natural girls
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Viv-I will try the coconut oil, thanks. While I eat mostly raw, there are some things I can't eat raw either. Broccoli is one of them. I steam mine a little first too. While I do think that raw is important, I think the most important thing to do is cut out the bad stuff in our diets. And, have a good variety of fresh veggies (lots of greens) and fruits. I make a smoothie every morning with fresh fruit and a green (collard, kale, parsley, etc). The fruit portion is 60% the green 40%, and then enough water to blend (sometimes I use coconut water). I add a little green powder for more nutrition. You would be surprised. You don't even taste the greens in it. It is delicious and nutritious. It helps to keep my pH at a good alkaline level. I am guessing EVO is extra virgin olive oil??
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HA, wait long enough and they'll come up with something that we all could use. And it's natural! What's nice about this find? They used humans as their research subjects.
The problem is, isn't most of the corn grown out there genetically modified? I'm off to find other foods high in anthocyanins. Give them a month, they'll have it in pill form.
Why I'm talking about corn anthocyanins there's a study there that linked the corn to lower cholesterol. But, anthocyanins are in strawberries, and black berries and such.
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Hey Smallworld, I would take that naturalist's (?) advice on the D3, but maybe keep looking for other opinions.....? I can only offer that as for D3, I finally, finally got my level up to 80, after being stuck in the lower 30s for nearly a year. I went on a no-nonsense approach and took 12,000 IUs daily to get there. Now have backed down to 6000 IUs a day. There is so much news out in the last week or so on the newest studies on D3. Just do a news google and you'll go crazzy with all the info that pops up. I make my kids take 1000 a day now, and will be getting their levels tested at their next school physicals. All I can think about is how I can help my kids while they are still young to reduce their chances of getting cancer.
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Smallworld and all,
Check out Dr. Robert Rowen in Northern California.
Also, I'm thinking we need to give a quiz to potential naturopaths to prequalify them for taking our buck$.
It is appropriate to phone ahead and "screen" practitioners about their policies. First, ask them which conferences they attended in the last year. Next, we need to ask them questions we "educated lay people" already know the answers to.
If they don't give the right answer to progesterone or iodine, they are hopelessly behind. B-bye. Next!
If they say, just take a multi-vitamin, wham, b-bye.
They probably can be forgiven for not being up on cholesterol mythology. But they should really have seen the video of Fat Head if they are in the complementary or integrative field.
Any other questions we could put on the list?
Anom
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You should definitely ask what their experience is with cancer in particular.
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I saw a naturopath and asked her about bioidentical hormones. She told me if I were her sister she wouldn't touch me with hormones with a 10' pole. I talked with another naturopath who does IV vit C. I don't think it's 'the answer'. I think it's used because it's not harmful and we excrete what we don't use. I've got to find a good naturopath as well...Did anyone read my post on Vit D and parathyroid diesase? It has nothing to do with the thyroid. The parathyroid extretes a hormone called PTH, I think that's it. Too much of PTH causes your bones to release calicum into the bloodstream, which is toxic. In turn Vit D is released (from the liver I think) to counteract the calcium. This is why a low Vit D count is significant. It's not that we need more D neccessarily, it's that we are producing too much calcium because of the PTH hormone. SO, when people are talking about a relationship between breast cancer and thyroid disease, are they talking about the parathyroid or thyroid????
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Yea, Anom. And now I know to also ask how they feel about eating organic, and if the answer is "oh, it doesn't really make any difference......" then it's byebye for me!
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Makingway,
You raise a good question. Are you familiar with the breastcancerthinktank group on Yahoo? One of the women there teaches anatomy and physiology. She would love this question. I would love to hear the answer.
