Medical Industrial Complex

The original comment calling women "breast cancer groupies" has disappeared!  Thank you Moderators.  Quack again, to Rosemary. 

Seems rainbowpony has replaced that poster.  What a strange world.

Oh, Jim, so GOOD to see your face again!!.  If it weren't just a little frightening, I could laugh harder tho did love your posts earlier in this thread.why do the moderators allow it? And who is being fooled?  Maybe mindovermatter will come back too...

Good feeling to know there are women on these boards who respect each other, and take care to have the valuable and supportive information surface.

i find thread policing tiresome here in this forum at least. 

Please know that there are many breast cancer patients who have undergone conventional treatment who fully embrace natural ways, supplements and 'treatments' .  The benefits of complimentary, holistic and alternative treatments are of great benefit and should be readily available to all who seek them... not just those who trash conventional medicine.

 Thank you Athena. 

I don't like hospitals, but for the broken bones of my children, my episodes,  surgeries, my dad's emergency heart surgery which gave him another 13 years, they are great.  Sure there are going to be problems when you combine communicative diseases, a staff, different disciplines, medicines and patients.  I particularly love the elderly volunteers one finds at my local hospital. 

When son #2 was 14 months he severely burned the palms of his hands.  We spent 6 weeks on the burn unit of a children's hospital and another year nursing his burns from home.  I can't say he is my favorite son, I truly love all my children equally but I sure am glad he is still here.  Some say a pic is worth a 1000 words.. so here is about 4000 words.   gday.

the hospital did not break her arm... skating in the creekbed did

Gene before:

what happens when you don't go tothehospital

'

 and Gene now

Susan, what are you talking about?

Apple, what a great pic of an obviously great kid!

here are some thoughts- my thoughts-

while there is a medical industrial complex - but they are businesses and businesses have to make a profit or they will cease to exist- that is a fact-drug research is expensive- from the bench to bedside can top a billion- so of course, being businesses-they are going to go with most viable drug- many indeed get passed that shouldn't but conversely, many don't that may help just a few- it has to target the masses- which is why so many conventional drugs are used off label to expand their appeal...do they want to develop a drug that will eradicate various forms of breast cancer- you betcha they do- it would mean untold billions in profits (and before anyone says but if they cure it no more patients-that is silly- as long as there are more people being born, trust me there will be more cancer patients...BUT having said this, I certainly do not believe it is an evil cabal plotting how to kill women. or to keep them ill. i have met far too many dedicated scientists who are beyond frustrated at the lack of enough *viable* cures to fit enough women-which is pretty well impossible to do when dealing with cancer and the fact that we are all a different *mix* so to speak of dna and genetics. The NIH and national cancer institutes (federal) can circumvent the profit aspect on the front end and source research even in the private sector. Believe me - there is a lot of research going on to combat BC...

As for alternatives- I only speak of what I do when I follow up with an EXACT description of my diagnosis...that is essential as it makes a HUGE difference when making choices. I chose, against my doctor's wishes to remove both my breasts- with a tumor of only .5 cm stage 1 grade 1- this was akin to hitting the fly with a Mac truck- MY CHOICE- conversely, I chose to decline AIs and look to alternative methods BECAUSE I SEEMINGLY HAVE THE LEEWAY TO DO SO BASED ON MY INDIVIDUAL DIAGNOSIS....even then, I get fearful. But it is the way I choose to do it now. But the choices I face at this time in my life are similar to choosing to jump out of window...I can do it because I am on the first floor...any higher, well, I might just be packing an extra big parachute. They are not the same. Nor would my choices be the same. And my choices are always subject to change. Nothing black and white here. If my body fails to respond it is up to me to reconsider what I do. And you better believe I am using the MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX's testing system to the limit. For it was thanks to careful vigilance that the oft dissed mammogram found the little half centimeter time bomb hiding in my breast. By the time the Natural method of touch found out...well, I might not be typing this today. Everything is a balance as I see it. We are allowed to pick and choose and blend what we think is right. Everyone should be encouraged to explore and learn as much as possible. But no one way is right and the other wrong. It is a blend.

