Alternatives in Cancer Therapy: The Complete Guide to Alternative Treatments - Softcover

Pelton, Ross

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0671796232 ISBN 13: 9780671796235

Verlag: Atria, 1994

Inhaltsangabe

Alternatives in Cancer Therapy offers help for all patients coping with cancer. The therapies discussed in this book are primarily non-toxic, have few, if any, side effects, and tend to strengthen the immune system. They can be used as supplemental regimens that help maximize the effectiveness of traditional therapies such as surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Patients have a right to know all of their treatment options, and Dr. Ross Pelton presents dozens of choices, including:
* Shark Cartilage
* Gerson Therapy
* Mistletoe
* Isoprinosine
* Laetrile
* Selenium
* Beta-Carotene
* Hydrogen Peroxide
* Vitamins C and E
* The Hoxsey Treatment
Non-traditional therapies can enhance the quality of life, and improve overall health while treating the disease. Alternatives in Cancer Therapy provides information on the research, efficacy, potential side effects, and availability of each treatment.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Ross Pelton is the author of How to Prevent Breast Cancer, a Simon & Schuster book.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Chapter 1

The Cancer Revolution

On Wednesday, December 26, 1990, the United Press International news wire carried the following headline:

CANCER NOW LEADING KILLER OF MIDDLE-AGED

The article reported that for people aged thirty-five to sixty-four cancer had overtaken heart disease as the leading cause of death. (2)

Cancer kills more women in the United States than any other illness, and it is estimated that by the year 2000 cancer will be the leading cause of death among all Americans. (7) The aging of the American population cannot be used as an excuse to explain the steady increase in cancer deaths. A 1991 study disclosed that "The overall rate of cancer among U.S. children is mounting steadily." (8) This is happening despite spending billions of dollars in the "war on cancer" that was launched in December 1971 by then president Richard Nixon.

Comparing Alternatives

Traditional cancer therapy is like a war. The tumor is the enemy. The patient's body is the battleground. The weapons used to attack are chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. In alternative approaches cancer is seen as originating in problems with metabolism, biochemistry, and the immune system, which are making the tumor. Many practitioners in the field of alternative cancer therapy say, "The tumor is not the cancer. The tumor is only a symptom of the cancer."

Alternative Approaches

The authors of a University of Pennsylvania study summed up the reasons for turning to alternative or unconventional cancer therapies very clearly:

As patients and the public have become increasingly educated, dissatisfaction with conventional care for cancer has grown. The toxic effects of chemotherapy, the absence of new and markedly improved treatments despite decades of effort, and the lack of substantive improvement in rates of cure for the major cancers all contribute to the dissatisfaction. (3)

As frustration with conventional therapies increases, interest in alternative treatments for cancer is growing steadily, even within the traditional medical community. In 1987 the United States Congress directed its highly respected research arm, the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), to investigate alternative cancer therapies and to produce a report. (6) Congress requested this study in response to political pressure from growing numbers of cancer patients who are outraged because they feel they are being denied access to potentially life-saving therapies.

The OTA report, Unconventional Cancer Treatments, recommended that funds be made available to study alternative therapies, based on indications that many of them may be beneficial. This recommendation eventually resulted in the formation of the Office of Alternative Medicine, which is currently determining which therapies to research. These startling developments are evidence of the growing influence of the revolution in cancer care, and the politics behind them will be presented in the next chapter.

There is an international revolution in cancer therapy as well. The Federal Science Ministry in Germany found that seven out of ten general practitioners in Germany use some form of alternative medicine as part of their practice. In 1984 the ministry set up a research program to investigate alternative treatments for cancer. (9)

In Israel the Minister of Health appointed a commission to evaluate alternative health therapies. (4) The main thrust of the testimony to the committee was that freedom of choice should extend to selecting medical treatment and that as long as no bodily injury is caused, it is not necessary to restrict the practice of unconventional medicine.

These study groups and commissions are approaching alternative or unconventional medicine with an eye to finding out what it has to offer. Unfortunately, the primary official response to alternative therapies in the U.S. has been condemnation and persecution. However, there is a genuine revolution under way in cancer therapy and in attitudes toward health and medicine in general.

Treating the Whole Person

Instead of focusing exclusively on the tumor, alternative therapies offer a broad range of approaches: boosting the patient's immune system, detoxifying the body, providing optimum nutritional support, increasing healthy oxidative cellular metabolism, minimizing destructive free-radical damage, and working with the mental and emotional aspects of the disease.

Cancer is not a localized condition. If a woman has breast cancer, it is her whole body that is involved, not only her breast. To heal cancer, the whole body needs to be healed, not just the place where the tumor is located.

There is also an emotional and psychological aspect to every physical disease. Just treating the physical body really ignores a powerful ally, the mind. The goal of cancer therapy should be more than attacking and killing the tumor. It should be to make the patient healthy by using every possible means to heal both the body and the mind.

Making Choices

The decision to turn to alternative treatments is made by thousands of patients each year. Often these people seek out alternative cancer therapy only after traditional cancer therapy has failed and they have been told that they have only a few weeks to live. Utilizing alternative therapies, many of these patients improve, and live from two to five years longer, with a reasonably good quality of life. Although this can't be viewed as long-term remission, several years of rewarding life is a definite improvement over the last few weeks or months of misery that many patients experience from the effects of chemotherapy and radiation.

Facing the Fear

As hospital administrator at Hospital Santa Monica, it is my responsibility to interview and orient new patients. After taking a patient's medical history, I begin to explain our various alternative therapies. We want people to know what they are taking and how it works.

In my interviews the first issue that most patients raise is their fear. The social attitude toward cancer often triggers overwhelming negative emotions once a patient hears the doctor pronounce that dreaded word...CANCER.

When dealing with fears about cancer, I draw a parallel to cardiovascular disease. Years ago, when people had a heart attack, they experienced a fear of death similar to that which is associated with the diagnosis of cancer today.

Now we know that a diagnosis of cardiovascular disease is not a death sentence. Medications and changes in diet and exercise habits can create a healthier body and reverse cardiovascular disease, extending both the quality and length of life.

I tell patients that much the same situation exists with cancer. Cancer does not have to be a death sentence. Through a therapeutic regime, including an intensive program of detoxification, enhancement of the immune system, nutritional support, and counseling, patients can encourage their bodies to heal and can regain the joy of living.

Life-style Changes

Most cancer patients want to get well, but what many of them mean by getting well is "Make me the way I was before I got sick." But life-style factors such as smoking, poor diet, exposure to radiation and poisons, lack of exercise, and negative thinking are factors that cause or promote cancer. Most patients who are successful in healing cancer make significant changes in their life-style. In fact, healing requires life-style changes. If we attack the tumor without improving the underlying system, the body will usually make more tumors.

For some patients a health crisis like cancer is the necessary stimulus that forces them to learn about themselves and discover how to live a healthier, happier life.

Quality of Life

Often the...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Atria
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1994
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0671796232
• ISBN 13: 9780671796235
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 308
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Simon and Schuster Netherlands BV; info@simonandschuster.nl; ; Herculesplein 96; Utrecht; 3584 AA; Niederlande