Healios Orange Flavor Oral Health and Dietary Supplement, Powder Form, Naturally Sourced L-Glutamine Trehalose L-Arginine, 11.64 Ounces

If you have radiation or chemotherapy induced mucositis, this product just might be Heaven sent. It is expensive, but it absolutely WORKS! I was diagnosed with HPV related tonsular sarcoma. The prescribed treatment is 35 daily maximum doses of radiation to the neck, throat, and lower jaw area, and 6 doses of Cisplatin chemotherapy. Any oncologist will tell you that the most painful cancer treatments are those of the mouth/neck area, along with those of "the other end", as they call it. They destroy the tumor, but they also destroy a ton of good healthy tissue around it, that's just how radiation works.I can tell you from personal experience, that is absolutely true. First the treatment robs you of your sense of taste, while enhancing your sense of smell. Shortly after, it kills your salivary glands. At some point, the pain begins. That started later for me. But when it did hit, it hit like a truck. The final ten treatments are "focused", meaning the usual dose of radiation that was being spread out, is now focused solely in the tightest area possible around what is left of the tumor, to kill what is left, and make sure it does not return.The result is radiation induced mucositis, which presents as yellow/white lesions in your mouth, in your throat, and on your tongue. These lesions are extremely painful. You mouth is already dry. Everything they give you to moisten your mouth, hurts. Even if you can eat, drink, and swallow, you're miserable. This continues long after the seven weeks of treatment. At some point, you have thick fluid that resembles saliva, you have mucous, and you have phlegm. These will become your constant companion, 24/7, with the painful lesion.I stumbled across Helios in a desperate search for relief, any relief. The strong pain killers they prescribe aren't enough. I order the Helios, and asked my oncologists if I could use it. Believe me, at this point, their permission was a formality. The first jar arrived, and I mixed the first dose with cool filtered water and crushed ice. I prepared myself for terrible pain, and took the first drink. I was stunned. There was no pain, only cool, soothing relief. I anxiously took each drink, swished it around my radiation mangled mouth, savoring the relief until it was warm, and swallowed. It was amazing! I began to look forward to each dose like a 5 year old looks forward to Christmas. Each dose was a blessing in relief and comfort. I took four doses daily for at least twelve weeks. Yes, It cost me $68 every 10 days, but never was a dollar better spent. The Helios soothed my constant pain, and healed my mouth, tongue, and throat. We accidentally got a jar of unflavored Helios with our normal shipment of the grape flavor, and I gave it to the nutritionist and my radiology oncologist's office.If you're using this product, and you're not seeing relief and healing, see your doctors, and have them check you carefully, something else is going on. In my case, after treatment ended, and after the medication they give you to prevent you from getting fungal infections due to the treatment ran out, I got a fungal infection which caused more pain, and brought healing to a stop. Helios works, and it didn't stop working, but only clearing up the fungal infection will help if you have one, and they are common, and oft overlooked.Helios is an amazing product, it is a shame that every oncologist everywhere doesn't know about it and recommend it to their patients. It's an absolute Heaven sent blessing to anyone suffering from radiation and/or chemotherapy induced mucositis. I cannot overstate what Helios can do for you. Oncologists should be allowed to prescribe Helios so that it is covered by insurance for those who struggle to afford it. It's worth every single penny.

Today I’m 9 days from the end of 6 weeks of radiation, following TORS, for cancer in my throat / base of tongue. No chemotherapy.I credit this product for keeping my mouth and throat repaired and making it so that I survived radiation maintaining weight without a feeding tube, and minimal opioids.My doctor said that patients receiving radiation on the head and throat get the worst side effects. The goal is maintaining weight while you have terrible mouth sores and no taste.A friend brought Healios to my attention. My thought process was, “This is expensive but if it saves me some sores then it gives me the chance to get through this without a feeding tube - which will be unpleasant and be far more expensive.”I bought one jar of each flavor, Orange, Grape, and Unflavored. I started with Orange, transitioned to Grape when done with the Orange, and then went to the Unflavored. I don’t recommend opening all three jars and mixing because the powder will be subject to moisture when opened. Just finish one jar out and move to the next. None of the flavors are unpleasant. Grape was the best of the three and I was able to taste it slightly even when my taste was gone. I’m finishing up with the unflavored right now and it’s fine. I would likely go with all grape had I to do it again.I still had sores through treatment. Some sores would only last a single day. I credit Healios with keeping my mouth and throat repaired. Think of it as costing your mouth so that the glutamine absorbs through the mouth lining. Coat and let it absorb, coat and let it absorb. Sip it down your throat, wait, sip some more from your mouth down your throat. Coat, coat, coat…. It’s providing the cells with the building blocks they need to fix themselves. Then don’t eat or drink for at least 30 minutes. Let it absorb.This past week, the week after radiation therapy ended was the worst. That surprised me. I developed severe sores that I ended up taking hydrocodone for for about 3 days this week. However, now it’s Sunday and all of those terrible sores are mostly healed. I firmly believe that the Healios twice a day really did a great job of keeping things repaired.I’ve made it through radiation without a feeding tube and minimized the damage. Of course, everyone’s experience will be different, but the way I see it is, “Healios isn’t cheap, but it’s cheaper than a feeding tube. And it’s hard to put a price on pain.”I truly think it helped.One word of advice, buy the three jars at once, up front. Open the boxes, not the jars. There’s little mixing bottles in each box. Wash up those three mixing bottles and rotate them so you’re not having to clean them after every time you use one.I really appreciate this product and all the suffering it saved me.

Great in helping the extremely dry mouth.

This is a good product with really good taste. I can say they need to modify the measuring cup to make the powder easier to put into the bottle.

My husband had "back of throat" cancer, and this seems to help give him some relief, but you can only take it twice a day. Too bad it's not a prescription because it's expensive, but if it works, I don't mind spending the money just to help him feeling better, even if it is just temporary.

This product was recommended to me by my Oncology Nutritionist for my mucositis. When my Radiation Oncologist heard her suggest it he said, skeptically, that if there is any product out there that can help me, it would deserve the Nobel Prize. I went ahead and took her advice and gave it a try. It works wonderfully! It greatly reduced the severity and duration of the sores. To be honest, my first thought was that it seemed a bit pricey, but it is well worth it for the results that I got. Here it is 9 months later and when I start to have a reoccurrence, I just use it again. It's easy to use. The unflavored version has a somewhat sweet taste, but in no way strong or off-putting. Not "mediciny" at all. Definitely a 5 star (Nobel Prize worthy) product.

This might as well be grape koolaid. I started taking it the first day of radiation treatment and after three weeks I have such pain swallowing that I can’t even eat solid food. I have now switched to three beers a day and 10mg oxycodone and I have no pain swallowing at all, I could eat a t bone steak. Save your money - get your oncologist to write a script for oxy and buy a twelve pack of Guinness and you’ll be in great shape.