It's happened again: I had a phone call yesterday from an old friend who asked me how I was. Of course I told her about the difficulties I was having with managing post-radiotherapy bowel symptoms. Big mistake. Because this particular friend is really into alternative therapies, as well as being an evangelical Christian. She started by telling me that she had a cold that she was 'treating naturopathically'. I asked, 'what does that mean?' 'Well, I'm dosing myself with this marvellous concoction: you whizz up raw onions, raw garlic, cider vinegar, cayenne pepper (I think ... my stomach was already churning by now at the thought of it) and various other things, put it in a kilner jar and keep it in the fridge, and eat it off the spoon. Plus I'm really into my juicing, and thinking of going on a totally raw food diet.' Mm, tasty! I did feel like saying 'if you're so healthy, why do you get colds in the first place?' but I refrained. Then she told me that she was very interested in the Hippocrates Institute, and had I heard of it? Indeed I had, I did a project on raw food diets when I was studying nutrition, and found them to be lacking in certain essential nutrients, so that they would eventually lead to malnutrition if not supplemented. The Hippocrates Institute was founded by Ann Wigmore, a Lithuanian who apparently cured herself of colon cancer using wheatgrass juice. These days it is big business: a 3 week stay at the Institute in West Palm Beach can set you back between $6,000 and $22,000. For that you get put on a raw food diet together with green drinks, wheatgrass juice, colonic irrigation, yoga etc. The website is stuffed with testimonials from people who were apparently cured of their cancer using these techniques. When you read these stories, they almost sound convincing. But we have to remember that this is only anecdotal evidence; it is not proven scientific evidence.
My friend went on to suggest that I contact a certain 'Dr' Richard Schulze, who would in her opinion undoubtedly be able to help me cure my bowel problems. I explained that they were due to stenosis caused by scar tissue, and that it was unlikely that living on a juice diet would break down the scar tissue, quite aside from the fact that I now find it very difficult to digest fruit and vegetables. However, to mollify my friend, I promised to google this gentleman when I got off the phone, and we finally went on to talk about other, safer topics.
I did as I had promised, and spent a happy afternoon getting very angry with Richard Schulze. For one thing, he's not a doctor in the accepted sense. Well, apparently he is a doctor of 'herbology' and of natural medicine, has a degree in herbal pharmacy and three degrees in iridology (need I say what I think of that?), but not a real doctor. Secondly, he has a very hectoring approach. On his website, he says that he doesn't want to help anyone who isn't prepared to 'turn their life around'. When I discovered what this entailed, I decided to give our Dr S a miss, and not only because he's got no clinical evidence whatsoever for his methods. His 'incurables' programme starts with a 14-30 day juice only fast, after which, if you haven't already shrunk to half your original weight and aren't suffering from malnutrition, you are 'required' to go on a raw vegetable and fruit diet - and of course buy Dr S's supplements. Oh, and put castor oil packs on 'the afflicted part' (what do you do if it's your lymph system that's afflicted, I wonder?), a 5-gallon enema on alternate days (using herbs purchased from Dr S, of course), hot and cold showers (VERY hot and VERY cold) at least twice a day, the 'cold sheet' treatment (shudder, shudder), and lastly to drink a special tea (made from Dr S's herbs, of course, and distilled water). Apparently this programme 'cures various diseases such as cancer'. Oh, how I love that throwaway remark! My goodness, why don't we spread this news to all the poor old oncologists out there trying to treat us for all our many and varied cancers?
I emailed my friend and gently explained to her that I didn't have the self-denial necessary to put myself through Dr S's recommendations, not to mention that they sounded like the very worst things I could do to my bowels, so there was no point in contacting him. We have agreed to stay friends but differ in our opinions on how to take care of our health. I just hope she never gets a diagnosis of cancer.
My friend's religious zeal got me thinking about these alternative cancer 'cures' and what a lot they have in common with evangelical religions. Both of them expect you to renounce your old ways, to be cleansed and start anew. In the case of the cancer cures, they assume that you are already 'toxic' and need to detoxify. It's a bit like being full of sin and needing to be shriven. I find it insulting that anyone should think I'm toxic. Secondly, they expect you to espouse the cause without seeing any evidence. It's all taken on trust. We only have Dr Schulze's word, for example, that he has cured thousands of people during the twenty years he was running a clinic (since closed down, I wonder why? Oh yes, somewhere else he says he's been 'legally gagged'.) And only his word that he has taught at Oxford and Cambridge universities (oh yeah?) and 'Trinity Medical College' in Ireland (as a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, I know that there is no such thing, although there is a School of Medicine there. Did he just get the name wrong, or is he making it up as he goes along?).
Aside from the similarity to evangelical religious movements, alternative cancer therapies share some characteristics which make them easy to spot. For example, they all seem to assume that there is a conspiracy between the medical profession and the pharmaceutical companies to suppress 'natural' cancer cures. I have even heard it said that 'they' don't want to find a cure for cancer because cancer treatment is such big business (this was in America). Opinions such as these are an insult to those who dedicate their lives to researching new cancer treatments and to those who treat us. Another characteristic is that the figurehead (eg Dr Schulze, Dr Hamer of German New Medicine about whom I've written before, Dr Contreras of laetrile infamy, and many others) has usually been struck off some medical register or other for contravening the law, so they see themselves as persecuted figures. Next, the treatment, whatever it is, is claimed to cure all cancers, no matter that 'cancer' is an umbrella term for literally hundreds of different diseases. So it's not disease-specific. There's no drug in the world that can truthfully make claims like that. And lastly, there is never any evidence. Oh yes, testimonials galore, but no proper scientific evidence, no peer-reviewed studies. The trouble with testimonials is, can you believe them? Most of those I looked at on the Hippocrates Institute website were from people who had, incidentally, had surgery or other treatment for their cancer, and then switched to the Hippocrates programme rather than undergo chemotherapy (which they may not have needed anyway). So when their tumours shrank, they credited the dietary regime and not the orthodox treatment. Others have been 'sent home to die' by their doctors (do doctors really say that? I very much doubt it), and yet others may never have had cancer in the first place.
Maybe I bang on about these alternative cancer cures too much. It's just that I seem to be the victim of so many well-meaning friends from the complementary health world, to which I used to belong myself. And they're all intent on converting me. It's hard work to try and convince them of my new-found scepticism.
