← Return to Completed 5 years of anastrozole. Withdrawal symptoms? Side effects?

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@katehanni

Due to the side effects I had with all three of the AI's, including generic and brands of anastrozole, exemestane and letrozole; I had to stop or I would have been in deep emotional trouble as all three caused suicide ideations (in addition to all of the side effects I had) which is not even in the realm of possibility for me under normal circumstances. Given that situation, and the terrible situation of getting adequate healthcare during COVID 19 which has destroyed the medical community where I live in Prescott, AZ; I have chosen to go the naturopathic route. I am NOT recommending the following to anyone, just sharing what my naturopath has successfully treated other hormone positie breast cancer patients who are post menopausal and who could not tolerate the prescription AI's, and they have seen great reductions in estrogen and aromatase inhibition. There are a ton of natural AI's out there which as someone who writes medical research grants I was surprised that there are clinical trials of Turkey Tail Mushroom (the active ingredient is PSK which is prescribed in Japan to every cancer patient, and Japan has a 4% lower mortality rate than the US. In Asia they treat the whole body, not just the cancer! So the initial supplement I was prescribed which I will begin taking in 2 weeks after my body recovers from the Letrozole detox; is called "SuperSmart, Natural Anti Aromatase support." Plus a long list of dietary changes and other supplements like Turkey tail powder and Lionsmane for managing mental side effects. The SuperSmart supplement has in it: Chrysin, DIM, FlaxSeed, zinc, which are all aromatase inhibitors that are natural. There are other ingredients and the label is in French as this product is widely used there so I had to do some google translate to know what I'm taking.

Also, a complete dietary change which starves cancer. The basic idea is to have more alkaline than acid. Creating an environment in the body that doesn't allow or support the growth of cancer, and even more that inhibits the Aromatase Enzyme which causes hormone positive tumors to form.

I'm not gonna lie, my husband is a famous chef and wine expert here in the US and the diet is going to be the most difficult part of my transition to the natural way of addressing cancer.

Last night I watched a documentary on Amazon Prime called "Heal" which as someone that is driven to succeed really makes the point about negative emotions causing disease and shows you people who have literally recovered from Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer...

Again, I truly wanted the AI's to work, but the side effects were intolerable. We must do better for the 50% of women that were "lost to followup" in the clinical trials for the AI's; due to the horrible side effects. I am not recommending anything to you, only sharing where I am with regards to my treatment for the next 5 years...

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Super nerd here. I would be interested to read the studies you quoted, if you have the links, or maybe the abstracts for the research on those compounds?

Go to AMazon and look up SuperSmart Anti-Aromatase Inhibitor which has multiple AI's (written in French so I had to look them all up) in addition, Turkey Tail mushroom (PSK is the active ingredient which is prescribed in Japan and they have a 4% lower mortality rate from cancer than the US does. White button mushrooms. Green Tea Extract and Stinging Nettle Tea which is a natural AI.

Then the dietary changes: Alkalyne water and alkalyne foods as opposed to acidic (starving cancer). Moving to raw, plant based diet (avoiding red meat that often has hormones in it). Meditation, relaxation and diet changes as well as melatonin which is specifically an aromatase inhibitor for hormone positive BC, and Vitamin D3 which helps synthesize and boost. D3 appears to be a big factor as both my regular Medical Oncologist and my Naturopathic Oncologist recommended.

I think I'll be the guinea pig here and I'll let you all know if my estradiol levels drop after I have taken all of this for awhile. I'm a data driven person so although there are no big AI trials for these natural products, I still think stacking them up will add maximum impact for those AI's and we'll just have to see if I'm right!