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one man's experience and recommendation

RECTAL BLEEDING
and how to stop it

by Bob Wall
(12/30/00)

[P5 Webmaster introduction: Bob Wall was diagnosed at age 64 and underwent seeding and external beam radiation treatment (EBRT). His personal history is at the end of the post. This is offered as one man's experience so you can discuss this with your doctor. It does not constitute recommendation of any procedure, endorsement of any product or medical advice which can be provided only by your health-care provider. Reprinted with permission. The Table of Contents is extracted from his post and edited slightly. He can be reached at Rwutah@aol.com]

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.0 Introduction
2.0 Summary of Information in this Post
3.0 Recommended Regimen to Stop Rectal Bleeding
    3.1 Regimen for the early morning hours
    3.2 First Drink a Large Glass of Water
    3.3 Before Each Meal Drink Metamucil and Water
    3.4 Wall's Power Rectal Breakfast Mixture
    3.5 Take Some Fiber-Con With a Glass of Water
    3.6 Take Some Seacure Capsules and Glutamine
    3.7 Drink Some Coffee Mocha If You Like It
4.0 Regimen for Lunch and Dinner
    4.1 Take Some Metamucil or Psyllium Powder
    4.2 Take Some More Fiber-Con with a Glass of Water
    4.3 Take Some More Seacure and Glutamine
    4.4 Insert Some Suppositories or Vaseline
    4.5 Vitamin E Suppositories
    4.6 Avoid Suppositories Based on Salicylic Acid
5.0 General Advice and Cautions
    5.1 Foods To Avoid or Minimize
    5.2 Vitamins and Supplements You SHOULD AVOID
    5.3 Drink a Lot of Water and other Liquids
    5.4 Get Some Walking Type Exercise Daily
    5.5 Bowel Movements
    5.6 Observe Your Stools
    5.7 Some Facts About Metamucil & Psyllium
    5.8 How Does Psyllium Fiber work
6.0 Some Final Thoughts and Recommendations
7.0: Vitamins/Supplements I take after bleeding stopped
8.0 MY PCA & RECTAL BLEEDING HISTORY


Hello to All:

1.0 Introduction:

This long post deals with an inexpensive and reliable method of HOW TO STOP RECTAL BLEEDING. It requires no medical doctors and no prescription drugs. But you should consult with your doctor before adopting the recommendations in this post. A summary of the post is given below if you don't want to read the whole thing.

I have not followed any e-mail lists for the last year, but I have received several requests for information about stopping rectal bleeding. A number of guys who have had SI and/or EBRT have experienced months of continual rectal bleeding. What is disturbing to me is that medical doctors appear to limit their treatment recommendations to invasive coagulation treatments with argon lasers or to unproven or ineffective prescription drugs that their patients report have not helped them after many months of rectal bleeding. I am confident that most rectal bleeding caused by radiation or other damage to the lower intestinal tract can be stopped with the simple regimen recommended below. I say this based on my own experience in stopping rectal bleeding and the experience of many others who have had almost immediate success with my regimen. But this success occurred only after they had first failed to stop their rectal bleeding by using medical doctor prescribed treatment with prescription drugs.

This rather lengthy post was updated on December 30, 2000. Please disregard any prior posts, which are not as complete as this one. And everyone is given permission to repost this on any other list just let me know so I don't post it there as well. There is so much misinformation about this topic in medical circles that I decided to update this post and to disseminate it far and wide.

2.0 Summary of Information in this Post

2.1 Rectal bleeding occurs in some guys who have had radiation treatments or have damage to their lower intestinal tract. If the bleeding exhibits bright red colored blood, the blood is likely coming from the lower intestinal tract, next to or in the rectum. The site of this bleeding is difficult to establish using conventional medical examination of the lower intestinal tract. Prescription drugs have not proven to be successful in stopping rectal bleeding in those who have reported their history to me.

2.2 Rectal bleeding is difficult to stop unless you soften your stools, avoid blood thinners and eat certain types of foods that will not irritate the blood vessels in your lower intestinal tract as your stools slide through the rectum. Blood thinners to avoid during rectal bleeding episodes include Vitamin E, gingko biloba, garlic capsules and aspirin. Prescription blood thinners such as Coumadin will also aggravate the problem. Readers should check with their doctor before adopting any of my recommendations. Foods to avoid are listed below.

