Where To Start With Large Brain Tumor?

[Travis]

So, people that eat any form of animal protein are either fat or stupid?

Note the modifiers 'very often' and 'many.'

 

[Kartoffel]

Note the modifiers 'very often' and 'many.'

Oh, sorry. I just had some cheese with fruit. All the methionine and beta-casomorphine must have dulled my wits

 

[lollipop]

@Dhair @Tenacity @aquaman @Travis @Tarmander @lampofred

Thank you guys sooooo much for your responses and time and care. Very HELPFUL!!

 

[lampofred]

People who eat grains often have less tryptophan in their bodies because of the induction of tryptophan diooxygenase, and millions of non‐vegans eat grains; cortisol is also a huge factor in size. When I went to high school, there were scores of scrawny people and I am willing to bet that none of them were vegan.
I find that most people who eat meat are kinda chubby. I don't mean to offend, but it's true. Sometimes chubby people like to act like they're strong, or that 'it's muscle,' but it's very often mostly just fat. You never can make a valid comparison between two people with the same amount of body fat, and nobody should be comparing endurance athletes to bodybuilders.

I also notice that many people who eat dairy have acne.

You must have a pretty small sample size if those are your observations.

 

[aquaman]

You must have a pretty small sample size if those are your observations.

We should keep the thread on track about helping Lisa with her friend’s brain cancer. Not debating whether meat makes people chubby

 

[Travis]

You must have a pretty small sample size if those are your observations.

This is America; most people are actually overweight and most people eat meat. Why would you even question that observation?

 

[Sheila]

Dear Lisa,
Firstly, I am so sorry for your friend that he has been diagnosed with something many find most frightening. I also feel for you as his friend, such things can be a shock, not least in reminding us all of our own mortality.
I have a few thoughts if I may, for what they are worth, as each person's presentation is always different and multi-faceted.

It sounds as if there are some 'kind' chemotherapies that may be useful to review and some adaptive changes that might bear fruit also. Thank you, dear Mr Burtlancast for your perennial research and reportage of these. Some of these chemicals have particular side effects of their own, adding to, or promoting the 'anaemia of chronic disease' comes to mind, and these 'actions' should be fully understood so that 'remedies' are not used to 'combat' them inappropriately. Dr Peat's work on all of this has been seminal for me. Dr Koch's focus on latent pathogens and their toxins equally so, again for me. Sometimes the body will wholly resist increased metabolism @yerrag because it knows the consequences, at that time, would not be helpful. Sometimes removal of a septic foci and all that goes with that, allows the body to deal with the seemingly more critical presentation, or what we tend to focus on (sometimes with good reason, sometimes not) in this case 'The Cancer'. I have learned not to underestimate the power of a slow poisoning on whole of body capability and response; nor the power of marketing of diseases and manipulation of perceptions thereupon and thus 'the person needs to do something quickly and like NOW'. Absolute, acute trauma aside, rushing anything rarely generates the optimal result.

I try to remember to First Add No Stress, for whatever the presentation, trivial or life threatening, it is about the person and not me and my current understandings. So indeed, with cancer, they may just wish to 'get it out'. There are usually a myriad of (free) suggestions (just like this post! eek!) for the person affected and that can be overwhelming, particularly if they are facing serious vulnerability for the first time and these suggestions can come with subtle or overt emotional pressure. The tendency is often to go with the majority to 'fix it', and there is likely to be pressure from many quarters to do so. With brain conditions, support of those around may not only be nice to have, it can be a 'must have' for practical considerations.

If this is an incidental finding, with no pressing symptoms, then taking more time to review options seems very prudent. However, understanding where the person is, and the ways they would prefer to go, tends to generate less stress for them, and anecdotally better outcomes, even if we believe we can see a freight train coming from such choices, and they go on to die anyway, as do we all. I have no idea what a lab rat with induced cancer is thinking, but I suspect the thoughts of humans with Cancer are more complicated. Choices that are seemingly illogical to us, often have absolute meaning for the person involved.

