All posts by Steve

Does Acetaminophen (aka ‘Tylenol’) Increase Cancer Risks?

What if I could show you evidence that strongly suggests that frequent acetaminophen use appears to be associated with substantial increases in the risk of cancer occurence?

Well, I can – and the journal articles that the information is in were published in world class publications and written by world class investigators from world class institutions who were documenting the results of world class investigations.

Unfortunately, the investigations were looking for reductions in cancer rates as a result of aspirin and NSAID use.

While the correlation between aspirin and reductions in cancer risk was clearly demonstrated in the two studies that I’ve most recently reviewed, it is a fact that the correlation between acetaminophen use and increased cancer risk was just as clearly demonstrated.

However, this correlation was either ignored or downplayed and rationalized away by the authors.

I don’t find this particularly unusual. By now everyone knows that aspirin (and sometimes NSAIDs) are strongly associated with serious reductions in cancer occurences and progression. In fact, this information has become so well known within the academic communities that it is now starting to spill over into the awareness of the general public. It is the norm for there to be an avalanche of data supporting discoveries like this once the fundamental claim has become accepted by the mainstream scientific community and researchers.

As Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) is said to have prophetically written – ‘All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed; second, it is violently opposed; and third, it is accepted as self-evident.’

Along those lines, it simply isn’t acetaminophen’s turn to be reported on. But it will be. Correlations as strong as the ones shown in these two reports simply cannot be ignored forever.

I have seen similar information in other publications, but – like most – I have been so focused on reading the data that supports the publication’s research focus that I totally missed the acetaminophen correlation. But the studies I just reviewed were done so well and had been statistically analyzed so intensely that I just couldn’t ignore the point that acetaminophen and cancer occurence was strongly correlated for the studied conditions.

I encourage you to check this info out for yourself.

The first article is titled ‘Aspirin and the Risk of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in a Population-Based Case-Control Study’ and its reference information is Chang ET, Zheng T, Weir EG, Borowitz M, Mann RB, Spiegelman D and Mueller NE. Aspirin and the Risk of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in a Population-Based Case-Control Study. Journal of the National Cancer Institute February 18, 2004 Vol 96, N0 4, pp 305-315. You can get a free copy of it at http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/96/4/305.full .

You can find a free copy of the second article at http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/291/20/2433 . It’s titled ‘Association of Frequency and Duration of Aspirin Use and Hormone Receptor Status With Breast Cancer Risk’. It’s reference is Terry MB, Gammon MD, Zhang FF, et. al. Association of Frequency and Duration of Aspirin Use and Hormone Receptor Status With Breast Cancer Risk. JAMA, 2004;291(20);2433-2440.

Although I don’t use acetaminophen, I intend to make sure my kids know about these studies and their findings… Hopefully they’ll limit their acetaminophen intake.

Oh yeah, in case you’re wondering… both studies noted above found strong correlations between daily aspirin intake and reductions in cancer occurence. Imagine that.

Remember – you must talk to your physician before starting any new medication regimen. Pharmacists Pharmacist – Doctors Doctor, as it should be.

Taking Iodine Supplements to Improve Your Health and Reduce Your Risk of Getting Cancer? Is That Crazy or What?

As I’ve cast around for ways to make my family member more resistant to cancer reoccurence I’ve run across a lot of crazy claims.

The majority of them have been looked at and discarded after careful consideration because there wasn’t any real evidence to support the claims, and I simply couldn’t figure out any way that they might be true or helpful.

However, the concept of iodine supplementation gains credibility with almost every enquiry I make.

We’ve talked about convergences between today’s theories and data and Doctor Gerson’s theories and practices in previous posts – and in one of those posts we briefly touched on the convergences of iodine supplementation.

What we haven’t really talked about is the fact that the most successful cancer healers of old – the ‘Quacks’, if you want to see them that way – incorporated similar types and quantities of iodine into their remedies.

That’s interesting.

For, although the conventional medicine folk would like you to believe that there was absolutely nothing to those healers’ claims of success treating cancers, I would like to put forth this thought for your consideration.

Do you REALLY think that people are that stupid? Do you REALLY think that people would keep going to these guys – even when they were being publically accused of being ‘Quacks’ and charlatans if nobody ever got ‘cured’ or helped in any way?

I don’t.

It is my opinion that people – even desperate people – are actually quite intelligent when it comes to figuring out where to go to try to save their lives. Especially those who have decided to forsake traditional treatments or those who have been through those treatments and then cast to the side to die. Money is always tight. It does not get frittered away someplace where believable and verifiable objective evidence of cures does not exist. The treatment might not work and they might die anyway, but I’m pretty sure they see what they’re trying as a viable option or they wouldn’t be there.

So, I pay attention to what was used in these so called ‘cures’ – from a Pharmacist’s point of view – and look for convergences.

I count this convergence as significant.

Significant enough that we’ve had many discussions about it amongst ourselves in the Pharmacy – and several of us, including the most hard core non-believers, have started ourselves and our loved ones on iodine supplements.

I will remind you, these are Pharmacists who have done this. Cold, hard, non-believing, conservative Pharmacists. We know I’m crazy, but I assure you they are not.

The conversations have been prolonged and intense enough that family members became aware of them before we Pharmacists had even made up OUR minds.

In fact, I remember waking up one day to find the family member who has been having to deal with cancer sitting on the side of the bed with a piece of paper in her hand. She handed it to me and told me that she’d asked her doctor what she/he thought about this iodine and thyroid supplementation ‘stuff’ – fully expecting to have a good laugh about it. In reply to the question the physician had handed her a copy of a document that talked about the use of iodine supplementation to cure fibrocystic breast disease, and the use of iodine supplementation and dessicated thyroid to treat what is now being called Type 2 Hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s Disease.

