A question for alternative medicine promoters....?

Question

I see a number of posters who constantly post alternative treatments for cancer (emu oil capsules, high dose Vitamin D, colonics, Ayurveda, various diets, etc.). Often these treatments are very simple and do not act with other medicines.

While you may believe your promoted treatment is a cure, how do you feel about all the other alternative "cures". You got to figure all of them cannot be right. Right?

Answer 1

Most alternative medicine promoters don't figure anything and regard any logical or scientific approach to their supposed treatments aggressively. However they never seem to attack each other directly.

Make no mistake, I am not generalizing here, just making an observation. I know people who investigate honestly in "alternative" treatments, and some of them do show efficiency. Such is the case of some herbs which turn out to contain a compound that destroys tumors. This research does help in finding new treatments. One such example is paclitaxel, now widely used in chemotherapy, which was originally found in a cedar tree extract.

Where people should be very weary is when people claim that their treatment does not have side-effects (all effective treatments have side effects; even vitamin D, which in passing is used in traditionnal medicine against some leukemias), or when they claim that pharmaceutical companies or doctors wont listen to them because they dont want "the cure" to be found. Such claims are very often the mark of the charlatan. Ironically, they will shamelessly claim that pharmaceutical companies are after sick people's money when, well... They are exactly after the very same thing, only on a smaller scale.

I do believe that pharmas are after people's money (what company isn't ?), from having seen the field of research in which they invest. But it isn't from cancer they get the most of it.... After all, no cancer drug is within this years top 5 world bestselling drugs (this year's bestseller is Lipitor, a cholesterol control drug).

Answer 2

Although I've clashed with you a lot in the past, I think this is a very good question. The number one item that comes to mind is Reiki (a viewpoint which often angers people I would normally side with). Considering that I practice Meditation, Tai Chi and Chi Gung on a regular basis, my objection to it doesn't really come from the fact "energy can't possibly exist." Rather my dislike for the system comes from the fact it's horribly designed, extremely ineffective, can harm the practitioner, has a nearly faith based following, and gives a bad name to energetic practices in general. Relating to the that, I tend to dislike any sort of treatment where the practicioners don't really know that much (ie. they took a weekend course) but make up and endless amount of nice sounding new age jargon to support it. I tend to run into those quite frequently. Beyond that, I've put a lot of effort into researching alternative therapies and trying them out personally if they appear to be devoid of side effects to see if they work. While this is no where near as "accurate" as double blind trials, since I'm skeptical of most information sources it's what I go on. Typically I group stuff as "doesn't work, might possibly work but I'm not sure (ie. 5% improvement), clearly does a lot and works well." Most of the time the items tend to fall into the first two categories. This for instance is how I feel about most herbals (with a few exceptions). They may work and be natural and all but they don't really do enough. So to some extent I've completely written off the herbal field (except within the context of Chinese medicine where it's used differently). One thing which comes up quite commonly is for people to promote something as "the amazing guarded secret no one knows about that fixes all your problems and is being covered up." In my own experience 4/5 times the claims are complete bs, but I normally look into them to find the 1/5. Two of my favorite recent ones are resveratrol and acai berry. One of my friends made a lot of money selling them to people online and told me directly that "they don't work, but we payed opera to put them on her show, and people will always buy things that are natural and mysterious that can cure all their problems." (to be much more exact, I think both fall into the 5% category). I also am not a huge fan of chiropractic (although I do respect the profession for standing up to the AMA and being the main field that practices innovative naturopathic remedies). My objections comes from the fact the treatments are extremely temporary and require constantly being redone along with the fact that they are forceful (thus carrying an actual risk for harm) and just totally inferior to osteopathy which has mainstream availability. If I had a back problem and a decent chiropractor was around I'd use them, but otherwise I just have a really low opinion of the art. (after skimming quackwatch to see which ones I forgot) 1) I really do not like the fact ayeurveda uses mercury in their precious pill remedies. I've heard long explanations from intelligent people about why they actually become non toxic and are good, but Ive always thought this was an extremely bad idea. 2) Relating to acai berrys, I always though the colon cleanse products sold were totally worthless (there are ways to do it which I think work but I'm really not a fan of those). Anyhow, hope you like that list!

Answer 3

There has been so much research in cancer, and no cure yet,,, when it comes to the word CANCER that is looked at as automatic death,,, people will try to find anything to save them,, I think at that time, if people strongly believe in what they are taking for the cure, it gives them some kind of hope, that is better than nothing, this changes the mental status of the patient overall. Also God must have a cure on this earth, from whatever he has made on this planet,,, a lot of medicine, is trial and error stuff anyway, there has got to be a cure for this disease, but it hasn't been found yet..The mental status of patients , with cancer, is really ever known, until you have walked in there shoes, any hope at this time, beats nothing,,, that goes for the saying of mind over body,,, if a person has nothing wrong with them,, and they keep on dwelling of (lets say pain in right side) then eventually, they will have pain in the right side...

Answer 4

It is true that they cannot all be cures. And alot of them were tested on certain people. Like say a treatment was treated on a particular race of people, or people who live in a certain area, diet, etc etc...And all of them cant be cures, but most if not nearly all have a certain degree of "cure". And this medicine cannot work for everybody, every person, every race, etc etc. But, I do notice that some of them work better then others. And some of them have stronger proofs that they work better then others. And I see some of them used as real cancer cures in my country. Similar to cancer cures in the USA such as chemotherapy and radiation. I have also noticed that the cures that I prescribed worked better then the cancer cures we have in the USA. I have done alot of research and conclude that the reason why cancer cannot be cured is because doctors and pharmaceautical companies dont want to cure it. Cancer cures that do work have been predominantly natural cures and not such chemicals and poisons like radiation. And believe it or not, I have alot of proof that the cures that I have prescribed do. And to answer your question, because alot of these cures are natural cures, alot of them do not act with other medicines. It was like you at certain types of foods and avoided certain types of foods. This is very "unharmful." I dont just promote a cure because I read about it and believe what I read. I have to see proof that it works. So, the ones that I do see that work, I prescribe. I also, only prescribe the ones that are not harmful. If a cure is somewhat harmful, then Ill let it slide if it works. The only reason is because doctors wont cure these people. But I am more then willing to do that. If doctors arent willing to cure these people, then who will? So, my main goal is to cure these people who have no other choice, are taking harmful drugs and chemotherapy, taking harmful radiation, dont have money, or just dont know what to do. I thank you for your question....

Answer 5

Adding good nutrition along with medical treatments certainly helps the body fight cancer. I have never recommended one particular alternative treatment over another. I go by the individual- what their lifestyle is, what they are willing to do, and what type of cancer it is. I do know that it's important to attack cancer from all levels. I think people that believe in only one treatment are not opening their minds to all possibilities.

Answer 6

i do know this that if your doctor finds out that you are trying all of these natural remedies and they can in your blood work they have a right to stop treating you and they will from personal experience