After a trilogy of articles about the Tribeca Film Festival’s woefully poor decision to screen a pseudoscience and misinformation-filled documentary by anti-vaccine movement hero Andrew Wakefield that is basically just one long conspiracy theory, I thought it was time for a change. I had briefly toyed with the idea of having fun with the flying monkeys (aka anti-vaccine commentators) who visited the Tribeca Film Festival for the documentary, but, as of this writing, the total number of comments exceeds all 1,700 and it wouldn’t surprise me if there were over 2,000 by the time this post goes live. On the plus side, the crazy people are definitely out in force, including John Scudamore, the man responsible for Whale.to, one of the oldest and largest repositories of pseudoscience and quackery on the Internet. This and Holocaust denial And anti-Semitism in the form of that old anti-Semitic fake The protocols of the scholars of Zion. (Indeed, those of us who are pro-science hope that Mr. Scudamore continues to publish, given how completely crazy and anti-Semitic he is.)
Instead, I managed to resist diving into the well again (at least for now and at least until there is a new development worth writing about) and move on to a slightly less depressing subject. OK, it doesn’t make it any less depressing; it’s just depressing in a different way.
So let’s talk about cancer. Not specifically about cancer per se, but rather about cancer quackery. This is a frequent topic on this blog, with which regular readers have become quite familiar. Whether it be The charlatanism of Nicholas GonzalezTHE Gerson Protocolthe antineoplastons of Stanislaw Burzynski, the Hoxsey Treatment, or any of dozens of other treatments claiming to cure cancer, they all share one thing in common: the promise of far more than they can ever deliver, given that they are based on pseudoscience and/or pre-scientific ideas about how cancer develops. Another thing they share in common is the reliance on testimonials rather than science as “proof” of their effectiveness. Ultimately, since these treatments don’t work, they all have to share something else. Concretely, they all have ready-made excuses when they do not work and the tumor progresses or the patient dies.
These excuses appeared in perhaps one of the most despicable and concise lists of the excuses most commonly used by quacks when their treatments inevitably fail. Not surprisingly, this list appears on one of the many miserable hives of scum and quackery in the world of antivaccinationism and pseudoscience, Mike Adams’ NaturalNews.com, in the form of an article by Paul Fassa titled Seven reasons why natural cancer remedies sometimes fail. After spouting the usual cancer charlatan that oncologists hide the fact that cancer patients die from chemotherapy rather than their disease, Fassa proclaims:
On the other hand, those who seek alternative methods to treat cancer are much more likely to survive cancer without any adverse reactions or side effects. As the old saying goes: with herbal medicine, illness can kill you; but with allopathic (traditional) medicine, the treatment can kill you.
But sometimes the cancer survival rate drops from more than 80 percent with alternative natural means to 50 percent or less. Here’s why.
First of all, it is a plain and simple lie to believe that those who choose alternative methods of treating cancer over scientific medicine are more likely to survive. Certainly, it is illusory to claim that more than 80% of patients choosing alternative treatments survive. Indeed, alternative medicine is associated, more than anything else, with worst survival Or treatment delays that require more radical treatments have a reasonable hope of recovery. Indeed, alternative medicines are associated with the progression of cancer and potentially preventable deaths which are often unnecessary.
So what are the excuses the reasons What excuses does Fassa make when alternative medicines don’t work? I bet you can predict which one will be first. it’s the one we hear over and over again:
(1) Rush to traditional treatments first. When diagnosed with any type of cancer, patients are forced to begin treatment immediately or face imminent death. Types of cancer that are also threatening, such as pancreatic cancer, are irreparable in traditional medicine anyway. So why rush?
