Trip to Tijuana Mexico change my outlook forever

Terribly sorry about your daughter PrettyPink.  I hate the thought of cancer victims being taken in by these scamsters.  here is an investigation from ABC some years ago:

 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0AYN/is_1_25/ai_n18614054

ABC investigates Tijuana clinics

NCAHF Newsletter, Jan_Feb, 2002 E_mail Print Link The ABC television program Primetime Thursday reported January 21st on its investigation of how representatives of Tijuana clinics that offer bogus treatments mislead people with cancer.

Senior correspondent Chris Wallace began the first of three program segments devoted to the investigation with the story of Sacramento television news anchor Patti Lynn Davis who was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 36. Davis decided to forego chemotherapy after having surgery. Instead she received a protocol of coffee enemas and a diet of fruits and vegetables. Only after she discovered that her cancer had spread Davis started chemotherapy, but it was too late. She died less than three years following her initial diagnosis.

Juice therapies

Galvanotherapy Percutaneous Bio_Electrotherapy for the Elimination of Maligna...

Laetrile _ Shorts Steven Rosenberg, MD, PhD, chief of Surgery Branch at the National Cancer Institute expressed his outrage about desperate people being exploited. Asked about "alternative" therapies as a public health problem. Rosenberg said: "When patients turn down treatments of known effectiveness to receive treatments that have very little chance of being [of] benefit, I see that as a major public health problem."

Primetime presented hidden_camera recordings of the sales pitches of several exhibitors at the 29th Annual Cancer Convention of the Cancer Control Society at a Los Angeles hotel in September. One exhibitor promoted a $500 trampoline to bounce on "to keep your immune system in good shape." Dr. Rosenberg said the exhibitor's claims were "very ridiculous." Another exhibitor claimed a 100% effective cure for pancreatic cancer, a disease that is almost always fatal. Loren Swenson, president of BioPulse International pitched a three week cancer treatment program of "insulin_induced hypoglycemic therapy" (i.e., daily comas) at a cost of $16,000. One exhibitor stated: "Chemotherapy has never cured anyone's cancer." Another exhibitor stated: "There has no been no appreciable, demonstrable help from chemotherapy since its inception." These statements are false. Commenting on the sales pitches, Dr. Rosenberg said: "A lot of it sounds like outright quackery."

"I wish the word `alternative" would go away," said Stephen Barrett, MD to Wallace who showed Dr. Barrett's Quackwatch home page. "It's quack cancer therapy." Asked why cancer attracts so many quacks, he responded: "Willie Sutton said that he robs banks because that's where the money is. If you want to make a lot of money doing quackery, you want to get the people who are desperate." Dr. Barrett demonstrated for Wallace the use of a gizmo called the "Zapper" that puts out a low level of current. He explained that promoters falsely claim the "Zapper" kills parasites in your body that they say cause the cancer. [Editor's note: A proposed stipulated Federal Trade Commission final judgment filed in December prohibits Marvin and Miguelina Beckwith of Seattle from making such unsubstantiated claims for the "Zapper Electrical Unit" and unsubstantiated claims for various herbal products.]

The second program segment was a report of a hidden_camera investigation of four of an estimated 50 clinics in Tijuana that promote dubious cancer treatments. Accompanied by two ABC staffers, a woman who has been cancer_free for eight years following breast cancer surgery and chemotherapy posed at the clinics as a breast cancer patient who was apprehensive about chemotherapy. The third program segment showed Wallace's attempts to follow_up on the hidden camera investigation and interview the clinic staff.

At the first clinic, Jorge Cardenas offered a three_week program of "electromagnetic therapy" for $15,000 to control cancer by changing the electric current in "cell walls." Asked if his program is more effective than chemotherapy, Cardenas said: "Well in many cases it is because, first of all, there won't be any side effects." Commenting on the Cardenas tape, Dr. Rosenberg said the statements were "mumbo_jumbo." When Wallace attempted to confront Cardenas, another clinic staffer slammed a door on Wallace. Electromagnetic therapy is not approved in Mexico, Wallace explained.

At Kurt Donsbach's clinic, Hospital Santo Thomas SA DECY, a representative proffered "bioray" treatment and "ozonation" treatment through the ears and rectally. Wallace said the clinic charges $29,000 for a seven_month treatment program. Wallace noted that Donsbach was convicted in the U.S. for tax evasion and smuggling unapproved drugs across the border. Donsbach stated on the videotape: "I can cure rheumatoid arthritis. I can cure lupus and I guarantee it. If I can't cure you, it doesn't cost you a cent. I have scores of multiple sclerosis patients." Wallace said Donsbach turned down repeated requests for an interview. Wallace stated that according to Mexican authorities two of the therapies offered by Donsbach's clinic are unapproved.

