Hopefully no one was offended. Nutrition is important. I have also read the book. Unfortunately with stage 4 that has metastasized and spread, nutrition alone is not sufficient but it was completely valid and good of you to post as everything helps us. Best wishes and do post again.
Thank you for that information Lrv44221. Most of us are focused on advanced prostate cancer, which behaves very differently than colon cancer, so we probably won't have time to read the book you recommend. Colon cancer and prostate cancer behave quite differently and are apples and oranges.
Most of us here began our involvement with Health Unlocked with similar anxieties about cancer. Members here talked us off the ledge by offering solid medical information and suggestions for lifestyle changes that could help someone with advanced prostate cancer be in the best possible shape to undergo the latest medical treatments. Many of the men and their families who come to Health Unlocked try additional healthful approaches as well--mainly nutrition and exercise. Here is a link written by a Health Unlocked member, a young doctor, who died of prostate cancer. He addressed patients still fighting this cancer. It's realistic and informational. The second link is a map showing different pathways to treatment. One of the HU members gave you that link before your thread disappeared.
Because we focus on advanced prostate cancer, we might be able to help you alleviate some of your fears. But we need more information.
Could you take the time to fill out your profile by telling all of us more about your husband's prostate cancer? Log in, Just click Update Profile on the left side of that page under your screen name. Then click on “View My Profile” on the right of the screen. Then add your husband's:
--Current age and his general physical condition and other conditions he's being treated for.
---Gleason score, PSA ,and Stage when he was diagnosed.
--PSAs since then
--All treatments he's had in addition to Zytiga and Lupron, i.e. . surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and the dates he had the treatments.
--General location so someone in the know can tell you the best cancer centers so you get the most updated cancer advice.
--Is a a prostate cancer oncologist treating your husband or, at the very least, an oncologist, not just a urologist?
Click “Update Profile” below the new information and it will be there for everyone to look at when you ask questions.
Many on here will lend a hand if they know more about your situation. If you need help with the tech part of posting, just let us know and we can private message you. You sound very caring. Your husband is lucky to have you onboard.
Since J-O-H-N has departed it would be great if you or anyone else would encourage all new posters to fill out a profile. That would be a great service to all.
I’ve read the at book actually, and a few others.I don’t think you’ve got anything to apologize for.
The way I see it, all information from every angle should be encouraged. You should then weigh it all up and make your decision on how you want to go. IMO your best evidence is from RCT papers. Doesn’t mean I don’t walk down the hierarchy of evidence though. Everything is on the table for me.
If people are allowed to do what you did, it gives the opportunity for opposing views to explain why they believe your approach won’t work. By ridiculing or attacking someone prevents them from expressing a view and removes the opportunity for them to be more informed. Doesn’t necessarily mean either side is correct. But you have to weigh up the information presented and make your informed choice. If the science is compelling and the evidence is overwhelming, it doesn’t need anyone to defend it.
People really need to realize we are ALL trying to defeat this disease in any way we can - not defend some grouped way of thinking. There is no need to circle wagons because someone believes in something different. They just need to present their evidence why they believe they are correct and let that person make up their own mind.
No it’s not that you’re too sensitive. Far from it The environment that PCa brings is quite extreme and although people can have the best of intentions it can sometimes take its toll. People can very easily post things they normally wouldn’t do or they can post them without really thinking about the implications of their post.Please try not to take it personally and don’t let it discourage you from interacting. Someone somewhere will probably benefit from what you post. NOBODY on this site knows everything.
Because some people don’t have the necessary skills to read research papers and haven’t been researching prostate cancer. They’re possibly new to all this and under extreme stress. People attacking them doesn’t help anyone. Period. This is why they should be allowed to post anything like this, so they can be given the opportunity to be given the correct data to make an informed decision. Otherwise they will not be given that opportunity. Ultimately though, a persons decision to walk whatever path they wish is theirs and theirs only.
Hi again, Lrv44221. When you recover from your first outing here, please complete your husband's profile, and you'll get lots of help navigating Malecare (Health Unlocked is the overall platform for many health conditions.) People will be glad to help you if you list complete information on your husband's case since his diagnosis. The site is well moderated, but do expect some differences of opinions. It's great that you're a nutritionist so you can help your husband maintain the dietary part of a healthy lifestyle.
Here's the caregiver site for Advanced Prostate Cancer. It's run by Cleodwoman, the wife whose husband died of PCa, and who left us all too soon but with very good advice. Maybe some of the partners on the caregiving part of our forum can offer support and solid guidance as you care for your husband.
Hi Please do not apologise. I have not read this book but when my husband was diagnosed, I read everything incl nutrition, exercise, SOC, meditation, other people's success stories and sad stories, and now I am reading about sleep. I have an open mind, we try things out that we think may help after all the readings, but if they do not we do not keep on with them. With advanced PCa my husband's cancer itself needs all the medical help it can get. One thing my husband found helpful is whole foods plant based diet. This initially helped with pains and inflammation but now we think it may be helping with just his overall health. Plus, my husband now does not desire other foods as he loves what he eats. It is natural to want to help in every way we can. Forming hope and feeling cared for is important in this journey. In our last three MO meetings, we met three different persons. This with a rising PSA while on Docetaxel. Most of our medical questions are answered here or in other PCa communities with quite a bit of knowledge and compassion - not in our MO's office. The journey is a teamwork, we get the best we can from the busy medical people and the rest of the warm and hopeful things we research on our own. My husband and I are both PhDs and not easily swayed!
