I have just read the book “Close to Me” written by Gloria Hunniford.* In this book, Gloria opens her heart and tells all about the terrible time that everyone went through following the diagnosis of her daughter’s (Caron Keating) Breast Cancer.
Now, I am not at all in favour of alternative medicine, in fact I am fully aware of the harm that the belief in them can cause.*
Caron Keating developed cancer – she chose to shun orthodox medicine in favour of alternative medicine/therapy, as she was not happy with the side effects.* You have a lovely young woman here who, if she had chosen the route of orthodox medicine, could well be alive today.
Instead of taking the medication to treat or reduce the speed at which cancer takes hold, she chose to go to Australia (Byron Bay) and tried to self-heal.*
This is a very heart-rending story.* On the one hand you have a woman who you would love to throttle just to get it through to her that she COULD help herself more by following medical advice. On the other hand, you read her diarised accounts of what she was going through mentally. She truly believed that she could get better by changing the way she lived her life by using: coffee enemas, chanting, meditation, positive thinking etc.
Caron had breast cancer in one breast, which was operated on. She also went through radiotherapy.* It then spread to the other breast. If she had had a mastectomy and further radiotherapy then by all accounts the cancer may not have spread to her bones and eventually kill her. At this point Caron decided to go with alternative treatments; that was the decision that basically signed her death warrant.*
Caron’s brother went to visit her in Australia.* She took him to a lake called “Tea Tree Lake” and whilst bathing, something “clicked” in her back.* This is when further investigations showed that the cancer had in fact spread to Caron’s spine.*
A few other events happened that made everyone realise that a cure was not really on the cards.* Her healer’s wife died of cancer – Caron thought, “How come if you are a Healer, you cannot cure your own wife?”* Then Linda McCartney died.* She was an inspiration to Caron, but her death made it all very real that she could also die.
The one thing that really made me think is:* if you are faced with staring death in the face, or knowing that death is inevitable sooner rather than later, which path would you choose?* One which is calm, peaceful, and makes you feel good inside and out and which helps you and the rest of your family and the people you love make the most of the time you have left, or one where you are confined to hospital and awful treatment that makes you feel like you wish you were already dead?
She had a choice – she could afford to make that choice financially and had a husband who respected that choice and who stuck by her regardless.* To anyone on the “outside” she made the wrong choice, but to her, it was the right choice.
I remember the day that it was announced that Caron had died. It was quite a shock.
Stories like this one are awful. I haven’t read the book, but for me (from what I do know), there are two distinct issues with the story. The first is the fact that Caron and her family decided to use alternative treatments in place of conventional treatments to deal with her cancer (she refused to take Tamoxifen, for example, as she didn’t want the side effects). A decision that may well have cost Caron her life. The second is the fact that she continued to use alternative treatments after it was clear that they hadn’t saved her life.
I find that whenever I argue against the use of alternative remedies as curative medicine, explaining that such things don’t actually work, there’s always someone who comes back with a quip like, “well if they think it works, what’s the harm?”
I find such arguments infuriating, not only because of the shortsightedness, but also because they’re hard to counter with a quick reply. We need to see the bigger picture – it may be OK to use useless remedies when there’s not much wrong with you; but the belief that alternative remedies can cure things becomes harmful - should we ever rely on them for something serious.
The problem is that in crisis points in our lives we are forced to make some major decisions. If we don’t rule out bad options (because we hold false beliefs) then we are at risk of making bad, even fatal, decisions. I think that this point is crucial.
As to the second issue, I pulled up my own GP after finding a leaflet in the surgery explaining complementary treatments available on prescription. It seems that GPs can prescribe alternative treatments on the NHS where they deem it appropriate. My GP uses things like reflexology, Indian head massage, acupuncture etc. as a form of palliative care.
Patients undergoing cancer treatments for example, may be prescribed one of the above-mentioned complementary treatments. The patients are told explicitly that these complementary treatments are not cures for their illness, but are used to help with the reduction of stress and anxiety.
I find that acceptable. Other skeptics may not, but I do. The reason that I do is because it is the appropriate use of treatments. They are often relaxing and soothing and as long as that’s what they’re used for then fine. Of course, the practitioners of these therapies often overstep the mark by claiming that they can cure disease, expel toxins etc., but that’s a different issue.
If there’s anything to be learned from Caron’s story it’s that turning to alternative therapies for the treatment of cancer is a sure fire way of ending up dead. Using complementary therapies, whilst being treated conventionally, can help with coping with cancer. It’s really all about understanding what alternative therapies can and cannot do. The major point to grasp is that they are not cures for disease.
Caron may not have survived anyway, but with conventional treatment she would have stood a chance of surviving. If so, this just makes her loss all the more tragic.
