This post follows on from my previous one and explores some of the health issues I have, or have had, over recent years and culminating into my ultimate battle, since May 2006, with an aggressive prostate cancer which I am happily - and successfully it would appear - managing using herbs and natural remedies.
Intermittent Frank Haematuria - Cause & Effect
2003 – 2006. Experienced intermittent periods of Frank Haematuria, (blood in urine) say, two to three days every six weeks or so, and sometimes quite profusely. To find the cause I had a Cystoscopy/retrograde Pyelogram in August 2003 and another in December 2005 with a different urologist (I had not been impressed by the first one). Both results proved negative with no reliable explanation found.
Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy (BPH)
My own belief was that the bleeding was being initiated by my pre-existing (1995) benign prostate enlargement (benign prostatic hypertrophy. BPH) first discovered in 1985 and for which I had twice undergone a transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP). I considered that the prostate was being agitated by me sitting for long periods at the computer or driving long distances, but this was discounted by both urologists.
My Prostate Cancer – A belated Discovery
The second urologist (looking after me currently – at a distance) did however later acknowledge that my physical posture when computing or driving could possibly be contributing to my bleeding. Furthermore, concerned about my prior history he had suggested more tests to positively determine the cause. This being something the first urologist hadn’t bothered to suggest. Had he done so, it is probable that the cancer in my prostate would have been discovered one year earlier than it was, for that is what the new tests revealed, an aggressive cancer.
More than My Fair Share of Diseases
Having had my gall bladder removed in 1977; a large benign tumour on my Thyroid removed in 1992; my right, cancerous kidney removed in 1995, a Cholestiatoma (benign tumour) in my left ear in 1989 and another in 2000, culminating in the removal of much of my inner ear causing total deafness in that ear; and later with deadly skin melanomas and carcinomas, I had long been considered a high risk for more cancer issues. Hmm! Strange that! A prophesy you might say! I don’t think one needed to be a brain surgeon to make it though. Do you?
And so, let’s now go to this latest discovery – my prostate cancer:
Prostate Cancer Diagnosis: May 2006.
Biopsy: Prostate cancer, Gleason grade 9. (5+4) Stage T1, PSA score 7.30 Cancer identified as aggressive with a high probability of metastasis having already started. A bone scan and a CT scan did not confirm metastasis but these are unlikely to identify early microscopic spread.
TREATMENT OPTIONS:
Radical prostatectomy: This is major surgery to remove the prostate, part of the urethra, a small part of the vas deferens and the seminal vesicles. It was excluded because of the likelihood of cancer cells having started to spread already.
Therefore, my four available options were given as:
Brachytherapy: High or low dose radiation by way of seeds or radioactive substances inserted into the prostate gland. Low dose radioactive seeds inserted into the prostate are retained there. High dose brachytherapy involves the temporary insertion of radioactive substances into the prostate
Hormone Therapy: Taking drugs to minimize the effect of testosterone in the belief that it can stop or slow the growth of the cancer. My understanding of this is that Hormone treatment becomes ineffective within eighteen months or so. The patient’s next option is then to have his testicles removed. And they call this an option??
External Beam Radiotherapy (EBRT): Here beams of radiation external to the body are aimed at the prostate, using CT scan to direct the beam on to the prostate directly. My early research into this indicated a high probability of both short and long term side-effects because the beams can damage or destroy nerves and good tissue as well. Although you wouldn’t think so by reading medical literature, which so often tends to play down such issues. More recent technological advances however have supposedly reduced the side effects issue considerably with radiation beams now being directed with far great accuracy.
Watchful Waiting: Having no treatment but to hold fast and monitor the cancers growth. This was to be the option I selected without any hesitation at all.
This is an alternative for those who wisely take responsibility for their own health and well-being. Men who prefer not to wait around doing nothing but to seek solutions elsewhere with complimentary or alternative medicine. Better still, to take a holistic approach and find ways to treat the body, mind and spirit as a whole.
Knowing that prostate cancer is one of the slowest growing cancers and not wanting to rush into making a rash decision on the options available to me I intentionally put off my decision for several weeks. Besides, after discussions with my darling wife I was already half convinced that I would take the watchful waiting method anyway and treat myself with herbal remedies and natural medicine, including traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) but now that crunch-time had arrived I just wanted to check my facts first.