The third clinic promoted coffee enemas to "flush poisons out your body to fight cancer." A clinic representative identified as Dr. Juan Manuel Nunez recommended hyperbaric oxygen chambers in addition to chemotherapy and radiation. He claimed: "When the oxygen go to the cancer cells, open the channels, too, and it's more susceptible for other treatment to destroy the cancer cells." But when later confronted by Wallace, Nunez admitted that hyperbaric oxygen and coffee enemas do not fight cancer. A clinic spokesperson said Nunez was a consultant speaking for himself and that hyperbaric chambers and coffee enemas can be effective when used along with conventional treatment.

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The fourth clinic in the hidden camera investigation was BioPulse International's. (NCAHF Newsletter items about the clinic appeared in the May/June 2001 and July/August 2001 issues.) Wallace reported that company president Loren Swenson told the undercover patient that coma therapy has a proven track record and that no one is too sick for the clinic.

"Our approach is, you know, until they close the lid on the coffin you still have a chance," said Swenson on videotape. "In the United States it is so easy for doctors to say `you know what, there's nothing we can do for you.'"

Wallace interviewed Win Wiggin whose oncologist told her she had a terminal case of ovarian cancer. Wiggin said she went to the BioPulse clinic because it offered her a 60% chance of recovery. She said she paid $33,000 for one_hour_long comas, five days a week for five weeks, among other treatments. Wiggin said that BioPulse told her the treatment was working and that her cancer was gone. But her doctors in San Francisco said her CAT scans were unchanged. Wallace said he spoke to the families of ten BioPulse patients, all of whom were given good prognoses, but that Wiggin was the only one of them who was still alive. "There wasn't anyone who was helped," said Wiggin. Wallace reported that according to Mexican officials BioPulse has never had authority to perform coma therapy.

Dr. Rosenberg's final comment was: "I think people who exploit desperate individuals for their own benefit are evil."

"NIH is doing studies into alternative therapies and for more on that and details on how to talk to one of our experts, Dr. Stephen Barrett go to ABCNews.com," said Primetime co_anchor Diane Sawyer who concluded the broadcast. ABCNews.com identified Dr. Barrett as NCAHF's vice president. It moderated an online discussion between viewers and Dr. Barrett on January 25th.

The Primetime broadcast did not mention that cancer treatments as bizarre as those in Tijuana are offered in many clinics in the United States and other nations. Nor did it clarify that NIH's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine uses taxpayers' money to fund studies to test irrational treatment programs featuring methods like coffee enemas on people.

Fl Lady, I truly don't know what to say to somebody in your situation.  All I can say is that there are a lot of scammers out there who will offer you the moon to separate you from your money.  And I don't doubt there are alternative treatments that very well may help.  But how do you make the decision about what is good and what is not given there are no studies and these alternative medicine clinics simply bury their mistakes?  If I were in your situation, I would not listen to anonymous bulletin board posters, who for all you know, may own the very clinics they are promoting here, or homeopathic doctors whose advice might be very dubious, but I would probably meet as many women as I could with your diagnosis and try to share experiences and learn from each other what has worked and what has not.  Perhaps there are women out there who have found alternative medicine practioners giving them a treatment that actually works.  That kind of word of mouth should get around and those people should have lots of patients.  But I would get that information first hand if possible, and not rely on something jsut because somebody told you that you should.  So if Western Medicine has failed you, yea go further.  Just do so with discretion.

Questionable Cancer Practices In Tijuana And Other Mexican Border Clinics

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ETO/content/ETO_5_3x_Questionable_Practices_In_Tijuana.asp

If all it takes is one horror story to steer clear of any given provider, what would we have left?  I know a woman right now who travels considerable distance to get her treatments from MD Anderson.  She was scheduled for 12 weekly taxols.  She took 9 and suffered such debilitating side effects that the doctors gave her a 3-week respite.  Then came the FEC.  After three of those, she went into septic shock and nearly died.  She didn't wait for the doctors to decide that there wouldn't be a 4th FEC.  

