Malarkey vs. Medicine in a Quest for Cancer Treatment

Should I Be Looking for Laetrile in Loonytune Land?

My hair hasn’t fallen out. I shaved my head this weekend. It’s an unexpected event driven by insane itching and burning. (See PS below for a couple of details)

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A cancer diagnosis comes with medical advice from well-meaning friends and family. No extra charge.

I’ve been down this road twice before, and am once again placing my trust with the healthcare professionals at UCSD. Doing so puts me on the middle of one of the burning issues of our time, namely the distrust among the public regarding science and medicine.

People experiencing this distrust believe they have a good reason to feel that way. 

Ultimately our choices in the medical realm end up being between: 

• anecdotal accounts connected to flavors of mysticism ranging from belief in the power of miracles to trust in a sales pitch 

• or faith in a healthcare system (sometimes) relying on research, run by humans, and (all-to-often) shaped by greed unleashed on people who feel they have nowhere else to turn. 

I understand that healers in less-developed societies have learned techniques and elixirs by trial and error can make some sick people well. I also understand that we’re just a step or two away from bleeding away evil spirits or prescribing radium-based items.

I live just a hop, skip and a jump away from the Oasis of Hope Hospital in Tijuana, where thousands of US patients, many of whom believed the cure for cancer was being suppressed by the FDA, the American Medical Association, big pharma, and the American Cancer Society have been treated over the past 50 years.

Part of their “cure,” besides coffee enemas, high carbohydrate diets, and shark cartilage, involves consuming laetrile (aka vitamin B17), a derivative of almond pits. The only thing that works about these treatments is the syphoning of cash from the wallets of desperate or paranoid foreigners.

I know our watchdogs, created in the wake of past crises, are easily corrupted by greed or ideology. 

The failures of the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, whether due to human error, financial pressures, or politics, have fostered distrust among the general public. 

If one were to construct a balance sheet of wins and loses, it would confirm the premise that bad news travels faster and farther than good news. The FDA are not the bad guys. Most of the time.

This distrust is being exploited for ideological and financial purposes. It is part of the broader tension between the “me” and “we” visions of society’s future. The concepts of marketplace driven care versus public health institutions are the essence of this debate.

Taking the long view, public health interventions led to a 62% increase in life expectancy in the 20th century. They encompass vaccines and medications for childhood illnesses and infectious diseases such as HIV, increased regulation of tobacco, and over-the-counter Narcan to combat the opioid crisis, among others

The austerity driven policies of the late 20th century moved the FDA from an entirely taxpayer-funded entity to one increasingly funded by user fees paid by regulated manufacturers. Currently, close to 45% of its total budget comes from user fees paid by companies when they apply for approval of a medical device or drug; 65% of the funding for human drug regulatory activities are derived from those fees.

While this funding structure has enabled faster approval times for new drugs and devices, it also fosters a false sense of security when it comes to oversight of nutritional supplements, which are classified as food.

As is true with other federal agencies (like Treasury’s Alcohol, Firearms, and Tobacco), right wing legislators hide their true intent behind claims about freedom, limiting enforcement powers at the FDA through budget restrictions and obscure amendments to seemingly innocuous legislation.

There are two questions needing to be asked in response to every breakthrough claim, namely a simplified version of ‘how does it work?’ and ‘what does it mean?’

This brings us back to the cancer discussion. 

A big part of my attitude toward treatment is based readings about the painful death of President Ulysses S. Grant from throat cancer in 1885. There was little his physicians could do for him, but he took on one last challenge as he wasted away, namely writing a memoir so his family would have something to live on past his death.

Learning about the history of treatment and the improvements in survival rates with my flavor of cancer by health care professionals in recent decades was a strong motivator when considering treatments.

If you take the long view of America’s hands on evangelist healers their miracles have disappeared from history. I’m not saying faith in a higher power is suspect; I am saying that anybody claiming to have a pipeline to that higher power is full of it.

Another basis for the rationale of fundamentalist non-medical cancer cure supporters has to do with the scientific explanation for why cancer exists, namely evolution.

Yup. Just like slavery/discrimination, some folks haven’t given up their cause.

Three researchers from Penn State recently published an essay explaining how cancers, no matter where they occur, are unique mutations.

• The fight against cancer is a fight against evolution, the fundamental process that has driven life on Earth since time immemorial. This is not an easy fight, but medicine has made tremendous progress.

• Deaths from cancer in the U.S. have declined since the early 1990s. Much of this is attributable to cancer screening programs and recently developed, more effective drugs. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved 332 new drug treatments for cancer between 2009 and 2020. More new drugs are on the way.

The non-mainstream-science based crowd relies heavily on nutritional supplements as cures. Lack of regulation is seen as a selling point by supplement purveyors, who argue that it gives consumers more freedom to choose their own health care.

Ah, the freedom of “me”, “my beliefs'“ and “my money”. (And “my” ignorance)

Political candidates opposed to regulation of the industry and sympathetic to its interests, such as the use of herbal supplements in schools and prisons have been able to count on significant financial support from the industry. Lobbying and campaign contributions to influence politics makes it difficult to enact regulations that would protect consumers.

Historian Rick Perlstein examined the long association between peddlers of quack medicine and right-wing extremists. They cater to more or less the same audience, as he discovered when subscribing, in the interests of research, to ultra-conservative publication:

• …But back when I was getting emails every day from Newsmax and Townhall, the come-ons were a little bit different.