I read that darned piece of paper – which was written by a doc for docs – multiple times.

Ultimately I found myself deciding that I’d better figure out the potential mechanisms behind these claims – and pretty darned quickly, because my family member was now hounding me for answers.

The best information I’ve found on this topic is at the website of a company that manufactures an iodine supplement called Iodoral™. That company’s name is Optimox, and their website is www.optimox.com. You can find their iodine supplementation papers at this website address – http://www.optimox.com/pics/Iodine/opt_Research_I.shtml . These papers were written by several physicians who have dedicated vast amounts of time to researching the history of iodine’s use in general, and its use to treat diseases in particular. They use iodine every day in their practices, as far as I can tell.

Another extremely valuable resource is the book ‘Hypothyroidism Type 2: The Epidemic’ by Doctor Mark Starr. His website is http://www.21centurymed.com/.

Doctor Jerry Tennant – the founder of the Tennant Institute for Integrative Medicine – also has interesting things to say about iodine supplementation at his website (http://www.tennantinstitute.com/TIIM_MAC/Iodine.html), in his book ‘Healing is Voltage: The Handbook (Vol. 1)’, and in his ‘How To Stay Well Pamphlet’. You can buy the book on Amazon.com and you can get the pamphlet for free at http://www.tennantinstitute.com/TIIM_MAC/Patient_Forms.html.

If you’d like to hear Dr Tennant and Dr Starr explaining their thoughts on a wide range of health topics listen to the series of youtube video posts starting with this one – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEtLFZUAlV0 .

To really briefly summarize my findings it seems that most people – especially women – should be taking 6.25mg-12.5mg of iodine per day. There are two ways to do this. The first is the use of Lugol’s Iodine Solution. There are two strengths – a 2% and a 5%. Both contain iodine and potassium iodide. The 2% solution contains 2.5mg of iodine per drop, and the 5% contains 6.25mg/drop. So, one drop of 5% Lugol’s in a couple of ounces of water will give you the minimum that the people who believe in iodine supplementation say you should be taking. The other method is the use of iodine supplement tablets like the Iodoral™ tablet marketed by Optimox.

I use the 2% Lugol’s solution made by the J. Crow Company ( http://www.jcrows.com/ ). One of the other pharmacists uses the 5% Lugol’s and the Optimox tablets. Another uses only the Optimox tablets. The tradeoffs are that it’s a pain in the you-know-what to have to dilute the Lugol’s every time, and it tastes like iodine while the tablets are a little more costly, contain 12.5mg of iodine per tablet, and don’t taste like iodine.

Women are claimed to need much more iodine than men because the second and third biggest consumers of iodine are a woman’s breasts and ovaries. This is why goiters are reported to be 6 times more common in women than in men. Both men and women need iodine throughout the body – not  just for the thyroid gland. The amount of iodine in table salt is nowhere near what your total body needs – at least that’s the claim of these Docs – and it appears that salt actually fights against the absorption of the iodine.

OK. I believe.

The bottom line is that I’ve witnessed and experienced verifiable objective evidence that iodine supplementation works. That’s why I’m writing about it here.

BUT – Don’t try it without asking your physician if  it’s OK. There are conditions that might be made worse by iodine. Once you get your Doc’s OK take a look at some of the articles at the Optimox site, and buy and read a copy of Dr Starr’s book. Doctor Tennant’s book is also a good one to get and take a look at – especially if you’re looking for alternative health strategies. Take a look at Dr Tennant’s pamphlet – it’s free. Then, once you understand what is claimed and what to watch out for, start your doses low and go slow when you’re adjusting your doses.

Again, I’m Crazy – so always get your physician’s approval before you try what I’m writing about on this blog. I believe in what I’m writing, but the human body is an extremely complex machine, and only someone who has the training to put hands on you and assess your physical condition is qualified to give the OK to new medications and/or regimens.

Remember – Pharmacists Pharmacist – Doctors Doctor.

Flu Shots – Set Up For Pandemic Death? Try FluMist™ Instead.

It’s that time again.

The CDC and other organizations have started publishing their influenza (aka ‘The Flu’) data and recommendations again in preparation for the upcoming flu season. To sarcastically oversimplify their guidelines, they basically recommend that everyone who can breath or has a pulse needs to get a flu shot.

Who knows – they might be right. That many people may need flu protection this year.

But – in case you haven’t figured it out already, I do NOT like Flu shots. In fact, I am VERY anti-flu shot.

Instead, I propose you seriously consider getting the nasal vaccine – FluMist.

Not because of conspiracy theory debates about whether sinister forces are working to kill us all or not, or rumored links to autism, or any other reason along these lines.

Pharmacists hear these objections and get questioned about these topics all the time.

They are not the reasons that I am so anti-flu shot.

So, you might ask, then what the heck is your main hangup?

It’s simple. I think flu shots block you from building up long lasting antibodies that your body can rely upon to protect you from similar flu strains in the future.

All pharmacists know that the conventional flu shot that you get in your arm only gives you immunity for a time period measured in months. Then the immune response goes away and the body forgets it ever saw that strain of flu before.

If there is one thing you can guarantee, it’s that the flu viruses are going to mutate. Quickly. And, it is inevitable that one of these days we’re going to end up with a killer flu circulating aroud the world.

If your body has seen one of the earlier versions of a flu it may protect you to some degree from the currently circulating flu virus. You hear about this happening all the time for people who didn’t get as sick as others because they’d seen a relative of the current flu sometime in the past.

