Cancer Journal # 41 July 20

 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 else.  In my case, with stage four prostate cancer the standard medical goal is to extend my life by months or maybe a year or two but not to cure me.  If that's the goal, then the increased chance of dying of something else is no deal breaker.  Although Dr. Gering at Spero Wellness Clinic has not been explicit, I believe the goal there is to cure me.  So maybe the standard medical treatment is not such a great idea.  However, that's what I say, not what they say.  It is complimentary treatment, remember.

All this has come up by my being advised to take high dose melatonin.  And by high dose, I mean high dose--180 mgs at night and then 120 or 180mgs more during the day.  Generally the dose for melatonin is 5, 10 or maybe 12 mgs.  I will post an additional blog adjunct to this one which will be a copy and paste of Dr. Gering's notes for me for those with an interest.  I will do some high lights.  High dose melatonin is supposed to kill cancer through eight different mechanisms.  There are no adverse side effects even with a very high dosage.  It treats other conditions such as Alzheimers or macular degeneration.  It also provides protection from radiation treatment or from CT scans or whatever uses radiation for diagnostic imaging.  Take 300 mgs. two hours before the radiation.  The U.S. military developed this protocol as protection for soldiers exposed to radiation.

Although I am not being advised to take it as a sleeping aid, I have taken 180 mgs. before I have gone to bed the last four nights and I have felt profoundly rested in the morning with no lingering drowsiness.  The cost is modest as these things go.  $30 some for 60 capsules at 60mgs. per capsule.  What's not to like.