The basis of my skepticism and downright dislike for alt-med

[Heddi]

not that anyone particularly cares, but I get to go into work 4 hours later than normal so I don't have much to do other than bore my internet friends :)

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When I was about 12 or so, my Aunt's husband was found to have a particularly nasty type of Leukemia or cancer. Sadly, I don't know what he had, other than it was bad.

He was a healthy guy--lived in SoCal, built Baja Bugs and did races in Baja every year with his wife and kids. Great guy. Loved him, and love my aunt like they were my closest family (even though they lived 3000 miles away and I think I only saw him 2x's in my life).

He was doing something in his garage and he cut himself pretty badly. Had to go to the ER and they drew routine tests and something was off...I would assume white blood cells, but I don't know. Anyway, within a few weeks he had this dreadful diagnosis and a guy that wasn't even 45 was told he had just months to live.

He went through conventional treatment for a time, but it was very expensive and insurance at that time wasn't as great (ha) as it is today.

Living in SoCal, he and his wife had a plethora of faith healers and snake oil salesmen and horse blood and crystals that would cure his cancer lickety split!

It was his only hope. Conventional therapy made him weak and bald and thin and sick. This must be it, right?

The two of them traveled the southwest, Arizona, NM, Nevada, CA...all in search of that ONE thing that would fix him, that would make him right, let him see his grandbabies born and live at least one day longer than he did before.

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They were drained, financially. All the chemo in the world would have never cost what these charlatans did. And unlike the Oncologists he was working with, they gave him false hope. The Oncologist was very straight forward about his prognosis and his illness. We may be able to put it in remission, but it is very advanced and very poor prognosis despite our best efforts.

But these charlatans....they told him they could cure him. Magical waters from hidden springs known only by extinct tribes of MexoAmerican. Blood from specially raised horses. Crystal light therapy and hypnosis....All of these things WOULD cure him. WOULD let him see his daughters have grandchildren. Would let him see his wife one more day. Would would would.

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He died. Perhaps earlier than he would have if he had not shunned traditional medical therapy for bogus and unfounded health claims. He never saw grandchildren, and the last days with his wife were painful and awful. He never got hospice therapy because he was told he didn't need it. He was told that the increasing weakness, inability to eat, inability to control his bowels and sporadic bleeding form his anus was his body's way of fighting the cancer. It was his body's way of starving the cancer. He didn't need hospice because he wasn't going to die. He just had to tough it out, eat some herbs, drink some magic water and hold those crystals in his pockets. He was gonna be okay.

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They believed that if they were told something then it had to be true. If someone called themselves "doctor" then they had to have gone to medical school.

Please know that this was in the mid 1980s, no internet, no databases, no quick access to pages of litigation and accusations and proof regarding this treatment or that therapy.

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She is haunted by the decisions they equally made together. She admits that they were never forced to make these choices, but they felt compelled because of the overtly positive messages they were given. When the "doctor" he was seeing for cancer-killing supplements told him no need to go to the ER because of rectal bleeding, or a 10lb weight loss, they BELIEVED him, despite their best thoughts that they shouldn't. He HAS to know what he's talking about or else he wouldn't be able to SAY it. You just can't SAY SHIT that isn't true, especially when you're telling it to people who are DYING, when you tell their families to go ahead and make plans 5 and 10 and 20 years in the future because he'll be around that long. That traditional medicine JUST WANTS HIM DEAD and doesn't want to treat him.

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Unforgivable. Caveat Emptor. Laws against Fraud. Talk to the FDA. Globalization. How can we test tumeric when tumeric can't be patented? No one has ever been killed by vitamin C or kinoki foot pads.

Unforgivable.