10.01.06
Helpful Insights Gleaned from Russell L. Blaylock, M.D.
Russell L. Blaylock, M.D. has a book out called Natural Strategies for Cancer Patients, copyrighted in 2003. For anyone interested in this topic, I highly recommend reading this book. Of particular interest to me today is regarding his discussion on the effects of chemo and radiation on our cells (thus affecting our ability to heal and repair after treatment), and secondary cancers. Secondary cancers, as I understand it, are cancers caused by treatment rather than a recurrence of the original cancer or metastasis (spread of the original cancer). I have heard amongst natural alternative advocates that healing naturally “after” use of chemotherapies tend to be more difficult, although not impossible. I have always assumed it was because of the excess damage caused to healthy cells, but never got much more of an explanation regarding the extent of damage. Evidently my assumption was on the right track, but after reading Blaylock’s book, he gives a little more insight to the damages inflicted on our cells through chemotherapy and radiation. Of particular note are some of the examples he uses regarding heart damage and lung damage. On page 91 of his book Blaylock writes that,
“Doxorubicin’s mechanism of action involves not only inhibition of DNA and RNA replicaton, but also blocking of the topoisonmerase II enzyme, cell membrane binding, and production of the extremely toxic hydroxyl free radical. It is the last action that is the suspected cause of the heart damage done by the drug.
“According to the Physicians’ Desk Reference (PDR), a guide to medications published by Medical Economics Company and updated annually, doxorubicin is associated with irreversible myocardial toxicity, which in its worst form can lead to fatal congestive heart failure. The truly frightening thing about this drug is that the heart failure may occur during treatment (acute toxicity) or even years later (delayed toxicity). In fact, delayed heart failure is more common in children treated with the drug. This is because the drug poisons the heart muscle during the child’s development, preventing it from reaching its required size in later life. . .”
What caught my interest was that Blaylock wrote that these types of heart damage do not respond to the heart medications “usually” used to treat congestive heart failure, such as digitalis. It appears that damage to the DNA by the chemos makes repair difficult or appear almost impossible. I had known this about radiation treatments, but didn’t realise it also pertained to chemo treatments. He states that oncologist have searched for ways to prevent the damage caused by drugs such as doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide, and have found that vitamin E when started just “before” treatment has shown to significantly reduce acute heart muscle damage, BUT NOT delayed damage when started “after” treatment. Selenium and NAC were also shown to help protect the heart. He mentions CoQ10 appears to help with delayed heart damage. But another thing that struck me is why vit E and other supplements were not protective “after” treatment. I suppose it’s because the damage to the DNA is already done at this point and that is why natural healing “after” chemo and radiation is such an uphill battle.
There were also similar findings with the lungs. If pulmonary fibrosis develops as a result of treatment, it does not appear to respond to medical treatment. Again, it may be due to all the enzyme and DNA damage preventing the cells to reproduce and repair damages at an adequate rate. If the rate of reproduction falls short, then with time, the lungs or heart or whatever organ has been weakened could start to suffer the consequences of previous chemo and/or radiation treatment due to the inability of the remaining healthy cells to reproduce and repair for normal maintanence. And that may be why some experience delayed negative side effects. If this is correct, then it appears that it is imperative that the lungs be protected just “before” and “during” chemo and radiation treatment to protect from delayed toxic side effects of the treatments, rather than “after” as some oncologists recommend.
The excess enzyme and DNA damage inflicted through chemo and radiation seems likely part of the explanation why secondary cancers form at all and why they are so resistant to treatment–not enough good, healthy cells left to reproduce and repair and ward off cancer cells.
My personal feeling is there must be a way to rebuild, but it takes extra work and persistence to heal the body.
Blaylock’s book has a lot more interesting information regarding cancer treatments and ways to help minimize the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation. Understanding what the chemos and radiations do also helps one to understand what needs to be done to recover and heal. Making sure we get enough enzymes appears essential.
Marlakins
Andrea said,
October 1, 2006 at 8:43 pm
Thanks for the tip, Marla. I went to Amazon and ordered the book, also “Excitotoxins” by the same author, that looked important too.
One thing Debbie’s lymph nodes did for me is convince me I need to be prepared and educated so that if someone I love does get cancer or something else dreadful, I’ll be ready to be of real help. AA hit us unawares.
