Review by Yeong Sek Yee & Khadijah Shaari

When an award–winning investigative journalist, Loretta Schwartz-Nobel was assigned to investigate the epidemic surges in autism, birth defects, breast and lung cancers, asthma and clusters of other illnesses in cities and towns in the US, it began a chain of research that opened up to a frightening world of hidden contamination in the US and around the world.

Poisoned Nation links the soaring epidemics of cluster illness to the chemical contamination of water, air, food and everyday products for the profit and power of a reckless few. With irrefutable evidence and moving personal stories of the sick and dying, it shows how the government operates in tandem with America’s most notorious polluters, and how they have deceived the public, buried evidence of spreading disease, and suppressed critical scientific data. Poisoned Nation also traces the relationships between organizations whose products cause diseases and those who profit from diagnosing and treating them, as well as their efforts to avoid research into environmental causes and possible cures

The book exposed the conspiracy of corrupt politicians, negligent regulators and greedy industry leaders covering up the epidemic of poisoned food, water and air that, the author claims, is filling up the  hospitals, killing children and spreading cancer, birth defects, autism and leukemia.

One particular area the author explored and exposed was the cluster of cancers (specifically leukemia) at most of the military camps in the US. At Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, she discovered that quite a number of children of the marines stationed there died from acute lymphocytic leukemia, which is known to be caused by either radiation exposure or drinking contaminated water.

Schwartz-Nobel learned that for years the military had dumped highly toxic chemicals into trenches within feet of the base’s drinking-water wells. Elsewhere, crops including apples, potatoes, and spinach, raised on farms downstream from factories, were tested positive for carcinogenic chemicals in toxic amounts. Contaminated ground water just keeps moving and the contamination of ground water means the contamination of water everywhere.

(So, how safe is Malaysia’s Lynas project??).

The initial chapters of the book dealt with the dangers of contaminated ground water which goes on to form toxins in foods with the constant use of pesticides and herbicides that are sprayed on the grass or vegetables. Sometimes, the vegetables even acts as a concentrator to these chemicals.

Scientists had long feared that these chemicals could end up in and perhaps even be concentrated in breast milk. In fact, in July 2005, a renowned non-profit organization known as the Environmental Working Group conducted a study on newborn babies in US hospitals. They found 287 industrial chemicals and pollutants in the umbilical cord blood taken from a sample of ten babies. These chemicals included pesticides, flame-retardants, chemicals from non-stick cooking pans and plastics. On average, each baby has been exposed to 200 chemicals even before they were born.

Successive chapters in the book dealt with mercury as an airborne pollutant, and its role in the association between vaccinations and autism; and breast cancer in US women and the role of toxic compounds in the environment, and mammography-derived radiation, in causing this disease.

Despite a global ban on methyl bromide, an acutely toxic chemical known to cause devastating birth defects, it is still being sprayed on Christmas trees, fruits, and vegetables sold in America. The EPA has refused to reveal the extent of methyl bromide’s use and the country’s stored supply of the product.

The soaring epidemic of autism could not have taken place without the cooperation of drug companies, the government, scientists, and health officials. The worldwide poisoning of children during routine vaccinations continues today, especially in Third World countries.

Many doctors and scientists have proven that the increase in autism is directly linked to the number of scheduled vaccinations babies received. Many of the vaccines contain a mercury additive called thimerosal, a dangerous, highly toxic preservative that stops contamination of vaccines and preserves shelf life at very low cost to drug manufacturers.

(In America, short-term profits are valued over life)

These drug manufacturers knew from the start that its products could cause damage or even death in both animals and humans and that….”mercury in the form of thimerosal was 50 times more toxic to susceptible infants than mercury from the consumption of fish was to young children.”

Injected mercury is more toxic than injested mercury. There is no blood-brain barrier in infants, so mercury accumulates in brain cells and nerves. Finally, infants under 6 months do not produce bile, which is necessary to excrete mercury. Mercury in thimerosal is stored in the gut, liver, and brain and…becomes very tightly bound to the cells

(NB: All mothers with newly born babies or expecting mothers should read more about vaccinations).

