On the hunt... (Little Life Hacks post)

My mother is in the early stages of some sort of dementia, cognitive decline, or maybe Alzheimer's Disease. She hasn't been officially diagnosed although we've been to a neurologist. I'll save my thoughts on that visit for another blog on another day!

We have been following the Bredesen Protocol with some success. Given the fact that we didn't start until a few years after her memory issues began I'd say we've seen noticeable improvements, but not jump up and down results. Yet.

Part of the problem is that mom doesn't like taking pills...and there are a LOT of supplements that are suggested with the Protocol. If you're interested, here's a link to a post by Jacob on his website that gives a fairly simple overview and list: https://mybiohack.com/blog/dale-bredesen-protocol-recode-alzheimers-mend

Because Mom doesn't like taking the pills she sometimes skips taking them at all and always complains. So, I've been on the hunt for powder, liquid, chewable forms of as many as possible.

Trying to find a reasonably priced, quality supplement with those restrictions is hard enough. Toss in no sugars or bad oils and other things not on the "good for you" list and the number decreases to zero for most.

I was able to find a few. I found a chewable magnesium to replace the CALM she takes at night. The CALM is great, but it has to be mixed with water. Water means getting up in the middle of the night.

I found a liquid PQQ but it is four to five times the price of the pills she is taking. Not able to do that one right now.

I also ordered a chewable 5 HTP. by NOW. I ordered via Walmart, third party as they don't sell it. It's not on Amazon either. It will be 10 days before we get it. (Update --- it's OK, doesn't taste great but it is palatable)

She is already taking a chewable methyl B12 and multivitamin. I don't care for the multivitamin so will be working on replacing it with a better chewable.

Finding some form of easy-to-take choline, citicoline, Alpha GPC seems to be an impossible task.

I make her a brain tea with most of the herbs Bredesen recommends, plus some others not on his list that I've found help with cognition. I also make her a tea designed to address some of her other issues.

We're working on things, but truthfully we're probably only able to do maybe 50-75% of the Bredesen Protocol list. Finding organic and gluten-free foods when you live an hour from a half-decent grocery store is a challenge. Finding grass-fed meats, pastured eggs, and chicken? They exist but we're not really sure they're legit. Forget finding wild-caught Alaskan salmon! But, wild-caught salmon can be found at Walmart.

I always carry a large cooler of things with me when I go see them. I'm lucky to have Sprouts, Publix, Walmart, Aldi, Whole Foods and other stores super close. I try to go up once a week but there are a few other challenges in my life right now that are keeping me close to home. Soon I'll be back on track to get up there!

All of the supplements and food choices come at a high price. They took zero supplements and had one medication before all of this started. And...going from a dollar or so for a loaf of bread to $4-$6, for example, can really add up (although carbs are low on the "to eat" list so that's not necessarily the best example). My dad has always been frugal and they've lived a simple life. Now it's complicated. It's a complete change in every way possible for my parents. And it's hard. Everything is alien to their past way of life. Reading labels, avoiding all things sugar and gluten, learning to cook foods they've never heard of before...the list is long.

I'm lucky to have such a strong, resilient, loving Dad. He is getting it done despite all the crazy things being thrown in his direction these days! His Bible is getting a good workout though.

I love my parents dearly and will do everything I can to help my Mom beat this...and to help my Dad as he copes with cooking all the meals, helping her, and many things that he couldn't have envisioned when he said "for better or worse" many years ago.

Well...there I go rambling again. I was writing about hunting for supplements and ended up writing about my awesome parents.

I didn't say much about Mom. She is giving it her all. With her cognitive issues she gets sidetracked and comes up with some interesting takes on things at times but overall she is determined to fight. I also didn't mention the rest of my family...my sisters and brothers. They are all part of this journey and doing what they are able to make it work. I'm dang lucky to have my great family.

Chance Encounters...

While out shopping yesterday I had two great chance encounters. One was helpful to me, in the other I helped someone.

