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October 4, 2007 at 10:26:10
by Mickey Z. Page 1 of 1 page(s) |
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Speaking of the "medical establishment," ABC News quoted Barrie Cassileth, chief of the Integrative Medicine Department at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Cassileth said patients pursuing "alternative" approaches are "signing their own death certificate." Dr. Cassileth added: "I would say they are wasting time they could otherwise spend happier and with their families."
Almost 600,000 Americans die of cancer each year—roughly 1500 per day—and a new case is diagnosed every seven seconds. Yet, the Western medical priesthood stigmatizes alternatives and aggressively defends its Holy Trinity of cancer treatment: surgery, radiation, and of course, chemotherapy.
"We've been told that it's only the treatments of orthodox medicine that have passed careful scientific scrutiny involving double-blind placebo-controlled studies," write Gary Null and Dr. Debora Rasio. "Concomitantly, we've been told that alternative or complementary health care has no science to back it up, only anecdotal evidence. These two ideas have led to the widely accepted 'truths' that anyone offering an alternative or complementary approach is depriving patients of the proven benefits of safe and effective care, and that people not only don't get well with alternative care, but are actually endangered by it."
This includes the doctors themselves. As reported by John Robbins in Reclaiming Our Health, the percentage of oncologists who, if they had cancer, would not participate in chemotherapy trials due to its "ineffectiveness and its unacceptable toxicity" is 75%. Conversely, the percentage of Americans with cancer that receive chemotherapy is—you guessed it: 75%.
By odd coincidence, there was another October 3 ABCNews.com story on the topic of cancer. It seems a Long Island woman was told she had breast cancer, underwent a double mastectomy, and then learned that the lab made a mistake. She didn't have cancer. Deemed a "mix-up," the whole thing was blamed on "a technician who admitted cutting corners while labeling tissue specimens."
Obviously, "murky" and "unproven" are in the eye of the beholder. But until American health care consumers move toward awareness, self-education, and prevention, all they're doing is debating which pen to use when "signing their own death certificate."
Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net.
http://www.mickeyz.net
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| 7 comments |
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The Topic of Cancer
The world of mainstream medicine is not much different than any other part of the mainstream. It's full of lies and distortions for the sake of money. by Bill Cain (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 434 comments [67 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Oct 4, 2007 at 11:24:33 AM
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Yes!
Not only should alternative always! be considered, but don'tcha want to scream every time you hear a prescription commercial? They tell us they care, but it's a lie. The pharma companies have been caught more than once knowingly dispensing pills that are hazardous to our health. They say tell your doctor what medication you're on. If the doctor doesn't know what you're taking he's an idiot. Yeah, you could be going to a new one, but that's not what the commercials imply. What is this consult you health care professional nonsence? Doctors are health care pros now? Or do they mean your local witch doctor? It's like everything else, scare us into thinking we'd better take whatever pill they're pushing or disaster will descend upon us. Yeah, like their pills won't kill us! by Sandy Sand (198 articles, 0 quicklinks, 227 diaries, 1548 comments [2 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Oct 4, 2007 at 12:29:34 PM
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Diagnosis
My mother-in-law, a surgeon of 35 years of experience including the WWII, Stalingrad and Japanese war considers the US doctors incapable of making any reasonable diagnosis. When told that someone 'beat' the cancer she calmly says, 'That means it was not a cancer in the first place'. She considers that people are misdiagnosed en masse in the US, first and foremost due to the extremely low level of doctors professionalism, their belief in the machines and first and foremost- due to greed and lust for money. It is alwys more profitable to tell a person that he/she is sick. by Mark Sashine (72 articles, 19 quicklinks, 269 diaries, 4101 comments [131 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Oct 4, 2007 at 2:03:26 PM
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Reply: Hi Mark
I agree completely. Doctors in this country are terrible. I worked at Georgetown for over a decade, and interacted with doctors and medical students all the time. They were often poor diagnosticians. by John R Moffett (89 articles, 18 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 697 comments [14 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Oct 4, 2007 at 2:17:46 PM
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Not all alternatives are the same
I am involved in studying alternative medical techniques such as homeopathy, and others, and I want to point out that not all alternative treatments are based on equally valid arguments. by John R Moffett (89 articles, 18 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 697 comments [14 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Oct 4, 2007 at 2:07:54 PM
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Alternitive treatments
Western doctors and medicine don’t have all the answers and there are plenty of alternative methods for every disease or condition. I believe western medicine treat the symptoms and not the condition in a lot of cases. People must be proactive in their own health issues. Read and do your own research. The only thing I could say that is negative about alternative treatments is that there are a lot of charlatans out their trying to rip you off. I have a pinched nerve and once I used magnet therapy and it was the only thing that eased the pain so I am a believer in alternative treatments. by Michael Chavers (53 articles, 0 quicklinks, 15 diaries, 198 comments [5 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Oct 4, 2007 at 2:33:11 PM
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A matter of culpability
I think you have confused two separate arguments. Which is the better alternative or traditional therapy and how well these services can or are delivered. As someone who has cancer I can tell you that from my perspective I would rather stick with scientifically verified cures. Statistics on the comparative cures the scientific one seems to offer a better outcome. I have made the numbers decision I wanted the odds on my side. Not on a maybe, perhap solution I understand the placebo effect and such things as spontaneous remissions and without tests as per your article some quacks have been known to claim this as the result of their ‘alternative’ cure. To be fair this could go the other way too. Having seen big cancer frauds like Milan Brick who set up in the Cook Islands to avoid scrutiny make millions off desperate people ( when he was audited his success rate was far less than traditional medicine regardless of what he claimed). I would suggest that which ever regime a patient chooses it should be under strict supervision and the alternative practitioner should have the same levels culpability that a doctor must face. (lawsuits, insurances professional integruity etc). This criteria is essential to give the patient the best hope, choice and chance of recovery. I can assure you that all that when one has the dreaded diagnosis philosophic aspirations disappear and you want is the cure that gives you the best odds. by Andris (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 531 comments) on Friday, Oct 5, 2007 at 3:12:59 AM
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