In Chapter 6, The Breast Cancer Industry, we learn that:

• The FDA allows thousands of cosmetic hair dyes and personal-care products known to contain carcinogens to remain unregulated and to be sold daily to millions of American men, women, and children even as links with cancer have been clearly established.
• A wide range of personal care products, including shampoos, hair conditioners, cleansers, lotions, and creams, are dangerously contaminated with intense concentrations of the highly volatile 1,4 dioxane (a solvent), which is classified as a human carcinogen.
• The American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute have long known that mammograms used for diagnosis actually increase the risk of breast cancer, especially in younger women, yet they continue to recommend this diagnostic method. As Barbara Brenner, an activist and breast cancer survivor explained….mammograms do not prevent cancer. At best, they find it and at worst, they cause it. Mammography screening is a profit driven technology creating risks that are compounded by unreliability.
• …drug companies, in addition to profiting from cancer treatment drugs, sometimes also produce toxic chemicals that may be contributing to the high rates of cancer (in US) and increasing rates throughout the world.

In Chapter 7, The New Lung Cancer Pandemic, we catch a glimpse into how the tobacco industry’s marketing strategies work:

• For fifty years, the truth about addiction and disease from smoking was deliberately hidden from the public….smoking is the single largest cause of premature death from chemical contamination in the US (and perhaps the whole world).
• Free samples are given to young children (as young as 7 years) and they become addicted to the cigarettes. The expense of giving away free samples to innocent kids all over the world is dwarfed by the long term economic gain through deadly addiction of yet another generation.
• About 80,000 to 100,000 young people are drawn in, tricked, then newly addicted to the chemicals in tobacco everyday and 4.9 million people die every year from tobacco-related illnesses. This is the equivalent of approx 35 jumbo jet planes crashing everyday of the year!!
• Cigarette manufacturers purposely use special chemical additives to make cigarettes that provide extremely high levels of “free” nicotine, in order to increase the addictive speed…the additives are also used to enhance the taste of tobacco smoke. The addition of flavorings is designed to make cigarettes more appealing to children and other first-time users.
• Some of the additives are toxic or addictive in their own right or in combination. When these additives are burned, new products are formed, and these, too, may be toxic or pharmacologically active.

Even people who don’t smoke are placed at much more extreme risk for lung cancer and other illness from contaminated air than we are led to believe, especially children and women. Nonsmoking women increase their lung cancer risk by 24 % when they live with a smoker….their risk is increased by 39 % when they work with people who smoke and an astounding 50 %  when they hang out with smokers in such social settings as bars and restaurants.

Dana Reeve was one such case. A singer and actress, she was married to Christopher Reeve aka Superman. In Aug 2005, Dana was diagnosed with lung cancer. Although a non smoker all her life, Dana was exposed to secondhand smoke in the clubs she sang at. Eight months later she was dead despite all the scientifically tested chemotherapy drugs she was treated with after diagnosis.

Hence it is not difficult to understand why lung cancer has reached such pandemic proportions in America and worldwide.

Conclusion:

From the above summary, the title of the book is most apt to describe America….a POISONED NATION. But honestly, we feel Malaysia is not very far away in achieving the poisoned nation status. What do you think?

Further related references:

SILENT SPRING…Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was first published in three serialized excerpts in the New Yorker in June of 1962. The book appeared in September of that year and the outcry that followed its publication forced the banning of DDT and spurred revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water. Carson’s passionate concern for the future of our planet reverberated powerfully throughout the world, and her eloquent book was instrumental in launching the environmental movement.

LIVING DOWNSTREAM by Sandra Steingraber, a biologist, poet, and survivor of cancer in her twenties, brings all three perspectives to bear on the most important health and human rights issue of our time: the growing body of evidence linking cancer to environmental contaminations. Her scrupulously researched scientific analysis ranges from the alarming worldwide patterns of cancer incidence to the sabotage wrought by cancer-promoting substances on the intricate workings of human cells.

POLLUTANTS, HUMAN HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT by Professor Jane Plant is a comprehensive, up-to-date overview of environmental pollutants that are of current concern to human health. Clearly structured throughout, the main body of the book is divided by pollutant type with a chapter devoted to each group of pollutants. Each chapter follows a similar format to facilitate comparison and discussion. For each pollutant, the authors describe the sources, pathways, environmental fate and known toxicological effects.

While uploading our ebooks in Smashwords I came across this book by Sonja M. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/399635

Why did she write this ebook:  Because  … “my father was diagnosed with colon cancer, and less than a year later, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.”

So Sonja started to do some reading and researching. And these are what the author wrote:

Let’s face it, cancer is a Billion-Dollar Business. This means that the FDA and pharmaceutical companies that promote and sell cancer drugs have a lot to gain if they can get you to buy what they are selling. Most cancer treatments are temporary at best, with little to offer in the way of actually curing the disease.

