Defeat Cancer (19 page)

While undergoing the active phase of treatment, some patients will choose to have a chest port placed in their upper chest, which is the same type of apparatus that is used for delivering IV chemotherapy treatments to the body. If they come to my clinic three times per week for several months, it becomes too repetitious to insert a needle into their arm veins, especially if they have few arm veins to work with in the first place. Also, all those needle pokes tend to tax their patience. After they finish their regular rounds of treatment, some patients choose to leave the chest port in for IV maintenance treatments, which they come back to the clinic to receive on a weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly basis, depending upon the person. If they have an aggressive cancer, such as pancreatic cancer, I may ask them to come in more frequently. Once my patients are in
remission and after their tumor markers go down, I feel safest keeping them on a maintenance regimen for two or three years.

When patients finish treatments at my clinic, I prescribe them a non-IV nutritional protocol to follow at home, which includes dietary and supplement recommendations. Usually, when I talk to them months later, I find that they have continued on this protocol.

I track all of my patients’ progress, and follow up with them by phone every July. That said, not all of my patients return my calls and I don’t like to be a pest, which means I can’t get data for all of them. The data that I do have, however, shows that overall, I have had an 87 percent success rate at treating cancer. I define success as either remission, evidence of reduced tumor load, tumor necrosis, tumor softening, or long-term stability, together with an absence of pain and general improvement in patients’ well-being, as opposed to them dying or getting worse during treatment. The 87 percent represents those that have come to me with cancer, whom I have treated and who are still alive, stable, at a high quality of wellbeing according to their own estimation, and in better shape than when they first came to me. We don’t turn anyone away, even if their prognoses look bleak. Some have been wheeled in on gurneys from hospice. Who am I to turn anyone away? I don’t play God. I try to turn around every cancer case that I can, and save every life that I can. I’ve witnessed a good number of stage three and four patients go into remission and return to normal, active lives.

For example, I have one patient who survived a particularly deadly cancer, and she has never had a recurrence. It’s called Lynch Syndrome, and it’s a combination of a variety of primary cancers, including ovarian, uterine, and colon cancer. None of her older relatives who had it lived past the age of 50. It’s a very brutal type of cancer. But this woman is still doing fine in her fifties, and I call her every July to check up on her.

I have another patient who is the only known survivor in the medical literature of a certain, rare type of cancer. Radiation and chemotherapy didn’t work for her. She had surgery twice and after the second surgery, the surgeon said that he didn’t want to do surgery anymore because her tumor just kept growing back. Her radiologist also refused her further treatment, because her tumor wasn’t responding to radiation and he didn’t want to burn her anymore. Her chemotherapy oncologist told her that chemo wasn’t working, either. In desperation, she came to us, having never considered natural treatments. Her tumor was 13 cm, but we were able to shrink it. Now it’s gone and she’s doing well. She has a very active job and is coming in to the clinic for maintenance treatments every month. This case was so remarkable that a local Phoenix television station shot a program at our clinic with the patient and me in 2008, shortly before we received confirmation that she was cancer-free.

Patients who do solely naturopathic treatments have better results than those that do chemotherapy or radiation combined with natural treatments. Chemotherapy is hard on the body. People tend to come down with life-threatening conditions, like pneumonia, as a result of chemotherapy, or their white blood cell counts “bottom out” and their immune systems get so depleted that it becomes unsafe for them to go out in public. Sometimes, they end up taking a one-way trip to the hospital. A recent patient of mine was also doing chemotherapy and came down with pneumonia; I haven’t seen him since. Chemotherapy, in general, makes tumors resistant to other therapies and makes treatment for these patients difficult. Those who have the least improvement at my clinic are people that previously underwent chemotherapy; however, we have been able to bring many of them into remission.

I can’t always confirm cancer remissions, because some patients don’t want to do a PET scan or biopsy to confirm that their tumors are gone. They may choose to risk not knowing whether or not their tumors are still there. Sometimes, they can’t afford to continue treatments, and may get frustrated and ask questions like, “How long do I have to do these treatments?” I tell them that the only way
of knowing whether or not their cancers are in remission is by doing a PET scan or biopsy. If they aren’t willing, or financially able to do that, then they can’t know how many more treatments they need to do. By the time people seek help from a naturopathic physician for any ailment, they have often rejected the conventional medical system for one reason or another, and this includes having developed a distrust and disdain for conventional imaging. Imaging tests such as the PET scan are a “hard sell” to such people. They will say, “You want me to have radioactive glucose after telling me not to eat sugar?” Biopsy can be an even harder sell. So, I often can’t confirm my patients’ remissions, but by the time they leave my clinic, either their symptoms have improved and/or their tumors have shrunken, necrosed, softened, broken up, or become inert. (Breast lumps, or cancerous lymph nodes, for instance, will often soften).

Everyone who has gone into confirmed remission here has stayed in remission, with the exception of four people. Of these, two began to eat sugar every day after finishing their treatments. Another one, for some reason, got bone metastases (but he’s now back in remission) and a fourth didn’t do treatment long enough. Her tumor markers and ultrasound results were good, but she had a bone metastasis which came back with a vengeance after she left us. That said, she had only done eight weeks of treatment, and although many people have done well with only eight weeks of treatment after a lumpectomy, I have since re-evaluated the matter and now recommend 12-24 weeks of treatment after lumpectomies. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

I have pancreatic cancer patients in remission that once had stage four cancers. I also have former stage four breast, lung, melanoma, and colon cancer patients who are in remission. These have been the major ones. By far, the most common cancer that I see is breast cancer, because women tend to be more proactive about their health (and treatments) than men, and breast cancer is also a more common cancer. The next most common cancers I see are prostate
and lung cancer. There are a wide variety of other cancers that I treat: colon, lymphoma, leukemia, etc.

