natural girls
Comments
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Deanna- Thanks for the heads up on arsenic in chicken. Jeez! Soon there won't be anything safe to eat! We actually started pretty much eliminating chicken in the past year because we kept getting bad, nasty smelling ones that we would just throw out. The dates were fine they were "natural". There was an article that fully 50% of chicken and meat is tainted with antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Then I found out that they actually dip chicken in a chlorine solution before packaging to prevent overgrowth of bacteria (I thought I smelled chlorine in those individually pakaged ones!). I feel this is all madness! Below is a link on the chicken and arsenic article. I think it is telling that Pfizer immediately pulled this chicken feed additive from the market. Big drug companies usually fight these matters. It must be a BAD ingredient for them to willingly remove it (and lots of profits) so quickly.
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Speaking of statins, here's something from today's PharmaPro newsletter...
Victoria, I had weird, vivid dreams (not exactly nightmares) when I first started using Melatonin, but they subsided within 2 or 3 days. Now I occasionally have a slightly weird one, but I think our bodies quickly get used to it, although I also alternate it some nights with more of a stress relief formula.
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Victoria
I take Melatonin every night. I started after my diagnosis when sleeping becomes impossible. My dreams can be more vivid but no nightmares ever. It's a sleep hormone so like others have said it's nothing like a sleeping pill with the groggy feeling in the am. Natural Melatonin is triggered by darkness and production is stopped as light enters. So I sleep with my curtains drawn so the morning sunlight comes in and deactivates the hormone. It is also an anti estrogen. And a terrific antioxidant. Start with 1 mg and go from there.
To a good nights sleep- Corian
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Hello ladies!!! Gosh its been tooooo long!!!! Had to chime in on bio's!!! its certainly a very personal decision, however, I had enough of feeling like crap, quality of life is super important.......I have spent the last 3 years researching hormone balance, and really feel its the key. I have a lot of posts on these boards, along with many from Vivre and Anon, I think our new members should spend a lot of time reading as much as they can on the threads and make their own decisions.
big hugs!
L
ox
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Hello, re bio-identicals, just had lunch with a friend who quit Tamox (she's stage 2) and consulted about bios. The doctor refused to administer as she is also PR+. Now what ?
Anyhow, I strongly believe that, unlike most of you, I do not have a choice, being Stage 3, but to throw at the beast all that I can, i.e. chemo, rads and Tamox and am not willing to take any chances whatsoever.
My initial concern and question was how to tame the 95%+ progesterone factor in my body NOT add to it. My body was doing a real good job at balancing my hormones, I gather.
Googled progesterone and BC and was impressed with the amount of literature linking both. I have no time to read all that info nor the info on the threads about bios. Whether I like it or not, I'm on the bandwagon, have to hold on very tight not knowing where it's heading.
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=breast+cancer+progesterone&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart
"The role of estrogen as a potent breast mitogen is undisputed, and inhibitors of the estrogen receptor and estrogen-producing enzymes (aromatases) are effective first-line cancer therapies. However, PR action in breast cancer is grossly understudied and remains controversial"
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19072517
"Researchers unlock how progesterone increases breast cancer risk
Researchers have identified how the hormones progesterone and estrogen interact to increase cell growth in normal mammary cells and mammary cancers"
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-01-progesterone-breast-cancer.html
But hey, I am more than willing to eat a whole lot of sweet potatoes, as I love them !
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Can somebody give me the tools to figure out my recurrence risk. I was diagnosed 3 years ago at age 47 with stage 1 (.9cm),, node negative, IDC, no lymphovascular invasion, ER&PR+, HER2-.Had lumpectomy with radiation, no chemo. Oncotype score was 14. My oncotype results give me a rate of distant recurrence of 9%. Is this the figure I go by? My Onc said my risk was in the double digits and that with tamoxifen, I could get it down to single digits.
I've taken tamoxifen for 2.5 years and changed my diet, increased my exercise, cut down on alcohol and most likely become postmenopausal. No period for over 15 months, although hormones tested last week are not yet in the complete postmenopausal range. Had estradiol of 33 and FSH of 16.8 with LH of 9.1. Onc wants to start me on AIs, but I'm not keen on that idea and would feel better about refusing, knowing that my recurrence risk was very low.