The prospects for complete cure with natural methods are significantly reduced by the harsh “heroic interventions” of traditional oncology. You have time to research what works best for you. If you have no idea or don’t know what’s out there, try Cancer Tutor.(1)
That’s right. If you decide to go to conventional therapy first, courting won’t work. Of course, it won’t work anyway, but it’s very common for cancer quacks to attribute the failure of their quackery to eliminate the cancer or even stop its growth to the fact that the patient has already had chemotherapy. or radiotherapy. This is a classic “blaming the victim” technique, a particularly pernicious and despicable ploy because many patients desperate enough to try alternative medicine do so only after they have exhausted conventional treatments. So basically, Fassa is advocating a strategy in which alternative medicine practitioners give false hope to patients who have exhausted conventional medicine and then tell them that the reason that hope has failed is because they chose conventional medicine. Basically, if you try an alternative therapy but don’t try it first, it’s your fault if you die.
Afterwards :
(2) Do not go on the “cancer diet”. All processed foods and drinks should be completely avoided. Organic plant foods should form the basis of the diet. You also need to stop eating most of your meat, especially red and processed meats. Refined sugar and refined carbohydrates create the perfect food for cancer cell survival.(2)
It is the error of “food as medicine“Basically, while there is no doubt that certain dietary items can increase or decrease cancer risk, once you already have cancer, there is little evidence that diet has much of an impact on its progression. The best advice for cancer patients is to eat a balanced diet with enough calories to provide the energy they need to fight cancer.
Of course, there is another side to this advice as well. Many cancer patients, especially those with advanced cancer, cannot adhere to the types of special “cancer diets” recommended by quacks. It’s not their fault, and the quacks are often very silent about what these patients should do.
I’m going to combine numbers 3 and 6 because it shows you how contradictory these excuses can be:
(3) Go it alone with a single protocol. The Cancer Tutor recommends three protocols (including diet) if one does not go to a clinic specializing in natural healing, such as the Gerson Clinic, Bio-Medical Clinic or others in Mexico or Europe. But some get by with just one treatment if they follow an anti-cancer diet.
(6) Mixing protocols. Cancer patients who consume cannabis oils are often guilty of this. They tend to view the incredible healing powers of cannabis as a silver bullet and ignore changes in their diet, usually continuing to consume junk food with lots of sugar. Then they panic and start chemo or radiotherapy in addition to using cannabis oil.
So wait a minute. It’s bad to use only one protocol; so you should use different forms of quackery together. But it is not good to “mix protocols”. But isn’t the combination of protocols a “mix of protocols”? Eating junk food isn’t exactly protocol either. So isn’t smoking weed and eating junk food actually “going it alone with one protocol”? I know I know. It is only bad to “mix protocols” if one of those protocols turns out to be any conventional cancer therapy. Otherwise, mix!
Here’s another “blame the victim” excuse, very similar to #1:
(4) Not following protocol exactly. The Budwig Diet prohibits the use of laetrile, an effective therapy in its own right. But it allows the natural source of aetrile, the kernels of apricot seeds. The Budwig Diet guide (3) should be followed.
In France, Dr. Max Gerson was puzzled by the lack of progress in some of his patients. He discovered that an assistant was bringing them pastries containing lots of sugar and refined carbohydrates that helped cancer cells survive and sabotaged his approach to eating.
Essiac tea was recommended to a friend whose father had cancer. She said he tried and it didn’t work. Of course, he had never changed his diet and was drinking over-the-counter Essiac tea, which is worthless. Only a few online suppliers offer the best René Caisse-approved herbs for you to brew Essiac yourself. Here’s one.
Of course, this Max Gerson story might well be apocryphal, but the fact that Fassa tells it speaks volumes to me. This tells me that even Gerson blamed the victim when his patients didn’t do well. Of course, notice what’s left out of this story. It’s pretty obvious. Fassa doesn’t tell us whether Gerson’s patients fared well after being prevented from consuming this evil sugar. Then there is the story of Essiac tea. Note that this must only be a special Essiac tea supplied by a few select quacks. And you need to change your diet or it won’t work. Of course, it won’t work anyway, but there’s always an excuse. For example, as in point 5, you have not done enough “detox”. Or, as in point 7, you have not considered the emotional, mental and spiritual aspect of healing.
After at least 15 years of studying claims about alternative cancer treatments, I have learned this. Whenever these “cures” fail, it is never the fault of the charlatan. It’s always the patient’s.
