Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) after treatment completed
Hi,
I have completed my prostate cancer treatment and have maintained an undetectable PSA level (≤0.03) for the last 12 months. During treatment, I received Zoladex 10.8 injections for a few months, which caused me to gain weight around my stomach.
I am considering Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and acupuncture for weight management and to help alleviate the side effects of Zoladex. Do you think this approach is beneficial? I’ve heard that TCM can assist with weight loss and promote overall body cleansing.
Thank you!
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There are many herbs that can help with various ailments and many today's medicines were initially derived from plants and than "patented" and sold as FDA approved medicines. There is absolutely no doubt that natural remedies can help with various issues. Just make sure that supplement is harvested and processed in reputable manufacturing facility, has standardized potency indicated, is third party inspected, has expiration date printed on a box and is preferably organic.
Acupuncture is proven to work also for many ailments, just find certified practitioner with stellar references. I personally responded to acupuncture with very bad reaction after first session and had to ask for money back, BUT I am hyper-sensitive person and I am an exception.
PS: You might consider Wegovy or similar if herbs fail you.
Just one note about your stomach weight. One of the problems with taking drugs like zoladex Is that they cause a loss of muscular strength in the stomach. That results in a beer belly, even though you may have not gained any weight at all. Lots of sit-ups might get that stomach back Looking right again. I’m not sure about that though,
I take a daily cup of turkey tail mushroom tea or named Yun Zhi in China. I credit it with keeping my PSA low after my radiation and ADT treatments. The mushroom has been used in China for over 1,000 years for various maladies and cancer. There is modern medical research that has demonstrated that it kills prostate cancer stem cells.
I had the question. This past Wednesday, the oncologist said that there is not enough evidence supporting its safety as a complementary treatment. Therefore, he wouldn’t recommend it.
No doctor will ever recommend natural supplement of any kind (beside vitamins and fiber) since it is liability for them .
It is liability because supplements are not FDA regulated nor approved. That being said, millions of people are using them all over the world for thousands of years and I never read anywhere that people are dying in hundreds due to taking any particular supplement or herb. On the other spectrum one only needs to read "small print" of ANY FDA approved medicine and almost faint lol. Not to mention Fen-Phen medication that caused deaths and Thalidomide that caused hundreds of babies born without limbs in the 60-ies regardless of their wonderful "research" , and I can go on and on.
I used natural supplement my whole life (I come from Europe where doctor DO recommend them ) and my whole family. I am actually very angry at myself that I did not insist that my husband continue taking herbal supplements 10 year ago when his PSA actually was falling while taking those but we were reassured by his stupid urologist that he is doing great and that there is no reason to worry.
Fast forward - my husband's PSA was 7.6 before biopsy end of February and just 6 weeks after he started using various supplements it was 5.1 (end of April) ! We incorporated TT mashroom about 3 weeks ago after I found RESEARCH papers on that mushroom. My husband will have PSA tested again this week so we can observe the trend.
This all being said, we are aware that cancer will not just "poof" and disappear at this point, BUT we want to prevent metastasis forming now and in the future after RP. If he continued taking supplements 10 years ago it is possible that 6+6 would have never became 4+3 with IDC and cribriform . But we will never know that because we listened to incompetent urologist.
From my reading of peer reviewed medical journal articles there is plenty of evidence that a variety of mushrooms have a positive effect on reducing tumor size and with Turkey Tail (also known as Trametes versicolor) mushroom there is excellent research on animals that it can kill prostate cancer stem cells. It has also been demonstrated that it has a role in combating breast cancer and colorectal cancer among others. As yet there are no large human drug trials with turkey tail . There have been studies on two polysaccharides, PSP and PSK, that have been purified from turkey tail in Japan. There was a breast cancer study examining the safety of various doses of turkey tail. They found that the largest dose they tested had no negative side effects. However, like all food and mushrooms, some people have upset stomach and loose bowel movements when taking mushrooms. As for me, I am very allergic to consuming raw mushrooms, but when cooked and or processed with heat I enjoy them in food and as tea / medicine. You may be interested in the article, Mycochemicals against Cancer Stem Cells which can be found on Google Scholar. One problem the drug companies have is that if Turkey tail was recognized as medicine, big pharma would not be able to make $$$$$$ on it because it is so widely available in markets and in the wild.
" One problem the drug companies have is that if Turkey tail was recognized as medicine, big pharma would not be able to make $$$$$$ on it because it is so widely available in markets and in the wild."
Exactly and that is why they are now extracting PSP and PSK so that if they work they can than claim that it works in "patented" and "purified" form.
Second important thing - it is often contra-productive to extract one singular chemical out of medicinal plant since many of substances in any particular plant work in synergy ! They often amplify potency of each other !!! So when researchers isolate one single chemical "A" and do tests and get so-so results they wrongfully conclude that the whole plant does not give statistically significant results. They have no idea that chemical "A" actually gives excellent result when chemical "B" is present in the same extract. It is the same with regular medications when they tell patient "do not take with food" for example. Just slowing medication's absorption can make it ineffective. OR, if you take Synthroid (thyroid med) with magnesium it will not be absorbed and work correctly.
For all of the above reasons, if one wants to try this mushroom he should take it in a powdered form IMHO.
What was your bad reaction? I've had 2 sessions of acupuncture (for ADT side effects - fatigue and hot flashes). Haven't seen real improvement but understand I need to give it a few sessions. Insurance doesn't cover cost but will pay whatever to combat the ADT negativity.
Be aware of that acupuncture only works for some people. Hopefully it works for you.
If you’re having so many problems with ADT, you might consider switching over to Estradiol. The patch study showed that taking estradiol worked just as well as ADT and had many few side effects. You can search the patch study and get more information so you can talk to your doctor about it if you’re interested.
The patch trial Completed in England recently and showed that estradiol worked just the same as ADT, but had many fewer side effects. It easy easier on your cardiovascular system, On your bones (osteoporosis), causes fewer hot flashes and less brain fog. If your doctor has not heard of the patch trial, there is a lot of information about it so come back and we can help you.
I went looking for help for some body aches and my pain by late afternoon became 10 times stronger O_O ! I was in a state of panic and luckily it all calmed down in couple of days but I never went back. BUT, as I already mentioned, my body is really hyper sensitive to everything. I can not even have shiatsu massage and I am sure I would end up in ER if anybody tries to make any chiropractic maneuver on me XP ! I sense weather changes 3 - 4 days ahead and am a better barometer than any weather station in this world ha ha. If I lived in olden times I would have been very valuable member of any tribe XP. I can also taste cyanide and would definitely be court's "food tester" for kings lol. I can smell things that most people can not or smell them very faintly - I wish I have NONE of those "talents" lol.