Chosing Alternative Therapies - Like Picking a Good Junior Mining Stock

For my cancer treatment so far I've been relying on the doctors (and nurses!) at the Tom Baker Centre here in Calgary for most of my treatment. I've dabbled in the natural or ‘alternative’ medicine arena for some things like reiki, juice plus and improvements to my diet but have never fully committed to incorporating full on naturopathic therapies into my care; until now. In the past two weeks I've been gathering information on naturopathic cancer treatments from various sources and have consulted 2 naturopaths formally and one informally (thanks Louise!).

All in all the process has felt a bit like trying to pick a good junior mining stock. No matter how much research you do and who you talk to, every company seems to have a good story (and a snazzy website). While some confidence can be gained by digging deep into the details, if often comes down to a gut feeling or in some cases, a guess. And so it is in trying to pick the best alternative therapies for treating cancer. I can only hope that in some of the stuff I try, there is a little gold.

Last Monday I did a phone consult with one guy name Dr Ghazali who works in a clinic in Fort Langley BC. I sent him all my info ahead of time and we spent an hour on the phone. He is certified as a naturopathic oncologist. He knew all about my chemotherapy, treatments and surgeries and asked a number of relevant questions about my care to date. He was well prepared and had a very organized plan for me to follow. I had originally wanted to talk to him about the hyperthermia treatments they offer there but I ended up getting lots of other great information as well. He gave me a diet to follow (whole foods), gave me a list of supplements to take and went over the options available for additional alternative therapies. He suggested full body hyperthermia (in Germany!), IV vitamin C and IV mistletoe treatments. I really liked how he said "if I were you, this is what I would do". I hate trying to pry opinions out of doctors. Anyway, he was great, knew his stuff inside and out and had a solid plan for me.

The other naturopathic doctor I met with was Dr Drobot. He came highly recommended but fell short of my expectations. I did a $1000 plan with him which basically told me a) my liver is stressed b) my immune system is suppressed and c) my gut is stressed. So what he told me was that I have cancer and am on chemo. The tests he performed were: live blood cell analysis, urine test, computerized regulation thermography, heart rate variability, digital pulse analysis and bio impedance analysis. After the testing, we sat down and talked about the results for an hour. He never really laid out a detailed plan. He sort of directed me to a few websites, suggested a few treatments (vitamin C, miseltoe, hyperthermia and ozone) and gave me a few supplements. Basically I was supposed to do a little reading and think about what I had learned from the tests (nothing really) and decide on what supplements/treatments I felt like doing going forward. It didn't feel like a good experience at the time and I didn't come away feeling empowered like I did after my conversation with Dr Ghazali. Dr Drobot did suggest a few things that Dr Ghazali suggested too so I'm starting to believe in some of this stuff. There definitely seems to be some similar themes from the doctors, from books and online. The common themes were: IV miseltoe, IV vitamin C, and hyperthermia, as well as a few supplements and a better diet.

In the end I have decided to do the following:
-eat a whole foods diet

-limit my sugar intake (we’ll see how that goes over Christmas)
-take a variety of supplements
-Avemar
-Juice Plus
-Essiac tea
-Cod Liver Oil
-Green Tea (5-10 cups/day OR an extract in pill form)
-Melatonin (has some anti-cancer benefits as well as helping with sleep)
-Tumeric (the spice – comes in pill form)
-Unda 243
-Unda 20
-Regulat (these last 3 were suggestions of Dr Drobot I plan on running this by Dr Ghazali to see what he thinks)

-Take regular IV vitamin C and IV miseltoe treatments here in Calgary
-Look into whole body hyperthermia at a clinic in Germany in the new year

-I will of course also continue with my regular chemotherapy regimen at the Tom Baker

I'm really not sure if any of this will do any good but it sure feels good to be proactive about the whole process because there is no worse feeling than the hopelessness of sitting at home waiting to die.