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Suzanne Somers’ latest book, “Knockout: Interviews with Doctors who are Curing Cancer and how to Prevent Getting it in the First Place” has caused a wave of criticism in the healthcare community and the general public. She advocates alternative approaches to cancer treatment, and believes chemotherapy does more harm than good. In 2001 she treated her own breast cancer with a lumpectomy and radiation, along with alternative treatments. Since that worked out well for her, Somers seems to think she’s become an expert in cancer treatment. In the book, she reveals that last November she was diagnosed with “full body” cancer. Over the course of six days six different doctors misdiagnosed her over and over again.
Last November, Suzanne Somers faced an emotional roller coaster when six different doctors confirmed she had “full-body cancer.” Somers was filled with fear thinking she only had days to live. “For six days, six doctors confirmed I had inoperable cancer. I went into that valley of fear. I saw my death, it was horrible,” Somers said. Somers later learned she had been misdiagnosed.
During the time Somers thought she had cancer, she spoke with several doctors and patients about their various treatments and decided to write her latest book, ‘Knockout: Interviews with Doctors Who are Curing Cancer and How to Prevent Getting It.’ She shares what she describes as “groundbreaking and successful cancer prevention and care protocols incorporating chemo-free options that are available now.”
The book has been highly controversial, and Somers said she’s been attacked by doctors for promoting treatments that avoid chemotherapy. Somers argues that alternative methods are just another solution for patients who don’t respond well to chemotherapy.
In 2001, Somers decided to forgo chemotherapy when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Instead she had a lumpectomy to remove the cancer followed by radiation therapy and used alternative treatments.
In her book, Somers writes, “Cancer death rates dropped only 5 percent from 1950 to 2005. What other technology has performed so miserably over this fifty-five year period? In contrast, the death rate from heart disease dropped 64 percent in that time, and for flu and pneumonia it fell 58 percent.”
She continues, “It is a very brave choice to go against traditional medicine and embrace the alternative route. It’s easier to try the traditional route and then, if it fails, go to the alternatives, but often it can be too late. My friend Farrah Fawcett – would she have made it if she had gone alternative first? There is no way of knowing.”
[From PopEater]
I understand that that must have been a miserable experience to go through. On the one hand you think, “Well six days isn’t that long.” But I’m sure it was an eternity to Suzanne, and I am genuinely sympathetic towards her for that experience. And if that five percent statistic she cited about cancer treatment is true – it’s hard to find clear, solid numbers that backup her claim – then it is shocking. And I do believe Somers honestly wants to help people and get them to really think about their health. I don’t believe it’s about selling books. But her celebrity means that people give her ideas more credence than they should. The American Cancer Society essentially called her a danger, though they didn’t put it that directly.
It seems to me that Suzanne was traumatized by her experience last November and the breast cancer in 2001. She’s probably trying to channel the fear she lives with everyday into something productive, and it gives her a feeling that she’s taking control. I totally understand that. But encouraging people not to use chemotherapy, and saying it’s “a very brave choice to go against traditional medicine” – implies that it is weak to go with traditional medicine. Living with, treating, or dying from cancer – they’re all brave in their way. Treating it aggressively with chemo is still brave, if that’s what someone chooses for themselves. It’s a highly individual choice, and I don’t think it’s respectful to question Farrah Fawcett’s treatment or Patrick Swayze’s.
As an aside, Suzanne is also still touting her vigorous bioidentical hormone routine. At the start of the interview, The Early Show’s Harry Smith says, “You look good kid,” and right away she responds, “I’m hanging in there. It’s the hormones you know.” No, I didn’t know hormones made it look like you’ve had a ton of plastic surgery. Good to know; I’ll stay away from them.
Here’s Suzanne in New York City on October 20th. Images thanks to INF Photo.
Okay, I must be slow, but I am confused as to what in the heck she means by “Full Body Cancer”? I have never heard of such a thing. Is it full body skin cancer? Is it cancer that has spread throughout her body. I just do not know what she means.
I’d love to know more about the ‘misdiagnosis’. I don’t know of any doctor that would tell a patient that they had 1 particular type of cancer with 100% certainty in just one day. My guess is, she presented with a certain set of symptoms and bloodwork, and a cancer diagnosis was one of the possibilities mentioned to her as she made her rounds to the doctors. Further tests then clarified what she really did have.
goodness, and i thought infomercials were only shown on TV in the wee twilight hours… not on CBS’s Early show!
I think you’re probably right, crash.
I agree that it’s disrespectful to question the choices made by those like Patrick and Farrah. If something worked for Somers, great for her, and I can understand trying to encourage it, but different things work for different people. Trying to convince other people to try something, possibly even against their doctor’s advice, is not good. If she wants to write about her own experience and promote the doctors who helped her, fine, but don’t try to assign her opinions to anyone else’s medical treatment.
I also don’t particularly care for actors, or any other non-medically-educated, unlicensed person, doling out medical advice. I didn’t like it when Tom Cruise did it and I don’t like it when Suzanne Somers does it either. If these doctors are truly making great inroads in the treatment of cancer, God bless them and let them keep going and finding out more and more and working towards cures and better treatments. But I don’t think they need Suzanne Somers to help them do that.