I’ve always been a big proponent of macrobiotics and yoga and prayer and exercise, they’ve helped me so much, but my family’s a little skeptical, since they don’t have scientifically verifiable explanations. My fam wants to understand WHY something works, not just that it does. So, the approach of someone like Blaylock I think would go a lot further.
Now that Rob is no longer on the heavy stuff–ATG and cyclosporine–I’m wondering about strategies to ameliorate the damage he might have sustained from them. I’m trying to get miso down him every day for the enzymes, but I’d like to do more.
Time for bed, Andrea
Administrator said,
October 2, 2006 at 1:32 pm
Hi Andrea! I think you’ll like the books. I also read Excitotoxins, that is a good one, too. Blaylock does a good job of explaining things so that lay people like myself can understand it easily. He is a neurosurgeon, so he has had hands on experience with patients and seems to have a pretty good understanding of how some chemicals affect the body and brain. You’re lucky your family wants to understand how it all works. My family generally doesn’t care much about it. Ha ha! An apathetic audience is harder to convince than one that wants some documentation!.
I wish I could find more stuff on how the ATG works in the body. The little bit I have found doesn’t really give me a good grasp of it. It makes me wonder if they even really know how it works. I recall reading in the PDR that they’re not entirely sure of the mechanism. . . sigh. But obviously there is interaction with the various immune cells (white cells).
I’ve got a couple macrobiotic cook books. Do you prepare a lot of macrobiotic meals these days? Which ones do you like?
Okay, toodles!
Marla
Andrea said,
October 2, 2006 at 5:09 pm
Hi Marla–I do remember reading somewhere that the fact that ATG works for AA–sometimes–was stumbled upon accidentally and the mechanism is inferred, not actually known. I think it disables lymphocytes and it is assumed that lymphocytes are the bad guys that are attacking the bone marrow.
But that’s pretty vague, and hearsay. I, too, would like to know more. Rob seems psyched to maybe up his nutritional program a notch, and if he incurred any damage from the ATG/cyclo, it’d be great to know what it might be and how to help it.
Actually my whole family is not 100% interested. Rob is, for obvious reasons, and the rest of them are sort of in and out. I think it takes an illness or the illlness of a loved one to spark a real interest. I know I thought macros were a bunch of kooks–until I got sick and needed help. That’s why I’m “too kind” as you said–not really, I just unfortunately remember my past! I’m really looking forward to the books coming, and Rob is too. We can maybe make inferences of our own from cancer drugs to ATG/cyclo. And of course I threw in a CD for myself while I was at it!
My fave macro cookbook is Christina Pirello’s. Can’t actually remember the name of it right now. She’s not strict and rigid like some macro cookbooks–a pepper now and then, more oil than the hard-cores allow–and her recipes are almost 100% delicious. There’s a Tofu-Broccoli Quiche, for one example, that everybody loves, no matter what their eating habits. Her soups are great, too. And her desserts!!
She has a great story too–she was sent home to die with acute leukemia in her 20s. (She just turned 50.) Actually, she was offered some experimental highly toxic treatments, but she saw her mom suffer and die from cancer with horrible treatments. So, she decided to go to Italy to die, because she loves Italy. Then, before she left, she met this macro guy, he gave her a bunch of books, she decided to give it a try, it worked, and she fell in love with the guy and married him! She actually did a cooking workshop here in Portland, and she’s very well-informed about food and also very very funny. She has–or had–a TV show– “Christina Cooks”.
I cook as many macro meals as I can, because I love the food, and I always feel better if I eat that way. But most people find it terribly limiting and spartan, including my dear husband. And, his Chinese doc was skeptical. She said that macrobiotics was great for cancer because it basically starves the cancer, but he needed more robust nourishment. So, he’s eating organic red meat 2x a week or so, I’m making organic yogurt (it’s SO good!)–but we’re still eating lots of pressure-cooked brown rice, a macro staple, I make miso soup at least 3-4x/week, and lots and lots of cooked vegetables, which is also a macro thing.
Macrobiotics is very different from Weston Price, in that it is a very low-fat diet. The macros attribute a lot of modern illness to too much fat. I don’t know who is right, but it is a fact that macrobiotics has cured some very serious illnesses. It is also a fact that it doesn’t always work.
Which cookbooks do you have? When you were healing yourself, did you start out with macrobiotics? (I remember you said you started out vegan.) Do you know anything about the history and philosophy behind macrobiotics? Quite interesting!
