There is No Cure .... Or is There?

By Rick Coupland for the "Thy Kingdom Come" publication

“Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food”,  Hippocrates - The Father of Medicine

We are living in an age where all degenerative diseases are on the rise.  In Canada and the United States, it is said cancer will affect 1 in every 3 women and 1 in every 2 men in the coming years.  Diabetes, multiple sclerosis, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s   …. in every case the number of people falling victim to these terrible diseases is increasing.  Something has to change!

Modern medicine tells us that for many of these diseases, there is no known cure.  Despite the fact literally hundreds of billion of dollars have been poured into research over the years, cancer certainly appears to be a losing battle.

But is modern medicine taking the right approach in dealing with these diseases.  Over the years, there have been treatments for cancer that have provided excellent success rates.  Sadly, they continue to this day to be kept hidden from the public.

One of the better known cancer treatments that originated in Canada was Essiac.  The popularity of this herbal remedy began in the early 1920s, and was made famous by Nurse Rene Caisse.  Essiac is her name spelled backwards.  Its origin can be traced back to an Ojibwa herbalist, and consisted of 4 herbs:  sheep sorrel, burdock root, rhubarb root and slippery elm bark.  While we have to be careful nowadays what we label as a cure, (don’t want any lawsuits), many people touted it as such.  Working out of Bracebridge, Ontario, she was known to have treated thousands of cancer patients from all across Canada and the U.S.  Even many patients diagnosed with incurable types of cancer lived longer than they were expected to, free of pain .... some continuing on to live full lives.  And she never charged a single penny for her treatments, surviving only on donations.

Throughout her years of helping cancer patients, her work drew interest from many prominent doctors.  Dr. Richard Leonardo, a surgical specialist from Rochester, NY, was a skeptic at first, but after seeing its results claimed, “Young lady, I must congratulate you.  You have made a wonderful discovery.  I like your method of treatment.  I feel it will change the whole theory of cancer treatment and will eventually do away with surgery, radium and x-ray treatments for cancer.”

And there were others.  Dr. Frederick Banting of the Banting Institute, Department of Medical Research, University of Toronto, world famous for his discovery of insulin, was quoted as saying, “Miss Caisse, I will not say you have a cure for cancer.  But you have more evidence of a beneficial treatment for cancer than anyone in the world."  Dr. Charles A. Brusch, President John F. Kennedy’s personal physician, after researching Essiac for nearly 10 years, went one step further with his claim, “Essiac is a cure for cancer, period.  All studies done at laboratories in the United States and Canada support this conclusion."

Sadly, despite its proven effectiveness, Nurse Caisse was harassed by government and medical officials for her entire medical career.  “I have lost count of the number of times I have been threatened with arrest and imprisonment for treating patients with Essiac.”  Even though in 1937 the Royal Cancer Commission concluded Essiac was a cure for cancer, the Ontario government voted against legalizing Essiac one year later.

Essiac can be purchased these days in most health stores, though it is not certain if it is as effective as the original.

Other alternative cancer treatments have similar stories.  At the height of Harry Hoxsey's career in the 1950s, he had cancer clinics throughout 17 states in the U.S.  Using a herbal treatment that had been created by his great grandfather, and bearing the Hoxsey name, he claims to have helped thousands of cancer patients with this all natural treatment.  It is interesting to note that Essiac and the Hoxsey treatment did include some of the same herbs.

But, just like Nurse Caisse, Harry Hoxsey was constantly harassed by the medical association.  In fact, he was arrested more times than anybody else in medical history.  Was Hoxsey’s treatment really curing cancer?  District Attorney Al Templeton, the man responsible for personally arresting Hoxsey over 100 times, had a younger brother who had been diagnosed with colon cancer.  The cancer was spreading to the point that doctors told him there was nothing more they could do for him.  He secretly went to one of Hoxsey’s clinics, and was cured.  Upon hearing of this, the District Attorney “switched sides”, and became Harry Hoxsey’s lawyer.

