Supplement dosage questions

April 7, 2011

Hello, Everyone -

I'm new to the list, and I'm amazed and impressed by the wealth of knowledge and

information in the message archives. Wow.

I'm writing because my Dad's in a bind: He seemed a robust & healthy 68-year-old

(aside from some late day fatigue we attributed to age) until last fall when his

ladder slipped from under him and he fell from 15 feet onto a deck. He fell

*hard* and bounced a couple of times, and reported pain mostly in his right arm

and right side -- hip, knee, and arm - which had taken the brunt of the fall.

Xrays showed nothing broken and he would take some time to heal, but by

Christmas he was feeling much worse instead of better, and in January he rolled

over in bed and his right arm fractured in two places. The flurry of tests that

followed showed cancer on the bone in all the places that had suffered the worst

trauma: right arm, hip, rib, & knee, as well as a rib on the left side. Test

showed no cancer on any organs, eyes, hair, skin, or brain.

Local path lab said initial hip biopsy " most closely resembled " metastatic

melanoma, but the Mayo clinic didn't like that. Mayo was stumped by initial

pathology and as almost an afterthought requested a thyroid biopsy.

Two biopsies and a surgery later Dad was sans thyroid because " it looked

cancerous " but the local path lab found no cancer. Mayo looked and initially

found nothing, but then two days ago called with their diagnosis: anaplastic

thyroid cancer. He'd had none of the symptoms and none of the normal metastases,

but apparently it went from thyroid directly to bone. I struggle a bit with the

diagnosis, but my Dad is excited about starting chemo next Wednesday.

When I first saw Dad in mid-February after his initial diagnosis, he'd turned

grey, aged twenty years and lost 25 pounds since mid-December. I changed his

diet immediately based on the recommendation of a friend - added a whey protein

superfood smoothie in the morning, started juicing fruits and veggies, reduced

red meat & dairy, and cut out white sugar - and now he's holding his weight and

his color is really healthy, which seems good.

My question is: if anyone thinks that increasing his supplement dosages will

help, how much vit C, B6 & B12 can he take? or, how much is too much in his

condition? He's currently on rda-level dosages of all the standard vitamins and

minerals, as well as getting algae (spirulina and chlorella - with flax seed,

bee pollen, maca root, chia seed, and flax seed) in his smoothie.

I would love to hear your thoughts -- and many, many thanks to my new friend

who pointed me to your group. I only wish I'd gotten here earlier.

Many thanks -

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