MD Anderson has a reputation for being the best.  Yet, I'm seriously concerned about this one woman surviving their treatments. Her pathology revealed 5 different kinds of cancer in the breast they removed.  She also has a strong family history and they're using her family for research to possibily find a 3rd gene that reveals a propensity for bc.  Flalady, I hear your comments about lab rab loud and clear.  It makes me doubly concerned.  After you ran screaming from md anderson, what did you do next?  

melmedic - I believe too that all info and opinions should be individual and be taken as such.  But...why is it every time the ladies in our "designated area in this site" come under attack if we want to openly discuss issues important to us. No one would post the friend died at MDA, why bring in Mexico? So many immediately jump in like we are stupid, and don't do our home work.  No one should use anything without researching first, and that means conventional or alternative.  We would just like to go more in-depth conversations without being judged or looked down upon for searching out other treatment options. One article does not make a protocol all bad. I never stop reading and know when the information has be turned to make a negative points about alternative medicine. So many don't take the time to read and go off one negative comment.  We are just want other to search for themelves.  Most of the information we talk about are from Noble Prize winning doctors.  You can't say that about most conventional medicine. My three year anveriory is next month.  I can't say I'm in remission YET! But I'm still here, working full time and have a wonderful life in the middle on cancer.

althea - I came home with stage IV neuropathy after only four treatments. My local doctor did a new PET scan and could see that I only had bc in my left breast.  MDA would not use a PET they said it wasn't a good tool???  (they also though it was in my neck) So I had a second mast on the left side 27/27 positive.  I than said NO to chemo for right now until I can rehab from the neuropathy. (I could not write my own name or drive a car - I'm still stage III a year later)  I had wanted to do alternative the whole time after my dx.  But my bc is one of the most aggressive they seen per three top clinics. (have been in tx since dx 11/5) do supplement and vitamins while on chemo.  This kept me working full time, through at the time 26 chemo tx, rads and three surgeries. So I grab this break from chemo and found a alternative doctor.  We did a four weeks detox to get the metals from chemo out.  Than I did three months of a very hard diet, I also used a product called Cellquest and other supplements.  Within four months my high blood pressure and cholesterol from chemo was gone, lost the chemo weight, and held my bc at bay for six months. (shocked my doctor's big time...they had given me three months to live when I was original dx in '05) My big mistake I changed off this protocol to do something else that was recommend and my disease returned in about two months.  I'm now doing low dose chemo and High Dose Vit C with four to five other natural protocols.  I will not mention these here, because I do not want to hear the feed back. I did my research...my onc. is in agreement because he know's that he does not have anything better to offer me right now that will prolong my life and more important my quality of life.

Information is power in cancer!  I told my chemo girl's my decision...they said "God made them both (conv & alter) and can use them both for healing!" that said it all for me.

Flalady

Thank you so much deansanders!!!!!!!! I read about this.  

My mother is in Pittsburgh and with the condition of her lungs, due to a chemo toxicity, she cannot fly. I don't know how else I could get her to a facility like these. 

Thanks Carol! It's so kind of you to suggest this!

I actually called and emailed the Endobiogenic Integrative  Medical Center, in Idaho yesterday.  I was waiting to see if they could do a phone consultation. I haven't heard back from them yet. I learned about this treatment from the book, With the Help of Our Friends from France, by Carol Silverander. 

How are you? What treatment are you doing? 

juliebb,

I read that book also...very interesting.  Let us know what you find out about the place in Idaho.

I also check at Cancer Center of America - do not take BCBS period!  They cut me off when they heard my insurance coverage. Pretty much said you can't afford us without ins...

Katie2u,

I sent you a private message.  Look at the black tab that runs across this page, near the top of the page. Just click private message.

Flalady

Sorry...Blue Cross & Blue Shield insurance.   Thanks for a positive report about alternatives.

Flalady

For People who has not read "With the help from our friends in France" this is a story about a lady that had extensive bc to the liver.  She decide to be treated natural using mostly herbs by a doctor in France.  I can't remember but she is something like 7 or 8 years out.  Still has the met but is complete stable with no side effects of treatment or liver toxicity.  This is a good read.

Flalady

CP, YOU TOOK THE WORDS RIGHT OUT OF MY MOUTH! Do we go to the same doctors??? As I have said before, I really liked and respected my doctors. They got me through a horrible experience. But when treatment was over, and they only wanted me to start the drug route, I got no support with diet, nutrition, supplements. It was their way or the highway. I hit the road, and have not gone back. Like you, I am so ticked that we have to do our own research, demand our own tests, and search for others that can help. It should not be that way. Medicine needs to look in all directions, not just the ones prescribed by the drug companies, and the lawyers. Doctors should be able to tell us about alternatives without fear of being sued. WE are all in this together. Maybe we can band together and make a difference. Keeping these alternative threads going is a start.

