thank you :winkwink:

Sorry about your friend :(....


Don't get me wrong. There are COUNTLESS snake oil salesmen out there who would sell you a pile of dirt from their backyard and tell you it would cure whatever ailes you if they could (and techinically they can.. if you're sucker enough to buy it)

I'm not saying that any old "magic south american chewing bark" cure will be of value.

But things that have been around a long time, or treatments that have a lot history of USE and past research, should probably be looked into - preferably by organizations that do not make billions of dollars off of the diseases that the substance would treat or cure. Is that too much to ask?


Please bluff, tell me exactly what cancer is - in your own doctor-in-training words.

Woo you're going to make a FINE doctor someday :winkwink:

She was not really a friend of mine, a teacher. I now really disapprove of that diet, but okay, at the time I didn't know much about cancer, I now think it had metastasised at the time she took that diet, so it wasn't really a choice between regular and alternative, regular chemos would just have been palliative and wouldn't have cured her.

Cancer is an unrestrained growth of tissue starting in one cell in which DNA is damaged. Certain genes that, in a healthy cell, control growth by inhibiting it or stimulating the division of the cell are now modified, in a way that other factors from inside or outside the cell have no influence on this process anymore. Furthermore, for a tumor to become a cancer, it must have certain features that enable cells to invade and penetrate sourrounding tissue (if not, the tumor is benign and simple excision would be curative in most cases).

Now what exactly are you referring to when using the word 'alternative medicine'? Name a method.

btw I agree the effectiveness of many medicines has only been proven by the farmacautical industry itself

hehe I'm totally confident of that

What does radiation therapy to do DNA?

What does chemotherapy do to DNA?

What are the two most commonly used advanced therapies for treating advanced cancer?

Why?.... no really, why?

Mainstream medicine makes miracles, but when you are going to die you do everything you can also natural or untested methods

In the united states you cannot patent a 100% natural remedy

maybe this is why no one does any lengthy research on natural remedies, there is no money in it.

very sad

I see we have a resident medical expert on the board...

are you an advocate of the bracelet, electromagnetism, mistletoe or parasite methods of curing cancers? perhaps a shot or two of Laetrile may be appropriate.

You should visit the Leukemia clinics where row upon row of bald little children ravaged with blood cancer have a chance at life.

But that chance is because of science, not because of some of the BS you are promoting.

basically the aim of radiotherapy is to damage the DNA of the cell (both directly or indirectly) so much that it becomes useless.

The same goes for chemotherapy. There are different forms, some of which prevent replication of the DNA (which is one of the vital processes in division of the cell), for example by incorporating the drug in the DNA at places where something different should be, or by preventing the strands (DNA is a double-stranded helix-like molecule) to divide.

Maybe you should check out some sites to get more detailed information on this subject.

Therapy of advanced cancer of course depends on what kind of cancer it is, to what extend the 'sick' tissue has invaded healthy surrounding tissue, if there are any distant metastases, and if so, in what tissue these metastases have took place. For example, if we're talking about a metastase in a vertebra that gives neurological symptoms, the prognosis for the patient is poor, but to give him a certain quality of life the vertebra may need to be fixed to prevent it from collapsing, thereby compressing nearby nerves.

I'm not sure what the most used methods of palliative (non-curative) treatment are, but I think radio/chemo. For certain cancers, hormone treatment can also significantly shrinken the tumor.

Btw: I'm not sure if 'metastase' is commonly used in everyday language, it means something like 'seeding'.

"post a method"

needles
people who heal with hands
ancient chinese/indian methods
and so on..

It puzzles me why people dont belive in that shit, they have done it for thousands of years.

Simple example, friend of mine couldn't stop smoking (tried all the modern stuff - 0 - btw even my doc told that it all a big marketing game, they dont work,those chewing gums and stuff that is) So he went to see a healer and boom he became a non smoker ?!


If you wanna live u gotta try them, don't you ?

Imho the problem with modern medicine is it trys to heal the consequences not the originator or generator of the disease.

Yep... Exactly, Shemp is 100 % right.

My personal advice is: stick what the doctors order, although therapy is usually very hard on you. Before it's too late.
It can move very, very fast.

I know what radical surgery is and radiotherapy too.
Had it twice, 8 years ago.

Couldn't eat for weeks - couldn't even drink water because of pain... Imagine trying to swallow a razor with every sip.
Had to mix water and milk with painkillers to drink anything.

Weighted about 58 kg at the end of the therapy (normally over 90).

But I'm glad I went through it till the end and did not give up in the middle of the radiotherapy sessions. I'm still alive and it's been wonderful 8 years and I'm fucking grateful to my doctor...

Sorry for this but some of the other posts here are just bullshit.

have you ever been in a hospital? Have you ever read a medical textbook? Don't talk about something you know nothing about.

The fact that your friend visited someone doesn't prove anything. Probably it was the extra mental support it gave him. The best way to stop is to just quit cold turkey imo.

:1orglaugh - I don't claim to be a medical expert. A pissed off, fed up, citizen who thinks we are in dire need of healthcare reform? Most definitely.

