I am very interested in learning more about vitamins and supplements to boast my immune system as I have read bits and pieces of various posts stating positives from it. Just now, I skimmed through all of the posts here to gain information. I made a list of various vitamins but I'm uncertain about the dosage of each. So many posts share the names of vitamins but not many are including the dosage. This is a concern to me because I know that taking too much of a vitamin or mixing vitamins can sometimes be a bad thing. Can someone please give me (and others!) some insights on how much we should be taking? Sorry to be a pain and wanting to know all of the specifics! Take care!
Here's some bits and pieces of posts that I have found regarding vitamins...
You can get Indole 3 carbinole at a health food store. I got it at Vitamin Shoppe. I also boosted my intake of Vit C B6 B12 and folate.
The article I read suggests 200mg of indole 3 carbinol, with no toxic side effects( it's like eating a head of cabbage) In one study I read it caused regression of CIN II and III in 50% of all cases
I'm taking vitamin E, vitamin C, Zinc, Selenium, Folic Acid, B6 and B12. It seems like so much, but all of them help the immune system. I don't remember the dosage I'm taking for each (but I can look tonight if you'd like), I just researched them first to make sure I didn't wind up accidently taking too much of any of them just incase it could cause other problems. Some of them I only take a half pill of because I could not find them sold in lower dosages per tablet and I didn't feel comfortable pushing the limit recommended.
The best advice I can give is to start taking vitamins, right now I take a multi, 1 mg folic acid, vit C 250mg, vit E 200 IU, cod liver oil 1 to 3 a day. Also eat lots of green,yellow and orange vegetables and fruits, exercise and get lots of rest. There is more and differant vitamins to take, I'm still trying to find out the best ones for our situation, but I know these are good.
Since my LEEP I have followed a healthy balanced diet with lots of fresh fruit and vegetables and ensure I get plenty of early nights! I also take the following vitamins: B6, B12, Vitamin E, Vitamin C, Zinc, Folic Acid, Selenium & Cod Liver Oil
Beta carotene is Vitamin A. Research has found that women with dysplasia are usually low in Vitamin A, folic acid, and the B vitamins. You could try supplementing these vitamins and see what happens. Maybe it'd help. I started taking the Beta Carotene 4 months ago (25,000 IU daily)
Folic acid 10mg daily for 3 months.
Vit B6, vit b12, vit a 10000 iu (at least-most people say more) daily, & if you can get it as a suppository thats good as well. Or get vit a liquid and apply it to the cervix.
Here's my list of the dosage I'm taking of the vitamins.
Multivitamin - once daily
Vitamin B6 - 50mg once daily
Vitamin B12 - 50mcg once daily
Vitamin E - 400 iu once daily
Vitamin C - 500mg twice daily
Folic Acid - 400mcg once daily
Selenium 200 - 200mcg once daily
Zinc - 25mg once daily
What I do is in the mornings I take my daily multivitamin and 500mg of vitamin C. Before bed I take all the rest of the supplements. My multivitamin has 100% of all the other vitamins I'm taking. So I basically take my normal dosage for if I was completely healthy in the mornings, then follow up at night with the extra to boost my immune system that way I don't take too much at once and so that its always in my system.
Thanks for starting this thread, hopefully it'll be very helpful for all of us. I was confused too because I would see vitamins mentioned but had no idea which ones to take or how much until I finally spent hours researching them. The dosages I take are probably more on the conservative side, but I don't want to accidently cause more harm to my body since as you said you can take too much of certain vitamins by accident. I also try to eat a lot of vegetables, whole grains and some dairy (like yogurt every morning) so I know I'm also getting vitamins from my diet for sure.
I have read recently that red peppers have some antioxidants in them that have been shown to prevent cervical cancer, along with some other types of cancers. There's another vegetable too (not carrots that someone else has mentioned), but I can't remember right it now. I've been making sure to eat a half a red bell pepper everyday since I got my abnormal pap results in mid Jan. Can't hurt to eat it, I just add it to my salad, as a side on dinner, or I snack on it. Last night I had it on my pizza I made lol.
Last edited by fairydust7; 02-18-2007 at 08:49 AM.
Thanks for your input...I truly appreciate all of the details! Thanks for the info about the red peppers! I feel the same way as you do...."it can't hurt!"
