Hi, i’ve been on zoladex for 8 months now - i’ve had two injections so far and i’ve been getting pretty bad side effects - hot flushes and facial hair growth has just started. I’m concerned about these and other side effects, especially that it causes cancer in rats and i’m thinking about going off it and having a oophrectomy at some point. I’m 27, and i wanted a oophrectomy originally but none of the doctors i spoke to would do it as they said i might want to have children in the future. I suppose i might and i’m not too keen to have it straightaway.
I’ve read a book called the China Study which has studied the effects of animal proteins vs plant proteins on the growth rates of tumours in rats. The studies in the book showed that tumours stopped growing when only fed plant protein; while the rats fed milk (casein) or meat protein, the tumours grew. The book basically says that it may help if you eat a lot of vegetables/fruit (plant based proteins) and grains/seeds/nuts/dried fruit. (also to make sure you are getting the eight essential sugars, including glucosamine and another one found in hens eggs). The study also looked at women in china and found that overall they have a much lower rate of breast cancer; and that this might be partially connected to their diet, as they eat no dairy usually; and much less meat than westerners. When chinese women move to america and change their diet, their rates of cancer appear to increase according to the book. I found it very interesting, and have ended up changing my whole diet, as i also went to a chinese doctor who told me to do the same thing. I feel a lot better about what i’m eating now.
Chinese women generally start their periods at age 17 (later than us), get menopuase earlier and have less exposure to estrogen over their lifetime as their overall estrogen levels are lower. I thought that perhaps it’s the excess estrogen that is causing cancer for western women - perhaps partially caused by our diet?
Although i think i will have to have the oophrectomy to be safe, i wish someone would study the link between diet, estrogen levels and cancer more closely, as i wonder if they might find that some estrogen is okay - it’s just when you have too much for your body to know what to do with that you might perhaps get cancer? Of course, that’s pure speculation and hasn’t been studied at all properly.
Another book i read is by Dr Lee - What your doctor may not tell you about cancer - and it’s about how he has treated women by ensuring that their progesterone levels are balanced with their estrogen levels. Most doctors say that if there are progesterone receptors on the cancer cells, you shouldnt have progesterone as it will make the cancer grow. Dr Lee says that progesterone actually causes apoptosis (cell death) in normal breast cells, and that if your cancer cells happen to have progesterone receptors on them, it should also cause cell death in the cancer cell. He claims to have success with this treatment. Most doctors believe that this treatment is wrong and won’t work; but to my knowledge it has never been trialed in large scale clinical trials to see if natural progesterone (made from yams or soyabeans) can help women with cancer. I think this is something else that badly needs to be looked into.
Another book i read (downloadable from internet) is Cancer - step outside the box by Ty Bollinger. His whole family have pretty much died from cancer, and he’s looked into a lot of alternative cancer treatments (for terminal patients who have no other option or any one else who wants to try them) such as essiac tea; cesium chloride; apricot seeds (supposedly containing a molecule which has cyanide locked into it but which wont unlock and hurt your normal cells in your body; but will only unlock in your cancer cells and kill them - no one has ever died from eating crushed apricot seeds i dont think; i think they are used in cooking); ozone therapy; insulin guided chemotherapy (small dose of chemo - does not harm the rest of your body - but is supposed to be much more effective because cancer cells like sugar and eat the chemo drug up - i haven’t tried it but i was very annoyed that i wasn’t given the option to take part in a trial of it or told about it by my doctor prior to agreeing to have normal chemo, which i really didnt want although i didnt think i had any option); and many other alternative cancer treatments that i would certainly try if i had no other option.
I wanted to let people know about these books; as i think; especially where standard treatments have failed and you have no other option; what is the harm in trying alternative treatments if you want to.
I am annoyed that governments are not funding large scale trials of these alternative treatments to test if they are really effective. Often they involve natural substances which cannot be patented (no ownership rights) and therefore huge amounts of money cant be made from them; so drug companies have no real incentive to fund these trials themselves, especially when the product may be more effective and may compete with their very expensive (and profitable) cancer drugs such as zoladex, tamoxifen and chemo drugs. Chemo is a billion dollar industry in the us and this concerns me a lot.
I had chemo; and i am now concerned for my health as a result; as its very toxic. I was very upset that my doctor didnt even tell me about insulin guided chemo or any other alternatives, when the chemo drugs (as with zoladex) were being trialed on me in any case; and these alternatives usually wont harm the body.
Anyway; i am supposed to be having a bilateral mascetomy and reconstruction in the next few weeks - i have already delayed it too long because sick from the chemo.
Well, i just thought i would post about some of the books ive read incase anyone’s interested - i’m not trying to force my point of view on anyone, as i’m not sure what to do myself; and have been following standard treatment for most of hte time.
Cheers
Kate