As for FDA and supplements, that falls under good news bad news department in my book, Since I am staking my life on them at this point- I am forced to only use those bearing USP certification for it is an unregulated field with many scoundrels. At least as many as in the Medical Industrial complex and they are free to pack whatever they want in a tablet and label it. No joke. At least those who submit to the non-profit USP ceritification process (there are a few others as well) willingly want to prove that what they say is in their product is and in the advertised amounts. Too many unscrupulous folks out there- wonder drugs (of the natural side) do exist in many ways but they are usually the most simple and basic - on the other hand testing of substances have uncovered that pills claiming all natural cures for something like cholesterol proved to actually include the same damn active ingredient as the prescprition statin drugs- excpet nobody was overseeing it...these APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients) are available for purchase all over the world if you have the money- so you can buy em from India and put them in a capsule with inert ingredients and say you have a NATURAL cure...voila...and all you really have is another time bomb...buyer beware on ALL counts-

curious little factoid- the majority of supplements consumed in the US are manufactured in Utah...and I invite each and every one to try to call up one of those manufacutring plants and speak to some one.This is part of what my team does every day all day- call on manufacuturing plants and research centers throughout North America- along with their executive offices ( we maintain a database of such things along with other aspects of the business). I will say that it is easier to get through to Pfizer and Merck (which is akin to calling the White House) than it is to reach anyone beyond a security guard at one of the vitamin plants in Utah. The big boys all make every employee sign a nondisclosure agreement (from maintenance to top exec) yet those folks will occasionally open up....the others...HA- you would think they were mining gold- and perhaps they are (again, for which I am grateful they all exist and damn, they all have the right to make a profit- nothing is free in this life....)

everyone needs to just be careful and the open discussion is great from all sides..I think we all get so emotional because we are dealing with no less than our lives. I tend to pay more attention to those folks that post that give the full stats of their diagnosis and treatment thus far ....in keeping with the spirit of comparing apples to apples rather than tossing in an orange and not telling anyone

I think we can all agree that researchers should not fake research.

Hi Member_of_the_Club, LOVE IT! Yours are absolutely perfect responses to the nonsense here. 

When I said that water kills I meant it. One prospective frat pledge was forced to drink loads of water so as to undergo the humiliation of urinating in public. Instead, his blood thinned to dangerous levels and he died.

Competitor on the Tour de France have seen their blood think dangerously from consuming too much water.

I hope we all are aware gulping large amounts of water quickly can kill us.

I have a friend who was hospitalized and almost died from too much water.

The issue of SSRIs and tamoxifen is a complicated one and the science on it is far from clear.

The issue of fertility and chemo is also a complicated one, as is the question of pregnancy after having had breast cancer.  Not sure what any of this has to do with anything. 

Athena .. that 'alternative ambulance' is so funny!

This is sweet:

Hillck - just by hunting randomly around the net. 

Well, this forum might be the place where *conventionalists* and *alternativists* will square it off forever.

thenewme, when you wrote above that you finally agree with one of my posts, that's not the case, because we are not EVEN talking about the same thing.

My point is:

Here I am, 5.5 years "out", and clearly not having benefited from either Tamoxifen or an AI............. because I declined both.

My energy is through-the-roof; I seldom catch any flu or cold, even while everybody else is battling one or the other....

When I was in my 20s, I was all-inflammed all over the place, all the time, because I could not have cared less about diet and lifestyle back them.

I have now cured a case of upper-respiratory problems (mainly allergies) which I had been battling for decades. I used a 1-month homeopathic treatment (in France, because the American School of Homepathy never developed to the same extent as the French School of Homeopathy). My allergies had been negatively impacting on my life for years.

This is after seeing numerous Ears, Nose, and Throat doctors on both sides of the Atlantic

I have also cured a debilitating case of irritable bowel, by adding fermented foods to my now high-vegetable diet.

This is after seeing an equally large number of gastroenterogists on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Therefore, my question (not to you, but to Research) is: how many women, out there, would have had many good years in front of them, by turning their lifestyle around after cancer diagnosis? And without turning to powerful medicines, which side-effects (ranging from unacceptable to deadly) sometimes only become apparent years later?

While chemotherapy, SERMs, and AIs have all helped some patients (a limited number of patients), nothing justifies the way they are currently being automatically prescribed because "that's the protocol".

I am just concerned that "better-targeted treatments" will never happen, because "more targeted" means a dramatic drop in the number of patients being put on those treatments, and, therefore, a dramatic drop in profits as well. And we all agree, by now, that cancer is BIG business.

European oncologists are known for being less aggressive than their American counterparts most of the time, with similar results Does that mean anything? knowing, of course, that the US is the chief capitalist State of the world (this is NOT meant to be derogatory in any way).

While I am mainly referring to early stage cancers here, I am also of the opinion that patients facing Stage IV might consider putting themselves in the goods hands of well-researched ***conventional, orthodox*** medicine, in conjunction with trustworthy, innovative ***alternative*** medicine.

See Ann Fonfa's interview below on that. She is the owner of annieappleseedproject.org.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPrBlhdI_Pk&feature=channel_video_title

Ah! And by the way, Ann is now an 18-years survivor, I believe. And still kicking butt