My Cancer Update
– My Mind is Keen; My Body is Compromised –

Dr. Al Danenberg ● Nutritional Periodontist

April 9, 2023 [printfriendly]

If you have been following my cancer journey from the onset, you know I was diagnosed with incurable bone marrow cancer in September 2018 and given 3-6 months to live. Spoiler alert, I’m still here! But not without a fight, and I’m currently facing another battle.

Multiple myeloma is a complicated form of cancer where plasma cells in the bone marrow become malignant. Plasma cells are responsible for making antibodies that recognize and attack germs, so this puts my immune system at a severe disadvantage. At the time of that dire initial prognosis, I was given the option of chemotherapy, which would continue to damage my already weakened immune system in an attempt to kill the cancerous cells. I believed that the collateral damage to healthy cells from the chemo outweighed the potential benefits. And my oncologist was candid that the chemotherapy would not cure this malignancy.

So, I rejected the chemo (but not all forms of conventional medicine) and set out to figure out how I could maintain the best quality of life for the time I had left.

This led to the creation of my Unconventional Cancer Protocols. I was coming from a foundation of good health (you can read more about my background HERE), but there were some important adjustments I made in order to create the most robust immune system I possibly could. I’ve written about those at great length in previous blog posts.

However, setbacks occurred.

A major setback took place in August 2019 when I broke my right femur and my right humerus in half as well as several ribs – all at the same time. That put me into a hospice hospital to die. But amazingly, I recovered; I revoked hospice in September 2019; and I continued with my Unconventional Cancer Protocols.

I did quite well while following my protocols until I was exposed to the COVID virus. Then, a series of setbacks ensued. The SARS-CoV-2 virus reactivated my multiple myeloma by stimulating my malignant plasma cells to aggressively create dysfunctional antibodies. And I contracted COVID three time –  in June 2021[1], in January 2022[2], and again in December 2022[3].

COVID played havoc with my overall health and specifically my plasma cells. The virus caused my multiple myeloma to become very active which created an abundance of dysfunctional antibodies in my bone marrow. These dysfunctional antibodies continued to weaken the internal surfaces of my bones. The results were numerous pathological bone fractures. Today, I am dealing with several rib fractures which take their time to heal.

Unfortunately, COVID turned into Long Haulers COVID, which has caused my body to continue to feel exhausted and weak. In addition, the further activation of my multiple myeloma led to anemia. The dysfunctional antibodies were crowding out my healthy red blood cells and platelets. The myeloma also was preventing the normal creation of red cells and platelets. My hemoglobin and platelet counts dropped to low levels. The first lab results to confirm this were on Tuesday, March 7, 2023.

On Tuesday, April 4, 2023, I had my regular 4-week appointment with my oncologist. My doctor ordered the same blood tests that have been monitored since my diagnosis in 2018, (CBC, CMP, and specific antibody blood tests). The results showed slight improvement in my hemoglobin but more deterioration in platelets. In addition, there were increasingly higher levels of dysfunctional antibodies being produced.

 

NLR

I also have been monitoring my NLR.

The NLR is the Neutrophil/Lymphocyte Ratio. Neutrophils and Lymphocytes are two different white blood cells that can be identified in a Complete Blood Count (CBC) blood test. It is a reliable blood marker for systemic inflammation in many chronic diseases and cancers as well as a most robust marker for COVID. In addition, it is an indicator of the survival prognosis for multiple myeloma patients. A rising NLR may suggest a poorer prognosis as multiple myeloma progresses.

A normal NLR is between 1:1 and 3:1. In this published study, the average NLR for hospitalized COVID patients was 6.15. When that ratio rose above 8.17 in the study, the risk of death increased. Strikingly, my NLR on 11/2/21 was 42.0 – a seriously disturbing level when I was diagnosed with COVID in November 2021! However, I was able to significantly reduce the NLR as I healed from COVID using my Protocols after my first bout with COVID.

This time around with Long Haulers COVID, my NLR was 11.6 on March 7, 2023, and then increased to 22.3 on April 4, 2023. My goal is to reduce the NLR from 22.3. I was able to do this before, and I am determined to do it again!

 

Where Do I Go From Here?

As I said, I am diligently working on reducing my NLR and returning to a stable state with this cancer.

