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.
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Myeloma and Dietary Supplementation
Myeloma and dietary supplementation should be discussed by you and those medical professionals who are working with you to manage your incurable blood cancer. Unfortunately, according to the study linked below, GPs often don’t get around to discussing dietary supplements with their patients.
If this is true for GPs, I’ll bet that it’s true for oncologists too.
Dietary supplementation is asked about in online groups more than any other single issue in my experience. Unfortunately, the average response is anecdotal and therefore one person’s experience. This experience may or may not apply to you.
I have been managing multiple myeloma since my diagnosis in early 1994, I supplement with many different supplements for various reasons. Though I consult Consumerlab.com in addition to searching for studies and side effects (PubMed lists over 6000 studies focusing on curcumin and myeloma) before taking a supplement, I admit that there is a risk in taking any/all supplements.
Of course, there is a risk with taking any form of chemotherapy as well…
I am posting the video below because it stresses several key issues that MM patients must understand about supplementation.
Dietary Supplements
My point in writing this post is simply to highlight that MM patients and survivors are between a rock and a hard place when managing their MM. We can’t help but search for therapies that may give us longer and better lives.
Yes, dietary supplementation may help but you have to do your homework and work with your medical team in an effort to manage the risks that you may face.
Email me at David.PeopleBeatingCancer@gmail.com with questions about myeloma and dietary supplementation.
David Emerson
- MM Survivor
- MM Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeartingCancer
Dietary Supplements Rarely Discussed in Primary Care Visits
TOPLINE:
Although 64.8% of primary care physicians recognized the importance of discussing dietary supplements and possible interaction with medications, a substantial proportion rarely or never addressed them directly during periodic health examinations. Time constraints and competing priorities were identified as the main barriers.
METHODOLOGY:
- Researchers conducted a cross-sectional, online questionnaire-based survey to analyze communication behaviors and perspectives of primary care physicians regarding dietary supplements during periodic health examinations.
- They included 162 residents (mean age, 50.2 years; 43.5% women), in family medicine training programs or family physicians between May and August 2021, who performed periodic health examinations in Germany.
- The team developed the questionnaire by conducting a literature review, multiple rounds of refinement by an expert panel, and cognitive debriefing interviews with six physicians.
- The responses by primary care physicians were categorized based on the frequency of communication as: Often (75%-100%), sometimes (25% to < 75%), or rarely to never (0% to < 25%) addressed.
- Investigators assessed the association between communication behavior and potential affecting factors using correlation analyses.
TAKEAWAY:
- Nearly two-thirds of primary care physicians (64.8%) considered dietary supplements an important topic; however, 38.8% rarely or never addressed them directly during periodic health examinations, and nearly 50% reported that the topic did not arise spontaneously during examinations.
- Physicians who themselves used dietary supplements (Cramér’s V, 0.407; P < .001) or considered them important (Cramér’s V, 0.231; P < .016) were more likely to directly discuss them with patients during periodic health examinations.
- Many physicians cited time constraints and other more pressing health topics as primary challenges that prevented discussions about dietary supplements.
IN PRACTICE:
“Our findings emphasize the need for more proactive engagement by physicians in addressing supplement use with their patients,” the authors wrote.
“Providing clear guidance for GPs [general practitioners] on how to effectively address DS [dietary supplements] during PHEs [periodic health examinations] could enhance the quality of care and foster better patient outcomes,” they added.