Cancer
Recovery Guide: 15 Alternative and Complementary Strategies for
Restoring Health
by Jonathan Chamberlain
Clairview Books, Hillside House, The
Square, Forest Road, East Sussex RH18 5ES; www.clairviewbooks.com
Softcover; c. 2008; £9.95 (approximately $19.75); 168 pp.
Jonathan Chamberlain is not a physician,
and that may be all the better when it comes to writing a guide
to alternative cancer therapies. He is a good writer and avoids
slathering on the medical jargon that makes most health books arcane
or tedious. Most lay folks enter the field of cancer either by getting
cancer or taking care of a loved one with cancer, and Chamberlain
was no exception. In his case, his wife prematurely developed cancer,
and she dutifully attended the medical clinic in London undergoing
surgery, radiation treatment, and chemotherapy. She apparently had
an aggressive tumor, and none of the treatments effectively abated
the progression of the disease. Within a year, she was dead, and
Chamberlain was distraught, not only with the outcome of her disease
but with the sheer ineffectiveness of the treatment she was offered.
Hence, Chamberlain was inspired to explore the cancer field and
study its ways.
For a book shorter than 200 pages, with big print, Chamberlain's
Cancer Recovery Guide packs
a lot of discussion on theory and treatment into what may be the
best read on alternative therapies for cancer. He previously published
a much larger book, Cancer: The
Complete Recovery Guide, as an
e-book (2007, www.fightingcancer.com),
which discusses the therapies in much greater depth. Yet the shorter
Cancer Recovery Guide
covers alternative and complementary therapies with enough information
to interest readers in the therapies and encourage their use. In
just a few pages, Chamberlain offers a great comeback argument for
the hardcore health professionals and the cynical journalists who
dispute that alternative therapies play any legitimate role in treating
cancer. Indeed, the worried and disbelieving family members who
attempt to dissuade any participation with alternative medicine
would have great difficulty debating Chamberlain's discussion except
to offer the same tired quip that, "if the alternative method
was good treatment, then your oncologist would be asking you to
do it." If we could get the health professional and the worried
family member to just read Chamberlain's "basics on cancer,"
the road to trying alternative therapies will be far easier for
the patient.
When I was involved with the Congressional Technology Assessment's
group asked to study unconventional cancer therapies in the late
1980s, we were deflated by the researchers' extensive discussion
of meditation and visualization as effective alternative therapies
compared to using laetrile and vitamin C. Somewhat arrogantly, we
thought that we, "the alternative cancer community," were
being blindsided by university biofeedback researchers who were
writing tomes on the wonders of relaxation techniques. How could
we finally get the privilege of having a Congressional study of
unconventional cancer therapies only to have that study seemingly
ignore or belittle the great minds of the past century, like Max
Gerson, or maverick practitioners, like Donald Kelly? In fact, none
of these cancer heroes were ignored, but the study group found tremendous
fault with their work compared with the meditation workers who were
given nearly impeccable standing. Chamberlain credits the biofeedback
community with posing the top four strategies in helping to cure
one's cancer. While some cancer clinics offer work on positive mental
attitude, Chamberlain observes that most clinics are little more
than chemotherapy profit centers with little incentive to get patients
on the right track. "Harnessing the Healing Power of the Mind,"
"Loving and Forgiving Yourself and Others," "Relaxing
and Laughing" are the chapter heads for proven therapies that
all cancer clinics, orthodox and alternative, should offer at the
onset to increase the odds of surviving cancer.
The crème-de-la-crème of the Cancer
Recovery Guide unquestionably
is the discussion of alternative therapies, which range from the
use of intravenous vitamin C to Essiac, from alkalizing the body
to detoxification strategies, from Budwig's use of flaxseed oil
mixed in cottage cheese to PolyMVA, and from Rife Machine frequencies
to unapproved use of drugs, including Digitalis and Cimetidine.
Chamberlain looks at the therapies that have the most background,
like Gerson's diet and colonic enemas, and at the ones that appear
to be the least supportable, such as Hulda Clark's contention that
all cancers arise from an intestinal fluke and exposure to propyl
alcohol from household and cosmetic product use. With a nice index,
the patient and the doctor can have a "15-second" read
about a medical alternative right at their fingertips.
I am delighted to have found Chamberlain's work in such an easy-to-read
form. With patient anecdotes and connections to patients' treatment
strategies through their own websites, this book deserves to be
placed in the patient library or to be offered for sale from the
dispensary.
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