Try http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/breastcancerthinktank/
They have been talking about low carb, low insulin diets and breast cancer but I'm sure you can jump in with your question. They seem to know a lot more about vitamin D than your average bear (Southern expression).
anom
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Well the latest out there is organic doesn't offer any more nutrition then regular grown fruits and vegetables. What they forgot to test was: how about all those pesky pesticides? I want to know who paid for this study? Did we pay for it and forget to ask them to check for all those residue chemicals, etc? Was this just another waste of our money?
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I want to thank all of you for all your support and advice you gave me after my new naturpath, turned out to be a dud. Well the good news is today I went to my doctor from the surgery and he said I did not need to see him for a year. He then remarked, so no Fermara, and I said no, so guess what girls, he hands me a piece of paper with a phone number and name, and says, this doctor will help you in what your looking for, she is an m.d. and a gyn, and beleives in natural ways. I found out that my insurance will not cover her, but I will figure it out. I did make an appointment with her, but she is booked until October. Your all right never,never give up. Somewhere, somehow, there is a way. But go figure that? He could of saved me alot of money and time had he not withheld this from me in the beginning. but doctor shopping is alot like grocery shopping, theres the good,bad, and ugly, and I finally, I hope have found the good.
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Good luck to you Small......keep us posted when you do meet your new naturopath!
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Thank you Didle20, I will keep you all posted.
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That is great news smallworld! look forward to hearing about your experience with the new doctor. At least your surgeon was supportive of your approach and didn't push the drugs on you. My surgeon really discouraged me from NOT doing chemo. She did admit that they do believe that with breast and colon cancers nutrition plays a large role, but did she ever ask about my diet or recommend making changes? Nope, not once.
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Rosemary, I'd also caught the headlines from that study, and thought it was strange. Who has ever claimed that organic foods are more nutritious??? Sounds like a pretty obvious and pathetic attempt by some food association or another to discredit organic foods. But it never occured to me that we might have paid for it! That would be even more annoying than the ridiculous headlines they got out of their pointless research!
smallworld ~ That is so interesting that your doctor referred you to an m.d. who practices natural medicine. I swear, a lot of our doctors don't believe in the Tamox or the A/I's they're pushing, but do so just because it's currently required procedure or standard of care. I'm excited that you have what sounds like a very good lead on a "best of both worlds" doctor -- and a female doc, to boot! Deanna
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Rosemary, I thought the same thing when I say this "report". And they did not even address the GMO issues. Oh how I wish I had a year round garden. Do you think I can write off a greenhouse as healthcare?
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sounds like preventative medicine to me!
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rosemary, the first question to my mind was who paid for that study that concluded organic veggies are the same nutritionally as non-organic?
I have a book here in the house written clear back in the 70s by a doctor in Australia. He had a statistic on the nutrition of carrots grown both ways and his report indicated organic is much higher in nutrients. If that was what he found 30 years ago in australia, I hate to think what's happened since then.
A lot of produce is heavily fertilized with NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, and .... can't think of it right now). Many of the food authors I've read say organic produce has more trace minerals because they're obliged to look for them, whereas the heavily fertilized crops don't grow roots as deep because they can skate by with NPK.
I'd like to think organic produce has more nutrition in it, but truthfully, reducing my toxic load is my primary motivation for buying organic. Well, it's a close tie between that and 'voting with my dollars' at the grocery. I want to send all the support I can to growers who grow without chemicals.
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kudos to all the great, positive advice for smallworld. you ladies are wonderfully positive and supportive to each other and I have had a number of medical people in this process tell me I need to do what is best for me. I only recently decided to forgo Tamoxifen for Naturopath guided approach instead. I wanted to weigh a few comments in on diet:
I recently read a nutrition book recommended by a Homeopath. The book is called: Nourishing Traditions- The Cookbook that CHallenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats by Sally Fallon. What is so fascinating about this book is in the first 40 pages it brings together so much of the research and corrects the misinformation. Two key points are on dairy and animal products. It advocates dairy but the key is raw milk. It covers homogen. rural communities who consume much dairy and much animal products and have little to no degen. disease. The key and difficult issue with the animal products is what did the cow eat and what did the pig eat? According to my Nat. some people "own a share of a cow" in order to get raw milk and circumvent the laws. It also covers fermented foods because apparently we tax our bodies a lot less when we eat things that are already partly digested. It also addresses the harmful things that happen to total vegans which I am so not surprised to hear because I have looked at some vegans in health food stores and their faces, eyes and hair do not look super healthy to me!!! After the first 40 pages informing you it follows with guidelines on fermenting things yourself and a slew of other recipes.