Although I was fully aware of several experimental allopathic medical procedures that were supposedly producing good results in Australia, I was reluctant to pursue them as the jury was out – and still is - and also, I was never in the business of volunteering to be experimented upon.
An even further caution was that my research over recent years clearly showed that a great deal of the supportive information relating to the success of new surgical treatments or procedures was being commercially generated by those companies supplying the technical equipment or support facilities for those procedures. Hardly unbiased, valid, testimonial I would say.
The only way to establish the facts pertaining to surgical outcomes and side effects for allopathic procedures and treatments is to talk to patients following their treatment. And preferably quite some time afterward. Fortunately, with the advent of the computer this can easily be done these days by joining on-line medical or health related discussion forums.
In my next post I will talk about my diet and the herbal and alternative health remedies I am using and/or experimenting with. So please stay tuned…
I’m As Busy As a Bee
I’ve been extremely busy of late on other, more pressing issues so getting time to make a new post concerning PROSTATE CANCER TREATMENTS has been all but impossible. That said, I also think my time management capabilities are somewhat wanting. What ‘dill’ was it who said “Retirees had too much time on their hands?”
I guess the first thing I should attend to is an update on my own health challenges.
Let’s have a recap first off for the benefit of newcomers to my blog…
My Past Is My Future
With 12 years as a soldier and policeman behind me in 1970 - seven years of which was spent in Asia - I came with my wife and three children to Australia seeking the sun and my fortune. I subsequently entered the corporate world in middle management roles primarily in security and loss prevention and later, as a senior executive in a multinational and then eight years later, with a major Australian company. My various roles spanned a number of disciplines including; human resource management, training and development, industrial relations, risk management, internal audit and crisis management.
On leaving the corporate environment, I used my comprehensive military, police and business experience to develop a Crisis Management Consultancy operating throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Ill health forced early retirement.
Let’s Recap My Health Issues
Major health issues developed in 1995. A large cancerous tumour was discovered on the rear of my right kidney. It had stayed hidden for eighteen months during which period my doctor and urologist were telling me I didn’t have a problem. I persisted and eventually, when found the size and location of the tumour dictated removal of the whole kidney.
Are Doctors Dangerous?
That episode led me Five years later, in 2000, to a further, eye-opening and unfortunate dalliance with the medical profession. During a six monthly check-up, X-ray and CT-scan, and immediately following a bout of severe bronchitis, two suspicious nodules were discovered on my right lung and one in my liver. My doctor diagnosed a cancer metastasis vis-à-vis my previous kidney cancer and, with great feeling and sincerity, gave me 12 months to live. He did concede however, that this period could possibly be prolonged with treatment and sent me off to see an urologist.
This gentleman was fairly non-committal and suggested a wait and see approach, with monthly reviews. I was more than pleased to agree. After several such reviews and without him ever considering a different course of action, I went along for another visit hoping for the best.
This Doctor Was Decidedly Dangerous
Unfortunately, I found that my regular urologist was overseas and a locum was in his chair. This chap went to some length to convince me of the high probability of a metastasis and suggested I see an associate of his, a thoracic surgeon, at the local private hospital. Happy to get another opinion I agreed and duly attended for an urgently placed appointment.
Well, this chap very quickly and with hardly a look at my medical profile told me it was most certainly metastasis and he could fit me in for surgery within a day or two. He explained that he would remove the offending part of the lung only, if he could, but I should be prepared to lose the complete right lung if that was called for. This really came as a surprise to me. I was there for an opinion and here he was booking me in for surgery. Wow! Things must be bad. But I still had questions to be answered.
So I quickly said words to the effect “I don’t understand. If I have cancer in my right lung and cancer in my liver what’s the point of taking out my right lung and not my liver?”
“Oh! I don’t do livers” He retorted.
“You’re not getting my drift” I said “If cancer is in my lung and in my liver, surely it is likely to have spread elsewhere too. Removing my lung at this point will do more harm than good”
He looked flustered and made no comment.