I am just trying to shed light on the fact that the even the official medical experts aren't exactly experts either.

If they were, perhaps there wouldn't be row those rows of bald little children with Leukemia fighting for a shot at their lives :(


I'm not promoting anything specifically...
and definitely not for any financial gain.

The Billy Best thing just always stuck in my head - as did Linus Paulings story... I've posted about Pauling on GFY before as well.

I know a lot about how things work (and don't work) in US healthcare because at ~30 years old I've been through it's system a lot more than I have needed to due to it's scripted negligence & medocrity.

No i haven't been in a hospital because one can quite easily avoid
all the diseases.

So you believe coffee enemas cure cancer?

All the diseases start from the mental state/level. That's where u need help if u can't manage on your own. BTW haven't seen even a dentist for 15 years, no need.

man...

cancer as well?

you have nobel potential.
there is a rumour that the earth isnt flat, can you believe that?

wow

yes, and my neighbor got a heart arrest because his heart/emotions weren't balanced

and his wife has lower back pain because 'she has no backbone'.

True!

Drinking caffeine makes me way too jittery so I think I'll pass on the coffee enemas. :winkwink:


But who knows what they do really?

If they caused a little cancer & cured a little cancer then they would be right up there with some of the commonly used modern cancer treatments.

stress is the biggets factor, don't you agree ?
And stress is a mental sickness, isn it ?

but they don't, I assume. There happens to be no single piece of logic behind it. What is the theory again?

You're not from the UK are you? :winkwink:

Just kidding :P..

but curious... do you drink soda or coffee at all?

no

stress doesn't even cause hypertension or peptic/gastric ulcers

no soda, it tastes like shit. Coffee sometimes but rarely. And not from England. Is my english really that good ?

so what causes hypertension, enlighten me.

hehe not exactly. But in UK, visiting a dentist is probably a requirement to maintain a certain status in healthcare insurance

heridity, mostly. Overweight. Certain hormone-producing tumors. Probably there are more reasons I can't think of right now.

dont let your hate for the medical system allow you to make such stupid statements. why dont you donate some free time to your local cancer society/agency. they are always looking for people to drive patients in for outpatient therapy.

You know the world is fucked when "Apple Cider Vinegar" isn't made from apple cider anymore & Aspirin is made from crude oil :(



Btw shemp... Aspirin used to be made from north american magic willow tree bark :winkwink:

Technically it still is... but you have to go to the "alternative medicine" sections to get it rather than the 'mainstream' versions that are now made out of crude oil.

My statement wasn't that stupid. Many cancer treaments cause new or spread existing cancer. Fact.

A) No free time during hours that people would need to be driven to their chemo courses.

B) Are you not listening? I think chemo does more harm than good. I don't like doctors. I don't like hospitals. I don't like pharma corps.

<extreme sarcasm>
Why don't I just sell crack instead? At least that way I could share in some of the profits of peoples demise.
</extreme sarcasm>

I doubt the hospital would even pay me gas money for bringing them their hit-and-miss victims.


Sorry Shemp... I have seen people go through chemo. I know people survive through the cancer (or the chemo), but I just don't think it's a good thing.

Not when there are so other things out there with promise that they refuse to look at.

And why the hell is it that when people undergo some ALTERNATIVE treatment for cancer and it goes away,

modern medicine will ALWAYS say "Ah...well the cancer obviously just went into remission by itself".


But if THEY do it by filling you up with nukes, zaping your with radiation or putting you on $1000/mo worth of pills -- then it was all their doing as a direct result of their expertise.

eh?

what is it in doctors that you don't like, and what in hospitals?

Chemo does more harm than good? In what way can a treatment do more harm than it does good in preventing death?

Now for once name the methods we are talking about! Of course, new things are being trialled all the time. 'Alternative medicine' isn't studied by qualified people because, looking at it with a 'sience-view', there is absolutely no sense in doing so. If people who believe in it's benefits want to devote time and money to it, why aren't they doing so? I still haven't read any such article in nature or the like.

exactly. Because the effectiveness of regular treatments, at least radiation, chemo, hormone and surgery have been proven. Is that the case with alternative medicine? I don't think so, prove me wrong.

such as? its easy to throw out general statements.

specifically, what alternative treatments are you talking about and what types of cancer can they cure?

By putting your body in a state where an opportunistic infection can kill you. :2 cents:

Chemo kills your immune system.

Remember bubble boy? No immunities. That's you on chemo. You're bubble boy.

But because you are already in such bad shape, and bubbles aren't very cost or space effective - no bubble for you - just more drugs to help fight off the fungi and bacteria.


Probably for the same reason that FightThisPatent Brandon stepped down on his advocacy.

For whatever reasons, people just don't care. People don't like to get involved these days -- even when it's their own ass on the line.

(I personally think that we're sedated in various ways to keep us in check... but that's a whole different thread requiring a foil hat and a password just to get inside :winkwink:)

I've been asking the same question for two hours - no response