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My husband had been diagnosed w acute Myeloid Leukemia, he did 1 week strong chemotherapy, we ended at ER , no more chemotherapy. Right now is doing healthy food, supplements. For about 2 months he was getting strong and positive. Last week started loosing appetite, weak . Please can you help me
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Hi Cecy-
I am sorry to learn of your husband’s struggles with AML treatment. His reaction is not uncommon. While it is not often discussed, AML patients do have negative reactions to “strong chemo” as you say. I would have to know more about your husband’s diagnostic testing, but it is possible that the loss of appetite and weakness he has experienced over the past two weeks is resulting from his AML. In other words, the “strong chemo” he initially underwent controlled his AML temporarily. These past two months helped his body deal with all the toxicity but his AML is on the march once again.
In my experience, your husband’s treatment does not have to be all or nothing, chemo or no chemo. By this I mean that the initial course of therapy, “strong chemotherapy” as you say, may be too much toxicity for your husband’s system to handle.
Consider talking to his/your oncologist about lower doses of chemotherapy- lower dose, less toxicity, fewer side effects. At the same time, your husband’s nutrition, supplementation and moderate exercise is complementary therapies shown to help his body manage the toxicity from lower doses of chemotherapy.
Let me know if you have any questions Cecy.
Good luck,
David Emerson
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Could you also tell me much about vitamin D3? And rosemary extract for the carnosic acid? I.e. is any rosemary extract ok?
Thank you.
Reply Hi Joanna,
I believe that a person’s dose of vitamin D should be based on their serum blood levels. In other words, if your blood levels of vitamin D are high, then you need to supplement less or not at all. If your levels are low, then you may want to take more.
I have no experience with rosemary extract.
Thanks,
David Emerson
Reply Hi David,
My dad is 76 and has had leukaemia for over a year. He stopped azacitidine in June after six months of poor results, and has been fighting it since then with cannabis oils, curcumin, mushroom extracts, green tea extract and healthy eating. He is now upping his green tea extract intake and I am wondering about carnosic acid. Do you know much about that latter compound and what dose he should take? And what dose of silibinin also?
Many thanks,
Jo
Hi Joanna,
I did some research because of your previous question and now I want/need to research carnosic acid more- question- your dad underwent azacitidine but did he, is he undergoing any other conventional chemotherapy regimens? I am wondering about possible integrative properties of carnosic acid-
let me know, thanks
David
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Hello
My partner was diagnosed with myeloid sarcoma (which is a tumor formed of the cells that are normally present in AML). The bone marrow biopsy showed that he had 5% blasts in his bone marrow, which means that AML was in a very early stage. There were no signs of disease in his blood (normal WBC, normal RBC, normal platelets).
He is 26 years old and underwent a cycle of aggressive chemotherapy. This shrunk the tumor to about 2cm from 40cm (it was a gigantic tumor along his spinal cord). During treatment he took curcumin, green tea, ginger tea, AHCC, Astragalus and Vitamin C and canabis oil. He recovered quickly after treatment and doctors said he responded much better than most people. The radiologist was shocked by how much the tumor has shrunk. On top of the chemo and supplements, he also meditated and practiced positive thinking, trying to get rid of suppressed negative emotions. We believe the result was caused by a combination of things.
Doctors want to start the next chemo cycle. They want to do 4. He’ll most likely be in complete remission after cycle 2 and we don’t want to do the 4 cycles because we think it would damage him too much. Any advice?
HI A,
While your partner’s experience of dramatic response to his aggressive chemotherapy is good news, I have to agree with you that I believe his supplementation and age helped him greatly. I too supplement with curcumin, green tea extract, AHCC, and others even though my own blood cancer has been in CR for years.
I think we agree that if your partner reaches complete remission after his second round of chemo then he should stop. Yes, toxicity can be as damaging as cancer. My guess is that your oncologist will understand your concern about too much chemo and the damage it can cause. Further, if your partner has fully reached complete remission it will be difficult to make an argument for more chemo.
Lastly, if your partner’s AML is like my cancer, multiple myeloma, it is possible that a relapse and more chemotherapy could be a possibiity. In other words, it may be smart to save the chemo if he relapses.
If your partner reaches complete remission after his second round of chemo, yes, I agree that two more rounds could be too much toxicity.
Let me know if you have any questions.
David Emerson
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Hi,
My mother (64) diagnosed with AML on 16th May 2018. Doctors (hematologists + medical oncologists) have suggested intensive chemo will be very stressful for her body and she may not be able to cope with it. Same about bone marrow/ stem cell implants.
On the day of diagnosis, they provided her with fresh blood and started induction phase with 7 day course of azicitidine.
On further queries, doctors said this is the treatment going forward, blood tests every week and of the RBC, WBC & platilate counts drop then provide with fresh batch of blood. Also, repeating the azicitidine injection course every month.