2.3 A good way to soften your stools is to: (1) drink 8 or more glasses of water each day, (2) drink a glass of water containing 1 to 2 teaspoons of Metamucil before each meal, (3) take 1/3 to 1/2 of a Fiber-Con capsule and a glass of water 15 to 20 minutes before each meal, (4) drink a glass of water containing 1 to 2 teaspoons of Metamucil during each meal and (5) avoid eating much low fiber density food and/or foods that contain sharp, hard edges such as pretzels, baked whole wheat wafers, nuts, seeds, popcorn, etc. and (6) eat cooked vegetables, oatmeal, high fiber foods and cereals such as Fiber One (13 grams per 1/2 cup of cereal) and a small amount of easy to digest proteins such as steamed or broiled fish, low fat refried beans, Boca Soy Burgers,etc. And while bleeding occurs minimize intake of raw vegetables and foods with hard edges.

2.4 Do not strain during bowel movements or this will cause more rectal bleeding. Observe your stools and adjust water, fiber and food parameters until your stools are more than 8 inches long and float on water. If they don't float, you need more fiber in your diet such as more Fiber One cereal, more Fiber-Con capsules, or other high fiber foods. During severe bleeding lubricate your rectum with Vaseline 10 minutes or so before a bowel movement.

2.5 A good way to start each day is to drink Wall's Power Rectal Mixture consisting of various fruits, juices, oatmeal, Fiber-One Cereal, cooked or raw carrots, Metamucil, and Glutamine amino acid powder. These are then blended together in a typical food blender. This is a high fiber healthy drink that will adjust your stools so that they don't irritate your rectum and cause more bleeding. Even if I have no rectal bleeding, I consume this mixture almost daily to prevent bleeding. The recipe of this mixture is given below. During periods of heavy bleeding drink a cup of this stuff at each meal.

2.6 Take 6 to 9 capsules per day of the Product Seacure, which is a mixture of peptides and amino acids, and also 10 to 30 grams of Glutamine daily. These are amino acids that help heal the intestinal tract and improve the immune system. An easy way to take Glutamine is to add it to a cold drink,either fruit juices, milk, etc. or to Wall's Power Rectal Mixture described herein. Don't add Glutamine to hot drinks as heat destroys it.

2.7 My background is given on the last page of this post. It is related here to show how and when my rectal bleeding started and was stopped, then started again as I did not follow my own regimen. It summarizes my PCa case history and experience with seed implant and external beam radiation.

3.0 Recommended Regimen to Stop Rectal Bleeding:

3.1 Regimen for the early morning hours

3.2 First Drink a Large Glass of Water

When you get up in the morning, first thing drink 8 oz. of water.

3.3 Before Each Meal Drink a Mixture of Metamucil and Water

About 15 minutes before breakfast, drink a mixture of 1/2 to one teaspoon of psyllium powder or Metamucil in a 8 oz. glass of water; stir well before drinking. I sometimes use orange juice or grape juice, etc. instead of water as it tastes better and mixes better.

You can get Metamucil (psyllium powder with additives to make it taste better, etc.) or pure psyllium powder from a grocery store or a health food store respectively.

You can omit drinking this water/psyllium mixture for breakfast, if instead you drink the Wall's Power Rectal Breakfast, given below, assuming you add sufficient psyllium or Metamucil to this Rectal Breakfast Mixture).

3.4 Wall's Power Rectal Breakfast Mixture

I find that the following recipe is very healthy in general, and particularly helpful in stopping rectal bleeding. I recommend that you make the following mixture in a blender and drink it for breakfast:

WALL'S POWER RECTAL BREAKFAST RECIPE:

Add to a blender the following: 1/2 apple, 1/2 orange, 10 to 20 grapes, 1/4 cantaloupe, 1/2 banana, 2 prunes, or 1/4 cup of prune juice, 1/2 cup strawberries (or any of the various fruits or fruit juice combinations, except don't use grapefruit as it may react with other medications), 1/2 cup grape juice, 1/2 cup cooked or uncooked oatmeal, one half to one cup of General Mill's Fiber One Cereal (contains 13 grams of dietary fiber per one-half cup which is 30 grams), 2 small carrots, one cup of rice milk, 1 or 2 glasses of water, 1 scoop of KNOX NutraJoint Gelatin (1-800-566-9435) which is available in any supermarket and is good for your bones and ligaments), one-teaspoon of Glutamine powder (which Dr. Sahley says will help heal damaged tissue in your intestines), one or two scoops of soy protein (from any health food store; I use 100% Soy protein, Item No. 2708, www.naturade.com, or Protein 95 distributed by Nature's Life and found in health food stores).

Mix the above items for 5 minutes or more in a blender.

If the mixture does not quickly rotate and dive toward the bottom of the blender as it is being mixed at high speed, then add more water, or rice milk, or fruit juice. If you have too much material in the blender, just put part of the mixture in another glass and continue adding all of the remaining ingredients. Then pour the stuff together in a larger bowl, mix by hand, and divide into smaller glasses for drinking later.

This recipe usually makes two or three very large glasses. I drink one glass of this mixture when I take my vitamin pills in the morning. Then I put the second and third glasses in the fridge, cover it with plastic wrap and drink it the next morning or the next day. You may even wish to consume a small amount (1/4 glass) with each meal you eat at home that same day along with your other food and some more Metamucil/water mixtures.

Note: Sometimes I put 2 to 4 teaspoons of teaspoons of Metamucil or psyllium husks in the Wall's Power Rectal Mixture, but this will thicken it, and then you need to add more water to the mixture and remix it, before you drink it. This is true particularly if the mixture sets for a few minutes or a few hours. But that is easy, just add water, or rice milk, etc., and stir with a long spoon or knife. If you don't like the taste of the mixture with Metamucil, then omit it and take your Metamucil and/or psyllium powder with water or fruit juiced mixtures.

If you add fruits with seeds such as raspberries, black berries, then strain the mixture through a wire strainer screen, the type commonly used in the Kitchen.

3.5 Take Some Fiber-Con With a Glass of Water

During or before the morning meal also, take 1/3 to 1/2 of a Fiber-Con capsule with a glass of water. Note: the full Fiber-Con capsule contains 244 mg. of calcium, and 550 mg. of polycarbophil. I think it is very important to take Fiber-Con as this expands the volume of your stools, makes them softer, and reduces the friction of the stools as they slide through the lower intestinal tract.

Caution when taking Fiber-Con:

Fiber-Con should not be taken with antibiotics such as tetracycline type. When taking Fiber-Con be sure to drink one glass of water immediately after taking the Fiber-Con, or it could lodge in your throat and swell, choking you, as it expands in the presence of water. If questions call 1-800-282-8805.

3.6 Take Some Seacure Capsules and Glutamine Powder

In addition to Step 1 above, with the morning meal take 3 to 5 Seacure capsules and one-half teaspoon of the amino acid Glutamine in a glass of fruit juice or water or other liquid such as WALL'S POWER RECTAL BREAKFAST MIXTURE.

You can get Seacure from Energique (1-800-869-8078) with a credit card or other Internet sites. It is about 33% cheaper if you get your doctor, dentist or other medical type to order it for you.

You can buy powdered Glutamine in any health food store. You can also buy Glutamine capsules, but the powder is cheaper. I buy both powder and capsules, and keep the both of these with me when I travel. Don't put Glutamine in any hot liquid or drink hot coffee or other drinks after taking glutamine or Seacure, as heat destroys Glutamine according to Dr. Sahley, author of a book on Amino Acid therapy.

