Interesting article:Cancer patients turning to alternative remedies

[TZ]

TAMPA, Fla. - With much of her lower body consumed by cancer, Leslee Flasch finally faced the truth: The herbal supplements and special diet were not working.

"I want this thing cut out from me. I want it out," she told her family.

But it was too late. Her rectal cancer — potentially curable earlier on — had invaded bones, tissue, muscle, skin. The 53-year-old Florida woman could barely sit, and constantly bled and soiled herself.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31088185/
Best MSM article on refuting "but whats the harm" I've seen yet. I'm sure this is no surprise to anyone here but it has a nice list of how each woo/herbal treatment stacks up in terms of being helpful and harmful, including a bit about Vitamin C (woos favorite) that I didn't know.

[woo me with science]

1. http://whatstheharm.net/

Important article. Thanks.

http://whatstheharm.net/

[Orrex]

2. Wow

That's about the best link I've seen in all my time at DU.

[trotsky]

4. Boy, I'll say.

I've often gone on hunts looking for victims of woo, and there a whole bunch of them are right on one site. Guess what's going to get some serious air time in the Health dungeon?

[onager]

3. Bookmarked!

Thanks.

Waiting for a review from our resident faith healer...

[CanSocDem]

8. You need only ask.

Of course, at the risk of stating the obvious, articles like this are a dime a dozen. The bread and butter of this forum, but still 'a dime a dozen'. Easy to find, easy to publish and another effective attack on the enemies of ModernMedicineInc. And it was in the mainstream media so it must be true...'what they say about alternative medicine'.

None-the-less, doctors still use placebo's effectively. That is, despite the harping and finger-wagging from the peanut gallery, people still get well...When They Want To....By believing whatever they want....

I know lots of people who opted for conventional medical treatment and still died a horrible death. But I have more class than to use their stories to make MY case. Sometimes it's like a celebration of ill-ness around here.

.

[TZ]

9. I'm watching someone who used altie

Methods and avoided modern methods for too long die a HORRIBLE LINGERING death from uncontrolled cancer.. The only way he is not totally suffering is through medicine morphine... And almost all those studies in that article are done by nonprofits stupid! I'm site you actually have those in Canada I hear...as for your Observations there isn't anyone here who doesn't realize they are worthless --you have no clue about objectivity

[Silent3]

5. This clearly demonstrates the danger of traditional western medicine.

If this woman hadn't been aware of ghastly, unnatural treatments like surgery and chemo, she'd have had more faith in proper, natural medicine. Latent nagging doubts about her chosen treatment plan, however, caused by wondering if surgery and chemo might be what she really needed, undermined her own natural healing ability.



For the irony detection impaired: :sarcasm:


I sometimes wonder if I should be frightened by how easily I can tap into my inner woo. :scared:

[Deep13]

6. Jesus, a Darwin Award winner.

I don't know whether to be sad for all her suffering and lost opportunity or disgusted by her stupidity.

[progressoid]

7. I heard that Peter Sellers tried some crazy shit for his heart condition.

Apparently made it worse. He eventually got a pacemaker installed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Sellers

[onager]

10. A heated Korean bed mat can cure cancer!

Seriously. No (bull)shit. Just yesterday I watched the episode of Penn & Teller "Bullshit" called "Sleep Inc."

They go to a convention of mattress sellers in Las Vegas.

One crazy woman was hawking a heated Korean bed mat. And ON-CAMERA, she claimed it could cure cancer.

I couldn't believe it.

The episode aired last year, so it should be available. Couldn't find it on YouTube.

They followed up this useful episode with one of their dorky Libertarian rants about nuclear power, green cars etc. Which reminded of why I went from Constant Viewer to Occasional Viewer.

(That happened when they let the crazy former Stalinist David Whorowitz use the show to spout his nonsense about liberal Democrats controlling all American colleges. No mention of colleges like Pepperdine, natch.)