The Activist Cancer Patient
In 1990, radicalized cancer patients across the country organized to take charge of their cancer treatment. By becoming informed consumers and political activists, they were going to beat cancer! They didn't.
THE BEGINNING
The activist cancer patient movement modeled itself after the AIDS group ACT UP. In the late 1980s, the AIDS epidemic was killing thousands of mostly young gay men. Mobilizing politically, they began demonstrating and calling for more funding, quicker access to potential drug cures, and more and better research. And it worked! AIDS went from being a terminal disease to a manageable condition. Thousands of lives were saved!
Beverly Zakarian, a long term cancer survivor, was equally frustrated with the failure of modern medicine to cure her condition. Among other survivors, she took the lessons of ACT UP to heart, and founded the cancer action group CAN ACT in 1990. Her moving story, and her program for empowering cancer patients to take charge of their own recovery, is told in her 1996 book The Activist Cancer Patient.
And they were active! They lobbied for more research, easier access to experimental drugs and procedures. Zakarian encouraged every cancer patient to become like her, a researcher, seeking among the vast sea of new discoveries for the magic pill that would work for their unique condition.
Thousands of cancer patients embraced these new strategies. Many were dangerous, but showing some promise in treating cancer in some petri dish or animal trial. And it was a spectacular failure. Most of them died an ugly, toxic death, including Beverly Zakarian herself, who died within a year of the publication of her call to arms.
WHAT HAPPENED?
How could a political process that so transformed the treatment of AIDS bomb so completely in the treatment of cancer?
There is a simple answer to this question. And as a specialist in the sources and solutions for cancer, I'll give it to you.
But, the answer is more important than you know. It will spell out not only why brave Beverly died, but why cancer is so difficult to cure with modern medicine. Why in fact, despite some encouraging successes, it will not be conquered completely unless our society changes its whole approach to cancer treatment. So...
WHY DID CAN ACT FAIL?
AIDS is caused by a retrovirus, a newly discovered type of virus. Retroviruses have such a sketchy reproduction method that they are constantly mutating. So the vaccine approach (think polio virus) was ineffective. But with the funds and incentive provided by ACT UP volunteers and some genius researchers, the design of antiviral drugs could solve the problem within a short time.
CANCER IS A VERY DIFFERENT ANIMAL!!
In 1996, when Zakarian's book was published, scientists had only the vaguest idea of the human genetic code, the "Genome" which carried within the cell's nucleus the keys to understanding all cancer. Only in 2004 did we begin to crack the secrets of the human genetic code.
Now we know that there are many types of mutations that can cause an enormous variety of cancers, all of which are distinctly different diseases. We now know that there may be as many as 60 types of cancers within the lung! Not counting metastases for breast or liver that can lodge in the lungs. Doctors have found 27 different forms of cancer that have similar patterns of growth and metabolism but which could occur in any organ! So we now know that "lung cancer" is no longer a useful diagnosis.
CANCER IT TURNS OUT, IS NOT ONE DISEASE BUT HUNDREDS!
During Zakarian's time cancer chemotherapy research, as described in her book, was a strange art. Researchers were (and still are) looking for drugs to kill , not tiny little viruses or bacteria, but big, durable human cells! So they start with a few cells in a dish, and add some very dangerous toxins. Nerve gas, mustard gas, agent orange, all have been seen as potential miracle cures because of their sheer power to destroy !
Of course, one doesn't need a medical degree to see the problem here. Each of these poisons is deadly to our bodies. But since doctors had only an approximate idea of which poisons worked, and knowing that they needed to kill every cancer cell, or lose the patient, they usually throw in 3-4 such chemicals into a deadly cocktail. The reason most of these drugs are delivered intravenously is because they burn the mouth, the skin, and the entire digestive track if ingested. Most are also carcinogenic, cancer causing themselves! It's only a mild exaggeration to compare this process to treating a case of head lice by shooting a machine gun at the patient's head. Well, you will kill some lice, but...
So these brave heroes of CAN ACT lined up for the most toxic chemical brews of poison and radiation, randomly delivered by doctors who were mostly ignorant of the actual disease they were trying to treat. No wonder despite their detailed research, their enthusiasm, and their optimism, most died like flies.
FAST FORWARD TWENTY TWO YEARS
Now with modern genetic tools we can peer into the secret depths of the cell nucleus like never before. So scientists are at last ready to start attacking the hundreds of diseases which we have foolishly been calling one: cancer!
BUT We can now link specific non toxic chemicals to specific cancer diseases only for a very few lucky patients. Drugs like gleevic, which targets a very specific cancer type with a relatively non toxic drug. Researchers are working hard with these new tools, but are many years away from being able to identify for most patients the specific type of cancer they suffer, and the precise non toxic treatment that will attack only that disease.
In the meantime, millions more will die, while oncologists continue to dole out deadly poisons, because...it's what we have.
BUT NOT YOU OR YOUR FAMILY!
Because while neither you nor your oncologist knows the precise treatments for your disease your subconscious mind does. And your inner healer is the voice of this wisdom, and is accessed with my hypnosis work.
HERE'S PROOF:
Science long ago discovered that certain dietary habits can promote or stifle tumor growth. A number of books clearly outline this diet. My favorite, The China Study by Collin Campbell, quotes hundreds of studies with millions of research subjects.
So how do the inner healers of dozens of cancer patients know this precise information, when the oncologists don't know it and neither does the patient?
And these inner healers can even customize this basic diet to address the specific type of cancer the patient has!
