Organic way of life/eating in battling cancer.

[Purple_Star]

Hi, I have advanced bowel cancer and I'm undergoing treatment with chemo and new drug called Avastin. I would like to hear from anyone that has taken organic way of life/eating in battling cancer. I'm taking chinese herbs and I'm not convinced they are helping me, so I would like hear from anyone that is trying alternative medicine. Many thanks Purple Star

[richard61]

Hi Purple Star; This is richard here. I have stage 3 colon cancer too. 1/14 + 6 month chemo end july 2010. I am starting taking chinese herbs now to protect spreading. My question is when you start taking herbs,before spreading to liver or after. How many lymoth you got cancer. I am 1/14. How are you going now ? Would you let me know? Best regards; Richard

[Purple_Star]

Hi Richard, Thank-you for your email. I actually didn't last long on the chinese herbs. I found them quite unbecoming and hard to stomach. i have taken a different approach and that is living a fulfilled and quality of life, whatever happens, happens. What may or did work for someone else does not necessarily going to work for me. Having said that, I still try to maintain organic way of life and also started to meditate. I recently completed "living with cancer program" at the Ian Gawler Foundation in Melbourne, not sure where you live, but its worth a look if you are in Melbourne. The website is http://www.gawler.org/ if you are interested. I gained alot from the program. At the moment I'm having treatment to maintain things and been on it for now 18 months, and so far so good, but i don't enjoy the treatment even though its less evasive as my first round. How are you going? Did you have any symptoms when you got diagnosed? Where abouts did you have treatment? take care, hope to hear from you. Purple Star

[richard61]

Hi Purple Star; I am living in Sydney.My treatment was all in Sydney. But two weeks ago, I went to Shanghai where I came from for seeing chinese doctor,he told me that i should take his medicine at least 3 to 5 years to protect cancer come back or spread.You know it will cost 10 times more than in Shanghai ( arround 70 dollars per week ). It is true that a lot of cancer patient they do many years taking chinese herbs. I am ok for 5 month now.When I diagnosed, I have tolit problem and blood in the poo. Take care Richard

[richard61]

Hi Purple Star; Why I asked when you taken chinese herbs,because if you did taking herbs from 2006 to 2007,then 2008 still mets to liver,to be sure chinese herbs does not work for you.also how many lymphy node you affected in 2006? I did have one lymphy node affected of 14 lymphy nodes 2009, that is why I now start to have chinese herbs to protect cancer coming back and mets. Looking forward to hear from you ! Richard

[Purple_Star]

Hi Richard, Happy New Year. I started taking the herbs in 2009 about year after the mets in my liver. Like I said previously it was too much for me to handle. I had a few lymph nodes affected, when i was operated on my bowels to remove the tumor the surgeons also removed I think of 2 lymph nodes. I'm glad to hear so far everything is good for you and I hope it continues. Regards Purple Star

[richard61]

Hi Purple Star; Thank you for your reply ! I have known 2 people liking you,it spread to liver after 2 years. Now they all have chinese heabs. Hopely, it does not come back again ! All the best. Richard

[Jules2]

I know these are not chinese herbs, but today I bought some chia seeds. They are meant to be the new u beaut feel good stuff. Will be interesting to see if they work for me ... trying to fix low iron. :) Julie

[Vicki_Anne]

Hi Jules, Where are these chia seeds and where would I get them. I am ready and off chemo to do some good stuff now. Cheers Vicki

[Jules2]

Hi Vicki I got mine from a health food shop ... will send you a private to explain a bit more. :) Julie

[Sailor]

G'day people As long as it doesn't do you any harm and it helps you to manage things then go for it. However, don;t go off the conventional medicine - that has had to pass a lot of tests and hurdles to establish that it actually does work. Me - clearly I am doing something wrong - I don't take herbs, Chinese, European or whatever. I don't meditate, I don't do yoga, kinesiology, reiki, naturopathy, myotherapy, Gawler Foundation, or any of those things - yet I am well past my expected use by date. Clearly I am doing something wrong. Cheers Sailor He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast. Leonardo da Vinci

[maddie86]

hi purple star, my partner has colon cancer and was on avastin and something else with 'fox' in it for 6 months and it shrunk the cancer in the lymph nodes and the spots on his lung and liver to basically nothing.. it did its job! they said it was a full on dose of chemo for agressive cancer so it did help 🙂 my boyfriend found it ok he didnt vomit he felt sick for a bit, and he still has no feeling in his fingertips... they said that should come back after a few months tho... he tried drinking a few herbal teas but like you it didnt help, he's found that by eating what his body wants works for him.. during chemo sessions id bring him salad sandwhiches and energy drinks which helped a lot.. they also say that adding butter to your diet helps during chemo :) best of luck xo

[Sailor]

Hi Maddie86 The 'fox' stands for Folfox - there are several variations on this theme, the most common one is Folfox6. It is a combination chemotherapy regime and the agents used are Leucovorin (also know as Folinic Acid - hence the Fol), Flurouracil (the F) and Oxaliplatinum (the Ox) - hence FolFOx. It is a full on regime with quite a few side effects, but fortunately seems to be fairly effective. Yes, if your boyfriend found stuff that he felt his body wanted and that worked for him then that really was fantastic. You appear to have done a great job in looking after him. Cheers Sailor You cannot change the direction of the wind. You can, however, trim your sails. Anon

[samex]

Maddie, it sounds as though your boyfriend is having the same regime as I did. The numbness does wear off and is different for everyone. Mine has taken some time but I finished chemo in April 2008 and am still here writing!As I have said before, at least I am here to feel the numbness! With the steroids, all I felt like was carbs and systematically put on weight while on treatment. So much for wasting away? I didn't feel like coffee and found peppermint tea and lemon and ginger tea helped me feel better. There are many times when I think we can all take a leaf out of Sailor's book, but I still love my yoga!! Take care, S

[maddie86]

thanks sailor! 🙂 i do try my best... they use all these names and things i get confused about which is which.. my bf is pushing through he's started radiation now only had it 4 times we're just waiting for the side effects to kick in.. he has a bottle attached to him for 6 weeks every single day along with radiotherapy! he's not a happy chappy but he has to do it.. 🙂

[maddie86]

hey samex did u have radiotherapy after your chemo? my boyfriend is having it for six weeks straight along with his bottle of chemotherapy.. after that the plan is to do the sugery to remove the tumor from his colon then do lung/liver surgery to remove any scar tissue...

[samex]

Hi Maddie, I had emergency surgery first as my bowel had completely telescoped in on itself and shut down. I was pretty sick leading up to surgery and therefore had to spend 3 weeks in hospital.The surgery removed the tumour and 30 cms of bowel but fortunately no stoma! 5 weeks after surgery I started chemo with a fortnightly regime of oxalipalitan(4-5 hours in hospital) and folfox 6. I only had to wear my "jetpack", my wonderful fashion accessory for 3 days of the fortnight. As I had no secondaries and the tumour was removed with surgery, I didn't need the radiation. You and your boyfriend are doing a great job. Hang in there. Samex