BCG, supplements, nutrition and vitamins?

12 years 8 months ago #38578 by gabriel21
Replied by gabriel21 on topic BCG, supplements, nutrition and vitamins?
Adding to my latest post:

We've discovered high doses of natural antioxidants like cherries and blueberries (in capsules to avoid the high doses of fructose) can be very helpful in the healing process. Any dark fruit/veggie like beetroot, acai, goji berries, etc.

Also, try taking a higher dosis of Omega 7 (found in buckthorn oil). Excellent for the urinary track, menopause and skin in general.

My father is a male, 65, nonsmoker. Hematuria 01/08 TURB: T1 G3 widespread bladder+prostatic urethra; 3-month BCG.
Clean until 02/11: small TURB with no biopsy; 06/11 tumour detected TURB 08/11: awaiting biopsy, prostatic adenoma removed. Biopsies show both were benign. (...)

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13 years 1 month ago #36338 by gabriel21
Replied by gabriel21 on topic BCG, supplements, nutrition and vitamins?
Following Patrick Holford's advice in "Say No to Cancer (Optimum Nutrition Handbook)" and many other nutrition books my family and I decided this would be good supplementation after BCG:

A good multivitamin from natural sources (such as Nature's Plus Source of Life Gold Tablets)
An Omega Complex (3,5,6,7,9)
A specially-formulated urinary tract antioxidant (there are plenty of these)
And Ester C (1 gram daily)

Also, if you have any food intolerances or think you may need a digestive tract detox, I suggest taking digestive enzymes, probiotics and glutamine for a month.

Hope this helps!

My father is a male, 65, nonsmoker. Hematuria 01/08 TURB: T1 G3 widespread bladder+prostatic urethra; 3-month BCG.
Clean until 02/11: small TURB with no biopsy; 06/11 tumour detected TURB 08/11: awaiting biopsy, prostatic adenoma removed. Biopsies show both were benign. (...)

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13 years 2 months ago #35789 by jj803
Replied by jj803 on topic BCG, supplements, nutrition and vitamins?
One of the vitamins in oncovite is Vit A, I believe. This is a fat soluble vitamin which definitely has toxicity in high doses. I know of one BC survivor who took oncovite and attributes liver damage to it (Vit A toxicity can result in liver damage). Agree that a "heart healthy" diet is probably a good one not just for heart but for various cancers as well. Keeping weight down also seems to be of benefit, but not to extremes.

jj

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13 years 2 months ago #35782 by sara.anne
Replied by sara.anne on topic BCG, supplements, nutrition and vitamins?
It never hurts to eat "healthy" and stay away from "bad" stuff...for the most part. However, and I have said this before, IF nutrition is related to bladder cancer, the time to have been proactive would have been 10-20 years ago, or more. Something like this does lead us to think more about healthy habits and that is good. But there are no miracle substances that can make it go away.

There are mixed reviews on Oncovite (Dr. Lamm's vitamin mix) and the similar Bladder 2.2. I believe the latest have not shown any real benefit...but again, other than being expensive, they probably don't hurt.

If I had known what causes bladder cancer, for example, I shouldn't have married a smoker 40 years ago!!

Sara Anne

Diagnosis 2-08 Small papillary TCC; CIS
BCG; BCG maintenance
Vice-President, American Bladder Cancer Society
Forum Moderator

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13 years 2 months ago #35776 by Kimberly
Replied by Kimberly on topic BCG, supplements, nutrition and vitamins?
I just finished my initial 6 BCG treatments, which took about 9 weeks. My treatments fell over a period which included Thanksgiving, my 50th birthday, Christmas and New Year, so there was a lot of food -- not necessarily the healthiest kind -- readily available.

FWIW, what worked best for me was to follow the Michael Pollan adage "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants," which is how I eat most of the time, but I really cleaned up my act during BCG. I found that if I ate a big, heavy meal, then I woke up feeling really sluggish the next day. I also cut out all alcohol, because even just having a small glass of wine made me feel miserable the next morning.

As far as supplements, I take a multivitamin every day just as a backup, even though my diet is generally full of nutrient-rich foods. Since starting BCG, I started taking it before bedtime. Dr. Lamm recommends a multivitamin called "Oncovite," and that is supposed to be taken at bedtime. I know that water soluble vitamins pass through your body, so I guess that the idea is your vitamin-rich urine sits in your bladder as you sleep where it can provide some benefit. Maybe it's a bunch of hooey, but since I take a multivitamin anyway, it's just as easy to take it at bedtime.

I did not give up coffee, however. I do have my limits!

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13 years 2 months ago #35765 by Alan
Cynthia,

Dr. Denney from MD Anderson had a webcast maybe 18-24 months ago to where this question came up. I believe it is archived somewhere. He specifically indicated he didn't know of any vitamin or supplement that made any real difference. That said he did stress anyone smoking needs to quit! THAT causal link has been proven.

There still is some scientific evidence that eating properly (as we would assume) is a plus. Somewhere I also read (maybe Dr. Lamm) that patients in that group that gave up carbonated soft drinks appeared to have fewer re-occurences. Many of us have dropped a dirty penny into a coke or seven up cola and seen the results-so imagine what it does to our insides!

I believe that eating some types of fish and eating anti-oxidanr berries among other items show some promise in some studies.

Personally, the old adage of "everything in moderation nothing to excess" makes sense.

DX 5/6/2008 TAG3 papillary tumor .5 CM in size. 2 TURBS followed by 6 instillations of BCG weekly with a second round of 6 after a 6 week wait.

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