Good night! Andrea
Administrator said,
October 3, 2006 at 4:15 pm
Hi Andrea:
Yes, I also read that it was just stumbled upon that ATG worked for AA. I believe I read it in Eric Lax’s book, Life and Death on 10 West. 10 West was the wing at UCLA where they were first doing BMTs. Eric Lax followed a few patients during that time and documented some things in his book. I think it was for about 8 months. One of the things he wrote about was a boy who had AA and was not responding well to treatment at all. IIRC, he looked horrible, and they thought he was going to die. I can’t remember the reason, but ATG was given to this boy, and he recovered. This was in the 70s. From that recovery, AA started to be looked upon as a “immune” related disease/condition because ATG was originally used to suppress the immune systems of kidney transplant recipients. Prior to that, I don’t think AA was thought of as immune related.
From what I’ve learned of how ATG is made, I believe the action is kind of “reverse” of vaccinations. Instead of our own immune system wiping out the bad guys, the animal’s immune system is used (commonly horse or rabbit these days) via their blood serum, which has been activated by the introduction of human thymus tissue. We know that it wipes out blood cells–plts, reds, and whites, but exactly what’s going on in there and what remains afterwards, I have not been able to find much more info. I just glean bits and pieces from various books. And when I’ve read some immunological books, wow, is the immune system complicated!
Well, I see why you try to be so “kind.” Ha! I’ve had my share of about face or eating crow, also! So yes, I tend to try to be careful with what I say or think, even. But I also remind myself not to be lenient for the sole purpose of “excusing myself.” You know what I mean? If it’s wrong, and I’ve also part taken, I should still admit it’s wrong. At least that’s how I try to go about. I have my vices, too! Sadly, but I admit. . .
I think my sister has seeing this Christina you mention. She really liked her, too! Her description sounds like her–a lady who cured her own cancer, etc. Anyway, I’d like to continue the food discussion on the other thread where we’re discussing foods. So I’ll continue there. I was able to locate one of my macro cookbooks. This one is called Complete Guide to Macrobiotic Cooking by Aveline Kushi. The other book is kinda small, and maybe that’s why I can’t find it right now! Yikes! But I’ll share one of the recipes in this one that I like on the other thread.
Oh, and no, I did not start out macrobiotic because the first thing I got into was “raw” vegetarianism. They kept drilling it in me that anything “cooked” was terrible for you, ha ha! And being new, I didn’t know any better. So I stayed away from the macro cuz practically everything is cooked! Anyway, more on that discussion on the other thread? There are some things I think interesting to discuss about macrobiotics since I did try to look into it a while back.
Okay! Yak laters!
Marla
Andrea said,
October 3, 2006 at 6:48 pm
Good point about excusing oneself. Not good to be too too understanding of evil, in oneself or out there. Something I need to work on.
The immune system is wild. My son said, “Think of it as mainly a communication system.” That fascinates me, because I think that health between people is mainly a matter of good communication. So good communication is important within and without!
Also the beginning of John–”In the beginning was the Word . . . ” Doesn’t that say “communication”? And then I think of this book written by a scientist trying to disprove Intelligent Design. He had quite a strong argument, having developed a computer program that he thought disproved it. But he also wrote this sentence–”When you think about life, don’t think Magic Liquid, or Heavenly Energy. Think information. Think communication.” (I’m paraphrasing from memory.) That stunned me. In other words, this firmly atheist scientist was saying that, from a scientific point of view–”In the beginning was the Word.”!!
OK, I’m going to go find the discussion about food.
Andrea
Administrator said,
October 4, 2006 at 2:44 pm
Oh, Andrea! What a thought! Ha! Talk about full circle. Ha ha ha! I like it.
I was a bit late in getting the food discussion up. I just put up a new post for it called Food as Medicine. I’m having a late lunch, so will add a little more later. Not sure if I should put the macro recipes in with Anything Goes where we’ve been sharing some recipes with Patti already. Perhaps if you’ve tried other “diets,” you can compare those with the macro diet? I’d be interested to hear your comparison on them.
Okay, better eat!
Marla
P.S. About the cells communicating. . . I find it fascinating that cells really do communicate and signal each other. BTW, I found my Tai Chi video! Ha! Will see if I can get into it. . .