Suzanne Somers wages war on conventional cancer treatments
Filed under: Health
Suzanne Somers isn't one to necessarily shy away from controversy. Her latest book, "Knockout: Interviews With Doctors Who Are Curing Cancer," out today, is stirring up its fair share.
It seems Somers is advocating for cancer patients to skip mainstream treatments like chemotherapy -- an option she exercised when battling breast cancer eight years ago. Somers has gone on record saying she treated her cancer with a mistletoe extract in conjunction with surgery and radiation -- a move that didn't please her doctors.
Somers says her book, the 19th she's authored, is about options. Opponents say it's a bunch of "hooey."
The American Cancer Society is concerned that celebrities might be using their voices irresponsibly; to dispense medical advice. Interestingly, the more than 10 years and $2.5 billion that have been devoted to researching alternative cancer treatments have yet to prove the remedies like those Somers champions have much merit.
Although she's certainly one of the most vocal, Somers isn't the first sitcom star to reject chemotherapy. When her husband was diagnosed with lung and bladder cancer, fellow actress and author, Marilu Henner, says she helped cure him of cancer.
By detoxing, which included among other things following a strictly vegan diet, Henner's hubby, Michael Brown, beat cancer without receiving one drop of chemo. "I'm not against chemo," clarifies Henner. "I just think you can change your "normal" and, in some cases beat it without chemotherapy."
While alternatives may appear to have worked for Somers and Brown, the American Cancer Society cautions this isn't the norm. And alternative therapies shouldn't be looked to as "cures" to cancer, cautioning that these practices are neither endorsed nor preferred.
What are your thoughts? If you, or a loved one, received a similar diagnosis, would you follow mainstream treatment plans? Or test your luck with the alternatives?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-20-2009 @ 2:05PM
Michelle said...
I was a chubby kid and my mother died of stomach cancer. After my dad built a hydroponic garden, we strictly followed the Pritikin diet for 8 years prior to her diagnosis. We sent her to San Diego for alternative treatments (after surgery) but nothing worked.
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10-21-2009 @ 9:53AM
David Shaw said...
I can appreciate the feelings of Suzanne Somers for beating breast cancer.
Her treatments won't work for all kinds of Cancer.
I currently suffer with pancreas cancer and have been subjected to radiation and chemo at the same time for 5 weeks now.
I don't know what will be my next treatments will be and I stay at home awaiting my day to come.
There is so little known about pancreas cancer, its very dangerous, don't know where it comes from and no way to slow it down or cure it.
Anybody with some ideas on this would be appreciated.
Thank you
David
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10-21-2009 @ 4:22AM
Ian Clements said...
I was diagnosed with terminal bladder cancer in October, 2007. Within two days I was operated on, supposedly to get a biopsy but it turned out to have the tumour removed as well - called a TURB (Transurethral Resection of Bladder). The resultant diagnosis frollowing this was TCC (Transitional Cell Carcinoma), meaning that the cancer had gone into and probably through the bladder wall. The cancer was graded as a '3' - the cells are at their most cancerous, worst in agression terms; T4 - meaning that it has spread outside the bladder; and at least two nodes cancerous and one is greater than 5cm.
The first experts gave me weeks to live - maybe a year at most. Go home and die, 'cos there was nothing they could do. Chemo was only palliative and would be nasty, perhaps extending my life by as much as I would be in pain, so not worthwhile. Surgery (removal of my bladder) wasn't possible 'cos of the swollen lymph nodes alongside the bladder (I now doubt this). And radiation was of no use for cancers this far gone and metastatic.
So I embarked on an intensive alternative medicine regime - blenderised veggies, organic veg & fruit diet, hypnotherapy, etc. Alas, within 3 months the tumour had regrown. But by then I'd been told that chemo did have a 5% success rate with my condition - so I took it (10 lots over 6 months) and that seems to have cleared away my cancer for now.
However, I now know that much of the alternative stuff is actually very complimentary to chemo - it enhances the chemo's effectiveness. Plus there is evidence that it helps 'clean up' what is left.
So I think that chemo can work; that the oncologists don't know enough about how helpful these alternative treatments can be to the orthodox; and that these alternatives do actually cause a healthier lifestyle all round so enhancing life in general.
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10-24-2009 @ 9:11AM
BBarkhouse said...
I think that with all the money being spent on cancer research and with todays technology that they could find a cure for cancer if they really want to.
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10-26-2009 @ 11:13AM
Donna Allen said...
I believe that we need conventional medicines and treatment, although isn't always enough. We also need to be looking at all our options and there is one that not many people talk about, our own body's first line of defense,a master antioxident which is glutathione.Clinical studies have shown that cancer is associated with decreased glutathione levels. It would make sense to raise our glutathione levels to aide in fighting
diseases which attack the body..I do have information on the science and the doctor should you want it.
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