The wonders of modern medicine

I cannot believe this. An American mother is on the run because a court has ordered that her son should receive chemotherapy for Hodgkins Lymphoma, and she does not want it for him. I don't know the background to this story, or what her real motivation might be, but regardless: it is time that the medical profession wakes up to the fact that chemotherapy is a blunt instrument that treats cancer as a symptom and ignores the causes. I find it astonishing that so much has been achieved in the field of medicine, and yet cancer patients routinely receive a form of treatment that is intended to go as far as it can in destroying human cells, while stopping just short of killing the patient. This is barbaric.

Joshua's treatment by the hospital haematology department ended because chemo had destroyed the ability of his body to protect and heal itself, and any further treatment would have taken him over the edge. His official cause of death was renal failure, which means that the chemo caused kidney damage so that waste could no longer be filtered out of the blood. The implication, in effect, is that by agreeing to chemotherapy as a strategy to kill cancer cells, we were committed to a path of no return. If the chemo did not work, the body's immune system and vital organs would be so compromised as to prevent recovery from the damage caused by the chemo - and that is exactly what happened to Josh. Our efforts to help him, during and after chemo, were focused on strengthening his immune system, his mind and his spirit so that his body would have as much as possible at its disposal in fighting both the cancer and the collateral damage caused by the chemo. But this was not enough.

It would be pointless to speculate on what might have been if we had known more at the start of this journey; but based on what I know now, I think it is ridiculous to force someone to undergo this kind of treatment when - despite decades of effort in cancer research - the mainstream medical profession still does not acknowledge chemotherapy's poor success rate and does not put more effort into studying the role of complementary treatments.

As we have discovered, there are many theories out there. Some of them are clearly crackpot ideas, but there others that seem logical and look promising. Yet in all the reading we did, it was extremely difficult to find authorative research that either supported or debunked the various treatments. Most documentation comes from those promoting the various products, or from independent people who do not have the resources to undertake extensive research that is on a par with that done by mainstream medicine. So we are led to believe that chemo and radiation therapies are the only scientifically justified courses of action, and are effectively forced - as with the American mother - to accept it as the only viable treatment option, when in fact this "scientifically proven" treatment is probably on a par with the mediaeval practice of bloodletting in its rate of success.

Comments

[Jenny Hewlett]

You are right Rory - there is something criminal about forcing a parent to give their child treatment when they cannot guarantee success, and can pretty much guarantee irreversible damage. The parents are so alone in having to choose; it is hard enough to take on the unenviable task of making the right decision, without having Big Brother involved. One can only act on the information available, one’s own sense of what is right, and your gut instinct for what is right for the child, as you and Lorraine so bravely did. There should be support for this at a time when you need it most, not criminal action!

[Victoria & Kevin]

Hey Rory, Unfortunately my Mum will be starting chemo next week for the lymphoma they found on her spine and her duodema. My step-dad is having a scope today to see if he has bowel cancer. I would like to do what I can to help them stay healthy. I think it would be beneficial if I can get them to do a few of the things you mention in your previous segment Cancer 101. I asked my Mum to go to a naturopath, but she won't (she has a long list of medical problems and medications and doesn't want to complicate matters further). The carrots, beets and celery are simple. Can you give me more info on the glyconutrients? Do you get them from a naturopath? Maybe ours can sell these to me (Kevin sees a naturopath)? The tumeric, do you take this in powder form or in capsule form? I would appreciate any other wisdom or advice that you can share. Unfortunately I don't have the time to do all the research that you have done and I also don't have a lot of influence on what treatments my parents choose. My Mum's immune system is already compromised (she has very severe psoriasis), and they both smoke...which drives me crazy. First thing she wanted to do after getting her cancer diagnosis was go out and have a smoke! They have cut back and tried to quit, but have not been successful yet. Thanks, Victoria

[Rory]

Victoria, I am very sorry to hear about your mother and step-dad. With the caveat that they really need specific advice from a doctor, I would just say the following.

From what I understand, the main thing is to find things that will boost the immune system, since it becomes compromised by the chemotherapy, and also by smoking - and you say that your mother's immune system is already weakened. If we all had healthy diets and lifestyles, we would be helping the immune system already, but in addition to making bad dietary choices, we are eating some food that isn't as good as you might think, because pesticides, harvesting methods, storage, and transport all help to remove vitamins. So the best thing is to eat locally grown fruit and vegetables, and organic foods. There are probably as many cancer diets as there are doctors, and they vary by the type of cancer. But the bottom line is that if you don't have a healthy diet, and if you expose yourself to toxins, you are already making it easy for the cancer to grow. If our lifestyle choices were healthy, cancer would have a hard time. It's obvious, but most of us ignore this basic advice.

Glyconutrients are one thing to take to make up for the missing things that would be in our food if it was picked from our back yards. I am not sure how they are distributed in Canada. There are different brands. We used Ambrotose, and that is distributed through a chain of salespeople, so you would need to search for who is selling in your area - just google the brand name, look for a distributor in Ontario, and you should find something.

Another product we were recommended is Avemar. It is a nutritional supplement for cancer patients during and after chemotherapy, but again I am not sure how it is distributed in Canada, and it is very expensive (so are the glyconutrients). Sutherlandia is another 'wonder' plant that should be available in tablet form, and would be cheaper. The tumeric you can buy straight from the supermarket, as the powder that you would use in cooking. Take it by adding a teaspoon to some water, and take several a day.

I cannot vouch for how effective any of these would be, but I don't believe they can do harm - other than their impact on your wallet. None of the products I have mentioned here would have an impact on other medications, since these are just taken to provide nutrients and benefits that we should be getting from food anyway.

One other point that we have been told is that cancer likes an acidic environment, and it likes sugar. So it would be best to avoid acidic foods like citrus, and cut out sugar as much as possible. But I understand that vitamin C is very important, so try to get it from food that is not acidic, or from pills. Again, there are lots of theories out there, but most of us eat too much sugar and could benefit from a reduction anyway. A surprising amount of food contains added sugar, so we are generally eating far more than we are aware of.

[Daleen Totten]

Just a quick note to say thank you for raising your points re the forcing of chemo. I saw this on the news and could not believe that mother and child were on the run to avoid chemo! OUTRAGEOUS!!