I fully appreciate that I am not telling you anything that you do not already know and this is merely to log my experiential findings, not to lecture in any way. If anything it is merely to say, it's up to that person. Your generous and loving nature and your clear ability to listen and to assist someone else with clarity at a difficult time, may be really what your friend needs most now and going forward. None of the options with this presentation, alternative or mainstream, are for the faint-hearted. If there are pressing symptoms, and no financial constraints, surgery may be suggested, and at that point one is most likely looking at poly-pharmacy afterwards with which 'kind' chemotherapy may conflict. What to trust? First do no harm.

In which case, food perhaps becomes the primary focus to assist repair/recovery. Dr Koch for example, never said his remedies would work without changes to diet and lifestyle that may last many years - "to season the cure". But food is not as sexy as kind chemotherapies, so can be overlooked, especially when 'chasing a cure'. There are many discussions here on what foods might be best but if the body is going to be asked to dissolve a tumour, one would hope the liver was supported and the bowel was clean and clear, digestion as good as possible, and the person works to understand what does and not work for them in this regard. I have found that people usually 'know' what works for them, they either don't know they know, or have no faith in their knowing.

It would seem all disease is a whole of body issue. The use of possibly vital anti-oedema medications like dexamethasone for brain swelling will have huge impacts on the 'rest of the body', even though brain swelling without it might kill/impair them sooner, so paying attention to how that impacts food requirements and cravings is merely one example of a step by step First Add No Stress approach. And of course a weather eye to how steroids impact immunity (particularly if a latent infection is suspected) might also be wise.

Whatever the route chosen, your friend will likely need support especially if the brain is affected by mainstream intervention or other choices - where the ability to ask questions, understand answers, make choices, resist pressure, eat regularly, follow 'protocols', perform the simplest of tasks, may be diminished, temporarily or longer term. I have found it is best to start as one means to go on. Simply. One step at a time to see how the person responds, and all steps in succession. With the best will in the world, what they choose remains up to them.

Whatever the journey and outcome, I wish you both the very best,
Sincerely,
Sheila

 

[yerrag]

Thanks @Sheila for alerting me, and for appreciating that increased metabolism is not always the immediate answer. When my mom was struggling with the general malaise and weakening assocaiated with her old age, I was trying to help her get through her last year with as few trips to the hospital as possible. For a relatively healthy individual, she could not avoid the consequences of her incontinence, and the diaper situation kept her at risk for UTI. She had already pretty much exhausted her oral antibiotics to deal with UTI, and had to be brought to the hospital for IV infusions of antibiotics. The chronic situation eventually led to her mind slowly fading away, and I was helpless fighting the recurrence of infection in her urinary tract. I thought long and hard, and hoped somehow she could restore her bladder control. I first thought of improving her metabolism, and I used thyroid, pregnenolone, and progesterone on her. Even as I was being cautious with dosage, I saw both positive and negative effects. The positive was that her edematous conditions on her knee and her ankle had gone from bulging to normal. The negative was that it made her breathing more labored. I felt the progesterone increased the demands of her tissues for oxygen, and that the delivery of oxygen from the blood was not used to that level of demand. But after a hospitalization, I learned my lesson. My mom would have lived to this day and enjoyed good extended twilight, except for a few things that fell through the cracks that involved the difficulty of caring for elderly people.

This experience taught me to be cautious about attempts to increase metabolism with powerful substances. It reminds me of a time when I was an inexperienced plant manager, and I was eager to improve the cooling system of a polymer reactor. I went ahead and descaled the pipes that, with long years of use, had become like plaques in our arteries. The sudden removal of scales, however, caused production to be halted. There was so much scale dislodged, it blocked the flow of coolant to and from the reactor. It was a nightmare to resolve it. Our body is no different. The process of healing may incur the sudden shock if treatment is to be rushed. Such a mode of treatment turns from making the body heal into digging the body into a deeper state of crisis. And even if the process were more gentle, it could still create a mini crisis, where an already weak body might easily succumb to. How are we to know if a body is strong enough to take a treatment? We usually don't. So, I agree that we must be guided by the principle of first doing no harm. That implies to be cautious and conservative. Should I dose full, or half, or even less? Things like that.

