If I'm reading this correctly, the "harm from chemo" to the person was about the same, but the "harm from chemo" to the cancer was much more significant in the fasting group.
Please provide your extraordinary evidence. Ideally in the form of multiple strong, well-vetted and well respected studies in peer-reviewed journals. Otherwise I'll presume you're full of it.
What is the first claim though? Is it that extraordinary evidence needs to be provided for the claim that a poison (chemotherapy) is a cure for cancer?
You will likely say that there is evidence in "multiple strong, well-vetted and well respected studies in peer-reviewed journals".
But then I would question the authority of peer-reviewed journals. Do know about replication crisis?
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39054778 : "According to a survey published in the journal Nature last summer, more than 70% of researchers have tried and failed to reproduce another scientist's experiments."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replication_crisis : "a number of efforts have been made to re-investigate classic results, to determine both the reliability of the results and, if found to be unreliable, the reasons for the failure of replication."
Another reason I dismiss most scientific authority is on account of funding. If funding is controlled by government, the military and private corporations (as it is), then this triad can cooperate to fund or de-fund whatever studies they like.
To see what I mean about funding, we can look at my imagined idea that 'you want to prove the health benefit of cold potatoes'. First you can fund 10 studies. Let's say 2 support the thesis, 2 refute it and 6 are inconclusive. You can then further fund the 2 that support it. And rinse and repeat. Pretty soon you could have enough studies to create a whole new field exclaiming the wonder of cold potatoes.
Unfortunately, this really is how science works. Science is a money making operation, and is politicised. A common sense idea like fasting for cancer, or not eating carbohydrates to get rid of diabetes, has no economic benefit. Scientists themselves can work within the system with good intentions, but can be more or less unaware of the machinations and agendas at play.
If you want to talk about solutions, you would take a totally different tack. At present we have a sickness not a wellness industry. Companies get money from you when you are sick. The more sick you are, the better it is for their monetary return. The ideal patient is someone who will be ill for a long time, which is a perverse incentive. Really, you want a wellness industry, where if you are well, those ensuring your health get paid. As they are incentivised to keep you well, you should expect good advice - their financial well-being depends on it.
> Is it that extraordinary evidence needs to be provided for the claim that a poison (chemotherapy) is a cure for cancer?
Let's start by not conflating all kinds of cancer and all kinds of chemotherapy, because it's not a single disease, and the outcomes vary greatly.
But, for instance, survival rates for testicular cancer have risen significantly (or even dramatically) since the invention and introduction of the chemotherapy treatment that is being used for it today. If detection isn't overly delayed, the cure rate in the developed world today is around 95 to 100 percent.
So let's please, please, please, not go for cheap "chemotherapy = poison" rhetoric. I have first-hand experience with the adverse effects, but you can't dismiss a nearly 100% cure rate.
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Regarding what you more generally wrote, it's true that financial interests affect and direct the pharma industry. There are several adverse effects from that, such as research not being directed at areas with potential health benefits but low profitability, and also over-marketing (and thus possibly over-prescription) in other areas. It would also be great if medical research were less tightly bound to funding from the industry and rather got its funding from public sources instead. (That wouldn't make it non-politicized, but direct financial interests might not be as significantly involved.)
But it would be rather misguided to think that there aren't actual working treatments coming out of the industry and research as well. Sometimes those treatments are the difference between life and death. Let's not discount that.
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The significantly improved survival rates for TC are pretty well-known, but a couple of sources:
I don't say that there are no good things coming out of the medical industry. Sometimes there are good things, and when it comes to bodily trauma, I think the medical profession is excellent at stitching people back together again.
But I'm especially interested in wellness and optimal living. I genuinely don't feel the industry has anything to offer on that front. Food is probably the most important 'treatment' we can do, but the industry is pretty silent on this.
My anecdotal experience, is with a relative who was diagnosed with diabetes. It was never explained to them that if they don't eat carbs they won't have the disease - cutting out bread, rice, etc was too 'out there'. The advice was about how to manage the process, cut back a little on the bread, inject insulin etc - the relative ended up on a high level of medication. I think all that could have been avoided by eating appropriately for the disease, advice which that person has taken (a bit) with a corresponding drop in symptoms + medication. To my mind, it is not so radical to cut those foods out of the diet completely if they are harmful!
Its not that doctors intend to be mean or harmful, but they are taught in such a narrow way with medication at the heart of what they do. If they advise 'off menu' they stand to lose their license. The medical industry is in fact captured and beholden to big pharma.
Did you even know that there are alternative theories of disease? Namely - the terrain theory (Beauchamp). That what you eat and how you live is the main cause of disease. That disease (of all sorts) is a natural bodily process, as your body tries to heal - including cancer. Eg, at a lower level, when you have a cold, this is your body clearing your system. There is mucus and a fever. The worst thing to do is to take medication to suppress this process - but that is the first thing most of us will do.
Anyway, for that and other reasons, I find the terrain theory makes a lot of sense, and it is something that does not require an intermediary to tell you what you need to do (eg a doctor, testing, etc). If you get it right you enjoy optimal health. That is the position that I'm arguing from - that food and proper management of what and how we eat (inc breaks such as fasting) is probably the best healer. If I were ever seriously ill, my first course of action would be as per my initial comment - a prolonged juice fast.
Well, there are lots of types of fasting. Juice or water or nothing. Skipping a meal, or not eating solid foods for 3 months. IMO not eating during the day but then eating a lot at night might not be the best type of fast.
But even so, it would be interesting to see numbers anyway.
What, you're telling me someone tried an alternative healing, and died! That's a scandal.... lock them up!
Obviously, I'm joking.
But did you know that iatrogenic deaths - deaths caused by doctors - are the 3rd largest cause of death in the US?
And when you see the numbers, bear in mind that these are only the official reported numbers! I can only imagine how many other deaths must be caused by doctors but get explained as natural deaths.
PS in case anyone stumbles on this and wants to look deeper, I just recollected one of the pioneers of this sort of treatment:
The Gerson Institute - https://gerson.org/