I wanted to point out that there was some recent research with a guy called Valter Longo who has done some work with the positive effects of fasting with chemo. Apparently it really helps with the side effects. Maybe worth your taking a look if you haven’t come across it.
Thank you. My husband is being given oral steroids pre and post chemo and was advised not to fast. Otherwise, Longo's work is interesting to us. The steroids do seem to increase appetite. It would be very difficult to fast whilst on them. All we can do is to feed him healthy foodstuffs.
IMHO during chemo you do what you do to maintain a QOL and you eat nutritiously. If an occasional mug of ice cream is going to help tough out the misery then by all means have some ice cream.
My body systems really appreciated real food during chemo.
If there is benefit to fasting while on chemo I think only a few very strong fit brothers can handle it (Randy--Dockham is a good example).
If I had fasted I would have ended up incredibly weak and damaged. I had lost considerable weight prior to dx so a return of my appetite was actually a welcome relief.
I think it is up to individuals but also need medical support for fasting. NHS chemo ward brings along free tea/coffee and cream biscuits, sandwiches or even squash. The wait can be long. We take frozen fruit lollies as the cold might be helpful.
I think that my doing marathons has conditioned my body to be without food. I do get hunger pangs, and I calm them with more veggie broth. I break fast after chemo on way back up to Tehachapi with whole grain lean ham sammy, fruit, Sun Chips, and maybe a Coors Light
Hey Randy yea I either knew when I wrote that 2 months ago or saw it in one of your replies later that you actually get in some nice nutritious broth(s) during the so called fasting period. I like what you do.
At the time I was more concerned to try and convey to the poster that no shame in finicky eating while on chemo than accuracy of your experience lol.
That sammy, sun chips (cant always find, a favorite of mine when rarely eating fast food, I like the original sun chips) sounds right up my alley as well. And you and the beer I salute you lol. I've backed off I guess a lot. Everything is relative but sure still like a good beer now and then so enjoy your beer "toasts" you share as well. lol.
Just had my first of 10 Taxotere infusions yesterday. Last time was 6 infusions ending in May of 2020.
Riding high on the dexamethasone preparing for the crash to come lol.
i had a new Kaiser Primary Care MD ask about my drinking. I said that I cut back to light beers, maybe 4 /day. She went on about me cutting back. I replied that I have no Southern area activity, so beer was my only joy. Said that my liver panel #s were fine. She later felt my liver area for tenderness, and I said see no tenderness
My best to you with your 2nd go around with chemo, hope that you handle it well and that it does it's job.
Cheers Brother
My daughter and I at a No Duh concert in 2015 amidst chemo. No Doubt cover band
You apparently thought there is value in that book, but someone else here believes the book is drivel...now I'm curious...could you please reply with the link to your original post about that book?
Of course a good diet is important. Of course we should be knowledgeable about what that means. Of course a good diet helps to fight illness.
However, it helps more with prevention than cure, which is analogous to the issue I have with the book. The efficacy of the interventions we make as patients are highly dependent on our physical and mental health going in, disease stage and any ongoing or previous treatment.
The writer had already been given conventional treatment that had a better than average likelihood of curing him. Whether diet elevated those odds is pure conjecture, but the fact remains he was in a favorable situation. Many who read the book are not.
Thus the problem: That many people hungry or even desperate for help take a book like this (and especially the sexy title) and run away from medicine proven to work. Medicines that admittedly often have side effects, sometimes do not provide a ‘cure’ or even slow disease, and are generally imperfect.
Into the arms of alternatives that too often have no cancer treatment value whatsoever.
Including, in and of itself, diet. Too many have died trying.
Yet even that is not my main issue. My main issue is that the blunt truth about cancer-until further notice-is that cancer, for all its complexity, comes in 2 basic forms. Localized and spread. Specific to both prostate cancer (which we have) and colon (like the author had), this distinction makes a far greater difference than all other factors combined.
No one ‘beats’ metastatic prostate cancer.
Diet absolutely can help. Exercise helps much more.
Decrepitude of every sort-the downside of aging-is exacerbated by cancer, but we decline in the presence or absence of cancer anyway. Effective self-intervention to slow the decrepitude must take 2 primary forms- intense exercise and healthy diet.
This is non negotiable as far as I’m concerned. The biggest killer of men in the western world by far is cardiovascular disease, which exercise delays more effectively than anything else, including diet. Yet many are obsessive about diet and supplements and basically don’t move. This is a fool’s errand.
Together they may not extend life span at all, but it definitely is the best option for extending health span.
I’m grateful beyond measure to have access to both whatever foods I choose to eat and the means to buy them.
To have access to a center of excellence providing me with the best possible medicine I appreciate much more. That I can have both is truly an embarrassment of riches.
Therefore I train like an athlete to show that gratitude.
This is what I care about. Great luck to you and your husband!
Please don't ever feel badly. This beast is a tough enemy to play against. The bottom line is that no matter what you do, if it works you look smart; if it doesn't, you look foolish to others. It's just kind of the way it is. Don't worry about that. The bottom line is that doing your best is the best you can do. Kudos for keeping an open mind, for trying to understand and evaluate all the different advice and options out there, for your effort at making the best decisions, and for supporting your husband through this. There are a lot of wives and daughters here who've been through or are going through what you are; we know how hard this journey is. HUGS!!!
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