With that, and a not too pleasant utterance, I walked out. Quite obviously this chap was more interested in filling out his operating theatre quota than he was in my health and well-being. (Note -This experience was probably the point where I really started to question my childhood upbringing where my parents had instilled within me that the family doctor sat next to god at the dinner table).
My Urologist Is Trumps!
When I explained my hospital experience to my regular urologist on his return from overseas, he said little but it was quite evident from his demeanor he was very angry and I had no doubt that he intended pursuing the matter further with his peers.
Fortunately for me though, after six months or so of these visits and reviews and also follow up tests my urologist was able to assure me that I did not have metastasis and that the nodules in my lung and liver were most probably haemangioma; a normally harmless and benign self-involuting tumour of endothelial cells (the cells that line blood vessels). And now, some 9 years later, time would appear to have proved him correct. Bless him.
Holidaying in England.
In 2001, with the uncertainties and anxieties of the times, my wife and I decided to take a ten month holiday in England, basing ourselves in London, at an apartment very kindly supplied by family members. Ten months in exciting London, visiting family and friends in various parts of the country and generally having a ball, was enough time to make us realize that in retirement, busy, bustling, hectic and frantic Sydney, exciting though it was, was no longer the place to be. So we decided that on our return to Australia we would move to Queensland… the land of sun, sea, surf and sand, where it is beautiful one day - and perfect the next. So that is precisely what we did.
Skin Cancer Attack
During June 1999 my wife became suspicious of a mole situated on my back and I had it removed. It turned out to be a malignant melanoma, one of the more deadly cancers. In October that year I had another mole removed and that was biopsied as a dysplastic compound naevous with a note added “malignant melanoma not excluded”. I guess we could say that one was a near miss.
I couldn’t help wondering if this was a sign of more such things to come.
For those new readers who still a little unsure about the value of alternative medicines and herbal products to both prevent and cure prostate cancer the following article might give some needed comfort.
There are numerous recent studies questioning the wisdom of prostate cancer screening tests for men, prompting considerable debate in the media and objections from some self-interested people the medical profession.
Having read through much of it I can only conclude though that the very people promoting cancer screening for both men and women, are those health practitioners directly involved with the extremely lucrative process.
There is absolutely no doubt that no matter how well intentioned it may be, for most people, screening for cancer invariably places him or her at a far greater health risk than if left well alone.
Which leads me to the following article, a well balanced discussing of the issue I thought worthy of your attention.
It is taken on-line from North Jersey.com dated 22 November 2009, and the original source is: BY KAREN KAPLAN. Herald News. SPECIAL FROM THE LOS ANGELES TIMES.
For men and their partners newly exposed to problems associated with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) or prostate cancer the following web-site and the related video’s will be both enlightening and informative.
Here is but one of a number of video’s from Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, Oakland as well as Berkeley, CA Prostate Cancer Treatment Options (02): Anatomy Video for Men Recently Diagnosed with Prostate Cancer.
Video’s are available for viewing either here or on the web-site, at:
This article fully supports the contention that the alternative health industry is establishing a much stronger and ever increasing foothold in the public psyche. Given a better educated desire for a holistic approach to health care, against the skulduggery in the multi billion dollar drugs industry; its combined failure to produce effective, non harmful, remedies for the many diseases, together with the dismal and self-perpetuating efforts of the cancer industry to produce a cancer cure - despite the billions of dollars of research and study - it is not surprising that patients are looking for beneficial health results elsewhere.
Following is a short extract from the article published in ScienceDaily.com on 20 Nov 09. In this quote you will note that the authors omit to mention that Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Ayurvedic Medicine, are both based on thousands of years of front-line research, trial and error, together with all the anecdotal evidence produced over that time and handed down through the generations.
Set that against 200 years of modern medicine in which only the past thirty years have seen substantial improvements and even so, the accepted philosophy is reactive and not proactive. That is to say, modern medicine treats the disease and not its cause. It also totally ignores the holistic approach.
“Western Medicine is primarily concerned with the material aspect of the body and views all medical phenomena as cause-effect sequences, relying on rigorous scientific studies and research that seeks empirical proof to all phenomena,” write the authors. “On the other hand, TCM and Ayurvedic Medicine favor a holistic approach, view the mind and body as a whole system, and rely upon inductive tools and methods for treatment.”
