Hydrogen Peroxide Therapy

[65browneyes]

Anybody heard of this? I took my MIL to see her lawyer today and he started talking up this therapy to her (she has terminal lung cancer). Course, he gave the whole, "I'm not a doctor, have NO medical background" shpeel.

But, he said he has a client who was diagnosed with Prostatic Cancer last fall. This client was in the natural foods store looking for something naturopathic for his cancer, when a woman overheard him talking and recommended this therapy.

The client started the therapy and his PSA levels have dropped from 123 to less than 23. He is apparently doing remarkably well and even moved in the last couple weeks to the main island in Hawaii. This client was apparently quite ill when he started this therapy and the lawyer said he felt the man was near death at that time.

The lawyer said that in his research and experience with this therapy, it is supposedly incredibly helpful with lung disease (COPD, emphysema, etc). He said he started the therapy a couple months ago and has NOT been ill at all over the winter, as is the norm for him.

I haven't researched it further myself, but wanted to see if anyone here has any comments on it.

 

[debilorrah]

I have never even heard of it.

 

[Ec_Prokta]

Hmm. Sounds interesting.

 

[Biddieacres]

What do you do with the Peroxide?

 

[Rosalind]

NO NO NO. Very dangerous. You can get severe chemical burns this way, and it does not do a darned thing for cancer. Your body makes an enzyme called catalase that denatures H2O2 fairly quickly, so that by the time any peroxide you'd ingest reaches the site of the cancer, it's already been turned into water and free radicals (yes, the same exact free radicals that likely caused the DNA damage leading to cancer in the first place).

If concentrations of peroxide >5% or so are used (many proponents of this...idea....recommend using industrial strengths), you can get very severe and very painful chemical burns from it, because while the catalase can denature a small amount of peroxide it can be overwhelmed if a lot of peroxide is applied to a small area. I tell you this as someone who has had more than her share of chemical burns FROM PEROXIDE.

Used to work for a company that used 35% peroxide to disinfect stuff--I had to put bottles of peroxide into this contraption that would vaporize it and spray the vapor around whatever needed disinfecting. There were the inevitable spills. It hurts. A lot. It takes a long time to heal. You can end up with scars.

And despite that, I still got cancer (cervical)! So, I can really REALLY testify that peroxide does not work on cancer.

The one thing I would strongly recommend for all types of cancer is a super-good pain management team. Many docs, including oncologists sadly, get very nervous about the DEA or are sometimes uninformed about the latest pain research. There are pain management specialists who are very good and will make quite sure that at least you stay comfortable whether you recover or not.

The one thing I would recommend for lung ailments is a flu shot and a pertussis booster if you haven't had one in the past 5-10 years. Other than that, wrap up warm when you go out, put the humidifier by the bed, and wash your hands often, just like Mom told you.

If my cancer recurred and I was in the spendy grocery store looking for stuff to eat, I think I'd be in the cheesecake aisle, not the granola aisle, but that's just me...DH remarked upon hearing my diagnosis that since I ate mostly vegetarian, exercised three times/week and did yoga for stress relief, that I should take up smoking to cure my cancer since obviously healthy living wasn't helping.

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

Okay, my Dad was just diagnosed with lymphoma (or is in the process of being diagnosed with lymphoma). Any thoughts on what to do to help him? I am at a loss on what might make him feel better. What did the trick for you when you were in chemo and radiation? I really, really need to do something tangible. (Dad having cancer is killing me, quite frankly.)

 

[65browneyes]

Thanks for the info, Rosalind! Pretty much seconded my opinion there.

The lawyer was telling us today to buy 35% food grade peroxide, but to be extremely cautious to not get it on our skin, etc because it would burn the tar out of you.

And yet, he was suggesting my MIL take 3 drops in 8 oz distilled water the first day, increasing to 26 drops ....yada yada yada. Sounded pretty hokey to me.

And, he very specifically instructed us to use ONLY distilled water.

Okay, so if something has the ability to burn skin so severely, tell me WHY!?!?!? would I ingest increasing amounts of it??

MIL was turned off the idea almost immediately, and I was just plain skeptical about it from the start.

In my breif online research this afternoon, I saw a link to a page regarding a woman who died after receiving intravenous Hydrogen Peroxide Therapy. YIKES!!




edited to remove some of the administration details the lawyer gave due to second thinking having posting them here.

Also to sympathize with the poster regarding her dad with lymphoma.

 

[Rosalind]

Quote:
First off, I'm sorry to hear that.

Second thing--it depends on what type of lymphoma. Many lymphomas are highly curable. Many people live with all kinds of lymphoma for decades. I know it sucks to wait, but wait for the pathology report of the biopsy before you get too worried about it. You will need to know grade, stage, cell type before you can be very worried. Otherwise, just be supportive and listen to what your Dad needs from you. Probably best thing to do is go to the National Cancer Institute website so that you will have intelligent questions to ask the oncologist. The thing about sitting in a doctor's office and getting lousy news is that this is the only time you really have to ask questions, but you're sort of emotionally overwhelmed and feel unable to ask because you're panicking. The nicest thing DH did was think up questions he figured I would want to know, and ask them for me, because I was just kind of sitting there gobsmacked and panicky.

Also, when I was in the hospital, he made a bunch of sick jokes about asking them to put in implants and so forth while I was under, and him being cheerful really helped a lot.

They've got some excellent new chemo out there now for lymphoma. Good stuff. I worked on it, but it would be good even if someone else did the development.

My neighbors also worked on some good lymphoma-targeted chemotherapies--we're a science geek neighborhood.