Curing cancer with naturopathy!
October 1, 2016 at 11:56 pm
(This post was last modified: October 2, 2016 at 8:14 am by Aractus.)
No, the title's not clickbait. I saw yesterday something on YT that didn't really shock me, it didn't upset me, but boy was it memorable. It was a video of a woman fighting breast-cancer with pseudo-medicine! The extent of human stupidity is incredible. So I'm going to show you one of her videos (you can go to the channel to view the rest), and give you guys some thoughts. I'm not going to mince my words, so if you're easily offended look away now.
So here's the case. The lady above, her name is Jennifer Faulisi, she was diagnosed with breast cancer in July 2014. When she found it it was the size of a golf ball. She refused to have a mastectomy. She refused chemotherapy and radiotherapy. She did eventually have a biopsy in May 2015 (see below), and she died on 4 Apr 2016.
![[Image: iguKHpj.png]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=i.imgur.com%2FiguKHpj.png)
I want you to notice in the video above she talks about her mother in a very judgemental way about her lifestyle - e.g. she drank four cups of coffee a day and smoked. The reason why I mention that is because smoking and drinking coffee does not give you breast cancer, plus her mum survived for 13 years after diagnosis because she got medical treatment for it. In the video she shows you her breast at about 11 minutes in, the cancer has been growing since she found it for 16 months untreated! Not only that, but from the post above it already gotten too big to operate on by May 2015 (10 months after diagnosis). She gets quite emotional at the end of her video and where she says "I want to live".
I really do feel complete ambivalence towards this woman. Now it's one thing to simply decide you don't want treatment. But the dumb bitch says specifically that she wants to heal, and that modern medical practise "does not address the cause of the cancer, it just treats the symptom". It would be one thing if she was simply distrustful of healthcare providers, that's quite normal. It would be one thing if she didn't want medical treatment - that's her choice. There's no guarantees, if she'd had a mastectomy she might have died then and there on the operating table. So we can't possibly know what would have happened for her had she chosen medical treatment rather than pseudomedical bullshit.
Naturopathy is the theory of disease that states that that the body has everything it needs to heal itself. It's the semi-modernised version of alchemy. If you want evidence of this, you can view the video with her "doctor" Dan Rogers where he says specifically that the body will heal itself if we treat it right. It's actually very similar in its theory to chiropractic medicine, which which also teaches that the body has the inherent ability to heal itself, although in chiropractic theory all disease is caused by vertebral subluxation. I feel like we live in the fucking dark ages. Diet (Gerson therapy) is not going to cure a person of cancer any more than getting a chiropractic adjustment will - but the practitioners of these pseudosciences will happy tell you they will cure you of cancer:
![[Image: screenshot-of-care-clinic-website-data.jpg]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=www.abc.net.au%2Fcm%2Flb%2F7099452%2Fdata%2Fscreenshot-of-care-clinic-website-data.jpg)
Screenshot of Care Clinic NSW website (content now removed).
We've been swamped by unqualified "health gurus". Jessica Ainscough treated her cancer with Gerson therapy as well - in fact not only did she lead herself into mortality, she led her own mother who got breast cancer into mortality too! AND, and this is the fucked up part, the bitch reportedly earned a 6-figure salary as a self-proclaimed health expert! And it should be noted that unlike Jen she did have chemotherapy, but she refused to have her arm amputated - had she done that she most likely would have been cancer-free and alive today.
Within the ethical vegan movement there are vocal claims that chemotherapy kills and that a raw vegan diet can cure cancer (example here). I don't think it's a genuine belief in naturopathy, I think it's an extreme opposition to the use of animals for medical research. And that is really frustrating because every significant medicine has been tested on animals. In fact, they have to be before human trials can be considered. What I do think they have is an overconfidence in the ability of food to heal. Almost without question a good diet will assist healing, but in saying that veganisim is not a "good diet" and "assist" doesn't mean "will cause". I'll give a very clear example: a friend of my brother's drinks way too much. He was diagnosed with leukaemia. He had chemotherapy. His doctors said "you cannot drink while on chemo". He continued to drink from his hospital bed against medical advice. Happily for him he lived to tell the tale - but he could have chosen not to drink and that would have been the safest option for his treatment. And yes what he did was fucking stupid and irresponsible.
Anyway, back to my dilemma. I don't feel any sympathy for Jen by the way, just in case that wasn't clear by now, lol. I would have felt for her if I had felt that she had been taken advantage of and preyed on by these quacks. But in this instance, it actually appears that she was misleading people into pursuing naturopathy as well. Now, as a "complimentary" approach I wouldn't have too big a problem with it, but not when she pays some quack doctor (Dan Rogers) something like USD 6-7,000 per week for treatment in his 'clinic' in Mexico so that he can feed her 13 juices per day. Yes that fucking angers me. That's fucked up. That's more expensive then chemo & radiotherapy!* Not only that, but this quack can't even practise his quackery in the USA because it's illegal, so his "clinic" is located in Mexico.
Do me a favour, if you learn just one thing from this thread, when you get cancer don't try to heal it with chiropractic or naturopathic medicine!
* For cost of cancer see this Cancer Council document. Average direct costs of treating breast cancer for working age people in Australia is ~A$16,000 per person (in total).
So here's the case. The lady above, her name is Jennifer Faulisi, she was diagnosed with breast cancer in July 2014. When she found it it was the size of a golf ball. She refused to have a mastectomy. She refused chemotherapy and radiotherapy. She did eventually have a biopsy in May 2015 (see below), and she died on 4 Apr 2016.
