Patients face one well known hazard after surgery for their cancer. More often than not they are asked to undergo chemotherapy. The drugs used are cytotoxic – that, everyone knows and cannot be denied. Chemo-drugs are toxic to both the good and bad cells. In fact, chemotherapy has earned a bad reputation among patients. Well, since it has put off many patients, what about giving it a new name then? In England, I have just learned that chemotherapy is referred to as SACT, i.e., systemic anti-cancer therapy. One patient told me that when in Singapore the oncologist denied that he (the doctor) was giving “chemo” to him (the patient). He, the doctor, was only “washing” his patient’s liver. Anyway, the patient died soon afterwards leaving behind tell tale, blue-black marks before he passed off. In spite of the blatant denial, that “washing”, ladies and gentlemen was actually chemotherapy! 

Over the years working with cancer patients, I came across many ways how chemo is being “sold” to patients. They are told either one of the following:

a) You do chemo to kill all the cancer cells. What is not being told is that chemo also kills good cells in the body. Chemo may even damage the vital organs of the body. More … some chemo drugs themselves are carcinogenic. Similarly, radiation causes cancer. In short, if patients get to live long enough, they may get a new cancer and this time it could be due to the treatment.

b) You do chemo to stop the cancer cells from spreading. That is good sales pitch and very attractive indeed. Many patients “buy” this naïve idea. After chemo, the body’s immune system is wiped off. Your body is so weak that it cannot even ward off germs attacking you. Indeed, it is convincing to see the lump shrinks after chemotherapy – but it does not mean the cancer is cured! Often shrinkage is only temporary. The tumour often grows back again and this time more aggressively. One lady wrote that she did not get any cure from chemotherapy, she just moved from treatment to treatment! So where is the control of spreading? 

c) You do chemo as an “insurance”. Since cancer cells may be floating around in the blood stream – it is good to get them early! Kill them before they grow bigger. Well, don’t we know that some chemo drugs and radiation can cause cancer? Don’t we know that these treatments can weaken the immune system and make the body much more vulnerable to enemy invasion? Is “insurance” not achieved by making the body system strong and not weaker? Is it not better to boost up the immune system through healthy diet and lifestyle? Oh, NO – that is not proven or scientific, so they say! 

Let me present you with this video clip. Listen to this video and see what has been proven! This is a lady who had undergone a surgery to remove the cancer in her bile duct. She was well after that. A year later the doctor decided that she should undergo 25 radiation treatment and four cycles of chemo. The reason? As an “insurance”, never mind that she was well with no sign of any recurrence at that time. Two years after the treatment the result was a deadly 2.5 cm tumour in her liver. She was asked to go home – no treatment and no other option. 

The questions you may wish to ask: Thousands of research papers have been written in journals (yes, even medical journals) that diet and change of lifestyle can make a difference in cancer management. Why is this ignored? Surely, the practice of diet and lifestyle changes do not bring any harm at all. Why do you say there is no other options? 

At CA Care we tell patients: Don’t panic. There is still hope when you are told that there is no hope. There is something that you can do to help yourself. There is no need for you to go home and wait to die. 

If patients refused chemotherapy or in some cancers chemotherapy is not indicated, then most likely patients may face a hazard of another kind. They may be passed on to the non-oncologists who may prescribed a battery of drugs which they may not need. 

There is a couple who came to see me lately. The husband had an operation for his parotid cancer in the hospital here. Both husband and wife are not English educated and as such I fully understand their ignorance. Nonetheless they are not “dumb” people. After returning home they returned to Penang and to seek our help. 

Since he refused radiotherapy, he was passed on to another doctor who prescribed him eight drugs. 