In the future, a transfusion of packed red blood cells might be necessary.[4] But for now, my diet and gut health are two of my major efforts to regain the most robust immune system I can. And my oncologist agrees that my animal-based diet with an emphasis on organs and animal fats has a lot to do with the improvement of my hemoglobin.

To that end, I will continue to follow my Unconventional Cancer Protocols. But I will add a new product to the three desiccated organ products which I already consume daily. The new product is Life Blood from Heart & Soil.

 

Life Blood contains whole blood extract from grass-fed and grass-finished pastured cattle in New Zealand. The extract is made up of red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and various immune proteins. In addition, Life Blood has spleen and liver in the mixture. These vital nutrients and peptides should help to improve my iron stores, oxygen delivery, and endurance.

My way of eating will stay the same, but I will include more cooked organs more regularly. I have found a good source of liver, heart, and kidney mixed into a pound of pastured grass-fed ground beef that is easy to stir fry and delicious to eat. The farm is The Family Cow in Chambersburg, PA. There are other sources for this mixture, but I have found The Family Farmer to be dependable and to practice ethical husbandry.

 

I don’t have a panacea for curing my malignancy or any other cancer or chronic disease. As I have repeatedly said, creation of a robust immune system is critical for overall wellness and healing. My protocols are based on the case reports and papers published by The International Center for Medical Nutritional Intervention in Budapest, Hungary as well as my independent research of the gut microbiome and other external factors affecting cellular health.

 

Conclusion

I appreciate you being here and supporting me along my cancer journey. If I had a choice, I would have never wanted to be the face of unconventional cancer treatment – I’d choose to be healthy instead! But the information that I’ve found during my fight has been life changing for me, and I’m grateful that I have this platform to share my findings with you.

If you can take away anything from the information I share, I urge you to take control of your own health. My methods may seem extreme, and they need to be! I’m counting on them to provide me more days.

Now is the perfect time to make changes to your own health. Remove toxic elements from your diet. Exercise. Prioritize sleep. Limit stress. And if you need guidance to help with a specific issue or have questions on how to get started, please reach out. I’m here to help. My goals are to have no one suffer through illness as well as to assist everyone regain a robust immune system.

 

[1] https://drdanenberg.com/my-cancer-journey-i-think-i-had-covid/

[2] https://drdanenberg.com/my-roller-coaster-cancer-journey-march-2022-update/

[3] https://drdanenberg.com/my-cancer-journey-a-new-surprise/

[4] https://www.mymyelomateam.com/treatments/blood-transfusion

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Eat Those Organs
– It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This –

Dr. Al Danenberg ● Nutritional Periodontist

April 2, 2023 [printfriendly]

I work with clients all over the world to provide guidance about their mouth, their gut, their diet, and their overall health. While each client has a unique situation, I’ve found there’s one thing most of my clients have in common. It’s also the first thing we address in our work together.

Almost all these individuals are taking daily supplements and multivitamin/multimineral products to get healthy. And they wonder why they aren’t feeling any better.  This is not the way to get healthy. And that is not the way to get your bioavailable nutrients. “Bioavailability” refers to the portion of a nutrient that is absorbed in the digestive tract and released into the bloodstream for the body’s use.

Sound familiar? I’m going to share the “secret” I share with them. Give it a try for yourself, and I know you’ll be amazed by the results.

 

Organs are the Answer

Organs are the ideal “supplements”. They can be cooked and prepared as a delicacy. Or you can purchase them desiccated into a powder form and consumed in capsules or sprinkled on other foods.

However, I don’t like to label organs as “supplements”.

Organs are called “offal”. Organ meats have been a staple in traditional diets for thousands of years. They are still regularly consumed in many cultures today and were part of our diets in the U.S. and other industrialized countries until recently. Organ meats include heart, liver, kidney, pancreas, spleen, tongue, brain, tripe, thymus, gallbladder, bone marrow, cartilage, and other internal tissues. Our ancestors prized these foods and were strongly favored over the muscle meats that have become common fare today.

As part of our homo sapiens’ evolutionary history, we’re hardwired to eat an animal-based diet. These nutritional habits were perfected during the last 300,000 years.[1] Our primal ancestors all over the world prized organ meats above anything else.

Today, butchers often throw away the organs. Yet in some cultures, natives give the muscle meat of animals they hunt to their dogs and consume the raw organs at the time the animal is killed in the wild. Despite the lack of scientific measurement techniques, these traditional cultures knew from their decades of experience that organ meats were far more nutritious than muscle meats.

