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Cancer Coaching- How to Limit Radiation Damage following Prostatectomy”
“I’m already doing the kegels post prostatectomy surgery. What would you suggest I do during radiation and post radiation?”
Hi David- I’m going to start radiation treatment after having had a prostatectomy. My origanal diagnosis after a needle biopsy was a Gleason 9 score, and PSA of 13 at the time of surgery. I’m at a .5 PSA now.
My questions relate to trying to limit the damage of the radiation. My oncologist doesn’t want me to use antioxidants during the radiation treatment, but says a daily multi-vitamin is ok. I already take curcumin daily but the oncologist is a little concerned about taking too much of it during the radiation period, as it may conflict with the radiation treatment. I’ve taken 5 high dose vit C IV’s (75 grams each treatment) combined with first taking an ozone IV prior to taking the vitamin C over the past 4 weeks.
I have now stopped this in advance of the radiation therapy. I’m already doing the kegels post surgery. What would you suggest I do during radiation and post radiation?
-Bill- .
Hi Bill-
I am sorry to read of your PCa diagnosis and treatment but impressed that you are already working on therapies such as supplementation, Kegal exercises, IVC therapy.
Please consider taking resveratrol during radiation therapy. Please read the study linked below. According to the study Resveritrol will enhance the radiation while reducing toxicity.
Resveritrol, Radiation Therapy
Further, please consider HBOT immediately following radiation therapy.Radiation will cause damage aka necrosis to the surrounding tissues. HBOT has been shown to reduce this damage.
Last but not least, please consider evidence-based anti-PCa supplementation post radiation. Your PSA of .5 may indicate a few PCa cells running around inside you. IVC, exercise, curcumin, resveritrol, others can reduce your risk of relapse.
The above therapies, both conventional and non-conventional, is a pretty complete list of anti-PCa therapies.
Good luck
David Emerson
- Cancer Survivor
- Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for the treatment of the late effects of radiotherapy
“The issue
There is a risk of serious complications developing after radiation treatment (radiotherapy) for cancer (late radiation tissue injury (LRTI)). These problems can be very difficult to resolve and there is some doubt as to the best approaches to treatment. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) involves breathing oxygen in a specially designed chamber. It is used as a treatment to improve oxygen supply to damaged tissue (cells within the body) and support healing.
The aim of the review
We searched medical databases for clinical studies aimed to find the evidence for or against the ability of HBOT, compared to either no treatment or alternative treatments, to improve these complications. The evidence was current to December 2015.
What were the main findings?
There was some evidence that HBOT improved outcome in LRTI affecting bone and soft tissues of the head and neck, for radiation proctitis (inflammation of the lower part of the large intestine caused by radiotherapy treatment) and to prevent the development of osteoradionecrosis (bone death caused by radiotherapy treatment) following tooth extraction in an irradiated field. There was no such evidence of any important clinical effect on tissues in the nervous system.
Quality of the evidence
The evidence was generally of moderate quality and limited by small numbers of participants, poor reporting of methods and results, and uncertainty as to the exact degree of improvement with HBOT.
What are the conclusions?
The application of HBOT to selected participants and tissues may be justified. Studies of radiation injury suggest that other tissues are also likely to respond (e.g. bladder). Further research is required to establish which people may respond and the best timing of such therapy. A study of costs would also be useful.
Melatonin as Protection Against Radiation Injury: A Systematic Review
“Introduction: Radiation is widely used in the treatment of various cancers and in radiological imaging procedures. Ionizing radiation causes adverse effects, leading to decreased quality of life in patients, by releasing free radicals that cause oxidative stress and tissue damage. The sleep-hormone melatonin is a free radical scavenger, and induces several anti-oxidative enzymes. This review investigates the scientific literature on the protective effects of melatonin against exposure to ionizing radiation, and discusses the clinical potential of melatonin as prophylactic treatment against ionizing radiation damage…
Results: 37 studies were included in the review. All were of experimental case-control design and employed animals. The studies demonstrated that exogenous melatonin reduced oxidative stress and inflammation in all investigated tissues. Furthermore, melatonin increased 30-day survival and protected against radiation enteritis. These protective effects were only documented when melatonin was administered prior to exposure to ionizing radiation.
Discussion: This review documents that melatonin effectively protects animals against injury to healthy tissues from ionizing radiation. However, no studies have been performed in humans. If clinical studies can document similar protective effects, melatonin could have a great potential to prevent side effects of radiotherapy for cancer, to protect against increased long-term cancer risk in radiological imaging procedures, and to protect from radiation due to nuclear incidents.”
Radioprotection and radiosensitization by curcumin
“This chapter gives an overview of the radioprotective and radiosensitizing effect of curcumin. Ionizing radiations interact with biological molecules inducing radiolytic products like e(aq), *OH, *H, -OH, +H, O2, and peroxides. These free radicals damage important biomolecules and subsequently inflict deleterious effects in the organism.
Whole-body exposure to ionizing radiations results in central nervous system, gastrointestinal tract, and bone marrow syndromes, whereas chronic irradiation causes cancer, birth anomalies, erythema, and dysfunctions to almost all organ of the body depending on the total dose and site of irradiation.
Curcumin (diferuloyl methane), a yellow pigment present in the rhizomes of turmeric, has been used in Southeast Asia to give yellow color and flavor to curries.
Turmeric has been used to treat various ailments in the Ayurvedic system of medicine in India. Recently, it has been evaluated for its radioprotective and radiosensitizing activities. Curcumin has been found to exert a dual mode of action after irradiation depending on its dose.
It has been reported to protect various study systems against the deleterious effects induced by ionizing radiation and to enhance the effect of radiation. Therefore, curcumin can be very useful during radiotherapy of cancer.
Administration of curcumin in patients will be able to kill the tumor cells effectively by enhancing the effect of radiation and, at the same time, protect normal cells against the harmful effects of radiation. The available information on curcumin suggests that the radioprotective effect might be mainly due to its ability to reduce oxidative stress and inhibit transcription of genes related to oxidative stress and inflammatory responses, whereas the radiosensitive activity might be due the upregulation of genes responsible for cell death.”