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Beeb75 Thanks for the input. I didn't realize that it was different for different stages, ages, etc. I'm glad I'm still in the 2% group since I made my decision based on that assumption..
Thank you so much Deanna...You have always been such a big help to me and so many others. I will read the articles.
Thank you to all the wonderful women on these threads. I wouldn't know what I know without you. And, I have no idea how I would have survived these last two years without your care, knowledge, information and support. Even when we don't choose the same course of treatment..all of you are still the only ones who "get it".
I've mentioned this before because it is so true. Someone else on one of these threads (sorry don't remember who) said, "surviving BC is like crossing the mafia and getting away with it...you're always looking over your shoulder. "
I needed you all two years ago and I need you now. Thank you for always being there for the serious concerns, the silly stuff and to comfort and reassure.
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RoseG...if you don't want the AIs....you could try natural ones first and monitor you estradiol and estrone to see how it goes
Melatonin is a great one if you can adjust to it. I am up to 25 mg per night...try to remember to take it at 8 or 9 pm...if I don't remember til 12 or 1...then I just take 10 chewable. 25 mg is a lot...my hormone guy is thrilled that I can take that much. Some have horrible vivid dreams on as little as 1 mg...so try it first when you don't have to be anywhere the next day....cause you may sleep through. My body apparently wasn't making any melatonin because I was waking up every hour all night...sometimes every 15 min. Now I use the melatonin because it is an AI so I don't know if I have retrained my own body to make the stuff or not....I also sleep with foam earplugs and an eye mask to make it pitch black which also helps with melatonin production.
There are a bunch of others but I can't remember them all.....Quercetin...but you need to take it with Bromelain for absorption so I take NSI that has the bromelain built in. Chrysin is another one. That's all I can remeber right now.
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RoseG estradiol of 33 is not bad if you are producing your own or taking bio identical progesterone to balance it. Do you know how much progesterone you are producing? My doc didn't seem upset when my estradiol went up from 15 to 30+ as long as progesterone was there to protect against it.
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My google research always found bio identical or your own progesterone to be protective....creates apoptosis of "deformed" cells which are supposed to die through our natural processes except when we are too estrogen dominant from the over abundance of it in foods, shampoos, etc, etc.
Sorry can't post links. Did that research right after diagnosis. Once I made my decision re prog, threw the info out.
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Beware of studies involving progesterone where they treat synthetic progesterone supplementation as the same and interchangeable with bio identical progesterone. This would apply to estrogens as well I would imagine although the only good estrogen worth supplementing is estriol. If your body turned all the hormones into estriol through the aromatase process instead of estradiol and estrone, this might be a whole different ballgame.
Read somewhere that the treatment for BC used to be and for late stage last resort treatment still is progesterone.
Just remember the drug companies can't patent a hormone, so they have to make synthetic versions in order to make the real money. Same with adding niacin to a synthetic so they can patent it as Niaspan instead of just telling their patients to go buy some niacin which is really cheap.
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YAY ! Welcome Back Fairy!
For those who weren't here in 2009...Fairy was about 6 mo ahead of me with a similar diagnosis... I just love her! She is younger than me but I so look up to her.
As I suggested before, read her posts if you want tons of info and good direction as to what you should research. She has been a Godsend for me and many others.
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Deanna....Thank you so much for the articles.
The first one supports a concept I heard some other place ...that just because firetrucks are always found at fires doesn't mean firetrucks cause fires.
The second one was very interesting too...had a new tidbit.... the more LDL you have in your blood the better you are able to build muscle during resistance training.
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Sherbear...yes my chol levels are all wrong just had the LDL checked for large (good) or small (bad) molecule. Have some large but mostly small. I was really hoping for large since my LDL jumped 40 points when my D3 did.
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Deanna...it is a coronary calcium score test...doc wants me to do it... I told him I might in 6 mo because it involves x-rays and I think I've already had enough x-rays this year. Not sure how much I want to radiate my chest especially if I might not take the statins no matter what the test shows...still thinking about it.
