Brain Tumour Survivor

[kenobewan]

I was impressed by Jane's protocol that Ross posted and thought I would post what I take for anyone who may be interested.

I did have 15 months worth of Temodal which may have had a stabilising effect and tidied up the edges. It at least provides some evidence that my tumor continues to be a low grade mixed glioma, albeit with a higher risk of changing than average.

Morning

Keppra 1g > prescribed anticonvulsant
Phosphatidylserine 200mg > supplement to boost neurotransmitters
Grape seed extract 120mg > supplement for antioxidation
Wild blueberry extract 200mg > supplement to support healthy brain
Vitamin B complex 1.5g > supplement to relieve potential stress at work

Night

Keppra 1g
Dilantin 30mg (last 2 days) > prescribed anticonvulsant
Melatonin 2mg > supplement supporting sleep and hormone activity
Tart cherry extract 1.2g > supplement to reduce swelling
Vitamin D3 1000iu (just started) > supplement to support immune system

Diet

Due to my bodybuilding experience I have been proactive in maintaining a healthy diet. When I am not dieting for a competition, my diet may be summarised:

Morning

- Protein shake to swallow morning pills.
- Oats with yoghurt and milk, plus protein, for breakfast, an hour or 2 later.
- 2 pieces of fruit, a protein bar and a shake to wash it down (about 2 hours later).

Afternoon

- Cooked lunch of fish, chicken or meat with veges or salad. Protein shake to finish (about 3 hours later).
- Pre workout shake (about 2 hours later).

Evening

- Cooked lunch of fish, chicken or meat with veges or salad. Protein shake after workout (about 3 hours later).
- Late evening shake with a whole egg to consume evening pills, side dish of cheese & a cracker (about 2 hours later).

As you can see I generally have 6-7 protein shakes a day and I believe increasing protein, but not overall calories, is important. One subtle thing that is easy to miss is fruit only in the mornings with veges important in the afternoon and evening.

The cracker is multigrain. Trying to work more grains and beans in there. Any fillers are veges if hungry. With extra protein and good fats its more filling I find, as well as them having better nutritional value than many empty carb calories. Total calories are important as extra is put on as fat.

Training

I exercise everyday. When I was in young this was a problem and led to many injuries. Now I cross train, work on rehab and mix it up.

Gym

Three nonconsecutive days of weights. Focus on strength power and heavy. Half body split limited to machines mainly by my hemiparysis. Two hour including 20min warm up, weight and stretch to follow.

Plus one day of gym cardio. Cross trainer, bikes and other for 1 1/4 hrs including stretching.

Walking

Three time a week. Walk is currently 45 mins. Will need to create longer route if I keep getting faster :). Balance is improving, but most important has been the cardio strength improvement. At present I put this down to dilantin taper, but will have to work out what effects the antioxidants I am taking are having.

Good Health

My diet, supplements and training are designed to promote good health. My approach to cancer is that I need to work hard to attain this. Cancer is my body's way of telling me that it thinks that I am older than my years. So health, fitness and diet are part of my arsonal.

There are no guarantees and I do not believe that any supplement can cure cancer. Complimentary supplements are preferred by me that support a healthy body and brain. I change only one at a time and if over time I become unconvinced of the benefit that supplement goes.

Well there it is for the moment. Hope it helps to share what I am doing why and encourage more to do likewise.

Take care!

[kenobewan]

Quick update

The evening cheese and cracker for some reason was revving me up and making it more difficult to get to sleep. So now I have that as my pre-training snack, with shake of course :).

I have managed to work beans into the diet. They are now midday snack with shake two hours before lunch. Before I was averaging closer to 6 shakes a day, now 8; which is more in line with my bodybuilding goals for the year.

Vitamin D3 is going well. I am currently looking whether to add anything new. One thing I am trialing now is Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA).