Any guidance will be very helpful and appreciated.
Thanking in advance
Amol Chaudhary
Hi Amol,
I am sorry to learn of your mom’s AML diagnosis. Yes, your doctors are correct. Intensive chemotherapy can be extremely stressful and short, long-term and late stage side effects can cause a variety of health challenges. Azicitidine will cause your mom’s RBD and WBC to drop. This is a common side effect of almost all chemotherapy regimens.
Further, your mom may tolerate the side effects listed below reasonably well or she may not. Everyone is different. My role as a cancer survivor and cancer coach is to provide you with evidence-based non-conventional therapies such as curcumin that research shows can be a sort of non-toxic AML chemotherapy.
All guidance will depend on several things- 1) your mom’s specific stage or degree of AML at diagnosis, 2) any current health challenges your mom is currently living with (heart damage, blood pressure, things like this) and your mom’s reaction to her first course of induction therapy.
My own approach to my own blood cancer (muliple myeloma) has been to build anti-cancer lifestyle therapies into my day, week, etc. such as nutrition, supplementation (curcumin, resveritrol, green tea extract, etc.), detox therapies, etc. such that I have maintained remission now since 1999.
The place to begin is for me to understand your mom’s current AML situation and health. What stage and what is your mom’s state of health currently?
Hang in there,
David Emerson
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Hi,
My dad was diagnoised with AML on 2-Jan-18. He is 73 years old and had undergone heart bypass in 2014.
Due to his old age, doctors said that they cannot provide standard chemotherapy and hence adviced treatment with decitabine. 5 days in a month.
He underwent first cycle with less complications.
However, one week after he underwent second cycle in 3rd week of Feb, there was internal bleeding, low blood count and after another week, swelling on the entire body due to low albumin.
He was hospitalised for 2 weeks.
Now, doctors have said that he is not tolerating the treatment and he is now at home on supportive care.
Most of the time he is tired and sleeps.
His mental status is also not good. somewhere 50% active.
I read about Curcumin and wanted to know if I can give him Curcumin tablets.
Can you please advice, if so how much and what all other things have to be included.
I am from India.
Regards,
Omn
Hi Omn,
I am sorry to learn of your father’s health challenges. You are correct that curcumin has an anti-AML effect. Low albumin indicates reduced kidney function. While curcumin may improve both your dad’s kidney function and AML, it is difficult for me to know about your dad’s other organ function.
I don’t have enough information to give you a good reply to your questions. I’m sorry I can’t provide more info.
David Emerson
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I have been diagnosed to have AML leukemia and not starting any treatment . I want to cure myself naturally . I am having blood transfusions every two weeks , an am a fighter . I’m taking 1,000 mg of curcumin 5,000 mg moringa,12 :1 concentrated Magosten 100:1 concentrated grape seed extract 4 X a day plus 1,000 mg lipsomal 2 day lypo caps vitamin c 1,000 mg 2 day olive leaf 15 % oleo pein 500 mg 1 nightly black cumin seed oil(Nigeria Sativa)2 tels 4x a day and a cup of Pau D Arco tea sipped through the day moringa magosten and Pau D Arco cause cell death in the leukemic cells without touching the healthy ones . I have only started the moringa a few days ago . I am quite desperate because with acute myeloid leukemia there isn’t much time. I am staying positive and believe I can be healed . my condition has been brought on by extreme stress over a good few years . I eat healthy take vegetable juice drinks every night , and don’t eat sweets and not much meat at all,a little chicken occasionally . my platelets are quite low and am bruising easy . I would appreciate any help you could give me. Thanking you Jannette
Reply Hi Jannette-
Our blood cancers are similar to each other. You have AML and I have MM (multiple myeloma). I take many of the same supplements that you do and have for years. Like my cancer, MM, induction chemotherapy has a good chance of putting the patient into remission though the remission is not a cure.
I agree with your sentiment to limit toxicity but like MM, I think it is important to reach remission in order to give yourself more time to undergo evidence-based, non-toxic therapies.
What do you think?
David Emerson
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Hello David
I have some info regarding AML that may be of interest to you. I’m NOT attempting to sell anything, I just wanted to compare notes with you. I’ve spoken to a Cuban oncologist who broke down a protocol that sounds very intriguing and he’s claimed an 88% success rate.
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I was diagnosed with a MPD which is marching towards AML. Can you please tell me what specific brands, dosages, types etc of milk thistle, curcumin and green tea extract? Thank you
Reply Hi Damian-
I am a cancer coaching specializing in multiple myeloma. I am sorry I can’t provide more info.
David Emerson
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Son has AML .relapse. Do you have data that shows that it works on people diagnosed with AML? Can you provide the paper? Was it published?
Reply Hi Jim-
Here are the studies that a linked in the blog post. Let me know if there is anything that PBC can do.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20661831
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9000119
David Emerson
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