Firestarter: i think she meant to say….
“full of it” body cancer.
I think they probably mistook all the plastic in her body as cancer :/
Ms. Somers underestimates the progress that has been made in cancer mortality reduction rates. Cancer rates began dropping by ~1.1% a year from 1994-2002 and by 2.2% a year between 2002-2004, according to the National Institutes of Health, as cited by the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/15/us/15cancer.html
More recent studies have found a similar trend:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081125161415.htm
One particularly ironic quote from the atricle, in light of Ms. Somers’ reliance on hormone therapy: “The report found that the incidence of both breast and ovarian cancer had decreased in the past few years. Researchers think the decline may be due in part to a sharp drop in hormone use after menopause, a response to a landmark study in 2002 that found the drugs increased the risk of breast cancer.”
The death rate numbers are still pretty dismal, but Ms. Somers does no one any favors by misrepresenting the data.
(sorry, just had to get my know-it-all on there for a minute)
Newsweek had a pretty crisp rebuttal of her book’s claims up this week. It’s worth a read.
She reminds me of a friend’s sister.
It’s not just a lump in her breast, it’s full-on stage 4 cancer.
She doesn’t just have diarrhea from something she ate, she has colon cancer.
It’s not a sinus infection, it’s a tumor in her face.
Whomever it was who cast her as the dunderhead blonde on Three’s Company apparently knew something we didn’t. Genius casting.
Cancer rates are rising, not decreasing.
The WHO warns that global cancer rates could increase by 50% to 15 million by 2020.
The good news is that new research shows vitamin D slashes risk of cancers by 77 percent.
The bad news is that the cancer industry refuses to support cancer prevention.
For those of you who don’t already know, the American Cancer Society (note: not the Anti-Cancer Society…) has financial ties to chemical companies, pharmaceutical companies and radiology equipment manufacturers. It’s not in their interest to see an end to cancer.
Read more at Natural News and Cancer Prevention Coalition websites (links keeps getting blocked).
I’m not sure about the figures, but I find it hard to believe that the death rate from heart disease has dropped. It’s one of the biggest killers here in Australia, and I would have thought that it’d be about the same in the US, since the obesity rates are soaring.
Oh, and when I read “full body cancer” my initial thought was she was making it up, or just didn’t listen very well to her doctors. There’s a big difference between that term, and having the doctor say that her breast cancer has spread or something.
Go Suzanne,
Don’t bag your own guys! The world is taking notice of this lady, because she makes a lot of sense. There are many success stories in what she preaches. To all the haters, I am certain if you sat and had a coffee with this lady, you would walk away, liking her and her fighting spirit! Europe has always favoured natural treatments and Australia is waking up bigtime. Chemo doesn’t fix the original problem, blast the guts out of it with chemo, but if you still continue your unhealthy lifestyle and shitty diet, you’ll only end up where you started. What she practices is treating the body as a whole, getting to the root of the problem. Hollistic medicine makes sense. If it didn’t, why do the Royal Families only have hollistic medicine and go to hollistic hospitals and doctors? They live to ridiculous ages and don’t seem to get cancer either? Hmmm something in the organic diet and non toxic medicine??? You go girl, the world is listening, agreeing and we love you, even if your own nation doesn’t!
Oh Snowball, really…If she was making this up, I’m sure the Doctors would be discrediting her from the highest towers and the loudest speakers. She was diagnosed with what she says she was diagnosed with. Why is that soooo hard to believe? Just because one supposedly honest man said; ” I did not have sexual relations with that woman!”, doesn’t make everybody out there a bloody liar.
Mary-Anne, did you know statistically if you are in remission for 5 years, but end up dying in the 6th…..because you have been cancer free for 5 years, you are still counted as CURED! This is a fact and is just another fraudulent claim from the cancer machine/industry.
Firestarter; meaning spread, riddled with it!
Let’s keep this to a respectful debate, without bagging the crap out of one another. No need for that.
I for one, would never go chemo, but hey, that’s me….I am entitled to do as I want. I don’t know ANY success stories, not long term anyway. Until recent times, Doctors used to treat cancer with mercury, google it, google what the consequences were; loss of hair, bombarded by toxic poison, death etc….success stories, no way…..but we trusted them, because they are doctors, with our best interests at heart….
@You Go Girl, like crash said earlier, it takes more than a day to diagnose someone with cancer. It’s not like you can just look at someone and say “oh yes, that mole is definitely cancerous, we must remove it immediately, no need for further testing”. You need to run tests on people to diagnose them.
As for your comments about the royal families, do you have any links or anything that list the health providers they use? Oh, and fyi, Edward VIII died of lung cancer.
She looks like she could be Shauna Sands’ mother. She looks awful.
I doubt her 6 day diagnosis and I also think she cares a whole helluva lot more about face-time and attention than she’s being given credit for in the above write-up on the article.