This phenomenom will be mentioned in passing in articles in the newspapers, on the radio, on TV -even on the internet. But few people are aware of the fact that they will not be getting that kind of protection from the flu shots they got this season unless they end up getting the flu anyway.

So…. you ask…. what do you recommend we do instead, Mr Smartie-pants? Take our chances and get the flu?

Well, I guess that’s exactly what I recommend – unless you have a serious medical problem that would make the flu life threatening. At least what I recommend is equivalent to getting the flu.

Taking the FluMist vaccine is the same as getting the flu from an immune system point of view.

I’m a huge fan of FluMist – the influenza vaccine that is squirted up your nose.

FluMist actually infects your nose with the flu, and after your body fights it off you will have an immunity to the flu strains that were included into the vaccine that will last for many years. At least this has been the case for as long as FluMist has been on the market.

And – it has been reported, and I believe it to be true – that FluMist gives you better protection if the flu strain changes a little from what was predicted.

Think of it this way.

Visualize the flu strain you’re being immunized against as a 7 foot tall troll with a hunched back, a bad attitude, blonde hair, one blue eye and one grey eye. The shots only identify the virus as having a grey eye. That’s all the information they’re capable of communicating to your immune system. FluMist – on the other hand – handcuffed and hog tied the sucker and let your immune system get a good picture of its every physical attribute as it beat the snot out of him. Later, if a relative comes through with a disguise – but having a bad attitude and showing a hunched back and a blue eye – your immune system is likely to beat the snot out of it because it has enough information to know that there’s a family resemblance.

A pandemic or killer flu might just be that relative with the disguise. different enough to avoid the info your immune system got from the shot, but not different enough to bluff its way through if you had FluMist.

You could actually take your chances with the flu. But, I do not think this is a good strategy, especially right now. I am quite concerned that this year’s flu season could be a very challenging one.

So, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to march my butt into my doctor’s office and get that darned FluMist vaccine squirted up my nose. I’m past the 49 year old cutoff for getting FluMist. Doesn’t matter. I’m going to twist my Doc’s arm till he/she gives it to me. It’s my understanding that the reason it’s not approved by the FDA for people who are older than 49 is that the company that invented it ran out of money and couldn’t finish the clinical trials. Think about it. You’re OK when you’re 49 and you turn into a pumpkin at 50? I got it last year, and I’m going to get it again this year. And so did and so are all the other members of my family.

(To share a kind of funny story with you, my daughter got FluMist a couple of years ago. She works for a drug development company, and – of course – all the people she worked with got the shot her company paid for. She called me up in the midst of the flu season and told me she was never going to get FluMist again. Concerned, I asked her why. She explained with a laugh that she was the only person who didn’t have the flu and everyone had been out for going on a week – and she was being expected to keep the projects on schedule all by herself. True story.)

Anyway –

One last note – FluMist does contain weakened live flu viruses. Not everyone can take it. As with all medicines – there are risks that are uniquely associated with it. But, I think it’s a WHOLE lot safer than getting the flu for most.

As always, these decisions must be made in consultation with your physician. Pharmacists Pharmacist, Doctors Doctor. Ask him/her if you’re healthy enough to get FluMist… Seriously consider getting yourself protected this year. Stay safe.

DCA (Dichloroacetate) and Cancer – Thoughts and Update

In December of 2007 I worked graveyard shift at a local hospital and gave little thought to alternative therapies, nutrition and/or cancer therapies.

But I did read an article that New Scientist magazine had published about a Canadian professor who worked at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada and the theories proposed by him and a team of unusual depth and breadth about the causes of some cancers and a substance that might be used to cure them. You can find a copy of that article here – http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10971-cheap-safe-drug-kills-most-cancers.html .

That professor – Evangelos Michelakis – and his team had published the results of laboratory studies that indicated that a substance called dichloroacetate (DCA) could be used to cause upregulation of cancer cells’ mitochondrial activity, and that this could cause cancer cells to kill themselves – while normal cells remained unaffected.

You can find a copy of that article here – http://www.cell.com/cancer-cell/retrieve/pii/S1535610806003722 .

After reading the article I felt compelled to understand this claim more fully, so I devoted significant time and energy to following up on the information that had been presented and the substance called DCA.

Then, once I thought I had a handle on the fundamental information, I promptly got busy with other things and forgot about it. After all, I was NOT an oncology pharmacist. In fact, I worked hard to stay as far away from that work as I could.

But pharmacists never know what people will ask them to help them with, and while I was walking through one of the wards one night a nurse stopped me and started telling me about her dad and asking me if I had any alternative ‘ideas’ he could try.

You see, her dad was a doctor and he had terminal lung cancer. I told her – with as much compassion as I could muster at 3AM – that I didn’t know anything more than the docs already did, but I would keep my eyes open.

As I worked my way back to the pharmacy that little voice that nags at you when you’ve done less than your best started whispering in my ear about dichloroacetate.

By the end of the shift I had printed out the article and some other information I’d previously tracked down, and I gave it – along with caveats and a summary of my understanding of the information – to the nurse who had stopped me. She told me she’d get it to her dad right away. I promptly got back to my work and forgot about it.

A week or so later that same nurse stopped me again and told me that her dad sent his thanks, and he was so appreciative for the information. In fact, she told me, he’d already gotten access to some DCA through a pharmacist somewhere and was taking it. He wasn’t sure how it was supposed to be mixed or the dose, but the pharmacist had helped him, and he thought he was on the right track. But, she told me, it was ‘fearsome stuff’ to take. I told her I was glad I could help and got back to work.

The next time I saw that nurse she stopped me again. She told me that her dad had stopped taking the DCA because he’d developed some severe neuropathy and it didn’t seem to be working.

