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Understanding alternative medicine "testimonials" for cancer cures

That’s a very good article.

You can find another one that’s critical of testimonials for breast cancer cures in the selected topics section of this link:
http://members.bordernet.com.au/~pmoran/

One tragic example of someone who chose to go the CAM route when she discovered she had breast cancer was the late Caron Keating. For anyone who’s interested, the UK Skeptics forum recently had an interesting discussion on her story:
http://www.ukskeptics.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=67096db44c4d48a6068a608e80889862&topic=34.0
 
I hope i'm not boring you with this personal story:
My mother had cancer when i was 15 years old. She was (understandably) afraid of both radiation and chemotherapy, so she had the tumour surgically removed, and then used homeopathic and other "natural" medicines to get rid of the rest. Every day for several years she injected a shot of a natural mistletoe extract called "Iscador".
Then, of course, the cancer came back and nearly killed her. The second time she did go through the radiation therapy. She is now healthy -- as far as the doctors can tell -- but permanently disabled. She still takes the homeopathic stuff and believes in it wholeheartedly.
Maybe this was a contributing factor to me becoming skeptical of these things.

On the other hand, i've been passively skeptical ever since childhood, when mommy bought me a nasty alcohol-based homeopathic drug to cure my sporadic fits of headache. Alcohol makes headache much worse. But aspirin, see, is very dangerous, and homeopathic drugs have NO SIDE EFFECTS!
 
Ah, this is what I find the most bothersome about sCAM. The kids who suffer for their parent's lack of finding out why things do or do not work.

It's good to know that your experience allows you to not repeat the cycle, although it sounds like a painful experience. I'm sorry to hear you couldn't even take aspirin.

I've not bothered joining the local Tourettes support group for parents because I've heard (through the local paper's story on the local group) that the parents push homeopathy and try to get their kids to not take real medicine in favor of the sugar pills. That's not the kind of support I nor my children need.
 
Eos of the Eons said:
I've not bothered joining the local Tourettes support group for parents because I've heard (through the local paper's story on the local group) that the parents push homeopathy and try to get their kids to not take real medicine in favor of the sugar pills. That's not the kind of support I nor my children need.
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I know you probably wouldn't get much in the way of thanks for it, but why not join anyway and try to do something about it? At least you could provide some decent information and support for those members of the group who are having this stuff pushed onto them.
 
That's a great article.

Fabian: your story is sadly all too common, and I'm sorry your mom is disabled now, but I am glad she finally got the treatments she needed.
 
cbish said:
??? What's wrong with aspirin?
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It's an evil allopathy DRUG with CHEMICALS!!!

Hmm, I think you could use a trip to some of SCAM boards, any SCAM board, and hear their tales about big pharma and evil DRUGS. Even big pharma's deoderant causes breast cancer doncha know, and sweating is essential to clear "toxins from your body". Never mind that sweat is nearly the same as urine in its composition with Urea (just in different concentrations), and it's the liver that clears toxins into the waste system for disposal, but not out through your skin.

I know you probably wouldn't get much in the way of thanks for it, but why not join anyway and try to do something about it? At least you could provide some decent information and support for those members of the group who are having this stuff pushed onto them.
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Sorry, but no thanks. I already have no friends for trying to point out what homeopathy is. People like that also don't want their kids around my VACCINATED children, in case they leak vaccine onto theirs. I don't need another whole group hating me in this town.

Just picture this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULUHbO60mOY

I'm Randi, and Lane is 10 other people in my face. No thanks. Been there, done that, and didn't like it.

Heck it's bad enough I've made enemies at work for suggesting the Iraq war isn't JUST about oil. I didn't even say it WASN'T about oil, I just said it isn't JUST about oil. Yeesh.

I've almost had enough of saying anything at all ever.
 