I'm curious uksoccorfan, you keep saying they have kept you alive.  How do you know this?  How do you know that you would not still be alive without treatment?  How do you know that you would not be just as well off medically if you had standard treatment that, with insurance in the US or free medical care in the UK, would cost you at worst, only a few thousand dollars, and at best nothing?  Did they tell you at the mexican clinic that but for them you would not be alive?  Did somebody in England tell you that you only had a few months to live?  You spent a lot of time talking about this Mexican clinic but nothing about exactly what your cancer diagnosis was, the characteristics of the tumor, or anything else.

And then tell us what treatment you received at this Mexican Clinic that saved your life.  Specifically, I would like to know what they did that saved you, and how the medical treatment actually worked, if you wouldn't mind.

One more thing, if you have received all this treatment over the years, why is this your FIRST post on this board.  You wouldn't be the author of the original post would you? 

To anybody reading this, if they think i am skeptical about motives of both the original poster in this thread or this last one, its because I am highly skeptical.  I think that there are people who will come on a board like this, where they know that some women are desperate for a cure, and will attempt to take advantage.  They will do so by telling you how such and such clinic in Mexico or whereever saved their lives when nobody else could.  They will tell you that the cost of the treatment was worth it.  What they will never do however is give you details about their disease, their treatment and just how they were cured, nor will they be able to point you to any credible medical evidence that the supposed cure is anything more than a scam.  To believe that these mexican clinics have found a cure that is intentionally being ignored by mainstream medicine is stretching one's imagination to the incredulous, all in my honest opinions of course.

I went to the "OASIS OF HOPE" website.  Does anyone want to guess how they determine the type of treatment they are going to give you?  By telephone conversation.  No clinical exam, no review of pathology results or anything else.  They simply talk to you and devise your treatment plan.  For this, you need to pay everything in advance by cashier's check:

• How do I know which therapy is right for me?

As an alternative cancer treatment hospital, Oasis of Hope blends science, compassion, and faith in all that it does. The needs of each patient determine which therapies should be offered. Call Oasis of Hope Hospital and talk to one of our doctor specialists. The type of therapy you will be receiving is decided after your initial phone consultation.

Scared to death

Frightened because she thought she had breast cancer, a Charleroi woman treated herself with useless potions and therapies

Tuesday, December 07, 1999

By Ellen Mazo

Pittsburgh Post_Gazette Staff Writer

Erika Zelem was a smart woman. She had a master's degree in counseling and had a private practice working with bereaved, chronically ill, elderly and adolescent clients. She wasn't a stranger to inner suffering and stress.

Erika Zelem believed a California company's promise that it could diagnose based on this Polaroid photograph of her.

But when she discovered a lump on her right breast in October 1990, she became terrified. She had lost her other breast to cancer 15 years earlier. She didn't want to go through the disfiguring surgery again.

So the Charleroi woman turned to mail_order practitioners who sold her thousands of dollars of products to rid her body of the poisons and the parasites they said were invading her system.

She swallowed parsley, carrot and celery juices. She rubbed her body with aloe vera creams. She bought one machine that zapped her with electrical currents. She spent $1,200 on another that produced water bubbles that were supposed to make her feel better.

Her sister, her mother and other relatives begged her to see a doctor. They made appointments. Zelem canceled them.

"I would watch my aunt swing a chain because a woman in California told her that its movement would tell her what herbs she should take," said her niece, Jennifer Stile. "It was like giving her a death sentence. She listened because she was desperate."

Zelem died on Sept. 9. She was 54.

Her family knew she was in intense pain, but didn't realize the extent of her overwhelming fear and despair until after her death, when they found her notebooks. Over the last year and a half of her life, Zelem had outlined the increasing pain that pierced her body, the treatments that she gave herself and her refusal to get medical help.

They also found thousands of dollars worth of canceled checks to people and companies across the country for mechanical devices, herbal combinations and purified waters.

"These people took advantage of someone who was scared," said Zelem's older sister, Alix Garlitz, who's also from Charleroi. "They played on her fears. At one point they had her putting cabbage and potatoes on her breast. They said that helped pull the poisons out of her body. One person told her that cancer was a symptom."

