Written in response to a post on the Budwig Diet groups.io group, 4/14/2025
Note BP = Budwig Protocol
Hi Kumar,
This is not BP-specific, but I thought I would share a few thoughts from my mother's experience. I'm not sure if it's the same, but my mom was diagnosed at age 70 with Her2-positive, stage 4 (though hers had only metastisized to the sternum). Through her journey, we learned a few things that I always try to share with anyone and everyone who finds themselves diagnosed with this cancer.?
Mom was eventually treated with what was a new treatment modality at the time, called Herceptin (chemical name: trastuzumab). I don't know if it might work for your mom, but it is definitely worth asking her oncologist (and possibly insisting on it?) if the oncologist says she needs chemo treatment.
Here are a couple of links with information about Herceptin:
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Mom was initially put on chemotherapy, specifically Xeloda (chemical name: capecitabine), but it nearly killed her. (Sorry to put it so bluntly). She had terrible side effects and her platelet levels never did recover. However, she is now 14 years out from her diagnosis and still going strong, with just some neuropathy from the treatments but clean PET scans. I attribute that in part to my dad insisting that her oncologist switch her to Herceptin but also to some dietary self-treatment that she did in addition to her conventional treatments. (Herceptin is not actually chemotherapy but rather a "targeted therapy".)
Here are some of the dietary defenses she used. I don't mean to hyjack the BP thread, I am just sharing what seems to have helped my mom in what appears to be a similar situation.?And since it seems that it may be difficult for your to source some of the products specified in the BP, perhaps these options can help:
NO SUGAR (I believe this is also part of the BP): Mom eliminated sugar entirely from her diet. She even went so far as to eat no fruit besides an occasional bit of green apple and a bit of banana if she felt she needed a potassium boost. I don¡¯t know if eliminating fruit was necessary, but eliminating sugar certainly was. (Cancer cells feel on sugar, which is why the PET scan uses glucose to carry the radioactive ¡°contrast medium¡± they use to see the tumors).
Shiitake mushrooms: Are you able to get these in India? Mom specifically cooked and ate shiitake mushrooms at least once a week. If you like, I can ask her if she was eating them more frequently to start with. She said that she literally felt the original tumor dissolving, and she thinks the shiitake mushrooms played a crucial role in that.?I have read that maitake mushrooms may have a similar effect, as may certain other mushrooms like turkeytail, but I would recommend looking that up as our only experience has been with shiitake.
Garlic, turmeric, black pepper, oregano and basil: Very soon after her diagnosis (and her reading the Anticancer book I reference below), Mom began eating a mixture of olive oil, crushed fresh garlic, turmeric powder, black pepper, dried oregano and dried basil with a piece of bread every day ¨C and continues to do so to this very day. I believe early on she also put these same herbs and spices (minus the garlic?) on her morning yoghurt. She calls it ¡°my medicine¡± and swears that these herbs (taken as food, not as a supplement) have likewise been crucial not only to healing her cancer but to keeping her healthy after chemo compromised her immune system).
So, perhaps you might try these things, in addition to the BP and especially if it proves difficult to source some of the foods that are so essential to the BP. Mom and I hadn¡¯t heard of BP, but we had read a book by a neurosurgeon and brain cancer survivor, David Servan-Schreiber, which is where mom found the suggestions about the mushrooms and the herbs. Here are a couple of links about that book:
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And if the doctor should insist on treating your mom with Xeloda, here is one more thing my parents learned while mom was on it: You need to avoid any and all folic acid (also known as folate). Here in the US, bread and pasta products are enriched with folic acid to prevent spinabifida in babies. However, this same folic acid can make patients on Xeloda terribly sick. Dad found a small note to the effect that one should ¡°not take folic acid supplements¡± in the drug information sheet for Xeloda. Being a scientist and researcher himself, he then proceeded to follow every trail he could find with information about the interaction between folic acid and Xeloda. He found an international study comparing side effects in patients treated in Italy and the US. And it turns out that patients in Italy did not have the same horrible side effects that the American patients did. The researchers concluded that folic acid was likely the culprit. Unfortunately, I don¡¯t recall the exact name of the study, but this one appears to deal with the folate-capecitabine interaction:
Anyway, if your mom is put on Xeloda, you¡¯ll want to make sure she eats bread that is NOT enriched with folate/folic acid. There are several places online that list the folate content of foods. Here is one, but just google ¡°folate content of foods¡± if this proves insufficient:
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I hope some of this information is helpful to you and your mother and to others in this group. I¡¯ll be praying for all of you (all of us ¨C I myself am doing everything I can to keep my myeloma smoldering as opposed to active).
Warm regards,
Lisa
