'Chemotherapy killed Patrick Swayze'

The Times of India ^ | 19 Sep 09 | Staff

[airborne]

Chemo is different for everyone who goes through it.

For me it was rough, but in the end it saved my life.

I wouldn’t put too much stock in an interview of Somers by the Times of India.

[CottShop]

[[I agree, he had a much better chance had he raised his bodies PH which would have brought his blood oxygen level way up (which kills cancer).]]

I can’t agree with that- I know of a couple of people who stopped their chemo and went ‘all natural’ at some well known all natural ‘healing centers’ in the U.S, and died before the ‘estimate’ given had they been on chemo. I think probably the best course woudl be to do both- chemo and natural

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

I heard Swayze was experimenting with alternative treatments too. That may have had something to do with him living longer than most people with the same illness.

[kcat]

P.S. I am so happy for all of you who are cancer survivors!

[Kakaze]

Just because many will read this, my mother lost a kidney in 1972, a golf ball sized cancer.

She is still going great at that time they gave her 5 years.

God has blessed us.

[mysterio]

If I had cancer, I would have chemo.

There was a time when "natural" medicine was the only medicine available. During that era, the human life expectancy was around 40 years.

There are a lot of people on the internet who advocate that system of medicine. I'm not one of them.

[samiam1972]

My dad had chemo for a year. It made him very weak. I’ve never seen him that frail. However, 8 years later and cancer free, he is back to his usual self. I’m grateful to his doctors and the treatment he received.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Panceatic cancer doesn't compare with breast cancer.

I disagree. Pancreatic cancer is in the top 3 of cancers, probably after lung and liver cancer. Lots of women have survived breast cancer.

[Netizen]

Thanks for that post. Good to see that she used common sense.

[norge]

Unfortunately, having liver disease probably will make one incoherent, in and of itself. Too much ammonia in the brain.

[mysterio]

I agree, he had a much better chance had he raised his bodies PH which would have brought his blood oxygen level way up (which kills cancer). He should have worked on his Gut Flora, eating lots of leafy greens

He had pancreatic cancer. Not treating it would have resulted in him dying much earlier.

[conservativesister]

Tell me about Magnesium and NAC etc? Inquiring minds want to know where to get the info - Thanks

[CottShop]

[[Pancreatic cancer is a death sentence — often within 6 months. Swayze lived with it for two years, and while that is not unheard of, it is certainly remarkable.]]

Exactly- Patrick, while probably sick fro mthe chemo- did get an ‘extra’ two years- it’s a tough call to make though- it woudl be easier to make for certain cancers that have a good success rate when undergoign chemo- but for soem cancers, it’s a real tough call- The woam we bought our last house from survived three seperate cancers thanks to chemo and radiation, and lived into her 90’s- she was a tough old bird, and the chemo didn’t seem ot make her as sick as soem peopel I’ve seen on it- She used to take a ‘slurp of Brandy’ to help ease the stomach sickness, and hse had gotten her first cancer as a young woman- beat that, got naother type, beat that, and then got another kind which was mostly under control toward hte end of her life.

[BossLady]

I agree 100% on the pH factor! Drink water with a 9.5pH and a negative ORP of about minus 300-1200 and you have really have a good mix to help beat off cancer even if you decide to take chemo and/or radiation.

[TennesseeGirl]

I haven't walked in "cancer" shoes so my opinion is not based on experience. I'd have to think long & hard before doing chemo or radiation. I do believe alternative treatment may be as beneficial because cancer is the result of an out-of-whack immune system. We all develop "cancers" daily. With a healthy immune system those cells are shut down. Without a healthy immune system, the cells continue dividing and growing into a monster. I feel like we're foolish to think a holistic approach is unscientific voodoo. The few oncologists I have been acquainted with are not likely to be open to a combo of mainstream healththink and alternative therapies. I guess they feel like it isn't wise to boost your own immune system when they are trying to shoot it down via chemo & radiation in an effort to kill the cancer before it kills its host.

Cancer is ultimately the result of cells that uncontrollably grow and do not die. Normal cells in the body follow an orderly path of growth, division, and death. Programmed cell death is called apoptosis, and when this process breaks down, cancer begins to form. Unlike regular cells, cancer cells do not experience programmatic death and instead continue to grow and divide. This leads to a mass of abnormal cells that grows out of control. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/cancer-oncology/whatiscancer.php

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

I agree with you.
It isn’t that the cancerous cells that attack the pancreas are any more lethal than other types of cancer cells. The problem with pancreatic cancer is that the pancreas does not contain the spread of the cells to the organ. That is, metastasis is far more aggressive with pancreatic cancer than other types.

Chemo is often one of the last-ditch efforts. If a cancer patient dies while or immediately after receiving chemo, it is very difficult to accurately blame the treatment or the disease.

[cpdiii]

30 years ago cancer was a death sentence. Today we cure many and the percentage is now on the patients side. However, very very very few survive pancreatic cancer.

Chemo is hell on the body. However, if it saves your life it is worth that hell. At a certain point in some cases it becomes obvious that the chemo will not save the patient. The patient can continue the chemo and live a bit longer but his quality of life may not be very much. This then becomes a decision for the patient. Relative to myself if I every get in this situation I would suspend all therapy except hydration and pain relief.

[ElectronVolt]

This reminds me of one of my wife's customers who got rid of her microwaves because the radiation kills everything in the food...whatever that means. I bit my tongue, not wanting to chase away a customer who obviously knew nothing about science.

I'm not a medical doctor, and neither is Ms. Somers. Yet it doesn't take a doctor to know that drugs go through a lot of testing to prove they work. If they didn't treat cancer and only filled the body with poison, no doctor would use them. Sure they have side effects. A lot of the drugs work on actively reproducing cells, cancer or not, so they destroy tissue. Also, there are the targeted therapy drugs like Gleevac that are less of a shotgun.

I remember reading a book by the alternative health doctor Andrew Weil. Even he said if he had cancer, he'd go for traditional medicine to treat it.

[novemberslady]

Thank you for posting your own experience.

[FormerACLUmember]

Suzanne Somers is a functional moron. Here are the (2002) survival rates. Note that pancreatic cancer is pretty much hopeless, so chemotherapy may not offer much benefit.

2009 rates are improved. US cancer treatment is by far the best in the world. Prostate survival rates for socialized Europe are far, far lower than US rates, for example.