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I read that book also and liked it. I like a lot of the books I read about food, and many of them contradict each other. Getting away from processed food seems to be the common ground amongst them all though. It was in Fallon's book that I learned about B12 and the intrinsic factor. I started taking sublingual B complex supplements after that, but they didn't perk me up like I'd hoped. Now I wonder about the quality and dose of what I've been taking.
It would be nice if the priority in research was finding what's best for our optimal health. It all appears to be very money driven.
I tried some raw milk after reading Fallon's book. I really didn't care for it, and I was a big milk drinker all my life until this May when I gave it up. The raw butter was great. Nowadays, I object to animal products mainly because of the deplorable conditions associated with factory farms. My food choices are continually shifting. I still eat cheese, butter, and eggs, and some meat also but less and less over time. At least with eggs it's easy to find some that are hand picked from free roaming grain fed hens. With dairy, I've read that even the organic sources can still be a factory farm.
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I don't know who paid for that study, but if it shows up again I'll look more closely. First of all, I don't believe it. I saw a study that took an organic carrot and held it up to a special light, it had quite an aura. They did the same for a non-organic carrot, hardly any aura. Ok, we don't eat auras.
Another reason why I don't believe the study is because I just read that an apple grown in 1965 had more nutrition than an apple grown today. We would have to eat 4-5 apples to get the same nutrition from one grown not that long ago.
Then I read that the only vegetable that has kept its nutrition no matter what is bok choy. It seems that our vegetables have lost nutrition over the years. Gee, do we think?
I'm waiting for the study to be analyzed for all its flaws.
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althea- The K stands for potassium. The 3 numbers listed on any fertilizer are what a plant needs the most of. I think the total number of trace elements needed for a plant is @ 17, but in such trace amounts they can be found in the soil-or one would hope that. I studied horticulture and wondered are pesticides really that bad... I took the exam and received my 'qualified applicator certificate' and 'mainteneance gardeners license'. Ask me if I use pesticides...NO, I don't! Why use something toxic when you DON'T have to. I recently ran into a collegue who has her license as well. She works at a nursery and has much education behind her. She told me she had read a water report many years ago, and from that point on she didn't use pesticides either! I was so surprised. As a requirement for holding a certificate you must attend a number of education hours every 2 years. And as you might imagine there are many claims why you should use 'this' particular pesticide. The pesticide industry is big money. I think Dupont owns much of it. It so much like the pharmaceutical industry it's uncanny. Hmmmm maybe that's what they're giving us in pill form-pesticides.0
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And don't forget AstaZeneca-They make pesticides and they also make Arimidex. I wonder if they even clean the machines in between. Their motto must be, poison those bugs so we can poison you!
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Well then, am I ever glad I'm off that Arimidex fertilizer. Actually, fertilizer is good for hair growth, well manure actually. A guy used an open bag to rest his head on, not realizing it was open, and started to grow hair. Now he naps all the time on a bag of manure. Ok, it was just a side story and it's natural.
Here's the rest of the story about organic v. non-organic. We didn't pay for it. The UK did. I knew it had to be some government:
Oh Vivre, you said pesticides, I don't have a pesticide story.
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They did the wrong test. The test they should have done would have tested whether the non organic caused more disease over the long term than the organic, not which produce had more nutrition!
