Cancer-Here's How Nutrition Does

Before I get going: I learned something the other day on public radio. It's hard to see the expression on a mosquito's face.

Well I haven't made it yet but I haven't had to resort to chemotherapy or radiation treatments. I'm 2 1/2 years past the surgery for appendix cancer. I am and have been trying nutrition. Boring! I know it is but it's cheaper and less traumatic than some other Stage 3 treatments. I don't dismiss the standard treatments lightly. Mom and Dad both had good old chemo or some such thing. Their lifespan after drastic treatments was 2 years each. AND THE FACT IS WHEN CANCER COMES BACK AFTER TWO YEARS IT IS UNSTOPPABLE USUALLY. Well then you may be offered palliative chemo-not so unpleasant.
Some may find my diet very unappealing. I find chemo unappealing.

Here's a typical dinner for me so that you know how nasty I have to live:
Three (organic) Bean Chili
Garlic & Cheese Breads
Organic Lettuce With Extra Virgin Olive Oil & (organic) Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Quart Water Boiled & Chilled
1500 milligrams Chinese herbs (mushroom immunity formula)
2 Squares (70% (I love Lindt) cocoa) Chocolate
and vitamins: zinc (dosage 50), vitamin E (400), folic acid (400), time release vitamin C (500), selenium (200), multi-vitamin w/o iron, calcium & vitamin D supplement
Yep, boring. Everything I eat here is aimed at reducing inflammation. DID YOU KNOW THAT CANCER IS INFLAMMATION? I DIDN'T. MEAT CAUSES INFLAMMATION. Chemotherapy is not inflammation control either. I still can have a pizza or baby back rib occasionally. (At least I have been.)

Admittedly, I still haven't made it the standard 5 years. And why is that the standard? Does the health care system figure a person is broke enough at that point? Why not 4 years and 300 days? What a load.
A friend of mine had relapse after 7 years. 5 years as the standard did her wrong.

Okay, here's the biggest tragedy: A discussion between the oncologist and the patient about nutritional advantages and disadvantages vis-a-vis cancer almost never happens. As a matter of fact, I asked my doctor if I would see a nutritionalist. I like him but he acted like I wasn't speaking English. No nutritionalist I guess.
So I had to research all of  the dietary stuff myself while trying to manage the other traumatic things too.
So why do we have to go to an "alternative care" practitioner for nutritional guidance? (This will not usually be insurance covered either.) BECAUSE THE $ IS IN DRASTIC TREATMENTS. There is no money for mainstream medicine in good diet.

Almost every medical person I have talked to is baffled as to why I didn't get chemo. Like I missed something and I just must try it. They seem to think that my oncologist must have been asleep at the wheel. Well I like him because he said that chemo has side effects. I didn't tell him "Duh, I knew that". I just thought that chemo/cancer was like bacon/eggs. Didn't we all think that?

Don't just sit there. Look at these!
nutritiondata.self.com 
edibleevolution.blogspot.com/2009/06/anti-inflammatory-recipes-and-foods.html

Antiangiogenesis Food-Soup's On

These foods say "Cancer, no go".
A diet rich in antioxidants may control cancer and thereby make it a chronic disease rather than an acute one.
One of the great tragedies in our system is the lack of nutritional advice. Watch "First Do No Harm" for a good example, whether you believe in the ketogenic diet or not. Meryl Streep did her usual good job (based on a true story). I'll never forget the first time I saw my oncologist. I asked him if I would see a nutritionalist. NO. I was also supposed to see a dietary consultant before my hospital release (hemicolectomy surgery).
Didn't happen. They just would have told me to eat cake and ice cream probably.
Anyway, the antioxidant diet accepts the fact that cancer is very good at it's job. There is no denial. Cancer is assumed to exist again if if once did. (at least microscopically. Mine got into lymph nodes.) But the antioxidant diet, while reclaiming a ravaged immune system, is meant to contain and halt advance of disease. A low percentage of chemo patients are cured permanently. I'll try diet and exercise. As as practical reason, my low white blood count would not make me a good candidate for chemo and radiation. As a general reason, they are extremely rough on most people-and a lot more expensive than diet changes.
My IBS complicates things, oh well. I have to go a little bit more pureed on the insoluble fiber. Soup's cool though. See http://mavensrecipes.blogspot.com/, May 6, 2012. Maybe I'll be a soup chef.
The 3 main poisons for all of us: lack of exercise, high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated fat (including partially).
Oh there is a fourth: American overindulgence.

thanks helpforibs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Open letter to Heather,

After receiving a hemicolectomy for stage 3 appendix cancer in 2010, I pretty much ignored IBS for 2 years. When I wanted to recover from a severe life-changing attack in winter/spring I went back to your web site to get cured. Thanks a million again. Of course I was very heavy on the insolubles. I wanted their antioxidant value against metastasis of course. IBS sufferers, if you are not happy-SEE HEATHER.