First -- the one that was helpful to me. I was in Costco and as any shopper there knows they are great about having people around handing out samples. The only one of interest to me was some guacamole in a bag. It was frozen. Surprisingly (to me), it tasted good. I happen to like chunky though and it was blended smooth.

I told the guy who was handing out samples and we got into a conversation. He took me to the area with all the guacs, showed me the chunky and then...told me I could freeze ANY of them! He then told me I could freeze avocados.

WHAT?!? No way. But yep, he said he'd been doing it for 20 years. He buys a bag of them and when they hit the ripening place he likes he tosses all but the one he wants to eat that day and the next into the freezer.

He said he thaws them overnight if they will be eaten "as is" but just peels the skin off if he's going to use them in guacamole or a smoothie. I'll put some links below for various ways to freeze.

Most said the texture when freezing the whole avocado was mushy, best to use in guacamole, not cut up to eat on a salad.

Oh, and you can also buy them frozen now at most grocery stores. I can't remember the brand but I bought a bag. I wasn't thrilled with them as they have a tangy taste due to the preservative they use.

Then, my next stop was at Walmart for a couple of last-minute stocking stuffers. I was looking at soaps (Dr. Bonner's) when I happened to overhear two girls talking about how expensive one of the soaps was. (Oh how I had a hard time ending that sentence with "was"...shades of my English teachers yelling in my head :-)).

Turned out one of them was getting their boyfriend the soap he liked and it was one of the "good' ones...clean. I interjected myself in their conversation and explained why it was so high, and then told them about an app I use called Think Dirty. You can scan the bar codes on products and it ranks them from 0 to 10 with 0 being super good. Most of the things I scan on the shelves these days are 8 or above.

I showed them a similar product that was twice the size, was the same price range, but had the same rating. They were so excited. They both popped the app onto their phones...and bought the cheaper version for the boyfriend. It was so cool knowing that they were interested in learning and wanted to start scanning products.

I got started on my health journey when I was a bit younger than they are but something similar sparked my interest and I've been happily getting healthier all my life. Or that's the hope! So many things that were "gospel" have been tossed out as actually being bad over the years so it's a continual learning experience.


https://springsbargains.com/2012/10/can-you-freeze-avocados/

https://wholenewmom.com/kitchen-tips/freezing-avocados/

https://www.hgtv.com/outdoors/gardens/garden-to-table/can-you-freeze-avocados 

Exploring Cancer Around the World

A number of people extremely close to me are battling cancer. One very young lady, a beautiful soul, will be leaving us any day now.

I am someone who is a self-titled health nut (although what's nutty about learning and taking care of yourself?). I read a lot, listen to a lot of podcasts, watch YouTube videos and am in a number of on-line groups relating to various topics.

Over the years I have seen comments, heard comments in those venues regarding our (USA) treatment of diseases: We treat symptoms, don't get to the root causes. We have high rates of diseases compared to other countries around the world. And, the one I'm focusing on today, other countries deal with cancer much better and more humanely than we do.

How do we stack up? Is there a better way to treat cancer than to use chemo, radiation, and the newest method immunotherapy. Probably as I delve into things I'll find that the newest isn't the newest. I haven't started my research journey yet.

First: How do we rank in the world? Per the World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research, the US is the 5th highest (standardized) when it comes to the rates of cancer. Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and Hungary have higher rates, in that order. https://www.wcrf.org/dietandcancer/cancer-trends/data-cancer-frequency-country

Pretty sad for a country that brags about its health care system. We are, according to my reading, known as the place to come for treatment when all hope is gone. We're not so great on prevention.

What's our survival rate? From Wikipedia: "In the United States there has been an increase in the 5-year relative survival rate between people diagnosed with cancer in 1975-1977 (48.9%) and people diagnosed with cancer in 2007-2013 (69.2%); these figures coincide with a 20% decrease in cancer mortality from 1950 to 2014." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_survival_rates

I'm not sure how they define "survival rate" only because I know of a number of people who are "surviving" but their lives are living hells. Pain, treatment, more treatments, pain, inability to breath after treatments, sitting in chairs and unable to leave their homes... Living decently for 3, 5, 7 years then finding out a cancer has been growing in another part of their body undetected and wham, they're back on the treatment roller coaster.