Garlitz, 57, said the family had accepted Zelem's death. "Then, when I saw what she had paid, and for what, I didn't know what to think," she said. "And when I read her diaries, I see how much pain she was in, for so long. My sister is in pain, and she's taking cleansing agents and zapping herself with electrical currents."

Local doctors who are becoming increasingly involved with alternative, or complementary medicine, are frustrated over the growing accessibility of unregulated products hawked by charlatans who promise impossible cures.

"The saddest thing in our society is knowing there are people out there taking advantage of others," said Dr. Paul Lebovitz, medical director of Allegheny General Hospital's Center for Digestive Health.

He partly blames traditional caregivers who dismiss anything other than Western medicine.

"I think this occurs because allopathic medicine has not yet met the needs of patients. It's easier to do alternative medicine than allopathic," Lebovitz said.

The December issue of the University of California, Berkeley's Wellness Letter addresses medical quackery, pegging its report to the huge amounts of medical advice being dispensed on the Internet.

The Federal Trade Commission has started a campaign called "Operation Cure All," to challenge the Web sites that promote phony cures.

"The agency can force the sites to stop making claims, but it cannot shut them down or prevent them from doing business," the Wellness Letter reports.

Zelem's experiences illustrate the still uneasy relationship between traditional and alternative medicine, doctors and other medical professionals say.

Her family acknowledges that Zelem's earlier mastectomy affected her more deeply than they realized.

Zelem, who was single, told a relative: "You never had disfiguring surgery. You don't understand."

The relative, a nurse practitioner who works in an oncologist's office, tried to explain that breast cancer treatment had advanced significantly since Zelem's first surgery, that she might have been a candidate for just having a lump removed.

Zelem would have none of that. To her, doctors could not offer the comfort of the herbalists and other practitioners who promised that their methods could cleanse her system.

The Food and Drug Administration regulates the distribution of drugs; herbs have not been classified as drugs. At the same time, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health, is funding research of alternative medicine and therapies at more than a dozen research centers at U.S. universities.

But what about the snake_oil scams that seem to offer hope to sick, desperate people, like Zelem? Garlitz asked.

"Yes, she was an adult, an educated adult. But aren't these people taking advantage of someone who is in pain and afraid?"

Lebovitz speaks of both traditions with ease. He spent a month last year traveling to Europe and the Far East to look into alternative medical practices. Lebovitz returned with a new respect for some of the healing traditions of other countries that are looked upon with skepticism in the United States.

"We have evidence_based medicine," he said. "Most alternatives don't. But it's very important to know that patients are doing this already. Doctors have to be aware of that."

In the past year, Lebovitz has led the hospital's integrated medicine program, bringing in Dr. Arvind Kulkarni, a radiation oncologist with 30 years practice in both mainstream and alternative medicine in Bombay, India.

At Medical Wellness Associates in Jeannette, Dr. Martin Gallagher, a chiropractor who runs the alternative care practice, finds himself battling extremists who refuse to accept alternative therapies as a complement to traditional care.

One of his patients was Erika Zelem.

"That stuff happens out there," said Gallagher, who has medical doctors on his staff. "People disenchanted with the medical system go out there and do these other things. They need to enter our world."

Gallagher said he explained to Zelem that a 65_year_old patient with a hip problem likely would require a hip replacement. Vitamins alone would not repair the worn out joint. Chiropractic treatment alone would not ease the pain.

"But for a person going into surgery, we can assess their nutritional needs so they can remain healthy. Afterward, we can help with physical therapy," he said.

After he told Zelem that she needed to be treated by a medical doctor, she never returned.

By September 1998, Zelem felt even more desperate, her diaries indicate. Her mother, Petrine Zelem, now 91, had been diagnosed with breast cancer. While her mother had a mastectomy and was prescribed Tamoxifen, Erika Zelem continued her own treatment. A month later, she had a hair analysis that showed her body had too much aluminum, silver, mercury zinc and iodine.

She did not say how she dealt with that, but wrote on Oct. 21, "Everything hurts inside, especially left side."

Through April and May of this year, Zelem kept track of her pain, almost by the hour. Her handwriting became increasingly feeble. She prayed a lot. She downed a lot of herbal pills.

"That's why she couldn't eat," said Garlitz, who had moved Zelem to her home. "Her body was filled with pills."