As I walked away from that conversation I felt frustrated and angry. Angry that I didn’t have enough information to answer her questions about the toxicity, dosing, and side effect causes for this ‘drug’, and angry that it wasn’t working.

So, I took another look at DCA. A REAL look, from a pharmacist’s point of view.

In the meantime, things had really heated up on the mainstream media side. New Scientist magazine had published a couple more articles about DCA and this professor’s work, all the while emphasizing that it was all so preliminary and speculative and nobody should be trying to use it. The University of Alberta had also published a disclaimer on its website that basically said that they supported their research team to the fullest, but what they were saying shouldn’t really be listened to. It was, after all, only theory and lab results.

But the genie was out of the bottle, and the public was clamoring for access to this substance. The U.S. regulatory folk had put on a full press to keep people from getting DCA, but websites had sprung up with DCA being the only topic. Despite it being banned, people were somehow getting access to DCA. But they were getting the neuropathy problems and problems with formulation too.

Eventually, the public pressure and support for this substance reached such a fevered pitch that people were making donations to the University of Alberta to fund a clinical trial to figure out whether DCA worked as claimed or not. Maybe then – they thought – they would be able to get access to DCA.

You can get info on that trial’s progress and the university’s position on the topic at http://www.dca.med.ualberta.ca/Home/index.cfm .

And – as I started to say above – I got a lot smarter about DCA and its use in other clinical trials to treat hereditary diseases that had at their roots mitochondrial dysfunction, misregulation and failure to produce energy properly.

It quickly became apparent that dosing DCA could not be done as we usually dosed medications. It had a unique characteristic by which the body adapted to it and stopped metabolizing it as quickly after awhile. This would lead to blood levels that were higher than intended and the appearance of a multitude of side effects – including neuropathy. It was also noted that mixing this caustic material into a drink that could be safely consumed was tricky – and I noted that most people wouldn’t know enough to get it mixed up right.

Mixed improperly DCA would indeed be something that would be ‘fearsome’ to take. But, I had tracked down the title of an article that detailed how they had mixed the DCA for the mitochondrial disease trials.

Obviously one would need a sharp pharmacist and the information in the article to get this one right.

I studied this information as fast as I could, as I knew the nurse would be stopping me again to talk about her dad, his disease, and DCA. I wanted to be prepared. Then the word was circulating around the wards that this nurse’s dad had died. Everyone was sad. I wished I’d have been smarter and studied harder sooner.

So, I put all my data into a binder and continued to follow the clinical trial that was finally beginning to recruit patients. But trials take forever to get going and completed …. so I got busy with other things and forgot about it.

A couple of months ago I read an update on those trials – I truthfully don’t remember where – but the bottom line is that they studied a limited number of patients who had the deadly brain cancer glioblastoma, and the results seem to indicate that the DCA was capable of positively impacting those patient’s outcomes. You can find a copy of the journal article that details the trial’s results here – http://dca-information.pbworks.com/f/Metabolic%20Modulation%20of%20Glioblastoma%20with%20Dichloroacetate.pdf.

Notice – if you would – that the mainstream press did NOT hype this trial’s results. In fact, it wasn’t covered at all – as far as I can tell – except for the one article I blundered across while looking for alternatives for my family member. (Just in case the protocol she’s currently following fails. You know.)

Anyway – back to topic – there is something just wrong about that. It’s major news, I think.

And I find myself wanting to make sure I don’t come up short again on my support of those trying to keep themselves alive.

So… I’m listing the info about the article that contains what your doc and pharmacist would need to mix and dose DCA safely below.

The article that details how to mix DCA right is titled ‘Development of an Oral Drug Formulation for Dichloroacetate and Thamine‘, and its reference is:

Henderson GN, Whalen PO, Darr RA, Curry SH, Darendorf H, Baumgartner TG and Stacpoole PW. ‘Development of a Drug Formulation for Dichloroacetate and Thiamine‘. Drug Development and Industrial Pharmacy. 20(15), 2425-2437 (1994).

You can find the article at http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a785358792~frm=titlelink .

I’m giving you this address to help your librarian find you a copy – either through their contracted online providers or interlibrary loan. Or you can try the librarian at a major hospital or cancer center. If you don’t want to wait you can buy access to the article. But it’s not cheap. If all else fails or you are out of time drop me an e-mail using the links on this website and I’ll try to get you access to a copy.

It is my understanding that some cancer centers in Canada are already making this substance available to their patients. There are a plethora of websites that have information about it. I am sure there are many who can fill in the blanks much better than I can, and saying more seems to border on advocating you take this substance. A good starting point might be this site: http://www.thedcasite.com/index.html.

Let me be clear – I am NOT advocating this substance for the treatment of cancer.

I am also NOT saying that I think it has no chance of working. 

(In fact, please note that I have devoted a lot of time that I should have been dedicating to sleep to getting this info posted for your review and consideration.)

I AM trying to stay true to my goal of providing you with unbiased and balanced information that I believe hasn’t been properly delivered to the public so that you can have a discussion with your physicians about whether it might be an option or not.

I know people are trying DCA – and I also know it is a dangerous substance if not properly dosed and formulated. So – to try to keep people from getting hurt and/or improperly treated – I’ve provided the reference to the article that contains the information that your doctor and pharmacist will need to properly dose and compound it for you if your physician wants to try it.

Most of what you need to know is in the article I referenced above, and your physician and pharmacist will know how to get a copy of it – or if they can’t – your university’s library or hospital librarian will know how to get you a copy.

This is NOT a substance you should tackle on your own without medical support!

Again – I’m a Pharmacist, not a Physician. Pharmacists Pharmacist. Physicians Physician. Talk to your physician and get his/her buyin before trying this or any other drug.