Who Can We Rely On?

What we know for sure is that cancer is a man-made disease. It is also a fact that we can get cancer from everyday living conditions. In order to change direction, we must first shift our focus.

Prevention begins with You, so be selective about the information that you choose to rely upon, because some of the current recommendations are not only outdated, but they can be downright deadly — all in the name of financial gain.

In order to achieve progression, we must become proactive.”

Most of the medications that are advertised on television paint a beautiful picture of the drug making it sound as if it will cure whatever is ailing you; but then you hear the laundry list of side effects…..”This drug may cause dizziness, heart problems, seizures, incontinence, blood clots, cancer and death.”

Does it really benefit you to take a medication to cure one problem if the side effects will create even more?

What is the government doing in the war against cancer? 

During Richard Nixon’s presidency, he allotted 1.6 billion dollars to wage a war against cancer by creating the National Cancer Act in 1971. This gave birth to the National Cancer Program, and many hoped that this act would lead to a cure for cancer in the near future.

Sadly, most Americans have not and will not benefit from the advancements that resulted from the National Cancer Act, because of the problems in our political system.

Even though 40 years have passed, the war is still going strong but the optimism has faded.

Where Are We Now In The War Against Cancer?

The war on cancer is somewhat like the war on drugs … It will never be won.

Why? Because there is more profit in treating cancer than in curing it.

When the government and pharmaceutical companies evolve enough where people become more important than profits, it is then that we will find a cure. Until that day arrives, we need to seek out ways to prevent it from happening in the first place.

The Conspiracy of Pharmaceutical Companies

The main objective of the American Cancer Society is to provide warm hands of service to people who already have cancer, and to promote the prevention of the disease to those who don’t.

The ACS should be prioritizing the needs of people with cancer, but since their funding comes from the donations given by various organizations and large pharmaceutical companies, their priorities come first.

If “Big Pharma” can continue to push the industry to rely on their treatments, they can continue to make the money that enables them to donate to the “cause.”

Sound familiar? Of course it does…this is exactly what happens in our government –“You scratch my back, and I‘ll scratch yours.”

Why would the ACS be associating with people who are clearly in the business of Cancer? In a word… MONEY.

The ACS is a non-profit organization, and yet the CEO earns $2 million dollars a year? They claim that this is done to have “stable management” within the organization. Imagine what that same $2 million dollars per year could do for 100 patients and their families who are dealing with cancer?

Doctors Pressuring Patients to go for “Standard Care”

As people begin to educate themselves about alternative therapies, they begin to shy away from what is known as “standardized care. “

On the other hand, doctors tend to push for this standard care because it brings them income. This income is not just from their patients; it also comes in the form of kickbacks from the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture the drugs that they prescribe to you and me.

Chemotherapy – Friend or Foe?

It is a known fact that once a patient undergoes chemotherapy, his quality of life decreases. It is definitely not a 100% sure way to fight cancer, and the side effects are usually severe. For some, cancer comes out of remission with a vengeance attacking the healthy cells that are in its path.

Chemotherapy poisons your body in an attempt to kill the cancer cells before the actual “treatment” even begins. And since chemotherapy harms your good cells, it harms your body as a whole. But instead of warning us about the dangers of this treatment, a large portion of the medical community continues to advocate its use.

Despite the many promising but unreliable benefits of chemotherapy, it’s easy to see why most doctors highly recommend this method of treatment instead of alternative methods. As long as doctors and pharmaceutical companies continue to make money from chemotherapy, they will continue to recommend it to us.

Aside from being dangerous, chemotherapy can be very expensive …..

Some of the side effects of chemotherapy include: excruciating pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, bleeding, dizziness, loss of hair, and the inability to sleep or eat.

According to Chemotherapyfacts.com, the following cancer drug is one of the newer cancer treatments that can cost as much as $10,000. 

Oxaliplatin – this drug is used in combination with other medications to treat advanced cancer of the colon or rectum.

The mild side effects include: constipation, decreased appetite, diarrhea, dizziness, fatigue, hair loss, gas, hiccups, headache, stomach pain, muscle or joint aches, runny nose, vomiting, heartburn, increased tears, nausea, change in taste, problems sleeping, and weight loss.

Here are just a few of the severe side effects:  Vision loss, wheezing, trouble walking, swallowing or speaking, problems performing daily tasks like writing or buttoning a shirt, unusual bruising or bleeding, irregular heartbeat, muscle pain or cramps (symptoms of low potassium levels), blood in the stool, yellowing of the eyes, dark urine and pale stools, nausea and loss of appetite (symptoms of liver problems), blood in urine, slurred speech, confusion, fainting and persistent dizziness.