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Eos of the Eons said:
Sorry, but no thanks. I already have no friends for trying to point out what homeopathy is. People like that also don't want their kids around my VACCINATED children, in case they leak vaccine onto theirs. I don't need another whole group hating me in this town.
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Point taken. What do you do with people who regard anyone providing decent information as being confrontational?
 
Eos, your story makes me glad that forums like this exist so people have somewhere to come where everyone else understands. There's no greater comfort than knowing you're not alone.

I've also lost friends through trying to help them educate themselves. I just come here and hang out with my virtual friends instead :D
 
Mojo said:
Point taken. What do you do with people who regard anyone providing decent information as being confrontational?
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Nothing that I can ever see. I go into avoid mode after pissing them off, since nothing I ever say after that gets taken seriously and is argued before I ever get a single point out. I just hope that at some point in my life someone listens instead of going into Lane attack mode (see vid link in my last post). One day I'll make a friend instead of an enemy. I've yet to figure out how though. I've simply accepted that I will be the "different one", the "evil skeptic" for now. It would be nice to even agree to disagree. I'd like to be able to discuss it at least, but I get cut off and scoffed at.

And Yes, tkingdoll, I'd be alone in this world without these boards. It is my only comfort, and we all do understand. Keeps me sane, so thank you and everyone else for being here!
 
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cbish said:
??? What's wrong with aspirin?
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It's synthetic and therefore automatically harmful. Also there was a short-lived media scare about aspirin being addictive. Or rather, people becoming addicted to it. You can become addicted to anything, of course.
With these things, fantasy and fear mixes up with reality. My mother once found an empty discarded aspirin box in the trash -- my father is a skeptic and secretly supplied me with them -- and assumed that i had eaten all its contents at once, like 50 pills or something. Obviously i hadn't, or i wouldn't be here today. Aspirin IS dangerous, if you can't follow instructions and eat large amounts of it.
 
I recall in my anti-quack readings, a cancer clinic that was advertising they cured cancer with natural medicines and treatments. They had hours of video tapes of "cured patients" extolling the virtues of their clinic. Investigations into something like 230 patients revealed that of the patients who were accurately diagnosed with cancer 100% were dead. Does anyone remember the details of this scenario?
 
fabian_lidman said:
It's synthetic and therefore automatically harmful. Also there was a short-lived media scare about aspirin being addictive. Or rather, people becoming addicted to it. You can become addicted to anything, of course.
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Bull....
 
cbish said:
Bull....
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Yes, you can. People are "addicted" to sugar, sex, TV, aspirin, working out, video games, et cetera. This doesn't mean that there's any real physical dependence, but that they have become emotionally dependent on it. They may get psychosomatic headaches once they stop popping that daily painkiller. Or they may feel strongly depressed because they didn't spend enough time in World of Warcraft. (I know of such a case by the way -- it's pathetic.)
Anyway, when sensationalist media hears of this, the headlines will naturally read "COMMON PAINKILLER HIGHLY ADDICTIVE", probably with a subheading: "Ingrid, 43: I couldn't stop eating aspirin".
So that's the kind of "addiction" i was talking about.
 
fabian_lidman said:
Care to elaborate? :)
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Sure!

You made a claim that aspirin is "very dangerous". Other than some gastrointestinal problems in some people, I do not know of any medical problems associated with aspirin use.

Then you claimed aspirin was dangerous because' "it's synthetic and automatically harmful". This is bull!

Then you claim aspirin is addictive and site as proof addictions to sugar, sex, exercise etc. I contend compulsive behaviors do not fit the clinical definition of addiction or dependency.

I could include my own addiction. I contend shampooing one's hair to be very dangerous. It's very dangerous because it is highly addictive. People have been know to shampoo so much, they scape off their epidermis, skull, and eventually start scrambling their brain. Shampoo is dangerous! Very dangerous. No one should do it. I'm so glad I kicked my addiction years ago.
 
I read it as him saying it sarcastically. Like it's his Mother who thinks of it as dangerous.
 
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