Hi, everyone:
I ran across some interesting information in the Nutrition Almanac (McGraw Hill). It states that pantothenic acid, one of the B vitamins (I believe it's B5), "stimulates the adrenal glands and increases the production of cortisone and other adrenal hormones..." Hey, that sure sounds to me like a natural substitute for steroids! Perhaps pantothenic acid supplementation could be useful as a preventative for tumor swelling.
The book also states that pantothenic acid "aids in the prevention of nerve degeneration due to a deficiency." It may be a bit of a leap to assume it could also help prevent cranial nerves from degenerating after getting irradiated (during/after GK, CK or FSR treatments), but there could possibly be some benefit there as well.
What's interesting to me is that I've always found eating salmon (which is very high in pantothenic acid) makes me feel better, reducing my dizziness and tinnitus. I've observed this over the past several years but could never figure out why this is so (for me, at least).
Other sources of pantothenic acid include egg yolks, brewer's yeast, whole grains and organ meats.
Therapeutic doses are cited to be 50 to 200 mg daily. Pantothenic acid is purportedly non-toxic.
I generally avoid taking any one B vitamin in isolation because it can actually throw the B complex balance out of whack and cause a defiency in the other B vitamins. Also, studies show that B vitamins are better assimilated when the source is dietary (food) rather than supplements. But I'm going to start a short course of pantothenic acid and see how it makes me feel. I'm not naive enough to think there is a silver bullet out there for AN-related symptoms, but perhaps this will help a little.
Just thought you all might like to know about this... FWIW.
Best wishes,
Tumbleweed