Wow, if the treatment phase doesn’t kill you, the side effects surely will!

Review by Yeong Sek Yee & Khadijah Shaari

Dr Ian Gawler, OAM, BVSc, a veterinarian and decathlon athlete before his diagnosis, is Australia’s most “notorious” cancer patient. He is the Founder and Therapeutic Director of The Gawler Foundation. A pioneer in mind/body medicine and long-term cancer survivor, Dr Gawler is an experienced and respected authority on meditation, self-help techniques and a healthy lifestyle. Dr Gawler began Australia’s first active cancer support group in 1981 and is on the Advisory Board of the Australasian Integrative Medicine Association. In 1987, he was awarded the Order of Australia Medal.

At the end of 1974 Dr Ian Gawler, an ambitious young veterinarian and athlete, developed bone cancer (osteogenic sarcoma) in his right leg. In January 1975, the leg was amputated at the hip. While there were no signs of the cancer anywhere else in the body, he was told that only 5% of patients could expect to be alive five years after surgery. In fact, the cancer did reappear, and spread to his pelvis and chest in November 1975.

In December 1975, with widespread bony and pulmonary metastases, Gawler underwent 3 palliative radiotherapy treatments to the lower spine but he found it was ineffective for pain relief. Subsequently, the oncologist suggested a two year course of adriamycin, vincristine, cyclophosphamide and dacarbazine. However, after 10 weeks treatment, the cancer had only slightly diminished in size over the period of treatment. Despite his oncologist’s warning of “rapid rebound if treatment was ceased,” Gawler elected to discontinue further chemotherapy treatment.

By March 1976, Gawler’s cancer specialists thought that he would live only two more weeks. Gawler refused to give up, and began studying meditation and following a strict diet, pursuing an intense regime of research, introspection and personal development. Against all odds and prognosis, he tried all other available treatments. Later, his cancer began to retreat and he was eventually declared clear of cancer in 1978.

Watch his story on YouTube as follows:

1)      Interview with Ian Gawler, author of You Can Conquer Cancer

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDnpbHSmmgk

You Can Conquer Cancer was first published in 1984. Since then, it has been reprinted 16 times and translated into 14 languages. It has become one of the most widely-read books on the subject of cancer prevention and cancer management. At the time of publication, Dr Gawler’s ideas and concepts were regarded as innovative and controversial, but have since received substantial scientific recognition and validation both in Australia and internationally.

This new edition (published 2013), is completely updated and  enlarged upon what is a truly integrated, holistic approach to cancer; emphasizing diet, the power of the mind, meditation, family and social support and the spiritual dimension of life.

Dr Gawler is a firm believer of meditation, which he believes is the single most powerful self-help tool that assists recovery from disease and leads to a life of maximum health…and it has direct physical effects ranging from relief of physical tension to reactivation of the immune system. This perhaps, explained why the book has 6 chapters devoted to the principles and practice of meditation and mind training.

Likewise, Gawler devoted 4 chapters to explain the principles behind healthy nutrition, the foods that heal and the concepts of his Wellness Diet and the Healing Diet. To emphasize the importance of nutrition, let us share with you the following quotes from his book:

• What is so special about the human species, the human body that leaves medical educationalists (what he means is the medical doctors) believing that what it eats is of no importance?
• Food builds our body…if you want a junk body, eat junk food. Want a healthy body, eat healthy food. Want a body that just manages to function? Well, feed it whatever.
• If you want a body that is capable of remarkable healing, then it makes sense to fill it up with the best fuel possible.

To be long term survivors, cancer patients (he calls them thrivers) must value what they eat as a major factor in their recovery….perhaps, Gawler’s most daring advice for all cancer patients is summed up in the following sentence:

“Diet is not the total answer to cancer, but without a good diet, there is no answer.”  

Watch his views on nutrition at the following:

2)      Dr. Ian Gawler: Eating Well Being Well at Spiritgrow Josef Kryss

Link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uypAUpACyzM

Related to the practice of meditation for a calm mind, Gawler strongly believed that healthy emotions play an important part in healing. Let us give you his advice:

“Put simply, healthy emotions are authentic emotions. When emotions flow easily, comfortably, authentically; health and wellbeing follows. Stifled emotions, repressed emotions, fabricated emotions, all weaken the potential for healing as well as significantly reducing our sense of wellbeing.”

