The Power of Oranges...

I can smell the citrus fragrance from here... Ummmm... Divine!

And now research studies are targeting the health benefits and cancer fighting properties of these delicious summer fruits... Tasty and Healthy?  Yes, please!

So, here's the thing.  The technical explanation gets, well, technical, so hang on... it's information that offers potential hope to the pancreatic cancer patient... and we feel that's worth wading thru heaps of scientific mumbo-jumbo to get down to the nitty-gritty of this alternative cancer fighter...

To start, according to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering research team, there are compounds in the citrus peel that have specific cancer-fighting potential.  The phytochemical in the citrus peel is called d-limonene and through laboratory studies d-limonene has shown anti-imflammatory, wound healing and anti-cancer effects.

The d-limonene was found to alter the signaling pathways within cancer cells in a way that stops cancer cells from multiplying and causes apoptosis (that's a fancy word for cell death... hmmmm, apoptosis might be my new favorite word!).

The laboratory studies so far have just been animal models, but there is promise as the d-limonene slowed the growth of pancreatic, stomach, colon, skin and liver cancers.  It's important, however, to emphasize that these results have only been shown in animal models, not in human clinical studies...yet.

In a new article from TTAC, we find that d-limonene has been used to assist pancreatic cancer researchers in another surprising way.  A study reported in 2015 in Molecular Pharmacology shared that scientists examining the effectiveness of gene therapy in overcoming pancreatic cancer were encountering trouble with the delivery system and turned to d-limonene for help.  The gene therapy, called MDA-7/IL-24, is a tumor suppressor and when introduced into cancer cells it fosters an anticancer immune reponse.  The trouble?  Getting it into the cancer cells.  D-limonene was found to be an effective and non-toxic delivery strategy. 

In Japan, the Osaka Medical Center for Cancer and Cardiovascular Diseases did a study on the effect of d-limonene on pancreatic growth using hamsters with induced pancreatic cancer tumors.  The hamsters were fed a diet containing d-limonene.  After 26 weeks, their results showed that prolonged treatment with d-limonene significantly reduced the number of pancreatic carcinomas.

So, if you're like me, you're wondering how can I apply this to my situation?  Like, how many oranges would I need to consume on a daily basis to get any benefit???  Right???  Well, here's an article from Life Extension that shares a little bit on dosage and just how high the doses need to be for potential medical effectivness...

"Limonene is well tolerated in cancer patients at doses that may have clinical activity (Chow 2002).  One partial response in a breast cancer patient at a dose of 8 grams taken twice daily was maintained for 11 months.  Three patients with colorectal cancer showed disease stabilization for longer than 6 months on d-limonene at 0.5 or 1 gram twice daily (Vigushin 1998).  The tentative dose recommendation for d-limonene is 7.3 to 14.4 grams per day (Boik 2001; Vigushin 1998).  Daily consumption of d-limonene from food sources is estimated to be 16.2 mg/person/day (027 mg/kg body weight/day)(Sun 2007)."

Did you get that?  Normal people might consume roughly 16.2 milligrams of d-limonene a day from eating oranges or other citrus fruits.  The potential dose recommendation for disease stabilization according to Life Extension is 7.3 to 14.4 grams a day...

That's a lot of oranges!

And this is definitely in the realm of alternative treatments.  But I'm sure you already figured that out... so, please, as always, please talk with your oncology team before beginning any new protocol. 

Could the power of citrus and d-limonene offer hope for the pancreatic cancer patient?  There are no clinical trials yet... only animal studies and lots of research... and whenever I begin to wonder if there is any hope in these natural "alternative" remedies I am reminded of a story from many years ago...

... involving dying sailors and scurvy... and a little known treatment at the time... a treatment that was so simple many called it crazy... but a treatment that worked... Vitamin C.  

The cure for scurvy was as simple as mending a vitamin deficiency... so, No, I don't believe all alternative treatments are crazy.  I do believe we need to be sensible and first, do no harm... But d-limonene is showing promise in studies... could this be Hope for Cancer Patients?

Praying for clinical trials soon.  And even more so, praying for healing and hope as we journey on, hard into this cancer fight.

In Grace, My Love, Always,

                                           Jane

A Little Truth about Pancreatic Cancer...

...and a huge dose of Hope for those struggling hard right now.

That's what our 31 Day Challenge has been all about.  Speaking Truth and Hope into the fear and hopelessness of a cancer diagnosis. 

Before our Glorious escape this week past, we were taking a long, careful look at the cancer treatments discussed in The Truth About Cancer documentary.

(Which, by the way, is re-airing as we speak!  Free!  Click here to register!)

For a quick re-cap... here are some of our recent posts:

Let's Be Honest

The Truth Behind the Cancer Story

Now It's Getting Personal...

The Top 3 Alternative Pancreatic Cancer Treatments

The Cellect-Budwig Protocao, Part 1

The Cellect-Budwig Protocol, Part 2

The Cellect-Budwig Protocol, Part 3

A Pancreatic Cancer Success Story...

The Hoxsey Formula

Dying to Have Known...The Gerson Therapy

She Rises with Strength and Purpose

One Tiny Apricot Kernel

Rigvir...A Virus Meant for Good?

A Little Good News...

Everything But the Kitchen Sink...

Dirt Cheap!

And that's just the beginning!  There is so much more to share. 

If nothing else, my prayer is that you feel a Hope rising as you face the cancer foe.  We have options.

Hear that loud... There are options in the fight.  Amazing options.  There can be Hope in the midst of all the hopelessness you may be feeling right now.

What we are sharing here is for educating, for information, for encouragement as we journey this cancer road towards health and healing and living our very best lives. 

{Always, Always talk to your healthcare provider about your individual treatment plan.  And always, always take a proactive role in the fight...you have everything...everything...to gain}

Graced to be in the fight together.  You are precious.  You are loved.  And you are so much stronger than you think you are! 

Join us tomorrow as we tackle the question, What would you do if you were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer... the answer might surprise you!

Much Love,

              Jane

Some Truths about Pancreatic Cancer...

One of the many truths I learned in The Truth About Cancer documentary was that cancer is now an epidemic in our world.

1 in 2 people born after 1960 will be diagnosed with some form of cancer in their lifetime.

And that truth was brought home only yesterday when a good friend called to tell me her 59 year old brother has just been diagnosed with colon cancer.  59 years old... I could hear the worry edging her voice... major surgery scheduled next week, prayers breathed into the uncertain silence...

They are just beginning the journey.  This Cancer Journey.

What if they knew that their journey could end in healing, and life lived whole and healthy?

But where do you start?  The cancer journey is fraught with more than enough uncertainty and fear.  What if there was a place to lay out options... discuss possibilities... give hope?

The Truth About Cancer series was just such a place for me.  The 9 episodes were filled with a wealth of information and have given me plenty to chew on...

Perhaps we could dive in deeper and find some of that hope?

I'm going to begin by breaking it on down and doing a little research.

Here are some of the topics discussed in the documentary... in the coming weeks I will be linking posts on each of these topics, leaning towards facts more than emotion.  I want more than anything to share cancer success stories, but only if they are offering honest to goodness options... no snake oil salesman need apply here...

So here we go:

1.  White Crack... the sugar connection

2.  Dying to Have Known... the Gerson Therapy

3.  Back to Basics... the Raw Food Diet

4.  The Hoxey Formula... Biomedical Center Tijuana

5.  The Cancer Crackdown... practicing evidence-based medicine

6.  Tomography... using less radiation for detection is a good thing

7.  Eat the Rainbow... the Juice Lady

8.  The Wheat Grass Craze... Barley Life anyone?

9.  Tea Time... Essiac Tea

10.  Rigvir... a Virotherapy Superstar

11.  Plant your Pharmacy... Phytonutrients and the real medicine found in plants

12.  Hope4Cancer... a real success story

13.  Aquaporins.... the horrific Chernobyl Disaster and the surprising cancer heroes

14.  One Tiny Apricot Kernel... "Second Opinion" and Laetrile (B-17)

15.  Cancer Starving Diets... The Good Kind, Ketogenic & Budwig

16.  Cannabis Oil... jumping into a heated debate

17.  "Victory Over Cancer"  - one author's journey with his effective cancer therapy protocol

18.  "Killing Cancer...Not People"

19.  Ozone therapy... for more than just the Bends

20.  Heating Things Up... Thermal Therapy


And these are just some of the topics I jotted down as I watched The Truth About Cancer... join me as we research, question and mull over these integrative therapies to determine if they are worth pursuing in this cancer journey.

Might there be a glimmer of hope as we lean in to this fight! 

Graced to be traveling this road together...