Two months before she died, Zelem sent a Polaroid picture of herself to a California company that claimed it could analyze her ailments and prescribe treatment based on her appearance. Zelem, who at 5 feet, 2 inches, weighed about 110 pounds before her illness, was now a skeletal 75 pounds. She bought potions Garlitz found after her death, so many that dozens of bottles were in their boxes, still unopened.

Lebovitz and Gallagher believe that as the medical profession comes to accept alternative medicine more people will find that they don't have to turn to quackery for cures. Medical schools now are teaching students to talk with their patients about alternative medical treatments they may be using.

"No one has the answers," Gallagher said. "There is no one answer in traditional medicine or nontraditional medicine. It's integrative. By making more forms of natural medicine available to patients we may be able to help them from being lured into going to extremes. They are scared to death, literally. We have to help them overcome that fear."

©Pittsburgh Post_Gazette

________________________________________________________________________________

Cancer QuackeryWatch appeal

The Pittsburgh area is a hotbed for alt. medical wackos. Ellen Mazo wrote another article about Martin Gallagher, most of it was nothing more than a non_paid advertisement for his practice: Please write letters to the Post_Gazette commenting on cancer quackery articles?

Letters can be E_mailed to

health@post_gazette.com

letters@post_gazette.com.

You need to include a phone number where you can be reached for verification.

Other Pittsburgh Post_Gazette articles :

Cancer therapy pained her family...and didn't work

It got to the point that family members couldn't even talk with Patti Davis about breast cancer, a disease that killed her last month at 39.

It wasn't that they shied away from the tragedy of Davis having cancer at a young age. On the contrary, her brothers, her father and her mother _ a breast cancer survivor for 22 years _ had numerous conversations with Davis about how she should handle the disease. Again and again they told her that radiation, chemotherapy and the latest treatments available would help her improve her chances.

Davis was a graduate of Fox Chapel Area High School, an all_American swimmer at the University of Pittsburgh and a broadcast journalist whose career took her to a job as TV news anchor at a station in Sacramento, Calif. When she was diagnosed 2 1/2 years ago, she opted for alternative medicine, and refused to undergo conventional therapy. Her care included week_long trips to a Mexican clinic that prescribed lifestyle changes ranging from exercise and positive thinking to grass juices and coffee enemas.

Family members here in Pittsburgh believed she was killing herself.

Eventually, they had to silence their views for fear they would lose Davis not just in death, but in life.

Some practices now incorporate traditional, alternative medicine _ another Mazo infomercial for Gallagher

" Charlotte Houser hadn't fallen off that ladder last year, she might never have sought alternative therapies to help handle her diabetes. The 69_year_old Latrobe woman sought out Dr. Martin Gallagher's Medical Wellness Associates in Jeannette to ease the back pain from the fall. A chiropractor who is chief of staff and a clinical nutritionist, Gallagher made sure Houser got more than manipulative, chiropractic treatments.

Welcome to Kansas: _ Gallagher appears on Cornerstone's TeleVision station

In 1997 the directors of WQED, Pittsburgh's award winning PBS station, approved a deal that would transfer the educational broadcasting license of channel 16 (WQEX) to Cornerstone TeleVision, the Greensburg_based broadcaster that currently airs its born_again Christian programming on channel 40 (WPCB). WQED asked the Federal Communications Commission to approve the license transfer, and the FCC hasn't yet decided.

Cornerstone programs have asserted that homosexuality is a disease, denigrated non_Christian faiths, public schools and funding for AIDS awareness. On Earth Day two years ago, Cornerstone aired a documentary proclaiming that the environmental movement is an elitist conspiracy and global warming is a myth. Their regular show, called "Origins" is strictly pro_creation and anti_science.

Pittsburgh Post Gazette _ Dead letters office

A collection of letters written by Patrick Curry _ skeptic and health fraud guru

12/7/99

John Craig, Editor

Pittsburgh Post_Gazette

To the Editor:

The article "Scared to Death" in the 12/7/99 Health Section dramatically

illustrates the tragedy of Erika Zelem, whose alternative medicine

treatments for her breast cancer led to her death.

However, the most amazing thing thing about this article is that the

reporter Ellen Mazo actually manages to "spin" this tragedy as an

argument IN FAVOR of integrating Complementary/Alternative Medicine

(CAM) into the medical system in order to protect(?) victims from

"snake_oil" salesman. In other words she wants to bring the quacks

directly into our local hospitals so that we don't have to turn to the

Internet!!! To whom does she turn for support for her point of view?

