After Treatment of Chemo
If you are like me after your treatment with chemo your stomach and Gastro Intestinal Tract (GI) is uncomfortable to say the least.
A major effect of complications after chemo is the inflamed tissue due to the fact that the mucus membrane lining is sloughed off the GI, as the doctors put it. The mucus membrane protects us from foreign bacteria and virus, once sloughed off there is no protection and inflammation immediately is the result leaving this tissue susceptible to invasion of bacteria and viruses.
Your oncologist will prescribe antibiotics and anti viral drugs as a prophylactic to guard against foreign bugs. If you take these drugs there will be side effects which in part will be the difficulty of becoming resistant to these drugs thus making it necessary to take stronger antibiotics and anti viral meds when actually needed.
There is a study:
http://www.clltopics.org/BMT/GVHDDevelopments.htm which reads that the mucus can be reestablished very quickly using a human friendly bacteria known as Lactobacillus Ramosus GG (LBR).
Recently I have had another series of chemo with the resulting mucus sloughing problem, I did not use the prescribed prophylactic drugs but used the LBR. Within 10 hours of taking the LBR cultivated into a yogurt my GI settled down and within 24 hours my normal regularity returned. It has been one week now and all discomfort has vanished.
You cannot take the antibiotics and LBR together as the antibiotic will cancel the effect of the LBR.
If you are interested in using LBR you will need a large dosage of the product in its capsule form. You may wish to cultivate the LBR by making it into a tasty yogurt. If you wish to do this it will be less costly then taking large amounts of the commercially prepared LBR and in my case I feel yogurt is more effective.
You may purchase a yogurt maker and use the instructions provided with the maker, your “Starter” will be the LBR one capsule per 8 oz. container, cut open the capsule and mix it into the warm milk. I use organic reduced fat Horizon brand milk (no hormones, antibiotics) along with one heaping teaspoon of Meyenberrg brand powdered goat milk per 8 oz cup which gives a creamy and tasty effect. Do not add any sugars, fruits etc.
The source for the LBR is, get this, Wal Mart! It is sold under the name Culturelle Probiotic
company telephone # 1-800-722-3476 if you cannot find it there.
As a side bar I have never had any nausua associated with chemotherapy, nor diarrhea or any of the other side effects other then low blood counts, fatigue and hair loss. Therefore I cannot attest to the efficacy of LBR in relieving nausua but I would like to know if any of you who have had nausea and diarrhea after chemo and who are taking the LBR find that these side effects of chemo have ceased or at least been effected in positive way after using LBR.
Be well,
Roger W.
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