There is a deep urgency present when one is diagnosed with a tumor, especially one involving the brain. Doctors would advice immediate action, using the most interventionist approach. The family would waver between intervention and natural approaches. Some go directly into drastic intervention. Some would go into misguided natural approaches, with no firm conviction in their approach, and would eventually revert to using the interventionist approach. Before deciding, the family would enter into a period of turmoil and confusion. Well-meaning friends would give tons of advice, not least of which are contradictory to each other, and the family is left often paralyzed, where the only recourse would be to listen to "experts." It is seldom the case that the family would already understand that cancer is not a hereditary condition, or that it is not a random occurrence, much less that it is a disease of metabolism. Without that knowledge, their approach would not be characterized as the best way possible: identifying the root cause correctly, and fixing the root cause of it.

We understand this as a metabolic disease, and we would approach it in that manner. I would rather approach this by providing all the support the body needs to improve its metabolism. I do not mean to increase the metabolism. I mean to improve such that the metabolism is geared towards restoring oxidative metabolism, from alternate pathways that are a maladaption of the body, which produces the chronic stress conditions that favor cancer to thrive. I rather that the focus be on the quality of metabolism than the quantity of metabolism. Quality first, and quantity will follow. This is the general approach to it, and the specifics can be covered later.

It's disheartening though that I don't see your friend or his family being open to the suggestion of a well-meaning and knowledgeable friend, Lisa. Still, that should not keep us from offering our help. I hope we could help you develop a good approach that you can present to them. I hope that if they have a very generous insurance plan, that it does not become a hindrance to the best approach possible, which the collective minds of the forum can provide. I have a friend who's now in an advanced state of lung cancer. I could not keep him from starting on chemo, then stopping and going with an imperfect natural approach, and then going back to conventional cancer therapy. It pains me that he won't listen to my advice, but I understand how most people run to the safety of "experts," instead of relying on the faculties of their mind to arrive at a solution not involving "experts." They could be their own experts, or be open to alternative "experts" that are backed by real research instead of medical propaganda and narratives.

 

[Sheila]

@yerrag, dear man, you would know perhaps that I concur entirely with your words, thank you for taking the time to write your experiences. Your Mother was lucky to have you helping her, that kindness would have meant a lot.

Your plant system result is acutely illustrative of the unpredictability of sudden changes. The effect of shock (physical, emotional, biochemical) can not be underestimated; the effect of shock-on-shock can be truly lethal.

As Yogi Bera said....'In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, in practice there is.' Fortune may favour the brave, but hard experience teaches that we dismiss the precautionary principle at our, or others' peril.
Thank you again for your thoughts, I have always valued your contributions.

Sincerely,
Sheila

 

[TreasureVibe]

Woman claims cannabis oil cured her brain tumour

Cannabis beats "incurable" brain tumor after chemo fails

Family claim cannabis oil helped dad 'fight off brain tumour' after daughter Googled how to make him better

Four-year-old brain cancer patient sees tumour shrink – thanks to cannabis oil | Metro News

Brain tumor vanishes in 'Miracle Baby' after family chooses cannabinoid oil

Just a heads-up about what's being reported out there. Wishing you, your friend and his/her friends and relatives the best of luck and God bless you all.

Edit: I also read about the Hunzas tribe in this article before which was pretty intriguing. I feel it would be a shame to not mention it here so here it is: Apricot Kernels for Cancer: The Real Story

Also Dr. Peat spoke about vitamin B17/laetrile/apricot kernels in a short fragment here:

Question is if laetrile/B17 passes the brain blood barrier, though, if anyone else with knowledge could elaborate about its usefulness in this particular case of brain cancer. Perhaps it would be more useful in the case of metastasis. But I don't know, someone with knowledge about it should comment on it.