I don’t know why this is always such a topic for people to tell others what is right or wrong in a situation such as a cancer diagnosis. I have said this before, it is up to the individual to decide, along with their doctors what the best course of treatment is for that individual. We are all different and our bodies reaspond to treatments and medicines quite differently. What works for one person, may not work for the next. It is up to the person with the disease to get 2,3 and 4th opinions, do research and figure out what is best for them.
It is not up to anyone to tell another person what is right or wrong with the way they chose to treat their ailment. Suzanne can go on and on, but that doesn’t mean she is right, and it also doesn’t mean she is wrong.
I’m an MD and Susan Somers is a dangerous woman. Breast cancer is an extremely complex disease and breast cancer is one of those cancers that does NOT require chemotherapy unless it becomes metastatic or a systemic disease. However, if it is still a local disease then a lumpectomy/mastectomy with radiation is usually enough without the need for chemotherapy. What happened to Susan somers is most likely she had a small breast cancer that was amenable to just a lumpectomy and radiation. Each type of cancer is different and requires different forms of treatment; there are some that do not require chemotherapy and some that require chemotherapy. In addition, hormonal therapy (especially with estrogen) is contraindicated in patients with a history of breast cancer because it can increase their risk of developing breast cancer again. Unfortunately, Susan will not listen to doctors’ advice or the many years of medical research to form an educated decision.
Please block “You Go Girl.” He/she is spamming this news feed and is putting really inappropriate data out there.
Cancer is something I have first hand experience with. It ALLLLL depends on what stage your cancer is, how much it has metastasized, and what kind of cancer it is. I had serious breast cancer, which was spreading. I had all three treatments (surgery, chemo, radiation). I was clear for five years when it came back. Don’t you sit there and tell me some herbs and tofu is going to cure that. That’s just irresponsible. I’ll challenge you to actually follow your own flimsy advice when cancer hits you.
I don’t think there is something called “full body cancer”.
Theres blood cancer , and I guess you could call that full body cancer.
Theres leukimia,
There are cases where the cancer spread all over your body.But is not called full body cancer , if you want to talk like you know everythin about cancer then
I doubt the doctor told her you have full body cancer and I doubt that she got that many diagnossis in 6 days.
I think she was told she shows symptons of type of cancer and in some preliminary it came out positive and then negative.
“During the time Somers thought she had cancer she decided to write her latest book”….why would you want to write a book if you have only days to live? How would you accomplish this with “full body cancer?” I don’t think you can believe anything that comes out of this money hungry woman’s mouth. She wants attention and she gets it by making outrageous statements.
Cristi- I hope that you are doing well now. Prayers for you and your continued recovery.
Thank you for sharing your story and viewpoint. I agree with you totally.
@Cristi – kia kaha (strength) to you and yours.
My sister was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999 at the age of 39. She chose to forgo ALL traditional therapies and spent 30,000 dollars at the “Hoxy” clinic in Mexico on natural treatments. The result? She passed away in 2002 at the age of 42 from cancer which had spread everywhere.
What was recommended to her was a lumpectomy and radiotherapy, chemo I am unsure about (whether or not it was recommended). Chances are if she had gone down a more traditional route her chances of survival might have been better, her cancer was, as far as we know, not particularly aggressive. We have no family history of breast cancer or any other cancer really for that matter. All of my grans and other rellies live to their 80’s and 90’s.
Some of her treatments included: Vitamin C by IV drip, having a “Native American Salve” spread on her breast where the tumor was to ‘draw it out’.
I won’t go into any more… I miss her, I wish she were still here.
She was terrified of cancer, of treatment, of losing her hair, of anyone “knowing” she had cancer. I don’t know why she worried so much about what others thought.
It is a personal decision how you choose to treat yourself. But I like Christi think its offensive to fob people off with ‘salves’ and ointments and God knows what kinds of vitamins etc when they have an insidious disease like cancer. My sister spent every dime she had ever saved at some clinic in Mexico (couldn’t get licensed in the States) which was recommended to her by her ‘Christian’ friends. No altruism there either, $30,000 US is a hell of alot of money to charge for their ‘treatments’…
I don’t fault people for openly disagreeing with her, but I don’t think she should be labeled “dangerous.” If I am ever in her position, I would hope to have all of the options in front of me and make an educated decision about my treatment. Perhaps with a better healthcare system, that is something all cancer victims would be able to do.
My mom had stage 1 Breast Cancer with clear lymph nodes post menopause. SHe did lumpectomy, chemo and radiation. In one year just as her hair was coming back, the cancer was in her lungs and bones. more chemo. cleared up tumors in her lungs but damaged her lungs so she had to go on oxygen and couldnt do much. continued chemo. cancer spread again. she died about 2 yrs from 1st stage 1 – “yeah we caught it early” diagnosis. I wish we had looked at alternatives!
i’ve never heard of “full body cancer”. sounds to me like someone is trying to recoup her image after her misspoken words following Patrick Swayze’s death.
that said, if she is really riddled with cancer, i’m gonna side with medical technology and predict that she will be dead before the year is over.
