Treating estrogen responsive cancer naturally
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Yoga for Cancer Patients
Benefits of Yoga for Cancer and How to Get Started
By Lynne Eldridge, MD | Reviewed by a board-certified physician
Updated October 29, 2016
https://www.verywell.com/yoga-for-cancer-patients-22489600 -
Dtad, I normally wouldn't post on this thread since I'm doing the non natural treatment by taking hormone blockers, but I do read along as I live my life between the natural and the medical world. I picked up on sarahrae's frustration and just wanted to commiserate. Best to you and to all who are kicking bc's butt!
Yogagirl, thanks for the links. I'm seeing the PS on Wednesday for my 6 week checkup so hoping I'm cleared for a modified yoga practice. The biggest help that I found that yoga gives me is better nights sleep. I read the second article you posted and followed that to a study on circadian rhythms in women with mbc. Those with high cortisol levels had poorer outcomes. Regular yoga reduced high cortisol and allowed for better sleep.0 -
yoga_girl - Thanks for the yoga posts. I am trying a Tai Chi class, offered free by local Cancer Support Network, but only happens once a week. They also offer yoga that is supposed to be gentle, but seems not to be gentle enough for me. Will check out your links.
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Yes, please! I will see my MO next week. DCIS, stage 0, 1.6 cm, grade 2, ER/PR+
I had 2 lumpectomies, clear margins after second, One week of SAVI radiation. My "gut" says to NOT take the hormone blockers, but I know I will get pushback next week from the MO. I have taken myself OFF
white sugar and white flour. Reducing dairy and planning to lose weight. Upped my Vitamin D and take Turmeric already for joints. I would GREATLY appreciate encouragement and advice. THANK YOU for offering!!!
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I have a question. I stopped the Anastrazole and have been working on diet and exercise. I has been about 3 months. I have started taking what I eat seriously about 4 weeks ago and have lost 6 pounds. I am also exercising and beginning to notice that I am slowly toning up. I see it in my thighs especially. All good. My concern is it seems that my night sweats are increasing. I will add it is also very hot here. Does anyone have any thoughts on what might be triggering this. I was just tested for lymes disease because of some other issues and the possibility of a tick bite back in April but that was negative. Night sweats have been part of my life since menopause but the seem exceptionally worse right now. Other wise I feel better then I have felt in a while.
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I have a question. I stopped the Anastrazole and have been working on diet and exercise. I has been about 3 months. I have started taking what I eat seriously about 4 weeks ago and have lost 6 pounds. I am also exercising and beginning to notice that I am slowly toning up. I see it in my thighs especially. All good. My concern is it seems that my night sweats are increasing. I will add it is also very hot here. Does anyone have any thoughts on what might be triggering this. I was just tested for lymes disease because of some other issues and the possibility of a tick bite back in April but that was negative. Night sweats have been part of my life since menopause but the seem exceptionally worse right now. Other wise I feel better then I have felt in a while.
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Brutersmom, I understand your concern, but don't know the answer to your question. I noticed that I had a bout of night sweats recently, and it concerned me the same way it is concerning you. Then it stopped, so I am chalking it up to ongoing menopause issues. With your DX, the chances that it is cancer-related are extremely slim.
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brutersmom-- it could b that your body is naturally detoxing if you have really cleaned up your eating the past month. This happened to me when I started juicing a couple weeks ago. I've been on a plant based diet since April but added juicing and acupuncture the past 4 weeks and my night sweats have increased like they did in April when I first got serious about changing my diet.
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Thanks. Pamela I am thinking it is something related to diet. I am actually thinking it is related to my body adjusting to a healthier life style.
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Pamela, I'm in my 8th month of Juicing + Coffee Enemas - I'll check CM/Cancer Marker this week - I had significant reductions in CM just from omitting "salt, sugar & caffeine tea". Now I'm on 20-lbs of organic veggies daily (juiced and solid), vegan (astounding for me to believe), no cravings, lost all the unwanted fat, detoxed salt for months. Every week, the various changing body sensations would wave through, usually in a few hours. Except my cough kept getting worse, until last week, I finally bit the bullet and went back on MO's Rx (sigh). I think this changes my trajectory... We'll see. Enemas do a marvelous job of removing toxins, I feel truly refreshed afterwards. I resisted enemas for 20-years, til Stage IV, and now they are actually like a rest break in the day.
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Yes, finding a ND/Naturopath who works cooperatively with Oncology was my beginning. I interviewed ND to ask if he would do certain specifics for me (order labs for my long-distance Gerson ND? Help me order supplements, like meriva/curcumin, etc? Help coordinate my labs with MO under one roof?) He said yes. He and my MO simply "document the heck out of" what I say I am doing/taking. From Sept to March, my CM/Cancer Markers went from 229 - 141-101-75 then bounced up to 91 in May when life traumas occurred. So I re-dedicated myself, and will find out this week (mid-July) what the new CM reads. Stress has always caused a significant impact, for me. Good luck everybody!
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That's great news Grace!! Good for you for being your own health advocate! It's nice to hear your doctors were on board.
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Hormone blockers, breast cancer
Hormone therapies used for breast cancer are known to cause hot flushes. They are particularly common with luteinising hormone (LH) blockers because these drugs stop the body making any oestrogen. Just under half of the women who take tamoxifen have hot flushes. Fewer women have hot flushes with aromatase inhibitors.To read more research on this topic, select the following link:
https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/136/topics/844633?page=2&post_creation=true#post_5010415
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At the advice of a naturopath, just started on a paleo diet. Hoping decreasing inflammatory foods will help prevent recurrence. Just saw report in the research section on this site that says chronic inflammation can increase recurrence in postmenopausal women. Have been in denial for a long time that wheat and dairyand my body don't mix Goodbye bread and ice cream. Hello life!
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I don't get why dairy is inflammatory.
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Marijen, according to this study, dairy is anti-inflammatory, as far as I can understand, unless you are allergic to cow's milk.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10408398.2014.967385
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I'm thinking with dairy the concern is with hormones that the cow may have received if you don't do organic. Otherwise I don't get why if you get a lowfat or non fat sour cream that it's bad, or anything else dairy.
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I'm reading a book on Thyroid natural treatment and diet and it says no dairy or grains because they are inflammatory. Any thing that is inflammatory is not good for cancer as well. I think grains and dairy are inflammatory because they are harder to digest? I don't know...
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If I'm reading this review of 52 studies correctly, dairy is only an inflammatory in those who have an allergic response (lactose intolerance or casein sensitive).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26287637
The link between dairy & BC is the amount of estrogen not only in the cows that have naturally estrogens (they milk them even when pregnant) but also in the feed they eat. You should steer towards organic grass fed dairy products for those with ER+ BC.
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Doesn't organic refer to hormone free (other than what may be natural)? I've never seen a label on organic milk with the addition of grass fed.
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I have started reading Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, and it is an eye-opener. It is yet another piece of evidence piling up that fat is NOT the dietary culprit it was long thought to be, but rather that if it is scientifically valid (hint—it may not be) to isolate the effects of a particular nutrient from the food that contains it, the food from the way it's eaten (and the other foods with which it's eaten), and the person who eats it (and their lifestyle and heredity), the nutrient that most negatively impacts health is simple carbohydrate/sugar. Fat is not the enemy: in fact, so long as one is not lactose-intolerant and keeps portions reasonable, organic full-fat dairy that has been messed with as little as possible (other than pasteurization) may be healthier than low-or-non-fat. Gary Taubes, Michael Hyman, Marion Nestle et al have reached the same conclusion, validating the hypotheses of the Atkins and South Beach diets (as well as 2/3 of the Zone).
As for night sweats, “don't sweat it." Nothing is wrong with you. Anything that drastically reduces the amount of estrogen in a woman's body will mimic or intensify the normal symptoms of menopause, of which hot flushes are the most notorious. Some women experience them as “flashes" or sudden temperature surges; others notice a gradual perception of warmth in the air and increased perspiration in an attempt to cool off. It happens at night because you're usually under a blanket and not moving around freely. You're perspiring while awake and active, but moving around in the air facilitates evaporation. When lying in bed, though, the sweat doesn't evaporate as readily and you perceive it more. I began experiencing sweats as I entered menopause, and again when I started letrozole. I know they use electricity and are therefore not the “greenest" things, but ceiling fans and air conditioners are your friends, no matter how you choose to lower your estrogen.