Extract from NatureNews.com
(NaturalNews) As the author of the New York Times bestseller, “Knockout: Interviews with doctors who are curing cancer,” Suzanne Somers is making waves across the cancer industry. Her powerful, inspired message of informed hope is reaching millions of readers who are learning about the many safe, effective options for treating cancer that exist outside the realm of the conventional cancer industry (chemotherapy, surgery and radiation).
Recently, Suzanne Somers spoke with NaturalNews editor Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, to share the inspiration for her new book Knockout. “People are just starving for some new information… for other options, for hope in [treating] cancer,” she explained./end
Following on from my earlier post concerning the alleged curative powers of combining bicarbonate of soda and maple syrup for killing off prostate cancer cells, it was remiss of me not to tell you the recipe for it.
As I said before, the ingredients are quite harmless in the quantities given. The proviso being that one should never consume too much bicarbonate of soda as it would undoubtedly make your physiology far too alkaline. And as for the maple syrup, well, if this combination isn’t effective in killing the cancer cells then it will probably have the reverse effect with the sugar content in the maple syrup actually feeding the cancer cells and encouraging growth. Oops! So it had better work, eh?
This is the recipe I am using:
Mix 3 parts organic maple syrup with 1 part bicarbonate of soda (Aluminum free)
Stir with low heat for 10 minutes (but not over 120 degrees)
Take 3 teaspoons per day for 1 to 2 months.
In addition, I stick hard and fast to my rule…
No sugar!!
No red meat
No processed meat
No white flour.
No dairy food
Minimal alcohol
Note: This information is not medical advice and should not be construed as such.
The relevance and usefulness of prostate specific antigen (PSA) tests is an old chestnut of mine. For the life of me I can’t understand why doctors place so much importance to them. Unless of course it is simply one of the very few tools of measurement they have when assessing the presence, or otherwise, of prostate cancer. Some might say that any tool is better than none, no mater how inaccurate or subjective, as it gives some credence to the medical profession. A profession still flying blind in terms of cancer investigation and treatments.
Not that the medical profession per se can be held entirely to blame for that unfortunate state of affairs. No, that is primarily the province of the drug companies, the broadly based, money hungry but largely ineffectual cancer industry and, of course, a very gullible fear driven public.
However, no matter my own opinion on PSA testing, my task, as I see it, is to bring the differing points of view to your attention so that you are better able to draw your own conclusions. In that vein then, the following article, from health: USNews.com/ is worthy of a good read… ENJOY!
My regular readers may well recall that I have, in the past, mentioned that Bicarbonate of Soda (Baking powder) taken with Maple Syrup is reputed to be able to cure cancer. Well, this story, printed on the NaturalNews.com website, is about a chap who claims to have cured his stage four prostate cancer very quickly using this same idea but instead of maple syrup he used molasses, simply because he didn’t have any maple syrup handy.
The change evidently didn’t matter at all as the same principle was applied. By using a high sugar content food (molasses) he was able to hoodwink the cancer cells into feeding on it and unknowingly absorb into the cell the Bicarbonate of soda. The bicarb being then able to neutralize the acid in the cell and make it alkaline instead. A state in which cancer cells cannot proliferate and must die.
I personally have not yet got around to trying this alleged cure but I can’t see any harm in it. Try as I might I don’t seem able to balance my own Ph. Every test comes up being far too acidic. I do take bicarbonate of soda from time to time and it certainly helps neutralize things temporarily but that in itself, is just hiding the real cause of the problem. Whatever that might be.
And so I will make this my next challenge. Starting right now as I already have the ingredients. I note though that the maple syrup I have has 31g of sugar whereas the molasses only has 21g. Hence, the maple syrup is definitely the better of the two for this purpose.
I’ll give it a good run for two or three months and let you know how I go.
Alternative Cancer Treatments Envita revolutionized the field of natural medicine by submitting an investigative new drug as one of their alternative cancer treatments. Visit us now to see what this is all about.
Copyright ©2006