The Colon Club

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Between my oncologist and my homeopathic doctor I am supposed to be taking the following on a daily basis:

B complex 100
b6 50 Mg
D 5000
Folate 800
Omega 3 950
Probiotics 14 billion

Just nervous as I have heard they have done studies showing that vit b and folate actually promoted tumors growth? Anybody have any insight or experience with this?

I've read that Folic acid would not be desirable to take when on 5-FU (which is the primary drug within Folfox). This is because it might potentiate the effect of 5-FU beyond what is desired. So if your oncologist hasn't recommended that you take Folate, you should inform him before taking it. When I was on chemo, I was advised to avoid the anti-oxident supplements. After chemo was complete, I began taking Vit D, Calcium & Aspirin at the recommendation of my oncologist.

I have never heard that they promote tumor growth but.....you really shouldn't be taking folic acid (folate) when on chemo. Check the vitamin b complex as well as folic acid is a 'b' vitamin B-9 I believe. Remember that folic acid is simply the synthetic form of folate. Too much and you allow the 5FU to remain in your system longer than desired and will exacerbate the side effects of the drug. I also have to ask the question - who told you to take these different drugs? Run EVERYTHING by your oncologist but if it were me, I'd check my B complex and say no no to the folate. Vitamin D should be fine. Unless your other docs are in consultation with your onc, you need to run everything by the onc before you take any type of supplements. What might seem like an innocent vitamin/supplement could actually give you some nasty side effects or worse, make your chemo less effective.

Jaynee

Homeopathic sugg vit d as mine is super low, he also sugg fish oil and probiotic......rest was given to me by oncologist to supposodly help with neuropathy?

As Bob mentioned if your on 5FU I didn't think you were suppose to take any excess folate. The D, make sure it's D3 and not just plain old D.

Think I wil stick to just the fish oil, probiotic and d......thank you all!

I would add a low dose aspirin in there, scrap the folate but keep the Vit B complex. Here's my regimen:

Omega 3
Aspirin
Vit D
A multi with extra B vitamins
Kyolic Garlic (with astragalus, reishi)
Vit C
Selenium

I also occasionally do Bio-K for probiotics (not often tho). I also dabble in IP6 when I remember to take it.

I've been off chemo for over a year (13 months today, actually) and doing great: neuropathy almost gone and improving rapidly, and I never get sick (which is amazing considering I'm on public transport for 4 hours a day and work in Downtown Toronto).

Do note that Biotin / Brewer's Yeast which is a form of Vit. B can cause false high CEA readings.

A study was done in Chile regarding the rise in colon cancer deaths in young women. The findings pointed to an increase in CC cases/ deaths after Folic Acid was added to fortify foods and given to pregnant women to prevent Spina Bifida. The study was flawed because they only keep records of cause of death and not dx at hospitalization. The US is 'looking at data'.

Folate is the natural form of folic acid and found only in foods. Folic acid is a processed form of folate.

My B complex unfortunately has folic acid in it.... there goes 25 bucks down the drain [*]

sandrichelle wrote:My B complex unfortunately has folic acid in it.... there goes 25 bucks down the drain [*]

Aww just take them, one bottle won't hurt especially if you have your onc's blessing.

Regarding Biotin: My multi has 3000mcg of biotin in it (it's called maxi-hair and made for hair growth, so that's a LOT of biotin) and my CEA has been less than 1.1 for many months.

It's almost impossible to find vitamins with no folic acid.

The link info said not to take Biotin within 8 hours of your CEA being drawn to prevent a false high reading.

In patients receiving therapy with high biotin doses (ie, >5 mg/day), no sample should be taken until at least eight hours after the last biotin administration.1

https://www.labcorp.com/wps/portal/!ut/p/c1/04_SB8K8xLLM9MSSzPy8xBz9CP0os_hACzO_QCM_IwMLXyM3AyNjMycDU2dXQwN3M6B8JG55AwMCuv088nNT9SP1o8zjQ11Ngg09LY0N_N2DjQw8g439TfyM_MzMLAz0Q_QjnYGKIvEqKsiNKDfUDVQEAARgwHA!/dl2/d1/L0lJWmltbUEhL3dQRUJGUUFoTlFBaERhQUVBWEtHL1lJNXlsdyEhLzdfVUU0UzFJOTMwT0dTMjBJUzNPNE4yTjY2ODAvdmlld1Rlc3Q!/?testId=408053

Search under CEA

dianetavegia wrote:The link info said not to take Biotin within 8 hours of your CEA being drawn to prevent a false high reading.

In patients receiving therapy with high biotin doses (ie, >5 mg/day), no sample should be taken until at least eight hours after the last biotin administration.1

https://www.labcorp.com/wps/portal/!ut/p/c1/04_SB8K8xLLM9MSSzPy8xBz9CP0os_hACzO_QCM_IwMLXyM3AyNjMycDU2dXQwN3M6B8JG55AwMCuv088nNT9SP1o8zjQ11Ngg09LY0N_N2DjQw8g439TfyM_MzMLAz0Q_QjnYGKIvEqKsiNKDfUDVQEAARgwHA!/dl2/d1/L0lJWmltbUEhL3dQRUJGUUFoTlFBaERhQUVBWEtHL1lJNXlsdyEhLzdfVUU0UzFJOTMwT0dTMjBJUzNPNE4yTjY2ODAvdmlld1Rlc3Q!/?testId=408053

Search under CEA

Interesting! I usually cut all supplements at least 24 hours before a reading, but this is good to know. I notice they say this no biotin >5mg on all of the cancer marker tests (e.g. CA125, CA19-9). 5mg is 5000mcg and I'm at 3000mcg but I don't really feel like taking any risk in getting a false high reading so I will cut all the biotin before testing.