Cristi,I too have had cervical cancer, so do not be so quick to judge. My mother has had a couple of dear friends, who were unfortunate enough to have breast cancer, whom are no longer with us, after masectomies, chemo, radiation, the works. We have 3 uncles with prostate cancer, 1 has already passed away, they all have gone the chemo way.
Who said tofu and herbs will fix your problems?
Who is saying that?
For the record, I had surgery, but didn’t have any chemo, radiation etc.
I have been in the clear for 6 years now. What has worked for you, I say goodluck and congratulations. I am very happy for you. What has worked for me, is entirely different, but I too have had the same result. We are all different. I believe 100%, cancer is a chronic eating disorder and fungal illness, when it becomes way out of control, our body responds with cancer. I have read an incredible amount on the topic, I have adopted a very different lifestyle and it works for me. I have met many, many people like myself also.
Why would anybody in their right mind get offended at anybodies successful treatment of anything?
If Suzanne helps one person, she’s a winner!
Emily, so did Princess Margaret a 3 pack a day smoker.
Google Queen Elizabeth and hollistic medicine. It will keep you busy for days, the info. is all there.
They do not use mainstream medicine, never have. The Queen never travels without her vials of hollistic medicine either.
Like I said before, might not be everybodies cup of tea, but hey, why not read it, it can’t hurt!
This is meant to be a discussion forum, sharing of opinions, info. etc, do not take offence, please!
Wresa great attitude!
Cheekemunk,
After a vast amount of investigating things like you mention.
My mind was made up and I went the way I went. I do not regret my decision and you I think, you are spot on.
One reason a drop of 5% seems to make sense to me (although I am not a doctor, and by no means a cancer expert) is that people are living much much longer, and the longer people live, the more likely they are to get cancer of some kind. I believe, but don’t have data to support, that it especially includes breast, prostate, and colon cancer.
In any universe, Suzanne Somers is batshit crazy.
“Let’s keep this to a respectful debate, without bagging the crap out of one another. No need for that.”-You Go Girl
If you’re going to say that, please follow your own advice. You can’t say disparaging things to others then beg for a peaceful discussion. Sorry, doesn’t work.
And furthermore, I don’t think it’s right to imply that people are sheep, blindly following the medical industry. The rest of us are smart too, we want to live and wouldn’t do chemo/radiation if we didn’t think it would help us. No one wants to go through that kind of torture if it doesn’t do anything. Obviously it does, or else people would refuse it. Sure, there’s no 100% success rate, but there are many complex factors in why it does not immediately cure people.
wait – six different doctors diagnosed her as having “full body cancer?” WTF is full body cancer? does she mean something like lymphatic cancer, where it was spreading through her body, or cancer in several different areas, or what? how could six doctors all tell her she had terminal cancer and all be wrong? this sounds suspiciously like a story one would tell in order to promote an agenda…like a book about cancer.
Cat, I am simply stating my own opinion, which everybody here is entitled to.
There are no disbarging comments and I did not refer, insinuate or call any person a sheep. They are your words and angry one’s at that. What I mean is that people are looking at other alternatives and so they should. You should look at every avenue, when it comes to your own health. Medicine will only do so much, you still need to take care of yourself. Take all the medicine in the world, but how will that help, if you continue eating very little fresh fruit and veg., drink sodas until your head caves in, never drink water etc, etc. I see sick people, doing this every day. You need to change your lifestyle too, there is no miracle cure for anybody, that continues to do the wrong thing everyday of their lives.
If we were sheep, we’d all have taken the swine flu vaccine by now! Instead though, many countries, half the population is rejecting it! This act shows that people are waking up and are not sheep!
Breathe.
Michael Jackson died from an overdose of doctor-prescribed pharmaceuticals.
Tim Russert’s death is linked to heart medication.
Bernie Mac died from immune suppression caused by pharmaceuticals.
Heath Ledger was killed by an overdose of pharmaceuticals prescribed by his doctors.
What about Elvis, Anna Nicole Smith, Christina Onassis?
All legal, prescription medication deaths, not illegal drugs. These are just celebrities. Look at L.Lohan, Brittney, Kelly Osborne, Matthew Perry, just to mention a few well knowns o.k, Oxycontin, Adderall addicted, prescription medication. Have a look at your average old person, how many different medications are they on? Cholesterol, blood pressure, blood thinning, thyroid etc. They might test these medicines, but they don’t test for what they do to you, long term, when you are taking a multitude of other medications, for life. This is cutting peoples lives short, without a doubt.
It’s all about the money, it has sadly become too much about the money.
In percentage, it’s only a small amount of the population on illegal drugs, the deaths there are easy to look up. How much of the population is on some form of medication, for life I might add. The figures would blow you away, you should look them up. A great site to refer to is; Natural Health News. Follow Mike Adams advice and your health will improve. Sheryl Crow beat cancer the natural way, via The Mao Wellness Clinic, her journey is well documented and a great read. Patrick Swayze, Farrah Fawcett and many, many others had their lives and quality of life cut short by chemo. Google a picture of them directly before chemo and then google them directly after. The aftermath is incredibly sad. I’d rather live a year longer and not go through that, than go through that and die anyway. And, I am totally within my right to do that. It’s a personal choice.