How then to change a deeply ingrained habit? How do we learn to release emotions safely? (Read Chapter 16 and 17 or consult a qualified hypnotherapist).

The author ended the book with a chapter on Death and Dying. Why is there such a chapter on death and dying? Isn’t this all about conquering cancer, about being positive and getting well? Let us share with you his wisdom:

“Many people have enough fear about dying to not only significantly inhibit their chances of recovery, but to adversely affect the very way they live. Learning how to transform the fear of dying leaves us free to heal. When we live a life informed by death, we really appreciate how precious life is, as well as how fragile it can be. So we value life; we value each moment.”

FURTHER RESOURCES ON DR IAN GAWLER: 

1)   THE GAWLER FOUNDATION: Since 1981 when Ian began one of the world’s first lifestyle-based cancer support groups, his work has expanded in three ways. One aspect is the focus on healing; another involves professional trainings and speaking engagements, while the third focuses on disease prevention, health and wellbeing.

Visit the Foundation’s website at: www.gawler.org

2)   Dr Gawler’s personal blog….www.gawlerblog.com….do visit the blog and sign up for his newsletter, OUT ON A LIMB…very informative. Dr Gawler has written many other books on meditation and nutrition. You can view them in the above website/blog.

ENDNOTE:

We introduced Dr Ian Gawler as Australia’s most “notorious” cancer patient. Why?

Watch out for the story later.

Review by Yeong Sek Yee & Khadijah Shaari

The author, Jane Plant, was formerly the Professor of Geochemistry and Chief Scientist at the British Geological Survey, London with a DSc and seven honorary degrees and many prizes and distinctions for her contribution to science. She was awarded a CBE for her work in relation to human health. In 2005, she was made a Life Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine for her books on cancer and was later appointed to the Prince’s Trust Foundation for Integrated Health.

In 1987, at age 42, and with two young children, she was diagnosed with breast cancer for the first time. Within five years,  the cancer returned four times – and, as she explained in her book this was “despite a radical mastectomy, three further operations, 35 radiotherapy treatments, several chemotherapy treatments and irradiation of my ovaries to induce the menopause”. The doctors then gave her three months to live. 

The cancer specialists at Charing Cross Hospital where Plant was treated told her that her chemotherapy treatment (methotrexate, fluorouracil and cyclosphosphamide) had been only the same basic type that has been used for breast cancer for the past 20 years. None of her doctors, it appeared, had expected someone with her type and stage of cancer (which had clearly spread to the lymph system) to have survived. The drugs she was given was the cheapest standard preparations available and after her reading several medical textbooks, it was clear to Plant that it was highly unlikely that these drugs would, on their own, have cured her cancer. 

When orthodox medicine gave up on her, Plant was determined to use her extensive scientific training and her knowledge of other cultures to find a way to survive. Her husband was also an earth scientist, and both of them have spent a considerable amount of time working in China and Japan. They were both desperately engaged in trying to understand and explain the factor(s) responsible for the significantly lower rates of breast and prostate cancer among the Japanese and Chinese. 

At the time she discovered the last cancerous lump in her neck in 1992, her colleagues in China – where she had worked – happened to send her an atlas detailing the different cancers found across that country. Looking at it, she realised that breast cancer (and prostate cancer) were virtually unknown throughout China at that time – one death in 100,000 women, as opposed to one in 10 in some western countries. Why should that be? 

It was this startling statistical disparity that led Plant to believe that there had to be a dietary trigger for the disease. As she continued her scientific investigations, Plant became convinced that she had discovered a causal link between consumption of animal and dairy products and breast cancer. 

Her job as a scientist gave her the ability to research the components of the food we eat, particularly discovering that milk proteins find their way into a good many products; to analyse the nutrients required to help the body withstand treatment and stay cancer-free; to understand the effects of chemicals used in food processing. Her diet became totally dairy-free but full of food containing cancer protective ingredients; she was careful to reduce her intake of hormones and chemicals from food; and altogether changed her lifestyle. 

The large cancerous lump in her neck disappeared within five weeks and no cancer has ever returned. However, her consultant radiologist (cum oncologist) was concerned that it would return once the chemotherapy treatment was over. It was all too clear from what her doctors had said, and from reading medical, pharmacological and chemical textbooks that chemotherapy treatment alone was unlikely to cure her. For five years, she had done everything her doctors had advised (perhaps including…”eat anything you like?”) and undergone all the treatments that they had prescribed. 

Two years after her recovery, Plant was offered a new, advanced form of chemotherapy by the Charing Cross Hospital. The treatment offered was extremely expensive. The doctors were impressed by her positive approach and because she survived much longer than they had expected, they felt that they should help her as much as they could. Plant turned down their offer because she knew that the key to her cure lay elsewhere. 

In the first edition published in year 2000, readers were presented for the first time with a compelling body of evidence strongly suggesting that consumption of dairy products may cause breast cancer. It demonstrated the specific changes that women can make in their day-to-day lives to help prevent and treat breast cancer.

Your Life In Your Hands contained detailed suggestions for ways to alter your diet by eliminating or reducing consumption of many suspected cancer-causing agents, especially dairy products, and replacing them with healthful alternatives. She offers well detailed menus and recipes to help you make the transition and enjoy it. She called this The Plant Programme which was later expanded into a book of the same name. 

The second edition of Your Life In Your Hands was published in 2007 with extensive updates to each Chapters 1-7 and with additional information on ovarian cancer. Relevant scientific studies are attached to each Chapter. This is definitely the work of a real scientist.

The thrust of Professor Plant’s arguments outlining the links between dairy products and breast cancer are wide-ranging and deserve serious consideration and further research. Some of the health risks of consuming dairy products include:

• Babies fed on cow’s milk are at risk of developing iron deficiency; the link between insulin-dependent diabetes and dairy products;
• Milk is one of the most common causes of food allergies;
• Milk can harbour many pathogenic microorganisms including Mycobacterium paratuberculosis (possibly associated with irritable bowel syndrome);
• Milk often contains toxic and hormone-disrupting chemicals, including antibiotics, growth promoters, most notably insulin-like growth factors (IGFs), anti-parasitic drugs, environmental toxins such as PCBs and dioxins.
• Research is also cited demonstrating the relationship between IGF-1 and breast cancer. 

If you are a breast cancer patient, we strongly urge you to change your diet just like Jane Plant did and not to “eat anything you like” as usually advised by your doctor/oncologist. Take some time off and watch the following YouTube videos and read further. Some suggested readings are attached.

SOME YOUTUBE VIDEOS: (there are many more)

1)   Professor Jane Plant…Her views on Dairy Products.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFnoiDDibOw

2)   White Lies—The Dark Side of the Dairy industry.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVxdKcCpVkc

3)   White Lies (Clip 2).

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6zYaFinpes 

4)   Growth Hormones in Animal Products Equals Cancer.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCLbsJHQnfI

5)      Animal protein (meat and dairy) causes cancer by Professor T. Colin Campbell PhD.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDXxo5Sussk 

SOME ARTICLES/BOOKS : (there are many more) 

1)   WHITE LIES—The Health consequences of consuming cow’s milk.

Link: http://www.vegetarian.org.uk/campaigns/whitelies/whiteliesreport.pdf

2)   THE CHINA STUDY by Dr T. Colin Campbell….read the most comprehensive study of nutrition ever conducted on the link between nutrition and cancer 

3)   NATURAL STRATEGIES  FOR CANCER PATIENTS by Dr Russell Blaylock, MD and a former neurosurgeon (Read why he does not recommend cancer patients to consume animal protein and dairy products). 

4)   THE ENZYME FACTOR by Dr Hiromi Shinya, MD and a gastrointestinal specialist. (Find out why animal meat and dairy products are toxic). 

5)   WAKING THE WARRIOR GODDESS by Dr Christine Horner, MD and breast surgeon (Read about Dr Christine’s program to protect and fight breast cancer). 

JANE PLANT’S WEBSITES:

1)   www.janeplant.com

2)   www.cancersupportinternational.com

3)   www.plantprogramme.com

 (From the above websites, you would be able to view Jane Plant’s other books and articles on cancer).

Review by Yeong Sek Yee & Khadijah Shaari

This book is an autobiography of Dr Anthony Sattilaro, MD as told to Tom Monte. Dr Sattilaro graduated from Rutgers University and the Harford Hospital and also a graduate from the Harvard Business School and School of Public Health. He was an anesthesiologist for 20 years until his appointment as the President of the Methodist Hospital in Philadelphia in December 1977.

In June 1978, at the age of 47, Dr Sattilaro was told by his physicians that he had prostatic cancer (stage 4) which had metastasized to other parts of his body, including the skull, shoulder, spine, sternum, and ribs.