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Hi I introduced myself to this thread the other day and no one responded. Can anyone see this post? Maybe I'm not showing up?
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Hi I introduced myself to this thread the other day and no one responded. Can anyone see this post? Maybe I'm not showing up?
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Itsmytime,
Welcome! Was your original question about Avemar? It's used quite enthusiastically by some alt med doctors. It's often one of the main treatments. It came out quite a while after my diagnosis so I don't have any direct experience with it. But I have seen Avemar presentations of it at alternative conferences.
Sorry you didn't get any replies. This board seems to pursue more mainstream philosophies so most posters here may be unaware of agents such as Avemar. PM me if I can help.
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Luna,
A study just came out this week disproving the usefulness of coronary calcium test. The researchers followed people for quite a few years. I read so much I can't remember where
I came across this particular study. It caught my eye because a local hospital was pushing it about ten years ago and my husband had it done. Our local doc scoffed at back then and he turned out to be right all these years later.0 -
Thank you Mollyann...I will look for the study...obviously, I am always looking for a reason NOT to radiate my heart or lungs.
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Hi Luna, the reason I asked is because I was told by a few docs that even though my cholesterol was the tiniest bit past optimum, it wasn't an issue since my good to bad ratio was in optimal range and they all said that that was the main thing that mattered. I didn't know about the whole small and large molecule thing though Good luck, I hope you get some answers
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Hi Itsmytime, I'll go back and read your post, but meantime, welcome! Just letting you know you're not invisible, it's just that the women here get so enthusiastic about their subject that they forget to come back and attend to other matters that come up.
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What is Avemar®?
Avemar is derived from fermented wheat germ (botanical name: Triticum vulgaris). It comes in a powdered form in individual sachets which can easily be dissolved in water to make a palatable drink. This natural food source contains one of the highest sources of benzoquinones.
Research results can be found here.0 -
Sherbear...unfortunately, my good to bad ratio is bad
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The cholesterol theory which scientific skeptics completely reject also addresses the ratio theory. It's worth reading up about. Also, the history of how the cholesterol concept developed is documented by the Weston A. Price Foundation. Dr. Mary Enig and Sally Fallon have some great books and informative tapes about it.
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Victoria: I just saw your post and if you are already sleeping well, you probably don't need Melatonin, but if you do decide to take it you have to build up slowly and ONLY take sublingual. It is really great for resetting your circadian rhythm! Also, magnesium as someone mentioned earlier and I also take 5HTP.
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Welcome, itsmytime2! Sorry your post slipped through the cracks, but as you can tell, we often have multiple conversations going on here at once! I'm glad you didn't feel slighted and spoke up again!
Interesting about the coronary calcium test, mollyann. If you come across that article again, I'd be interested in it. I've never had one either, but it came up as possibly something to do in the future if my abnormally high cholesterol reading post-chemo didn't come down. I'm pretty convinced from what I've read that high cholesterol for the most part is something largely drummed up by drug companies to create a market for their statins.
Wow, 25 mg. of melatonin?! Do you actually need that much for sleep, Luna, or do you take it for bc-prevention or something else? Deanna
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Luna
Do you take the 25 mg's of Melatonin for estrogen blocking? That's one of the reasons I take it. But only 5 mg's. It knocks me out;)0 -
Morning!! Hey Luna!!! such sweet words from an amazing lady!! thank you!
Quick word on progesterone, I am 100% both E and P, when I asked my ONC what the progesterone positive meant, he looked at me blankly, as did everyone else in the medical field that I asked..........finally one of my docs told me that they have no idea why a tumor is tested for progesterone............bottom line, estrogen and progesterone is not the cause of breast cancer, in my honest opinion......its the imbalance of these hormones that causes havoc, if you are estrogen dominant and don't have enough progesterone to counter it, you are not balanced. Estriol and progesterone are protective, each to their own on this one, but please read ALL of the threads on these boards about hormones there is so much info and its a must read for anyone confused about hormone balance.
Peace sisters!!! Love you all!!
L
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Not new news, but each time I read something like this it makes me wonder about the cause of some bcs, especially TN in young women, and also autism:
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