what is your opinion...ACUTE MYELOGENOUS LEUKEMIA?

Nesher, BSN, RN · Dec 22, 2005

Usually herbal supplements are avoided because when the pt's counts are low due to treatment the possibility of picking up a fungal infection from herbs is higher. And no I have not met a doc who would recommend herbs over chemo.

I recommend you and your mom go to the following site, which can help you not only inform yourself about AML, but get treatment options based on her disease - gives you questions to ask the doc to help direct her care and can hook you up with clinical trials if appropriate for her.

http://www.seattlecca.org/cancerinformation/cancerInfo.htm

caroladybelle, BSN, RN · Dec 23, 2005

hi. my mother has recently been diagnosed with AML. as nurses have you encountered any doctors who recommended the use of herbal supplements to facilitate treatment? what do you think of astragalus? is it worth spending for this type of herb supplement? Thanks..if anyone can help and shed some light on this disease:)

What do I think of herbal remedies for treating AML? Not much.

Most herbal remedies are not regulated and frequently contain contaminants. Given the impaired immune system of an AML, this especially dangerous.

In ten years of dealing with AML patients, I have seen NO (and I mean NO) people treated exclusively with herbal rememdies that have survived for any notable length of time.

And while I have heard of a variety of "alternative" treatments for cancers in general, all are done in clinics/treatment centers with a variety of preparations (with some identified ingredients, but even more "secret" ingredients). Most of the better known ones would not advise just randomly taking an "alternative" preparation at home without the accompanied exercise/therapy/diet of a program.

May we ask why she is not doing conventional therapy?

Be aware that many internet sites/foreign will offer people that have poor prognoses "alternative secret cures" that "medicine is trying to cover up". Many of these patients return to their conventional MD with severe cardiac/liver damage from undergoing these treatments and die even sooner. Please check out the source of such treatments carefully.

purplecotton · Dec 26, 2005

Sorry about the misunderstanding. What i meant was "herbs used to help alleviate symptoms of cancer treatment". Anyway, thanks for the help and my mom has seen 3 hema/onco docs already and it may not even be leukemia! It may be chronic myelodysplastic syndrome. So given that she has not started any kind of treatment yet (she is undergoing further diagnostic tests and waiting for results and interpretations) i would like to know as much as i can so i may be able to help her. Any help (in your experiences) regarding this new diagnosis would be greatly valued! I DO appreciate your help:wink2: