Desperate measures

At least some of you know I'm not a fan of alternative treatments, or supplements of any kind. Few if any None have shown to be effective by any legitimate clinical research. In my opinion they are just scams designed to separate gullible and desperate individuals from their hard earned money. But I've also never criticized anyone for trying them.

Ok, so maybe I have criticized the lengths some people will go in their use of alternatives treatments. I can certainly understand the desperation of some people, but when I read a post such as the one below, from one of the many lymphoma/leukemia message boards I subscribed to, I can't help but be reinforced in my belief of the lunacy and the futility of it all, as well as the potential danger.

Dear List Members,

I receive[d] my shipment of Essiac tea and made my first batch.

The taste is like bad coffee--not too bad. With this particular formula, you consume the grounds along with the tea. Since the teas is pulverized into fine powder, this is not a problem at all.

I started with the recommended dose of 3 oz 3 times a day.

That's comes to about $128/month. By comparison, I spend about $25 per month on green tea, but at least it doesn't taste like bad coffee. Plus I wouldn't put it in the same category as this garbage.

Anyways, he goes on.

After two days, the lymph nodes in my neck increased in size very dramatiically and painfully. Plus new lymph nodes were popping up under my arms. I found the lymph node enlargement alarming since they rarely ever change size and when they do, not by much.

Lymph node involvement has been present since the beginning albeit at a low level of enlargement. Then I found myself waking up in the middle of the night with the lymph nodes in my neck hurting like hell. I should point out that the nodes on the left side were much more pro- nounced than on the right. The pain would only subside once I got up, and moved around. I'm not much into prescription pain killers and really had nothing on hand to dull or extinguish the pain which was quite severe.

This has continued every night since. About the only thing that quiets the pain is to put a north facing magnet over the area and wait. Eventually, if I'm lucky, the pain subsides enough for me to go back to bed.

A north facing magnet! Unreal! I wonder if he has to sleep facing north as well? Well, if you think that really works, I've got some swamp land to sell you in Arizona.

My hematologist/oncologist has not seen me since this happened though I did have a blood test on Friday. Don't know the results yet.

In trying to figure out what happened, I came to a few tentative conclusions. Essiac is a powerful detoxifier and immune stimulant, particularly, stimulating b and t cells. I believe that the detoxifying effect temporarily overloaded an already clogged up lymphatic system and whatever garbage was collected had no place to go, and not enough fully functioning immune cells to clear away the debris, in addition to adding more lymphocytes to the overall load.

Oh yeah, I'm sure that's the reason. NOT!

The lesson here I believe is to go slow with the Essiac at first, depending on how advanced your leukemia is and how enlarged your lymph nodes are.

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS? HE'S STILL CONTINUING TO USE THIS STUFF.

Is there a remedy, once the lymph nodes have reacted and are now painfully enlarged? I believe there is. It is a very simple, even elegant solution: rebounding.

I have started health bounces on my well-constructed mini-trampoline for 10 minutes at a time, 3 times a day and am already seeing improvement in shrinking the lymph nodes in my neck that are causing me so much pain. I don't have the expertise or the time to explain how and why this works. For the insatiably curious, I recommend you Google Albert E. Carter and go from there.

Bouncing on a trampoline is going to reduce the size of lymphnodes. He's got to be kidding.

Will post again when there is any new to report.

I can hardly wait, so I will have something else to write about.

And now that I think about it [and just so I get my US health care rant in for the day], could the reason people go to such extremes, be the result of our dysfunctional health care system, or is it just there are way too many stupid and gullible people in this country.

Vaccine Mandates, what are they good for?

Not much, that's for sure! Simply showing evidence of receiving a Covid-19 vaccine (whether fake or not), does not mean you are protected from getting Covid-19, nor spreading it, if infected. We are all different, and too many of us, i.e. people who are immunocompromised/ immunosupressed, the elderly, or others for various reasons, do not [cannot] mount an immune response as good as younger and healthier individuals. What is evidence of immunity is a quantitative antibody test showing you have developed antibodies, and to what degree, either from natural immunity or the vaccine. That is what we should be testing for. That is what is important. But for too long, many, i.e. the FDA, doctors, and other health experts discouraged people (and still are) from getting antibody tests, because there was little knowledge about what level of antibodies are needed to impart immunity to the virus. That of course is true, to some extent, but how can we ever find out [learn] the answer to that q

History IS repeating itself

I didn't grow up during the rise and fall of Hitler and Nazi Germany, so for me to claim it feels like those are the times we are living in now, must be taken with a grain of salt. But I have seen enough movies, and read enough history to know, if the times we're living in now are not akin to the rise of a Nazism and Facism in Europe in the 1930's and 1940's, then we're not far off. If you can't see the parallels with Nazi Germany, then you must be living in a different country than me. Republicans and other right wing extremists will stop at nothing to subvert the will of the majority, forcing their beliefs, that they are the superior race and have been appointed by God, to impose their will on America, while they blame all our problems on immigrants, blacks and Jews. As I speak, Mitch McConnell, and his minions are raising roadblocks to all legislation designed to help average Americans under the guise of fiscal responsibility. They condone violent and verba

Open letter to all Democrats

Stop the nonsense! Continuing to go after Trump, without any hope of getting a conviction, does nothing more than provide Republicans with an obstructionist dialogue (now that they have come up with the unconstitutional talking point) in addition to giving Trump much needed publicity, when we should be ignoring him. It's the pure definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result! Instead Democrats need to be laser focused on what is important to all Americans, i.e. healthcare, Social Security and Medicare, infrastructure reform, the Covid-19 vaccine rollout, to name just a few. And when you do talk about Trump, simply steer the conversation as to how the Trump administration botched everything, how Trump is responsible for the deaths of 400,000+ Americans, due to his inaction and the down playing of the pandemic, plus the deaths of 2 Capitol policeman during the insurrection Trump provoked and incited on January 6, 2021.

Becky said…

Sadly, if this weren't actually true it would be almost comical.

And why north with the magnet?

1:37 PM

Hey, you have got to Google North facing magnets. They even have magnetic beds! Apparently my friends schizophrenic dad was really on to something when he placed magnets all over his body.

1:42 PM

Marc said…

The really tragedy is when you consider the alternative, i.e. conventional therapy [AKA chemotherapy], you can't help but [almost] empathize with them.

7:34 AM

LIVING WITH MCL

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