Q: I have read about some of the controversy surrounding alternative
medicine. Are there any valid alternative therapies? What do you think
of Dr. Lorraine Day’s approach to treating advanced cancer?
A: According to Steven Barrett, a Vancouver psychiatrist who runs the
website quackwatch.com, “alternative medicine has become the
politically correct term for the questionable practices formerly
labeled quack and fraudulent.” He said such therapies can be either
genuine, experimental or questionable.
Promoters of alternative therapy like to gain public support with a
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conspiracy theory that the establishment, big business and drug
companies are plotting to keep them down for financial gain. But
doctors like myself or Barrett have nothing to gain financially by
recommending mainstream, proven medical treatments.
A genuine therapy is one that has met the scientific criteria for
safety and effectiveness and has passed a number of properly conducted
clinical trials. In these cases, the therapy is no longer alternative
by definition and has entered the realm of mainstream medical practice.
Some therapies are still in the experimental stage and have yet to be
proven effective. They may or may not be valid.
Questionable therapies are either ineffective or could be dangerous to
your health. Day’s approach to treating advanced cancer appears to fall
into this category, but it is still under investigation.
Day, a medical doctor from San Francisco, claims to have cured her own
advanced case of breast cancer by eating organically grown fresh fruits
and vegetables and drinking 13 or more glasses of blended raw
vegetables per day. Her method is similar to that of the Mexican Gerson
clinic that I have written about before.
The Gerson clinic allows some cooked vegetables and recommends coffee
enemas, which cause severe dehydration in cancer patients.
Three-quarters of Day’s diet consists of organic raw fruits and
vegetables. She also recommends enemas, but of plain water, which is a
little safer.
Both the Gerson clinic and Day claim they can improve the functioning
of the body’s immune system with these diets. The problem is that most
cancers have nothing to do with a poorly functioning immune system.
There are some exceptions, such as Karposi’s sarcoma, a rare tumour
found in AIDS patients.
The immune system fights any foreign proteins that enter the body, such
as bacteria or allergens. Cancer cells do not contain a foreign protein
as they are formed from the body’s own cells “gone wrong.” The immune
system does not recognize them as abnormal.
Day’s cancer probably went into remission, or was cured by the surgery
she had. She refused radiation and chemotherapy.
I know a number of patients who have had the same degree of breast
cancer who are still alive after 10 years or more. They all took the
normal medical treatments, and most of them attended group therapy at
the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton, which
uses conventional methods of treatment.
Clare Rowson is a medical doctor with a practice near Belleville, Ont.
Her columns are intended for general information only. Individuals are
encouraged to also seek the advice of their own doctor regarding
medical questions and treatments.
