I may decide not to do chemo and radiation

Thanks again, Beesie, for providing the statistics earlier for standard treatment for naturalhealing to consider. If conventional treatment practitioners ever get serious about providing direct comparison between chemo-treated patients who can demonstrate a patient history of good health habits before and after treatment and chemo patients who demonstrated a history of poor health habits before and after treatment, instead, that would provide meaningful information.  Then we would have a way to tell what the benefit of chemo is, instead of making assumptions about it out of fear, intimidation, and bias.

AA...you are making sweeping generalizations and assumptions which speak to your personal biases.  Furthermore regarding N-of-1, you are doing the opposite.  You are envisioning treatments from "scratch."  That is a simplistic way of looking at N-of-1.  Please try reading some if the literature on this topic.  In fact, you might find you would agree with the philosophy because the individual data will give better clues to how patients will need to be treated based on their individual characteristics and risks.

Lastly, I think we are a long way off from making assumptions on who needs more or less treatment based on lifestyles.  In fact, if you compared my sister with me, based on risk factors, she would have been the more likely person to get the breast cancer.  And with respect to lifestyles, I got cancer despite a very healthy lifestyle and there is nothing more that I could do with respect to lifestyle changes that would prevent recurrence.  Following my diagnosis, my doctor gave me a sheet of paper with all the "to do's" which I was already doing.  I asked if there was something more that I could do and he threw the sheet in the garbage.  My OB/GYN was even more flummoxed by not only my cancer diagnosis, but his wife's ovarian cancer as well.  He told me that I reminded him of his wife and he couldn't believe in his wildest dream that both of us would get cancer.

Going forward, we need to crunch the data in a meaningful way.  That might level the playing field where the walls between conventional and alternative will fade. But the need for transparancy and evidence will never fade.  Without it, we will once again be in the dark ages.

Deb...don't go to sleep at night worrying about what more you can be doing.  If you do, then cancer will win, even if you never recur.  Live each day. That's what the DH and I try to do.  Some days are harder than others.  DH also has cardiovascular issues and with all the monitoring and procedures and surgery that he has had, we still worry that we aren't doing enough.  But we also give thanks for all the good days that we have together and I make sure to always make plans so we have something good to look forward to.   Sleep well, make plans and let life unfold around you. 

As Wrenn said above, please respect that this is in the Alternative Forum where Alternative treatments are discussed and not hijack it, would be only fair. Respect of people's choice to choose the Alternative treatments would be appreciated.

There is another discussion on this issue by 'natural healing' of I want to refuse chemo and radiation where pro Chemo comments will be read, and would be a more appropriate location as it is in the Forum: Chemotherapy - Before, During and After where Alternative comments are not being discussed except as complimentary to Chemo.

Certainly, there is an argument for the use of Alt therapy in conjunction with conventional therapies but please refrain from placing anti Alternative comments in this Topic. We would appreciate respect of this delineation.

The Mods

A.A., Denmark is also home to 2 global pharmaceutical companies.

How a medical system approaches a disease is to some extent cultural. Danes value sports and exercise extremely highly. Most people exercise in some way, even if it is just riding a bike to work. 

Once the studies started to accumulate about the advantages of exercise to cancer patients, the medical establishment quickly responded.

In Greece, most people are very resistant to exercise, so most doctors don't even bother suggesting it, since they know it will lead nowhere.

One study I would like to see happen is a comparison, in early, early stage breast cancer, between tamox and an exercise/weight management program.

Nobody has mentioned stress reduction I exercise and my cholesterol and BP are great because of it still fighting to try to lose weight but the thing I am really looking forward to is retirement to have the time and freedom to enjoy my life.  I am within a month of retirement and the stress is just melting away.

I think stress is a huge factor in our health.

I think the hospitals that Inga is referring to are not like the old alt clinics which were based on Gerson, Budwig, laetirile, although their may be a component of some of those with some patients, but the treatments are integrative and individualized, using many off label pharms and even low dose chemo in some cases, along w/ other regimens pertaining to diet, supplements, and lifestyle change.  

One thing that many who use conventional don't get about people who use alternatives and I think is a part of recurring conflict is that people who use alternatives are different. They are different kinds of people. They will go outside of the box for solutions and something that makes sense to them. The research backs chemo, but considering all the deaths following chemo and the deterioration of health that follows-- it doesn't make sense. In this way, common sense weighs out over old research that I will say again- especially where there is big money at stake, is corrupt. It is the nature of the beast. 

light... again you resort to generalizations.  But you still haven't answered my question about how you rationalize the outcomes today of pediatric leukemia patients?  You gave me an example here or there of individuals.  But you haven't told me what you think of childhood leukemia.  I'm really interested in your thoughts regarding this subset of individuals. 

lightandwind. Can you please back up the statement " considering all the deaths that follow chemo..."  Do you have hard numbers backing this up? I think a healthy discussion is great and im reading this thread  w much interest but that statement seems like its just thrown in to substantiate your beliefs

Light....  I understand that you think "too many children" are still dying from leukemia, but it is this statistic that I refer to and wish to understand your logic.

"Although survival
rates for most childhood cancers have improved in recent decades, the
improvement has been especially dramatic for a few cancers, particularly acute
lymphoblastic leukemia, which is the most common childhood cancer. Improved
treatments introduced beginning in the 1970s raised the 5-year survival rate for
childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia from less than 10 percent in the 1960s to
about 90 percent in 2003-2009. Survival rates for childhood non-Hodgkin
lymphoma have also increased dramatically, from less than 50 percent in the
late 1970s to 85 percent in 2003-2009."

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Sites-Types/childhood

why would any child have to die and undergo the horrendous suffering of chemo therapy,  if cannabis has shown to be effective? There is plenty of studies and info showing it to be effective in cases of leukemia. Politics are holding up the trials....as usual. 

Research is slow. And people need help now. 

This Thread has Spiraled......suppose to be about Alternative Meds.....Liz

sandcastle, I agree, and to the extent that I diverted into a discussion to try to understand the potential benefits of technology for either present conventional medicine or alternative medicine, I apologize. A separate thread for that under alternative therapies might be interesting, as long as it focuses also very specifically on the uses of technology as it applies to alternative therapies and not on conventional therapies. The OP made it quite clear that she was seeking to minimize such problems with her specific request and by acknowledging that she had also made the effort to explore her issues about treatment in the conventional forum, and I think that I/we should try harder to respect her intentions and needs.

A.A.

lightandwind,

For me personally, what is different is that I was never provided any genuine support at all for the process of evaluating my options. That was 12 years ago, and while I have and do see some occasional efforts to improve that, for the most part the bias remains with overetreatment through conventional means that still rely partly on financial gain. I regret having been railroaded. We are different in that our tolerance for risk is higher than those who accept conventional therapies with more trust in them.

I, do think you have to have a very different mindset for alternative medicine.....it has to be part of your Core....Liz

Some of us would like to know about an alternative approach because we are or were unable to do the chemo.  I had an anaphylactic reaction to taxotere and after 4 taxol/herceptin infusions my esophagus narrowed such that I lost 30 pounds and had to have 2 esophageal dilations.  There are others on these boards who because of the side effects are unable to complete chemo.