Rethinking Cancer: Non-Traditional Approaches to the Theories, Treatments and Preventions of Cancer - Softcover

Sackman, Ruth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0757000932 ISBN 13: 9780757000935

Publisher: Square One, 2003

Synopsis

The Foundation for Advancement in Cancer Therapy (FACT) has long worked to educate cancer patients about alternative therapies, enabling them to make informed decisions on treatment options. Unfortunately, there still remains a major gap in the distribution of information. To meet this challenge, Ruth Sackman has written Rethinking Cancer. Here, you’ll find pertinent information on a wide range of topics, including the role of nutrition in health and strategies for achieving detoxification. The author provides both valid research and specific advice.

About this title

About the Author

Ruth Sackman has been the co-founder and president of the Foundation for Advancement in Cancer Therapy, a consumer advocacy organization that provides information on alternative cancer therapies. Ms. Sackman dedicated her life to the pursuit of nontoxic approaches to the treatment of cancer.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

For a number of years many of my associates at the Foundation for Advancement in Cancer Therapy (FACT), doctors, friends, members and others in the health field, have urged me to write a book that would systematically document all the knowledge I had acquired about the biological approach to cancer, health and disease. It was their feeling that what I had learned through my extensive experience as president of FACT should be made readily available to the largest possible number of patients and practitioners. I was extremely reticent about introducing a revolutionary concept of cancer to a population accustomed to the present concept of cancer as an inviolate truth. Letting go of established ideas can be very difficult.

Even so, periodically, I had promised myself to take off the considerable time that would be necessary to think through and carry out such an ambitious undertaking. For, indeed, I had felt all along that there was a great and growing need to help a broader spectrum of people learn about biological approaches to cancer treatment and other degenerative ailments that have developed over many decades, than was possible through the often hectic daily operations of the foundation. More than that, I had been troubled not only by a lack of popular understanding of this important subject, but also by the enormous amount of misinformation that is now being disseminated under the banner of so-called “alternative therapies.”

With these ends in mind, I spent a number of years compiling information. This book is based on my experiences, investigations, observations and conclusions gathered over the past 30 years on this subject. The outcome of this labor is this volume, Rethinking Cancer: Non-Traditional Approaches to the Theories, Treatments and Prevention of Cancer.

My colleagues and I at FACT firmly believe in the public’s right to be fully informed about the biological approach to the restoration of health, non-toxic cancer therapies and alternatives to orthodox treatments for cancer. To help make this possible, I shall try to pass on to you, the reader, all of the considerable information about the biological concept of health care collected by FACT under unique conditions. I have acquired this knowledge through direct contact with many thousands of cancer patients, with many doctors (clinicians) who are practicing this therapeutic direction and my visits to the many clinics in Europe, Mexico and the United States. By bringing this in-depth material together in one place, I hope that it can be more effectively utilized by the practitioner, the patient and their family.

I cannot emphasize strongly enough that the purpose of this book is not to give advice or recommend specific procedures to anyone. My aim is, rather, to make available carefully scrutinized information based on my years of experience. Once he or she has acquired sufficient information, he or she should be in a position to make intelligent decisions as a medical consumer. Although I believe that the ultimate responsibility for getting well lies with the patient, I urge him or her to seek the help of a competent advisor.

It is not FACT’s intent to discredit practitioners of standard medicine. Nor do we question the skill, sincerity or integrity of physicians. We have excellent relations and work cooperatively with qualified doctors in the United States, Canada, Europe and other areas of the world. Over the years FACT has given financial support to a number of biological investigations by men and women of science at established research institutions.

Actually, attitudes toward biological concepts on the part of many within the medical profession are much better today than they were even a short time ago. For example, we at FACT are beginning to find that information about cancer coming to us from conventional sources confirms what we have been saying to the cancer patient and the ­public-at-large for years. FACT has always considered a balanced metabolic program the backbone of biological therapy―the nutrients in the food supply are the essential elements for building normal healthy cells. More than a decade ago the National Cancer Institute established a department of diet and nutrition (now dissolved) and published a pamphlet with nutritional guidelines which is still available to the public, whereas, several decades ago conventional medicine negated any cancer/diet link. I am also pleased to note that the American Cancer Society, one of the major bastions of orthodox cancer therapies, held a seminar on the subject of nutrition and cancer. In these and many other ways, we think that the climate is moving―albeit far too slowly to be sure―toward acceptance of the biological repair system as a valid direction in ­cancer treatment.

