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Life as a cancer patient: ‘it feels like dying from the drugs meant to save me’

theguardian.com

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Re: Life as a cancer patient: ‘it feels like dying from the drugs meant to save me’

#61

Post by mannanj »

I'm surprised no one has talked about diet here. Not a single one. There are many cases of cancers being completed reversed by change of diet, many cancers survive off of glucose and so switching to a fat based diet has helped many people go into remission as well as dull and intensify the effects of chemotherapy.

Cancer is a living biological cell after all and will prefer certain sources of energy over others. Starve it of it's primary energy source (glucose) and it will die. Human non-cancerous cells on the other hand are very versatile and can survive off either fat or carbs. Sad how the first thing people would rather do is try chemo than give up off their carb and sugar addictions.

Re: Life as a cancer patient: ‘it feels like dying from the drugs meant to save me’

#62

Post by Aloha »

mannanj wrote: post #61

I'm surprised no one has talked about diet here. Not a single one. There are many cases of cancers being completed reversed by change of diet, many cancers survive off of glucose and so switching to a fat based diet has helped many people go into remission as well as dull and intensify the effects of chemotherapy. Cancer is a living biological cell after all and will prefer certain sources of energy over others. Star…

It'd be helpful if you're gonna post something that sounds like pseudoscience to post a source with it. With all of the studies covering inane things, someone has got to have studied this.

Re: Life as a cancer patient: ‘it feels like dying from the drugs meant to save me’

#63

Post by danieltillett »

This is an alternative to maximum tolerated dosing chemotherapy (standard) and it is called adaptive chemotherapy [0]. The aim with adaptive chemotherapy is to just stop the cancer from growing larger and using the growth advantage of the chemosensitive cancer cells to keep the resistant cells under control. This approach is much easier on the patient. I would look very carefully at this approach if I was ever in need of considering chemo.

0. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160224164357.h...

Re: Life as a cancer patient: ‘it feels like dying from the drugs meant to save me’

#64

Post by guntars »

mannanj wrote: post #61

I'm surprised no one has talked about diet here. Not a single one. There are many cases of cancers being completed reversed by change of diet, many cancers survive off of glucose and so switching to a fat based diet has helped many people go into remission as well as dull and intensify the effects of chemotherapy. Cancer is a living biological cell after all and will prefer certain sources of energy over others. Star…

Human brains survive exclusively on glucose, according to your theory they’d die too.

Re: Life as a cancer patient: ‘it feels like dying from the drugs meant to save me’

#65

Post by fullmoon »

guntars wrote: post #64
mannanj wrote: post #61

I'm surprised no one has talked about diet here. Not a single one. There are many cases of cancers being completed reversed by change of diet, many cancers survive off of glucose and so switching to a fat based diet has helped many people go into remission as well as dull and intensify the effects of chemotherapy. Cancer is a living biological cell after all and will prefer certain sources of energy over others. Star…

Human brains survive exclusively on glucose, according to your theory they’d die too.

The _exclusively_ claim is incorrect - the brain can and will use ketone bodies when they are present.

Re: Life as a cancer patient: ‘it feels like dying from the drugs meant to save me’

#66

Post by jcims »

ddingus wrote: post #58
jcims wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. We just got her a medical card. She’s pretty old school, thinks its all bullshit, tried it once and said it gave her a headache and I haven’t been able to get her to try it again. :/

My wife suffers nausea. It is pretty extreme. There are different forms of marijuana. We tried a few. It took a few attempts to get one that worked. If she is able, try the different forms. Edible, topical, etc... One that worked early on was simple. Heat it for a half hour at 235 degrees F. This converts the THC to its active form. That raw plant material, ground fine and put into empty capsules worked and was easy…

This is great thank you! Do you recall how you managed dosage with the capsules? Also with vaporizing does she use a dry herb vape or concentrate/oil/pen? I’m nervous about giving her a coughing fit.

Re: Life as a cancer patient: ‘it feels like dying from the drugs meant to save me’

#67

Post by colordrops »

geofffox wrote: post #29

I am a pancreatic cancer survivor. It is considered incurable in 2019 and I'm here because of a 1930s era surgery called a Whipple procedure. Around 9% survive five years or more -- a number that hasn't really changed. In a belt plus suspenders move I underwent 2 rounds (six infusions per round) of chemo plus 28 consecutive weekdays of radiation after surgery. All my doctors are amazed at my recovery, a few saying th…

Considering your cancer never caused any pain, how did you find out about it?

Re: Life as a cancer patient: ‘it feels like dying from the drugs meant to save me’

#68

Post by chii »

refurb wrote: post #60
markbnj wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you read this part? > In the capitalist medical universe in which all bodies must orbit around profit at all times, even a double mastectomy is considered an outpatient procedure. After my mastectomy, the eviction from the recovery ward came aggressively and early. The nurse woke me up from anaesthesia and attempted to incorrectly fill out all the questions on the exit questionnaire for me while I failed in an at…

Unless you live in a world where money grows on trees, that happens in public systems too. There are finite amount of resources and keeping a patient overnight, when it could be out-patient, means another patient, who needs that bed more, has to go without. It’s not due to profit. And actually, the hospital would likely make more profit if they could keep you overnight.

> has to go without.

if the current patient is only considered as an out-patient because their bed is needed, then i say the hospital doesn't have enough beds, and should either charge more per bed, or invest in more beds.

Re: Life as a cancer patient: ‘it feels like dying from the drugs meant to save me’

#69

Post by rleigh »

Aloha wrote: post #62
mannanj wrote: post #61

I'm surprised no one has talked about diet here. Not a single one. There are many cases of cancers being completed reversed by change of diet, many cancers survive off of glucose and so switching to a fat based diet has helped many people go into remission as well as dull and intensify the effects of chemotherapy. Cancer is a living biological cell after all and will prefer certain sources of energy over others. Star…

It'd be helpful if you're gonna post something that sounds like pseudoscience to post a source with it. With all of the studies covering inane things, someone has got to have studied this.

It didn't have a source, but it's not pseudoscience.

The switch to anaerobic glucose metabolism is part of the evolution of cancer as it progresses. This is because oxygen diffusion into a solid tumour is a limiting factor upon its growth. Cells which switch off aerobic metabolism will be selected for, since only they will survive and proliferate in an oxygen-free environment. You'll find this in most cancer textbooks. It's not new; I was taught this in undergraduate lectures two decades back. This switch is actually one of the key control points which holds a brake on the progression of a cancer past ~1mm in size, which is basically the limit of passive oxygen diffusion into the mass.

It's fairly logical to keep glucose levels minimal to reduce the growth of this type of tumour, and removing sugar from the diet is a simple and effective way to do so. A diet which is based upon fats will do this, since fats can be converted to the minimal levels of glucose the body needs via beta-oxidation. This will reduce the metabolites available to the tumour significantly, compared with the huge spikes you get when you absorb it directly from the gut.

Re: Life as a cancer patient: ‘it feels like dying from the drugs meant to save me’

#70

Post by killjoywashere »

As someone doing cancer research and running a clinical lab, diagnosing cancer every day, I read the accounts of folks with cancer with a certain degree of lachesism. I want to know what this is. I know chickenpox and a broken leg and I know what it's like to have a loved one with cancer. But the thing itself, I do not know.

I spend every waking moment thinking about how to hunt cancer. It used to be reflex, now it's been so long it's somewhere between habit and addiction. My cognitive self knows I don't want cancer. But there's definitely a weird, fucked up interest in what it's like.

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