Popular Herbal Supplements May Adversely Affect Chemotherapy Treatment

Northwestern Memorial Hospital ^ | July 13, 2011 | Unknown

[decimon]

Ping

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

Heck, I know of people who die after their first dose of chemotherapy. No one seems to worry about that. I’ll take my chances with an herb before I’ll ever do chemotherapy.

[rarestia]

Oh man! I use cumin, turmeric and garlic in everything (LOVE Indian food), and I drink herbal teas all day.

Then again, I don’t have cancer, perhaps because these ingredients are helping to stave it off?

Logic should be a mandatory college course for journalists. I’ve never seen more non sequiturs in my life, and correlation vs. causation is lost on these dolts.

[Uri’el-2012]

No one seems to question the pernicious effect of chemotherapy.

[Rennes Templar]

“Popular Herbal Supplements May Adversely Affect Chemotherapy Treatment”

They may also cure the cancer chemo can’t.

I’m with you, chemo is not a effective.

[goodwithagun]

I read Anticancer by Dr. David Servan-Schreiber a couple of years ago and boy did it open my eyes. He's a Ph.D., M.D., and cancer survivor. In his book he uses medical and scientific studies to show how to treat cancer naturally. He does not come across as a snake oil salesmen. At no point does he say that eating nothing but broccoli will cure you of cancer, there is a bit more to it than just that including therapy sessions and exercise. All the eeeeeevil supplements listed in this article are what he uses, lol. The problem is that pharmaceutical companies can't patent garlic or turmeric. I'm all for people making a profit if that profit is gained from their own risk and investments. I question the decades of research and the billions of dollars that have been dumped into the cure for cancer. A lot of that money was originally mine and yours.

[annieokie]

Nothing more than another 10 yr. research program, they will get for free. After they get thousands of people to stop using the herbs, 10 yrs later they will discuss how those same herbs were really a benefit.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Information you should always remember: Medical Doctors are *not* Pharmacists. And because there is such a huge volume of information out there, and growing, there is no way an M.D. can keep up with the research and take care of patients.

This is why it is vital that your pharmacist knows everything you are taking, prescription medicines, over the counter medicines, *and* herbal and alternative medicines.

Pharmacists also have another trick that not too many people know about. Some of them specialize as “compounding” Pharmacists, who create unique blends of medicines tailored just for an individual.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compounding

[rarestia]

What I find amusing about this article is that they say it “adversely affects chemo,” but they don’t explain that those supplements are actually doing a similar duty as the chemo but without side effects and possibly on a much more “micro” level.

It’s like any pharmaceutical, really: take it until there’s a certain level of the drug in your system and maintain. I’ve been eating raw garlic, cumin, turmeric, and drinking tea for years. I hope that proves positive for me in the long run. I doubt it’s hurting anything.

[Borax Queen]

Yes, the supplements interfere with the chemo’s ability to kill off your healthy cells faster.

[GraceG]

Shines of such things like “Codex Alimentarius”

Kinda seems like they don’t want the competition in the cancer curing racket.

[KarlInOhio]

I've heard that there are some problems mixing some antibiotics and antioxidant drugs/herbs/vitamins. Essentially those antibiotics affect the bacteria through oxidation reactions. The antioxidant you take for your health also improve the health of the bacteria which are exposed to antibiotics, so you either need to temporarily stop the antioxidants or take a longer or higher dose of the antibiotics.

I'm not surprised that herbals would have similar effects on chemotherapy.

[ohiobuckeye1997]

Anybody think that Chemotherapy might just adversely affect Herbal Supplementation?

[muawiyah]

At the same time many of us know people who've had years added to their lives with chemotherapy.

I'm just guessing you had bad luck with chemo and died.

Bye-bye!

[goodwithagun]

I haven't had to take antibiotics since I started using supplements, so I haven't had to worry about that yet. Since we increased our vitamins D and C and started taking probiotics we haven't had to see the doctor except for trauma issues. My three year old is the only child we know of who hasn't ever taken antibiotics. Our pediatrician just shakes his head when we have a checkup. He can't believe that our son has never had any childhood illness issues. We started chiropractic treatment about the same time we adjusted our supplement regimen, so that might have something to do with it as well.

[Joe 6-pack]

Remember Dirk Benedict from the original A-Team & Battlestar Galactica? He overcame prostate cancer by adopting a rigid macrobiotic diet. His book, Confessions of a Kamikaze Cowboy is a pretty good read. He's a pretty staunch conservative/libertarian and has written a few items for Breitbart's Big Hollywood as well.

[goodwithagun]

I'll have to check that out. I'm pretty sure I'll try anything before I have to resort to chemo, should I ever have to deal with cancer. I'm the same way with my back. About once a year I have disc problems but increased rest, fish oil, hyaluronic acid, and chiro visits does the trick. Sure I could have some scalpel jockey fuse my discs together, and then a few years later he can fuse a few more because they were weakened by the previously fused bones, and so on and so on. I have arthritis in my feet and three different podiatrists wanted to “fix” my bunions by fusing some bones together as well. Funny thing is, once we quit eating health food (fat-free, low-fat, sugar-free, low-cal, etc.) and started eating real food (including whole milk and real bacon), my arthritis really doesn't bother me anymore!

[momtothree]

May I ask if you take the probiotics via a pill or the new yogurt styles? I wanted to add them to my diet but don’t know if the pill form is good (and I don’t really like yogurt)

[US Navy Vet]

“these ingredients are helping to stave it off”, Cancer can’t get past the SMELL!