I put a small bottle of Metamucil, and a few capsules of Fiber-con in each of my cars and in my wife's purse so that I always have them available, when I am eating in a restaurant. I use an old small vitamin pill bottle with a lid, so that I am not packing large bottles of Metamucil or psyllium around. I ask the waiter to give me two glasses of water with no ice, as ice makes it more difficult to mix the Metamucil in the water. Before the meal, I take 1/3 to 1/2 of a Fiber-con capsule and a full 8oz glass of water. Then I drink at least two glasses of water/Metamucil with the meal (one teaspoon or more of Metamucil per 8 oz. glass)

3.7 Drink Some Coffee Mocha If You Like It

Most mornings for breakfast, I also drank a large cup of coffee mocha (1/5 glass of chocolate low fat soy milk, 3/5 glass of water, 1/5 cup of rice milk, heat in a microwave and then add 1 or two teaspoons of coffee Mocha mix). I prefer this to regular coffee and it causes me to have easy bowel movements as well. My wife says that it affects her the same way.

4.0 Regimen for Lunch and Dinner

4.1 Take Some Metamucil or Psyllium Powder

During each meal, drink at least one 8 oz. glass of the Metamucil/water (or psyllium powder/water mixture). Use 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of the psyllium or Metamucil per full 8 oz. glass of water) as you eat your food. (When you first start using psyllium, you may have to use less than recommended here, until you get used to it for a few days.)

For large meals (like lunch or dinner), drink two glasses of the same psyllium/water mixture. Drink a little of the mixture, then eat some food, then drink a little more, and eat more food, etc. Sometimes I add a little ice tea or orange juice to the Metamucil/water mixture to vary its flavor. If I have only ice water, I sometimes add a little hot tea or coffee to bring the water/psyllium mixture to room temperature as it mixes better.

Chew your food very thoroughly, much more than you normally do.

4.2 Take Some More Fiber-Con with a Glass of Water

During the lunch meal also, take 1/3 to 1/2 of a Fiber-Con capsule and drink one glass of water immediately after taking the Fiber-Con. Repeat this for the evening meal, or any large meal when you eat a high volume of food. See cautions above when using Fiber-Con.

4.3 Take Some More Seacure and Glutamine

Before or after the lunch and evening meal, take 3 to 5 Seacure capsules and one-half teaspoon of Glutamine in a glass of water or other liquid.

4.4 Insert Some Preparation H Suppositories or Vaseline

At times of heavy bleeding, or continual bleeding for day after day it will be helpful to lubricate the rectum with Vaseline before your bowel movement. Put some Vaseline around the tip of your finger and lubricate the lower inch or so of the rectum,ng, just before your bowel movement Do this also when your rectum feels very sore during the previous prior bowel movement. Also at times of heavy bleeding insert a preparation H suppository 2 or 3 times per day, and use one an hour or so prior to your expected bowel movement. This helps lubricate the rectum during a bowel movement and cut down on the friction which believe causes rupture of local blood vessels as the stools slide over the damaged lining of the intestinal tract. I did try both of these techniques when my bleeding was still occurring on consecutive days. Later on, when I had standardized my Metamucil/water mixture, etc., to give me soft stools and no observable bleeding, I discontinued the suppositories and the Vaseline lubrication. I strongly believe that both suppositories and Vaseline help stop rectal bleeding, particularly when the bleeding is steady and severe.

4.5 Vitamin E Suppositories

On a few occasions, I inserted two Vitamin E capsules into my rectum, once or twice per day. I did not continue this practice for very long and I don't know if it helped much or not. However some companies actually sell Vitamin E suppositories, and claim it promotes healing. I am not sure about this one.

4.6 Avoid Suppositories Based on Salicylic Acid such as Prescription "Rowasa"

Rowasa suppositories are not required to stop your rectal bleeding. Some doctors prescribe these for rectal bleeding, but if they are blood thinners, they should not be used in the absence of definitive proof that they stop rectal bleeding. One guy (George) used these suppositories with little improvement, until he switched to my regimen. After he switched to my regimen he noticed a large reduction in bleeding in a short time period (about 14 days). Prior to that he had had months of no success using doctor prescribed drugs including Rowasa suppositories.

