Thoughts on natural remedies

Thanks Zach, that was sweet and I'm glad you are among the living too, and part of this forum.

Acutally I began my search for a natural cure for my sister, when she had breast cancer in '97; I bought and cooked only the purest food, made juices, forced her to drink water and change her bad habits, though she had never smoked or drank, unlike moi. She also had chemo, surgery and radiation and a stem cell transplant-the most toxic treatment ever dreamed up. She was dead within 15 months. Sometimes nothing works, nothing at all.

When my other sister got bladder cancer right after that, I searched hard for natural things for her cancer too...and actually there was a lot of non-toxic things being studied back in '98 when I began that search, some of it still being investigated and some not; GLA (a fatty acid) was used instead of BCG and found to be helpful, KHL was a promising natural BCG substitute (not that BCG isn't natural cuz it is...but in a different way),garlic, tea and lots of things have been looked into, and found to be helpful. But not helpful enough to incorporate into treatment plans.

There is nothing to prevent us from using good quality things like fish oil and curcumin and a good vitamin. Lamm's Oncovite is for those on BCG, and his data said it helped (although, granted, it was a small trial).

I have a good article about 'chemoprevention'-another term for natural, healthy ways to prevent cancer from happening or recurring, by Ashish Kamat from MDAnderson, if anyone wants, let me know and I can forward, it's from the J of U, recent.

WebCafe's "Chemoprevention" section has been tracking natural complementary approaches; however the final conclusions are always the same: More study needed.
blcwebcafe.org/chemoprevention.asp

Drs. Lamm and Kamat have been at the forefront of investigating these non-toxic therapies for many years, both are highly respected in the field. Both studied garlic and tea, vitamins and many other things and sometimes published together. Kamat is an advisor for this site.

Maybe if a person who gets a cancer dx is depressed, that should be treated along with the cancer.

I'd seen cancer kill my father and sister, who did every treatment in vain. Actually promised myself if I ever got cancer to skip treatments and just party heartily till it was over. But when it actually happened that the lump was a tumor, my husband's face....plus, how could I go and die, I knew it would kill my remaining 2 big sisters and my mother. So I agreed to surgery, pathology was not good, had treatments and they were tough, too. More than I bargained for - but here I is...and I truly believe that if I hadn't started on Prozac about 2 months before my dx, I would have not gone for treatments. I had avoided medical treatments for 43 years up till that time (phobias).

Lucky for me I also have the constitution of an oxe, one of those types who never gets sick, aside from the occasional hangover (which was an occupational hazard for a blues singer ) and the very occasional tumor :

I've read that something like 20% of the population avoids medical treatments due to needle and other phobias, that it's actually a large problem. At least I'm not the only wimp out there! I'm not ashamed to admit I need 20mgs of valium before any kind of procedure or needle. I'm not on anti-depressants anymore, kicking them was very hard, but I suppose the trade off was worth in the end: getting long term survival after treatment for advanced cancer.

I'm lucky, actually. Very lucky.

Take good care,
Wendy
PS I'm not bragging, but I drink a couple of vodkas at cocktail hour everyday...remembering my doctors words, "Just be happy."

If you look hard enough, you can find just about anything--including people far less scrupulous than drug companies making far more outrageous claims, all in the interest of "natural".

This one, by the way, is, and I quote, "Unconditionally Guaranteed!" And like all good natural cures, is a "powerful herb from the Amazon Rainforest".

www.healthyheartht.info/graviola.htm

My opinion is that many of these cure-peddlers absolutely do not want testing. It is far too easy for them, and far too profitable, to make unsubstantiated claims and then say, well, big drug companies are keeping us from testing and experimenting.

They are happy to make the claim "kill cancer cells" (like the above product does) without the expenses of actually proving it and the consequences of whether it does what they say it will. You know what? I'll bet it may kill cancer cells. Bleach kills cancer cells. Many things kill cancer cells. Is this an effective and life-prolonging treatment and surgical alternative? That is the only valid question--not whether it kill cancer cells in mice or in a petri dish.

Please read their very bold claims.

And then,

at the very bottom of the page,

you'll find this almost unnoticeable,

very tiny,

disclaimer:

Image removed

Believe me, I want a natural cure as much as anyone. If my wife or loved one is diagnosed with cancer, I would like nothing more than to watch her drink juices and take herbs and watch the cancer melt away.

But I'm also a realist about this. I'm sure when Wendy was diagnosed, she searched as hard as anyone for evidence of a natural treatment to avoid surgery. I'm glad she didn't wait for one--I much prefer her to be here among the living.

Bingo Pat and Karen, you are both right, I wish I had the diamond, the thing is Gene and I have been compared to the two by our friends, Gene looks alot like Elvis when thin, and I went to Catholic school from where he stole me, I to have and had dark hair etc. etc. so its pretty funny, but he did die on my birthday and was with GINGER. We saw Elvis in Cleveland , I was 9 months pregnant and didn't think I would like him, as I was a more Beatle era, but Elvis was fabulous!!!!Long live the King!! Wheres my ring!!! Ginger

Her name was/is Ginger Alden. She was actually his fiance they were going to be married in five months at the time of Elvis' death. He bought her an 11 1/2 carat diamond engagement ring. She is still alive, and stories say kept the ring.

You sneaky thing...was that you? Her name was GINGER? :o

And I may add that if Elvis would have called me that day, Aug. 16, my birthday, I would have told him, lots and lots of prune juice. Anyone know his girlfriends name, she was there on the 16th when he dies?? Ginger Beane