Suzanne looks plastic?!
Are you for real!
You could count on one hand only, the one’s that actually don’t!
Michael Jackson famously said, if all the celeb’s in Hollywood that DIDN’T HAVE plastic surgery, left town….there would be no one left!
Well said.
Suzanne’s started a great debate, good on her, for getting people talking and sharing information.
Vitamin D, the sun, plays a huge role in health too. 40% of the body, needs 20 minutes of direct sunlight per day, to keep you healthy. Since people have been hiding from the sun, cancer rates have soared!
I read what she said about Swayze….what was so wrong with what she said?
She said nothing bad, nor malicious at all.
she looks great, she’s a great interview, been around for ages and I predict she will live to a ripe old age!
“, I am simply stating my own opinion, which everybody here is entitled to Breathe”
Right back at you, You Go Girl.
Of course people who abuse prescription drugs die! That’s a no-brainer.
You didn’t call anyone a sheep. But I’m sorry, that’s what I get from your posts. To me your words imply that people are uneducated, and therefore they blindly follow tradition and possibly die from its effects.
And I do agree with some of your points. People are too quick with taking pills and do not treat root causes. We are often too lazy to exercise and diet properly. But to me that’s human weakness, combined with a desire for an easy way out. It’s our fault for putting strange drugs that aren’t properly tested into our bodies, not modern medicines’. I do agree that we are an overmedicated society, and a minority is making a load of money off of it. And I don’t hate natural remedies, they are wonderful. But I must say you seem to hate ALL prescripton drugs. Don’t you think they do any good? To anyone? You probably do but your posts sound like you dislike them.
There has been a cure for cancer since the 1930’s, but it is surpressed.
Why?
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
This is why it is illegal for anybody but a Doctor to treat cancer, this is why vitamin B17 is illegal to import (it’s one of the surpressed cure’s). Why don’t they have these types of rules in place for any other disease?
Because 1/2 the population will get cancer, that’s a lotta money lost if we don’t go the cancer industry route.
There are tribes, people and races around the world, that do not get cancer, ever! Instead of nay-saying, look into it. It’s not rocket science, it’s a lot easier than it looks, they just want it to look like rocket science! Nutrition, sun, sleeping in total darkness (not by a light), no microwaved anything ever, back to basics.
When we were back to basics, we were all better off.
Interesting how the Scandinavian countries will not allow their drinking water to have added, Fluoride or Chlorine.
Know why?
The huge links, EVIDENCE to cancer they have!
Why aren’t we put first like that, by our governments?
Hmmmm.
The people you are jumping on and attacking here, are so right, yet it’s like you are blaming them?
Look outside the sqaure people.
Good to see some people are awake!
And personally the reason I’m not taking the swine flu vaccine because I don’t feel threatened by swine flu. Frankly, I think the vaccine is fine. I just won’t take it because the risk of dying from swine flu is so minimal.
And Suppressed, how do you know all this? Who
is the ‘government’ in your post ie individuals? What’s your proof, why do you think this? And also, Why have people been getting cancer for centuries? And lastly, a cure for cancer would be worth trillions, not to mention fame and glory. It seems someone would have come out with it if it was there.
“f she was making this up, I’m sure the Doctors would be discrediting her from the highest towers and the loudest speakers.”
Even if this nonsense was true (full body cancer??), doctors could say nothing due to patient confidentiality. Also she’s very careful not to name her doctors or hospital, so nobody can sue her.
And what kind of a dim bulb do you have to be to pump yourself full of hormones having had breast cancer?
Cat, good to see we have found common ground and a truce.
You are right!
Laziness is 90% of the problem. People want the magic pill for weight loss-happiness. There is no magic pill for anything.
It’s lifestyle, dicipline, moderation etc.
Thanks matey x
her story about her misdiagnosis has no credibility in my opinion. first, *she* has no credibility in my opinion. second, who the hell says you have “full body cancer”? and six different doctors said that? third, this is a woman who advocates injecting estrogen directly into the vagina. at home. because it keeps you looking young i guess? keep in mind estrogen is highly linked to cancer, so i think it’s a great idea to take it upon yourself to inject it in the general vicinity of, oh, the cervix, ovaries, etc. she’s looney tunes.
I know I can never convince You Go Girl or Suppressed so I’m not even going to try. I’m done with this post, so no more responses to future posts of theirs. Bye everyone
@You Go Girl , you say it your self , they overdose. The people you named were all addicts with problems and they where abussing medicine.
The body haves a complex balace if you put too much anything it can be fatal, including water.
I’ve worked in health care for over 25 years… what the hell is “full body cancer”?
Wow, there are quite a few posters on here who all seem to be the same person…
TV Lies, why don’t you come down to Australia, which has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world, and tell us that “Since people have been hiding from the sun, cancer rates have soared!” There’s a reason why people hide from the sun, you know.