To be fair, I also know quite a few people who have survived cancers and are doing well. Mostly breast cancers caught early. I have a number of friends who weren't so lucky.

Per World Population Review the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden have the highest survival rates. http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/cancer-survival-rates-by-country/

Breast and prostate cancers have the highest survival rates while those with stomach and lung cancer have fairly dismal chances (under 30% for stomach, under 20% for lung).

[When I dug a little deeper, while their article is dated 2019 the data is only through 2014, a much talked about report by CONCORD, a global program for world-wide surveillance of cancer survival, led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. You can find more info on the study here: https://csg.lshtm.ac.uk/research/themes/concord-programme/  ]

On a side note, I had a friend who beat lung cancer after a strong battle. The doofus went back to smoking and it reoccured. He wasn't so lucky the second time around. And...went to lunch with a friend and his wife, both heavy smokers. Great lunch, talking about working together, planning things for the future and two weeks later he was in the hospital with lung cancer, died within days.

If you're looking for overall survival rates, data on all causes of death I came across this excellent compilation dated April, 2019 (data is from 2015): https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/mortality-rates-u-s-compare-countries/#item-respiratory-diseases-mortality-rate-2015

OK --- finally I'm back to the subject I started with --- treatment types in other countries not available in the US or considered more humane, less painful or in some cases, lethal.

Mexico: This is a listing from the Gerson Hospital that offers these alternative and complementary types of treatment just outside Tijuana, Mexico: https://chipsahospital.org/11-powerful-cancer-treatments-that-are-use-in-other-countries-but-unavailable-in-the-usa/

I have read of people going there for treatment who have had great success. I would guess that money is an issue as I seriously doubt our insurance companies will touch covering treatments 1. outside the country and 2. not approved in the US :-). I love that they integrate diet and nutrition as the foundation. If I found out I had cancer that might be my first go-to after hearing what the US docs had to say.

Max Gerson was a German neurosurgeon. You'll read more if you click the link about the treatments above.


The Mayo Clinic popped up in my research with a list of alternative cancer treatments (https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/cancer/in-depth/cancer-treatment/art-20047246). I was kinda mildy shocked until I read what they offered. "Won't cure but may make treatment easier" (paraphrased). Ummm... sure. Deep breathing, massage, etc. Great list and it may help some, especially at the beginning, but when you're feeling like crap, itching, crawling out of your skin due to chemo or radiation the last thing you want is a massage. Even deep breathing can be painful.

Finland: Again, this is an advertisement from a hospital. They tout the CONCORD study showing that Finland has some of the best treatment survival rates. https://www.docrates.com/en/treatments/patient-satisfaction/finland-leading-country-in-cancer-care/

I skimmed their treatment options and nothing popped out as being radically different, but all I did was a quick skim. However, there is a reason Finland has the highest survival rate --- it have nothing to do with their treatments. It could be that they eat better, eat closer to the way we were meant to eat, and thus they fight off cancer better than the average person in countries who eat crappy diets (like we do in the USA).

Here is a great article from a UK author on treatment abroad: https://www.medic8.com/medical-tourism/cancer-treatment-abroad.html They go into treatments in Germany, France and Spain, and have tips for those wanting to travel abroad for cancer care. It is interesting that there's a statement basically saying you might get better care outside of the UK. Kinda sad. As you read you'll see many slams on healthcare in the UK. Striking them off my list (not that they were ever on it, even though I lived there and loved it many, many years ago).

