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Anyone else out there choosing 100% Alternative?

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  • Momine
    Momine Member Posts: 2,845
    edited August 2013
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    GlobalGirl, yes, I understand, I was just wondering what the basis for the DX was.

  • Lily55
    Lily55 Member Posts: 1,748
    edited August 2013
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    CindyD I agree with you and wish I had been strong enough to say no but I was terrified into treatment, I did resist some of it but not surgery and I now regret that, as your philosophy resonates with me although I am not nearly so kind to myself as you manage to be!!! Wish I could do that, happy to pm if you are interested?

  • pupmom
    pupmom Member Posts: 1,032
    edited August 2013
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    Lily, I'm just curious about this, because I really don't understand. You would PREFER to still have a malignant, life threatening tumor in your body than to have it gone?????

  • exbrnxgrl
    exbrnxgrl Member Posts: 4,798
    edited August 2013
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    Imaging alone is not a sufficient diagnostic tool. Most biopsies show benign results. If the biopsy is not benign, it yields important information about ones bc. Without a biopsy, I feel that one is self diagnosing. That being said, we all have a right to our own health care decisions.

  • abigail48
    abigail48 Member Posts: 337
    edited August 2013
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    been reading & re-reading mushrooms for health.  what a wonderful book & so pertinent for us.  I'ts about the mushrooms which grow here but they're avcailiable to buy too.  more later, I have linkd to persue

  • abigail48
    abigail48 Member Posts: 337
    edited August 2013
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    one of the t6hings I've gleaned from this book, by greg marley, is that shitake mushrooms dried by sunlight (or ultra violet light?) will generate enough precursor to vitamin d2 that it would e possible to overdose on it, though the author hasn't heard of anyone in harms way

  • CindyD
    CindyD Member Posts: 15
    edited August 2013
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    Early on in my process after mammo, thermography and ultrasound, after walking away from two surgeons who tried to intimidate me into scheduling surgery, I saw the movie, "Cancer is Curable Now." One of the doctors featured in this video, Dr Leigh Erin Conneally from The Center for New Medicine in Irvine, CA became my new doctor. She also runs the Oasis of Hope US Clinic attached to her office. Dr Conneally, after first asking me what my gut was telling me to do, viewed my mammo, ultrasound and thermography and ordered the Cancer Profile blood test done at Metabolic labs in FL. She diagnosed cancer from this test.

    Dr Conneally did not feel any lumps in my lymph nodes at my last exam, but sometimes they are sore and tender. I am alternating between the Cancer Profile Blood Test and the Bio Meridian Cancer Cascade test to monitor my health. I see her 3 times a year and will be seeing her at the end of the month.

    I did not just stumble upon my philosophy one day. I also had tremendous fear, doctors who were bullys, two parents who died of cancer. I spent many months managing my fear by devouring information about cancer and health.

  • Lily55
    Lily55 Member Posts: 1,748
    edited August 2013
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    yORKIE Mom - no of course not put like that but most cancer has taken several years to grow to become visible, certainly lobular is regarded as taking maybe 8 years to become visible........so therefore there really is not the rush I was presented with, and I don´t see cancer as a separate entity, it is an imbalance in my body where I failed to check cell growth and unhealthy cells reproduced, so therefore I can do something about that if it is not metastatic.  Given the choice I would have opted for minimal laser surgery and then the naturopathic route possibly with hormones, not rads, which I do regret, but at the time I felt it was right

  • pupmom
    pupmom Member Posts: 1,032
    edited August 2013
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    Well, IMHO, it is very fortunate you were scared into getting that killer out of your body. Oh, and everybody presented with a cancer dx is scared. I speak from personal experience.

  • Momine
    Momine Member Posts: 2,845
    edited August 2013
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    CindyD, thank you very much for the clear answer, and I am glad that you are under the care of a doctor.

