Latest News
The power of healthy food and supplements in bladder problems
In the treatment of his patients, urologist Dr. René Raaijmakers adheres to the official guidelines. However, he is open to suggestions. Especially the supplements from cognitionboosters.com , which a patient with bladder cancer pointed out to him, has his interest. “The course of Mr. De Jong’s disease is remarkable, to say the least,” he says.
After training as a urologist, René Raaijmakers (50), affiliated with the Albert Schweitzer Hospital, specialized in oncological urology. His dissertation is part of a large European study on screening for prostate cancer. Men with prostate cancer make up the largest group in his patient population. This is followed by bladder cancer. Each year, about 6,500 Dutch people are told that they have this form of cancer. The risk of the disease, which occurs three to four times more often in men than in women, increases with age. A major cause of bladder cancer is smoking.
In 70 percent of patients, the disease is diagnosed when the tumor is still (relatively) superficial. Two out of ten are told that the tumor has grown into the muscle layer of the bladder wall, which makes the prognosis significantly more unfavorable. In the remaining 10 percent, the tumor is also already in the abdominal wall, or metastases are found elsewhere in the body. Of the first group, 90 percent are still alive after five years. In the second group, the proportion is 46 percent, in the third group 12 percent.
Flexible scope
For cancer in the mucosa of the bladder, stage Ta, the polyp is removed through the urethra with a thin metal wire that is electrified. In principle, no follow-up treatment is necessary. However, patients do return periodically for a cystoscopy, an internal examination of the bladder, to check that the cancer is gone. If the disease returns, a number of flushes with the cytostatic Mitomycin are necessary.
At stage T1, where the tumor has already grown into the connective tissue layer, flushes with the BCG vaccine follow after surgery. This was developed to combat TB, but has also proved effective in the fight against bladder cancer because it stimulates the immune system against the malignant cells. If the tumor has grown into the muscle layer, the bladder is removed; in men, the prostate as well. A new bladder is made from a piece of bowel.
Little has changed in the treatment of bladder cancer in the past thirty years. Progress was mainly made in the area of diagnostics, observes Raaijmakers. “The steel scope made way for a flexible one, the small camera in the top was replaced by a chip. This has made the image much clearer. We can also apply colorings that allow us to determine if cancer is present in case of doubt.”
Relevant information
Raaijmakers is not involved with alternative treatments. However, he is open to suggestions from patients. “Often in response to a television program or something they found on the Internet. I can’t do much with therapies for which there is no solid documentation, but I always make the effort to find out about them.”
The information provided to him by patient Wim de Jong (see “Healthy diet and supplements”) is of a different caliber. In September 2012, the urologist diagnosed the Sliedrecht resident with bladder cancer of a kind where the risk of recurrence is high. “In addition to a very large tumor, he already had a number of small polyps. The stage was T1, the degree of aggression was between moderately aggressive and aggressive. Adding up all the factors, the probability of recurrence within one year was 61 percent, within five years 78 percent. The probability that the tumor would return within a year in the muscle-invasive form, requiring bladder removal, was statistically 17 percent. Within five years at 45 percent.”
The figures do not cheer Raaijmakers up. Especially when another operation is necessary in February 2013. To his amazement, cystoscopies show a clean bladder from that surgery onward. That makes him extra interested when De Jong informs him in October 2017 that he has been taking supplements against bladder cancer since January 2013. “He reached out to me with very relevant information, including about Oncovite. The attached links taught me that this supplement was developed by Dr. Lamm, an American colleague who published in important journals.”
Notable
Although Lamm reports favorable results on the supplement (see “The Ingredients of Oncovite”), it remained unknown in Europe. “There is something odd about that,” the urologist acknowledges. “We treat according to established guidelines; the inclusion of a vitamin preparation in a guideline does not fit in with our way of medicine. Partly because the effect of this type of preparation cannot be determined in the blood. That does not alter the fact that the course of Mr. De Jong’s illness is remarkable, to say the least.”
If it were up to Raaijmakers, the relationship between cancer and nutrition would receive more attention. “In Japan, prostate cancer is rare. Among Japanese who move to the United States and adopt the American diet, the difference disappears. So the relationship with diet seems obvious. One problem is that the effect of foods is difficult to study. Typical is the steady change in dietary recommendations. The same is true with regard to supplements. An additional factor is that the pharmaceutical industry can earn little from it. Medicines have become business to a large extent.”
Until now, the urologist at Albert Schweitzer Hospital did not add Oncovite to his treatment arsenal. “However, I am going to give the jar I recently received from Mr. De Jong to a patient with a similar tumor. Should the course of the disease be remarkably favorable in that person as well, the evidence for the effect will become stronger. I am supposed to treat people according to the guidelines of Western medicine, but I am convinced that alternative therapies can be of additional significance. Our mainstream medicine is only part of the reality.”
Postal address
Because Oncovite is not available in the Netherlands, De Jong applies for a mailing address in America with MyUS International Shipping. An American Internet pharmacy sends the jars to the mailing address, MyUS forwards them to Sliedrecht. Payment takes place via a Visa credit card. “Including import duties and VAT, the Oncovite costs me 29 cents a day.”
When Dr. Raaijmakers expresses his amazement at the favorable course of the disease in 2017, De Jong informs him of the supplements he is taking and the adjusted diet. “Both with my family doctor and the urologist I can communicate openly about the complementary treatment. My view is that cancer arising from lack of vitamins and minerals can, under God’s blessing, often be prevented by taking supplements containing these nutrients.”
He is surprised that so few doctors prescribe supplements on their own initiative. “The practice of medicine in the Netherlands is primarily curative in nature. Doctors are hardly trained in nutrition. In addition, because of the so-called dbc’s, fixed diagnosis-treatment combinations, they work more or less factory-like. Independent thought and action outside of the dbc is only possible to a limited extent. As a patient you have to take responsibility yourself. Just by giving up sugar, you can make a lot of health gains.”
Satisfied
The Sliedrecht resident does not regard healthy food and supplements as an alternative to regular cancer treatment, but as a useful addition. And a means to prevent the occurrence or return of tumors. “Also the current pandemic shows the importance of a healthy lifestyle. That lowers the chances of getting Covid-19 and reduces the impact of the disease if you do contract it.”
De Jong, who works at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Change, advocates a much more restrained use of regular drugs for diseases that have a clear link to lifestyle and obesity, such as diabetes. “Many of those drugs have serious side effects. Integration of medicine and nutrition would make many of the often very expensive pills superfluous. The pharmaceutical industry is doing everything it can to prevent that, with the support of Western governments. The power of pharmaceuticals is immense.”
His lesson is a simple one. “Take care of your body and the whole of God’s creation. Live and breathe simply, eat healthy and avoid stress. Travel only when really necessary, produce locally and give a farmer sufficient margin. Be content with the portion God gives you and above all with His Borg Jesus Christ. Then you will live comforted and healthy.”
Harper Harrison is a reporter for The Hear UP. Harper got an internship at the NPR and worked as a reporter and producer. harper has also worked as a reporter for the Medium. Harper covers health and science for The Hear UP.