Within weeks of the diagnosis, Dr Sattilaro underwent surgery and began estrogen treatment to combat the spread of the disease. As a last resort, he even removed his two testicles. It soon became apparent, however, that this would not halt the malignancy.

His doctors informed him that he had perhaps “a few” years to live (Later, he was told “less than 18 months”) and that those years would be spent in a torturous slide towards death. He was already suffering from acute back pain, for which large doses of painkillers provided only periodic relief. His highly professional colleagues have left little doubt that he had terminal cancer, and he resigned himself to a painful future, a regimen of drugs, and only a slim hope that he would live to see fifty.

Driving back to Philadelphia after the burial of his father, who had died of lung cancer, Sattilaro was deeply depressed and uncharacteristically picked up two young hitchhikers. At a loss for small talk, Sattilaro confessed that he was living on borrowed time, and to his surprise he was told that his illness is curable if he would go on a strange vegetarian diet. Though highly skeptical, he was intrigued by the young stranger’s sincerity, and with nothing to lose, he followed up the lead.

Dr Sattilaro had been a doctor for more than 20 years by then, and it was with no small trepidation that he went looking for answers outside the profession to which he had dedicated his life. This search put him on an extraordinary journey—one that has led him not only to a restoration of his health, but also to the roots of his being.

While still continuing his duties at the hospital, he rearranged his life to take his meals at a commune where only such foods as brown rice, whole grains, beans, fresh vegetables, fish and seaweed are served, and where a positive, spiritual approach to life was pervasive. In just a few weeks, the back pain that had plagued him for years subsided, and in a matter of several months the course of his cancer had been reversed and his body was actually on the mend.

On August 6 1981, Dr Sattilaro underwent another bone scan at the Methodist Hospital, the sixth test he had undergone in the past 3 years. That bone scan revealed absolutely no sign of cancer in his body. The news of his X-rays hit the macrobiotic and medical community in Philadelphia as if Dr Sattilaro had been raised from the dead. He had not resumed the estrogen therapy, even for a short period, since he quit the hormones in June 1979. However, doctors in the Methodist Hospital insisted that Dr Sattilaro’s improved health was due to his previous surgeries and the estrogen therapy and had nothing to do with the macrobiotic diet.

Dr. Sattilaro admitted that he could find no medically acceptable explanation for his cure; he knew only that it had happened. He continued to support established methods and procedures of modern technological medicine, but his experience suggested that there are complementary approaches to health, and especially to cancer, that may also be beneficial. He began and ultimately found not only a cure but a sense of wholeness and spiritual fulfillment that he shared with the reader in this account of his remarkable experience. Dr. Sattilaro celebrated his 50th birthday in 1981.

The diet Dr Sattilaro followed is called “macrobiotics” which is drawn from the best elements of a traditional Asian diet, including generous amounts of rice and vegetables. (There are a lot of books/literature written on macrobiotics and cancer—just Google for more information).

As he recovered, he became perhaps the most famous advocate for the use of diet against cancer and this raised the question as to whether diet can turn the tide on cancer, and the fact that there was simply not enough information yet available to speak with assurance. There were no double-blind studies, no control patients, or anything else that would suggest that what happened to Dr. Sattilaro will happen for anyone else, although there is a large cadre of people who report similar results.

Dr Sattilaro’s story of his prostate cancer being healed by a change in diet created a big storm. This led to some serious debates. Dr Neal Barnard, MD and nutrition researcher became interested in Sattilaro’s story. So he went in search of him in 1986. Dr Sattilaro had resigned his job as head of Methodist Hospital and had moved to Florida. He was not only alive, but youthful and vigorous. He had adhered to the macrobiotic diet and adopted a specific exercise program. He went swimming every day. His cancer seemed to be gone, and he kept X-ray films in a file for when he needed to remind himself of his remission. Sattilaro had been deluged with letters from other cancer patients, but always answered that he did not know if what had happened to him could also happen for them.

Dr Sattilaro’s greatest food misadventure

Eventually, he began to deviate from the diet, adding fish and chicken, as if to test whether he was cured or simply in remission. If it was a test, he failed. In July 1989, Dr Barnard called Dr. Sattilaro and found him to be gravely ill. His cancer had recurred—”viciously,” he said. He was in good spirits, but harbored no illusions about the grim situation he was in. He knew that the end was very near. He had resumed the use of painkillers, which at times made him quite groggy.

Dr Sattilaro died shortly after. However, he survived 11 years despite being told he had only 18 painful months to live. If he had not been too adventurous with his food after his 10^th year, would he have survived longer? We will never know.