  • ForMyGranddaughter
    ForMyGranddaughter Member Posts: 39
    edited August 2013
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    Question:  Why do you have to settle on one course of action?  I get not wanting to have the toxins of chemotherapy but what about using it as one of your therapies?  And also including natural remedies, as well?

  • milehighgirl
    milehighgirl Member Posts: 397
    edited August 2013
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    Yorkiemom and formygranddaughter, it sounds like you may not fully understand what this thread is all about.  Alternative means that many are choosing not to go the cut, poison and burn approach.  I'm sure you have done your research as have all of us in choosing which course of treatment is best for you.  Many of us here know that the body will heal itself and have spent long hours, weeks and even years, researching which natural protocol to follow.  Some have tweaked or changed course until they found the right combination, just as you appear to be doing in choosing which chemo or radiation you wish to follow.

    You may want to check out the complementary medicine threads which combines traditional with natural approaches and sounds like what you're really looking for.

    I know it's hard and you're likely scared.  I wasn't scared - just po'd.  I was told to go home and die four years ago.  I told that doctor what he could do with his diagnosis.  If it hadn't been for alternatives, I would be dead.

    Everyone here is pulling for each other no matter what we choose to do.  I don't have to agree with someone else's decision but I will cheer on anyone brave enough to go for it.  It isn't my place to tell others what they should or shouldn't do - it's their life and their decision alone as to how they are going to deal with their cancer.

    You may wish to check out cancertutor.com which has a wealth of information on the alternative approach.  We all wish you the best in whatever you choose.

    Blessings, Sue

  • jojo68
    jojo68 Member Posts: 336
    edited August 2013
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    VERY well said, Sue!!!!Kiss Very eloquent...and so true to point.

  • dogsandjogs
    dogsandjogs Member Posts: 677
    edited August 2013
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    http://www.trueactivist.com/why-medicine-wont-allow-cancer-to-be-cured/

    Fascinating how the drug companies, FDA and the banking industry got together 100 yrs ago ---

  • pupmom
    pupmom Member Posts: 1,032
    edited August 2013
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    Milehighgirl, thank you for your concern, but I am very happy with my traditional treatment, which I believe has saved my life, and am not looking for anything "alternative." Why fix it if it works? Fortunately, I've worked through most of my fear about bc also. Just cruising through life at this point. Anyway, here's to good health for us all! 

  • CindyD
    CindyD Member Posts: 15
    edited August 2013
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    Yorkiemom,

    I am so thrilled that your treatment saved your life and you are happy with the choices that you have made. Many of us in the alternative forum feel the same about our choices and some of us are still working through some aspects of our treatment. We are here to share experiences and ideas. All the best to you.

  • lulubee
    lulubee Member Posts: 903
    edited August 2013
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    I've been reading this thread for a couple of days, and I just want to express my gratitude for the grace and liberty expressed here in the back-and-forth exchanges among ladies of various philosophies.  It's a beautiful thing, and we can only learn and grow from one another's questions, experiences, and hard-won wisdom.  

    All of us with BC are navigating in the deeper waters, and we must each choose our chart & compass... and try very hard not to crash into one another in the storm.  First, do no harm-- that's a good standard for us all.  "Love one another" -- there's another one.  That's how we nurture healing.

    SO... just wanted to say thank you all for being kind to one another.  

    Much goodwill to you all, and may we each find the path that our own bodies will respond to.  Who knows, there may be many ways to prevail over BC. 

    lulubee

  • jojo68
    jojo68 Member Posts: 336
    edited August 2013
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    Well said, ladies!

    Lulubee, welcome!  I was wondering if you ever share your story?  If so, do you mind me asking when you were diagnosed with stage 4 and any details?  thanks so much! xo

  • bluepearl
    bluepearl Member Posts: 133
    edited August 2013
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    Would someone provide me with the evidence that alternatives work for breast cancer? Not anecdotal, but clinical trials? I need the information. Thanx.