As we have learned, cancer is many diseases. Until modern medicine can catch up with the science, trust your inner healer to know what is right for you.
THE BEGINNING
The activist cancer patient movement modeled itself after the AIDS group ACT UP. In the late 1980s, the AIDS epidemic was killing thousands of mostly young gay men. Mobilizing politically, they began demonstrating and calling for more funding, quicker access to potential drug cures, and more and better research. And it worked! AIDS went from being a terminal disease to a manageable condition. Thousands of lives were saved!
Beverly Zakarian, a long term cancer survivor, was equally frustrated with the failure of modern medicine to cure her condition. Among other survivors, she took the lessons of ACT UP to heart, and founded the cancer action group CAN ACT in 1990. Her moving story, and her program for empowering cancer patients to take charge of their own recovery, is told in her 1996 book The Activist Cancer Patient.
And they were active! They lobbied for more research, easier access to experimental drugs and procedures. Zakarian encouraged every cancer patient to become like her, a researcher, seeking among the vast sea of new discoveries for the magic pill that would work for their unique condition.
Thousands of cancer patients embraced these new strategies. Many were dangerous, but showing some promise in treating cancer in some petri dish or animal trial. And it was a spectacular failure. Most of them died an ugly, toxic death, including Beverly Zakarian herself, who died within a year of the publication of her call to arms.
WHAT HAPPENED?
How could a political process that so transformed the treatment of AIDS bomb so completely in the treatment of cancer?
There is a simple answer to this question. And as a specialist in the sources and solutions for cancer, I'll give it to you.
But, the answer is more important than you know. It will spell out not only why brave Beverly died, but why cancer is so difficult to cure with modern medicine. Why in fact, despite some encouraging successes, it will not be conquered completely unless our society changes its whole approach to cancer treatment. So...
WHY DID CAN ACT FAIL?
AIDS is caused by a retrovirus, a newly discovered type of virus. Retroviruses have such a sketchy reproduction method that they are constantly mutating. So the vaccine approach (think polio virus) was ineffective. But with the funds and incentive provided by ACT UP volunteers and some genius researchers, the design of antiviral drugs could solve the problem within a short time.
CANCER IS A VERY DIFFERENT ANIMAL!!
In 1996, when Zakarian's book was published, scientists had only the vaguest idea of the human genetic code, the "Genome" which carried within the cell's nucleus the keys to understanding all cancer. Only in 2004 did we begin to crack the secrets of the human genetic code.
Now we know that there are many types of mutations that can cause an enormous variety of cancers, all of which are distinctly different diseases. We now know that there may be as many as 60 types of cancers within the lung! Not counting metastases for breast or liver that can lodge in the lungs. Doctors have found 27 different forms of cancer that have similar patterns of growth and metabolism but which could occur in any organ! So we now know that "lung cancer" is no longer a useful diagnosis.
CANCER IT TURNS OUT, IS NOT ONE DISEASE BUT HUNDREDS!
During Zakarian's time cancer chemotherapy research, as described in her book, was a strange art. Researchers were (and still are) looking for drugs to kill , not tiny little viruses or bacteria, but big, durable human cells! So they start with a few cells in a dish, and add some very dangerous toxins. Nerve gas, mustard gas, agent orange, all have been seen as potential miracle cures because of their sheer power to destroy !
Of course, one doesn't need a medical degree to see the problem here. Each of these poisons is deadly to our bodies. But since doctors had only an approximate idea of which poisons worked, and knowing that they needed to kill every cancer cell, or lose the patient, they usually throw in 3-4 such chemicals into a deadly cocktail. The reason most of these drugs are delivered intravenously is because they burn the mouth, the skin, and the entire digestive track if ingested. Most are also carcinogenic, cancer causing themselves! It's only a mild exaggeration to compare this process to treating a case of head lice by shooting a machine gun at the patient's head. Well, you will kill some lice, but...
So these brave heroes of CAN ACT lined up for the most toxic chemical brews of poison and radiation, randomly delivered by doctors who were mostly ignorant of the actual disease they were trying to treat. No wonder despite their detailed research, their enthusiasm, and their optimism, most died like flies.
FAST FORWARD TWENTY TWO YEARS
Now with modern genetic tools we can peer into the secret depths of the cell nucleus like never before. So scientists are at last ready to start attacking the hundreds of diseases which we have foolishly been calling one: cancer!
BUT We can now link specific non toxic chemicals to specific cancer diseases only for a very few lucky patients. Drugs like gleevic, which targets a very specific cancer type with a relatively non toxic drug. Researchers are working hard with these new tools, but are many years away from being able to identify for most patients the specific type of cancer they suffer, and the precise non toxic treatment that will attack only that disease.
In the meantime, millions more will die, while oncologists continue to dole out deadly poisons, because...it's what we have.
BUT NOT YOU OR YOUR FAMILY!
Because while neither you nor your oncologist knows the precise treatments for your disease your subconscious mind does. And your inner healer is the voice of this wisdom, and is accessed with my hypnosis work.
HERE'S PROOF:
Science long ago discovered that certain dietary habits can promote or stifle tumor growth. A number of books clearly outline this diet. My favorite, The China Study by Collin Campbell, quotes hundreds of studies with millions of research subjects.
So how do the inner healers of dozens of cancer patients know this precise information, when the oncologists don't know it and neither does the patient?
And these inner healers can even customize this basic diet to address the specific type of cancer the patient has!
As we have learned, cancer is many diseases. Until modern medicine can catch up with the science, trust your inner healer to know what is right for you.