In 1954, an independent team of ten physicians from around the United States investigated Hoxsey's clinic in Dallas, Texas.  After examining hundreds of case histories and interviewing patients and ex-patients, the doctors released the following report.  “The Hoxsey Clinic is successfully treating pathologically proven cases of cancer, both internal and external, without the use of surgery, radium or x-ray.  Accepting the standard yardstick of cases that have remained symptom free in excess of five to six years after treatment, established by medical authorities, we have seen sufficient cases to warrant such a conclusion.  Some of those presented before us have been free of symptoms as long as twenty-four years, and the physical evidence indicates that they are all enjoying exceptional health at this time.  We as a Committee feel that the Hoxsey treatment is superior to such conventional methods of treatment as x-ray, radium and surgery.  We are willing to assist this Clinic in any way possible in bringing this treatment to the American public.”

The FDA shut down all of Hoxsey’s clinics shortly after.  He was forced to move his practice to Mexico, where it continues to operate today.

Why are these treatments not being practised in wide use today?  Is it because they would not generate enough income for the pharmaceutical business?  After all, these herbal cures could be practically given away, just as Nurse Rene Caisse did with Essiac.

Laetrile is another popular alternative cancer therapy, yet once again we find it being scoffed at by the medical profession.  Known also as Vitamin B17, it is derived from the seeds of fruit, namely the apricot seed.  Laetrile can be taken in pill form, but is more effective when injected.  Many people eat 7 to 10 apricot seeds a day for preventative purposes.  Unfortunately raw apricot seeds aren’t sold in most health stores, (some sell sun dried apricot seeds, but they have all of their important enzymes destroyed), but you can purchase them off of the Internet.

Laetrile is said to be more effective treating some types of cancer than others, with the best results having been achieved with lung, prostate, breast, lymphomas, liver and brain cancer.  It is interesting to note that a highly publicized clinical trial conducted by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 1981 tried unsuccessfully to prove that Laetrile was ineffective and toxic.

The Gerson Therapy has been around for over 80 years, and was developed by Max Gerson.  The main component to this treatment is juicing, lots of it, drinking as much as 13 freshly squeezed vegetable juices per day.  Carrots are the main ingredient of most of the juices, along with other green leafy vegetables.  Along with eating raw vegetables, and including potassium, iodine, digestive enzymes and some vitamin injections, the therapy also includes much detoxifying.  It is also stressed not to eat certain foods, including sugar and dairy.  All cancer patients, regardless of their treatment, should avoid sugar, as cancer cells feed on it.

Max Gerson treated many hundreds of patients and continued to develop and refine his therapy up until his death in 1959, at the age of 78.  His most famous patient was Dr. Albert Schweitzer, whom Gerson cured of advanced diabetes when Schweitzer was 75.  Schweitzer returned to his African hospital, won the Nobel prize, and worked past age 90.  Schweitzer wrote "I see in Dr. Gerson one of the most eminent geniuses in the history of medicine."

It should be noted that juicing is another great prevention of cancer (and other diseases).  Getting raw fresh nutrients and enzymes directly into your system is its benefit.  All store-bought juices have gone through pasteurization or other similar heating processes, which destroys most of these nutrients and enzymes.

So what is the advantage to all of these alternative treatments?  They all contribute to our body’s immune system …. our God-given mechanism of preventing and curing all sickness.  Rather than destroying our body with drugs (poisons …. losing your hair and throwing up is not a sign of getting stronger), our goal should be to strengthen our immune system.  We want to not only beat the disease, but also keep it from returning.

Imagine if hospitals served freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juices 3 times a day, and included vitamins and supplements with each meal (instead of sugar-rich jellos and puddings, foods the medical profession should be telling you to avoid when trying to get better).  We would be leaving the hospital with a healthier immune system then when we arrived, which is the way it is supposed to be.

Perhaps it is time we start to look at natural treatments as medicine, and refer to modern medicine as alternative.