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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Supplementation for Myeloma
Supplementation for myeloma brings risks. Often, there are serious health risks. I’m referring to all types of supplementation, not just nutritional supplementation.
The article linked below is critical of herbal supplementation. I agree with many of the criticisms made by the article. My challenge is that I am a long-term multiple myeloma survivor. MM is an incurable blood cancer.
Conventional oncology’s standard-of-care therapy plan is to prescribe newly diagnosed MM patients, course after course of chemotherapy in hopes of managing the MM until multidrug resistance.
FDA-approved SOC therapies for the treatment of multiple myeloma can:
My point above and below is that I have undergone both conventional and non-conventional therapies in an effort to manage my incurable blood cancer. In my life as a cancer patient, I found that FDA approval of a given therapy made no difference as to potential side effects. I can’t speak for all MM patients, but I think we all knowingly take risks, be they from conventional or non-conventional therapies.
I would love to be able to rely on my PCP or oncologist regarding the risks and benefits of nutritional supplementation. Unfortunately, oncology has told my fellow MM patients they can “eat whatever they want” and that “supplementation just makes expensive urine.”
Conventional oncology isn’t trained or knowledgeable about nutritional supplementation. Not to mention the fact that the FDA-approved, safe, and effective treatments caused all sorts of short-term, long-term, and late-stage side effects.
The bottom line is that I eat a nutritious diet. I research both conventional and non-conventional supplements exhaustively. And when I do supplement, I follow a low-dose approach. Less is more kind of thing…
Email me at David.PeopleBeatingCancer@gmail.com with questions about supplements and managing your multiple myeloma.
Hang in there,
David Emerson
- MM Survivor
- MM Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Natural’ Isn’t Always Safe: Reframing Herbal-Induced Liver Injury
The growing popularity of herbal supplements has introduced a significant — and often overlooked — source of liver injury into clinical practice.
In the United States alone, over 80,000 dietary supplements are marketed without FDA approval, fueled by a $60 billion industry that continues to grow with limited oversight. Many of these products are advertised as “liver detox” aids or “immune boosters,” appealing to patients seeking natural or holistic treatments for chronic liver conditions. Yet, these same supplements can carry substantial hepatotoxic potential, especially when taken in high doses, over prolonged periods, or in combination with prescription medications.
Common Culprits
Among the most frequently implicated supplements are turmeric, green tea extract, kava, black cohosh, and usnic acid. Although turmeric is widely viewed as anti-inflammatory and hepatoprotective, reports of turmeric-induced liver injury — often with autoimmune features — have emerged in the medical literature and national surveillance databases.
In many cases, the liver injury appears idiosyncratic or immune-mediated and may be exacerbated by piperine (black pepper extract), which enhances systemic absorption but also may interfere with drug metabolism.
Population-level data increasingly implicate herbal and dietary supplements as a growing cause of drug-induced liver injury (DILI). In the US Drug-Induced Liver Injury Network (DILIN), the proportion of liver injury attributed to supplements more than tripled between 2004 and 2013, from 7% to 20% of all DILI cases. Although bodybuilding and weight-loss supplements account for most cases, hepatotoxicity from seemingly benign “wellness” or “detoxification” products is also rising. This trend parallels increased consumer supplement use, particularly among individuals with chronic liver disease, where conventional treatments may be limited or slow to show benefit…
Diagnostic Difficulties
The discrepancy between perceived safety and actual risk complicates diagnosis. Patients often omit supplement use from their medication histories, assuming these products are benign. Meanwhile, providers may underrecognize herbal-induced liver injury (HILI) due to its variable latency, nonspecific clinical presentation, and overlap with autoimmune or idiopathic liver disease. As a result, patients may undergo extensive workups for cryptogenic hepatitis or be misclassified with autoimmune hepatitis or DILI from prescribed medications…
Remaining Vigilant in the Face of Lax Regulations
Regulations have not kept pace. Under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, supplements are regulated as foods, not drugs. Manufacturers are not required to prove safety or efficacy before marketing their products, and the FDA can only intervene after harm has occurred. This reactive system places the burden on clinicians to detect and report adverse events, leaving patients vulnerable to untested and inconsistently manufactured products…
Summary
Clinicians across specialties increasingly encounter patients using herbal supplements — often with the best of intentions but limited guidance. Encouraging open conversations about supplement use, documenting products with the same diligence as prescriptions, and staying informed about emerging patterns of liver injury can help bridge the gap between perception and risk. With a patient-centered approach and practical awareness, we can better safeguard liver health in an era where “natural” doesn’t always mean safe.
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