 

[Travis]

The interesting thing about cannabis is that it's receptors are found only in the brain, making cancer of the brain potentially the only place where it'd outshine the other drugs. The endogenous cannabinoid receptor is 2‐arachidonylglycerol, which is of course an arachidonic acid ester attached to a glycerol backbone—or what is left remaining after the sn‐1 and sn‐3 positions have been cleaved from the phospholipid. Arachidonic acid derives from ω−6 fatty acids and is not essential in the brain where DHA, DPA, oleic and stearic acids should dominate.

Due to the localization and uniqueness of the endogenous cannabinoid (2‐arachidonylglycerol) receptor, it wouldn't surprise me if brain cancer was the only cancer particularly responsive to cannabinoids.. .

 

[LeeLemonoil]

If Aspirin is a viable option as a previous post singled out, then mybe the fat-soluble volatile Salicylate-esters are an option intranasaly? Methylsalicylate, Benzylsalicylate and so forth .... Wintergreeen oil is Methylsalicylate or buy different esters pure at perfumery ingredient suppliers.

 

[burtlancast]

Question is if laetrile/B17 passes the brain blood barrier, though, if anyone else with knowledge could elaborate about its usefulness in this particular case of brain cancer. Perhaps it would be more useful in the case of metastasis. But I don't know, someone with knowledge about it should comment on it.

It does with the help of DMSO (Harold Manner cocktail)

"Q - As you've said, you really have no control over these factors.

Dr. M - That's right, but there are a few things over which we do have control. These are the things we have improved. In the first place, many of the materials we use, like laetrile, metabolize or go through their chemical reactions in a matter of minutes. If, for example, the laetrile is given at 9 a.m. it will be completely finished with its therapeutic action in approximately half an hour. For this reason, we felt that if it was administered slowly, over a two to three hour period, the laetrile and any other material would be more effective. Every patient at the clinic, regardless of their disease gets some of their medications with this slow drip technique.

Q - And what was the second improvement?

Dr. M - The second thing that concerned me was the fact that our medications had to pass through biological membranes in order to reach their target organs.

Q - What do you mean by "biological membranes"?

Dr. M-Any of the living tissues through which our medications must pass. Examples are the walls of the blood vessels, the outside of the cells, the linings of body cavities and in the case of brain tumors, the anterior and posterior choroid plexi, known also as the blood-brain barrier.

Q - How could you improve the movement of the medications through these membranes?

Dr. M- We were lucky to have been exposed to a wonderful substance called dimethylsulfoxide. This is also known as DMSO. Dr. Stanley Jacobs sent some
of this to me when I was at Loyola University in Chicago. I knew it was a biological solvent but I didn't really know how effective it was until I tried some on a few of my graduate students.

Q- What did you do to them?

Dr. M - I painted a little on the back of their hand. In 15 seconds, the students could taste it in their mouth. I asked them to trace the pathway of this chemical from the back of their hand to the taste buds in their mouth. When they did, they were as amazed as I was. It must go through the skin and connective tissues, into the veins, to the heart, pumped up to the lungs, back to the heart and then up through the various arteries that supply the taste buds. It did all this in only 15 seconds.

Q - I don't see what that has to do with metabolic therapy.

Dr. M -It was the answer we had been looking for. If I could add DMSO to the infusion mixture, all of the materials would get into all parts of the body more quickly than they ever did before. In addition, for the first time we could penetrate that important blood brain barrier. This is undoubtedly why we are having so much success with brain tumors."

Harold Manner made national news in 1984 when he cured a 4 year old boy of inoperable brain stem tumor.

Here's a first account by Frank Cousineau:

"Let me give you more proof that these little-known clinics near San Diego can cure deadly cancers that stump conventional doctors.

