Hi cromercrab,
Welcome, but sorry you are here.
I found diet confusing, too! And those that claim to be the “cure” are just too difficult to stick to. What you said about alkaline is just about the ONLY dietary advice I loosely follow. Not sure whether you’ve seen this website before (I’m sure I learnt it from this forum), but I’ll mention it anyway:
healthsearches.org/Categories_of_Q&A/Integrative_&_Alternative_Medicine/1292.php
Take care xx
Hi Cromercrab
I have wondered about diet too but life would not be worth living without chocolate! The attitude of my nurses & Docs is have what you want and enjoy it.
I am getting plenty of veg, fruit, fresh air and exercise. There was nothing wrong with my diet before all this started, no risk factors or anything so I don’t see the point of being on a ‘diet’ now! It makes me cross when I read the so called tips on avoiding cancer - I have always lived like that, fat lot of good it has done me.
You do whatever you want and whatever makes you feel good and sod everyone else!
Sue x
Hello cromercrab, I’m so sorry you have to join us but just to let you know I still have no bone pain seven years on from being diagnosed with bone mets…take care…Belinda…x
Hi Pippi
Just catching up on posts and welcome to the forum although sorry you had to join us. I too am a secondary’s girl with bone mets, recently skin mets and new regional reoccurrences. Currently on Zometa for bones and having a chemo break which will end shortly, not sure yet what I will be put on next.
I do hope you find the forum helpful, everyone is lovely and we go through it all together. So pleased you have such a wonderful family of friends although totally understand why you don’t want to share the emotional stuff with them always. I agree and very few people know about my secondary’s diagnosis, I like to keep it very private and carry on with life as normally as possible. Couldn’t manage without this forum and the lovely women who we can share everything with and who understand where we are coming from. Post away however you are feeling sometimes it is just so good to have a moan, rant and let it all out. We laugh, cry and also share good news together, it is always wonderful when someone has good results.
Hi Cromercrab also sorry you had to join us. Like Sue I am a bit sceptical about diets with grandiose claims. I also have always had a healthy diet, breast fed my kids, fit slim etc and got the b………. disease in the first place. I think fresh air, plenty fruit and veg – just generally healthy diet is good – and the odd glass of red wine helps too! There is a lot of controversy about Jane Plant’s book and claims as she also had chemotherapy along with her diet. If you do a search you should find some previous discussions on the forum about it which are interesting.
Keep posting and as everyone has said there are very knowledgeable women on the forum who can always offer advice.
Take care and lots of love Anne x x
Hi Girls,
Hope you are well today Pippi,I had my Zmeta treatment today, and found out my tumour markers,are still going down, so very pleased!
Comercrab,so sorry you had to join us,but you will get a lot of support and advice on here. I don’t think I could’ve coped without the ladies on here,everyone understands what you are going through. I was dx with bone mets,a couple of months ago, and have just had my fourth treatment of Zometa,and have to say, I am feelng a lot better,so hopefully you will better too,with the treatment.
Take care of yourselves,lots of love Maryxxx
Hi Ladies, especially Cromercrab who has joined as another newbie 
Unfortunately a place none of us wants to be 
Hope all of the experiences and advice on here has and, is usefu,l to you and Pippi. As to the question of diet I think Dr Plant’s book has had various threads on here already (some time ago) and I think quite a few ladies felt it was very misleading, her diet advice. From what I remember she is not a medical doctor but does have a qualification which allows her to have Dr in front of her name and also her own experience was that BC came back even though she followed her own diet and it was only the chemo etc that treated her successfully. Please don’t quote me on this as it is only what I think was said, I have no real opinion on the diet other than I didn’t want to live my life (what is left of it anyway!) in such a strict, no fun, no food enjoyment way - I love my food too much as well as a glass or 2 of wine. If I die too young, as I’m sure I will, I don’t want to think that I didn’t enjoy myself in the process
In answer to Pippi’s questions when I had ovary ablation the radiotherapy also ‘hits’ your bowel and despite reassurances that I would only get a few days of discomfort I couldn’t actually go out of the house for 2 weeks as I couldn’t be more and 30 seconds from a loo! I had similar effects to Irritable Bowel Syndrome so wasn’t eating properly and was going to the loo all the time. It took a full 4 weeks until I felt fully recovered - hence the ‘diet’ - I certainly lost over half a stone.
Aromatase Inhibitors are for post menopausal women and there are currently 3 on the market (for oestrogen receptive BC’s) Arimidex, Femara and Aromasin. They can only be used in post-menopausal women and work in a different way to Tamoxifen but for the same results - ie not allowing any hormones to get to the BC and therefore not letting it grow and, hopefully, making it shrink. They can be used if Tamoxifen is thought not to have worked - as in my case with my primary BC
Take care
Nicky x
Hi Nicky
I know the Plant books are controversial here so I don’t want to go through all the ins and outs of it - but I just wanted to correct a couple things. Dr Plant (she is actually a Professor, and her doctorate is in geochemistry) has been cancer free since starting her dairy free diet - she had advanced cancer (tumours in neck) and had had no recurrence in about 17 years. I think the thing about being a medical doctor is irrelevant - very little cancer research is done by medical doctors, who have approx one day’s training on nutrition (scary, no?). It is done by chemists and biochemists - Prof Plant is a highly respected scientist.
