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Food and Cancer PSA (warning, science ahead)
I came across a facebook picture that claimed to have new important research on cancer from the John Hopkins Institute. The short version of my story is it's all false information and I was very bothered by the fact that my friends were reposting it as if it were factual. So I wanted to give you a way of scanning information masquerading as "scientific" to learn how to spot red flags that will tell you the author isn’t aware of the truth or is fabricating information.
The original post: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=507500842633738&set=a.148303035220189.36742.100001214799245&type=1&ref=nf
John Hopkins statement that the post is a hoax: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/kimmel_cancer_center/news_events/featured/cancer_update_email_it_is_a_hoax.html
How to spot red flags:
1. “Diet alone can cure cancer.” This is a bad idea!! Please see doctors, I swear they know what they’re doing! Chemo and surgery are some of the best treatments we have!
2. “Sugar will fuel your cancer, eat honey or molasses instead.” The main component of honey and molasses is sugar. Eat it in moderation but it’s still sugar at the end of the day. It’s no better or worse, although the flavor is different. And it doesn’t fuel cancer cells either.
3. “Eat fresh vegetables because they will give you live enzymes that are amazing for your body.” Active enzymes are destroyed in the stomach by acid. By the time your cells get it, it’s been broken down into amino acids and has no enzymatic properties.
4. “Water will flush out cancer cells.” I don’t even know where to start with this, but trust me the answer is no.
On the whole, I think that eating fresh food, decreasing red meat and sugar intake, and increasing exercise is a great way to be healthy and definitely will put you at lower risk of cancer. It will not cure cancer on it’s own. But a lot of people will use science-talk to give their ideas credibility. This goes for cancer facts as well as diets and cleanses. Know when to be suspicious of claims, and research before you make big changes. Beware the “I heard that…” statement. Do your own research and your own thinking. Please.
If you have other red flags you think people should be aware of, I’d love to hear them.
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8 Replies
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A very good friend of mine was diagnosed with a digestive cancer with a near zero survival rate. We all knew it was just a matter of time until he passed – it's just not the kind of thing you get better from. Similar to what Steve Jobs and Patrick Swayze had.
But after receiving his first round of chemo, he was so miserable that refused to get any more, and instead tried special diets and other bits of pseudoscience not unlike what you've just posted. Since his prognosis was so grim, I'm really not sure chemo would have helped him in the end. So no one really stood up to him and just let him be. Sure enough, he passed away just more than a year after his diagnosis and got to have it his way.
But for so many other cancers, chemo and radiation are the only way save your life. Promising new research is being done with other types of treatments, including gene therapy. But if the research holds up in clinical trials, believe me you will hear about it.
Most pseudoscience comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of how the human body works (like your point about ingesting whole enzymes,only for them to be broken down into their components by digestion long before they would ever reach the cancer.) That's like saying that if you eat enough beef you will turn into a cow.
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Portableninja, I'm sorry to hear about your friend. Losing someone to cancer isn't new to me either and every time it's just as heart-wrenching. My aunt just passed away from a bone cancer. My father in law also found his chemo too much and he quit before his last treatment. Luckily for us, he's 5 years in remission but when he was diagnosed the doctors made it clear he didn't have a good chance.
I'm a cancer researcher and I think there's some really cool treatments being worked on. I love the idea of targeting adenovirus to cancer cells but I know there's also a lot of obstacles to overcome before it can be considered for clinical trials. I find gene therapy (in my opinion) might just not be a feasible option until we can better control gene integration but I'm not currently following any research on it either.
But I totally agree with you though that in most cases pseudosci is a fundamental misunderstanding of science and the body. The best we can do is keep helping people understand the difference and educate them
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Thank you for sharing this false info. People don't need to be more misinformation out there.
I lost an uncle to Leukemia many years ago. When he was first diagnosed, my mom was the sibling that was the best bone marrow match for him. She flew across the country (Canada) to donate her bone marrow. Her procedure along with chemo and radiation gave him quite a few good years in remission. Unforetunately, it did come back and it was tougher and more resistant than ever, and this time he didn't make it.
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Someone in my extended family passed away due to breast cancer. She was a vegetarian, ate only organic foods, didn’t smoke or drink or any of that, and was deeply devoted to her religious beliefs.
Due to her religious beliefs, she was extremely modest. She never had mamograms or ever conducted self breast exams. Her cancer was left untreated too long before a masectomy could have helped prevent it from spreading.
Only at the insistance of her children did she (FINALLY) decide to start chemotherapt. Things were looking up for awhile, the treatment was working, and then she stopped because she viewed her illness as a “test of her faith”. The cancer then spread rapidly and she died shortly after Christmas that year. It was horribly sad. Made me angry for a long time.
So, when people jump on the bs home-remedy cure for cancer bandwagon, I just want to say stfu. Leave curing cancer to the professionals, they KNOW their shit and save lives everyday. Appreciate doctors and nurses and modern science/technology. They WORK.
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I agree that modern science has come a long way and is very helpful but I also think people should research all their options and decide which is best for them. An interesting site to check out is the Gerson Institute, they use natural treatments to activate the bodies own healing response to heal chronic diseases such as certain types of cancer. Of course as mentioned above, make sure the information you research is from a ligitamate source and not just someones own theories posted on facebook.
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I agree, Krista Lynn, being informed is the key step in any situation. I checked out the Gerson Instutute and to be honest I can't say I believe it. Diet is really important to being healthy and beating cancer, but in my opinion this doesn't extend to drinking up to 13 glasses of various fruit and vegetable juice a day, and especially doesn't extend to up to 5 coffee enemas a day. That's a lot of enemas that will really disrupt the natural fauna of your gut. I mean (and this is gross and I'm sorry), there's a reason the best treatment of C. difficile is a fecal transplant which is exactly what you think it is. The bacteria up there makes a hell of a difference! Ok, I know I'm getting off track but I will wrap up by pointing out there's no well-controlled studies proving this method's effectiveness against cancer. But thanks for bringing it up! Getting a scientific discussion going is always appreciated
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When it comes to cancer, every case is going to be different. What works for one person may well have no effect for the next. This includes both chemo/western medicine and alternative remedies. The key, as previously stated is to have all of the hard facts that you can get. Not everything out there has been tested and researched properly and not all doctors are 100% correct about prognosis and treatment. As a serious student of medical herbalism (NOT homeopathy, they are not the same), I will say that most treatments of the alternative nature are far too little and too late to knock out an advanced cancer of any type. However, there is no need for exclusion in treatment, you can have both intensive alternative treatment (that has some scientific backing) AND modern medicine. There is research out that that strongly suggests that both is better than either one on their own.
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Oh, and as far as the original poster's article masquerading as science, that's just laughable at best and dangerous at worst. Rely on real evidence from published science and medical journals.
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