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On the pH spectrum - milk cheese cream cheese buttermilk pastries pasta white bread eggs wheat coffee are all on the acidic side. Even purified water according to the chart I have. On the alkaline side are the fresh fruits and vegetables, green tea of course. Maybe that's why Dairy and Grains are considered inflammatory. Cancer is supposed to thrive in an acidic environment?
They used to suggest milk for stomach ulcers until it was found it had the reverse affect.
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ChiSandy, I like Michael Pollan and think he has interesting observations about food. Also agree that fat is not evil. I eat a lot of fat, mostly olive oil and fatty fish. I do, however, limit white carbs/sugar, and ever since I started doing that I feel better, my weight is stable etc. I do eat carbs, but mostly bulgur, whole grainsand legumes.
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The only book of Michael Pollan's I have personally read all the way through is Food Rules, and I thought it was too simplistic, but I am semi familiar with Michael Pollan's views. I have seen the documentary Food, INC.several times, and in that movie, he encourages people to eat a lot less meat and a lot more veggies, and to eat what is in season. I have a copy of the book What to Eat by Marion Nestle, and in the book, she says that too much high fat dairy as in cheese and butter is eaten, and if people are going to consume milk, she encourages them to consume low fat or skim milk. She also thinks that people consume too much meat. She advises cutting way down on the amount of meat that you eat, and the amount of saturated fat you consume. She also advocates cutting way down on the amount of processed food you eat and the amount of sugar.
I agree that olive oil and sustainable seafood are way better for you than bacon and steak. I also am anti low carb. I eat a lot of whole grain pasta and bread, and I fix my own healthy pancakes and put yogurt and fruit on top of it, and eat lots of oatmeal, but I don't consume much processed food, although lately I have started eating frozen yogurt again. I swore off of it when I was taking a weight loss class, but since the class has ended, I've started eating it again. At least I have not gained back any of the 15 pounds I lost.
I just went to a program at the Cancer Wellness Center in Northbrook Thursday, and they had a vegan chef doing a cooking demo. The samples she passed out were good.
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Certain ethnic groups have lactose intolerance. My other family members (Jewishhave to use lactaid.
I get stuffy with dairy which is a red flag for sensitivity perhaps to the milk protein. Hate to admit it but seems logical that a sensitivity would be related to causing inflammation
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Chloesmom, yes, it would make sense that if you are either allergic or lactose-intolerant, then it might be better to go easy on dairy. I am mildly lactose-intolerant, never drank milk, didn't like ice cream as a child (or as an adult). But fermented dairy doesn't bother me, because the fermentation breaks down some of the lactose (or so I have been told). So, I use kefir, buttermilk and yogurt. I also eat a little cheese, mostly goat or sheep cheese.
However, I can't find any conclusive evidence that dairy promotes inflammation in people who are not allergic etc.
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please let me know how you do it. I do not want to take either Tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor after I finish radiation therapy this month. My tumor was 98 percent estrogen receptive, so my one wants me to start hormone therapy. The side effects frighten me
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To all those women who do not understand why dairy products are bad for hormonally driven BC.
It is because of the Growth Factor Hormone in dairy - particularly cow's dairy. You do not want to be adding hormones into your diet or growth factors. It is nothing to do with organic or not. If you absolutely must eat a little dairy, Goat is better. These beasts are more our size than cattle. Just think of what cow milk is designed for........to feed calves to grow into fully grown cattle. Huge!
Dairy and sugar are the two main nasties; keep away from them. And of course hot on their heels is wheat.
Best wishes to you all. It is not an easy road that we ply. Been doing it for soooooooooo long. Yuk!
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That diet goes for a healthy thyroid too. Thanks lady-bird. Plus I am under the impression somehow dairy is inflammatory but I'm not sure why yet.
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Momine, thanks for the article. That's very interesting. I'm not lactose intolerant, but avoid milk as much as possible, however I eat Greek yogurt and kefir few times a week, plus occasional cheese, sometimes goat cheese which I do like. I try not to stress too much and eat reasonably healthy and minimally processed, even do intermittent fasting (13 hrs overnight). But I intuitively feel that stressing over every little food item can be as detrimental to overall well being, if not more.
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