I have also totally changed my eating habits. Eating yogurt (which I never did), a lot of fiber and grains, etc. In addition to that I've joined a gym last month and have been working out about 5 days a week!
My first leep is scheduled for Tuesday so I'm all about anything and everything that I can do to ensure good results!
Again, thanks for sharing! I hope this is helpful to others as well and perhaps more people will respond!
I take a Centrum multi vitamin, a vitamin A supplement, a vitamin E supplement, a B-complex supplement, and a vitamin C supplement daily. All of those either help with the immune system, or with dysplasia in particular (from what I've read). I just take over the counter versions of all of those. I also eat blueberries or strawberries daily, lots of whole grains, not a lot of saturated fat or processed food. I am also religious about eating lots of cruceferious veggis--in my case that means tons of fresh or just barely steamed spinach and lots of steamed broccoli. I also eat sun dried tomotoes for all the lycopene they pack. I totally ditto the others on getting lots of rest and excercise as well. From what I was told, HPV (and the dysplasia it causes) rears its ugly head when the immune system is down, and that is often caused by stress.
(I heard the same thing about red peppers, too. Luckily I love them!)
I'd love to share with you the regimin my doctor put me on that worked for me! I've never had more than CINI (had two colposcopies with biopsies) but she did use this same exact regimin on a patient with CINIII and after two courses, that patient was back to normal. I had to do two courses and I've had four normal paps since. I'd tested positive for high risk HPV and my doctor had them rerun the test during my last pap and it showed no sign of HPV so my immune system has obviously fought off the stupid virus (for now - I realize it still is in my body and can cause problems in the future.) I really believe this regimin was what helped boost my immunity and I wanted to do whatever I could naturally to get rid of the abnormal paps. I'm having another one next summer so hopefully I'll still be normal! Here's what we did (and you have to be under a docs supervision because this level of Folic Acid is by prescription only!)
My doctor put me on a protocol of 25,000 i.u. Vitamin A and Cerviplex (which is 400 mg. Indole-3-Carbinol) once a day. I was also on 5 mg of Folic Acid two times a day (for a total of 10 mgs a day (that's milligrams NOT micrograms so it's a lot - you need a prescription for this!) and 500 mg. Vitamin C two times a day (for a total of 1000 mg). She also had me switch to natural cotton tampons from a health food store (apparently there are pesticides and wonderful things in the commercial ones) and for seven days while not on my period, I put the liquid from a Vit. A capsule on the end of the tampon and stuck it up next to my cervix. This protocol is for 90 days.
And for the record - I just had my 17 year old daughter get the first of the three Gardasil shots which prevent the high risk strains of HPV and she had no bad reactions. I'm hoping she'll never have to deal with all this and I'd encourage all moms out there to take advantage of that vaccine!!!
I think you should be taking more folat at least 1 gm.
I also have started taking indole 3 carbinol 200mg a day.
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I'm curious on the fish oil, I've seen it mentioned several times. How does it help?
Just to mention, before you start taking vitamin supplements, especially large dosages, always always always ask your doctor. Especially since some vitamins can interact with certain medications and some vitamins can cause other medical problems if large quantities are taken over a long period of time. I should've mentioned that before in my previous post I guess, but didn't think about it.
I also eat strawberries, blueberries and broccoli like sippycup mentioned in her post. along with my red peppers, I love red peppers lol. For breakfast I eat a cup of yogurt (stoneyfield farms cause its all natural), then at lunch I eat either a big salad (lots of dark greens, carrots, red peppers, etc) with a half cup of fruit (strawberries or blueberries, I alternate) or a sandwich with a small salad and the half cup of fruit. Then at dinner we have a lean meat, whole grains and veggies. I mainly stick with the veggies that I've read have the most antioxidants and nutrition in them. on the weekends dinners tend to not be real healthy, but we still eat lots of veggies with whatever fattening main dish lol. If I eat 100% healthy 7 days a week I'll wind up going off it, so I figure letting myself have a meal or two a week thats not as healthy is ok.