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It seems from the book that it was Caron’s idea to take the alternative route. Her devoted husband was not sure, but went along with her wishes. He loved her dearly. Her mother on the other hand was very unhappy about it all. In the end though, even Gloria realised that for her daughter, it was best. It is difficult to take on board that someone needs to do something for himself or herself and not always for everyone else.
The points I find are that: -
- You have a patient who is convinced she can be cured by everything except orthodox medicine. She had been through radiotherapy once and surgery and then chose not to carry on with that route. She firmly believed that her cancer had been removed and was not terminal and that if she went down the alternative route, it would not return, and she was making a very good effort of preparing her body for a non-cancerous state. Maybe she was brainwashed…. but at the end of the day for her, she was at peace with her treatment although she was not aware that it was not working. She felt good and positive.
- She kept her illness very private and only a very few knew about it. There is always the chance that if more people had known, she could have been persuaded to go the route of orthodox treatment together with complementary medicine if that is what she wanted.
- There is a HUGE picture to look at here. It is not just a case of: Take the Doctors advice and you may live, or go the alternative route and you will die. It may well be an easy decision to those on the outside but to those who actually have cancer, they do have a right of choice.
- The problem is the number of “healers” who claim to “cure”. It is a very bad word and extremely ambiguous and misleading.
- The argument of “what’s the Harm?” – This can depend on the case and needs to be taken in context. I am of the opinion that if someone is terminally ill and they make the choice to live the remainder of their life as comfortable and happy as possible, then so be it. As long as they are aware of the choices. On the other hand, if they are given the choice and conventional medicine has a fair chance of curing them, then they would be silly to pass up that opportunity.
- In the end Caron’s cancer returned with a vengeance. She then went back to Switzerland for chemo/radio therapy. It was too late, and her husband managed to rush her back home to England just in time for her to die at her mother’s home in Kent. This still makes me think that if she had gone along the route of conventional medicine, she could be alive today. She may have had to have a double mastectomy, but she would still be there for her family. Who exactly gains from this?
I can fully understand complementary medicine, which would work alongside conventional medicine. It is the claim that alternative medicines can cure that is a serious statement and very wrong.
Complementary medicine can aid with the management of a serious illness, but it certainly cannot cure it.
Where should we make the distinction between using alternative medicines and conventional treatment. Where do we draw the line?
Depends what you mean - can they "aid with the management of a serious illness", beyond the placebo effect and similar?Originally Posted by Jessie
I take the point that alt.med can indeed be quite relaxing etc., and maybe that's how it's 'sold' in palliative care - but the practitioners themselves will tell a different story to the referrer, and it still becomes mis-sold, often dangerously so. For example, if reflexology was advertised as a 'soothing foot massage', no-one would have any problem with it - but even if that's what your consultant sees it as, as soon as you're alone in the room with the reflexologist you'll get the hard-sell of whatever Eastern pseudophilosophy that person's been indoctrinated with, with all attendant magical claims - and so it's still immoral, surely?
As with many things it's 'buyer beware'. The best defence is to have a good understanding of what's what so that if we ourselves are ever in such a situation, we won't make the fatal mistake of believing in quacks and their promises.
Here's a broadcast that was originally put up by the Australian skeptics: http://www.skeptics.org.uk/documents...uacks_2005.mp3
It's shocking, but it's reality. :-\
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Potentially relying on alternative treatment as a sole intervention is the same as not being treated at all.
We have to subject all interventions to Randomised, Double Blind, Placebo Controlled trials that are planned with sufficent power to detect a real difference with an agreed confidence.
For nasty illness like a Cancer or Sarcoma I would prefer to see Kaplam-Meier curves which demonstrate a survival advantage before I would undertake the course of management.
It is safe for me to say that I have only seen this level of evidence for proper medical, surgical, hormonal, and radiotherapeutical interventions.
Of course if you want to have your alternative therapy, I would say this should be in addition to the above as long as there is no theroetical addition risk by doing so.
My Local Regional Radiological Cancer Centre employs a registered Healer to do the holistic stuff after the Therapeutic Radiographers have nuked seven bells out of the tumour.
There was a link somewhere on the JREF to a Norwegian (I think) study that showed that people who used alternative medicine as 'complementary' treatments had a higher chance of dying than those who used conventional medicine alone.
I think the perceived wisdom is that the extra comfort and positive attitude gained by using complementary treatments gives the patient an added benefit. In reality, the feel-good factor and placebo effects lead to people delaying further treatment (as they feel better) and are therefore more at risk.
I'll have to find the link - I'll put it up when I've found it (I have it saved on my other computer).
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