by Todd Daigneault

Created on: February 09, 2009

Science has pushed chemotherapy and radiation for cancer treatment onto the public for decades, not really showing a high efficacy rate in slowing down, putting into remission, or curing cancer. In many cases, the treatment robs the cancer victim of remaining health and vitality, while doing little or nothing in getting a 'bite' on the tumor or tumors. Hair loss, nausea, extreme tiredness and very poor appetite. In many of the the cases where there has been remission or cure, the cancer has returned within a few short months or years, as the immune system is damaged from the effects of chemotherapy and radiation.

Shark cartilage is commonly hyped by many skeptics of "alternative therapy". The substance obviously may do little or nothing in fighting cancer. But there are many immune stimulating herbs like Reishi, Shitake, Agaricus and Maitake that have been proven and documented to slow, reverse or stop the spread of cancer, which many skeptics ignore. However, as more evidence pours into the medical community on the efficacy of these herbs, the skepticism of these herbs slowly begin to fade. Agaricus has been shown to bolster the human immune system by 3000%.

Green tea has been shown to slow or reverse the growth of many tumors. Vitamin 'C' has been shown to slow down the progress of tumors for many years. Although shark cartilage has obviously long since been disproven, chemotherapy and radiation treatments still reign supreme, and the efficacy rates remain low. A parent of mine suffering from terminal, stage IV lung cancer refused radiation and chemotherapy and was given a year to live. That diagnosis was made in November, 2007. Now in Feb. 2009, she is still alive. Although still suffering symptoms, she is still with us. I also bolstered her system with numerous immune-stimulating herbs, minus the shark cartilage and Vitamin B-17.

There is no doubt hype on alternative medical therapies for cancer. But there is also hype on conventional therapies, which leave cancer victims sick and debilitated during the little quality time that they have. The truth is that science and alternative medical therapies are not really that far apart in a lot of ways. The thing is to get rid of the hype, allow full, unfettered testing on herbal and vitamin therapies for cancer treatment as an adjunct to other conventional therapies. Fortunately for many in the future who will get cancer, there will be strong therapies like stem cell and gene therapy to treat them that won't be as barbaric as radiation and chemotherapy. But there still will be a place for these herbs, then and now, many of which were successfully used by the ancients thousands of years ago, long before chemo and radiation.

In fact, in Europe and Asia, herbal treatments have been used to treat cancer for a very long time, and are not considered 'alternative medicine'. It's time for both sides of the fence, conventional and alternative, to get rid of the hype and look at the truth and reality that nutrional therapies of so called alternative medicine can at least prolong human life of cancer victims. In the case of my parent, a mother and a grandmother, we still have her-never using chemo, radiation, shark cartilage and B-17. We sorted through the hype of both sides, doing the proper research and focusing on the herbs that really work.

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