Next St Louis Park Meeting: March 15

At today's meeting, the St Louis Park attendees shared their diagnoses, treatments, hopes, and other information with each other. Two new members were present.

The next meeting will be:

March 15, 2008, 10:00 am to 12:00 noon
Methodist Hospital
6500 Excelsior Blvd.
St Louis Park, MN
Map

Helen Healy Spoke at Stillwater, Jan 16

Notes from Doctor Helen Healy's talk at the Stillwater Myelma Support Group meeting, January 16, 2008

Helen classifies foods broadly into three catagories:

• Vibrant foods such as fresh raw vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, sprouts, whole grains, and healthy oils;
• Dull Foods such as overly cooked foods, packaged foods, "Healthy" bars, and boxed cereals;
• Toxic foods such as processed meats, cookies and crackers with hydrogenated oils, soda pop with high-fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners, most packaged snacks, dairy products containing hormones or antibotics administered to the cows.

Vitamin A and carotenes:

• Found in carrots, apricots, more ...
• Shown to inhibit the repair of radiation damage in cancer cells.
• Help cellular differentiation: Lungs, bladder, more ...

Vitamin C:

• Found in peppers, broccoli, strawberries, oranges, ...
• Shown to stimulate white blood cells.
• Assists repair of connective tissue.
• Activates natural killer (NK) cells, one of the body's primary defenses

Vitamin D:

• Found in dark leafy green vegetables, cold water fish, sunshine, ...
• Inhibits replication of cancer cells.
• Induces apoptosis (programmed cell death) in cancer cells.
• Reduces invasiveness and angiogenesis.
• As an antiangiogenic agent it fights many kinds of cancer.
• Dosage: 2000 IU daily (conservative), naturopathic 6000 IU!
• There is a simple blood test to evaluate it: 25-OH vitamin D test.

Vitamin E:

• Found in whole grains, seeds, nuts ...
• Great anti-oxidant.
• The recent study purporting to show a higher death rate from Vitamin C was seriously flawed.
• It assists healing, soothes drug side effects, protects LDL.

Vitamin K:

• Found in dark leafy greens, ...
• Helps to replace the calcium in bones.
• Helps against allergic reactions.
• There are drops for Vitamin K.

Folic Acid:

• Found in beans, asparagus, lentils, walnuts, spinach, ...
• Assists in DNA repair.
• Beneficial for those who drink alcohol, because alcohol uses up B complex.
• Helps prevent cancer from progressing, can reverse it by restoring DNA.

Calcium:

• Found in seaweed, almonds, cheese, watercress, ...
• Shown to reduce colon cancer.
• Important for bones, teeth ...

Magnesium:

• Wheat bran, brown rice, cashews, ...
• Activates enzymes.

Potassium:

• Bananas, oranges, lima beans, ...
• Maintains heart rhythm.
• Regulates water balance.
• Improves conduction of nerve impulses.

Selenium:

• Found in brazil nuts, whole wheat bread, orange juice, ...
• Prevents free-radical damage to cell membranes.
• Stimulates white cells and thymus function.
• Increases activity of NK cells.
• Associated with 50% decreased risk of mortality from cancer.
• Shown to help cancers of: Lung, colon, prostate, stomach, esophagus, liver.
• Dosage: 200-400 mcg/day.

Zinc:

• Found in fresh oysters, pumpkin seeds, pecans ...
• Antioxidant.
• Protective against prostate cancer.
• Aids in production of IL-1.

Flavonoids:

• Cherries, grapes, blueberries, strawberries ...
• Strengthen capillary integrity.
• Shown to enhance radiation-induced death by decreasing repair of DNA from radiation damage.
• Stimulate NK cells.
• Inhibit enzymes that cause inflammation.
• Inhibit tumor growth and may reduce metastasis.
• Reduce lung cancer by inducing apoptosis.
• Inhibit proliferation of leukemia cells, again by apoptosis.
• Specific flavonoids:
  • Resveratrol
  • Curcumin
  • Quercetin

Essential fatty acids:

• Found in fish, shellfish, flax seeds, sea veggies ...
• Direct anti-inflammatory effects.
• Inhibit growth of breast & lung cancer cells.
• Improves quality of life for pancreatic cancer patients.
• Reverses weight loss, gains are in lean tissue.

Inflammation is a good target for treatment, because tumor cells exploit inflammation.