The Concept of Biological Repair

How do FACT’s views on cancer treatment differ from those held by traditional medicine? Briefly, the conventional approach believes that the tumor itself is, in effect, the disease and that cancer can be efficiently controlled by directing the therapy toward destroying the malignancy. The treatments most frequently used are radiation, chemotherapy, surgery and hormone inhibitors, or a combination of these procedures. Thus, the major focus of this traditional approach is tumor destruction.

We at FACT, on the other hand, support a concept of cancer as being a systemic malfunction which requires a biological repair. According to this concept, cancer cells are only a symptom of a dysfunction of the organism, resulting from a steady breakdown in the balance of body chemistry. Only by restoring the balance through safe and sound biological means can the disease be truly controlled. Conjointly, we believe that if given the proper support and a better lifestyle, the body’s own inherent ability to repair itself could prevent cancer in the vast majority of cases. The major focus of the biological approach, therefore, is host integrity.

This is not a lay point of view, but an approach held by many practitioners over many decades who treated degenerative diseases by restoring the balance in body chemistry to its recovery potential through the use of biologically sound techniques―balanced nutrition and other forms of non-toxic, non-invasive therapies. After a thorough investigation of the writings of scientists and doctors, and close contact with many of them as well as with recovered cancer patients, I have concluded that these views offer the cancer patient an opportunity for a realistic, long-term recovery.

There exists a long list of highly competent practitioners―some going back to the latter part of the nineteenth century―who treated disease by optimizing the body’s ability to repair itself. There was Max Gerson, M.D., a man who was lauded by Dr. Albert Schweitzer as “one of the most eminent geniuses in medical history.” Other notable doctors include: John H. Tilden, M.D.; Benedict Lust, M.D.; I. Duncan Bulkley, M.D.; John Harvey Kellogg, M.D.; Are Waerland, Ph.D.; Norman W. Walker, D.Sci.; William Howard Hay, M.D.; Henry Bieler, M.D.; Max Warmbrand, N.D.; Andrew Ivy, M.D.; William Frederick Koch, M.D.; Julian Baldor, M.D.; Sir William Arbuthnot Lane, M.D.; as well as many others.

Today immunotherapeutic techniques are recognized as a valid treatment in medical circles. Drs. Andrew Ivy and William Frederick Koch were supporters of immunotherapy early in the twentieth century. It is important to note that practitioners came to similar conclusions while working independently of one another―some in the United States, others in Europe and elsewhere. This phenomenon is evidence that helps to validate the biological repair approach to cancer treatment.

Hunger for Health

Today the public’s hunger for health information is enormous. To a greater degree than ever before, people are deeply concerned about a wide range of factors that might affect their well-being: the air they breathe, the foods they eat, the water they drink, and the quality of medical care they receive. To answer this thirst for knowledge, a flood of material is now available on every conceivable health question―from environmental problems to dietary regimes, from cancer to high blood pressure, from meditation techniques to proper breathing, from spinal alignment to temporomandibular joint (TMJ) adjustment. A glance at the bookshelf in any health food or book store will confirm that publications relating to health are among the most saleable commodities.

What accounts for this tremendous surge of interest in matters dealing with health? In my opinion the reason for this interest is―to put it bluntly―the increasing sickness of our population. In alarming numbers people are not well―and I am referring not only to the virtual epidemic of cancer, but to every other form of degenerative illness as well. I came across a book written by a German scientist, Dr. Johannes Kuhl, which documents the total number of individuals who are being treated for all kinds of major degenerative diseases. Let me assure you that the statistics in this book make for pretty grim reading!

Too many people who depend on conventional doctoring are not getting good results. They are discovering that the medications and other treatments they have been receiving are not restoring their health. These medications temporarily alleviate symptoms without getting at the underlying causes of the illness. Unfortunately, many of the medicines have side effects, and therefore, should be used only when absolutely necessary, not just to avoid minor discomfort.