  • milehighgirl
    milehighgirl Member Posts: 397
    edited August 2013
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    Bluepearl, if you google natural cures clinical trials or alternative medicine clinical trials you will get thousands of hits.  You will also have to wade through those thousands of hits to get to what you're looking for specifically in layman's terms.  Examples of a few are:

    http://www.edenprescription.com/SR_Clinical_Trials.html

    http://nccam.nih.gov/

    You can also go to the countless websites or yahoo groups who are using alternative approaches and what is working for for them, trials or not.  A good site for one particular protocol is Dr. Johanna Budwig's site http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/FlaxSeedOil2/.  You have to sign up to get in (very simple) but there is a wealth of information as to her trials and successes.  Read through the files there.

    Here's one for LDN http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/lowdosenaltrexone/

    Many of these sites do post the originating doctor who came up with the alternative approach and the trials they went through to achieve success.

    For all of us, we have to research, research, research to get to find what seems to be a good fit.  Most of us have been doing it for years so there's really no good or quick answer for you.  Good luck in  your search!

  • Momine
    Momine Member Posts: 2,845
    edited August 2013
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    Bluepearl, you will find studies that show various supplements having some effect on aspects of cancer or being helpful in conjunction with standard treatment, or helping against the side effects of cancer treatment. Good examples of such studies are the ones concluding that high fibre diets protect against colon cancer, or that exercise offers some protection against breast cancer and its recurrence. 

    You will also find many studies that show any number of substances to be effective "in vitro," which means the stuff, whatever it is, will kill a cancer cell in a petri dish. This doesn't mean much, if the study of the substance has never progressed out of the petri dish.

    You will not find any hard science study, with a decent size patient pool and reproducable results, that shows any alternative treatment as being effective in treating cancer. If such evidence existed, the treatment would no longer be alternative. 

  • Cuculi
    Cuculi Member Posts: 82
    edited August 2013
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    I have been following this thread for the last couple of weeks.  I was diagnosed with BC on May. Had surgery and doing chemo (already 3 chemos). Since I found the lump, went to the doctor and had surgery, 2 weeks went by... It was all so fast that I was no really able to sit and think about it.  My husband pushed me into doing everything fast and now that I can make a pause I would have probably followed another path.  I do yoga and meditation since 2010 and was not able to use these "tools" at that moment.  I also visit my homeopath since 2011, as well as a person who "cleans" my aura and chakras.  However when I was diagnosed I was overwhelmed and I was led into surgery and now chemo.  

    I dont want to think what I should or would have done because it starts driving me crazy.  I just think about today and what I will do from now on. So, like all of you I am doing research.  I wont stop chemo now, but dont want to think about the traditional medicine for BC.  I am focused now on myself.  The power of my mind to heal myself with the help of a natural nutrition. (Have read several websites about it).  So, meditation, homeopathy, cleaning my aura and chakras, are my "allies" now.  I believe I had very strong emotions with my husband the last year which produced my cancer on my right breast.

    CindyD, I loved how you explained the reason your decision.  I could "hear" peace so I am sure you will do well.  I am working on that, working on my believe, on reducing conflict with my husband, on my energy and positive attitude.

    I have started reading the webs and info a lot of you have posts in order to introduce them, if possible, in my own treatment.  It is very useful, thanks! I share with you http://www.newmedicine.ca/

    It may sound estoric but it is my belief. Thank you all for sharing and I wish you all the best. 

    Have a great week!

  • Momine
    Momine Member Posts: 2,845
    edited August 2013
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    Cuculi, thanks for the link. I also read the wiki entry on Dr. Hamer, and it was most enlightening.

  • GlobalGirlyGirl
    GlobalGirlyGirl Member Posts: 77
    edited August 2013
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    bluepearl - I'm not too sure what you're looking for, but here was a study on Curcumin and breast cancer:

    http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014579302022925

    cuculi - I totally hear you on "doing everything fast."  The whole process went warp speed. You don't even have time to process the fact that you have cancer.