• Dear Reader, I’m going to tell you something, but you must promise to keep it quiet. You have to understand that the “elite” would not be at all happy with me if they knew what I was about to tell you. That’s why we have to tread carefully. You see, while most people are paying attention to the stock market, the banks, brokerages and big institutions have their money somewhere else . . . [in] what I call the hidden money mountain . . . All you have to know is the insider’s code (which I’ll tell you) and you could make an extra $6,000 every single month.

• Soon after reading that, I learned of the “23-Cent Heart Miracle,” the one “Washington, the medical industry, and drug companies REFUSE to tell you about.” (Why would they? They’d just be leaving money on the table: “I was scheduled for open heart surgery when I read about your product,” read one of the testimonials. “I started taking it and now six months have passed and I haven’t had open-heart surgery.”) 

Economist Paul Krugman did some research into supplement money flowing into politics.

• Once you’re sensitized to the link between snake oil and right-wing politics, you realize that it’s pervasive.

• This is clearly true in the right’s fever swamps. Alex Jones of Infowars has built a following by pushing conspiracy theories, but he makes money by selling nutritional supplements.

• It’s also true, however, for more mainstream, establishment parts of the right. For example, Ben Shapiro, considered an intellectual on the right, hawks supplements.

• Look at who advertises on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show. After Fox itself, the top advertisers are My Pillow, then three supplement companies.

• Snake oil peddlers, clearly, find consumers of right-wing news and punditry a valuable market for their wares. So it shouldn’t be surprising to find many right-leaning Americans ready to see vaccination as a liberal plot and turn to dubious alternatives — although, again, I didn’t see livestock dewormer coming.

When you think about it, this overlap is predictable. I asked BARD, Google’s generative AI thingie about this:

• Right wing politicians often appeal to voters who feel that the government is not working for them. This distrust of government can extend to the medical establishment, which is seen as being too bureaucratic and beholden to big pharma. Herbal supplement sellers often position themselves as an alternative to traditional medicine, and they can tap into this distrust of government to sell their products.

In case you haven’t heard (I hadn’t), the vaccines-are-evil crowd are now pushing false claims about mRNA being clandestinely added to our food supply, according to a Los Angeles Times article:

• In widespread posts online in recent weeks, misinformation purveyors have spread false claims that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are being quietly added to the food supply, threatening staunch vaccine holdouts .

• “The Unvaccinated Won’t Be Unvaccinated for Long With mRNA in the Food Supply,” reads one tweet shared thousands of times. Another asks: “Did you know they will be giving all of our livestock the covid vaccine this year?”

• A TikTok video shared on Instagram, meanwhile, questions whether Whole Foods customers are unknowingly being vaccinated with “the C19 mRNA shot via food products” and shows pictures of arugula and lettuce packages.

In this instance, the “how does it work?” question referenced earlier in this story is absent from the falsified claims. Eating a salad “infected” with a vaccine would be a horribly inefficient way of inoculating a person. How would you determine dosage? There is no such thing as an mRNA vaccine for any disease being used in cattle. And, in addition to mRNA breaking down quickly in the digestive tract, it’s unlikely it would survive the cooking process.

Question two, namely “what does it mean?” points us in the direction of why such ludicrous claims are made in the first place. The people who are inclined to believe such nonsense are sure to be customers for (imaginary) ‘Paul Rand’s organic food’ items. But for the not-yet-committed crowd, it’s just another check mark on the list of reasons to distrust institutions.

Looking a little deeper, which is hard when you’re fighting to stay afloat, those treatment assertions benefit a few and those lured into the fantasy that they can join that club. Putting profit at the head of every action means sharing and/or empathy isn’t an option.

Fomenting distrust in institutions is a strategy for leading people into accepting authoritarianism. That’s why everything from schools to the Army are accused of being “woke.” Who needs facts when the Dear Leader will figure it out?

I’ve made my decision about how I’ll address cancer. It doesn’t involve any “they” hiding as part of the deep state. Human beings that I can converse with and even slap if needed are in charge. And if they’re wrong, maybe my experience will help the next person in line.

PS– I was happy when I was told this experience with infusions wouldn’t lead to my hair falling out. I was unhappy when I learned the acne/skin irritation side effect was greater than advertised; that’s why I shaved my head this weekend. The prescribed steroid cream works a lot better when applied directly to the skin.

PPS- Overall, I feel fine.

Portions of the research for this story came via (double checked) queries on BARD, Google’s A.I. chatbot.

More News You Should Know

The Kent State Massacre was likely caused by one man: Terry Norman Via Daily Kos. A credible re-examination of what triggered the national guard to shoot at anti-war protestors on May 4, 1971.

‘MAGA movement’ widely unpopular, new poll finds Via NBC News.

• Just 24% of Americans surveyed have positive views of the Make America Great Again movement in a new national NBC News poll.

Companies' cost inflation is slowing but shoppers may wait for lower prices Via Reuters. Did you notice that we didn’t have to wait for higher prices? Did you hear about the record profits being made by manufacturers and distributors?

Inside the Secretive Life-Extension Clinic Via Wired. If you’ve got enough money —$75,000 is what you pay to play— a bus will whisk you from a Marriott hotel in San Diego to a clinic in Tijuana where “anti-aging genes” will be injected through your nose. There are no guarantees and no refunds if you happen to drop dead. (I can hear the quacking from my back porch on quiet days.)

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