Newbie

[alquitit]

 Hello to all, and thank you Linda, for the warm welcome. Nice to find this place, as well. I have some things to share from my adventures; having had hcv for 35 years, some progress, some setbacks, and the wide array of symptoms, and what not.
 I have gotten normal b test and excellent health at times, and then slammed if I let up.
 Anyway, to make a long story short.......I began in 96 to use ozone, then tai chi, and accupuncture, and kombucha, and lemon/olive oil drink. Never looked or felt better.
 That became like a chore (My thinking at the time, so I backed away.......and bottomed out.....
 then I began IV vit c with an MD, and got normal again.......and.....
  I had at one point an "enlarged" liver, my other so-called doc of internal med, claimed    -    did a liver cleanse, problem solved overnight.
  Years  later, began to have subtle pain,  and couldn't sleep on the right, very uncomfortable....... began to give my self vit c IVs, mega mega doses, and probably overdid it, but at first I noticed excellent results, able to take large deep breaths again, and liver symtoms went away, stamina increased.
 These benefits are still with me, however, my stools became claylike, and my alts went to 80 and 240, so my hunch is that the c does much for improvement, and then there is a tipping point where it becomes a bit toxic, as it is afterall synthetic, so I'm temporarily done with it; may add it again later, but now doing accupuncture and tai chi, and Chinese herbs, 3 weeks and see improvement already in digestion. Just added Kombucha again.....a good diet....
 I once did IV ozone for a year nearly straight, and got my load down to 66,000 and my ggt down to 13, from 32; now back up to 29.....
 The ozone worked in the beginning as well as the c, but the tipping point came as well.
 I do all these things on my own, and lose my balance sometimes, but now, I keep that in perspective.......
 Looking forward to the next test to see what's what.
 I was blessed to meet a tai chi teacher....tai chi chih (short yang form) is the one for me; very simple to do........
 Hope this little bit helps you all.......I'll check back to answer anyones questions if you have any......I haven't told all this in chronological order, but just wanted to put it out there.....the times I developed problems were times that I grew complacent.......

[willy]

Howdy Alquitit.  It's always nice to have another member.  We have quite a few posts on alternatives, supplemental therapies and treatments, and supplements in this forum.  I hope you can add to them and I hope they help you.  There are many people that are basically waiting for newer treatments and are trying to keep their health up and liver damage down.  You've done quite a bit of different things and I'll enjoy hearing more about them and adding some to them myself.

There are a lot of seperate and quite distinct things you've done that would make a good thread all by themselves.  For instance while there are many people who add vitamin C to their regimen I'm pretty sure that there are no threads in the forum about protocols for Vit C therapy.  I believe I've met a guy who did IV vitamin C who cleared but I've never read much about it.

Well....I'm out of here for a spell.  Good to have you here in alternatives and glad that you found your way here.

best,
Willy
 

[Ella]

Hi Alquitit, and welcome.  Thankyou for posting your experiences so far.  I did a series of IV vitamin C for about 10 weeks when I was first diagnosed in 2004, and I did get a drop in ALT/AST levels.  I'm wondering how it would go doing this in conjunction with treatment, as I've known some people do it with chemo for cancer with great success.  They experienced minimal side effects compared to other people on the same treatment, and are healthy and cancer free 10 years down the track.

Tai Chi sounds like a great idea.  At the moment I'm tossing up between yoga, tai chi and Chi Gung - it just depends on when I find a good teacher in any of these things.  They're pretty thin on the ground where I live.  I think it's pretty mandatory to do something like this though, as this disease is very stressful in many ways, and we all know how deleterious stress is.

Have you ever had a biopsy? 

Good luck with your next test - please keep us posted as this information is valuable to all of us.

[linda]

  hey alquitit.  i am happy we heard from you!!   thanks for introducing yourself and sharing.  have fun checking out the site.  i'm so glad you found us and hope we hear more from you!!  welcome!!    ~~linda~~

[Helen]

HI alquitit, 

 Just wanted to chime in on the Welcome.

 You seem to have quite a bit of experience in the alternative department and Im glad your here to share your "adventures" with us. I have never done tx. and I take some viatmins and suppliments and change it up here and there. I was only diagnosed 3 years ago but have been infected for approx. 35 years also, I have a group of friends in real life that I grew up with who also have it, we of course all contracted it together, One did tx. and finished in 2002 stayed clear the whole time only to relapse 6 monthes later, the other is a recovering alcoholic and her health is to poor to even try tx. and yet another dosent even talk to us anymore as he just dosent want to admit he has it nor does he want to quit drinking,   but anyhow Im the only one who is actively trying some type of alternative method to stay as healthy as I can until something more tolerable comes along so I found this place and others who are trying the same thing. Its great to have another on board to share their experience with us.
 Glad you joined us and hope you'll stick around.

  Helen 

[alquitit]

Hello again to all, it's nice to see familiar tactics discussed; I have friends in a similar way, Helen, and have lost  a few.......I was just spinning my wheels with my friends, so I kind of went my own way.......again, it's encouraging to see other like-minded people coming to a similar conclusion.  I started out with the oral c  1 1/2 year ago, and immediately got improvement; I was taking ascorbic acid 2-3,000 mg at the top of each hour, and then betaine hydrochloric acid at the half hour, to keep my stomach "clear" as possible, in order to absorb the c more effectively, and avoid the bowel distress like gas and so on, I learned that c mixes with protein better, where as carbs contribute to gas, etc. 
   Don't know if you guys follow this but Dr ,Cathcart goes into details about C as Orthomolecular medicine, and has some good info. I also visit http://vitamincfoundation.org
   I tend to agree, Ella, that a vit c regiment would enhance rx, and I will use it if and when I do the rx; Likewise, I'm waiting awhile to see if the rxs get better. I hear there are some things in the works. I would also do ozone. I "theorize" that it would be a quick end to this thing, because when I did the ozone, I only used 50 CCs each day, and it is done in few minutes, and yet the load went to 66, 000, very quickly. But they say when it is "seated" for so long, it can be stubborn.
  I like the Tai chi Chih, yang short form, because there is not a lot to learn, and you don't have to move your feet position, just rocking and upper body motion.
 You might find it on google with keywords Justin Stone Tai Chi Chih
 Thanks for the welcome, Linda and Willy; I'm looking forward to hanging out.