There is masses of evidence that diet both increases your risk of getting cancer and your risk of a recurrence, and a change of diet can reduce these risks and can help in slowing metastatic cancer. The role of Insulin Like Growth Factors (IGF - a major part of Prof Plant’s work) in promoting breast cancer is recognised and becoming more understood. Dairy products and meat are high in IGF. It is believed that one of the ways Tamoxifen works is by blocking IGF. See this article for some recent research - there’s masses more:
breast-cancer-research.com/content/10/4/R56
On the other hand chocolate contains polyphenols that are good for you if it has a high cacao content - eg dark chocolate. But you’re ony meant to have a small amount! Same with red wine - contains resveratol, but more than one glass a day will do more harm than good. So an anti cancer diet isn’t all misery.
I think it would be a shame to discourage anyone from trying an anti cancer diet - my prognosis is pretty poor (bone mets) so I think for me it is perhaps my only chance of medium or even long term survival. It isn’t at all just quackery - there is a sound scientific basis for all the changes I have made. If any one is interested the books by Dr Servan Screiber (Anti Cancer - A new way of life) and Professor Beliveau and Dr Gingras (Foods to Fight Cancer) are very well written and easy to understand, with all the relevant research footnoted. I also found the Plant book very well researched, and it’s focus is different - more on what to avoid than on what to do.
I completely understand that many would rather enjoy what time is left, and it is of course a personal choice. For me, giving up dairy is a small price to pay for hopefully a longer life.
I’m now off to have a delicious soya ice cream which I am going to eat floating in the pool - it’s 30degrees here now - time to get outside (I will of course be covering up my rads burns).
Hope you all have a lovely day.
finty xxxx
Sorry - just realised this post is in the secondary forum - I usually just go to latest posts so don’t notice the section. So realise we all have a poor prognosis, not just me - didn’t mean to be insensitive.
finty xx
Hi finty
No problems about Jane Plant, obviously I was misguided from previous comments. I did read her book when I had primary bc but chose not to follow her diet. In no way did I intend to stop anyone else reading her book/s and only said what I have chosen to do rather than what anyone else should do. As Anne said there were some very interesting discussions on this forum a while back.
Nicky
There is a lot to be said about following a non dairy diet,I can’t seem to follow that completely. Instead I try to go for green tea, and limit dairy. As for prognosis,the hard thing I find is that there are no answers! I am a bit of a control freak, but take great heart from ladies posting years on from their diagnosis. I hope that comment is not insensitive. I scared myself lots when I wandered onto the stats page on another site and I am trying to convince myself that I will be in the right percentage of whatever stat I happen to alight upon. Everyone is telling me how well I look… random! I am off to Norwich tomorrow for a few days with my son to do a bit of shopping ( I live in Coventry) making the most of my wellness. That in itself feels a bit grim sometimes as if I am busy storing up memories for a rainy day. Am I alone in that? Also, I am buying a bike, I have never ridden one before but have always wanted to.Now’s the time, I guess.
Finty, I have made soy ice cream too, and it is fantastic. I used the Vegan Scoop book, using soy cream as well as soy milk.
Hi,
In line with cromercrabs commets, I also scared myself witless at the stats on another website, but then I realised we are all different, and these stats would have been done 10 years ago, and now I don’t look at any of these figures.
Research and treatment is improving all the time - so who knows.
Dotty2xx
hi everybody, I hope you had a good weekend. Pippi, your oncologist should know about any relevent trials but it is always worth keeping an eye on what is happening.The cancer research website has a list.
Also to add to to nicky 08s comments, aromatase inhibitors can be given to premenopausal women if their ovaries are switched off, either by oophrectomy, ablation, or with a zoladex injection every month, which is what I have. After tamoxifen stopped working for me, I tried arimidex, and am now on exemestane-will know after next scan if its helping.
nicky
Hi
Yes, I should have said post menopausal either by nature or medical intervention - I should know, I’m on my second menopause as it is! My 1st was chemically induced by Zoladex and the 2nd one by ovary ablation. The first one was horrendous with all those hot flushes but I was younger and therefore not as close to my natural menopause happening than this time. At least the A I’s do seem to be working as I have had no progression since finishing chemo in Nov 08 - fingers crossed they keep working - for me and anyone else.
As to statistics I tend to keep well away from them but I did like the headlines today about survival rates improving quite dramatically.
And to Cromercrab’s question about doing things whilst we can, I also think about the memories bit - a very sad thing for us to have to do but unfortunately it comes with the territory! Having said that I enjoy doing different things anyway so all the things I do with family and friends are all just as much for me as to leaving some good memories behind
Nicky x