CancerCompass message board discussion started by Gemini2 on 10/5/2007 http://www.cancercompass.com/message-board/message/all,16809,0.htm Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://backend.userland.com/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ Hi, has anyone used controlled amino acid therapy CAAT?  either during chemo or before or after?   Any experiences-good and/or bad???  T If you go on quackwatch they basically do not recommend any alternative therapies.  What to do???Thank you for any information/feedback. Gemini2 Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT Far from being healers in any way, Quackwatch is about ugly Smear Campaigns and SLAPP lawsuits to waste the time, energy, and resources of their many, many targets. They wage War on every level possible, via Med Boards, meritless lawsuits, smear campaigns, harassing government agencies about those they wish to silence and filling Internet with lies. Many of the Usenet and Blog participants in these campaigns are members of the rag-tag posse. For more information about this despicable group see this website http://www.humanticsfoundation.com/quackwatchwatch.htm#myrl On 10/5/2007 Gemini2 wrote:Hi, has anyone used controlled amino acid therapy CAAT?  either during chemo or before or after?   Any experiences-good and/or bad???  T If you go on quackwatch they basically do not recommend any alternative therapies.  What to do???Thank you for any information/feedback. Shemay Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT don't pay attention quackwatch....the drug companies pay for those sites to ward off alternative treatments from taking over. SNETREM Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT  On 10/5/2007 Gemini2 wrote:Hi, has anyone used controlled amino acid therapy CAAT?  either during chemo or before or after?   Any experiences-good and/or bad???  T If you go on quackwatch they basically do not recommend any alternative therapies.  What to do???Thank you for any information/feedback.Yes, I am trying the CAAT diet--presently finishing up the 4th month.  I took 4 cycles of Rituxan for follicular NHL--stage III.  I started the CAAT diet during the Rituxan therapy.  My oncologist wanted me to do CVP plus R, but I had chemo 19 years ago and didn't want to do it again.  Then he suggested Rituxan x 8, but I thought that 8 cycles was going over-board.  We decided on 4 cycles with a recheck in 6 months to see if I needed 4 more cycles.  Then I started counting on the CAAT diet.  The CAAT diet eliminates all dairy and most wheat products.  For the first time in my life I can totally breath through my nose.  I think I have probably quit snoring at night and my mouth is no longer so dry from mouth breathing.  The occasional ringing in my ears has also mysteriously disappeared.  I think that I was eating way too many dairy products.  My weight is down probably 12 pounds and I look a lot better plus I feel really good most of the time. I have a lot of energy.  The diet is very low calorie and basically causes your body to burn fat (I don't think I have lost any muscle mass).  I'm delighted that my fat stomach (and what middle-aged woman doesn't have this problem) is finally disappearing.  It is not an easy diet and the emphasis is on vegetables.  Does it work??  It is too soon to tell.  I have a CAAT scan coming up in June.  Even then it will be difficult to tell if the diet or the Rituxan is the hero.  With success and no further lump growth, I will give credit to CAAT.  Disadvantages are cost (although excellent motivator to stay on diet that you paid so much for) and boring diet.  The person I confer with at APJohn Institute is very nice.  I don't think their theories on cancer treatment totally jive together, but there is some truth in some of it.  (Why does the PET scan work?--because cancer cells eat up sugar!)  Another note--*** They never send you a total 30 day supply of amino acids--more like 27-28 days.  The amino acids look like fine beach sand in a small plastic bag about the size of a shoe box and they are rather bitter.  I always take them in vegetable juice.  It doesn't hurt you and that is more than can be said for some conventional therapy.  If it works, it will be a deal.  Consider the cost of CAAT at $900 per month for amino acids plus cost of supplements versus cost of Rituxan at $6,000 per treatment!  Of course, insurance usually covers Rituxan  and CAAT is not covered by anyone but you.  Maybe I've been taken in.   Who knows.  Cancer treatment built on fear and uncertainty for the return of hope and time!   