ALA supports other antioxidants as well as being an antioxidant itself. Unlike other antioxidants lipoic acid is both fat and water-soluble and is easily transported across cell membranes. Also supports cardiovascular health and glucose (sugar) metabolism. Body produces naturally so this to boost those levels.

[kenobewan]

An update on my update

I have an appointment with my oncologist as extensive surgery appears too risky at the moment. I have stable disease at present, but I want to try taking advantage of that.

Due to my next chemo most likely to be a variant of PCV, I have already decided to cut out cheese; one of the things you can't have on PCV. I haven't mentioned that I used to eat three bananas a day before getting sick. I did't have a good reason to change, but I no longer eat bananas. Instead I eat apricotts, which have 3 times as much potassium as bananas. So I have apricotts with my morning cereal now and have the yoghurt later.

I have cut back my supplements again. My theory has always been to keep things simple - why take 3 antioxidants when one will do? The fruit extracts and the ALA went out. I began taking fish oil capsules a month ago.

I find eggs to be important, so I am going to try to increase these. I tried cottage cheese, but my weak leg started to cramp and I felt I was in clot territory again - so I stopped.

My training phase is now preparing for my next contest, so I am cutting carbs and lowering my body fat. Higher reps, not to failure, and more cardio.

Stay healthy everyone!

[montaldi]

[kenobewan]

Thanks for the support!

Good on you for keeping things going at the gym :). I know that Raymond has been a gym junkie and hope to hear he is back into the swing of things after the PCV.

Last year you may remember I competed at 69kg and focused on contest preparation. I have already started my prep and I am currently 80.5kg, which I am very happy with. In 2006 before my diagnosis I competed at 76.5kg, so on target to better that this year :).

[Morpheus]

What is the problem with bananas (I love bananas!),

[kenobewan]

There is no scientific diagnostic, prognostic or treatment problem with bananas that I know of. The problem that I have with them is psychological. Allow me to explain.

Before my diagnosis I ate three bananas a day. I probably easily could have managed double that - I too love bananas. I remembered a woman's story that I had heard when in hospital. She brought a new carpet. Soon after her husband died. Then her pet died and her own health deteriorated. There was only one solution - the carpet had to go!

Now this makes no logical sense. However, I felt after my diagnosis something had to change that I had to adapt. Bananas were my favourite food, they had to go.

Now aside from being a post hoc rationalisation, if my cancer is caused by bad genes and bad programming will lead to my demise, then this out of my control. However, if cutting out bananas, or changing my carpet, could alter my outlook, then this is something that I can control. I realised also that I was eating too much fruit and not enough veges. So there was some justification for cutting back on fruit, while increasing my veges.

So the main reason is in fact pyschological. I do believe that something had to change that I could control. That I couldn't live exactly the same as before. So I selected small changes; I didn't throw the baby out with the bath water. I selected something that I loved as changing something that I was indifferent to would have provided no benefit.

So whether you decide to eat bananas or change something else is over to you. I felt to gain a sense of control over my disease I needed to cut out bananas, even if it was a placebo. Hope this makes sense - it does to me :).

[kenobewan]

Latest Update

I have decided not to compete this year. Just training hard and keeping body fat low.

Supplements

Morning - Resveratol, Quercetin, B complex, Phosphatidyl serine complex, Fish oil.

Lunch - Phosphatidyl serine complex, Grape seed extract, Fish oil.

Dinner - Vitamin D3, Fish oil, CLA, ALA, Garlic capsule, Vitamin E complex, Melatonin.

Diet

Less Whey protein and eggs.

Even more fruit and veges. Two meals solely of veges. Veges with main meal in the evening. Aiming 9-11 fruit and vege per day.

Fish - Tuna or sardines daily. Salmon x 3 a week.

Cut out all milk - looking to remove dairy, but still having cottage cheese at present.

Goal

To have none except health and fitness. More freedom and back to basics. Less information and less distractions from what is important. Sometimes less is more!