Quality of life of cancer patients improves after SCAM – or doesn’t it?

So-called alternative medicine (SCAM) is a seriously dangerous option for cancer patients who aim at curing their cancer with it. One cannot warn patients often and strongly enough, I believe. But when it comes to supportive cancer treatment (care that does not aim at changing the natural history of the disease), SCAM might have a […]

Read the rest here: Quality of life of cancer patients improves after SCAM – or doesn’t it?

Universal Medicine follower's daughter hopes jury verdict stops 'dangerous cult' recruitment - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

A neuroscientist who tried in vain to claw back part of her mother's dying gift of $1.4 million to an unproven spiritual healer says she has been vindicated by a jury verdict that the breast cancer victim was exploited by a "socially dangerous cult"... Universal Medicine follower's daughter hopes jury verdict stops 'dangerous cult' recruitment - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Woman Dies After Trusting “Black Salve” Fake Cancer Cure Over Real Medicine | David Gee

Cancer is a tough diagnosis for anyone, but recovery is even more difficult if you put your faith in dangerous and unproven “cures” instead of in modern medicine.

That’s what happened to one woman, who we will refer to simply as “Theresa.” She was diagnosed with cancer in early 2017 and, by the end of that year, she was applying a topical paste that eats away skin tissues... Woman Dies After Trusting “Black Salve” Fake Cancer Cure Over Real Medicine | David Gee

Warning: includes photos that may upset you. As they damn well should.

Cervical cancer rate declines after introduction of HPV vaccine – new evidence

... This year, a solid systematic review, the most powerful research in the hierarchy of biomedical science, along with other studies, have been published that provide strong evidence that the HPV vaccine reduces the cervical cancer rate. Now we have a new study to add to the body of science supporting the effectiveness in preventing cancers of the HPV vaccine... Cervical cancer rate declines after introduction of HPV vaccine – new evidence

American Loon #2035: Ralph Moss

One of the grand old men of woo, Ralph W. Moss specializes in cancer crackpottery and has been one of the main promoters of laetrile. There’s a good discussion of that particularly nasty piece of woo here, and more information here. Moss consistently refers to himself as “Dr. Moss”, and he does...

Read the full lunacy: #2035: Ralph Moss Encyclopedia of American Loons

Homeopathy for cancer: Dr Wurster and the ‘Clinica Sta Croce’ in Switzerland

A few days ago, the German TV ‘FACT’ broadcast a film (it is in German, the bit on homeopathy starts at ~min 20) about a young woman who had her breast cancer first operated but then decided to forfeit subsequent conventional treatments. Instead she chose homeopathy which she received from Dr Jens Wurster at the […]

Read the rest here: Homeopathy for cancer: Dr Wurster and the ‘Clinica Sta Croce’ in Switzerland

Fraud and greed can cause enormous harm

We have repeatedly discussed the journal ‘Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine’ (see for instance here and here). The journal has recently done something remarkable and seemingly laudable: it retracted an article titled “Psorinum Therapy in Treating Stomach, Gall Bladder, Pancreatic, and Liver Cancers: A Prospective Clinical Study” due to concerns about the ethics, authorship, quality […]

Read the rest here: Fraud and greed can cause enormous harm

Homeopathy, Cancer and Dr Dietmar Payrhuber: how TV endangers cancer patients

Dr. Dietmar Payrhuber is not famous – no, by no means. I had never heard of him until a watched this TV discussion about homeopathy (it’s in German, and well-worth watching, if you understand the language). I found the discussion totally mesmerising: Payrhuber is allowed to come out with case after case alleging he cured […]

Read the rest here: Homeopathy, Cancer and Dr Dietmar Payrhuber: how TV endangers cancer patients

Charlatanism: fantasy or dishonesty?

In his Homeopathy: The Undiluted Facts Edzard Ernst delineates between two types of charlatan: the dishonest and the fantasist. I don’t know and have never met Sally Lloyd, a homeopath who charges for her services. Neither do I know whether she actually offers them to people diagnosed with cancer. But if she spews forth the following disgraceful misinformation to anybody daft or desperate enough to ‘consult’ her, there is something seriously amiss. [Read more... ]

‘Censored for curing cancer’: the Gerson re-visited

This announcement caught my eye:

START OF 1st QUOTE
Dr Patrick Vickers of the Northern Baja Gerson Centre, Mexico will deliver a two hour riveting lecture of ‘The American Experience of Dr Max Gerson, M.D.’ 
The lecture will present the indisputable science supporting the Gerson Therapy and its ability to reverse advanced disease. Dr Vickers […]

Read the rest here: ‘Censored for curing cancer’: the Gerson re-visited

“The cancer industry is a medical conspiracy against humanity” (The Turmeric story)

The title of this post is a statement recently made in an article by Mike Adams in ‘Alternative Medicine News’:

The cancer industry goes to great lengths to deny patients access to any information that they might use to prevent, treat or cure cancer without requiring expensive (and highly toxic) medical interventions. That’s what makes […]

Read the rest here: “The cancer industry is a medical conspiracy against humanity” (The Turmeric story)

