The health, spiritual and physical well being information expressed on this Internet website, in the personal blogs stored and the articles posted to its pages, and the “chat” of others, are all based solely on the personal experience of the authors and contributors. It is intended as solace, to inspire you to think about your condition and your treatment, and to take control of your life in a meaningful way.
The website is not intended to be, and should not be relied upon you as, a medical manual.
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Okay folks. They now have a test to determine if you are keeping your inflammation in check. Ask your doctor about a C-Reactive Protein test. It has been around for a long time for heart and arthritis. However, — as you and I now know — Inflammation is a bad sign for cancer patients, too.
The more inflammation, the more bad protein (cytokynes). The more cytokynes, the faster the metabolism. The faster the metabolism, the more rapid the weight loss. The lower the weight, the more depressed the immune system and the fewer treatment options.
Break the cycle of the creation of TNF (tumor necrosis factor) — a very bad cytokyne.
Here’s a link to the article about the test from the American Heart Association: http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4648
Here’s the link to the article linking C-Reactive Protein and the CRP Test to Cancer: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29800010/
I am Mary. This is my memory of “the day the earth stood still.” My husband, John, will give you his version of “the diagnosis” in later posts. I have a sort of gestalt view, where days get mixed up, but John’s view will be more detailed.
John & Mary -- John's Story
John has never smoked a cigarette in his life. I say that not because it makes him more “worthy” of good health or that I think smokers “deserve what they get” (because they don’t, by the way). I tell you this because the diagnosis of lung cancer came entirely out of the blue, the mother of all sandbags.
It started as a cough in the spring of 2005. Ironically, I was coughing, too. We thought nothing of it because, if both of us are coughing, it must be a cold, right? At worst, it must be some sort of mold or dust in the house, right? Wrong. My coughing was the result of a weird but well-known side effect of blood pressure medication and once it was adjusted, my coughing disappeared.
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INTERACTION WITH THE PERSON MOST KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT YOUR CANCER AND YOUR TREATMENT
When I think of the communication between doctors and patients at the time that cancer is diagnosed, I remember the great scene between Debra Winger and her oncologist in “Terms of Endearment.” Debra is lying in her hospital bed and the doctor says, “Dear, you have a malignancy.” After he says a few more lines of dialogue, she stops him and asks, “Could you say that again?”
No one is ever prepared to hear the words, “You have cancer.” When my husband was diagnosed, the world seemed to stop turning. The doctor’s mouth continued to move but the sound didn’t seemed to be turned on. Looking back, there are so many questions we just did not know to ask. Invariably, they were the ones we wished we had and the ones we were asked over and over.
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Grandma Knew Best:
“Give ‘Em A Dose Of Cod Liver Oil!”
Why Fish Oil?
Omega 3 is medium chain triglyceride (MCT). In my last post, I discussed the reasons why MCT’s are particularly good for cancer patients. Now, let’s talk about Fish Oil as the best source of Omega 3 for cancer patients.
Omega 3 comes from plants (seeds and nuts), grain fed beef and fish. The active ingredients are EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid).
Omega-3 from vegetables such as flax or perilla seeds (vegetable based omega-3) or beef requires significantly more enzyme activity to break down into DHA and EPA, and provide them in amounts helpful to the human body. In particular, a person with cancer may have inflammatory issues or metabolic problems (a person who is borderline or in Cachexia, perhaps) and, thus, can be lacking in the right kind or amount of enzymes to utilize vegetable based omega-3. Fish oil breaks down faster and easier, so fish oil is better. Seeds and nuts require time and a lot of enzymes for the food to be broken down into EPA and DHA.