I want you to notice in the video above she talks about her mother in a very judgemental way about her lifestyle - e.g. she drank four cups of coffee a day and smoked. The reason why I mention that is because smoking and drinking coffee does not give you breast cancer, plus her mum survived for 13 years after diagnosis because she got medical treatment for it. In the video she shows you her breast at about 11 minutes in, the cancer has been growing since she found it for 16 months untreated! Not only that, but from the post above it already gotten too big to operate on by May 2015 (10 months after diagnosis). She gets quite emotional at the end of her video and where she says "I want to live".
I really do feel complete ambivalence towards this woman. Now it's one thing to simply decide you don't want treatment. But the dumb bitch says specifically that she wants to heal, and that modern medical practise "does not address the cause of the cancer, it just treats the symptom". It would be one thing if she was simply distrustful of healthcare providers, that's quite normal. It would be one thing if she didn't want medical treatment - that's her choice. There's no guarantees, if she'd had a mastectomy she might have died then and there on the operating table. So we can't possibly know what would have happened for her had she chosen medical treatment rather than pseudomedical bullshit.
Naturopathy is the theory of disease that states that that the body has everything it needs to heal itself. It's the semi-modernised version of alchemy. If you want evidence of this, you can view the video with her "doctor" Dan Rogers where he says specifically that the body will heal itself if we treat it right. It's actually very similar in its theory to chiropractic medicine, which which also teaches that the body has the inherent ability to heal itself, although in chiropractic theory all disease is caused by vertebral subluxation. I feel like we live in the fucking dark ages. Diet (Gerson therapy) is not going to cure a person of cancer any more than getting a chiropractic adjustment will - but the practitioners of these pseudosciences will happy tell you they will cure you of cancer:
Screenshot of Care Clinic NSW website (content now removed).
We've been swamped by unqualified "health gurus". Jessica Ainscough treated her cancer with Gerson therapy as well - in fact not only did she lead herself into mortality, she led her own mother who got breast cancer into mortality too! AND, and this is the fucked up part, the bitch reportedly earned a 6-figure salary as a self-proclaimed health expert! And it should be noted that unlike Jen she did have chemotherapy, but she refused to have her arm amputated - had she done that she most likely would have been cancer-free and alive today.
Within the ethical vegan movement there are vocal claims that chemotherapy kills and that a raw vegan diet can cure cancer (example here). I don't think it's a genuine belief in naturopathy, I think it's an extreme opposition to the use of animals for medical research. And that is really frustrating because every significant medicine has been tested on animals. In fact, they have to be before human trials can be considered. What I do think they have is an overconfidence in the ability of food to heal. Almost without question a good diet will assist healing, but in saying that veganisim is not a "good diet" and "assist" doesn't mean "will cause". I'll give a very clear example: a friend of my brother's drinks way too much. He was diagnosed with leukaemia. He had chemotherapy. His doctors said "you cannot drink while on chemo". He continued to drink from his hospital bed against medical advice. Happily for him he lived to tell the tale - but he could have chosen not to drink and that would have been the safest option for his treatment. And yes what he did was fucking stupid and irresponsible.
Anyway, back to my dilemma. I don't feel any sympathy for Jen by the way, just in case that wasn't clear by now, lol. I would have felt for her if I had felt that she had been taken advantage of and preyed on by these quacks. But in this instance, it actually appears that she was misleading people into pursuing naturopathy as well. Now, as a "complimentary" approach I wouldn't have too big a problem with it, but not when she pays some quack doctor (Dan Rogers) something like USD 6-7,000 per week for treatment in his 'clinic' in Mexico so that he can feed her 13 juices per day. Yes that fucking angers me. That's fucked up. That's more expensive then chemo & radiotherapy!* Not only that, but this quack can't even practise his quackery in the USA because it's illegal, so his "clinic" is located in Mexico.
Do me a favour, if you learn just one thing from this thread, when you get cancer don't try to heal it with chiropractic or naturopathic medicine!
* For cost of cancer see this Cancer Council document. Average direct costs of treating breast cancer for working age people in Australia is ~A$16,000 per person (in total).
For Religion & Health see:[/b][/size] Williams & Sternthal. (2007). Spirituality, religion and health: Evidence and research directions. Med. J. Aust., 186(10), S47-S50. -LINK
The WIN/Gallup End of Year Survey 2013 found the US was perceived to be the greatest threat to world peace by a huge margin, with 24% of respondents fearful of the US followed by: 8% for Pakistan, and 6% for China. This was followed by 5% each for: Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, North Korea. -LINK
"That's disgusting. There were clean athletes out there that have had their whole careers ruined by people like Lance Armstrong who just bended thoughts to fit their circumstances. He didn't look up cheating because he wanted to stop, he wanted to justify what he was doing and to keep that continuing on." - Nicole Cooke
The WIN/Gallup End of Year Survey 2013 found the US was perceived to be the greatest threat to world peace by a huge margin, with 24% of respondents fearful of the US followed by: 8% for Pakistan, and 6% for China. This was followed by 5% each for: Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, North Korea. -LINK
"That's disgusting. There were clean athletes out there that have had their whole careers ruined by people like Lance Armstrong who just bended thoughts to fit their circumstances. He didn't look up cheating because he wanted to stop, he wanted to justify what he was doing and to keep that continuing on." - Nicole Cooke
