Vitamins

I can't believe that the American Medical Association says that vitamins don’t do anything. Since I've started the intravenous drips of vitamins C and D with minerals, I’ve been feeling much better. I don't care if it's psychological. It works. The AMA also contends that vitamin C can have a negative effect if taken during chemotherapy treatments. My doctors at The Klinik have shown me that it ain’t necessarily so.

My American doctors were amazed at how well I was responding to the chemo treatments. They didn't know that all the while, on the advice of my doctors at The Klinik, I was also taking regular drips of vitamins C and D with minerals.

Yeah, it’s frustrating. I have my first PT scan in two weeks. I know it will be clear, showing that cancer cells are no longer in my lymph node. Then I’ll begin the heat therapy. In the meantime, I'lI try to gain weight. I weigh 150 pounds. I need to put on at least twenty. That's not so easy to do when you can't taste anything.

Hot therapy

My doctor at The Klinik in German told me yesterday that she wants me to undergo something called “hot therapy” when I get to The Klinik for post-radiation treatment.  In the meantime, she said I should continue doing what I’m doing, and start drips with Vitamin C and Vitamin D with minerals on Tuesday.

Hot therapy?  Here’s what I found out about it:

It’s officially known as “regional hyperthermia,” and what it does is expose the body tissue in and around a tumor to high temperatures-- as high as 113º Fahrenheit. The therapy was developed after studies showed that such heat can kill cancer cells directly, as well as apparently make some tumors more susceptible to the effects of chemotherapy, with minimal injury to normal tissue.

Hot therapy isn’t common in the United States, but it has been tested in clinical trials, primarily in Europe.  The main trial was led by Rolf Issels, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Munich in Germany, and supported by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer and the European Society for Hyperthermic Oncology.

Patients with high-risk soft tissue sarcomas whose tumors were treated with a kind of localized heat therapy and other treatment lived longer without their disease worsening or returning than did those who did not receive hot therapy.

Checked out about 25 months later, patients who’d received hot therapy did significantly better by nearly all measures. Their disease-free survival was 16 months, compared to 13 months for those on chemotherapy alone-- a 35 percent reduction in risk.  Partial and complete tumor responses were seen in 28.7 percent of hot therapy patients, compared to 12.6 percent for those receiving chemotherapy alone.

Patients treated with hot therapy also went an average of 38 months before local progression of disease, compared to 26 months for chemotherapy alone.  That’s a 32 percent reduction in risk.

And in case it sounds a bit on the edge, I found a quote from Barry Anderson, M.D., a senior investigator in the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (NCI is the US government’s main cancer research agency):

“The addition of regional hyperthermia improves the response of these soft tissue sarcomas to the standard chemotherapy. Though we don’t know if these patients will live longer (than those not receiving hot therapy), disease recurrence and local progression are both significantly improved.”

Someone asked me why I’m doing hot therapy now that my chemotherapy treatment is finished.  That’s because I still have enough chemo in my soft tissue that the heat will activate what’s left in my system. 

These Germans have been doing this a long time.

I also started taking On The Rock Nutrition. I don't know where to buy it other than at OnTheRockNow.com.  I take the The Men's Mix, The Daily Mix and Energy Mix every day. These vegetable, fruit and herb dietary supplements bring down the body’s acid level and raise the alkaline level. Cancer cells thrive in bodies with high acid levels. High alkaline in the body is a perfect  environment to prevent cancer cells from living.

I'll let you know how I feel after my drips on Tuesday.

Feeling stronger every day

Thanks for all the emails, letters and phone calls. My doctor from The Klinik has given me some medicines and treatments that have really helped with the radiation aftereffects-- treatments that are not prescribed here in the States, of course. They’ve done little things like help me to taste things and work up saliva. Yeah, little things that I wouldn’t be able to do otherwise. I’ll fill you in more as soon as I have the chance. Meanwhile, yes, I’m feeling a little better every day, and I’m working hard on The Klinik documentary. I’ve got a lot of work that needs to be done.

(And yes, that’s a photo of me yesterday. I look even better today.)

Until I feel like Brett again

I saw my doctor from The Klinik in Germany yesterday. She's here in LA for a few days. She brought over some good stuff for me to take and it’s already started to work.

She’s got me taking a pill called MPA 500mg Hexal - Medroxyprogesteron Acetat once a day. It’s an antibody drug prescribed in the States for women’s gynaecological problems (medroxyprogesterone injections are used for contraception and treating endometrial or renal cancer), but in Germany, they’ve had great success using this for various cancers, including breast cancer and head and neck cancer.

She also have me a Vitamin B complex gel that comes in a tube called Mulgatol Junior. In Germany, they give it to babies to help them gain weight. It tastes like orange candy. and I can actually taste it... I think? At least I taste something. It's a 150 ml per spoonful.

The doctor also gave me a shot where my butt used to be before I lost the 35 pounds that boosts my adrenalin and helps with the fatigue and appetite. Tomorrow I will get a Alpha Lipoic vitamin shot-- also for fatigue and weight gain.

All of these drugs, natural supplements and vitamins are legal in the United States-- but not covered by insurance companies so therefore not used by doctors.

And who suffers?

The patient.

Because according to the United States medical system, I'm in remission again; I'm done.

I’m done, even though I still weigh 150 pounds, sleep 14 hours a day, can't taste anything, have one saliva gland left and eat like a supermodel-- which is my point again and again .

And again.

In the States, I'm cured. In the States, it’s now down to taking my blood and trying to keep my white count up. And that's it. They just tell me to wait for the weight gain and as far as natural supplements and vitamins go, they don't believe in that at all!

As far as my doctor from The Klinik is concerned, I'm not cured until I feel like Brett again.