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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’

#131

Post by timbit42 »

sfjailbird wrote: post #82
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…

What you are saying goes against the science. The commonly accepted facts are that the prevalence or absence of glucose does not affect cancer cells' ability to grow. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/cancer/in-dep... Not a scientist, so can't chime in meaningfully, but you are perpetuating what is considered a myth, and very nonchalantly ("undergraduate studies two decades back"), leading me to question…

The article you linked says eating sugar doesn't cause cancer to grow faster, but any carbs we eat is converted to glucose, so removing only sugar isn't sufficient to starve cancer cells. Also, each cancer is different. Some use other sources of energy, some use multiple sources.

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

#132

Post by nate_meurer »

cancerwriter wrote: post #130

I struggled to read the Guardian article thanks to the overly purple prose (I write professionally, that sort of writing really ticks me off), but the comment discussion here is fascinating. I’m a cancer patient, a year out of chemo. Almost 1.5 years ago I was given 2-3 years to live. Bladder cancer metastasized to lymph, liver and lungs is not a good thing to have, apparently, and I was put onto a fairly aggressive…

Yes, please do.

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

#133

Post by magic_beans »

jcims wrote: post #95
loopbit wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Leukaemia survivor here... It might be a stupid question and everyone is different, but have you tried fresh fruit and ginger ale? I went through six months where that was all I could eat/drink. Another patient in the ward suggested ginger ale and it was a surprise (had never drank it before... or since). Nausea got so bad that even thinking about it (for example when a doctor asked) would trigger throwing up so I ge…

Not stupid at all!! For a while apple slices and peanut butter were a staple but she throws that up regularly now. Blueberries are still good if mixed with something, a little watermelon. Haven’t tried ginger ale, but will pick some up today. She says she doesn’t like it but we’ll give it a shot. Thanks for the suggestion!

Fresh ginger tea (using a finger length of whole ginger root, minced) works really, REALLY well for nausea.

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

#134

Post by magic_beans »

dtech wrote: post #81
anon1m0us wrote: post #47

I knew two people who both got cancer about the same time. One said no to chemo. The other said yes to chemo. The differences in quality of life until death were dramatic . Neither had a longer life than was expected had they not taken the chemo, but the one who did lost hair, physical dexterity, then life. Suffered greatly. The other one suffered much less, but still died. The doctors all said take the drugs. You do…

I know someone who smoked a pack her day her whole life, and died at 90 while remaining in good health for the age the decade before. I know someone who never smoked in his life and got lung cancer at 52. Does that mean anything? Should we now conclude that smoking prevents lung cancer? Quality of life, health, remaining lifetime, sickness progressions are all very complex interactions. All you can do is what happens…

Dr. Gabor Maté theorizes that one's emotional state influences the expression of cancer in people who smoke. A smoker who is constantly in a state of emotional stress is much more likely to develop lung cancer than a smoker who is not.

See: https://drgabormate.com/preview/when-the-body-says-no-chapte...

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

#135

Post by magic_beans »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #52

I've had multiple relatives have cancer, some multiple times. Two relatives had cancer twice. Another, five times. Assorted others had cancer at least once. I took care of a relative following a mastectomy. Making sure she got adequately hydrated brought her fever down. I got two hours sleep her first night back from the hospital because I devotedly pushed fluids at every opportunity. She coughed up phlegm after I ma…

That's a lot of cancer in one family :/

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

#136

Post by 7sigma »

rleigh wrote: post #91
7sigma wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been debunked. See this post explaining why. https://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2017/05/15/sugar-an...

This post does not "debunk" what I said. In fact, it explicitly mentions the Warburg effect as something to target as a treatment possibility. And looking at two of the molecular cancer biology texts I have to hand (I did a PhD which involved vascularisation, angiogenesis and HIF-1α/VEGF/EGF), there are several examples of drugs which target the pathways related to this effect directly. Also note that the link does n…

yeah sorry, first time i read the comment, i missed the nuance.

My partner actually researches prostate cancer and i asked her about it and basically her answer is that its complicated. In her research, she found that cancer cells in the prostate are able to find other sources of energy so cutting glucose might not help. From what I understood (not a biologist) it basically depends on tissue and mutations.

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

#137

Post by cancerwriter »

nate_meurer wrote: post #132
cancerwriter wrote: post #130

I struggled to read the Guardian article thanks to the overly purple prose (I write professionally, that sort of writing really ticks me off), but the comment discussion here is fascinating. I’m a cancer patient, a year out of chemo. Almost 1.5 years ago I was given 2-3 years to live. Bladder cancer metastasized to lymph, liver and lungs is not a good thing to have, apparently, and I was put onto a fairly aggressive…

Yes, please do.

The blog is at https://cancerwriter.com/ and it explains what I’ve done and how others can do it for themselves, in detail. At the very least it brings great relief, and I do think it’s far more valuable than just that.

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

#138

Post by nate_meurer »

cancerwriter wrote: post #137
nate_meurer wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, please do.

The blog is at https://cancerwriter.com/ and it explains what I’ve done and how others can do it for themselves, in detail. At the very least it brings great relief, and I do think it’s far more valuable than just that.

Thanks, I've been looking through it. I was really hoping for good news about your treatment and I was happy to find it. Cannabinoids are an exciting medical frontier and I think you're doing a good thing here.
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