Below are some quotes by Dr Sattilaro on the subject of nutrition and cancer:

a)    Dr Sattilaro’s normal diet (in his own words):

• The food that I had lived on for the previous 47 years was rich and usually heavily seasoned.
• I lived the perfect formula for cancer—a high fat diet, plenty of refined flour products, an insatiable sweet tooth and a generally sedentary lifestyle. 

b)    Dr Sattilario’s personal reaction to the macrobiotic diet:

• When the hitch hikers told him that cancer is the natural result of a bad diet, Dr Sattilaro wondered how a 25 year old knows about cancer. He then dismissed the hitchhiker’s statement as foolishness of youth.
• After 25 years of practicing medicine, he had heard all kinds of quack claims and treated them with the same kind of dignified disinterest.
• When he went to the Macrobiotic center, he was told that he has to abstain from…all meat, dairy products, refined grains, including white bread and flour products, all sugar, all oils, nuts, fruits and carbonated drinks and foods containing synthetic chemicals and preservatives….which was Dr Sattilario’s standard fare to the letter.
• He left the Macrobiotic centre feeling a deep sense of confusion and despair. He felt as if he had just walked out of another world.
• Going there and being given an examination by a thirty-year-old kid who hadn’t been to medical school was surely reaching the bottom of the barrel. 

Despite his deep skepticism, Dr Sattilaro nevertheless opted to give the macrobiotic food system a try. He had nothing to lose as his life was declared terminal and he was living on borrowed time.

Following are some initial contemptuous comments:

• Each day, Dr Sattilaro carried to work the little Japanese lunch box containing brown rice and vegetables. People at the hospital looked at him with a combination of curiosity and pity.
• There was also a strange disappointment in their eyes, as if he had gone over to the other side already.
• “He’s turned himself over to the quacks” many of them must have thought. He said he would have thought the same thing, had a colleague of his resorted to macrobiotics in his dying days. 

How Dr Sattilaro reacted to Macrobiotics.

• About 2 weeks after he started macrobiotics, he developed symptoms of a cold or flu with heavy mucus discharge and a mild fever. He was told that this healing reaction is “sickness of adjustment” which is the body’s way of getting rid of excess on a periodic basis….this bewildered him further and heightened his skepticism.
• His perception changed when on September 26 1978, he discovered that his back pain was gone. He had suffered 2 years of enormous back pain that only heavy doses of narcotics could put down.
• Within a few weeks after he began the macrobiotic diet, his digestive problems disappeared. On top of that he had great reserves of energy and his mind seemed clearer than usual. 

Eventually, as he recovered progressively, Dr Sattilaro admitted that….”there is no doubt in my mind that the diet was instrumental in my own recovery…and in some way triggered my immune system, which enabled my body to fight off the disease….there is also no doubt in my mind that had I relied solely on just the orchiectomy and the estrogens, I would have been dead long ago”

FURTHER REFERENCES ON MACROBIOTICS

1)    THE MACROBIOTIC DIET IN CANCER.

Link: http://jn.nutrition.org/content/131/11/3056S.full

2)    MACROBIOTIC DIET by Michio and Aveline Kushi (a general introduction to macrobiotics)

3)    THE MACROBIOTIC PATH TO TOTAL HEALTH by Michio Kushi and Alex Jack (A complete guide to naturally preventing and relieving chronic conditions and disorders).

4)    THE CANCER PREVENTION DIET by Michio Kushi and Alex Jack (The macrobiotic approach to prevention and relieving cancer)

5)    COOKING THE WHOLE FOODS WAY by Christina Pirello (Everyday guide to healthy, delicious eating featuring 500 vegan dishes).

SOME SELECTED YOUTUBE VIDEOS ON MACROBIOTICS

1)    What is the Macrobiotic Diet?

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8OZFoaxCws

2)    Typical Foods on the Macrobiotic Diet

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg6OyeRTEU4

3)    Macrobiotic Guide – Videos

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E545WGCleE&list=PL9FE8EA8060DA4879

A SPECIAL NOTE ON DR NEAL BARNARD, MD

Dr Barnard is a nutrition researcher and founder of The Cancer Project and The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) which promotes preventive medicine, especially good nutrition, and addresses controversies in modern medicine, including ethical issues in research.

Dr Barnard is an adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine at George Washington University and is the author of the best seller “THE CANCER SURVIVOR’S GUIDE” featuring foods to fight back cancer—with special emphasis on Prostate and Breast Cancers.