Alternative medicines - 1265285

gigy
Posts:27

Yes, Dr. West;

It has been over a month since last chemo. i do not have any "bird" on hand at this moment. C's i do not know the growth of the cancer cell. i do prefer the "birch study" for PDL1 but have not step into the door yet.
In the mean time, i am taking alternative medicines while i am waiting. Hope it will calm the cell down!
Has anyone heard of Fucoidan? an extract of varies kind of Okinawa seaweed.
Or Immune Modulator? an extract from Reishi.

Always very nice to hear from you guys.
Thanks.

Forums

catdander
Posts:

Hi gigy,
Surprise!

I split the thread so a discussion on alternatives has its own voice and at the same time PD 1 and L1 maintains its.
I hope you don't mind.

I’ve always had a growing respect for nature including natural healing that's not waned since D's dx but I must admit I’m not and haven’t been at all interested in it as an anticancer tx. not in that they play any more a part in anticancer tx than healthy lifestyle practices. Cancer is such a bully I only gravitate toward western med and it's methods (though far from perfect). Since I don't know how to explain it I'll use metaphor. Cancer is like a cancer, it’s its own metaphor. When people talk about something being so absolutely uncontrollable, overbearing and devastating they often use the metaphor of cancer. Such as, Hitler was a cancer on the world that lasted well past his reign of terror.

Not to say no alternatives work on cancer but none have been proven to be effective. However many plants have been the basis for chemo drugs. Unproven drugs don’t seem to be in the realm of anticancer treatments used by experts including most naturopaths who treat people with cancer. We have a lot written about and by alternative med docs. Let me know if you have trouble finding what you want. It can be a bit of a puzzle sometimes and why the forum is here : )

All drugs including herbs need to be used with much caution in people with compromised systems such as someone with cancer.

Janine/catdander

Dr West
Posts: 4735

Gigy,

There's not any meaningful evidence to say anything substantial about Fucoidan. Here are a couple of links that touch on it;

http://cancergrace.org/forums/index.php?topic=10466.0 (archived from a mothballed version of the forums)

http://cancergrace.org/topic/gefitinib-and-fucoidan

I'll confess that I put little stock on the vague innuendos of every supplement marketed as an immune booster -- it's hard to find anything at the supplement store that doesn't sell itself as such. I wouldn't/couldn't say it doesn't work, but I think it's important to recognize that their value is more faith-based than evidence-based as it stands today.

-Dr. West