Don't wait almost 60 years for proper help like I did

Questioning Appendix Cancer Staging and David Servan-Schreiber, My Valentine's Day's Better

Me: I was diagnosed with Stage 3B goblet cell cancer (entire appendix) in January 2010. Hemicolectomy & biopsy produced 3 positive lymph nodes of 10=T4,N1,M0 "with tumor penetrating visceral peritoneum". No chemo or radiation.
My question is: Is Stage 3 appendix cancer maybe not as serious a diagnosis as many other Stage 3 cancer sites in the body? My studies and medical follow-ups seem to support that although I do not disrespect the disease. It does not seem to become deadly unless PMP manifests. Either I am luckier than even I think or is appendix cancer not as hostile as some others?
Or is any staging of appendix cancer ambiguous?
Thanks for your service to the cancer community.
Dr.: Was your cancer a so called carcinoid? If so you did not receive any chemotherapy because such cancers are rather insensitive to that treatment (& radiation therapy). That is probably also why such extensive surgery was used. I do hope it will work.

so i still havent found what im looking for

Another Dr: I don't know how old you are or your other problems. You did seem to have a rather advanced stage of this very rare disorder. The metastatic potential of goblet cell cancers is about the same as adenocarcinomas, and yours was aggressive, given the invasion of the peritoneum and the involvment of nodes. That being said, we don't have a lot of information that helps with adjuvant therapy like chemotherapy or radiation. Goblet cell cancers seem to be related to carcinoid tumors (which don't respond to chemotherapy and minimally to radiation) but behave more like adenocarcinomas (which are generally treated with adjuvant chemotherapy in stages such as you had.
Today I would probably have your tumor studied with multiple markers looking for clues as to how to treat, etc. I think it's a toss-up whether you should have received any treatment afterwards and while I probably would have offered treatment, I couldn't fault a physician who would not have offered it. We just don't know.
If you've had no evidence of recurrence in more than a year, your chances are good that the surgery was sufficient. Even with stage 3B colon cancers, surgery alone cures about 50%. Hope this helps.

better more like what im looking for


It's uncanny how many people wanted a colonoscopy for Valentine's Day. How many got to prep on their birthday though?
I'm 60 but still feel 59ish.


Well I read David Servan-Schreiber's last book. It was his memoir on dying and living which he finished just before the peaceful white light came to him. Very sad 150 pages as I knew it would be. Still, he lived 20 years after being diagnosed with deadly brain cancer. That's a tribute to his methods.
It takes all kinds doesn't mean all kinds are necessary. David was necessary.
Respect your disease.
One line I wrote down from "Not the Last Goodbye": "I've known the dangerous high of those who think they've conquered fate."

visit my website here

Against Cancer

Yes, I am against cancer.
As we know, I have touted the book "Anticancer-A New Way of Life" by David Servan-Schreiber. Alas, David died last year. But I still believe.
So my wife and I have reviewed the book again. We feel that these are the most important points in the book:
Me (the patient): NK cells, pg. 36. Wounds that don't heal, pg. 42. NF-kappa B, pg. 47. Blocking angiogenesis, pg. 54. Detoxing, pg. 94. EGCG in green tea, pg. 110. Circumin in turmeric, pg. 114. Ellagic acid in berries, pg. 117. Spices & herbs, pg. 119. Synergy of food, pg. 120. Recommended food, pg. 132. Measuring vitamin D3 & calcium, pg. 141. The breath, pg. 164. The Mantra (6 breaths per minute), pg. 166. From somewhere, 3 times weekly one should eat Brussels sprouts, bok choy, Chinese cabbage, broccoli, or cauliflower. Parsley, mint, thyme, marjoram, oregano, basil, and/or rosemary consume daily.
I agree with David, I will never be sorry that I changed my diet.
Her (the patience): Blood tests to measure inflammation, pg. 45. Table 4 inflammatories on pg. 70. Omega 6, pg. 73. Conjugated linoleic acid, pg. 75. Phosphate additives in food, pg. 86-87. Cosmetics etc. (avoid parabens & phthalates), pg. 98. Olives, pg. 112 & 134. Soy, pg. 113. BEST turmeric, pg. 114. Mix turmeric with olive oil, pg. 134.
But you too will still die.

