Life Mel honey

Hi Katrina, When I was first diagnosed a friend gave me a jar of life-mel honey and I did use it as thought it would do not harm. There is a website where the research is listed (albeit life-mels own site). I have never been neutropaenic through chemo but then I have had GCSF jabs routinely after each cycle. My gut reaction is that if it was that effective it would be prescribed/advised by oncologists but that it isn't likley to do any damage either and therefore if you believe it may be of benefit give it a go. It is expensive though at about £40 per jar. Tessa

Thanks for the info Tessa. It's good to know you didn't have an neutropenia.

I have seen the life mel site. It does appear to prevent neutropenia but does that also relate to reducing the efficacy of the chemo. I guess i really need an Apiary specialist to understand how the bees process nectar to honey and what components remain active and which don't and thus any possible interactions with the chemo from the nectar collected form the herbs. I'm happy to give it a go at any cost as long as its not at the cost of the reducing the efficacy of the chemo on the cancer cells.

When I spoke to my oncologist about how to reduce risks and improve life chances she was more than happy for me to use life-mel and said it would not impact on chemo at all. She also said there was some evidence that green tea and minimising/reducing non-organic dairy and meat produce had a positive effect as it reduced amount of artificial oestrogens - but only of use in ER positive tumours. Tess

I spoke to the oncology team about this early in my treatment.  They said if it was that good they would prescribe it.  On doing my own research, ike you, I didn't feel there was a enough evidence or rigour to the vresearch results to warrant me adding yet another thing to my treatment regime.  In the end I had no issues with low blood cell counts throughout my treatment.

Noj x

Hi I am coming late to this but have only started chemo recently.

I can’t really add anything to the honey debate except I wish you could take it with something because it is really sweet and difficult when you hate sweet stuff!

what I did want to say as a doctor myself is that just because something isn’t prescribed, it does not mean it doesn’t work. There are so much data out there, so much to learn and practice, and virtually all of it based on western medical principles. That doesn’t leave much if any room for alternatives. You would also be surprised how many effective treatments are not in routine practice, just because others are well entrenched.

obviously that doesn’t mean you should believe everything you read, and in our situation, we are more vulnerable than most to hope. But just don’t discount things because they are not routinely prescribed.