One case was so spectacular it caused a media sensation. In 1983, a Pittsburgh toddler named Jeremy Snyder became desperately ill with cancer. The doctors gave his parents the heartbreaking news: Jeremy had a brain stem tumor that was inoperable because of the high risk of bleeding.

The doctors said little Jeremy was "terminal." His case was hopeless. The doctors gave him no more than six months to live.

If Jeremy's parents had listened to those conventional doctors, Jeremy would be dead right now. But his parents heard about one of the little-known clinics near San Diego that offer natural treatments. So they brought little Jeremy to a young doctor at one of the clinics.

The doctor told them there was hope. He cured Jeremy's cancer without any surgery, chemo, or radiation.

Believe it or not, the doctor used three natural treatments only — the same treatments the Amish seek when they get cancer. One of these treatments was DMSO, which the doctor administered through an IV drip. I reveal the other two natural treatments in my new Special Report The Amish Cancer Secret: How to cure just about any cancer the Amish way.

Today Jeremy is alive and well. He's graduated from college, and he's married."


A second account of this cure from an 1987 LA TIMES article critical of alternative therapies:

"For example, Harold Manner, operator of the Manner Clinic in Tijuana, was honored in a parade in Belle Vernon, Pa., in 1984 after being credited with healing little Jeremy Snyder who, according to his mother, Cindy Snyder, had been comatose with a brain tumor when he entered the clinic in 1983 at the age of 4.
Cindy Snyder is convinced that Jeremy was healed by the Manner Clinic, with its "Manner Cocktail"--intravenous Laetrile, DMSO and vitamins--along with other treatments."
But Dr. Thomas Lyons, a Pittsburgh neurosurgeon involved in Jeremy's diagnosis, credits the boy's apparent recovery to radiation treatments before his trip to the clinic."

 

[Amazoniac]

It does with the help of DMSO (Harold Manner cocktail)

"Q - As you've said, you really have no control over these factors.

Dr. M - That's right, but there are a few things over which we do have control. These are the things we have improved. In the first place, many of the materials we use, like laetrile, metabolize or go through their chemical reactions in a matter of minutes. If, for example, the laetrile is given at 9 a.m. it will be completely finished with its therapeutic action in approximately half an hour. For this reason, we felt that if it was administered slowly, over a two to three hour period, the laetrile and any other material would be more effective. Every patient at the clinic, regardless of their disease gets some of their medications with this slow drip technique.

Q - And what was the second improvement?

Dr. M - The second thing that concerned me was the fact that our medications had to pass through biological membranes in order to reach their target organs.

Q - What do you mean by "biological membranes"?

Dr. M-Any of the living tissues through which our medications must pass. Examples are the walls of the blood vessels, the outside of the cells, the linings of body cavities and in the case of brain tumors, the anterior and posterior choroid plexi, known also as the blood-brain barrier.

Q - How could you improve the movement of the medications through these membranes?

Dr. M- We were lucky to have been exposed to a wonderful substance called dimethylsulfoxide. This is also known as DMSO. Dr. Stanley Jacobs sent some
of this to me when I was at Loyola University in Chicago. I knew it was a biological solvent but I didn't really know how effective it was until I tried some on a few of my graduate students.

Q- What did you do to them?

Dr. M - I painted a little on the back of their hand. In 15 seconds, the students could taste it in their mouth. I asked them to trace the pathway of this chemical from the back of their hand to the taste buds in their mouth. When they did, they were as amazed as I was. It must go through the skin and connective tissues, into the veins, to the heart, pumped up to the lungs, back to the heart and then up through the various arteries that supply the taste buds. It did all this in only 15 seconds.

Q - I don't see what that has to do with metabolic therapy.

Dr. M -It was the answer we had been looking for. If I could add DMSO to the infusion mixture, all of the materials would get into all parts of the body more quickly than they ever did before. In addition, for the first time we could penetrate that important blood brain barrier. This is undoubtedly why we are having so much success with brain tumors."

Harold Manner made national news in 1984 when he cured a 4 year old boy of inoperable brain stem tumor.

