Medical Industrial Complex

Thats-life, I'm so sorry for your loss.

Talk about opening a can of worms!...sorry, I don't mean to be frivolous, but it seems obvious that there is a history behind many of the comments on this and a couple of other threads of which I am unaware.  I was very interested to read the reactions to my posting above.....and I totally take your point Beesie, about how we should take responsibility for our comments and how what we say, and how we say things, can negatively impact readers, especially the recently diagnosed who would still be in a state of shock/denial/meltdown.  I have great respect for and faith in the medical profession (many family members form part of it), am 3/4 of the way through chemotherapy at present, am going to have a dmx followed by radiotherapy, etc etc etc, so my treatment can't get any more conventional.  My comments were prompted mostly by the fact that I have an inherent distaste for censorship.  I also feel that there are many threads on this site which deal more seriously with the medical treatment of bc, and no reader would be looking at one thread exclusively. So in fact there is a wide array of info available, some more dubious than others, but in magazines, other sites, tv programmes, the world at large, we are always being assaulted by info which is inflammatory, inaccurate, downright deceptive and we have to navigate our way through.  I suppose Beesie's point is that in this one place at least, women should be assured of reliable information, and that people should not be delibrately provocative, and I admit this is a very valid point. But in my guts I still feel that the less fuss made the better.

Thatslife: my condolences.

How many of you take aspirin daily, and is it a baby aspirin?  I take many natural preventatives to make sure my cancer never comes back, but I've missed aspirin and just heard about it.  Is it taken for the anti-inflammatory purposes?

I take a baby dose aspirin every other day.  Even my conservative gp suggested it.  I was taking it every day but was bruising easily.  That cleared up when I lowered the dose.

Both of my doctors said that I should not assume that other anti inflammatories  would have the same effect as the aspirin used in the nurse study.  Apparently they all act differently on our cells.  

I do use turmeric as an anti inflammatory. 

Edited to add: Foods such as broccoli, sweet potato, green tea and blueberries are also anti inflammatory. 

Wobenzyme is a very effective anti-inflammatory for relief of my mild arthritis.

Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) is very similar to the salicin found in willow bark.  Willow bark has been used for its anti-inflammatory, pain-relieving and fever-reducing properties for hundreds of years, probably for millennia.  Aspirin was one of the very first medicines synthesized by chemists trying to replicate the medicinal capacities of plants, back in the 1800s.  Aspirin hasn't been "proprietary" for like, forever, so it is very inexpensive -- and therefore Big Pharma would love to sell newer, proprietary medicines, that are advertised as miraculously effective, but happen not to have some of the remarkable properties of aspirin.

This page on Livestrong discusses "willow bark versus aspirin":
http://www.livestrong.com/article/123952-willow-bark-vs.-aspirin/

I've never used herbal willow bark myself, as I've always thought aspirin was so remarkably close in structure to the plant compound (anybody else go through the experience of synthesizing aspirin in college Chem Lab?).

That's true, Britchick -- my son recently had a severe sore throat and no one would prescribe antibiotics until results of a throat culture came in 48 hours letter -- they don't use the "quick Strep" test here anymore either, because that was based only on antibodies and was usually positive even though an active infection wasn't present (i.e., false positive).  Throat culture came back negative, my son suffered through two more days of severe pain, which then disappeared quickly.  Consensus diagnosis: a virus.  If antibiotics had been prescribed immediately (as was the practice up until about 4 years ago here), my son would have credited the relief to the antibiotics, but now believes the doctors were correct in saying "it's a virus -- wait it out."

What?  I don't understand this.

Bren

Gosh - it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that popping antibiotics all of the time will make your body resistant to them.  I don't see doctors shelling them out like they did 20 years ago.

I can buy as much as I want for my horse but at the most I will put her on them for 10 days a year for her yearly snot/cold/congestion and that is it. 

Rainbow Pony.....Thanks for posting the missive from "Christine".  One of the most delusional stream-of-consciousness rants I have ever read.  The sort of thing that gives all sane women a bad rap.

I won't even try to dissect her arguments, although seems she is anti everything that smacks of modern industrial society.

A few observations I will make about now vs 150 years ago:

• I am grateful for medications to treat whatever symptoms I have.  Without modern medicine, I would be blind in my left eye, probably endured even more childhood diseases (if I had survived), and not lived to see a breast cancer diagnosis, as would have been claimed by a nasty infection.
• I would have had a very restricted diet, and nowhere near the nutrients I needed for a healthy life.
• I did not have childern.  I probably would have had them otherwise, and my chances of making it though childbirth would not have been good.  At one time, childbirth was very dangerous.  It isn't any more.
• I would have been really good at preparing willow bark tea.  However, I would most likely have taken laudanum.
• I would most likely not have my teeth.  Or be able to see much at all.  I would probably be equally fit from the drudgery of maintaining a household.

Can life be improved on???  Of course it can.  But ranting against "big industry" while enjoying many of the things it provides on a daily basis most likely isn't going to get you there.

I want to point out something about this article too.  Some choices regarding treatment are not important.  If you take willow bark tea, the worst that is likely to happen is your head will still hurt.  This is different than having cancer return because you forewent chemo when it was recommended.

One final comment: thanks again for bringing forth some of the most amazing nonsense out there. There is a wonderful PhD topic here called something like "The Dangers of Irresponsible Journalism and its Implications for Life Expectancy in this Country".

That is the danger of the stuff Christine and company write. The good news is most women are wise enough to see through this nonsense. - Claire

gosh please ignore this interuption to your discussion as i see it has got back on track...but as a right of reply to cerius sunflowers: im not on this thread for sympathy or looking for companionship, im here to support freedom of speech, anti censorship, and am interested in alternative health options. maybe serioussunflower should find another forum, or spend more time with the continuous support and hilarity of her growing friendship after treatment thread...

The copyright "advocates" should get busy on their own threads and SO many others, it will keep them busy day and night, as i can just imagine them finger on mouse ready to pounce at every new post, the picture is so hilarious LoL

Oh wait, i can see smoke coming out of their ears, Rainbowpony, i,m sure u can find a pic for this, lol

luan...who wrote desiderata again?..serioussunflowers mentioned my sig line, and i had better add the authours name to the sentence i included...hope it fits the word limit, maybe my innumerable mets will have to be deleted, but thats ok.