Gerson Again – Convergence With Others’ Claims and Theories

The recent post about Doctor Gerson and his theories about treating cancer has generated quite a few enquiries.

In that post I talked about what I believed to be a convergence – or coming together – of more recent claims and findings with the protocols detailed by Doctor Gerson.

People want to know more details about these convergences.

I’ll attempt to explain the most significant ones.

An oversimplified summary of Doctor Gerson’s protocol and the reasons behind the various elements of his therapies includes:

1. Increase the patient’s immune response by stimulating the person’s organs and systems to a state of increased vigilence – with an emphasis on the function of the liver and the system of organs that your food flows through from your mouth to your you-know-what. Included in this stimulation are the organs that are associated with this system. Eventually, a majority of the patient’s organs would be involved in this effort to improve immune function.

2. To achieve this stimulation of the immune system and the body’s ability to recognize and kill cancer cells various substances were delivered into the digestive system and to the liver. These substances were given by mouth and via enemas of various types.  The most famous enemas were the infamous ‘coffee’ enemas, and the primary stimulatory substance taken by mouth was castor oil.

3. Doctor Gerson also strongly believed that it was possible to increase the body’s ability to mount an immune response by changing the concentration of mineral ions in the body – most notably potassium and sodium. He believed that it was important to drive the body’s potassium level up and the sodium level down. The goal of this effort to change ion concentrations was the alteration of the voltages that exist across the membranes and structures of the body’s cells.

4. To achive these changes in the body’s potassium and sodium levels Doctor Gerson administered a solution that contained a specific combination of potassium compounds along with a regimen of fruit and vegetable greens juice. These extracts were made from fruits and greens that are known to be high in potassium.

5. To further rev up the body’s metabolic and immune systems Doctor Gerson gave patients doses of iodine and potassium iodide (Lugol’s Solution – 5%), dessicated thyroid (aka ‘Armour Thyroid’), and niacin.

6. In additon to the fruit and vegetable greens juices patients were given a raw liver drink. The purpose of this drink was the provision of nutrients to the patient – and particularly to his/her liver.

7. Without explanation – and despite a ban on ‘fats and oils’ – Doctor Gerson’s protocols called for the administration of flax seed oil every day.

Although there are many other details, the list above is pretty representative of the strategies Doctor Gerson was trying to implement to save his patients’ lives.

So, now we go forward to today.

Because of contamination problems that make it hard to get safe liver for making the liver drink the people controlling the Gerson Protocol switched to dessicated liver tablets. Then it appears that they switched from the liver tablets to Coenzyme Q10 supplements.

This switch to CoQ10 converges with current theories about CoQ10’s ability to re-energize cell’s mitochondria, especially when combined with doses of niacinamide.

Niacinamide is what niacin is converted to by patients’ livers. Another convergence.

Fruit juices and garden greens contain a multitude of vitamins and minerals. Maybe more importantly, they contain bioflavanoids. In general, flavanoids are the molecules that often give a plant’s fruit its color. They are known to frequently survive the digestive system and their trip through the liver. Most importantly, flavanoids are widely believed to be able to suppress cancer cells’ growth and metastasis. Convergence.

There is a growing body of evidence that indicates that we need more iodine than we are currently getting in our diets. If you don’t have enough of the right forms of iodine your thyroid gland can’t make thyroid hormone that works right. Without thyroid hormone your body’s metabolism – and everything else – slows down. A patient’s immune response and ability to mount a counterattack can also be expected to be depressed. This has been named Type 2 Hypothyroidism by doctor Mark Starr in the recent past, and there are those who strongly believe that the administration of dessicated thyroid and iodine supplements are necessary to correct this problem and make the body’s systems work as they’re supposed to. Convergence once again.

The people who talk of iodine and thyroid supplementation explain that the goal of their supplementation is an increase of the body’s electric potentials. Integral to that discussion is the increase in potassium levels to alter the electrical gradients across cell and structure membranes. Convergence, convergence, convergence.

And, finally, it is becoming well known that the oils that one eats can have a very significant impact on your body’s metabolism and well being. One of the oils that is recommended to reduce global inflammation and promote proper immune response is flax seed oil. It is the richest source of Omega-3 fatty acids generally available as a food oil. Convergence.

So, short as this post is, I hope it helps you understand where convergences appear to be occuring with Doctor Gerson’s teachings.. Sorry for not going into even more detail, but this topic could fill a book.

If you want more info on some of the topics I touched on above feel free to click on any of the books listed on the right edge of this blog to get yourself taken to BarnesAndNoble.com to see more details.

Neulasta and gCSF Receptor Stimulation

In a previous post I talked about whether an alcohol/water extract of raw ginger root could positively impact the kill rate of cancers – particularly ovarian cancer.

In that post I pasted a couple of charts that showed a change in slope of lines that model an actual patient’s CA125 levels as her therapy progressed. This change in slope suggests that something increased the kill rate for this patient’s tumors, and a review of changes in this patient’s treatment regimen indicated that the change in slope occured around the time that the patient started taking the ginger supplement.

HOWEVER, in that post I also mentioned the fact that another event that might correlate with the change was the starting of Neulasta injections 24 hours after each chemo session.

I can make what I believe to be a convincing case for either the ginger supplement or Neulasta. Or, perhaps both interact with each other. I simply don’t know because no further studies have been performed.

Neulasta’s product insert clearly cautions that there is a possibility of stimulation of gCSF receptors and increased tumor growth. However, the consensus in the literature in the USA is that Neulasta does NOT cause ovarian tumors to grow. And I can accept that finding. However, studies that have been published elsewhere in the world have shown that about 50% of ovarian tumors have gCSF receptors.

