It never ceases to amaze how, out of all the illnesses and conditions we suffer from, cancer causes more controversy than any other.
Recently, reports in various European and UK media have mentioned once again the possibility that there may be a different route to supporting and, dare I say it, curing cancer.
This has caused a torrent of backlash from all areas. One has to ask why and, like any big- spend drugs that produce huge income, one has to assume it is due to the possibility that profits may decrease – at the expense of health and the curing of disease.
However, educating, informing and offering the choice to those who are affected in their lives cannot be a crime. Why should it be such an issue to offer people the opportunity to be more informed about how others are coping with one of the most destructive and heart-breaking conditions the modern day has known?
Some would say it offers false hope; however, is there anything that offers a cast-iron guarantee?
Over the next two weeks, I hope to offer titbits of information to give an idea of what has been reported. I will start off with homeopathy.
This is said to be everyone’s ‘favourite whipping boy’ and if it clears up a cold or minor headache, it is probably due to the placebo effect. Some say it is mind over matter, as people are convinced homeopathy makes them better.
The view is that as any active ingredient in a homeopathic remedy is diluted, sometimes thousands of times, any effect must be entirely in one’s imagination.
Out of all the illnesses and conditions we suffer from, cancer causes more controversy than any other
However, Indian doctors have found an unlikely ally in the US government’s National Cancer Institute, which has been so impressed by the way cancer patients have responded to homeopathic remedies that it would like to see more research carried out.
Its wish has not been granted yet, unfortunately due to a lack of funding. Do consider that most research is funded by the pharmaceutical companies, or those with a vested interest in the results. What a shame we cannot contribute to an organisation that offers funding to alternative therapies for charity.
Everyday miracles are carried out at several homeopathic clinics in Calcutta, India.
It was there that American researchers went to observe the work for themselves. One member of the research team, Moshe Frenkel, who was working at the MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Houston at the time, was astounded by what he witnessed.
“I saw things there that I couldn’t explain. Tumours shrank with nothing else other than homeopathic remedies. X-rays showed there had been a lesion on a lung and a year after taking the remedy, it had shrunk or disappeared,” Dr Frenkel said.
Still sceptical, he returned to his laboratory and decided to test the homeopathic remedies on a culture of breast cancer cells. The protocols were as rigorous as they are for the testing of a new chemotherapy drug.
The experiments were very thorough and repeated many times using a variety of remedies.
Two of the remedies achieved as much as 80 per cent response, which indicated that they had caused apoptosis, otherwise known as programmed cell death.
By comparison, the placebo solvent achieved only a 30 per cent reduction, which suggests that the homeopathic remedy was more than twice that of the placebo.
There is so much more I could write about homeopathy and cancer; but this can be researched by those who are interested.
Suffice to say that homeopathy in India has a long history. Mahatma Ghandi, the father of modern India, described homeopathy as a “refined method of treating patients economically and non-violently. Government must encourage and patronise it in our country”. As a result – they did.
In 1960, the Maharashtra Act set up a court of examiners concerned with the teaching of homeopathy and the creation of new colleges to do so, as well as a board of homeopathy to regulate and license practitioners.
Despite the fact that the British rulers were not sympathetic to homeopathy, it only began to flourish in India after the country had achieved independence in 1947. It probably is, therefore, one of the most advanced and researched countries in the use of homeopathy in cancer and other conditions.
It is important to understand that even homeopathy cannot work with all cancers. In one review, carried out at the Prasanta Banerji Homeopathic Research Foundation in India, 21,888 patients with malignant tumours were treated only with homeopathy: 19 per cent regressed and 21 per cent stabilised or improved.
The results depend greatly on the type of tumour, how far advanced it was and other factors. However, what would the comparison be with the usual methods?
Next week, I hope to look at people who have had success with different routes after being diagnosed with cancer, and other therapies.
kathryn@maltanet.net