Always,
         Jane

The Truth About Cancer: A Review

I promised a review...

And I am finding it hard to wrap it all up in a neat little package!  A single blog post could not possibly do justice in reviewing The Truth About Cancer Docu-Series that we just watched...

There's just no organizing my thoughts!  Words tumble out in a rough overview...

Unbelievable.  Amazing.   Do I trust it?   Powerful.  But truly?   Overwhelming amount of information,  Scientific fundamentals.  Natural therapies and Whole nutrition.  Pharmaceutical histories and Horrifying realities.   Personal stories...  Conquering Cancer... Gentle Hope Rising!

To begin with, I am more optimistic than discouraged, am more hopeful than despairing.  The documentary covered a lot of ground in just 9 episodes, opening up the door to more questions and possibilities than ever before.

Over the next weeks, I would love to break it down and share some of the interviews and therapies discussed that seemed especially tailored for the pancreatic cancer journey...

I've already shared Pamela Kelsey's story of using the Hoxsey Formula in her pancreatic cancer treatment success...

And today, I'd like to start the review with another pancreatic cancer survivor and her story:

Her name is Felicity Corbin Wheeler and she shared her pancreatic cancer journey in Episode 7.   She was diagnosed in 2003 and chose natural therapies in treating her cancer.  Her story is compelling and I was very interested in her approach, as both her children had also suffered with cancer.

Her basic treatment plan involved eating a whole, raw food diet, accompanied with The Gerson Therapy as well as laetrile, or vitamin B-17.

If you are currently walking this cancer road, and you are reading this post, then I can only imagine you are seeking answers... searching for real treatments that offer hope, for life, full and whole and long, not just a few added months filled with wasting and pain...

I am too.  Seeking hope, searching for answers, fighting to find a cure for an incurable diagnosis...

After watching The Truth About Cancer, I am more convinced than ever that there are no silver bullets, nor perfect treatments for pancreatic cancer...

But, I am also more convinced than before that there's more out there than just chemo and radiation therapies for ourselves and our loved ones fighting this formidable cancer.  Perhaps a combination... Perhaps an integrative approach... Perhaps one of these therapies will speak truth...

More to this review in the weeks to come...

My Love and Prayers for Wisdom and Grace in Abundance as we Journey on...

Always,
          Jane

   

Beating Cancer...

That's the drumbeat of this daughter's heart.

Beating pancreatic cancer dead in its tracks.  Finding the cure for all the mothers and fathers, the babies, the brothers...the friends, the sisters, the aunts and the uncles... No one should ever have to hear those words...

the cancer, your cancer... it's terminal... there's nothing more we can do.

Yet, despite it all, we fight on.  Struggle hard.  Beg heaven.  Search long...

And in the wee, dark hours, when the midnight surrounds, we find, perhaps, just a bit of Grace... a spark that fans our fading hope...

That is how I felt when I stumbled across Chris Wark's story.  He is a fellow cancer warrior, but more importantly a cancer survivor.  He shares his inspiring story at Chris Beat Cancer.

Stop reading this post and go check it out...now... :-)

See?  Chris packs a punch... I would not send you on a wild goose chase...ever! (I promise)  His story, while not journeying with pancreatic cancer, is an encouragement for all cancer warriors.  And he shares a wealth of practical and compelling wisdom for the fight.

The initial diagnosis of cancer is probably one of the hardest things any of us will ever face.  And in the midst of this anguish-filled, terror-inducing nightmare of a moment, the doctors are outlining treatment options and asking us to make decisions that will hugely impact the balance of our very lives... it's incredibly hard to step back and even take a breath when our emotions have us in such a chokehold.

Chris manages to share vital information for the cancer patient in a concise, often humorous, but always real way that cuts through the overwhelming need to go lock ourselves in a dark room and cry a river... you can do that too (we did), but just promise to come out and start gearing up for the fight... there is hope, there are options... People out there, real people, are beating cancer. 

That is something we need to hear about, to research, to talk about...  

And the thing is, Chris shares some rather unconventional stuff (unconventional according to many in the medical establishment), but here's the kicker, this unconventional stuff... it seems to be working...for many (not all... this isn't a post for The Cure, if only it were so...), but many are finding treatment options that are unconventionally successful.

We've talked about it here on the blog many times... the traditional vs. alternative approach.  We've even spent a whole 31 day series devoted to Mapping the Pancreatic Cancer Journey, investigating a variety of treatment plans...

