Another reason alternative medicines are harmful
This link is going to be a little old, but I came across this story while browsing the internet and had to share.
The story, essentially, is of a surgeon who was presented with a client who had a 1cm mass discovered in her breast by a mammogram. After biopsy, it was determined that this mass was cancer - the good news being that it was such a small cancer that it could be excised by a simple surgical procedure.
The client flat out refused any and all "conventional medicine", including the simple surgery that would have been required to remove this tiny tumor, and any and all chemo or hormonal therapy. No amount of coaxing, persuasion or informed consent would change her mind.
Three years later, she returned to the same surgeon. Now, her tumor had attached itself to the chest wall and was ulcerating through the skin in a "five centimeter area of bleeding, disgusting goo". There was also evidence that this tumor had metastasized, as her lymph nodes were swollen and she was experiencing bone pain. Literally, the simple procedure with a high likelihood of success had turned into an oozing mess.
The surgeon figured that she was ready for treatment, as her alternative treatments had obviously not worked.
He was wrong. He still could not reach her, and she was convinced that her healer could save her.
It makes me wonder – why would this woman seek the opinion of a surgeon like this but refuse any treatment? Why do people continue to claim that “alternative” medicine is safe? I think that part of the problem is that it is hard to separate real medicine from quack medicine, and reputable sources of medical information from irreputible sources.
As an illustration, I did a quick Google search of the term “cure cancer”, which is something someone might do when they or their loved ones are faced with a cancer diagnosis. Here is what I found on the first page:
2 news articles on Obama’s pledge to conquer cancer by increasing research funds.
A CBS story on how a guy claims he cured himself of his own cancer using radio waves.
A site on curing all cancers with detox (which claims that scientists don’t want a cure for cancer because it would dry up lucrative research grants, and that pharma companies don’t want a cure for cancer because then no one will buy their drugs) .
A site on how vitamin b17 will make it 100% impossible to develop cancer and will kill existing cancer.
Two sites on how dichloroacetate will cure you cancer, but it’s cheap so pharmaceutical companies won’t invest research into it because they won’t profit from it.
A fundraiser site to help canine cancer.
A website selling graviola supplements to cure cancer (claiming pharma companies don’t want people to know because they can’t patent an herb).
An amazon.com link for a book claiming that the cure for cancer has been suppressed for 50 years.
No wonder no one can find credible information. You can either go to these lovely websites with pictures of herbs and happy people and appeals to anti-corporatism, or wade through stuffy medical journals.
The story, essentially, is of a surgeon who was presented with a client who had a 1cm mass discovered in her breast by a mammogram. After biopsy, it was determined that this mass was cancer - the good news being that it was such a small cancer that it could be excised by a simple surgical procedure.
The client flat out refused any and all "conventional medicine", including the simple surgery that would have been required to remove this tiny tumor, and any and all chemo or hormonal therapy. No amount of coaxing, persuasion or informed consent would change her mind.
Three years later, she returned to the same surgeon. Now, her tumor had attached itself to the chest wall and was ulcerating through the skin in a "five centimeter area of bleeding, disgusting goo". There was also evidence that this tumor had metastasized, as her lymph nodes were swollen and she was experiencing bone pain. Literally, the simple procedure with a high likelihood of success had turned into an oozing mess.
The surgeon figured that she was ready for treatment, as her alternative treatments had obviously not worked.
He was wrong. He still could not reach her, and she was convinced that her healer could save her.
It makes me wonder – why would this woman seek the opinion of a surgeon like this but refuse any treatment? Why do people continue to claim that “alternative” medicine is safe? I think that part of the problem is that it is hard to separate real medicine from quack medicine, and reputable sources of medical information from irreputible sources.
As an illustration, I did a quick Google search of the term “cure cancer”, which is something someone might do when they or their loved ones are faced with a cancer diagnosis. Here is what I found on the first page:
2 news articles on Obama’s pledge to conquer cancer by increasing research funds.
A CBS story on how a guy claims he cured himself of his own cancer using radio waves.
A site on curing all cancers with detox (which claims that scientists don’t want a cure for cancer because it would dry up lucrative research grants, and that pharma companies don’t want a cure for cancer because then no one will buy their drugs) .
A site on how vitamin b17 will make it 100% impossible to develop cancer and will kill existing cancer.
Two sites on how dichloroacetate will cure you cancer, but it’s cheap so pharmaceutical companies won’t invest research into it because they won’t profit from it.
A fundraiser site to help canine cancer.
A website selling graviola supplements to cure cancer (claiming pharma companies don’t want people to know because they can’t patent an herb).
An amazon.com link for a book claiming that the cure for cancer has been suppressed for 50 years.
No wonder no one can find credible information. You can either go to these lovely websites with pictures of herbs and happy people and appeals to anti-corporatism, or wade through stuffy medical journals.
Labels: alternative medicine, research, science
posted by Ziztur
at
3:00 PM
2 Comments:
The only alternative "medicine" that I use is in addition to regular practice. If I have a headache, I'll make tea from willow bark(which is where aspirin originally came from), but if it doesn't fade for a few days, I'll go to the DR to get it looked at.
But when it comes to something like cancer, no amount of alternative "medicine" will save you. Those sights that claim to have a cure for cancer had better not be claiming that they have FDA backing. If the cure were as simple as take this herd three times a day, the pharmaceutical companies would be jumping all over it trying to improve it to work better, and the Dr's would all say to do that.
That thing about B17 being able to cure cancer is based on a half truth. With the proper antioxidants in your diet, you are at a lower risk of developing cancer than you are without them. But once cancer, of any type, gets a start, it'll just keeping getting worse unless you let modern medicine get involved.
What that woman did in her misguided attempts was to commit suicide, only instead of it being quick like most of them are, her's was long, drawn out, and painful to all those around her.
Detox to cure cancer? Now there is a new way to package a load of garbage. Same goes for the dichloroacetate(hadn't heard of it before, so I did a search on it). Found that there has been one clinical trial of it, but the side effects were so bad that they had to stop it early. And, it actually can create conditions that are favorable to the development of liver cancer. Imagine that, cure one with it, even though that one could have been done surgically, only to end up with one that is even worse in the long run.
This is one effect of non-fundamentalist "spiritualism" that is pure evil. With my mainstream religious upbringing, I really had no idea that 'alternative medicine' was so widespread, or so accepted until Ziztur brought it to my attention.
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