DCA Sodium Dichloroacetate

[Frank]

Sodium Dichloroacetate has recently come to the forefront after Cardiologist Evangelos D. Michelakis, MD, FACC, FAHA, Associate Professor of Medicine working at the Department of Medicine, University of Alberta Canada discovered that DCA a relatively non-toxic, odourless and colourless small molecule caused regression in several types of cancer.


http://www.thedcasite.com/index.html

http://www.dca.med.ualberta.ca/Home/Updates/2010-05-12_Update.cfm

Anyone tried it?

 

[richvank]

Sodium Dichloroacetate has recently come to the forefront after Cardiologist Evangelos D. Michelakis, MD, FACC, FAHA, Associate Professor of Medicine working at the Department of Medicine, University of Alberta Canada discovered that DCA a relatively non-toxic, odourless and colourless small molecule caused regression in several types of cancer.


http://www.thedcasite.com/index.html

http://www.dca.med.ualberta.ca/Home/Updates/2010-05-12_Update.cfm

Anyone tried it?

Hi, Frank.

I have been following the DCA work since it was first announced, and I think it is an exciting development for cancer treatment. This is an old drug for which the patent has run out, and it has been used for treating mitochondrial disorders. There was a company in Sonora, CA, USA, producing it "for veterinary use," but it was shut down by the FDA. I don't know how available it is in Europe.

This drug works by blocking an enzyme that inhibits the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex in the mitochondria. This stimulates flow of pyruvate to form acetyl CoA and feed the Krebs cycle, promoting oxidative metabolism. As you may know, cancer cells were found by Otto Warburg to operate by anaerobic metabolism. Apparently, this drug forces the cancer cells to become aerobic, like normal cells, and then they have a normal lifetime and die, just as normal cells do, rather than being immortal, which is the problem with cancer cells. I think this is a very promising approach for treating cancer, and I hope it will survive the probable opposition from economic interests supporting the current crude cancer treatments that stand to lose if it is successful. Please note that I am a cancer survivor, and am grateful for the treatment I received, but am also aware from personal experience that surgery, chemo and radiation are rather crude and brutal treatments that could really stand to be improved.

With regard to whether DCA would help in CFS, I am not optimistic. If my GD--MCB hypothesis is valid, the problem in the mitochondria in CFS is somewhat downstream from the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex, at the aconitase enzyme in the Krebs cycle, due to glutathione depletion. If this is correct, boosting the pyruvate dehydrogenase activity would likely have the effect of converting more carbohydrates to stored fat, rather than improving the function of the mitochondria.

I would be happy to be proven wrong if it would mean an effective treatment for CFS, but I am not optimistic, for the reason given. If anyone is interested in finding more information about the GD--MCB hypothesis for CFS, it is available at www.cfsresearch.org which is operated by Nico Van den Eynde in Belgium.

Best regards,

Rich

 

[Mya Symons]

I found some DCA and I am going to try it. I will let you all know what happens. I understand it can be hard on kidneys and the liver so I am going to start at a very low dose.

 

[Wayne]

There was a company in Sonora, CA, USA, producing it "for veterinary use," but it was shut down by the FDA.

I discovered recently that Amazon is carrying DCA (20 grams for about $80).

New Canadian Pet Cancer Therapy and Treatment, 20g Pure DCA

I found some DCA and I am going to try it. I will let you all know what happens. I understand it can be hard on kidneys and the liver so I am going to start at a very low dose.

Mya, I've been considering giving this a try, ever since I discovered that it's available OTC. I was wondering if you gave this a try, and what your experiences have been. --- Thanks!

Wayne

 

[Mya Symons]

I was trying it and it actually seemed to work well for the fibro and CFS. However, I am not sure whether or not it was the cause of some of my stomach pain and nausea. I just had some tests and my pancreatic enzymes have been very low for quite awhile, so that could have caused some of my problems. I got some digestive enzymes and am thinking about going back on it for awhile to see if the enzymes fixed the stomach problems. I also have some Zofran. I did get my liver and kidney function tested while I was on it, and they were both normal, so it did not affect either. I was worried about this since I read some reports that it was hard on both the kidneys and liver.

I will let you know if the stomach pains are related or not in a week or two. A lot of things make me nauseous and hurt my stomach. If you have a stronger less queasy stomach than mine, I would say go for it. I think it will be worth it. I bought it from Amazon under pet cancer meds (same stuff, but way cheaper).

 

[lizw118]

Hi everyone, just curious to hear if anyone new has tried this. It is being sold on amazon as a supplement. I am interested in it because I have read it helps with D-lactate acidosis. Is it safe to use, though? It's hard to tell...
Liz

 

[paolo]

I was trying it and it actually seemed to work well for the fibro and CFS.

Hi @Mya Symons, I was wondering if you could say anything more on your experiment with DCA. Thank you.

 

[Hip]

NOTE: info about the neuropathy side effect of DCA, and how to try to prevent it, is detailed in this post.

 

[Daniel E.]

NOTE: info about the neuropathy side effect of DCA, and how to try to prevent it, is detailed in this post.

I was surprised to see such helpful details on DCA side effects and how to deal with them.

Dichloroacetate has been around the internet nearly for ten years. I've found a lot of interesting new info on DCA in this thread. I think that the most interesting question is - with what cancer treatment options could DCA be combined ? Anyone heard anything about it ? Could it be used as neoadjuvantic pretreatment before surgeries ? I know that I heard that it could be used with other chemos. Although, DCA seems to have a negative effect on doxorubicin chemotherapy (I believe it's best to take a break before and after a shot of doxo).

I saw a new page which is releasing understandable summaries of studies on Dichloroacetate.
You can check it out - http://www.dcaguide.org/dca-information.

Also, I never knew you could buy quality DCA on amazon in Europe and all around just like Hip mentioned here.

 

[Insomniac]

I was trying it and it actually seemed to work well for the fibro and CFS. However, I am not sure whether or not it was the cause of some of my stomach pain and nausea. I just had some tests and my pancreatic enzymes have been very low for quite awhile, so that could have caused some of my problems. I got some digestive enzymes and am thinking about going back on it for awhile to see if the enzymes fixed the stomach problems. I also have some Zofran. I did get my liver and kidney function tested while I was on it, and they were both normal, so it did not affect either. I was worried about this since I read some reports that it was hard on both the kidneys and liver.

I will let you know if the stomach pains are related or not in a week or two. A lot of things make me nauseous and hurt my stomach. If you have a stronger less queasy stomach than mine, I would say go for it. I think it will be worth it. I bought it from Amazon under pet cancer meds (same stuff, but way cheaper).

Do you still take DCA?

Or has it been too hard to tolerate with the stomach pain?

 

[odd_skipper]

Has anyone tried DCA while on keto? I’m on keto and it’s helping me but I’m still declining (and bedridden) and I need something more fast... I want to try DCA but dropping keto is out of the question. I’m just curious if it will make me utilize less ketones... which would be bad.