Aw YOu Go Girl just saw your post before logging off for the night! Yes I’m glad we found something to agree on 🙂 No hard feelings I hope
Maybe ‘full body cancer’ is oncologist speak for, ‘get off of my lawn’. Sure, it would be lazy, irresponsible and cruel to subvert the Hippocratic Oath like that, so…so maybe that’s why they never said that.
Are you going to tell me that people who speak Latin don’t even know where to stick a hyphen?
What ‘good old days’ are we talking about?
Anne of Bavaria having her mastectomy performed with a knife and fork?
Henry V’s leg wound being purposely left open with gold filings in order to let the necrotic fluids?
Marie-Antoinette having a wisdom tooth ripped out so violently that it took out part of her jaw?
Anne Stuart believing that she could cure scrofula via ‘The King’s Evil’ (her benevolent touch)?
I am an ovarian cancer survivor and can understand both sides of the coin. I am a firm believer in holistic medicine, healthy lifestyle habits and eating habits. I have been eating organic foods and using natural products for cleaning my home, my skincare and even my pets. With all of my clean living, I still contracted ovarian cancer at 30. Nothing in my lifestyle would have ever led me to believe that I was at risk. But I still got cancer anyway.
My Holistic physician is the one who, after a routine exam, called and made my appointments to see the traditional oncologist who saved my life. All of this happened within the span of 4 days. It is a frightening and desperate feeling to learn that you have cancer. I can sympathize with SS on that point and can understand how scared she must have been, full body cancer(?)or not. You want to make the right decisions and you want to save your life.
I chose aggressive surgery as a first option and then radiation as a second. I used supportive natural remedies as well and made sure all of my doctors were in communication with one another.
Personally, I don’t see how there is a right or wrong way to tackle this disease. For every story of a person who survived on a natural protocol there is an equally sad one about someone who didn’t and the same is true with chemo. Patients are just trying to live and hope that their choice is the right one. There is so much contradicting information out there and it is hard to know what to do. There is no proof that a person who dies after choosing chemo would have lived if they had taken vitamin D. There is no way of ever knowing that.
I still choose to live a natural lifestyle and still think that this is the ‘right’ approach to life but I would not hesitate to use traditional medicine if I was no longer in remission. It has been 3 years and I am grateful for every single day.
SS is not a doctor and her advice should be taken as a personal account of what worked for her and she should be presenting it as only that.
As a side note-I am still scratching my head over the ‘full body cancer’. I can’t imagine 6 licensed physicians telling someone that they had ‘full.body.cancer’? Not it has spread to your other organs or anything but ‘full body cancer”. 6 of them no less. Who could even get past that to listen to anything she had to say.
Not one of us really have all of the answers but I love the debate here on CB. One can learn so much. Because of this, it’s a gossip blog without guilt.
Gossip…without the guilt. The guilt comes ’round when I can’t get off of this blog to do the things I really should be doing. It’s not idle chatter, we learn things here and as of late been getting my laughter fix. 3 birds. Back to Suzanne, she’s starting to look like Ivana Trump with the newest adjustments. Not good, for her.
Interesting info about vitamin B17 from a reputable source…
http://www.cancerhelp.org.uk/about-cancer/treatment/complementary-alternative/therapies/laetrile
The active ingredient is cyanide? Oooh, yes, let me take that!
She’s full of crapola. There is no “full body” cancer. This is just further proof of her quackery.
ariadne: Good post. Congratulations to you, and best wishes for continued health.
You Go Girl said, “Sheryl Crow beat cancer the natural way, via The Mao Wellness Clinic, her journey is well documented and a great read.” This is patently untrue. Sheryl Crow is quoted as saying that she had a lumpectomy followed by seven weeks of radiation. She supported her treatment with acupuncture and herbal teas. She chose traditional treatment supported by and supplemented with alternative treatments. Get your facts straight.
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What she is doing is irresponsible.
But so is the Cancer Society.
Years ago they should have been telling us about the importance of nutrition. And about the REAL dangers of smoking and second hand smoke.
About the amount of dangerous environmental toxins in plastics and in other area in our lives etc.
They’re sure good at asking for money. But completely inept when it comes to promoting prevention and healthy advice during treatments.
As someone who almost died from a “rare” disease almost 20 years ago, I completely agree with a lot of what Somers has to say. Even though I have had pernicious anemia since my teens, having been finally diagnosed in my early 20’s, I am constantly mis- and un-diagnosed by the doctors I see, including one hamatologist aka blood specialist! So for those who say that someone who isn’t licensed to practice medicine can’t have a valid opinion about their care, I say you’re wrong.
I don’t agree that Somers should be using Fawcett and Swayze’s deaths to sell her book. She should keep her opinion of their choices in their fight to live as just that, her private opinions. If she wants to promote what she thinks will help people, more power to her, but certainly, she shouldn’t be giving those, who choose to take the traditional route, a hard time.
If we, as clients, don’t start demanding quality care from our providers, the doctors, nothing will change. I can’t tell you how cynical I am about that entire profession, due to my own, and my family’s experiences over the last 30 years. If we had not been so vocal about treatments for ourselves, numerous of my family would have died many times over, and that’s really scary.
