CANCER IS NOT A SIMPLE MATTER

March 2, 2015

Without going into specifics, I have had patients and heard stories of patients trying to cure their cancers with fasting or “starving the cancer to death”. It is not such a simplistic matter. Though every illness including cancer is a combination of genetics and environment, trying to cure something as complex as cancer with simplistic pseudoscience is not the answer.

I have been a supporter of integrative medicine for many years now, but am strongly of the opinion that the right modality needs to be used at the right time. There is a role for surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, herbal medicine, acupuncture, meditation and many other modalities when used at the right time. Shunning proven conventional therapies just because they are mainstream is illogical. Why on earth would you do that, just to uphold an ideology that ‘natural is better’?

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There is a time when the gentle healing modalities of meditation, massage, visualisation, acupuncture, and esoteric disciplines are appropriate. And there are other times when you need to attack the disease with all the big guns. Please, first survival, and second ideology. Cancer is not a simplistic matter. If anything, genetics play a far more important role than anything environmental. I am not saying that diet, lifestyle and avoidance of toxins are unimportant, but without the underlying genetic predisposition, those factors would probably not manifest the cancer.

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There is a young lady Jess Ainscough who died last week of a rare cancer at the age of 30. She fought a rare cancer with natural therapies and championed a movement of fighting cancer the natural way. It is premature to write about the specifics of her case and due respect and time must be given to her and her family, however, her story highlights the complexity of cancer and cancer treatments.

As clinicians, we spend many years studying the intricacies of cancer and have gained experience treating many patients with cancers. Our role is to give you the best possible advice based on current evidence. We want to see you beat the disease. From a patient’s perspective, you want to understand the cancer; its natural history; what proven treatments exist; how do these treatments affect the natural history; what are the side effects of treatment; and what other modalities can be used alongside conventional medicine.

Once you have made a decision, proceed confidently with the treatment, and use every ounce of will and determination to beat the disease.

In Health and Wellness