of food supplements. Consumer Reports also recently had a small article on whey protein and which sources for that were good...and it looks like whey protein is a very good source for protein...

    Next is the e mail

    Please consider taking 8 gram curcumin (not turmeric) per day; four times a day; for at least three months before you conclude its efficacy. I suggest you gradually escalate the dose from 500 mg per day to 8 gram per day.
    For curcumin information, please visit: http://www.curcuminresearch.org


    The potential sources of curcumin are as follows:
    America’s Finest Inc.
    800-350-3305
    www.afisupplements.com
    info@afisupplements.com

    Goel Kunal
    kunal_goel_2000@yahoo.com
    91-981-409-5858c
    INDSAFF-Batala, Panjab, INDIA

    For nanocurcumin
    Tadashi Hashimoto
    Theravalues Corporation
    8F Kioicho Bldg. 3-12 Kioicho Chiyoda-ku Tokyo Japan 102-0094 
    TEL:03-3234-7677 FAX :03-3234-7680
    Email:thashimoto@theravalues.com
    HP:http://www.theravalues.com