First up is the old favourite of idiots and naturopaths everywhere: baking soda. Despaulniers claims that taking 1 tsp of baking soda in lemon juice can both prevent and cure cancer by raising the body's pH. This approach is based on a half-baked theory invented by Tullio Simoncini that cancer is caused by a yeast infection and that all cancer contain fungi. He claims that sodium bicarbonate in baking soda can kill fungal infections and must therefore be able to kill cancer. In the real world, however, sodium bicarbonate has no effect on cancer or even on fungal infections. Here, Despaulniers not only recommends a completely ineffective therapy but displays a complete lack of understanding of the very basics of human physiology and cancer development. The notion that cancer grows in an acidic environment is completely baseless. An acidic pH is perfectly natural in your skin, for example, in order to kill bacteria and prevent infection, and in your stomach to aid in digestion. Even if sodium bicarbonate did have an effect, your body has a complex mechanism to maintain body tissues at their correct pH and will quickly counteract the alkaline effects of a small amount of baking soda. In fact, it would probably already be counteracted by the acidic lemon juice, Despaulniers claims you should take with it. While the small dose recommended in this article would probably be harmless, larger doses can increase the pH of your blood and are in fact dangerous, leading to seizures, coma and heart arrhythmias.
Despaulnier's second recommendation, Blood Root, is probably her most dangerous. This product has even been listed in the FDA's "187 Fake Cancer "Cures" Consumers Should Avoid" due to its dangerous and toxic effects. It has been tested in laboratory and animal experiments with poor success but not in humans and is in no way safe to use. While the author claims that this product kills cancer cells only and does not damage healthy cells, it actually works by basically burning everything in its path. Used externally, it can cause serious skin damage and can lead to disfiguring scarring and one can only imagine what it would do if ingested as suggested by Despaulniers.
Also in this article, the author jumps right on the Vitamin D bandwagon. Numerous studies have been conducted to investigate the link between Vitamin D and cancer and have found that it may provide a minor protective effect against colorectal cancer only. Taking large doses in order to cure cancer may in fact be dangerous, as is exposing yourself to the sun in order to get your body to make more Vitamin D. Vitamin D is often administered to cancer patients with calcium in order to counteract the damaging effects some cancer drugs may have on bone and maybe this is where Despaulniers is confused. Naturopaths in general seem to think that doctors are hiding the effects of Vitamin D in an effort to make more money selling chemotherapy drugs. This couldn't be further from the truth. If a cheap and simple cure is available for a disease, a doctor will always use it. For example, the first step in treating patients with diabetes or high blood pressure is getting them to exercise more and improve their diet. Similarly in Wilson's Disease where there is a build-up of excess copper in the body, the treatment is simply to remove some blood at regular intervals in order to return body copper levels to normal.
Despaulniers makes one of her wildest claims in her support of the rather disgusting sounding combination of flax seeds and cottage cheese which forms part of a low-fat diet created by Johanna Budwig. According to the author, this treatment has 90% success rate spanning 50 years. There is absolutely no evidence for this incredible claim and I can only conclude that Despaulniers simply invented it. Only small studies have ever been conducted and have shown that it may produce a small decrease in the rate of growth of prostate cancer. A more recent study has suggested that it is the low-fat diet (which is really just a good idea in general) that has an effect and not the flax seed or cottage cheese.
This is not the end of the author's statistical inventing however, as in her next suggestion she claims that 85% of the world's population is iodine deficient and that this is responsible for large amounts of cancer. Iodine deficiency is usually common in areas of the world in which iodine is not found sufficient quantities in the soil. This puts about 2.2 billion people in the world at risk of iodine deficiency but it is almost impossible to say how many of these are actually iodine deficient. Even if every one of these individuals was iodine deficient, it would still be a long way short of Despaulniers estimation. Iodine deficiency leads to disorders of the thyroid gland and may produce a small increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer but there is no link between iodine deficiency and other forms of cancer.
The one therapy recommended in this article that may actually have a role in the treatment of cancer is melatonin but once again Despaulniers completely misinterprets the available information. When properly administered melatonin may increase the effectiveness of conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy or may prolong survival in terminal cancer patients. However, most of the research on melatonin has been done on small groups of patients by a small group of Italian researchers. It requires much more investigation before it can be recommended in the standard treatment of cancer and using melatonin on its own is not likely to have any effect at all.
To avoid repeating myself, and boring you further, the remaining treatment recommended in this article can all basically be lumped together. Chaga, Essiac Tea, Hemp Oil and Brocolli Sprouts either have no evidence to support their use or have been studied only in animal and laboratory experiments which give no indication of how they will work in humans. Maybe brocolli sprouts taste nice but that's about it really.
While Ms. (Not Dr.) Despaulniers claims to be the "Breast Cancer Conqueror" her suggestions in this article provide no evidence of that. At best, the "cures" she recommends are harmless but at worst they may be dangerous with some, like Blood Root, causing immediate harm. The most dangerous part of her advice though is that it may result in someone using these "therapies" instead of seeking conventional medical treatment. While surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy are usually incredibly difficult and unpleasant, they offer real hope to patients unlucky enough to develop cancer. Taking advice from this witch-doctor, however, can have only one tragic conclusion.
- http://www.naturalnews.com/036458_cancer_remedies_blood_root_vitamin_D.html
- http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/TreatmentsandSideEffects/ComplementaryandAlternativeMedicine/index
- http://www.cancer.gov/
- http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/EnforcementActivitiesbyFDA/ucm171057.htm
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