Here's a first account by Frank Cousineau:

"Let me give you more proof that these little-known clinics near San Diego can cure deadly cancers that stump conventional doctors.

One case was so spectacular it caused a media sensation. In 1983, a Pittsburgh toddler named Jeremy Snyder became desperately ill with cancer. The doctors gave his parents the heartbreaking news: Jeremy had a brain stem tumor that was inoperable because of the high risk of bleeding.

The doctors said little Jeremy was "terminal." His case was hopeless. The doctors gave him no more than six months to live.

If Jeremy's parents had listened to those conventional doctors, Jeremy would be dead right now. But his parents heard about one of the little-known clinics near San Diego that offer natural treatments. So they brought little Jeremy to a young doctor at one of the clinics.

The doctor told them there was hope. He cured Jeremy's cancer without any surgery, chemo, or radiation.

Believe it or not, the doctor used three natural treatments only — the same treatments the Amish seek when they get cancer. One of these treatments was DMSO, which the doctor administered through an IV drip. I reveal the other two natural treatments in my new Special Report The Amish Cancer Secret: How to cure just about any cancer the Amish way.

Today Jeremy is alive and well. He's graduated from college, and he's married."


A second account of this cure from an 1987 LA TIMES article critical of alternative therapies:

"For example, Harold Manner, operator of the Manner Clinic in Tijuana, was honored in a parade in Belle Vernon, Pa., in 1984 after being credited with healing little Jeremy Snyder who, according to his mother, Cindy Snyder, had been comatose with a brain tumor when he entered the clinic in 1983 at the age of 4.
Cindy Snyder is convinced that Jeremy was healed by the Manner Clinic, with its "Manner Cocktail"--intravenous Laetrile, DMSO and vitamins--along with other treatments."
But Dr. Thomas Lyons, a Pittsburgh neurosurgeon involved in Jeremy's diagnosis, credits the boy's apparent recovery to radiation treatments before his trip to the clinic."

burtlan, with so many alternatives that you often provide, how would you prioritize them?

 

[Rafe]

@Sheila @yerrag
Awesome post, Sheila.

I've discovered that the most challenging thing about living this way, besides eating out, is being alert to when I'm about to act like accepting my views is a test of personal loyalty, or trust, or even love. And then to stop and try to learn from their experiences.

It's easy to forget how much energy, time, and attention it takes just to change your mind about everything you thought you knew. And that each person is autonomous.

Helping to relieve one symptom is a good place to start. It also might be the biggest thing you can do.

 

[burtlancast]

burtlan, with so many alternatives that you often provide, how would you prioritize them?

I prioritize them by scientific credentials and verifiable results.

1. Virginia Livingstone's immunotherapy: each time the patient followed the program to the letter, he got cured (provided he wasn't terminal when he started); no resistance to the therapy appeared if it got interrupted for a while.
Scientist with impeccable credentials and published litterature. The clinic got shut down though.

2. Beljansky's herbal products: impeccable scientifical research, persecution of the discoverer, hundreds of cured patients, no side-effects, possibility of combining with chemo or radiation, and very affordable.

3. Burzynski: if you have 200.000 $ at hand, you're in.

4. Harold Manner cocktail: devised by a true scientist with impeccable credentials, probably murdered. Not sure it's still available anywhere.

5. Gar Hildenbrand's combo of Gerson therapy + Coley's toxins.

These are the ones on top of my head. There are of course dozens more, many of them herbal.

 

[Braveheart]

TreatingGlioblastoma.com: Boswellic Acids

 

[lollipop]

Dear Lisa,
Firstly, I am so sorry for your friend that he has been diagnosed with something many find most frightening. I also feel for you as his friend, such things can be a shock, not least in reminding us all of our own mortality.
I have a few thoughts if I may, for what they are worth, as each person's presentation is always different and multi-faceted.