Today there are simply too many sick people. Nature didn’t create a situation where so many human beings are doomed to suffer from all kinds of major ailments such as cancer, and to die in a slowly deteriorating, often agonizingly painful process, or linger on for years before death often thankfully comes. This condition was created by man.

We are no longer living in biblical times, when the lifespan allotted to humankind was threescore and ten. In our modern advanced technological age we ought to be able to live out a far longer and healthier lifespan. As a matter of fact I recently read a statement by a doctor in which he estimated that the average human being should live to be over a hundred years of age. Yet, only a small handful of people achieve that milestone. As far as the majority of the population is concerned, life expectancy is a little over seventy. Despite the vast amounts of money that we here in the United States spend on health, and all of the so-called medical miracles, our nation ranges about twenty-fourth in the world in the life expectancy rate.

When we look at the cancer statistics, then, of course, the picture is truly disquieting. Today the cancer incidence, according to the American Cancer Society, has risen to an estimated 1,334,100 new cases in 2003. In 1975 the insurance industry issued a statement to the effect that the cancer rate had risen by 5.2%. For a number of years previous to that, the rise in the rate had run somewhere around 1.3%. Instead of being alarmed by that tremendous increase, the U.S. Bureau of Statistics placed the figure at 3.2% by officially attributing the higher death rate to the flu epidemic of 1975. But the fact remains that those were cancer patients who died from the flu; they did so because of the extreme weakness brought about by the cancer condition. Too often death certificates read heart failure, renal failure, respiratory failure or malnutrition. No juggling of statistics, however, can alter the fact that cancer is at epidemic levels. The present research, in spite of the glowing media reports, is really no closer to a cure than it was 100 years ago. The solution is probably too simple for scientific minds to conceive that this treacherous disease, cancer, needs to focus on cell production rather than cell destruction. It’s a simple concept but it is difficult for people to shift their focus from killing what they have believed to be deadly cancer cells.

But these cancer statistics are not the only evidence of the abysmal state of health in our nation. All one has to do is look at the number of hospitals, the crowded hospital beds, their huge staff of doctors, the incredible sums of money spent on medical care, and especially the amount of drugs distributed by the pharmaceutical companies.

Is it not surprising that people are more health conscious than ever before, that they are searching for better answers to their health problems, and turning in other directions for health care? Those of us who are associated with FACT are in a particularly good position to observe the steadily rising number of individuals who are choosing biological repair systems, not only to deal with cancer and other degenerative diseases, but as a way of life to maintain their well-being.

The Dangers of Misinformation

Though the rise in the level of health consciousness among so many Americans is heartening, it has its built-in problems too. In their eagerness for more information and for biologically sound alternative therapies, many people turn to what are misnamed “natural” or “holistic” cures―many of which have not undergone the long-term clinical experience which is essential in establishing validity. Unfortunately, there are far too many people seeking biological therapies and not enough competent practitioners. Because of this, a number of individuals on the periphery of the health movement, who have little more knowledge than the average person, presume to give others advice or even set themselves up in practice. Hopefully, this book may be of some service in discouraging such people from misguiding others. Restoring health is a complex process requiring the guidance of competent people.

Since many people find it lucrative to deal with those who are desperate for help, it is important for the health-seeker to be very discriminating. Even with the best of intentions, overzealous persons may offer recommendations based on their own personal, though limited, experience. The therapeutic approach that may have worked well for them may be entirely wrong for another individual. I cannot begin to emphasize enough the serious consequences that can result from incompetent information involving biological therapies. In the case of a cancer patient, incompetent information can be particularly hazardous.

Let me further illustrate why and how erroneous information can be harmful to one’s health. Because of the limited number of resources supplying biologically sound service, too many people with a great deal of heart, but with too little skill and knowledge, are trying to help others correct their health problems. Invariably, they do not have the experience acquired from serving a wide variety of patients; nor do they have the opportunity for consistent feedback to provide effective service. They may, for example, advise people to make major nutritional changes. As we will see later on in this book, food is a potent healer. Changes in dietary regimes can provoke profound adjustments in body chemistry that can be quite disturbing―and dangerous―to the uninformed cancer patient. Under no circumstances, therefore, should an individual begin a new nutritional regime without first consulting an experienced pr...

Edition details

• Publisher: Square One
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0757000932
• ISBN 13: 9780757000935
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240