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Hi Ladies, i am enjoying reading all the postings and want to say how happy I am to read that most of you have zero lymphnode involvment. What a sigh of relief. I am writing because I am so confused. I always said i wouldnt do chemo since i saw the chemo in the 80s when my mom had ovarian cancer. I am being told by my surgeon and oncologist that due to my lymphnode involvment (sentinode was 2.2mm, axial was .2mm) and family hx mom had breast and ovarian cancer, that i need to do chemo to ensure cells being killed and decrease risk of recurrence. Taxotere cytoxan is the regime im being recommended. I am also receiving holistic care of Vit C, B, zinc, and alpha lipoic, and purchased the astralagus recommended by a previous poster. Do 2 positive nodes and family hx mean that the TC chemo is necessary? I go back and forth. I start brachy radiation end of next week and supposed to start chemo aug 27th. thank you
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Dogsaver, I know how difficult a decision it is that you are faced with. Everyone reading and posting on this site knows it too. The problem is, most in the traditional medical community will tell you that it is necessary to have chemo. No matter what your cancer. I was told I need chemo and I do not have a family history nor any positive nodes. It is just simply the standard of care offered. The problem is that is it not always successful with devastating side effects to boot. What does your naturopath think about the situation? Have you spoken to him/her about the possibility of chemo? It is also SO important to research the treatments you are being offered. Compare the success rates of both the holistic approach and the traditional approach. How did your mom do with chemo? Did it help her? The most important part in all of this is YOUR comfort level. You have to feel comfortable about the path you choose. I know this is such a hard time for you. You will always find support here.
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Incidently, I chose to work with a naturopath. The center I go to works with mostly cancer patients. Many of whom chose not to go the traditional route at all. Some choose a combination of treatments and some have not been happy with traditional treatments and decided to come for a more holistic approach. I feel like I am in very good care with experienced doctors who have worked with cancer for decades. Feel good about the naturopath you choose to see as well. You will know the right course when you find the right doctor.
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FYI...this is an interesting article about supplements and cancer survival...
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Dogsaver,
Sheessh, not an easy decision for you. I wish I was loaded down with stats to say this is what can happen to people who have chemo, and this is what happens to those who forego it, with the same dx and family history, and at your age.
You really shouldn't look back to chemo during the 80's. It was a miserable place for anyone at that time. Both my father and sister had it during that time, and both didn't survive it. If that was going on now, we'd know it from just reading the boards here.
Your decision should be based on your gut feelings for yourself, and how would you feel if this beast came back if you didn't go for chemo during this time? Plus, if you say no to chemo, will you be able to let it go, or will you worry yourself to death? Only you can truthfully answer these questions for yourself. I wish these decisions were easier to make.
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dogsaver ~ You mentioned starting brachy radiation. Does that mean you had a lumpectomy, and not a mast? What about the axilla? Will they radiate that area, too?
I was also on the fence a very long time about whether or not to do chemo, and in addition to having tremendous faith in my UCLA docs (who are very aggressive, but also into integrative medicine), there were a couple of things that sealed my decision to do the chemo. One was the question, could I live with my decision not to do it if the bc came back? In my case, I knew I would kick myself and would rather risk the SEs, which I felt I could treat with complementary stuff, rather than have regrets. I also knew that without chemo, I would worry more with every future twinge or new pain. In addition to that, I knew that I had been more health-conscious than probably 85% of people -- eating carefully, taking tons of supplements, running, skiing, using only homeopathic meds, etc. And I still developed bc. So, I guess I was willing to suspend my belief in doing things totally naturally, and allow chemicals into my body as a way of "shocking" it --because it would be very different from what it was used to (if that makes sense).
The best advice I had when I was trying to make these tough treatment decisions is to keep talking to people and keep asking questions, because no matter how confusing it is, eventually someone will tell you something you haven't heard before, or maybe explain it in a way you haven't heard that just makes sense to you, and suddenly you will know in your heart what is right for you. Deanna
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