OMG Buddy! This is a real dog's breakfast of a post. Nevertheless I'm sympathetic.
Here are some comments:
1. ANEMIA -I'm also borderline anemic. Apparently it comes with a territory. I eat food that has iron in it like red meat.
2. SURPRISE! - I looked up your bio but I can't figure out if you are metastatic or not. The fear of small cell and neuroendocrine kind of implies you might be. Now that in the last year and a half I've learned a ton about metastatic prostate cancer and have been able to stabilize myself so I go about my daily life, despite high volume mets, the thought of "small cell", "neuroendocrine", and a few other anticipated future evolutions are terrifying. I agree: This seems to me to be among the most important thing to focus on "right now". But I don't see any attention from my doctors on this. It's just wait and see.
3. K2 - I get from Jarlsberg cheese. It must be aged or there's no K2 in it apparently.
4. GOOD QUESTIONS - If you want a good answer you need a good question. And your reader's are busy! Are they going to take half a day to support you when you haven't bothered to organize things? How about numbering your specific questions? How about organizing your post into different groups? For example put a dashed line between different sections and then have a all caps headline for each section? Also questions should all be in the same format so it's easy for the reader to understand. Also consider perhaps that you have maybe five or so, maybe a few more, give or take, questions in your post. And it's unfair and ridiculous to think that anyone is going to invest the cognitive effort to sort through your rough notes. Also the use of formatting such as bold especially can be useful.
5. VERY YOUNG - Apparently you are very young! Which is very upsetting! And all the more motivation to systematically analyze everything you're looking at.
6. PREFERRED VENDOR - I'm very suspicious of vitamin and supplement purveyors. The one I stick with is the Canadian Natural Factors, from British Columbia. You can read about their history.
7. THINK SYSTEMATICALLY - Doctors are indeed swamped. And complex cases don't do well in such circumstances. So you get a few minutes. And you also get judged. One doctor code for the write-up afterwards is "pleasant gentleman". Which is a weird thing to say. But if one is abusive then that phrase will not be there. And another doctor will get the message. If you go to your doctors with the verbal equivalent of the above overwhelming grab bag of concerns, what do you think they're going to do? They will be overwhelmed too. They might judge you as disorganized. Sort of like the business person who comes to their accountant or bookkeeper with a shoe box full of unsorted receipts. You need to think of a systematic approach and profile yourself.
8. MISSING IN ACTION - I've come to the conclusion that there's a missing element and prostate cancer medical services, and probably other medical situations as well. I call this gap the "Coaching Gap". I see different clinicians and I'm referred to palliative care. I take my meds and once in awhile my clinical situation is assessed. And I exercise. Someone else on this forum mentioned you are now the CEO of your own cancer management situation. This is so true. And your pile of concerns and uncertainties and facts about highlights the huge cognitive and management load on any individual cancer patient. But as you say clinicians are overwhelmed. And there are people who call themselves holistic practitioners. Which kind of gets to the needed space a little bit but I'm very suspicious. And so basically unless you try really hard you're not going to get ahead of the game. You're on the road to palliative and hospice. And everybody likes to sing about "quality of life" 🎶. It's like "have a nice death". I prefer "Have a longer life". Not to be churlish, for sure having palliative care is fantastic, when you get there. But an investment in "cancer coaching" now would have an enormous payoff I'm sure. And I'm also l huge number of the questions that are typically dealt with in this forum are the kinds of questions that a coach could deal with more efficiently, more systematically and more directly to each individual. I suspect that the number of visitors to this forum, and who benefit from this forum, is miniscule when compared to the much, much larger number of people who also have metastatic prostate cancer about who have never heard of this forum. (And in the meantime billions are spent on therapies.)
9. More exercise please! In the same way that Scipio ended every oration, regardless of the topic, with "Carthago delenda est!" I've decided to include in every note "More exercise please!"
I acutely think a health lamp would be better than a D supplement.
That being said, I’d consider a D3 with k2. You’re supposed to take with a meal because they are fat soluble.
As for dosage, I’d see what you bloodwork says.
If you’re deficient, then you could load up initially. IMO I think around 40-50 ng/ml in your blood is a good range but others suggest less than that.
So maybe 3K-5K IUs could get you there. If you overdo any supplement, you run the risk of causing an imbalance in something else.
Since D3 will increase your calcium absorption, personally I’d do the D3 first, measure your blood for both to where you want the D3 to be and then look at the resulting calcium bloodwork.
Obviously you need to discus anything with your med team. But that’s what I would do.
edit: if you are deficient, the response curve for the D3 isn’t linear. It’s more like an S shape. If you’re down the curve you might have to get over a flattened range before you get to where you want it. You should be patient and not go crazy with your initial results because it will rise faster once it gets over the initial plateau.
I chose my pills by the following criteria, store location, brand, on line availability, price, size, shape, color and in glass or plastic bottle (note: All prior criteria is null and void if they were stolen).
I saw your post about calcium, d3, k2. I have been taking Jarrow formulas 3 per day bone up formula. It was recommended by my doctor to build bone density after a bone density test showed osteoporosis. It has the right balance of calcium, d, magnesium and minerals. (Full disclosure I am a menopausal woman, and I’m a member of this group because my husband was recently diagnosed with PCA)
Shorehouse, Iron supplements was the worst thing I have taken wrt prostate cancer. I would not take them unless it was absolutely necessary. Being low on iron has helped me control the cancer. But iron levels that are too low can be dangerous. So, i recommend that you have this discussion with your medical team.
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Megadosing Vit D3 to slow down my prostate cancer
Folate & Vitamin B12; SAMe & Methyl.
Adding calcium in order to strengthen bones
