An Important Message About Chemotherapy from James Randi
January 14th, 2010
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Cancer treatment and especially chemotherapy seem to draw quacks like few other things. Various misinformed and dishonest parties will have made any number of claims about cancer therapy and have pushed their own forms of snake-oil as an alternative.
Of course, forgoing effective science-based treatment can result in unnecessary loss of life, but to those suckered the deadly lies can be very attractive. What makes things like chemotherapy such easy targets is that despite being lifesaving in the long run, the individual treatment sessions don’t make patients feel better and the side effects are well known for being unpleasant. This aids in perpetuating the myth that it makes things worse.
James Randi has just finished up a course of chemotherapy which he was on for a few months. Last time I saw him he had just finished some major abdominal surgery and was wheelchair bound (or rather, he was supposed to be, but he kept getting up out of the wheelchair despite being reminded that he shouldn’t do that so much.) Now that he’s done with his chemo he relates his experience in this video. Of course, we all wish him the best. His prognosis is excellent for two reasons: the cancer was detected early on and was treated immediately with the best that good, science-based medicine can provide.
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 14th, 2010 at 10:11 pm and is filed under Announcements, Bad Science, Good Science, Misc, Paranormal, Quackery, media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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January 15th, 2010 at 12:04 am
Good for Randi. I’m glad he’s doing fine. I could not help but notice he managed without the help of a little Mary Jane, though.
I have had several acquaintances go through the treatment now, (as my generation ages the Big C comes after more of us all the time) and all of them toked their side-effects away.
But all kidding aside this does work and is one other way of dealing with it – there is no good excuse to avoid chemo when it’s indicated.
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January 15th, 2010 at 1:52 am
go shoot yourself in the head…
THE DANCE OF DEATH ON THE WORLD TRADE CENTER
youtube.com/watch?v=-NHUbdqNb1A
THE END OF ATHEISM:
groups.google.com/group/alt.atheism/browse_thread/thread/a6147f423c8631f7#
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January 15th, 2010 at 1:57 am
Uh oh, mister pathetic raving psyco is back to tell us how nostradamus’s vague and plain stupid predictions are meaningful.
I’ll have to redefine the spam criteria to send this little piss-ant back to the junk pile again tomorrow morning.
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January 15th, 2010 at 2:05 am
go add some comment moderation you your blog of blasphemy, buzz0
and go shoot yourself in the head….
THE DANCE OF DEATH ON THE WORLD TRADE CENTER
youtube.com/watch?v=-NHUbdqNb1A
THE END OF ATHEISM:
groups.google.com/group/alt.atheism/browse_thread/thread/a6147f423c8631f7#
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January 15th, 2010 at 7:11 am
Athdead, seek help.
Psychosis is often caused by conditions that are treatable, sometimes even curable. Including brain cancer, drug abuse, schizophrenia, bipolar, severe depression, syphilis, electrolyte disorders, b-12 defficiency, brain damage and many others.
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January 15th, 2010 at 7:14 am
I’m glad to see he’s doing well. The world seems to be running out of brains and we need to preserve the ones we have (cue formaldehyde jokes).
I hope that when (if?) I get cancer that medicine has moved on far enough for it to be even gentler than this was.
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January 15th, 2010 at 7:17 am
Also trolls, like pigeons, require sustenance in order to produce the result of the digestive process.
Please do not feed the trolls.
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January 15th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
DV82XL said:
If it’s indicated as giving you a good chance of surviving and beating cancer, then absolutely, but I know there are some who give up on treatment because of the side effects and the fact that they don’t have a reasonable chance of survival with or without chemotherapy.
At some point the chemotherapy only is buying you some time, and possibly only a small amount anyway.
I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer to the question “Would you rather live a few months with nausea, tiredness, aches and the other side effects of chemotherapy, or would you rather live a few weeks, but in relative comfort?”
My uncle died of relatively aggressive cancer at the age of 88. When he was diagnosed it was pretty far along and the doctors told him that with aggressive treatment he could possibly stay alive another year or maybe two and with no treatment he’d be lucky to live another six months. He split the difference and had a few chemo treatments and then stopped it and went to hospice which treated the symptoms and kept him comfortable with painkillers. He died about nine months after. I respect his decision. He made it to 89, and he might have been able to hang onto another miserable year of treatment.
Mr. Randi is different though, because it sounds like his prognosis was good to begin with and he was otherwise fairly healthy and at his age, he could easily live another ten years. In his circumstance, not getting treated would be insanity. However, I do believe there are circumstances where it would be justifiable not to.
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January 15th, 2010 at 5:43 pm
Gordon said:
That is very true, there is a point in considering any medical treatment where palliative may be more appropriate rather that attempting to extend life at all costs.
The thing is this discussion should only come up in cases where there is a real quality of life issue, and not where some parent of an eight-year old child believes that chemo is a fraud concocted by the pharmaceutical industry to pick their pockets. Then justifying their decision by claiming that once they stopped the treatments and started praying over him, or put him under the ‘care’ of a naturopath, the kid started to feel better.
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January 15th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
Gordon said:
Yes that’s true, but that’s not the same as thinking that the chemotherapy is not helpful or that there is some more effective treatment, like parsley extract or prayer or homeopathy.
If you have cancer and forgo the recommended course of treatment, the only rational reason for that is that you realize that you’re going to die, you accept that without treatment it will happen faster and that is what you want.
DV82XL said:
Mr. Randi is not really the type to go for anything intoxicating unless absolutely necessary. He doesn’t even drink at all and I don’t believe he ever has (or at least has not for a long time.) He’s also not the type who would be likely to use anything that might impair his work ability or slow him down.
Actually, that was one thing I worried about with the chemotherapy – the one piece of doctor’s advice I think he’s most likely to disregard is “take it easy and relax.” His doctors did not want him to go o the meeting in July, just a week after surgery. They came to the compromise that he could but wanted him to stick to a wheelchair and not walk around. He had a wheelchair, but he kept getting out of it – probably more than they would have wanted.
If I were ever to be in a position where I were on chemotherapy, I don’t know if I would use canibus to dull the side effects. As I understand it, many say that it works fairly well at getting them relaxed and letting them sleep and most of all, it gives them some appetite back and lessens the nausea.
That may be so, but I’ve had universally negative experiences with the stuff. I have no moral objection to it, but I can honestly say I’ve tried it and did not enjoy it. (yeah I’ve tried it a few times, so that makes me a horrible person and a punk/thug/rapscallion) In general, I find the experience starts off with some smoke that tastes bad and makes me cough. After it kicks in, I get a little tired and then start thinking “I really really don’t like this feeling and I am looking forward to it going away.” Then I get increasingly paranoid and depressed until I’m in tears and go to bed hoping I’ll wake up having completely sobered.
I find it makes it hard to be alert and percieve reality accurately. The room starts rocking and things get our of focus and voices no longer make clear concise statements and start to fade to mumbling. I’m not as quick and perceptive. I hate that. I absolutely hate that. I like my situational awareness to always be 100% and not having that is unpleasant and makes me get paranoid.
I’m not one who buys into the reefer madness or anything. It’s just not for me. Not my bag, baby.
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