How do you feel about people who're diagnosed with terminal illnesses opting to pursue alternative medicines and holistic treatments in lieu of standard medical treatment? Is this something that you would do if you were in such a situation?

Chris wrote:

How do you feel about people who're diagnosed with terminal illnesses opting to pursue alternative medicines and holistic treatments in lieu of standard medical treatment?

Not a good idea. My best friend in childhood....her mom passed away from colon cancer. Because she was a Jehovah's Witness, there was a surgery that she was supposed to have when it was first diagnosed that she didn't have. The cancer went away, then came back with a vengence. Of course, by the time she decided to go through with standard medical treatment, it was too little, too late. Bob Marley passed away from the same type of scenario.

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Is this something that you would do if you were in such a situation?

Not at all.

Well let's see, my grandfather had cancer, and got the chemotherapy and radiation, the standard medical treatment, and it was the treatment that killed him finally, NOT his cancer.

My mother knew a man who had throat and tongue cancer and for whatever reason, the good doctors decided the answer was to wire his jaw shut and drill a hole in his neck, surprise surprise it didn't work and he died anyway, much more painfully than he would've needed to.

My mother's doctor told her that women who have children after 30 die, yet she went ahead and at my brother at 34 and me at 39 and it was her doctor in the delivery that almost killed her because of his attempt at a C-section he had to read a book on while he did it, she didn't almost die because she was having a baby in what the doctors thought was old age for motherhood.

So I don't have a whole lot of faith in what's considered standard.

it just depends, for me. I know someone who used TCM to beat breast cancer. She still has to eat a special diet but it's been 20 years...

I probably would use both, not one or the other.

Chris wrote:

How do you feel about people who're diagnosed with terminal illnesses opting to pursue alternative medicines and holistic treatments in lieu of standard medical treatment? Is this something that you would do if you were in such a situation?

I think they're naive and are playing with death, and no I would never opt to pursue "alternative" treatments in place of recommended medication.

Impact wrote:

Chris wrote:

How do you feel about people who're diagnosed with terminal illnesses opting to pursue alternative medicines and holistic treatments in lieu of standard medical treatment? Is this something that you would do if you were in such a situation?

I think they're naive and are playing with death, and no I would never opt to pursue "alternative" treatments in place of recommended medication.

Last I checked, doctors didn't have such a great track record either. You're 4 times more likely to die by a medical mistake a doctor makes than you are from being shot.

I often wonder if I would go alternative if I was diagnosed with cancer. I researched it a lot when Mom was diagnosed, and we did try it with her, but it did not work. But it seems it does for many people. I would research it all again, looking for case scenarios that were more like mine if I was ever diagnosed.

Supernova wrote:

Impact wrote:

I think they're naive and are playing with death, and no I would never opt to pursue "alternative" treatments in place of recommended medication.

Last I checked, doctors didn't have such a great track record either. You're 4 times more likely to die by a medical mistake a doctor makes than you are from being shot.

That's because more people, by the numbers, get advanced/terminal illnesses than people who get shot. Doctors are human but that doesn't mean every last one of them will diagnose you incorrectly. If a doctor diaganoses you with cancer and you go for a second, third, fourth, fifth opinion and they all diagnose you with the same thing.....you're going to ignore it? And instead rely on some backwoods treatment from some medical quack? You should read Cedella Marley's book about her son, Bob Marley. Read about his ordeal with the medical treatment he sought from some bum doctor. You'll prob. change your mind.

Nystyle709 wrote:

Supernova wrote:

Last I checked, doctors didn't have such a great track record either. You're 4 times more likely to die by a medical mistake a doctor makes than you are from being shot.

That's because more people, by the numbers, get advanced/terminal illnesses than people who get shot. Doctors are human but that doesn't mean every last one of them will diagnose you incorrectly. If a doctor diaganoses you with cancer and you go for a second, third, fourth, fifth opinion and they all diagnose you with the same thing.....you're going to ignore it? And instead rely on some backwoods treatment from some medical quack? You should read Cedella Marley's book about her son, Bob Marley. Read about his ordeal with the medical treatment he sought from some bum doctor. You'll prob. change your mind.

Doctors do make mistakes, and that's why there's more than one to consult. Anyone who is diagnosed with a terminal illness would be foolish to not get a 2nd and 3rd opinion....and if that 2nd and 3rd opinion not only agreed with the original physicians findings, but also recommended the same kind of treatment, then they'd be a fool to seek out some witch doctor or holistic kook for a bay leaf/lemon juice remedy instead.

To answer the OP though: no I'm not a subscriber in "alternative" medicine....at least not in place of the standard. Tell me I have cancer, and I'll be undergoing radiation therapy that my doctor recommended.