It sounds as if there are some 'kind' chemotherapies that may be useful to review and some adaptive changes that might bear fruit also. Thank you, dear Mr Burtlancast for your perennial research and reportage of these. Some of these chemicals have particular side effects of their own, adding to, or promoting the 'anaemia of chronic disease' comes to mind, and these 'actions' should be fully understood so that 'remedies' are not used to 'combat' them inappropriately. Dr Peat's work on all of this has been seminal for me. Dr Koch's focus on latent pathogens and their toxins equally so, again for me. Sometimes the body will wholly resist increased metabolism @yerrag because it knows the consequences, at that time, would not be helpful. Sometimes removal of a septic foci and all that goes with that, allows the body to deal with the seemingly more critical presentation, or what we tend to focus on (sometimes with good reason, sometimes not) in this case 'The Cancer'. I have learned not to underestimate the power of a slow poisoning on whole of body capability and response; nor the power of marketing of diseases and manipulation of perceptions thereupon and thus 'the person needs to do something quickly and like NOW'. Absolute, acute trauma aside, rushing anything rarely generates the optimal result.

I try to remember to First Add No Stress, for whatever the presentation, trivial or life threatening, it is about the person and not me and my current understandings. So indeed, with cancer, they may just wish to 'get it out'. There are usually a myriad of (free) suggestions (just like this post! eek!) for the person affected and that can be overwhelming, particularly if they are facing serious vulnerability for the first time and these suggestions can come with subtle or overt emotional pressure. The tendency is often to go with the majority to 'fix it', and there is likely to be pressure from many quarters to do so. With brain conditions, support of those around may not only be nice to have, it can be a 'must have' for practical considerations.

If this is an incidental finding, with no pressing symptoms, then taking more time to review options seems very prudent. However, understanding where the person is, and the ways they would prefer to go, tends to generate less stress for them, and anecdotally better outcomes, even if we believe we can see a freight train coming from such choices, and they go on to die anyway, as do we all. I have no idea what a lab rat with induced cancer is thinking, but I suspect the thoughts of humans with Cancer are more complicated. Choices that are seemingly illogical to us, often have absolute meaning for the person involved.

I fully appreciate that I am not telling you anything that you do not already know and this is merely to log my experiential findings, not to lecture in any way. If anything it is merely to say, it's up to that person. Your generous and loving nature and your clear ability to listen and to assist someone else with clarity at a difficult time, may be really what your friend needs most now and going forward. None of the options with this presentation, alternative or mainstream, are for the faint-hearted. If there are pressing symptoms, and no financial constraints, surgery may be suggested, and at that point one is most likely looking at poly-pharmacy afterwards with which 'kind' chemotherapy may conflict. What to trust? First do no harm.

In which case, food perhaps becomes the primary focus to assist repair/recovery. Dr Koch for example, never said his remedies would work without changes to diet and lifestyle that may last many years - "to season the cure". But food is not as sexy as kind chemotherapies, so can be overlooked, especially when 'chasing a cure'. There are many discussions here on what foods might be best but if the body is going to be asked to dissolve a tumour, one would hope the liver was supported and the bowel was clean and clear, digestion as good as possible, and the person works to understand what does and not work for them in this regard. I have found that people usually 'know' what works for them, they either don't know they know, or have no faith in their knowing.

It would seem all disease is a whole of body issue. The use of possibly vital anti-oedema medications like dexamethasone for brain swelling will have huge impacts on the 'rest of the body', even though brain swelling without it might kill/impair them sooner, so paying attention to how that impacts food requirements and cravings is merely one example of a step by step First Add No Stress approach. And of course a weather eye to how steroids impact immunity (particularly if a latent infection is suspected) might also be wise.

Whatever the route chosen, your friend will likely need support especially if the brain is affected by mainstream intervention or other choices - where the ability to ask questions, understand answers, make choices, resist pressure, eat regularly, follow 'protocols', perform the simplest of tasks, may be diminished, temporarily or longer term. I have found it is best to start as one means to go on. Simply. One step at a time to see how the person responds, and all steps in succession. With the best will in the world, what they choose remains up to them.