I believe that my protocol is more effective than what a lot of doctors are doing because most doctors that I know try to keep it simple and choose just one treatment for their patients, so they can learn what works or doesn’t work. However, no matter how good or what the treatment is, and whether it’s a natural remedy, chemotherapy, or otherwise; maybe ten percent of patients will have wonderful, miraculous results from it. Those people will then promote that treatment as if it were “the best thing since sliced bread.” But these people are in the minority. For the other 90 percent, precious time is lost, and the tumor keeps growing. That’s why I fight cancer on multiple levels, and I think my approach is unique for that reason. Other doctors, whether oncologists or naturopaths, tend to not do that. So that’s what’s different about my clinic. It’s also why I am having so much success with my patients. The results of a three-year follow-up study on my patients can be found on the Internet at:
www.natureworksbest.com/general/cancer-2010.pdf

People often learn about my clinic through word of mouth. They have heard that what I’m doing here has worked for others, so they trust my treatments. I also have a group of patients who are convinced that their other family members with cancer died from chemotherapy. These younger patients often say, “I will never get chemo!” I have another group of patients who say things like, “My quality of life is more important than the quantity, so I don’t want to become debilitated and beaten up by chemotherapy. I would rather have a better quality of life during treatment, even if my life is shortened in the process.” These people don’t necessarily have faith that my treatments will prolong their lives, just that they will make them feel better. They often end up pleasantly surprised when they see themselves outliving those that they met in the chemotherapy room at the hospital.

Some patients don’t take their treatments seriously. For example, some repeatedly go on vacation before they are finished with their treatment regimens. Such people probably didn’t have much confidence in their treatments from the beginning, and as a result, don’t tend to do well. I wish they understood that they have to stick with the program until they go into remission.

I consider the treatment of diabetes and heart disease to be a walk in the park compared to cancer. Cancer must be fought thoroughly, aggressively, and continuously, especially when using natural treatments. Patients must be diligent, as this is their only hope for beating it. Some think that what I do to treat them is “unnecessary fluff,” while others think,
Cancer isn’t so bad. Look at all the people in the IV room! They all look fine. They even go to the gym
. The people in the waiting room are talking about going golfing, or to the farmer’s market. They aren’t acting sick, and they may not even feel sick. This is because, unlike conventional cancer treatments, people feel good when they do naturopathic treatments. However, some patients are lulled into a false sense of security about where they are at in their recovery and end up passing away when they aren’t diligent with their treatments.

Unfortunately, insurance plans don’t generally pay for my treatments. If people have to stop doing treatments, it’s often because of financial limitations. Most people can only pay for this type of treatment for so long before they run out of money, and the recession has increased the financial hardship of some. Fortunately, some insurance companies are working towards establishing plans that pay for naturopathic treatments. In the meantime, a minority of patients are lucky enough to have good insurance plans which cover a percentage of their naturopathic care, sometimes up to 70 percent. Most patients have to pay for their treatments, though, so I advise such people to switch to an insurance plan that covers natural treatments.

If patients can’t afford IV treatments, it’s difficult for them to heal. If they are able to visit my clinic for an occasional IV treatment, it’s better than if they didn’t do any treatments at all. If they can’t afford IV treatments, I would advise them to consider Essiac tea, turmeric, and Vitamin D and hope for the best. And if that doesn’t sound very promising, that’s because it’s not. These are among the most powerful oral anti-cancer remedies, but they are probably insufficient for winning the battle against cancer. For someone who doesn’t have cancer but who’s trying to prevent it, though, these substances are great and among the best preventative remedies available.

Overall, chemotherapy has a really low success rate. The average five-year survival rate is 2.5 percent for all cancers. Not to mention that it poisons the body and increases patients’ risk of developing other cancers. It also makes their original cancers resistant to further treatment, so that when they come to me after having done chemotherapy, it’s harder for me to treat them. Some naturopathic doctors will point out that chemotherapy is only strongly successful at treating certain lymphomas, leukemias, and testicular cancers, but I find that these types of cancers are also relatively easy to treat with my remedies. They just happen to be “slam dunk” cancers that are easy to treat with naturopathic medicine, compared to some of the others.

It’s sad that the book
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer,
by oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, describes people with leukemia and the other cancers as hopeless cases. No, sir, they are not! They actually respond well to natural treatments. Mukherjee’s book was just published in 2010, yet is already way outdated.

Sadly, some people end up doing conventional treatments only because they are pressured into them by their families. For example—and
this is a heartbreaking story—a mother of six came into our clinic with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. She didn’t want to do chemotherapy and said, “I don’t want to be sick. I don’t want to lose my hair (she had beautiful, long hair). I have six kids to take care of. I’m too busy for this (to endure the side effects of chemotherapy).” But she couldn’t afford my treatments, and needed her father to help pay for her treatments. Unfortunately, a so-called friend told her father that doing natural treatments was suicide, so her father refused to pay for her treatments and told her that he would only pay for chemotherapy. Prior to this, she had received one IV from me, and as a result of that one treatment alone, the lymph nodes that had been poking out of her neck flattened completely. Her response to our treatment was unusually fast, as it typically takes a while longer for lymphomas to respond to treatment, but her case represents how fast lymphoma can respond to natural therapy. Yet because this woman’s father would only help her financially if she did chemotherapy, that’s what she’s now doing. For someone to be dragged through chemotherapy against his or her will is very sad. This woman definitely didn’t want to do it and had no good reason to do it.