As we've walked this road, it is becoming more and more obvious to me, that the Gold Standard for traditional pancreatic cancer care is not and has not changed much for the past 40 years... and we're not beating this cancer...not by a long shot. 

It's way past time for the tide on this war to change... Chris Wark is sharing the Cancer Survivor stories that put hope back on the table.

Is it The Cure for pancreatic cancer, perhaps not... but is it possible that this is the unconventional approach that might make a difference to someone fighting this despicable disease???

Maybe so... I'm pulling for Hope... for Truth... for Beating Pancreatic Cancer, once and for all.

Graced to be in this Fight, Always,
                                               Jane

Vitamins and Pancreatic Cancer

 The year was 1535, the winter brutal on the St. Lawrence River...  And Jacques Cartier was up to his hip boots in dying sailors.  A strange disease had taken hold on his ship and most of his men were in misery... bone-deep fatigue, frightening skin rashes, bleeding gums, partial paralysis... Many feared witchcraft, or spells cast on them by the native populace...

As ice froze his ship to the shoreline, so to Cartier's chances of making it back to France.  With no where else to turn he sought the natives help or risked losing his whole crew...

The locals boiled the needles of the tall White Cedar trees that lined the banks and made a tea for the crew to drink. Some feared it was poison, but the desperate few who drank it down almost immediately began the return to good health.

Jacques Cartier was astounded at the miraculous turn-around... Little did he know that he had just witnessed a simple, natural cure for Scurvy.  The needles of the cedar trees are chock full of Vitamin C.  And Vitamin C deficiency is what his sailors were experiencing.

It is estimated that between the years 1500 and 1800, scurvy claimed the lives of at least 2 million sailors.

And all for the lack of Vitamin C...

*  *  *  *  *

Today, could a cure for pancreatic cancer be as simple as a Vitamin Deficiency???

In yesterday's post on Immunotherapies, we learned there are clear advances in new trials to battle pancreatic cancer.  One of the things that these clinical trials has exposed is that the fight against pancreatic cancer isn't just a fight to kill the tumor, it's the fight against a tumor in a setting hardwired to resist treatment.

Let me explain a little better...

Scientists have found that pancreatic cancer tumors have an unusually thick layer of scar tissue, called the stroma, that builds up around the cancer and prevents drugs from getting through.  This scar tissue, or stroma, is also forming a barrier to the bodies own immune cells, preventing them from getting in and attacking the cancer.

Pancreatic Cancer is one hard to treat cancer... ok, I'm stating the obvious, but really, isn't cancer bad enough without learning that it's put up a fortress to protect itself?!

So, there are new trials on the horizon (and some that are actually in clinical trial) that are seeking to break through that barrier... with Vitamins!

2 Vitamins in Particular... A and D

Here's the scoop.

In a current study on Vitamin A, researchers found that pancreatic cancer patients are often deficient in Vitamin A.  In their trial, they restored the levels of Vitamin A, and they found that more T-Cells (these are the good, immune-busting guys from yesterday's post!) got past the stroma and into the cancer, effectively attaching the tumor from within.

Unfortunately, this study right now is being conducted in mice...not humans... but this is a step in the right direction.  They may be on to something...

The studies on Vitamin D are very similar.  Researchers are using a synthetic form of Vitamin D to knock down the barrier wall of cells surrounding the pancreatic tumors and opening a path for chemotherapy drugs to destroy the cancer.  The synthetic Vitamin D is called Paricalcitol, and has also been tested with good success in mice... but it has also advanced to the human testing stage with trials set to begin at Penn Medicine.

As an interesting side note, the reason that a synthetic Vitamin D is being used is because the natural occuring Vitamin D is "shredded" by the cancer and degrades too fast for it to be effective in knocking down the barrier wall.

Vitamins... Who knew?  Well, probably a lot of very wise people... like the indigenous tribe of locals that helped Jacques Cartier's crew recover from the deathly grip of scurvy.  It's just a tragedy that it took another 2 centuries for this "cure" to become widely used.  Over 2 million sailors lost during that time, when all they needed was the juice of a lemon or the taste of an orange...

Might Vitamins make a difference in Pancreatic Cancer treatment?  Is the Cure staring us in the face?  Vitamins... Would that they could, a whisper of prayer... the promise of Hope.

Knowing that we cannot allow centuries to pass before that cure is found!

In Grace, Always,
                         Jane