IF Neulasta was involved in the change observed for the patient I referenced earlier I would hypothesize that the gCSF receptors are activated, and in some way this forced the tumors to try to reproduce and/or blocked cell cycle pauses that allow tumor cells to repair the damage done by chemo agents like carboplatin.

If I was being treated for ovarian cancer – and maybe other solid tumor cancers – I would seriously consider taking the ginger supplement that I posted the recipe for previously and Neulasta injections 24 hours after chemo administration.

Of course, I’m a pharmacist – not a physician. You must talk to your physician before starting any new supplements or medications. And, if your doctor and you decide to try the ginger supplement you must follow the rules laid out in the posts associated with it. Do NOT assume ginger is not a powerful substance.

The Gerson Therapy – Was Doctor Gerson A Quack?

Max Gerson, M.D. was a physician who claimed to have developed a protocol that could cure cancer. He is dead now, but his legacy lives on in alternative cancer treatment centers around the world – with the most famous one being located in Mexico.

Mainstream healthcare providers frequently react with extreme skepticism and/or claims of quackery when asked their opinion of Dr Gerson’s theories and protocols.

I reacted the same way when I heard of this physician’s claims and beliefs. Some of his proposals sounded completely nutty to me.

But there is nothing like knowing that a loved one has an advanced cancer that most people die from to make you reexamine your assumptions and what you accept as fact.

You see, I know that the treatments we currently subject patients to almost always have poor outcomes if the patients’ cancers are not discovered early and cut out.

So… as part of my study of options that might be useful to extend my family member’s life… I forced myself to put aside dogma and my biases and pre-conceptions so that I wouldn’t miss something that might work.

Thus, it was inevitible that I would end up reading Dr Gerson’s book – ‘A Cancer Therapy: Results of Fifty Cases and the Cure of Advanced Cancer’. In fact, I read it several times.

It was a difficult read. The first time I read it I had to re-read the chapters several times because it was extremely difficult to get my mind wrapped around the ideas presented by this physician. Every time I progressed to a new idea my subconscious mind told me it was nuts and I was wasting my time. It was a tortuous process.

Pharmacists are extremely conventional in their perspectives, and – as a group – we tend to have been strongly indoctrinated to the status quo. But, slowly it dawned on me that I had to interpret Dr Gerson’s writings and theories based on the state of scientific knowledge when he was practicing – to look for what I call ‘convergence’ of the data and ideas and the assumptions behind them with new knowledge that originates from other sources.

Then, the pieces started to fall into place. I won’t detail Dr Gerson’s theories in this post. If you need the information there are many books out there that will explain in much more detail than I can. But I will say this – I can point out case after case of convergence between his claims and protocols and information that is documented in journal articles that have been published in the recent past.

I do not know whether the people who are running his clinics are curing cancers or not. I have seen documentaries where patients claim they are. I do not know if Dr Gerson actually cured cancers or not, although there are many claims that he did. I do not know if Dr Gerson was a good man or not, but I have heard recordings of interviews that seem to show a physician who believed with all his heart that he was helping people.

I haven’t drug my loved one to the Gerson clinic in Mexico – things happened too fast and my learning curve limited my ability to assimilate enough data soon enough to even consider whether or not that trip should have been made. But….  as my learning has progressed I find myself implementing things into her day-to-day activities that could easily qualify as spin offs of therapies proposed by Dr Gerson.

And every day I find evidence that Dr Gerson may have been correct in many of his actions.

So, I find that I must say that I do NOT believe that Max Gerson, M.D. was a quack.

You can find more information about clinics that practice the Gerson Therapy if you’re interested in learnng more about his protocols at http://www.gerson.org/ .

Again – I’m a pharmacist, not a doctor. I’m providing information I think you might want to talk to your doctor about. Good luck.

CoEnzyme Q10 – Should You Be Taking It?

Well, I’ve wrestled with this post for quite awhile trying to decide what to say and how to say it.

Actually, I’ve been checking and double checking my references and info – and debating the topic with other pharamacists I respect to make sure I knew what I wanted to tell you.

I believe you should be taking CoEnzyme Q10 because there is significant evidence that it is useful for the prevention of problems that find their roots in your cells’ mitochondrias’ ability to do their job.

The mitochondria are your cells’ power plants. If they don’t have enough CoQ10 they can’t work right. If they don’t work right you’re more likely to suffer from chronic diseases, heart muscle problems (e.g. heart failure), etc… – maybe even cancer.

This may be particularly true if you are taking a statin drug to reduce your cholesterol levels. Statins block the production of cholesterol. They also block your body’s ability to manufacture its own CoQ10. Compounding the problem is the theory that you need cholesterol to properly absorb and transport the CoQ10 your body gets from your diet.

So, what version of CoQ10 should you take? Let’s talk about that.

There are two types of CoQ10 being sold on the market. One (ubiquiNONE) is what your body normally gets from your diet. It is not easily absorbed by your body, so most of what you take in when you take a supplement that delivers ubiquiNONE doesn’t get absorbed. The other type that’s available out there – ubiquiNOL – is the form that your body converts ubiquiNONE to. It’s absorbed into the body more easily, and more of what you take in supplement form gets absorbed. But, it’s not as stable and requires special chemical environments in the capsules it comes in to ensure it will benefit you when you take it.

The bottom line is that you take smaller doses of ubiquiNOL than you do ubiquiNONE, and ubiquiNOL tends to cost more.

How much smaller is the uniquiNOL dose? Well, a 50mg ubiquiNOL dose is equal to somewhere between what a 150 and 300 mg dose of ubiquiNONE would get into your system when you take the run-of-the-mill CoQ10 capsules you find most often in the stores. Those capsules cost less too.. but you get less into your system.