1. Panadol for pains, but he had no pains or fevers.
2. Dulcolox for constipation, but he was not constipated.

    

Three drugs for high blood pressure: 

1. Physiotens

    

2. Caduet

    

3. Minipress

    

Three drugs for gout / arthiritis 

1. Kenhancer

    

2. Colchicine

    

3. Allopurinol – which caused rashes all over his body.

The questions which we may want to ask: 

1. Why was he given so many drugs?
2. Don’t drugs cause side effects? And some are serious?
3. Obviously he did not need Panadol and Dulcolox. But the counter argument is – who knows he may suddenly develop pains or constipation?
4. Why did he need 3 types of drugs for his hypertension? This is the man who has parotid cancer. What is more serious – the possibility of the cancer “killing” him or his high blood pressure?
5. Why did he need 3 kinds of drugs for his gout / arthritis? This man did not seem to show any problem of gout or arthritis?
6. Where is the priority? What about drugs for his cancer? None – because they don’t have any for cancer!
7. You may wish to know that by changing his diet and lifestyle, all his problems of cancer, high blood pressure and gout/arthritis could be better managed. Why don’t they teach him that?

I am currently reading the book, Lying with Authority by Dr Dan Chesnut. Unfortunately this book is only currently available in the US, not locally. The author wrote: I really did not want to write another book but my conscience forced me to do it. Salute you Doc., you have conscience and you allowed that conscience to work on you! Lest readers are skeptical, Dr. Chesnut has been practicing medicine for 44 years. He is a certified medical doctor. Let me highlight some of Dr. Chesnut’s message:

1. I learned many ways to treat disease, but nutrition was not one of them. It is pretty disillusioning to now know that the best ways to heal were completely ignored by my educators (when in medical school!).

2. In the chronic degenerative disease realm, I have helped alleviate more suffering in 12 years (since practising nutrition) than I did in the previous 32 years (when practising “purely” drug medicine).

3. Another area which is grossly neglected and poorly understood by most patients is the lie by authorities that there is (or will be) a drug for every illness. This is an obscene assertion and to believe it and to seek these mystical drugs is a grave mistake which in fact can often cause more illness, not less.

4. The vast majority of surgery and drugs, including chemotherapy does not treat or cure disease; it treats symptoms – often with devastating side effects. These expensive, even dangerous procedures are too often unnecessary.

5. What we need is proper diet, less medicine – and the right medicine and more doctors who will do the right things and stop ignoring nutrition.

6. 80% to 90% of diseases in the top 10 causes of death could be prevented or helped by nutritional and lifestyle changes. 

Dr. Chesnut could now sleep well after delivering this message loud and clear to the whole wide world. Thanks Doc., for speaking out your mind. Dr. Chesnut wrote: Doesn’t that ring any bell? A ship sailing in the wrong direction needs major repairs. May I further add to this: Only those who have no ears to hear or no eyes to read, could not hear the ringing bell. 

In another book that I am reading at the same time, Freedom from Diseases, Peter Kash summed up how “illogical” it is to treat cancer with chemotherapy.

1. With chemotherapy, both the cancer and the immune system are weakened, but the cancer is able to rebound more rapidly, in part because the chemotherapy itself creates the conditions for the cancer’s rebirth.

2. Once administered, chemotherapy leaves in its wake enormous quantities of free radicals, which can trigger additional mutations in DNA and bring about the rebirth of the diseases.

3. Chemotherapy kills everything – the cancer and also healthy cells. In essence, we’re hitting people with two-by-fours. The person is half dead and half alive from the treatment itself … we cannot count on the immune system to help us fight the disease.

Julian Whitaker, a medical doctor, wrote: I am convinced that the best protection against the evil that lurks among us – and make no mistake that it lurks among us – is information. 

There is no doubt at all that having access to knowledge is most empowering indeed. I always like to tell patients over and over again – please read and read, if you can, that is if you are not buta huruf (Malay for blind to printed words). Know that this is the only way to protect yourself from danger! 

The problem is: most people still don’t want to do anything with the knowledge that’s available to them. Either they are too busy and have no time for themselves or they would rather accept “canned” answers from the experts – yes, they trust the experts. Unfortunately they never realize that some of the answers given by experts could be just “empty platitude” and some may even be self-serving. Dr. Chesnut called that lying with authority. 

I cannot blame those uneducated patients – forgive them for their ignorance – because they can’t read. But if you are educated and are able to read this message, then there is no excuse for you to be ignorant. I would say – serve you right if you still fall in the hazardous trap discussed above (from the tone of this sentence, you perhaps know that I am very upset with lazy people who just want to be served information on the silver platter).