Electrohomeopathy … endangering lives since almost 200 years

Electrohomeopathy is a version of homeopathy few people know about. Allow me to explain:

Cesare Mattei (1809–1896), an Italian count, was interested in homeopathy. Mattei believed that fermented plants gave off ‘electrical’ energy that could be used to cure illness. He also believed that every illness had a cure provided in the vegetable kingdom by […]

Read the rest here: Electrohomeopathy … endangering lives since almost 200 years

Naturopathy for cancer … claims that have the potential to be lethal

The nonsense that some naturopaths try to tell the public never ceases to amaze me. This article is a good example: a “naturopathic doctor” told a newspaper that “We do have a reputation associated with cancer, but we don’t treat cancer. We use highly intelligent computer software to find out what is wrong with the body at […]

Read the rest here: Naturopathy for cancer … claims that have the potential to be lethal

Herbal Remedies Have Been Linked To Liver Cancer Across Asia | IFLScience

Herbal remedies containing aristolochic acids (AA) have been linked to liver cancer from samples collected in hospitals around the world. The dangerous compounds are found in the birthwort family of plants, which are commonly used in traditional medicine to “help” with childbirth and promote healing.

The study, published in Science Translational Medicine, found that in 78 percent of liver cancer samples collected in Taiwan showed a distinctive mutation consistent with AA exposure. The team looked at 98 samples of hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common type of liver cancer, and the most common cause of death in people with cirrhosis... Read on: Herbal Remedies Have Been Linked To Liver Cancer Across Asia | IFLScience

The Natural Cancer Cure Lie | Home | Cancer Answers, MD

As we walked back towards the waiting room following the scan that would serve as the blueprint that we would use to plan Darren’s radiation for his cancer, he asked a question that stopped me in my tracks. “If I decide to cancel my radiation appointments, can I just call you?” To determine whether this was just a simple question of curiosity in the case of an emergency or something more, I asked him to clarify why he would consider canceling. Standing in the hallway between two clinic rooms, he stated that in the time between our first meeting and today’s visit, he had been doing some online “research” and thought he would consider doing something “more natural” to keep his cancer at bay...

Read on: The Natural Cancer Cure Lie | Home | Cancer Answers, MD

Burzynski Patient Eduardo M.’s Story | The OTHER Burzynski Patient Group

Though it’s been a while since we’ve posted, we still hear from relatives of people who went to the Burzynski Clinic and realized it for what it is, a wallet biopsy with a snake oil chaser. The pain experienced by families reverberates for decades, a legacy of misery few men have sunk to. We have about a hundred of those stories here, and we have a thousand more names in the hopper. We will be starting up again since Burzynski was found to be sanctionable on over a hundred counts early this year by an administrative law judge. He can still practice, but he’s skating on very thin ice.

The story of Eduardo M. begins in Argentina, in May of 1998... Burzynski Patient Eduardo M.’s Story | The OTHER Burzynski Patient Group

Lung cancer patients live longer with Chinese herbal medicine… or don’t they?

The claims that are being made for the health benefits of Chinese herbal medicine are impressive. I am not sure that there is even a single human disease that is not alleged to be curable with the use of some Chinese herbal mixture. I find this worrying because some patients might actually believe such outrageous […]

Read the rest here: Lung cancer patients live longer with Chinese herbal medicine… or don’t they?

Probiotics reverse colon cancer… no, no, no! … I was just kidding

Researchers from Texas have recently shown that the administration of hdc+Lactobacillus reuteri in the gut resulted in luminal hdc gene expression and histamine production in the intestines of Hdc-/- mice. 

Would you conclude from this result that human colon cancer can be reversed or prevented by consuming probiotics?

Probably not!

You would need to be […]

Read the rest here: Probiotics reverse colon cancer… no, no, no! … I was just kidding

Anti-HPV vaccine myths have fatal consequences

After clean water, there is no health intervention that has saved more lives than vaccination – and none that has inspired more misguided opposition. This has been exemplified recently by the furore over the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine...

Full article by David Robert Grimes here: Anti-HPV vaccine myths have fatal consequences

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Further to my piece today and the awful (but predictable) comments on it, @ronanmcmanus here skews the coincidence argument nicely. https://t.co/AHHCyXBbiS

— David Robert Grimes (@drg1985) 8 September 2017

"It cant just be a coincidence" is a common argument that the #HPV vaccine has made girls sick, but is this true? pic.twitter.com/f7CjSxqNFb

— Ronan McManus (@ronanmcmanus) 8 September 2017

Naturopathic Cancer Quackery – Science-Based Medicine

Britt Marie Hermes is a former naturopath who had the requisite intellectual and moral integrity to realize and admit to herself that her chosen profession was a pseudoscientific fraud. Further, rather than just sulk away and go on with her life, she decided to share what she learned with the world, in the hopes of mitigating the damage caused by her former profession.

Of course, no good deed goes unpunished. For her trouble she has been harassed and legally threatened. She was recently sent another cease and desist letter from Colleen Huber, for a post in which she explains why she thinks Huber is cybersquatting on domains with Hermes’ name..

Read more: Naturopathic Cancer Quackery – Science-Based Medicine