However, there are forms of ubiquiNONE that are absorbed 3 times better than what you usually get at the store. One brand name is Q-Gel. Another is made available by Jarrow under the name Q-absorb CoQ10. These formulations are mixed in a special oil base that makes them more absorbable. They cost more too. But this is the form I just switched to.

I was taking 60mg of the CoQ10 (ubiquiNONE) three times a day. I figure that 100mg of the more absorbable version will be roughly equivalent. Or, you could take 30mg three times a day – which is probably the right way to take it. (I’m lazy)

Or, you could take 50mg of ubiquiNOL daily. Jarrow’s ubiquiNOL version is QH-absorb. There are many others that are probably equal in absorbtion – or close enough.

Stick with major brand names… although all the ubiquinone and ubiquinol is being manufactured by Japanese companies as far as I can tell. And, if you decide to go with the ubiquiNONE route look for lecithin and medium chain glycerides (MCGs) in the ingredient list. These seem to be associated with the more absorbable brands.

AND – based on some other journal articles I’ve read – I think you should add a niacinamide capsule to your daily supplement intake if you’re adding CoQ10. There are reports that the two work together – and that high dose CoQ10 might not be good for you without niacinamide.

Niacinamide is what niacin gets converted to after you take it. It will NOT make you flush and it will NOT lower your cholesterol levels.

I’ve added a 500mg capsule to my daily regimen.

The article I’ve linked to below was actually in a book I bought that cost me a lot of cash. The authors propose that CoQ10 is needed to fight off infections, and may be useful for keeping cancer patients in remission. You should read it. They have it posted for free at this site in New Zealand – along with quite a few other interesting articles about CoQ10 supplementation.

http://www.coq10.co.nz/cms/uploads/File/CoQ10-cancer.pdf

Hope this info is useful for you and catalyzes thought about adding CoQ10 and Niacinamide to your diet.

As always…. I’m a pharmacist – not a doctor. I’m not telling that you have to start taking CoQ10 and/or nicacinamide. I am recommending that you ask your Doc what he/she thinks and whether this would be worth a try.

An Aspirin a Day Can Improve Non-Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Survival Rates by 30%

In January of 2009 Andrew T Chan, Shuji Ogino, and Charles S Fuchs published Aspirin Use and Survival After Diagnosis of Colorectal Cancer in JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association). (A. T. Chang, S. Ogino, C. S. Fuchs 2009. Aspirin Use and Survival After Diagnosis of Colorectal Cancer. JAMA 302:6 649-658)

The authors are associated with world class institutions including Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Massachusetts General Hospital. You will have to look very hard and for a very long time to find a better structured and thorough study.

You can get a copy of this article on its final form at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2848289/pdf/nihms-185802.pdf

I’ve pasted excerpts from this paper below –

‘Conclusion Regular aspirin use after the diagnosis of coloractal cancer is associated with lower risk of coloractal cancer-specific and overall mortality, especially among individuals with tumors that overexpress COX-2.’

‘COX-2 promotes inflammation and cell proliferation, and is overexpressed in the majority of human colorectal cancers.’

‘Overexpression of COX-2 in tumor tissue has been associated with a poorer prognosis among colorectal cancer patients in some but not all studies.’

‘Nonetheless, because our data are observational, routine use of aspirin or related agents as cancer therapy cannot be recommended, especially in light of concerns over their related toxicities, such as gastrointestinal bleeding. Further studies among patients with colorectal cancer, including placebo-controlled trials of aspirin or related agents as adjuncts to other routine therapies, are required.’

The bottom line on this article is that patients with diagnosed colorectal cancer had about a 30% increase in survival rate when they took one 325mg aspirin daily. Further analysis of the results indicates that the patients who were benefiting were the ones whose tumors overexpressed an enzyme called COX-2.

When you consider that the authors themselves say that overexpression of COX-2 probably leads to worse outcomes I would have to say that the results of this study are quite impressive.

But, because there is a chance these patients could get what is called a GI Bleed – which can be fatal – it’s better to let them die from their cancers?

Come on… what the heck is going on here…? With all due respect to these physicians, they’re talking like someone who has never sat in a physician’s office and heard the words ‘you have cancer’ or sat in a cancer infusion center’s waiting room while a loved one gets his/her chemotherapy administered.

It’s up to you… but I’d be talking very seriously to my Doc about the findings of this study if I had colorectal cancer – or cancer of the colon of any kind.

Me? I have researched the risks. I’m taking my aspirin.

As always…. I’m a pharmacist – not a doctor. I’m not recommending that you start taking an aspirin a day. I am recommending that you ask your Doc whether this would be worth a try.

Recipe For ‘Catherine’s Potent Ginger Concoction’

Ingredients:

Ginger Paste –

  • Raw Unpeeled Ginger Root that has been thoroughly and vigorously rinsed and then dipped into boiling water for about 15 seconds. (the amount of root you need will be determined by how much ginger paste you want to make – figure each dose will take about a rounded tablespoonfull of volume) Try to get organic ginger root if you can.
  • Everclear Neutral Grain Spirit (at least 151 proof – 190 proof if you can get it – if Everclear is not available use the highest alcohol content hard liquor you can get – hopefully 120 proof) You will only need enough to dilute the thick ground up ginger paste to the consistency of a very thick soup.

Carbonated Lemon Drink (per dose)

  • Approximately 2 tablespoons Lemon Juice (preferably fresh squeezed)
  • Approximately 1-2 teaspoons sugar (adjust per taste)
  • Enough carbonated water (club soda) to finish filling up a glass after the ginger paste, lemon juice, and sugar has been added.