Great article on alternative treatments. I have read a LOT about the Ketogenic diet (first on the list). That would be my first go-to as it also has a huge positive impact on any inflammatory issue. In fact, I am now on a Keto-flex type of diet combined with intermittent fasting as a prevention protocol. Unapproved but Effective Cancer Cures

An opposing, and sobering view on alternative treatments that specifically mentions treatment in Mexico: https://www.statnews.com/2017/08/29/cancer-treatment-alternative-medicine/

I am one who looks to alternative, "natural" treatments, especially diet and herbs --- but I certainly don't shun doctors and standard care. I just do my research. I rather like how he ended the article...doctors can alienate patients by demeaning alternative treatment, but there's no reason someone can't do both (again, I paraphrase).

Another article you may want to read: Cancer care in the U.S. versus Europe: Is more necessarily better?

NOTE: I put the links throughout the blog rather than posting at the end 'cause I figure you don't want to keep skipping to the end. Hope you found something of interest although I barely touched on the subject matter. I'm sure I'll be back with more at some point!

Asking for one last Christmas...

Someone I love dearly is going to depart this world sometime in the very near future. She has battled mightily, fought every step of the way despite the pain and misery... She has defied the doctor's predictions. Even now, knowing the end is inevitable our girl is still in control, making tough decisions and making war on the disease that is claiming her life.

I have been asking for one last Christmas together but am not sure that isn't a totally selfish request.

We all love her and don't want her to suffer. We all love her and don't want her to go.

I am one step removed and thus don't see her daily, continual suffering. Her immediate family are there to comfort, take care of her, suffer as they see her suffer.

I want to help but the best help I can give is to just listen and be there for her immediate family...but dang if I don't manage to say stupid things. I agonize over how to respond, what to say. When texting I write, erase, write, erase... I know that whatever I say or do it can be the wrong thing, can aggravate, irritate, make things worse, cause eye rolls 'cause they've heard it so many times from so many or I just don't know exactly how serious something is at the moment.

Christmas? Trying to move ahead, buy gifts, somewhat do the "normal things"...but she's always there on my mind, in my thoughts and I know I'm buying things she may never see...and that none of us are going to give a flying flip about gifts...but if she's there I want it to be as normal as possible. So I'm plodding ahead, probably spending more than I normally do, agonizing more over what to give than normal. If I can bring a few smiles it'll be worth it all.

Anger. I have a lot of anger. To know that a young girl, barely out of school, with a whole wonderful vibrant life ahead, will be taken, will not get that life is so wrong. And, if one more person says "it's in God's hands" or "God must want her to be with Him" or some other inane thing I may scream. Yes, I know...just like the things I say that are hurtful or wrong but said from a heart of love...they mean well. And I'm not saying it isn't true...it is just NOT what one wants to hear when a child is suffering. God does not want His children to suffer.

Prayer. So many across the world praying for our girl. Strong, strong believers. Sometimes I think a merciful God would have taken her earlier, spared her all the pain. Sometimes I think it's good that she had good times in the midst of it all, that all of her loved ones got to see a smile, to see her having a good time. Things like this make you wonder about the efficacy of prayer. Even if you don't believe in prayer most believe that all those thoughts and wishes and heartfelt prayers have an impact, that they can do something.

As usual, I'm rambling. There is something cathartic about writing down thoughts, putting the frustration into words...even if they don't flow, aren't English-school-teacher worthy :-)

Hopefully not the same ol', same ol'!

It has been over two years since I posted. Yikes. I think about posting on here a lot...have quite a bit to say (who doesn't) and share, but somehow I never manage to find the time. If I scanned back I'd see any number of "I'm going to do this regularly" type posts followed by maybe one or two posts then a loooonnnngggg time gap. Hopefully, this time will be the last??? See, I'm already questioning my ability to stick to it!

That's it for this post. I'm heading up to spend some time with my parents. So thankful to still have them in my life and I treasure every moment that I get to spend with them.

Ah, and then, I'm going to spend the day working with my son. I am more than thankful that I have such a wonderful son...still not sure how he turned out so well.

Here's what I'm going to do to try and make this time "the time" I stick to it --- I'm going to make the blog a tab on my browser so that it pops up every time I log on. It will be "in my face" and thus I'll have no excuses. Take that Facebook :-)