When I got my high grade pap result with hpv I wasn't eating like this. I didn't eat really awful, but nowhere near like this either. I didn't eat breakfast either. After getting my results I cahnged my diet immediately. Whether or not it helped with getting normal results back from my colposcopy, I don't know. But I figure it definitely ddin't hurt me. I am going to continue to eating really healthy (other than the meal or two a week) balanced meals until my pap in June and see what happens. Before I never really had incentive to eat healthy, now I definitely do. I also recently heard that most of our immune system is actually in our stomach? so if we don't eat healthy or keep our gut healthy, it can affect our immune system. I will say that since I began eating the yogurt every morning (the stoneyfield also adds fiber) and making sure to only eat whole grains (brown rice, barley, whole wheat pasta, whole grain breads, quinoa, etc) to get more fiber in my diet, I do feel better too. I have a suppressed immune system so I always seem to be feeling a little off or something, but not the last two or three weeks.
This may be TMI, but since 88shadow mentioned the natural cotton tampons... I use natural cloth pads myself, I don't like all the waste from regular tampons and pads. I used to have a lot of trouble with regular pads (tampons drive me nuts), itching, yeast infections during my period, my skin would actually begin to get raw or something because my skin couldn't breathe through the pads, etc. When I heard about cloth pads I bought a couple to try out. I have not gone back to regular pads since. I never have a single problem during my period anymore, no more rawness, no yeast infections, no itching, irritation, nothing. Whether or not regular pads and tampons affect dysplasia and hpv and stuff at all, I don't know, but going with cloth alternatives have been way better for me as far as the other problems I had.
sorry to write so much and such long posts. just throwing out antyhing i have to offer that could help.
Last edited by fairydust7; 02-23-2007 at 06:51 PM.
Fairdust: Did your gynes office call you with the good results? Or did you have to call them. I had my colp 10days ago, and made an appt for a pap in three months. Doc said it looked like only one small suspicious spot. Office called on Friday, I was expecting good news, but wasn't home so I won't know til monday. I was just wondering if they call no matter what or just if it's something worse than they thought and want more follow up. I was feeling really confident and now I am totally stressed out again. I gave the office my cell so I would be able to be reached, but obviously they still have my old number floating around.
My clinic here calls no matter what the results are, but I've actually called them before they could call me everytime (cause I was so nervous of the results had to know asap). I wouldn't stress out if you can help it, communication could've gotten crossed too and they are just routinely calling you anyway. I'll say a prayer that when you talk to them on Monday its all the best news you can get!
One of the strongest fighters against HPV is ellagic Acid which is found in all berry fruits. Red raspberries contain the highest amount of egallic acid, over 100% more than in strawberries.
The Cancer Centre at The Medical University of South Carolina have been testing 500 Cervical sufferers for over 9 years and found that among other things red raspberries prevent destruction of the P53 gene which protects against HPV.
They also found that HPV cells exposed to egallic acic died(apoptosis).
I found out about the anticancer effects of red rapberries when looking for a protective supplement for the prostate. The MUSC research also showed in tests on cancer cells in their laboratory,that ellagic acid was just as effective in battling other cancer cells, breast, pancreas,esophogeall, colon and prostate cancers.
You can get the amount of ellagic acid used in the trial by eating a cupful of red raspberries(150gm) a day or take a supplement of raspberry extract.
I take a supplement containing Red Raspberry extract(40% egallic acid)300mg, Grape Seed Extract(95% OPC's) 180mg and Lycopene 20mg from Amermed, a triple anticancer whammy.
Fairydust: just to let you know, got good results today, inflammation only. I was so relieved. Have to say also that I have been eating healthy since Jan and have lost 18 pounds. I also take 3000 of fish oil. this is very beneficial for heart, joints, eyes, brain. I've read tons of studies that support the use and after all it can't hurt you, (can make you bruise or bleed a little more) It can also reduce sudden death from heart attack.
I've upped my dose of folic acid to 1G and am taking a ton of other supplements, including vit C B12, B6, and indole 3 carbinole. I've been doing this for two months since my abnormal pap, (except for the indole which I've just started) and I think it may have made a difference!!!
Good luck to you and thanks for all your support.
Will stay on the boards and report back in May on my PAP!
K
I was really concerned about your doseage of folic acid you say you're taking. Are you sure it's a gram??? The recommended MAXIMUM doseage for an adult woman is no more than 1,000 micrograms - there are 1,000,000 micrograms in the gram you're saying you're taking. (There are 1,000 micrograms in a milligram and 1,000 milligrams in a gram). Anything over 1,000 micrograms can hide a dangerous B12 deficiency that is known as harmful anaemia. (I see you're taking B12 but it's not always easy to absorb). This anaemia if not caught can lead to serious nervous system damage. That's why I said in my earlier post than to be on high folic acid doseages you MUST be under a doctors supervision. Maybe you should check the doseage you're taking - I just spoke to a pharmacist friend and she said you'd have to be taking nearly a bottle of folic acid a day in order to get that much as the largest over the counter doseage available are pills of .8 milligrams. Sorry - I was just very concerned when I read that and wanted you to double check and also for others who may be reading these posts so that they don't try to take that much!