5.0 General Advice and Cautions

5.1 Foods To Avoid or Minimize

Avoid foods that have seeds, nuts or are very hard to digest or foods consisting of hard particles like pretzels,or baked whole wheat wafers,etc. For a few weeks, until the bleeding is stopped, I would eat only cooked vegetables and avoid raw veggies unless they are ground up in a blended mixture. I would avoid hard to digest foods like steaks, ribs or liver. If you eat meat, eat trout, salmon, catfish, or other broiled or grilled fish. Eat rice, mashed potatoes, cooked carrots, cooked yams, or sweet potatoes and other cooked vegetables and well cooked beans. If you need red meat, eat meat loaf or hamburgers, or chili with hamburger. Avoid hard to digest cereals, sausage, bacon, etc., and avoid popcorn as well. It is OK to eat some whole wheat bread, but avoid sesame seeds or nut breads. Don't eat the "trail mix" foods with nuts, pretzels, dried fruit, etc. Also avoid hard pretzels with salt on them or baked chips or crackers. These former two items stuff caused me to have more rectal bleeding once, after I had completely stopped the bleeding using my recommended regimen. Avoid foods which contain a significant amount of fresh garlic or garlic powder as these thin your blood.

Also avoid all blood thinners unless they are needed to prevent serious medical problems like heart attacks, strokes, clotting, etc. 5.2 Vitamins and Supplements You SHOULD AVOID

Below are a list of the vitamin pills and products that you should MINIMIZE OR NOT TAKE as long as you have rectal bleeding.

    1. Vitamin E (blood thinner, anticoagulant)

    2. Gingko Biloba (blood thinner, anticoagulant)

    3. Aspirin or related products (blood thinner, prevent blood platelets from clotting, anticoagulant)

    4. Garlic foods or garlic capsules (blood thinner, anticoagulant)

    5. Prescription blood thinners such as Coumadin (check with your doctor as these blood thinners may be needed to prevent strokes, heart attacks, etc., and it may not a good idea to take any of the above blood thinners such as Gingko Biloba with prescription blood thinners like Coumadin)

    6. Any other blood thinner (check with your doctor, pharmacist and on the Internet if you are taking herbs or medicines and you don't know if they are blood thinners. But don't believe anything you hear as gospel, because my urologist did not know that garlic or Gingko Biloba is a blood thinner, but he did know about aspirin

5.3 Drink a Lot of Water and other Liquids

Drink a lot of liquids every day, and at least 8 glasses of water spread throughout the day. Pour 8 glasses of water in a gallon jug, and get you a large plastic water bottle or two. Fill that water bottle up and keep it with you at all times, at work and at play. Every 10 minutes or so, take a swig often and you will be surprised how much liquid you can drink during a day without feeling bloated. If you like ice tea, drink a couple of glasses of this daily. Also you can drink diluted fruit juices such as orange or grape juice. If you don't dilute them, you will be taking in a lot of sugar. I would avoid consumption of a lot of caffeine drinks. At the end of the day, your gallon water jug should be empty.

5.4 Get Some Walking Type Exercise Daily

Walk for 25 to 60 minutes daily and avoid riding a bike with a narrow seat which may irritate the rectum area. Walking type exercise is good for promoting easy and often bowel movements. I would avoid lifting very heavy weights or straining while lifting anything. Don't sit for long periods of time. Get up and move around every hour if you do desk work.

5.5 Bowel Movements

When you have a bowel movement, which will probably occur at least twice per day with this regimen, do not strain to force the movement. If you have a bowel movement every morning, and for some reason you don't feel like having a bowel movement that morning, walk around for a while after you drink something hot, like coffee mocha or prune juice, and this will make it more likely that you will have an easy bowel movement. Don't strain very much at all during the bowel movement or this will cause bleeding. I am very confident that this is a true statement as this has happened to me at least 4 or 5 times, before I "broke the code". Wait until you have to go and then don't strain any more than you have to during the bowel movement. I believe it is easy to rupture the blood vessels that are close to the surface in the intestinal wall. That is why eating nuts, pretzels, baked wheat wafers, and seeds during periods of bleeding is stupid.

If your bowels are too hard they will expand the diameter of the rectum and this will cause more friction between the feces and the intestinal wall which has those tiny and fragile blood vessels.

5.6 Observe Your Stools

Your stools should bind together (not be loose like diarrhea) and float in the toilet boil. If they don't float you may not be getting enough fiber in your diet and enough liquid with the fiber. If you are not getting enough fiber, add some more Fiber One Cereal to your regimen, either in the Wall Power Rectal Mixture or eat a small bowl of it along with your dinner and evening meal.

Your stools should be more than 6 to 8 inches long and float on top of water in the toilet bowl. If this is not happening, you may not be getting enough fiber in your diet and/or possibly not enough water. When you first start using Metamucil and Fiber_con, your bowels may be more loose than normal. If that happens, cut back on the amount of psyllium fiber or Metamucil that you put in each glass of water. But still drink at least two glasses of Metamucil/water mixture when you consume a lot of food.

I notice from time to time when I travel that my stools will suddenly become heavy, sink to the bottom of the toilet bowl and frequently I feel constipated. Then a small amount of bleeding is sometimes observed down the side of the stool or on the toilet paper as you strain to force a bowel movement. I find that when I travel it helps me to take some dried prunes and prune juice along and eat these before and after each meal, along with the water and Metamucil regimen.

5.7 Some Facts About Metamucil and Psyllium Husks and Psyllium Powder

Metamucil contains psyllium fiber, and other stuff like dyes and sugar or sugar substitutes to make it taste better than the bland psyllium husks, or the bland psyllium powder that you find in health food stores. I buy the Metamucil product that has sugar substitutes like Nutrasweet, to avoid the excess calories that are in the sugar version of Metamucil.

I also frequently use the psyllium husks or ground up psyllium powder (with no additives) and put it in the Wall's Power Rectal Mixture, and this masks the bland taste of the psyllium powder, but it also makes the Rectal Mixture taste somewhat bland and makes it very viscous, after it has set for a while. Then you need to add water, fruit juice, or rice milk, etc., to make it less viscous, before you drink it. But that is easy.

Sometimes I just put the psyllium husks in some water, orange or grape juice and just down it like John Wayne drinking a shot of whisky. Friends ask me does it taste good. My response is: not really, but who cares. The Metamucil/water mixture tastes better, something like orange punch, but it does have all of the additives.

5.8 How Does Psyllium Fiber work

Metamucil seems to act like a binder and it binds your stools together. If you are not getting enough water intake, your stools will bind together and be much too hard, even if you are taking Metamucil or psyllium. If your stools are too loose, then cut back on the amount of Metamucil you are placing in the glass of water, before you drink that during glass of water during each meal. Don't cut back on the amount of water you drink.

If your stools are soft, bind together and form a stool that is more than 6 to 8 inches long, and floats in the toilet bowl, then you are probably using the proper amount of Metamucil and water, and your diet is probably OK. Particularly if your bowel movements are not painful.

If your bowel movements occur easily, with no straining, and no pain; that is good. And this is a further indication that your regimen is about right and is working. Don't get impatient. This process of stopping the rectal bleeding will take a few weeks.

6.0 Some Final Thoughts and Recommendations

A further explanation of why this regimen may work to stop rectal bleeding is given below.

Regarding the Seacure product, be aware that it is made from white fish and contains a mixture of amino acids and peptides (linked chains of amino acids). Your body uses amino acids and peptides to repair damaged tissue. When you eat meat and beans your body absorbs some amino acids and some peptides, but most of the peptides go through your intestinal tract. They are not absorbed as they are very high molecular weight chains. Also the cooking process destroys many amino acids and peptides and for that reason raw meat like sushi, or medium rare meat is a much better source of amino acids and peptides. The Seacure product is almost 100% absorbed, and hence your body can use it to rebuild damaged tissue. The June 98 Issue of the Townsend Letter for Patients and Doctors gives the experience of several medical doctors who give their patients this stuff before surgery to promote more rapid healing and whenever they have intestinal or stomach problems. Glutamine, is an amino acid, and Seacure contains low doses of Glutamine. I believe that Glutamine works very well in promoting the healing of damaged intestinal tract tissue and hence a higher dose is recommended to stop rectal bleeding. The June 98 Townsend Letter also discusses the use of Glutamine, as Does Dr. Sahley's book on Amino Acid Therapy. Dr. Sahley has done an extensive study of Amino Acids and their role in intestinal tract therapy. Glutamine is believed to improve the immune system, improve the effects of many chemotherapy agents, and heal the intestinal tract. Dr. Sahley states that to absorb Glutamine, you need to take Vitamin B-6. The soy powder products also contains amino acids and peptides (if you want my post that describes the June 98 Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, please e-mail me at rwutah@aol.com)

As of December, 2000, I still follow this regimen. I drink lots of water, Metamucil or psyllium powder/water before and during every meal, I also take 1/3 of a Fiber-Con capsule in a full glass of water before each meal. I drink the Wall Rectal Power Mixture every morning and eat fish or soy burgers and vegetables daily. I generally observe a healthy low fat balanced diet, with standard vitamin supplements and lots of cooked vegetables. I do eat raw salads at many meals with no problem.