I seldom write comments but just had to this time. Whatever works for Suzanne Somers is okay by me. However, I will tell you what has worked for me and, I wholeheartedly believe, has extended my years of living. Yes it is chemotherapy — not once but twice — plus adjuvant therapy with a drug called Herceptin. I trust my breast cancer surgeon implicitly and she has told me several times that Herceptin especially is a true wonder drug which is giving patients a new lease on life (the likes of which they had never seen before). By the by, Patrick Swayze was given a virtual death sentence upon diagnosis but managed (bless him) to extend his life by (I believe) some 15 months. All this to say that I for one do think Ms. Somers is a danger in some respects. Despite some rather nasty side effects, I have little regret about submitting to 20 months of treatment this time around.
I am a Physician Assistant. There is no such thing as full body cancer. She probably was told there was a possibility of metastasis due to the breast cancer. She is full of something but it isn’t cancer. Also the American Cancer Society has done a lot to get preventative screening covered by insurance for common, treatable (if caught early) cancers such as colon, breast, and cervical. Funny thing is, its impossible to get people to follow the recommendations. “Stick a WHAT, WHERE?” “You got a die of something”. Diet recommendations are out there as well. So the prevention is out there, its just hard to get people to prevent something that isn’t hurting them currently.
Paging Dr. Nick Riviera.
Yes, colour me unimpressed with her ‘advice’. Not only is it entirely classless to use the deaths of others in order to hock your wares, but she seems unable to grasp the concept of difference. Breast cancer is not the same thing as pancreatic cancer which is also not the same thing as ovarian cancer. This is why we have specialists. I’m not saying this as a slam against holistic medicine, I’m really not. But I also wouldn’t say (hypothetically, I’m never going to be a doctor), ‘I’d like my medical training to focus on the body’.
She claims that her philosophy is one of options, but then uses the mortality of others in order to boost her methods. Classy. Because the families left behind really want to hear Christmas Snow bloviate and sermonize on ‘What YOU Did’. I wouldn’t appreciate that from a paid professional who didn’t have an understanding of my particular case and history, and I certainly wouldn’t want to endure that from Blonde-zilla.
I’m all about personal responsibility. I don’t think that we should all be tranq-ed-out at the feelies all day, and I not sobbing for the ‘why won’t everyone else stop what they’re doing and fix my life in a way that requires nothing from me, also, why isn’t anybody plying me with Turkish Delight?’ school of thinking. But at some point we’ve got to acknowledge that irrespective of what we do, sometimes luck–good or bad–happens, and we can’t demonize or beatify based on our personal sympathies.
And as for ‘natural’, well, even flowers can kill if we create the environment for them to do so. We’re all partially synthetic anyway. Or does her hair grow that shade of ‘bleach’?
Maybe it’s because I didn’t get my accreditation at the Almost-Medical House of Vagaries and Sort-Of Correlations, but I just don’t cotton to that.
I’m not a statistician (I don’t even OWN a Thighmaster), but as I understand it, ‘different’ means different. Pancreatic cancer is sadly, pretty much a death sentence. It’s so fast and virulent, and the mortality rate is something like 95%. I’m not denying that breast cancer isn’t terrifying and devastating, but the chances of survival are greater if caught early. You would think that someone who is so deeply immersed in that world would know the difference, and also know that ‘cancer’ isn’t just one thing. She brings up all of these percentages, well, that goes both ways. You can’t just vitamin yourself out of the numbers.
And I don’t particularly care if it sounds mean, but I will never be able to take her advice seriously. She has experienced medical trauma, I don’t deny her that or envy it. She got better and that’s wonderful. I just don’t go in for these ‘I’m okay, you’re okay, wavy-gravy shenanigans’ when something this serious is involved.
Yes, I think she’s serious about this, and I commend the work, anecdotes and sentiment. But even if the top oncologist at Mayo said, ‘You have cancer of the body, and I’m diagnosing you with ‘affliction’, be sure to increase your vitality’, I’m going to wonder if he or she takes his tea with one lump of ‘idiot’ or two.
re: the full body cancer- (I am not sure Firestarter got their answer)- I think she meant either it was diagnosed as systematic -spread through her whole body. Certain skin cancers (squamous cell carcinoma, I think) and lymphomas can do that. My uncle’s cancer was first discovered by a lymph node that had swollen/lumped, but when it was removed, no cancer in the node or “tumor”. Still the cancer was everywhere, and they never found an origin.
I have already chimed in on the fact that she has an opinion in the matter, so I wont repeat myself, Still, I don’t think the AMA is the only group we should have access to for cancer treatment options. Doctors don’t always have it right. That said, I wonder if we would treat a book on alternative cancer treatments if it were written say,by Oprah, as harshly as we are treating Suzanne.
Also the information on sheryl Crow here is not exactly true, She was seen in chemo treatment centers. We will never know if she had it or not- nor should we.
