Medicine For Morons
Health food stores are a bad place to go for cancer advice? No! Really? According to a Reuters story by Anthony J. Brown, MD:
ìHealth food stores offer breast cancer patients a variety of recommendations that are seldom useful and, in some cases, harmful.A Canadian study found that a total of 33 different products were recommended for breast cancer, none of which has been established as an effective treatment for the disease.
More often than not, advice at health food stores probably does not affect a patient's ultimate outcome, but sometimes it may be harmful, study author Edward Mills, from the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine in North York, Ontario, told Reuters Health.
For instance, ëone employee actually suggested discontinuing Tamoxifen to a patient," he said. Tamoxifen is a common treatment for breast cancer that has been shown in numerous studies to improve survival.íî
In the above study, research assistants posed as customers ìand asked employees what they would recommend for their mother with breast cancer.î
Hereís what Iíd recommend for such customers: that their mother adopt another child -- one with the sense not to shop for cancer cures where they shop for their PMS tea and their wooden footsie rollers. ìOh, just take a little milk thistle, and that tumor'll be gone in a jiffy!î
Those herbal remedies can help the common cold, but when it comes to big cases, they may as well join a cult.
Although yoga and meditation may help the body relax and improve health, new age stuff is a feel-good device for people afraid of medicine.
Cecile Dubois at August 7, 2003 8:34 AM
I understand a person wishing to forego chemo therapy in favor of something less overall harmful to your system, but let's face it: If you have cancer, you have cancer. Yes, folic acid has been proven to help PREVENT cancer, but if you've already got it, and you have a good chance for survival with the chemo, isn't your life more important than becoming Mother's Market's poster child?
However, I'll stand by anyone's decision to not take treatment at all, if their chances for survival are slim. In those cases, there are herbal remedies that can help make you more comfortable in your final days. Unfortunately, it's still illegal.
Clarkified at August 7, 2003 10:16 AM
Too bad the government can't settle for a war on stupidity instead of a war on drugs. Oh, and thank you for posting on my blog. It's been rather lonely in here. Please encourage others to weigh in here, especially the especially intelligent and witty, the especially stupid and clueless (comic relief from the actual comics), and the especially combative (they keep the conversation going). You can't have a great dinner party unless you invite one asshole.
Amy Alkon at August 7, 2003 2:24 PM
I just got back from a few days in Berkeley, where there's a new "pharmacy" (at the corner of Shattuck and Cedar) that offers all sorts of consultations for customers who are interested in working themselves up into a frothy hysteria about every little itch and fart and twitch their bodies make. I once heard that sometime in the early 20th century, physicians gave injections of sheep's urine to well-to-do housewives who complained about "low energy." I think they'd make a killing in 21st century northern California.
Lena Cuisina at August 8, 2003 11:05 PM
Hmm, there's yet another job for Ken Layne's goat.
Amy Alkon at August 10, 2003 2:23 PM