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.