Juice In, if you read my previous comment, I addressed the false information regarding Sheryl Crow. In her own words, she had a lumpectomy and radiation supplemented with herbal teas and acupuncture.
JULIA:cyanide!
yes the same stuff that gets added to our drinking water!
you consume it every day.
cyanide, fluoride and chlorine!
all in measured doses of course dear, so there’s nothing to worry about hey!
cyanide is also in apple pips and in apricot kernels. there are tribes around the world that measure their wealth by the amount of apricot trees they have. they do not get cancer either. all of this can be googled, so do it and learn. knowledge is power!
KIKI: natural health news has had interviews with sheryl crow and her journey is well documented on their site, so how about, you have a read and not be so nasty. her other half lance went the chemo way, sheryl went the natural way. both good results, but lance also gets a lot of vitamin d outdoors, that has a lot to do with his recovery.
MAMA BESSER: good old days as in even 20-30 years ago. we did not have the incidence of cancer we do now. since 1985 autism has gone up 2,700% (that’s right), coincidentally the immunisation schedules went up from 10 doses given to children to 36 doses of different diseases at that same time. of course that’s just another coincidence. just like mammograms, concentrated radiation to the breast every year….could that eventually lead to cancer? they say to not have too many x-rays due to radiation? but hey at least the doc’s there to say, lucky we caught it on time! and the cancer machine goes into play…..by the way all the pink dollars DO NOT GO TOWARDS CANCER RESEARCH, they go to more mammogram machines. google the breast cancer rates, before mammogram machines and google them now…
JUICE:I agree 100% with you, if Dr Phil (who isn’t a Doctor) or Oprah said this, it would be gospel, it’d be a best seller man!
I’m gonna fo a Chris Croker n say; LEAVE SUZANNE ALOOOOOONE!!!
What bugs me most is that are still Doctors out there that say, nutrition has nothing to do with cancer!
This is an out right blatant lie.
They want it to look like rocket science, so that you put yourself in their hands entirely, wen in fact, it has a lot to do with you too.
You can’t eat crap, drink crap, let them inject you with garbage, not move, smoke like a chimney, never get out in the sun, take drugs, stress over everything (stress is a big killer)etc, etc and then be surprised and wonder; how did this happen to me?
your body is an amazing machine, capable
of so much, filtering, cleansing, healing, but it can only handle so much abuse.
Peace to all, great debate guys and no hard feelings, ALL of the info. has been great.
There are inherent risks to any drugs. This risk extends to herbs and “natural” remedies. People often cite the side effects of pharmaceuticals as reasons for not taking them.
Many of the celebs one posted mentioned died of drug misuse. What wasn’t mentioned was the millions of people who have benefited from taking those substances safely and effectively.
Many alternative remedies are not tested for safety or effectiveness. The term natural does not automatically mean safe. Aflatoxin, botulism toxin, and hemlock come to mind. Even water has risk due to intoxication or hyponatremia. My roommate loved drinking silver solutions to cure his bacterial ailments until I told him about argyria. Google it. The pictures are funny. That amusing side effect wasn’t listed on the bottle.
What’s the harm resorting to ancient or alternative treatments? One might put off the necessary care until it is too late. (Someone I was very close to lost his life to to diabetes complications. Instead of managing the treatment with proven methods he resorted to magic beans, crystals, and potions.)
Suzanne Somers is great at pitching her products. She is also likely a new candidate for Ten Most Wanted: Celebrities Who Promote Harmful Pseudoscience which I found on a cool podcast on the skeptoid website. The hormone treatment she pitches was also addressed on the site. Check it out. Quick and easy read/listen..one of the reasons why I enjoy this site so much.
Peace
MrD
One thing is certain – cancer has not been cured. Anyone who tells you that you can cure yourself using either western or alternative medicines is misrepresenting themselves. Cancer treatments like radiation, chemo, and surgery are used because they have a higher success rate then all other treatments. They prolong life and increase quality of life, but even doctors admit there is NO cure for cancer.
It’s sad to see all these comments saying that “chemo didn’t work and I still lost my loved one. I wished I had used alternative medicine” In most cases, the chemo (and other treatments) let you have those precious few more years with your loved one. Cherish that instead of regreting it.
I am sick of seeing celebrities talk about things they have no education or sense to be talking about. And I’m sick that the general public values these people’s opinions more than the doctors who spend 10+ years of their lives training and educating themselves.
Doctor’s may not always be right – I am a strong believer in having a strong body and eating only natural foods, etc. No one says that you can’t add natural therapies to the western treatments if you want. More important, prevent the cancer by not eating processed food, exposing yourselves to toxins (car exhaust, pollution, alcohol), and exercising.
Stop listening to idiot celebrities who are some of the biggest hypocrites. They are not experts and only care about making money. Do your own research (with reputatable sources)and form your opinion!
Why so many making a big deal about “full body cancer”? when a Doctor tells you the type of disease u have and medical terms, you ask, what do u mean? it’s common use to say full body cancer. metastasis is the same thing, look it up.it just means the cancer has spread. are u ppl really in the medical field? or do u change beds?
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