Yes, my Dr said don't take more than 1mg a day. It can be dangerous to take more than that. Also, there is a risk in taking to much vit A as a supplement. You should try to get all the vit A out of the foods you eat.
Keller:
That's why I said in my earlier post than to be on high folic acid doseages you MUST be under a doctors supervision. Maybe you should check the doseage you're taking - I just spoke to a pharmacist friend and she said you'd have to be taking nearly a bottle of folic acid a day in order to get that much as the largest over the counter doseage available are pills of .8 milligrams. Sorry - I was just very concerned when I read that and wanted you to double check and also for others who may be reading these posts so that they don't try to take that much!
Dear Shadow,
Thank you soooo much for your post!! I was recently diagnosed with the CINI/II dysplasia and god I was freaking out to the max..I surely hope to have kids in the future. but the idea that I can put at risk my cervix either by LEEP or anything invasive kills me!
After reading your post, I made some extensive research and there are studies that confirm the vitamine regimen regress result for a lot of women that are still on CIN stages not cancerous yet. I am definitely taking that up, being that it makes so much sense, and my immunity ssytem is not the strongest, and I can always do the Leep if nothing works..
On the research that I made, a study done by Keri Marshall (you can google or look it up; it is published at Alternative Medicine Review, May, 2003) stood up. She used only 5mg Folic acid and other studies has proven that foliate supplements by themselves do not reverse dysplasia. I am wondering what the appropriate dosage would be?
Also, you mentioned that you put a tampon with vitamin A liquid on top. Did you do at night, or during the day? how much vitamin A did you have to put? There is good support in scientific papers that topical treatment with vitamin A helps regression of dyspasia. (so happy about that, lol) Did you put anything else in your cervix? Like 13C, dim?
Any other suggestions you have and would like to share, i.e. diet tips, exercise, length of treatment?
In the case study from Keri Marshall she used extensively chinese herbs in little quantities (they can be posineus) both as teas and for douching purposes for the whole lenght of treatment for her patient (about 7 months). Personally I dont like douching as I dont want any "interference" with the normal vaginal health. What is your experience?
Sorry for the long post, but the last few weeks have been to say the least misearable for me and only today my level of anxiety has droppen to managable. Thank you so much again for sharing your experience.
Re read my post - I put the exact doseages of everything in there if you want to follow the exact regimin you'll have to get your doctor on board. If I had a doctor who refused to let me try this when I knew it had worked for others, I'd be finding a new one! I was on 10 milligrams (not micrograms) a day of folic acid. I took five in the morning and five at night. The pharmacist wouldn't even fill that prescription till he called my doc to make sure it was correct. As for the Vit. A on the tampon - I just got some liquid filled capsules at the health food store of 25,000 IU each. Just poke a hole in the end with a needle and squeeze out the liquid on the tampon and leave it in overnight. My doc had me do this for five days during the first 90 day protocol and 10 days during the second. As I mentioned, I've had four normal paps since I did this and my high risk HPV didn't show up on my last pap. I'm NOT saying this is a cure. The protocol helps boost your immune system. The rest is up to your body. Another huge, huge tip I'd give to anyone is do not smoke and if you're boyfriend/husband smokes insist on a condom. I've researched this and the carcinigens pool in semen and in the cervix and can lead to cell changes. I was surprised to find this out and it corresponded to my husband of 24 years taking up smoking cigars - that's when I had my first abnormal pap. (Thankfully he quit that nasty habit now!). I know I had HPV in my system for a long time and whether the smoking caused the emergence of dysplasia I'll never know, but I'm sure it didn't help!
Shadow, can I ask you how long the courses for your supplements were? I am wondering if I have to take all of this stuff forever. I think the indole 3 carbinol is harmless, non toxic, but I'm taking 400mg now, before my next pap and want to know if you stopped or reduced your doses??
K
Re: vitamins and supplements 