Follicularm Mon, 24 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT  On 3/24/2008 Follicularm wrote: On 10/5/2007 Gemini2 wrote:Hi, has anyone used controlled amino acid therapy CAAT?  either during chemo or before or after?   Any experiences-good and/or bad???  T If you go on quackwatch they basically do not recommend any alternative therapies.  What to do???Thank you for any information/feedback.Yes, I am trying the CAAT diet--presently finishing up the 4th month.  I took 4 cycles of Rituxan for follicular NHL--stage III.  I started the CAAT diet during the Rituxan therapy.  My oncologist wanted me to do CVP plus R, but I had chemo 19 years ago and didn't want to do it again.  Then he suggested Rituxan x 8, but I thought that 8 cycles was going over-board.  We decided on 4 cycles with a recheck in 6 months to see if I needed 4 more cycles.  Then I started counting on the CAAT diet.  The CAAT diet eliminates all dairy and most wheat products.  For the first time in my life I can totally breath through my nose.  I think I have probably quit snoring at night and my mouth is no longer so dry from mouth breathing.  The occasional ringing in my ears has also mysteriously disappeared.  I think that I was eating way too many dairy products.  My weight is down probably 12 pounds and I look a lot better plus I feel really good most of the time. I have a lot of energy.  The diet is very low calorie and basically causes your body to burn fat (I don't think I have lost any muscle mass).  I'm delighted that my fat stomach (and what middle-aged woman doesn't have this problem) is finally disappearing.  It is not an easy diet and the emphasis is on vegetables.  Does it work??  It is too soon to tell.  I have a CAAT scan coming up in June.  Even then it will be difficult to tell if the diet or the Rituxan is the hero.  With success and no further lump growth, I will give credit to CAAT.  Disadvantages are cost (although excellent motivator to stay on diet that you paid so much for) and boring diet.  The person I confer with at APJohn Institute is very nice.  I don't think their theories on cancer treatment totally jive together, but there is some truth in some of it.  (Why does the PET scan work?--because cancer cells eat up sugar!)  Another note--*** They never send you a total 30 day supply of amino acids--more like 27-28 days.  The amino acids look like fine beach sand in a small plastic bag about the size of a shoe box and they are rather bitter.  I always take them in vegetable juice.  It doesn't hurt you and that is more than can be said for some conventional therapy.  If it works, it will be a deal.  Consider the cost of CAAT at $900 per month for amino acids plus cost of supplements versus cost of Rituxan at $6,000 per treatment!  Of course, insurance usually covers Rituxan  and CAAT is not covered by anyone but you.  Maybe I've been taken in.   Who knows.  Cancer treatment built on fear and uncertainty for the return of hope and time!  Follow up to 3/24/08 report on CAAT Diet--Wanted everyone to know the results for me on the CAAT diet that I was on for 5 full months plus 2 part diet months.  I have follicular lymphoma which is very difficult to totally eradicate.  In December 2007 I took Rituxan x 4 and started the CAAT diet.  (A scan of the abdomen and pelvis in November 2007 showed significant lymph node growth in the time period since scan done in January of the same year.)  With the diet I experienced a significant weight loss of 25 pounds.  I now weigh 125 pounds in a frame of 5 ft. 8 1/2 inches.  I can breathe a lot deeper because I am not on dairy products and they caused tremendous respiratory congestion for me.  I usually have a lot of energy when I get enough sleep.  Best of all the abdominal fat is gone.Results of June Cat scans showed no further growth of lymph nodes. The June scan results are essentially the same as the November 07 results.  The lymph nodes are still enlarged and much more obvious since I lost so much weight.  I have nodes under left arm and in both groins plus some in the abdomen which I can't obviously see.  Was it the Rituxan or the CAAT diet or both together that stopped the growth?  It is hard to say.  I tend to think it was the Rituxan.  I was hoping for a shrinkage in the nodes but that did not happen.   Although the CAAT diet makes some scientific sense, I have found no evidence that eliminating one amino acid makes a difference in cancer growth.  Eating more vegetables, decreasing or even eliminating sugar, avoiding trans-fats would improve anyone's health.  The amino acids in the CAAT diet are extremely expensive.  I think one's money could be spent elsewhere.  Personally I think it would be suicidal to count on the CAAT diet alone to treat cancer.   Follicularm Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT