Recently Diagnosed or Relapsed? Stop Looking For a Miracle Cure, and Use Evidence-Based Therapies To Enhance Your Treatment and Prolong Your Remission
Multiple Myeloma an incurable disease, but I have spent the last 25 years in remission using a blend of conventional oncology and evidence-based nutrition, supplementation, and lifestyle therapies from peer-reviewed studies that your oncologist probably hasn't told you about.
Click the orange button to the right to learn more about what you can start doing today.
- You are here:
- Home »
- Blog »
- Multiple Myeloma »
- 10 Year Myeloma Survivor-
10 Year Myeloma Survivor-
“For diagnosis of specific toxicities, please see each specific agent or each organ system overview for details. It is important to remember that often the diagnosis of these toxicities is a diagnosis of exclusion…”
Hi David -I am a 10 year myeloma survivor. I have read lots of articles on health and nutrition and I am a pretty informed patient. I understand most of my blood work and test results. I am currently 52 years old and still work full time.
I have been on lots of therapies and had ASCT in July of 2011. I have been on
- Revlimid,
- Dexamethasone,
- Velcade,
- Daratumumab,
- Ninlaro,
- Pomalyst,
- Carfilzomib
and currently on Belantamab since June 2020.
Belantamab brought my numbers back into check, though my urine proteins have been in the thousands since September. I am having a kidney biopsy Monday Jan 11 to see why the proteins are so high.
You have a course that references detoxification. Can you tell me about the benefits of detox?
I started eating berry smoothies for a week to see if that would help my kidneys, no impact as of yet. I tend to eat a lot of vegetables, though I have not be able to give up the meat.
Anyway, I appreciate any thoughts you might have as a myeloma survivor to another. Thanks, Tom
Hi Tom,
The benefits of detoxification to the MM survivor (you and me both), is that while our chemotherapy may kill our MM and put us into remission, it also can damage our organs, liver and kidneys in particular, with all sorts of toxicity. I consider whole body hyperthermia as well as other detox. therapies to be a method of reducing the long-term effects of this toxicity.
I think that the average MM patient, 67-69 years of age, who lives an average of 5-7 years, probably doesn’t have to worry much about heavy metals toxicity. The average patient does not have to worry about their liver.
You have undergone a lot of chemo and therefore your organs have had to deal with a lot of toxicity. Kidney health is one if of the top 3 causes of death for MM patients according to research.
I will link the MM CC Detox guide below. I consider detoxification to be an important non-conventional therapy that keeps me in CR. Plus I find regular saunas to be relaxing.
Surviving MM, living with MM for ten years is, as you know, is beyond the averages. You are doing well. Please take my comments below in the spirit in which they are intended.
As a 52 year old MM survivor, you are young. By this I mean that your OS goal will probably be decades. By moving through all of the chemo regimens that you listed, I worry that you will become refractory to all FDA approved chemotherapy regimens. In addition, you will probably have to undergo increasing amounts of chemotherapy in order to reach remission again and again.
My point in mentioning this is that your body can take only so much toxicity before you may experience organ damage. Yes, detoxification will help but you have already sustained a great deal of toxicity. Also keep in mind that long-term side effects such as the organ damage that I’m talking about is not studies much if at all by conventional oncology.
I am cynical when it comes to conventional oncology. I admit it. But experience and research has taught me that oncology thinks
- about stabilizing the average MM patient (95% stage 2-3 according to research)- this makes sense.
- have short term goals- meaning 5-7 years. Again, this makes sense.
All to say Tim, that you are an outlier. After living with MM for 10 years, you probably know more about MM than your oncologist does.
The solution to long-term toxicity? Detoxification certainly. But also trying to figure out how to reduce any/all chemo. You are probably rolling your eyes when reading this. Of course you have been trying to undergo as little chemo as possible…!!!
I am thinking of nutritional supplements that have been shown to be apoptotic to MM as well as those nutritional therapies that integrate with chemo.
I hope I am not being too annoying. Hang in there Tim.
David Emerson
- MM Survivor
- MM Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Recommended Reading:
“By using increased doses or dose intensities of cytostatic agents, improvements in clinical outcome may be achieved in some cancer cases. However, high-dose chemotherapy may produce dose-limiting adverse reactions such as
- myelosuppression,
- neurotoxicity,
- cardiotoxicity,
- gastrointestinal toxicity, nausea and vomiting.
The use of bone marrow transplantation, autologous infusion of circulating hematopoietic progenitors and hematopoietic growth factors have been shown to significantly reduce the severity and duration of the pancytopenia associated with cytostatic chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy.
In addition, recent developments in the control of nausea and vomiting with selective 5-HT3 antagonists have improved the tolerability of chemotherapy. The antiemetic efficacy of these agents has been shown to be equivalent to combination therapy with metoclopramide plus dexamethasone in the prevention of cisplatin-induced emesis.
Progress in the prevention and treatment of organ toxicity is now required, if treatment with higher doses and dose intensities of cytostatic drug treatments are to be used for the future treatment of human malignancies.”
Life threatening toxicities of chemotherapies and immunomodulating medications
“Description of the problem
What every clinician needs to know
Life threatening toxicities of chemotherapies and immunosuppressants can occur with varying frequency depending on the agent suspected and underlying patient risk factors. It is important for clinicians to remember that these medications can be the cause or contributor to many important complications that occur in the ICU…
Diagnosis
For diagnosis of specific toxicities, please see each specific agent or each organ system overview for details. It is important to remember that often the diagnosis of these toxicities is a diagnosis of exclusion after many other common or other life threatening disease processes have been ruled out…