Ounce-for-ounce, organ meats are the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet. A paper by Matthieu Maillot and colleagues published in 2007 looked at seven major food groups and 25 subgroups, characterizing the nutrient density of these foods based on the presence of 23 qualifying nutrients.[2] Organ meats scored the highest levels of nutrient density.

In another paper published in the journal of Frontiers of Nutrition in March 2022, the researchers also looked at the nutrient density of foods.[3] They showed how nutrient dense organs compared to other foods. In addition, these authors considered the important role of bioavailability. The paper pointed out that organs were the most nutrient-dense foods as well as they contained the largest percentage of bioavailable nutrients.

 

Nutrients in Offal

One question you may ask is, “What are the nutrients contained in offal?”

Practically every nutrient your body requires is present in organs, and they are in their proper ratios and are bioavailable.

In general, organ meats are rich in essential nutrients that support cellular function, such as vitamins A & E, B complex, and heme iron.

For example:

  • Liver is one of the highest sources of bioavailable retinol (the active form of vitamin A), vitamin B12, iron, zinc, and copper.
  • Spleen is the highest known source of bioavailable iron.
  • Heart is the richest source of bioavailable CoQ10, a critical antioxidant.
  • Kidney is the third-richest source (behind liver and clams) of Vitamin B12.

Also, organ meats are great sources of amino acids like carnosine, which helps maintain normal pH in muscles, and taurine, which reduces muscle damage and improves recovery after exercise. One of the reasons that athletes consume liver and other organ meats is because they help to improve athletic performance.

In addition, organs have many different enzymes and biopeptides that perform important regulatory functions in the body, including improvements in intestinal health, nutrient intake, feed conversion efficiency, mineral bioavailability, and immune function. And it is a fact that organ meats are higher in protein by weight than muscle meats. Also organ meats have more favorable ratios of omega-3 fatty acids to omega-6 fatty acids.

Some medical research suggests that diets high in methionine, an amino acid that is abundant in muscle meats and other lean proteins, may increase the risk of cancer and reduce lifespan.[4],[5] But this is only true if high methionine intake is not balanced with adequate intake of complementary nutrients like the amino acid glycine and nutrients like B12, folate, betaine, and choline.[6] These nutrients offset the potential downsides of high methionine intake and are found in other animal tissues, including organs, connective tissues, skin, and bones.

 

Supplements are NOT the Answers

As I mentioned, individual nutrient supplements as well as multivitamin/multimineral products are not the answers to health or a robust immune system.

For the most part, “supplements” are generally synthetic chemicals packaged in capsules, tablets, or liquid forms in high concentrations. They do not offer the ratios that are required by the human body for daily nutrition. As a matter of fact, most of these man-made supplements can be harmful without being combined with other symbiotic nutrients that the body must have to function correctly. In addition, many of these supplements have “other ingredients” that are food dyes, emulsifiers, preservatives, and other chemicals that harm the gut microbiome. And since most people take many of these “supplements” daily, they are taking a massive amount of harmful ingredients which have a cumulative negative effect on the gut and its epithelial barrier.

 

My Organ Protocol

I don’t cook and eat individual organs daily. But occasionally I eat several ground-up organs mixed in with ground beef. However, I consume a combination of desiccated organs daily. The desiccated organs usually come in capsule form and allow me to get all those wonderful bioavailable nutrients into my body in a balanced state.

I swallow capsules, but sometimes I open the capsules and sprinkle the powder on other foods I have cooked and prepared for my wife and me.

Here is my daily protocol for desiccated organs:

The dosing I take is 6 capsules of the Organ Complex daily; 4 capsules of the bone marrow daily; and 4 capsules of the Cartilage/Collagen daily.

The bottom line is that organs are bioavailable and extremely nutritious. My recommendation is to reduce your dependence on “supplements” you buy and replace them with desiccated organs. If you need assistance in determining what organs you need to consume, let me help you design your individual ideal organ protocol.

 

[1] https://www.doctorkiltz.com/keto-diet-and-evolution/

[2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17585036/

[3] https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2022.806566/full

[4] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18252204/

[5] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0531556513000612

[6] https://faseb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1096/fasebj.25.1_supplement.528.2

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