In the glossy pages of his book which show the dirty and clean vegis and fruits these are missing: carrots NFG, corn OK (rough on me), Brussels sprouts OK, scallions OK, beets NFG, bok choy OK, leeks NFG.

PIZZA PIZZA PIZZA

Pizzeria Bianco's Marinara !

Well, I'm doing something right post-cancer. And I have needed help from many people. Hooray, my blood counts are the best that I have seen in more than a decade. They didn't find my cancer until 2009, even though I felt it for sure way before that. So two years after surgery I'm finally starting to see progress. Ain't these adhesions a bitch though?: The cancers's back, the cancer's back, blood tests good, maybe it's adhesions. Hang in there if you are trying to recover from major disease. It takes time to develop disease and time to recover.


I'm going to get away with calling pizza an antioxidant food. TOMATO SAUCE! I am a pizza nut. My wife, not so much. We are nearing 60 and the memory fades, but I said to myself "what's the best pies ever?":
Bill's Pizza in my home town of Mundelein, Il., opened in 1957. I ate there until about 1990. Bill had to give the place to his wife long ago, I think in a divorce. Hopefully the recipe remains. I think that it does as I see 4 and 5 star ratings. Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix, Az. is the most recent entry here. I ate there this year & it's outstanding. Diorios Pizza in Grand Junction & Palisade, Co. is on my list. I'm going there next week & can't wait for the thin slice that is like Dali's melting watch in my hand. Then there was the hand-tossing little 4 foot tall Italian guy on Spring St. in Springfield, Ma. It was a violent dope infested area when I lived there in the early 1970s. I guess that it's worse now. The pizzeria was near Pearl Street. I was in a dopey fog, but it was there. I got it! Lido's, now they are a full service restaurant? Anyway, those are my top four ever pizzas (not in order).
The wife liked, off the top of her head, Tutta Bella in Seattle, Wa. I think that she is prejudiced because my son, the architect, had a hand in the building. But I agree, great stuff! She puts the brick oven pizza in NYC in her top four, but doesn't remember which great pizzeria in particular. On second thought, she thinks it's the oldest pizzeria in Manhattan; that would make it Lombardi's!? Then she agrees with me on Diorios and Pizzeria Bianco (it being fresh in memory).
So there is your best pizza in America, some of which are still in business.

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The Cancer Two-Step, Dance of Death

I. Let me tell you, if you are trying this hard-core boozing thing. Drinking liquor all of the time is just a chicken-shit way to commit suicide. I tried it. Life's too hard and you can't pull the trigger? Be an alcoholic. Wrong, I tried it. It takes too long. I tried for twenty years or so, then gave up. It's not just cowardly but it turns painful. Takes a long time and disintegrates your insides. So finally I got cancer (long after I gave up on trying to die and straightened up too late). Cumulative damage from the 20 years caught up to me. The "Big C" got more painful than life. There were ten years of gut aches until they found it in my case. I had thought I'd just binge, pass out, and die. Easy stuff, didn't work. And cancer surgery hurts more than your worst hangover. "Hair of the dog" won't help the pain if a surgeon takes a machete to you. Boozing to death, turns out it's not so smart.

II. Let me tell you, the thing about cancer is it's the same as any other entity. It just wants to live. So it's going to try to kill me. I'm going to try to kill the cancer, I've enumerated the ways previously. The thing about cancer is though, if it lives well it dies. No host, no life for cancer. Cancer's got it wrong, turns out it's not so smart.

NOTE: The author is not promoting any kind of self annihilation and is completely anti-suicide, and believes that life is a gift never to be thrown away. The author believes that we are born to suffer-accept it and deal with it positively. The author is relating his own experiences, and his attempt at liquor related suicide was subconscious and not undertaken overtly. Like any young "party-boy" he didn't realize the self-destruction he was doing.

P.S. I'm fond of saying I got what I deserved. My wife say's that's counterproductive. No one deserves cancer! Then why do so many of us get it? Anyway, I drank the poison didn't I?

P.P.S On a positive note, an exciting new concept is being kicked around by several entities. One, in Canada says it might lead to a breakthrough in cancer therapy (dare we think cure?). This outfit has the support of one of our gazillionaires. Sorry, it doesn't trade on the stock markets. "Magnetized target fusion" is the name of the thing. No more chemo or radiation therapy poison? That would be a big boo-hoo.