I find that occasionally I still experience very minor rectal bleeding. This happens usually when I do not drink the Wall's Power Rectal Mixture, but instead substitute a breakfast of pancakes, eggs, etc. It also happens if I let my bowels get too hard. We travel a lot, and it seems that changes in the water seem to affect me by causing harder bowels or constipation. A recent trip to Paris (Sept. of 2000) caused severe constipation not only for me, but also for my wife who almost never gets constipated. She had trouble having a bowel movement for 3 days, and I was only marginally better as I was taking Fiber-con and Metamucil. This change in environment caused me to have some rectal bleeding as my stools became harder but I was able to get it stopped by adding some more prune juice, keep up the Metamucil and Fiber-con water regimen and eating more fruit. Since I did not have a blender on the Paris trip, nor the Fiber One Cereal or Oatmeal with me, I was unable to use the Wall Power Rectal Mixture.

Upon returning home in October 2000 my rectal bleeding was stopped completely as I returned to the regimen advocated herein. Then we went to Hawaii in December 2000 and on this trip I made sure I had a blender and the Wall Power Rectal Ingredients. Everything went well until I ate some baked whole wheat Nabisco Triscuits while I was walking. These have sharp hard edges. This was a bad idea and I notice some minor rectal bleeding the next day during my normal morning bowel movement. Again I reverted to the Wall Power Rectal Mixture and stopped the junk food and the bleeding stopped. We eat out daily and I usually have broiled, steamed or grilled fish, mashed potatoes, bread and various cooked vegetables, all with no problem. Candy and desserts cause me no problems either. But to stop all bleeding forever, you have to be very diligent and not let your diet contain the undesirable foods.

I now feel great and I exercise six days a week by walking 3 to 5 miles daily. When I am home I work out with light weights.

Now that my rectal bleeding has been stopped, it seems that one of my next worries is whether my PSA will trend down or whether it will rise again and create a new round of problems. And that is not an uncommon problem for most of the guys that will be reading this. My last PSA on July 31 was 0.40, which is about 18 months after I completed the seed implant and external beam radiation therapy at the Radiotherapy Clinic of Georgia. Unless my PSA declines to the 0.20 range, a recurrence of PCA is likely according to long term RCOG data.

You can be sure that my only motive in this post is to help those who may have rectal bleeding, because I believe it is highly unlikely that conventional medical treatment with drugs is going to help much. I personally know that this regimen does work, as my bleeding was severe at times and continued for several weeks on an intermittent basis. When I failed to follow the regimen, the bleeding started again. Also, many others have had success with this regimen. When I followed the regimen exactly, the bleeding stopped after a few weeks. BTW, I have no financial interest whatsoever in any of the products that I have mentioned in this post.

Please let me know how you make out, if you or anyone else tries the regimen. Let me know if it works or if it does not work.

7.0: The Vitamins/Supplements I take

after the rectal bleeding was stopped are listed below:

1. One multiple one-a-day vitamin pill

2. One 400 IU Vit. E. capsule (I use the natural form of Vit. E, the d-tocopherol type, not dl type which is a synthetic product; see www.naturemade.com for one source of the d form). Note: YOU MIGHT WANT TO AVOID VITAMIN E IF YOU HAVE RECTAL BLEEDING OR OTHER BLEEDING.