Whatever the journey and outcome, I wish you both the very best,
Sincerely,
Sheila

Your post along with every response in this thread brought tears to my eyes. I was instantly reminded that I am swimming in the healing waters of a supportive community of darling beings of whom I might never meet in person, but whom I hold dear in my heart and look forward each and every day to reading about their ideas, thoughts, tribal wisdom, research, etc. Even when life gets “busy”, I feel inspired by each of you to come and read and learn.

@Sheila your posts have pointed me in many amazing directions.

Bless each and everyone who took the time to support my learning:

@Dhair @Tenacity @aquaman @Travis @Tarmander @lampofred
@burtlancast @Sheila @yerrag @LeeLemonoil @bzmazu @Rafe @RichardDobson @Amazoniac

 

[Travis]

Alirezaei, Mehrdad. "Short-term fasting induces profound neuronal autophagy." Autophagy (2010)​

Autophagy is the modern term for autolysis: a process in which autophagosomes are induced inside each cell to recycle cellular components. This process occurs all the time to some degree, but it can be accelerated by fasting—even in the brain. The common belief had been that the brain was more‐or‐less spared from autophagy simply because is loses practically no weight during fasting, but not so:

'Published studies indicate that the brain is spared many of the effects of short-term food restriction, perhaps because it is a metabolically privileged site that, relative to other organs, is protected from the acute effects of nutrient deprivation, including autophagy.' ―Alirezaei​

The brain does upregulate autophagosomes during fasting, yet is allowed to maintain its weight ostensibly by drawing components from the blood. Autophagy isn't apoptosis, nor is it necrosis, but merely a normal mechanism which degrades proteins to amino acids ⟶ to build other proteins. Cells are not destroyed in the process, yet many will shrink in size. The size reduction of each cell of course depends on its type and location, with adipocytes losing the most volume the fastest.

'Our findings also may have therapeutic implications, as outlined below. Autophagy is sometimes referred to as cellular “cleansing”, and our observations provide an attractive neuronal parallel to the organismal benefits that, historically, are perceived to derive from fasting.' ―Alirezaei​

Fasting for 48 hours can induce autophagosomes in the brain, most likely through the mTOR pathway which can sense leucine. Leucine restriction appears more powerful for accelerating autophagy than glucose restriction, perhaps why Gerson had so much success. Tumors have been completely autolysed during 'water fasts,' yet this has also been done on 'juice fasts.'

By all accounts (juice) fasting appears to be the best cancer reversal strategy, but is unpopular because it's free: very few people can make money on it. Also adding to its unpopularity is (1) other people's discouragement (from simple ignorance), and (2) the food addictions that most people have.

'For example, in vitro models have shown that starvation in neuronal cell lines can remove toxic molecules and damaged mitochondria from neurons.' ―Alirezaei​

Autophagy of the neurons could also be expected to decrease intracellular lipofuscin, the only known mechanism for reducing this besides simply avoiding iron, aluminum, and polyunsaturated fatty acids. I recently had fasted for 2¹⁄₂ days so I can guarantee that a fast this long is safe, and people surviving for weeks to months on water alone has been well documented.

 

[Dhair]

Your post along with every response in this thread brought tears to my eyes. I was instantly reminded that I am swimming in the healing waters of a supportive community of darling beings of whom I might never meet in person, but whom I hold dear in my heart and look forward each and every day to reading about their ideas, thoughts, tribal wisdom, research, etc. Even when life gets “busy”, I feel inspired by each of you to come and read and learn.

@Sheila your posts have pointed me in many amazing directions.

Bless each and everyone who took the time to support my learning:

@Dhair @Tenacity @aquaman @Travis @Tarmander @lampofred
@burtlancast @Sheila @yerrag @LeeLemonoil @bzmazu @Rafe @RichardDobson @Amazoniac

You are a very kind person, Lisa. Your friend is lucky to have you.