Acer
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Pharma trolls

[Here is a WDDTY forum resident Pharma troll, to go with 'Harradine']

Acer

I am astonished anyone can believe chemotherapy is not effective in many forms of cancer. My wife's Aunt was diagnosed with ovarian cancer last year and underwent therapy to reduce the grapefruit sized growth before surgery could commence. Yes she lost her hair and yes it was a trying experience but it saved her. She is in remission and positive about life.

 If they had suggested giving her homeopathic treatments, vitamins or herbs i am seriously doubtful the tumour would have shrunk.

 Similarly my wife's gran developed breast cancer and underwent radiotherapy. She is also completely clear and has been for a couple of years. There is nothing marginal about either of these forms of cancer, they are relatively common. I have met both the individuals on a number of occasions and can vouch for their current state of health.

 Cancer is extremely variable in type and form. The same type of cancer can have several forms- each varying in aggression. With an aggressive cancer the odds are against you but you certainly won't beat it without trying modern therapies.

 I am sure there are certain conditions that benefit from non-drug intervention but cancer is not one of them based on the evidence i see. Don't get me wrong i am sure anyone with the opposite opinion means well but there just isn't proper evidence to support these claims.

Acer

STATINS

I looked at those links and i didn't find them convincing, they are more opinion than fact and it was hard to pinpoint the actual data and studies behind the claims. A set of links to sites that share a common belief does not constitute evidence.

One quote that stood out related to faith, hope and willpower being essential to the healing process. This is a fair point but he then proceeds to suggest the natural 'doctor' listens sympathetically to the patient's problems before prescribing an alternative like homeopathy. I fail to see how this is convincing evidence that modern medicine does not save lives. Rather it is revealing of the authors aim i.e to extol the virtues of alternative treatments.

 Homeopathy, as far as i can tell, concerns giving water tablets to cure a variety of illnesses. I can't understand how such a dilute concentration of any substance can assist the healing process beyond simple willpower and optimism. Now the latter is very important, don't get me wrong, but it can also be used by people fighting diseases with conventional medicine. I do not for one second believe that an aggressive cancer can be cured with homeopathy. I was chatting to a lady with basilar migraine (rare form) the other day and her story sounded horrific- they finally stayed her hallucinatory symptoms, inability to walk and extreme vertigo with a high dose of Verapamil. Yes it took some playing around with the dose but she is now free from the symptoms.  Homeopathy would not have halted this rare and bizarre condition because pure optimism would not have done it either.

 I take my hat off to anyone willing to listen patiently to someone's concerns but if one is going to claim the tablet itself worked to cure a condition then there will need to be raw data in the form of clinical trials to support that claim. The same goes for amazing claims that less people die when doctor's pack up and go home. Try telling that to the man brought into hospital with meningitis on the day no doctor's were available!!! If those statistics are true then i would like to see the data analysed carefully and all factors considered before conclusions are drawn. If i  eat an apple, orange and banana a day for months then get a nasty cold and stop eating bananas only to find i no longer have the infection a few days later then it would be crazy for me to suggest giving up bananas cured my cold. I would need to look at a variety of things before i drew my conclusions.

 As for the cholesterol comments, i appreciate the link but so much evidence contradicts this article.  I will be sure to tell my work colleague that high cholesterol does not cause heart problems when he returns from his quadruple bypass surgery in several months. His cholesterol levels were very high and had happily damaged his heart in a silent fashion.