3. One 200 mcg. Selenium pill

4. One 400 IU Vitamin D capsule

5. Two Citracal capsules (2 capsules of calcium citrate with Vit. D which provides 630 mg of Calcium and 400 IU of Vit.D)

6. One or two one garlic capsule. Note: YOU MIGHT WANT TO AVOID GARLIC IF YOU HAVE RECTAL BLEEDING OR OTHER BLEEDING.

7. 100 mg. of CoQ10 (in my hot coffee or hot tea)

8. Two green tea capsules

9. One scoop of Knox Pain Free with Glucosamine (avoid Clondroitin which is sometimes found with Glucosamine, as Clondroitin may accelerate PCa growth)

10. Two Genestein capsules (mine are from Nutrition Warehouse contains 15-20 mg. of various isoflavones, genistein and daidzein.

11. One 250 mg. of Vitamin C.

12. One Advil capsule every other day, and one low doses aspirin every other day. Note: YOU MIGHT WANT TO AVOID ASPIRIN IF YOU HAVE RECTAL BLEEDING OR OTHER BLEEDING; CHECK WITH YOUR DOCTOR.

8.0 ROBERT WALL'S PCA CASE HISTORY & RECTAL BLEEDING HISTORY

At the age of 64, I was diagnosed with PCa. I took PC SPES for 10 months while deciding upon a therapy. PC SPES cut my PSA from 8.3 to less than 1.0 and my prostate volume from 55 cc to 20 cc. Then I was treated for PCa (Gleason 5, PSA = 1.0, prostate volume = 20 CC, no DRE abnormalities) in late 1998 with a seed implant and 30 EBRT sessions at the RCOG in Atlanta. The EBRT sessions were completed on Dec. 15, 1998, and I had no bowel, urinary or other problems that were not typical for the procedure. I currently have no adverse problems, sexually, bowels, urination, or otherwise. During the EBRT at RCOG, I had only very minimal rectal bleeding, once or twice, which stopped completely a week or two after I completed the EBRT. However, in February 2000, I got a severe bout of pneumonia, and was almost incoherent for two days. I did not drink much or eat much. And I let my stools get very hard and I had to severely strain to force a bowel movement. This apparently caused the rectal bleeding problem and then severe bleeding occurred periodically. This bleeding continued for over a month, and was intermittent, and sometimes occurred when I was not having a bowel movement, but mostly occurred with a bowel movement. This bleeding started about 14 months after my Seed implant and 30 external radiation treatments were completed at RCOG. I don't know if the radiation treatments caused some damage to my intestinal tract or not, but I had no recent observable bleeding until I got the pneumonia. But after a painful bowel movement, when I had pneumonia, I observed intermittent bleeding with red blood present on the toilet tissue and down the side of the stools. Sometimes it looked like you took an artist's paint brush and painted a 1/4 to 1/2 inch wide streak down the side of the stool. At other times a lot of blood showed up in the toilet, and sometimes in my shorts while I was walking around.

Very red blood is usually a sign that the blood is coming from the lower intestinal tract as opposed to the stomach or upper intestinal tract. I had a Sigmoidoscopy (flexible fiber optics tube inserted up the lower end of the tract) which found nothing irregular. This was given by the same Doctor who had given me two colonoscopies over the full length of intestinal tract in the prior 5 years. He never found anything then or now that he thought could be causing the intermittent bleeding. But the bleeding continued and I believe it was irritated by my diet, my selection of foods, my low fiber intake, my lower than desired liquid intake and some other factors. I was able to stop it completely using the prescribed regimen, which I adapted from week to week. I believe it will work to stop rectal bleeding in others as some have tried various variations of my regimen and have reported good success. Several guys were absolutely ecstatic that months of medical treatments gave them nothing but more bleeding, and my regimen stopped their bleeding in less than 30 days. My rectal bleeding started and stopped on several occasions during the next 9 months as I failed, from time to time, to observe the regimen described in this post. But upon returning to the regimen espoused herein , the bleeding stopped again. It is a constant battle to keep the bleeding stopped if one does not follow the regimen.

If anyone has any suggestions or precautions to add to this regimen, please e-mail me at (Rwutah@aol.com). Thanks.

Just some thoughts off the wall,

Bob Wall
Home phone: 801-942-5257
Normally from the foothills of the beautiful and rugged Wasatch Mountain Range in the Salt Lake Valley, but temporarily in Maui [12/30/00]

 
 

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