Cancer Journal

 The other day, I went to the vet's office to pick up some pills for our old dog.  As I was pulling out of my parking stall, I saw a concerned woman open up the hatchback of her car and I saw in there a big old dog, lying on its side with heaving, distressed breathing and a young gal in by it, tear stained face and real unhappy.  Big dogs go early.  The thought occurred to me to stop, get out and ask them if I could pray for the dog.  Like a nudge that was slight but still there, I think.  I perished that thought, chased away the nudge and finished pulling out of my stall and went on my way, throwing up an obligatory sort of a prayer thing that probably created no great commotion in Heaven.  I should have stopped. Why didn't I?  It would have been a little weird.  It would have taxed my social skills to make the whole deal, none the less, acceptable.  Maybe you should leave people alone when they are going through canine mortality crises...

 In prior blogs, I have suggested that standard medical treatment of cancer is, at best, incomplete and maybe actually counterproductive.  Seems like a willful blind spot is cultivated in conventional cancer care.  Exasperating!  How can nutrition be just left out of the way cancer patients are cared for? I mentioned that I have read The Emperor of All Maladies  by Siddhartha Mukherjee which is subtitled,  " A Biography of Cancer".  It left me with more understanding and sympathy for standard cancer care.  The book tells of the step by step process of understanding and treating cancer going back more than 100 years.  Missteps along the way, lessons learned from those missteps.  A long cast of characters, all smart and all energetic and committed to cracking this thing.  Beating some form of cancer only to have it reappear.  Sometimes beating it and having it stay beaten.  A six year old boy receiving an innovative treatmen...

  Melatonin - research has shown better outcomes for people who take high-dose melatonin for cancer management alone or in combination with traditional chemotherapy. This is incredibly safe and there are no true contraindications for use. Attached is an article titled "Melatonin in Cancer Management", that discusses this in detail. Conservative Dosing: - start with 3 mg of melatonin each night, then every week or so increasing the dose until you are taking 20 mg of melatonin each night - if you get side effects such as headaches, bad dreams, or morning fatigue, back the dose down for a week or two, then try going back up more slowly; only ~5% will have transient side-effects (which may be due to the melatonin itself or perhaps how it was processed +/- fillers); most everyone will tolerate it just fine. - melatonin generally comes in 3, 5, 10 and 20 mg doses, but it is available in a 60mg dose by www.scientifichealthsolutions.com - I recommend getting the higher...

 It's been a while since I've done an entry.  No reason beyond the fact that, as I've said before, nothing very cancery has happened--and I spent a week in Alaska visiting my sister which was really nice but of little cancer significance.  I did have my monthly PSA# check this morning and it remains too low to be detectable.  Again, good news that lacks drama. It has been on my mind to speak of the divide between standard medical cancer treatment and alternate treatments.  Sometimes that divide is bridged, more or less convincingly, by receiving not alternate treatment but complimentary treatment.  The advantage of that is that you can do both at the same time.  The disadvantage is that the complimentary care provider must be very low key about the risks of standard medical treatment;  the fact that radiation treatment itself can cause cancer, the fact that standard medication therapy can increase the chance of heart attack or stroke or something ...