None other than Erika Zelem's own alt_med chiropractor, "Dr." Martin

Gallagher!

Reporter Mazo's continuing blind support of CAM despite this awful

tragedy is further illustrated by her neglecting to interview any local

anti_alternative medicine, scientifically_oriented doctors for this

article. Surely Mazo could have found at least one doctor in Pittsburgh

strongly critical of Complementary/Alternative medicine.

The victim, Erika Zelem, had been a longtime patient of one of the worst

of the local alt_med chiropractic gurus, Dr. Martin Gallagher.

Gallagher has weekly radio and TV show that blast "allopathic" medicine

and promote a wide variety of herbal, dietary supplement, chelation and

chiropractic adjustment treatments for just about every ailment under

the sun.

When Zelem's cancer worsened, Gallagher, as a self_interested

precaution, finally advised that she go to a standard MD _ which of

course she did not do. Gallagher, of course, does not fault himself for

undermining Zelem's confidence in standard medicine; instead he blames

skeptical MDs for creating distrust between alt_med patients and doctors

by not embracing CAM.

Clearly, the victim's beliefs stem in large part from the long_term

anti_medical "education" received from Gallagher, YET, the reporter

Ellen Mazo incredibly returns to Gallagher for a testimonial IN FAVOR of

CAM!!!! She even gives him the proverbial "last word" in this article.

This is despicable; absolutely incredible.

This is not the first time that reporter Mazo has done Gallagher a

favor. In a March 31, 1998 PG Your Health section article "Some

Practices Now Incorporate Alternative Medicine", she gave Gallagher an

infomercial for his practice. She even reports favorably that a Fred

Houser, suffering from prostrate cancer had disregarded his MD's advice

to have an operation in favor of a "vegetarian regimin, including apple

pectin and wheat grass juice". "I told my doctor," said Fred Houser, "He

wants me to have an operation. I don't. Not yet."

Reporter Mazo then included information on how to contact Gallagher's

Medical Wellness Associates in Jeanette and announced his TV program on

WPCB Channel 40 "Cornerstone Television." How many other medical

"seekers" like Erika Zelem may have been sent to Dr. Gallagher's

practice due to this particular favor by reporter Mazo?

Gallagher has been so irresponsible that in April of this year he ran an

advertisement in the Post_Gazette for a speech by the head of a Tijuana,

Mexico cancer clinics, the son of the perpetrator of the 1970s Laetrile

cancer cure hoax, Dr. Francisco Contreras. My angry letter concerning

this was published in the Your Health section. Was reporter Mazo totally

unaware of this?

[see below for my 4/9/99 letter to the PG concerning this. An

abreviated version of this letter was published in the Your Health

section.]

The continued defense of alternative medicine spewing from the pages of

the Your Health section even in the face of such a tragedy as that of

Erika Zelem's is most irresponsible. Due to reporter Mazo's blind

biases in favor of alternative medicine, the Post_Gazette lost a grand

opportunity to really educate people about the dangers of non_scientific

medicine. That compounds the tragedy.

E. Patrick Curry

Squirrel Hill

________________________________________________________________________________

Documentation:

Here is a prior letter that I sent concerning Dr. Gallagher's support

for Tijuana cancer clinics. Was reporter Ellen Mazo totally unaware of

this material? Was Editor Linn? Do they care?

Subject: Letter to the Editor Re: Alt_Med Cancer Treatments

Date: Fri, 09 Apr 1999 12:08:28 _0700

To: Editor John G.Craig, Jr.

34 Blvd of the Allies

Pittsburgh, PA 15222

Editor Craig:

Thanks to the Post_Gazette for the front page story of Patti Davis's

terrible experience with alternative cancer therapy at a clinic in

Tijuana, Mexico (P_G 4/9/99). Given the popularity of such unproven

treatments, her tragic story is but one of hundreds of similar cases

going totally unreported in the nation's alt_med_entranced media.

It is ironic that just two weeks earlier the Post_Gazette Your Health

section ran an advertisement for a lecture by Dr. Francisco Contreras,

the Chief_of_Staff of a similar alternative medicine cancer clinic in

Tijuana. The clinic is cynically called "The Oasis of Hope Hospital".

