Re: Was: metastatic colorectal cancer

September 3, 2010

Toni,

I can appreciate your boredom with the raw food diet. Some people

have constitutions that are more rabbit like and they seem perfectly

content gnawing on carrots -- not me.

You have to make a choice: are you going to rely mostly on diet or on

the rest of your strategy? It is very difficult to gain weight while

fighting cancer unless you have a non-diet strategy in which you have

warranted confidence. My own diet has been standard American minus

the obviously problematic items like ice cream and french fries. My

strategy is to regain my lost weight, but if my self-directed

treatment shows signs of inadequacy then I will switch over

immediately to a near-starvation diet while I figure out what is

going on. It is useful to take glutamine and at least some exercise

to help protect muscle mass.

If you are going to rely on diet as your main method to attack

cancer, then a balanced, nutritious, vitamin and mineral supplemented

diet is just about as idiotic as a Mc's or Burger King diet.

At 10:30 AM 9/3/2010, you wrote:

>

>,

>

>Congratulations on the shrinkage.hey, violations are great if they work!!

>

>What are you specifically doing for weight gain? I cannot put on a single

>pound. I have colon cancer w/ mets to liver and lungs and eat primarily

>organic veggies, fruits, juicing, some beans and brown rice, I'm bored out

>of my mind with raw food.

>

>Whats your take on a natural (sugarless) weight gain powder? I'm thinking

>of trying this in an effort to put on 10 pounds.

>

>Thanks for your ideas.

>

>Toni D.

>

>_____

>

>From:

><mailto: %40>

>[mailto: ] On

>Behalf Of VGammill

>Sent: Friday, September 03, 2010 1:20 PM

><mailto:Cancercured%40>Cancercured

>Subject: [ ] Personal update: metastatic colorectal cancer

>

>List:

>

>I had an MRI ten weeks ago. Both my oncologist and my radiologist

>seemed genuinely concerned. They had no explanation for the

>shrinkage, but they were both very sure I would be a goner in a

>couple of months if I didn't do the pelvic exenteration where the

>surgeon would have a field day. I told them no as the earlier scan

>showed metastasis to my lungs and surgery would not be curative. The

>physicians wanted me to compromise and at least do a biopsy. Again I

>told them no. Without permission in October '09 they did a biopsy

>and within two months it had expanded from 2 cm to 8 cm, taken over

>all my pelvic organs and gone to my lungs. It was even written in my

>file and signed by me that I did not want to be biopsied.

>

>Now here is where I, the ultimate rationalist, become irrational. I

>have inserted my right index finger into a thousand butts but I can't

>make myself examine myself. I told the oncologist that I suspected

>it was growing. He immediately agreed to another MRI which I did

>yesterday. He put a rush on it in case I needed emergency

>surgery. I got the results last night. The tumor has shrunk down to

>5 cm (2 inches) long and 1.5 cm (a smidge over 1/2 inch) at its

>thickest. This calculates out to about a 40% reduction in tumor mass

>over the last ten weeks.

>

>My diet has been quite lenient. I have been trying to reclaim lost

>weight and this has been successful. I'm up to 165 lbs. I have

>tried a number of experimental things on myself -- shamelessly

>violating many patents.

>

>I'm not out of the woods; I well know the pitfalls. I think the main

>one is prematurely stopping therapy. This is exactly what happened

>to my friend, the actor Hines. He was in superb health, he

>stopped his therapies for a week while his conventional doc ran tests

>to find out why he was doing so well, meanwhile the cancer mushroomed

>in his lungs and killed him.

>

>I look for patterns as to who does well among late-stage cancers. One

>of the strongest patterns would be those who take their cancers very

>seriously but just don't worry. I am lucky in that I easily fit in

>this category. When I tell this to the worrywarts they add this to

>the list of things to worry about.

>

>There is another area that should always be addressed. This is the

>relationship of an adult version of " failure to thrive " and cachexia

>(wasting). Look around you -- those who do the best have a very

>robust lust for life.

>

>Last week the Center had a participant -- a very nice man with

>advanced stomach cancer -- who wanted to donate some of his fine art

>collection to the Center. I laughed and told him no. That is the

>kind of crap that people do when they are preparing to die. I told

>him I would be much happier if he was trying to finagle me out of MY

>art collection. In the past I would tell participants that if they

>made out a will, then tear it up as they aren't going to need it. It

>is a great way to start the program. But I stopped this as I

>thought, what if they did die -- this is not very practical advice.

>

>Till next time,

>

September 5, 2010

From this post it does not seem like you have much faith in diet as a therapy.

I am not talking about a " rabbit diet " . You said you were eating a standard

American diet. To me that would be desserts with white sugar, maybe a hamburger

a day, a little salad, French fries, baked potatoes with sour cream, etc. Is

that right? It would seem to me that one could gain weight, etc. by eating more

of maintaince diet with organic foods, low fat foods, no white sugar, etc. Would

you please explain? Maybe I am missing the point. I do understand that you are

putting much more emphases on the lab.

Thanks

GB

>

> Toni,

>

> I can appreciate your boredom with the raw food diet. Some people

> have constitutions that are more rabbit like and they seem perfectly

> content gnawing on carrots -- not me.

>

> You have to make a choice: are you going to rely mostly on diet or on

> the rest of your strategy? It is very difficult to gain weight while

> fighting cancer unless you have a non-diet strategy in which you have

> warranted confidence. My own diet has been standard American minus

> the obviously problematic items like ice cream and french fries. My

> strategy is to regain my lost weight, but if my self-directed

> treatment shows signs of inadequacy then I will switch over

> immediately to a near-starvation diet while I figure out what is

> going on. It is useful to take glutamine and at least some exercise

> to help protect muscle mass.

>

> If you are going to rely on diet as your main method to attack

> cancer, then a balanced, nutritious, vitamin and mineral supplemented

> diet is just about as idiotic as a Mc's or Burger King diet.

>

September 9, 2010

Would it be a natural transition to go from a starvation diet to a restrictive

diet as in the " Clarance Cone diet " , and from there on start hitting it with the

chosen strategy.

And, are there any preferrd/interesting treatments one generally should consider

at the end of a " starvation period " ?

pkd