  • exbrnxgrl
    exbrnxgrl Member Posts: 4,798
    edited August 2013
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    Cuculi,

    I'm pretty open minded and do believe in a mind/body connection however, Dr. Gerd also dabbles in anti-Semitic Jewish conspiracy theories and has had his medical license revoked in several countries. It doesn't do much for his credibility and being Jewish myself,it is more than a little upsetting. I wish you the best with whatever path you pursue.

  • planetbananas
    planetbananas Member Posts: 109
    edited August 2013
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    I also believe in the mind-body connection as well as incorporating alternative treatments but I found this on Wikipedia and thought it was more than merely disturbing:





    "Hamer purports that his method is a "Germanic" alternative to mainstream clinical medicine which he claims is part of a Jewish conspiracy to decimate non-Jews. In this Hamer follows the antisemitic "Neue Deutsche Heilkunde" propagated in Nazi Germany. More precisely he asserts that chemotherapy and morphine are used to "mass murder" the western civilisation, while such treatment is not used in Israel where nearly no people die of cancer, according to him.[8][9][15] He promotes the idea that most oncologists in Germany are Jewish and that "no jew is treated with chemotherapy in Germany". According to him hypodermic needles are used during chemotehrapy to implant "chips" containing "chambers of poison" that can be activated by satellite to specifically kill patients.[16] He proposes that the swine flu vaccination campaign of 2009 has also been used to mark people with those "chips" and denies the existence of the HI virus.[17] Hamer also believes that the denial of recognition of his theories and the revocation of his practitioner's licence is due to a Jewish conspiracy.[15]



    In 2008, Hamer presented a document where one "Chief Rabbi" "Esra" Iwan Götz confirms the existence of a conspiracy among Jewish oncologists to use the "torture" of chemotherapy on all non-Jewish patients, while Jewish patients were to receive the "correct" treatment of GNM. Iwan Götz is a German holocaust denialist active in the German Reich revivalism scene who has been repeatedly convicted by German courts on counts of holocaust denial,[18] fraud, defamation, misuse of academic titles (the title "Chief Rabbi" is not legally protected in Germany), falsification of documents among others.[19]"

  • Seester
    Seester Member Posts: 1
    edited August 2013
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    Anyone have a good detox recipe?

    Is juicing better for detoxing your body?

  • GlobalGirlyGirl
    GlobalGirlyGirl Member Posts: 77
    edited August 2013
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    Master Cleanse. It's hard core, but it's the best detoxer, IMHO.

    Gentler would be kale smoothies

  • Momine
    Momine Member Posts: 2,845
    edited August 2013
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    Planetbananas, yes, and considering I got my second opinion on my treatment plan from a (Jewish) doctor working in a breast cancer clinic in Israel, his opinion being that if I came to him to be treated there (which we were considering), my treatment plan would be exactly the same as the one proposed by my Greek (non-Jewish, as far as I know, doctors), this is so clearly off the wall.

    Dr. Hamer lost a son, tragically, and it seems to have unhinged him.

  • Momine
    Momine Member Posts: 2,845
    edited August 2013
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    Bronxgirl, I do think being positive and making an effort to lead a harmonious life are helpful in many ways. It may also influence health, because you are more likely to take care of yourself and make healthy choices if your life is in balance. But I am very leery of the idea that we cause our cancers by having a bad attitude or conflicts in our lives. For me it is more a spiritual thing, i.e. that we honor the gift of life by making an effort to lead good lives. That starts with the self. The adage that you should love others as you love yourself makes no sense unless you actually love yourself. Loving yourself means, among other things, taking care of yourself and clearing your life of miserable people/situations.

    I come from a tribe of people who pretty much all have died from cancer. My paternal grandma was the most "om" person you could imagine, cheerful, can-do, active, happy etc. She still got cancer, ditto for all of her 3 kids and 5 siblings, all equally cheerful. So I have no illusions that cheerfulness can overcome cancer.