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.
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Reduce Risk of Myeloma Relapse-
When I blog about how to reduce risk of myeloma relapse, I write about everything from complementary therapies like whole body hyperthermia to chemo cocktails to CAR-T cell therapy.
Even though I’ve read studies that cite excess weight as causing inflammation, I’ve never written about it as a complementary therapy to reduce the risk of MM relapse. That is, until I read the article below.
Rather than talk about dieting or bariatric surgery, I thought it would be more useful to MM patients to talk about Dr. Urvi Shah’s Nutrivention Study. Long story short, Dr. Shah’s nutrition prescription slowed the progress of MM while it
“The HFPBD intervention was safe, feasible, improved quality of life, and addressed modifiable risk factors – metabolic profile (improved BMI, insulin resistance, adiponectin leptin ratio), microbiome profile (increased alpha-diversity and butyrate producers), and immune (decreased inflammation and increased anti-inflammatory classical monocyte) subsets. A reduction in long-term progression trajectory was observed in 2 patients.”
NUTRIVENTION: a high-fiber dietary intervention improves biomarkers in precursor disorders
This isn’t a diet to lose weight in the Weight Watchers sense of the word “diet.” It’s nutrition to enhance the patient’s microbiome, increase the patient’s immune function, lower their inflammation, increase their quality of life, and yes, also reduce BMI. Just an idea…
I am a long-term MM survivor. I wish that my onc talked to me about nutrition when I was first diagnosed.
Email me at David.PeopleBeatingCancer@gmail.com with questions about anti-MM nutrition, supplementation, and lifestyle therapies.
David Emerson
- MM Survivor
- MM Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Cancer Prevention Bias: Not Mentioning Obesity Interventions
“Why don’t cancer prevention discussions mention obesity medications or bariatric surgery?
The answer is probably weight bias because why else wouldn’t medications and surgeries that lead to 15%-20% average body weight losses be discussed in the context of the primary prevention of cancer or in preventing its recurrence…?
That same study also reported weight-correlated increased risks for esophageal, colon, renal, thyroid, endometrial, gallbladder, rectal, and pancreatic cancers as well as for multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and leukemia…
The CDC, on its Reducing Risk for Breast Cancer page, simply advises people to “Keep a healthy weight,” with no further discussion aside from a link to this page on healthy weight. On that page, despite the dearth of evidence for intentional behavior change alone leading to anywhere near the degree of sustained weight loss achieved with obesity medications, it doesn’t mention the medications’ existence, let alone encourage a discussion of them or bariatric surgery with a physician, nor does it mention the cancer-reducing benefit of sustaining even modest amounts of weight loss…
The Canadian Cancer Society encourages people to “Have a healthy body weight.” No mention as to how one might try to do that, the availability of safe and effective medications that might help, bariatric surgery, or the benefits of sustained modest subtotal losses…
Of all the organizations I visited, the most informative public-facing information on the very real and well-established risks of obesity and the benefits of weight loss was that of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, but even it did not mention the existence of medications or surgery that might help people with an endeavor known to be largely refractory to intentional behavior change alone.
Of physician-facing information, the best was certainly the National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s 2025 Breast Cancer Risk Reduction document. The 65-page practice guidelines extensively highlighted both the risks of obesity and the risk-reducing benefits of even modest weight loss. Not discussed at all were how one might counsel patients on the same, the existence of medications proven to lead the average person to a weight loss greater than that discussed in the document as being beneficial to risk reduction, or the consideration of bariatric surgery…
Given the magnitude of cancer risk and risk reduction associated with obesity and sustained loss, along with the results of years-long clinical trials demonstrating the ability of our current generation of obesity medications (and bariatric surgery) to help the average person sustain double-digit weight-loss percentages, it’s difficult to imagine a reason, aside from weight bias, that these medications and/or bariatric surgery aren’t mentioned, if even just to recommend having a discussion about whether they might be appropriate for your patient.”
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