ALD cancer

I have low sodium levels and have done for many years. It is either due to hypothyroidism or the volume of water I drink. I repeatedly get told to eat more sodium chloride, but it is not nice.

Eek.
Is that a thing?

Technically, hormone therapy is chemical castration by reducing the levels of testosterone so once the therapy stops working then it’s considered castration resistant.

Some do undergo an orchiectomy (physical castration) to treat prostate cancer.

I am not a doctor but low sodium, I would have thought they should be looking at the liver or kidneys as thats their department surely.

Going back to that article, that would seem to be carrying out a proceedure without it being the actual problem, more of a perceived problem or we have to do something situation. Its tricky to filter out American health where its a cash cow and more reasoned approaches.

Sorry, I’m not going to debate you about this, I’ll simply get angry and say something I’ll regret as I’m somewhat engaged on this issue.

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Understood John, I will leave it alone and again wish you all the best with the treatment.

It is a known problem associated with hypothyroidism and fluctuating hormone levels.
Yes, I have been assessed more than once and the conclusion by the endocrinologues was it is a combination of the thyroid and drinking too much water a habit I have from spending so much time in the Arab countries. Certain medications can affect sodium excretion from the kidneys.

I have an ordonnance for a blood test and expect to be admonish by my MT.

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A good friend of mine was recently diagnosed with hashimoto’s. Trcky to understand if the thyroid drives the issue or hormone levels drive the thyroid to play up. The body would self regulate sodium/potassium levels and the thyroid can play up due to several issues including but not exclusively oxylates and glucosinolates. Its tough getting older.

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I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s when I was a student and have been taking synthetic hormone since then. I have just reduced the level from 125to 100ug as my stress levels have fallen since retiring. Dependent on the seasons you produce more or less TSH.

The thyroid does not act independently, it is just part of the endocrine system. If you consider the system as a long balloon you restrict the size at one end you will see an effect at the other; it is a feedback loop. There 3 basic hormones in action: TSH, T4 which gets converted to T3 in the liver and then you get reverse T4 and T3.

When you start looking at the endocrine system you can understand why students avoid taking it as a special subject.

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It depends on your age. The older you get, the slower it usually grows, so the odds increase that you’ll die from something else first.

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One of my favourite pastimes. I have created a little secret area under the lower branches of a walnut tree in the garden where one can sit and admire the shifting light in the cool shade.

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It’s rather more complex than that.

Prostate cancer is slow growing in general and, for low grade prostate cancer, the usual recommendation is active surveillance with regular PSA tests and further MRIs and biopsies as required. It’s generally thought that the risks and after effects outweigh the benefits, especially given that it might never progress to needing further treatment. Though often they will operate if the patient can’t cope psychologically with the idea of having cancer inside them.

For higher grades, treatment is usually recommended and age will play a part in deciding which treatment to undergo, along with general state of health, co-morbidities, etc. For example my father was diagnosed at 80 and had radiotherapy, his brother at 71 had a prostatectomy. He was back at his line dancing club within 2 weeks, which made me feel quite lame with my 6 weeks out of the office.

It’s only when someone is properly old (with limited life span), or has serious other health issues, that doing nothing becomes the plan and they undertake “watchful waiting”, treating the issues as they arise.

Sorry, that’s probably more than you ever wanted to know :blush:

Hum. That sounds awfully like discriminating against older people as to who gets treatment.

It isn’t thou. If they are 85 do you think you should go after the same slow growing cancer treatment as a 70 year old?

If the person is getting neutral advice, yes. And if they genuinely have the choice of treatment or not.

No, it’s a balance of the effects of treatment on quality of life and the likely gain in life span. Some people just don’t want to go through the side effects of hormone treatment and/or chemotherapy for a relatively short gain in lifespan.
Bear in mind that my father is still being treated at 88

Not to mention the dangers of anasthetic at that age.

My uncle had a condition and accepted treatment at around 90 years. A few years later in his 90’s when the condition retuned he was offered all available treatments again but he declined saying enough was enough.

Wasn’t in the UK or France though but I am sure where he was he was offered everything regardless of age. I don’t get the feeling he would have been offered as much, or anything, in the UK, and I’m ttying to work out where France is in these things.

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Just reading all the comments is proving very interesting and informative as a newbie to PC.

Thank you all for the advice / information.