As I explained in a prior letter to the Post_Gazette's Health Editor,

Francisco Contreras is the son of Dr. Ernesto Contreras, one of the

perpetrators of the Laetrile (apricot pit oil) cancer cure hoax of the

1960s and 1970s. As a result of meeting Dr. Contreras, other desperate

Pittsburghers no doubt have just this past week been enticed to pursue

"hope" in Tijuana.

Contreras was invited to Pittsburgh by Chiropractor Martin Gallagher to

speak March 27 at a seminar given by Three Rivers Health and Nutrition.

Gallagher, a constant presence on regional radio and TV, has, in my

opinion, built his career on undermining public confidence in mainstream

medicine. He even markets his own book on what he calls "21st Century"

medicine.

The Federal Trade Commission has recently begun cracking down on false

and misleading health advertising. Perhaps it is time for the

Post_Gazette to begin monitoring its own advertising policies for the

sake of the public's health. The media should be doing its utmost to

expose dangerous quackery, instead of promoting it for a few extra

advertising dollars.

Thank You,

E. Patrick Curry

member National Council Against Health Fraud

Note: I have attached a section of the communication that I had

previously sent to Editor Linn. It contains references to WEB sites

which provide documentation as to Dr. Contreras and Laetrile.

Editor Linn:

.............................................

3)Next to the St. John's Wort article is an advertisment by Three

River's Health and Nutrition "Dr." Gallagher's operation. Guess what,

his guest speaker, "Dr" Francisco Contreras, is the son of Dr. Ernesto

Contreras who started the famous Laetrile (apricot seed extract)

anti_cancer fraud a couple of decades ago. Surely his running the

"Oasis of Hope" Hospital in Tijuana, Mexico should have raised a few

eyebrows.

For your edification, you should read the history of the laetrile fraud at

www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Cancer/laetrile.html

Dr. Contreras latest book "Health in the 21st Century: Will Doctors

Survive" is even advertised at www.apricotseeds.net/products.htm

It's sad, but Dr. Contrera's visit to Pittsburgh, sponsored by Gallagher,

may result in several desperate Pittsburghers flying to Tijuana to

undergo expensive, ineffective and/or dangerous treatments that are

illegal in the United States. That, in fact, may be the actual

consequence of that Page G_5 advertisement in this week's Your Health.

As you know the Federal Trade Commission just cracked down on the

fraudulent "Vitamin O" advertisements in mainstream publications. But,

"Vitamine O" is just one of hundreds of fraudulent advertisements that

are sweeping into the mainstream media. It is sad, so very sad.

Editor Linn, I hope you take the information I pass on to you

seriously. There are a lot of sharks out there in alternative

medicine. The public has a difficult time discerning good from bad

medicine. You have a heavy responsibility to provide thorough, accurate

and responsible coverage.

Thank You,

Patrick Curry

Amen Anomdenet!

Where is your wife...what is her diagnoses?  Everyone wants to know what is your connection is to bc?I know you have been asked to leave other areas. Please leave this one also...This is NOT about you!

UKsoccerfan,

Thank you so much for giving your opinion. It is good to have more people posting about their treatment. About the money... my US treatment cost $1,000,000+ for three years of treatment.  I'm now doing a lot of these treatments in the US it will be about $1,200 a month....This is why we should be able to pick our treatment and insurance should have to cover it.

Flalady

My position is very simple.  The Mexican Clinics are all about scamming desperate people out of their money.  They are of no value whatsoever except to give false hope to those who have nowhere else to turn. Nobody who is not desperate, with all of the information on the internet, could ever possibly consider treatment at these clinics and nobody of sound mind would actually believe that they have figured out how to cure breast cancer and that the cure is being hidden by western medicine.  I have nothing against alternative medicines, especially for those who cannot be helped by conventional medicine.  I just have a real problem with scams taking advantage of desperate people.  But for those of you who don't agree with me, that is of course your right, just as it is your right to go down to Mexico and hand over your money.  Let us all here know how it goes.

You have never been to a Mexican Clinic, never toured the clinics, and are passing along your sweeping opinion as fact. This is unethical rumor-mongering of the worst sort.

Please do not tell the educated people who have studied the clinics and are in constant touch with the treatments used there that we are desperate or stupid.

Consider the fact that some of us have been investigating and studying the foreign clinics for 25 years.

Please get off this alternative/complementary board. If you need stimulation, you can go to a mainstream thread and tell those people how stupid we are. Tell Dr. Barrett that you have delivered his Quackwatch message.

And finally, have some consideration that people with cancer are very fragile and your continued trolling can cause them great upset.