Medicinal mushrooms:

• Antiproliferative
• Activate NK cells
• Increase tumor-toxic cytokines
• Protective against chemo toxicity
• Can be taken with conventional medicines
• Dosage: 1500 mg twice daily btw meals

Melatonin:

• Activates NK cells
• Antioxidant
• Supports apoptosis
• Inhibits negative effects of estrogen
• Reduces signals for tumor growth
• Improves quality of life during conventional treatment
• Dosage: 20 mg at night.

Nutritional yeast is loaded with nutrients

Coenzyme Q-10:

• Antioxidant
• Mitochondrial protection
• Protects heart from effects of adriamycin
• Dose: 100 to 200 mg/day, 400 ok

L-carnitine helps convert fat into energy.

Real foods have a story to tell. As a species, we grew up with them and need them, as contrasted with processed "food" products which we do not need and which tend to harm us.

Daily: Take a high quality multivitamin, extra E, fish oil, vitamin D, possibly more. Then take extra supplements to deal with specific issues. Example: for neuropathy, one might eat lots of berries and take alpha-lipoic acid. Thirty minutes before serious exercise, one might take alpha-lipoic acid, L-carnitine, Coenzyme Q-10.

Give chemotherapy 48 hours to work, then supplements can help restore the body.

Quercetin is a strong anti-inflammatory. Could 3 grams per day be a substitute for dexamethasone?

Helen practices at
Wellspring Naturopathic Clinic
905 Jefferson Ave., Suite202
Saint Paul, MN 55102
651/222-4111

Editor's note: Doctor Healy will be invited to examine these notes for content and accuracy; please stay tuned.

St Louis Park Group Meets January 19

The St Louis Park (Minneapolis) Myeloma Support Group will meet Saturday, January 19, 2008, from 10:00 am to 12:00 noon at:

Methodist Hospital
6500 Excelsior Blvd.
St Louis Park, MN 55426

The hospital is located about six tenths of a mile west of Highway 100 on the north side of Excelsior Blvd. Parking in the Orange lot costs $2.00. Use the north side Meadowbrook entrance, turn right to the conference room.

Click the map to enlarge it:

Helen Healy To Speak in Stillwater

The Stillwater myeloma support group will host Helen C. Healy, N.D., as its speaker at the January 16 meeting. She is a naturopathic doctor and a member of Oncology Association of Naturopathic Physicians, and will give us a different and complementary view of the treatment of cancer.

• Helen C. Healy, N.D.
• Wellspring Naturopathic Clinic
• 905 Jefferson Ave., Suite202
• Saint Paul, MN 55102
• 651/222-4111

Dr. Healy has suggested that support group members might wish to contact her in advance with questions. Her email address is on her web site, Wellspring Clinic.

The meeting is Wednesday, January 16, 2008, from 1:00 to 3:00 pm
Family Means Center
1875 Northwestern Ave S
Stillwater, MN

Stillwater Group Met Dec 12

Pam McAlister, RSHom (NA), CCH, spoke to the Stillwater Minnesota Myeloma Support Group today, December 12, 2007. Ms. McAlister is a homeopathic doctor who graduated from the Northwestern Academy of Homeopathy in Minneapolis, studied further in India, and now has a practice in St. Paul. She treats children and adults with a variety of chronic and acute conditions, offering remedies which target the underlying conditions.

As we usually do, each group member shared a little about their myeloma and its treatment.

The next meeting is:

Wednesday, January 16, 2008
1:00 - 3:00 pm
Family Means Center
1875 Northwestern Ave S
Stillwater, MN

There will be another invited speaker at the January meeting - please check back to find out who that will be.

Call for Suggestions and Additions

Minnesota Myeloma is a new blog, just stretching its wings. You are invited to leave comments with suggestions, criticism, or other content of interest to the myeloma community.

In particular, if you can think of links that should be added to the right-hand panel, please suggest them.

Notice of Email Scam

The St Louis Park myeloma support group has been using an email address of mplsmyeloma@hotmail.com. On December 3, someone hacked into that email account and took it over, changing the password, then sent an email to everyone in the address list saying that Pat Harwood was in Nigeria and needed money.

THAT EMAIL WAS FRAUDULENT! If you received it, please do not respond to it. Pat Harwood is safe in Minnesota and never was in Nigeria. A serious attempt has been made to shut that email address down. Regardless, DO NOT SEND MONEY! It's a scam.

A new email address will soon be created for the St Louis Park group, on a server that is not so easily hacked.