My brother Josh died on July 9, 1993 when he was 39 years old from recurring glioblastomas.  He suffered tremendously during those 2 ½ years he was sick.  They cut him with drastic cranial surgeries, burned him with radiation and poisoned him with chemotherapy.  He turned from one of the funniest, joyful, appreciative people I’ve ever known in my 51 years on this earth, into a confused, then comatose, shriveled shell of a man.  None of the therapies claimed to save him, give him quality of life or even hope of any future.  This is what was forced down his throat by the “traditional medical community”, the ones who “know best”.  I happen to be an RN (my husband is a biologist) and knowing a bit about how these cases go, knew my dear brother was a “goner”.  We (my husband, mom, and I) tried to suggest alternative therapies to Josh and his wife.  His wife would have no part of this and spoke in a tense as though Josh was already dead, for the entire remaining year of his life.  Needless to say, it was horrible.  We felt he could have at least gained quality of life had he adopted some other therapies and perhaps would have at least died with more dignity than he did curled up in a fetal position.

I swore from that time on, I would study other ways to help anybody with cancer to make their struggle with this disease easier or even miraculous.

Well, the universe is “funny” that way, years later, we got the opportunity with our 6 yr. old female Doberman pinscher, Kayla who was diagnosed with the very same brain cancer that caused my brother’s death.  The vet started her on massive doses of anticonvulsive and steroids.  We were told she had 1-4 months to live and this therapy with little quality of life, as the steroids would cause her to be hungry all the time, urinate constantly and be so hyper that sleep would be extremely difficult.  Our alternative from the vet wasn’t much better.  We could opt for chemo or radiation, which might tag on an extra 3-6 months, but the dog would probably be confused, require round the clock care and lose healthy brain tissue as well as shrinking of the diseased stuff, with no hope of quality of life for our beautiful doggie daughter. 

A friend of mine, had been studying alternative medicine at the time and recommended we contact Tricia and Jim Feijo as they have had success treating these sorts of cases.  I called their radio show not expecting them to help me with a dog.  They couldn’t have been more helpful.  They gave us hope and courage to move forward and try to give Kayla some life; life with quality, not agony and some time with us, ‘till it was her time to go see Josh!

The vet told us we were crazy and irresponsible, that by taking Kayla off the steroids, (which we knew suppress immune function and encourage tumor growth, not to mention the other awful side effects I wrote about above) we would be killing her.  We hoped the new natural anti-inflammatory, GDU (Daniel Chapter One product) given in high enough doses would do better, as it would decrease the inflammation and keep her calm.  It did work, much better than the steroids.  We also placed her on the 7 Herb Formula to keep
her organs healthy rather than poison her bodily systems with chemo and stop further cancer cell growth.  Since we had a baseline MRI at this point we felt we had a starting point.  We went through 3 vets until we came upon a neurological specialist who was hesitant, but willing to work with our “east meets west” empirical form of treatment.  He figured her prognosis was so bad we didn’t have much to lose anyway.  We also started her on the Bioshark (a shark cartilage compound known to stop angiogenesis around tumors) (This has been studied in many clinical settings), milk thistle to keep her liver healthy and a regiment of home made food to keep her nutritional status strong.  We also employed several homeopathic remedies along the way, as weak as a traditional anticonvulsant to keep her stable as we shrunk her tumor.  A week after we changed over the therapies, Kayla was actually wrestling with her doggie sister in our yard…we cried for joy to see her change from a weak, shaking dog unable to walk without a sling under her belly, back to an active, fun loving dog.  She ran in fields, rode in the car, chewed her toys and played daily.  She also slept very well.

Granted, our plan of care took a great deal of time, people power and energy, but I can say with full conviction we did the right thing for our dog and gave her a great, happy, healthy time ‘till she went to heaven.  Her first MRI was in April; we did a follow up in January.  Our vet almost fainted when he compared the 2 studies and found we had shrunken her tumor over 35%.

“This, he said, “is never seen, these sorts of tumors don’t shrink, only grow at a very rapid rate.”  He suggested we continue our course of therapy and keep him in the loop.  He wanted to write a paper about this case to publish in the USC Veterinarian Professional Journal.  Kayla continued to thrive for months after this.  She did sleep more, but enjoyed everyday life.

Hurricane Katrina came.  Our vet went down to New Orleans to help with the animal rescues and care.  While he was away, Kayla started seizing and couldn’t stop.  We rushed her to the hospital, she was placed on sedation and it was determined she has a massive bleed, probably from a blood vessel attached to the tumor early on.  Since we continued to shrink the tumor, it may have ripped and we of course had to inevitably say goodbye to our sweet Kayla.  She lived for more than 18 months.  We had the support and love of the folks at Daniel Chapter One.

I will say this and would swear in front of a court, their products are safe, work for many ailments and encourage better health for many people.  Trying to stop their work is an embarrassment to the integrity of our country and its government.  Their products are made from natural ingredients and work with the body’s systems, not against them like so many FDA approved meds on the market.  My husband and I utilize ma y of their products and have had great results with every one of them.  I have told many friends and helped them as well.

Reverse your stand on this matter and let them continue to help folks wherever they can.  God bless their work!

Laura Rudin