See the Instructions section below for details about how to process the ingredients and mix each dose.

Cautions and Precautions:

This recipe is based on a belief that we do NOT know what components of ginger root are capable of impacting the growth and propagation of cancers.

So, we throw nothing away. You will be using raw ginger root without peeling it, and – to preserve all of the essential oils, flavanoids, and whatever else might be in there – we will not be subjecting the ginger product to heat for any extended periods of time.

This brings us to a problem that is serious for all, but a life and death issue for cancer patients who might be immune compromised. You can’t take this product if you are immune compromised to the point that your physician won’t let you eat raw carrots, etc…

I have done the best I can to make this product safe from a bacterial and fungal standpoint. But, as I’m sure your doctors have told you, you cannot take products like this when you’re immune compromised.

Because of the possibility that whatever the ginger does might interfere with the effectiveness of your chemotherapy regimens you must not take this product 3 days before and 2 days after a scheduled chemotherapy session.

It has also been reported that ginger can decrease your blood’s ability to clot. So, if your platelet counts are low you must talk to your physician to get his/her approval before you take this supplement. But, of course, you were going to do that anyway.

To summarize the ‘rules’ as I know them –

1. You CANNOT take this product if you are immune compromised. If you’re not well enough to eat raw carrots and other garden produce you simply can’t take the chance with this product. It is essentially a raw root product.

2. You CANNOT take this product for three days before and two days after you are going to have a chemotherapy session.

3. You CANNOT take this product if your platelet counts are severely depressed. Check with your physician to get his/her thoughts on what your situation actually is. Don’t assume you’re OK.

4. You CANNOT take this supplement if you are allergic to ginger or any of the other substances that are used to make it. (e.g. lemon juice, alcohol, raw ginger)

Having told you all the situations under which you can’t take this supplement, I will also tell you that ‘Catherine’ and I found opportunities to work this product into her chemotherapy regimen.. and her everyday post chemo life.

Instructions:

To prepare this supplement you will have to go to the store and buy yourself some raw ginger roots in the produce department. Because there are so many species it would be best to ‘blend’ ginger roots from different countries into the starting material. You can do this by buying a few roots from several different stores. (Don’t forget your neighborhood asian grocery stores.)

Now, thoroughly rinse your ginger root.. and, if you have a product like ‘FIT’ or some other cleaner designed to safely wash vegetables, it would probably be a good idea to use that before you rinse everything off. (We are trying to get chemical contamination and some of the fungal contamination off the roots at this time.) Do this whether you’ve been able to get your hands on ‘organic’ ginger root or not.

Next, you are going to dip your ginger pieces into a pot of boiling water for 10-15 seconds. Then you are going to let them cool down and dry. (Be Careful – Splashing and Boiling Water is dangerous.)

Now – slowly feed your ginger root pieces into a blender that is running in ‘liquefy’ mode… We want to get the root ground up as finely as possible.

IMPORTANT: While you are grinding up the ginger root you will get a ginger paste that is hard to grind. This is hard on your blender/food processor’s motor. So, to reduce the thickness of the paste to something that your blender can handle, to provide some degree of antibacterial activity, and to make extracting of the chemicals from the ground up ginger root easier – you will add EVERCLEAR liquor to your ginger root paste. This is an EXTREMELY high alcohol concentration alcoholic beverage that isn’t really meant to consumed by itself or in any real quantity …. Don’t be afraid to use it to make this paste, but respect it for what it is. Use what is needed to make make your grinding easier, and to form a paste that is the consistency of a very thick soup – but no more.

After the paste is done you are going to split it up into glass containers of some sort, plastic bags or some other container so we can freeze it. Try to use something that isn’t plastic because we want to avoid the plasticizers that are in it. I’ve been told that ginger will pull them out of the bags, and they are definately not good for you. The paste will keep in the refrigerator for a few days when you defrost it.. but try to package a day or two’s worth of ginger into each container so you won’t have a lot of it sitting around defrosted in the refrigerator.

After you’ve broken the batch down into the smaller containers place them in the freezer and let them freeze.

Whew… the hardest part is now done.

Anytime you need to mix up some ginger concoction just pull one of the plastic bags out of the freezer and mix whatever dose you choose to take into an 8 ounce glass (less is fine) that is filled with lemonade, carbonated water (club soda), and ice. Store the unused ginger paste in the refrigerator.

The dose that my family member took – and continues to take – is 1 heaping tablespoon three times a day.

I hope this helps. It’s a lot cheaper than the supplement capsules – and I think that everything that might be contained in the ginger root has been properly preserved.

Don’t forget – follow the rules outlined above to keep yourself safe.

Disclaimer:

I do not guarantee this ginger drink will have any effect on cancer cells. It may not be appropriate for some people to consume ginger at the doses that my family member did. Although I’ve tried to incorporate antimicrobial and antifungal processes into this recipe, there is no guarantee that all microorganisms that might cause harm – especially to immune compromised patients – will be eliminated. In fact, I would advise that it is a 100% probability that microorganisms will exist in the ginger paste, lemon juice, and sugar ingredients.

As always, Do NOT start taking Ginger supplentation, any other herbal or ‘natural’ product, or any medication without talking to your Physician and getting his OK.

I’m a pharmacist – not a doctor – and I am providing information that I think is important for you to talk to your doctor about.

I am NOT recommending that you take these supplements or medications without your physicians’ OK!!!

Be Safe – I’m telling you what my observati0ns and opinions are based on what I’ve been able to dig up.

Double check, Research, Research, Research…. and make sure your Doctor agrees it is safe before you start.