Information, Misinformation, Disinformation and Just Plain Crap

When a can of worms is opened, it stirs things up. Never one to shy away from the controversial, I am opening a can of worms today that I am pretty sure will stir things up. Remember the X-Files: The truth is out there? (I think they also said "trust no one") Well let's start talking truth instead of sharing crap, over and over and over again. Yes, Facebook, I am talking about you. I realize that I have become the Truth and Justice League on Facebook, and while I feel strongly about correcting false information, I also hate being the one to do it. I know I am that friend who is the pain in your posterior. I mean no disrespect, but I really cannot tolerate the spread of fertilizer over the internet, as some of it is downright dangerous. 

In June 2016 several alternative health and conspiracy blogs published posts claiming that a Berkeley doctor had "blown the whistle" on chemotherapy as a treatment for cancer, revealing that it doesn't work 97% of the time and is only recommended due to practitioner greed (i.e., oncologists get kickbacks from suppliers). YIKES!

People, really? How many of you out there have been helped by chemotherapy? How many of you know someone who is alive today because of chemotherapy? I know many. Is it perfect? No. Does it also have risks and side effects? Yes, of course it does because it's designed to kill cells. Consider how many people die from not being treated. Consider what it's like to die from untreated (or treated, because that happens too) cancer. Not pretty or kind. AND consider how many people live!

But wait Hill, you say. What about alternative treatments? Aren't they useful. Aren't you a holistic healer? Yes. I believe in holistic care in combination (key word: INTEGRATIVE) with traditional medical care, I think they are amazing for supporting health and wellness as the difficult battle against cancer is waged. Do I believe in some super supplement sold without research or regulation on the internet to be the magic bullet and only treatment needed? Absolutely not. Do I believe people have a right to decide for themselves what kind of care and treatment they choose and believe in? Absolutely. But let's make that an informed choice, based on facts and not fiction. 

David Gorski in Chemotherapy versus Death from Cancer tells it like this:

"Chemotherapy can be rough. Very rough. But what is often forgotten is that it can also be life-saving, particularly in the case of hematologic malignancies, where it is the primary therapy. What is also often ignored by promoters of unscientific medicine is that doctors don’t use chemotherapy because they have some perverted love of “torturing” patients, because they’re in the pockets of big pharma and looking for cash, or because they are too lazy to find another way. They do it because, at least right now, it’s the best therapy science-based medicine has to offer, and in the case of Hodgkin’s lymphoma, for example, it’s life-saving. 

Yes, chemotherapy can make you feel nauseated and make you throw up. It can make your hair fall out. It can temporarily depress the immune system. It can cause bleeding complications, such as GI bleeding. It can cause kidney damage. It can cause heart damage. It can cause lung damage. It can cause nerve damage. It can make you lose weight. It can even result in your death from complications. In short, it is not something to be used lightly. Unfortunately, the disease it’s meant to fight is a formidable foe indeed. It is your own cells, and all too often the difference between the toxicity of chemotherapy against the cancer and against normal cells is not that large.

But what does cancer do? How do cancer patients die? They suffer and die in protean ways. Cancer can do everything chemotherapy can do (with the exception of hair loss) and more. I’ve seen more patients than I care to know suffer and die from cancer. 

One of the most frequent claims of cancer patients who opt for quackery alternatives (my edit) instead of chemotherapy and effective science-based therapies is that they want to remain healthy. Some, as Abraham Cherrix did, state that, even if they end up dying, they want to “die healthy.” It’s a dangerous delusion. There is nothing “healthy” about dying from cancer." 

Click on the link if you want to know all the ways cancer kills. 

Blaming medicine, doctors and life saving treatments, labeling them as "bad", greedy and self serving, is dangerous in my estimation. Does capitalism have its greedy hands in our medical system? Yes, and we need to address that. But let us not throw the life saving baby out with the bathwater! I know someone right now who is probably dying because he has opted for an internet silver bullet special. Doctors are not out to hurt us, all allopathic medicine isn't bad and each of us has the responsibility to choose our doctors and health care wisely. End of rant. 

May we all be healthy.

Can We Get a Little Bit More Emotionally Reactive? (Kidding!)

Humanity is like an enormous spider web, so that if you touch it anywhere, you set the whole thing trembling … As we move around this world and as we act with kindness, perhaps, or with indifference, or with hostility, toward the people we meet, we too are setting the great spider web a-tremble. The life that I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place and time my touch will be felt. Our lives are linked together. No one is an island.

- Frederick Buechner

This morning I woke up, and took a few sips of coffee.  Caffeine served to pry open my eyes as I faced the first day back to the real world after a very peace filled vacation without Facebook rants, Trump shenanigans and assorted other craziness.



Something infinitely more potent than French Roast roused me, a blossoming rant about HRC "collapsing" at the 9/11 memorial. I watched a Youtube video that shows a very wobbly Hillary Clinton, being helped into her van. Then I read the comments and postings.  They ranged from critical to caustic. Some are diagnosing her "condition", others accusing her of subterfuge. Oh my God, really? Its freakin' pneumonia. Let's say that's the truth as our starting point. Here is my beef: She has been sick, was put on antibiotics on Friday. Yet, after collapsing on Sunday, having a fever and being rushed to the hospital, she professes to feel GREAT! I saw her say it! This is then followed by an announcement this morning that she has pneumonia. Huh? I know she is one tough lady, but this isn't toughness, this is stupidity or denial or both. We are not strong because we do not show weakness, we are strong when we can show our weaknesses and still get the job done. No wonder people are skeptical.

Colin McEnroe, Connecticut Public Broadcasting commentator, pointed out that this plays into two main negative narratives about HRC: 1. She is not upfront about things. 2. Something funky is going on with her health.

This woman is so stoic that, while I might understand her, I have trouble trusting her. Running for public office these days is tantamount to being thrown to the lions in Roman times. It's got to be the scariest process ever. Every wink, wrinkle and stumble is not only talked about, analyzed and judged, but also videoed and shared with the world.

But this isn't really about her. This is about you, and me and everyone else slinging misinformation, and caustic comments all over the internet without little regard to where they land or who they hurt. Hillary is not one of my favorite politicians, but she is a human being who has dedicated her entire life to public service. She has been sniped at, accused of treasonous and negligent behavior, and had her private life judged and scrutinized. Who wouldn't be a bit withholding having lived with that her whole adult life? Actually, for the first time ever, this situation brought up some compassion and empathy in me, for her. Maybe my husband is right, and I will end up voting for her.