Suzette Sommers and Alternatives on the Today Show

No
Some of us have to WORK and can't watch TV
;-)
It had nothing to do with that Thigh Master thing she was hawking years ago did it?

Seriously, that stinks to be told it's cancer and have it not be. I suppose it's a bit better than the other way around.
-p

2bhealed said:

No daytime TV
actually I normally don't watch in the morning since I need to get school going. But today I happened to turn it on and they got me hooked with the Suzette Sommers and alternatives so I had to suffer through some Kathie Lee and Hoda banter to get there.

Donna, I had the same thoughts....how could SIX doctors be wrong? But hey, it sells books.....on the other hand, I would want to be believed. My neurosurgeon was wrong about my food allergies and I'll bet if I went to 6 different ones about my migraines I wonder how many would have suggested they were due to what I was eating. But cancer tests?? So I may have to check it out of my library when it comes out.

Phil, you ARE the thigh Master!

I don't teach Columbus (yet)...the Vikings "discovered" America and the "natives" were here first anyway so we're doing ancient American history and aren't even to the Pilgrims yet. Didn't you know the Holy Grail is buried in Minnesota? :-) I love a good conspiracy.

peace, emily who is now waiting for emma to finish writing her story.

Sommers
I know history says something about Columbus, but according to one teacher here in Texas, America's independence was won at the Alamo!?!? I am glad I was raised in Colorado!

About Ms Sommers,
I read a little about her book on the web. She has many claims, she had breast ca and did radiation and surgery but not chemo. She does not believe in chemo, she said it does not help anyone. (That is a pretty broad statement) Anyway the ACS, our web hosts, are very concerned that people will follow her down this path and die without looking at all the options.
I read that that she was told by one Dr that her cancer had spread everywhere, but then discovered it had did not. The article also chronicled other celeb types who chose to have alternate therepy. Most have passed on. I think only God knows if they would have been helped with traditional stuff, but they were the ones who made their choice just as we all do.

I must ask-do you think that the surgery and radiation helped cure her cancer. I have several friends who have had breat cancer. They had surgery, radiation, and chemo and only one has not survived-she had liver lung and bone mets, the others have survived well past the 5 to 10 year mark. Some of these individuals have not changed anything about their life styles, many practiced healthy stuff already.

Oh by the way she told a tabloid that Patrick Swayze's chemo killed him, not his cancer. I am sure the Swayze family takes so much comfort in her words.

I am not at all apposed to alternate therapy, but to think that she thinks her choice makes someone else wrong. I guess that is what it takes to sell books. There are those of us who only have the choice for chemo. I guess I could just leave well enough alone, but my survival chances and my recurrance rate do not look so good without chemo. I want to survive. Along with chemo I will take a more holistic approach to my life, I will juice, do a mediterranean diet, take an aspirin a day, increase my Vit. D and exercise, (Thank you Diane) but I need the opportunity that chemo can give me.

Only one semis opinion, and only an opinion!
Jan

2bhealed said:

Interview
Hi Thready!

If you had watched the interview she addressed some of what you're saying....she said her statement about Patrick Swayze was about his particular cancer--pancreatic. That chemo does NOT help pancreatic. She was saddened that they would do chemo on him when the doctors know that chemo does nothing for pancreatic--death is pretty much assured in pancreatic so why bother dumping chemicals into a system. She also claimed that she didn't know the person she was talking to at a private party was a tabloid reporter. Not that I'm defending her saying something like that. I'm just clarifying.

She also said that her choice is FOR HER and just because it's right for her doesn't make it wrong for others. She was pretty specific on that one.

I have a hard time believing that six doctors were wrong though. Kinda.

But she had some interesting info about a test that doctors can do to find out the correct combo of chemo but they don't do it because of the work factor involved so many folks get the one size fits all approach.

peace, emily

Thank you,
Emily,
I did not see the interview, I have just read about it on the web, and we all know everything on the web is fact-LOL, and I thank you for the info. Please don't think that I don't give alternative therapies any hope, I really do. I also don't mind being corrected or informed!!! It is just we Americans will follow the spokes person for the Thigh Master anywhere and will take her word over others just because she is famous and she wrote a book. I know you can go to six doctors and get the same info if you look for six doctors who practice the same type medicine or who want to be stars in the new publication. Doctors are just people, if they have a celeb come to them to clarify they might not want to rock the boat and be publically cast in a negative light. They might even have their words construed.

I also don't think that others choices should be condemned. My Aunt was a scientologist and she went to doctors who practiced within her religion. She died from lymphomas. Does that make scientology wrong? (I am not a scientologist type but I can not be critical of those who go to the people they trust.) We have lost friends and family to cancer who have gone the traditional route and a couple who believed in alternate methods and have passed away. Are these methods wrong? These methods are not wrong, cancer is the problem. We also know people who have survived using various kinds of treatments so who knows what really works. Sometimes I feel like it is a bit of a crap shoot.

I have gotton 4 opinions from 4 doctors, they all say I need to have the same chemo. Yep, they are all mainstream types. One is my family doctor, one is an oncologist, was is a family friend, and one is a research Dr at University of Texas, Southwestern.

Pancreatic cancer is a tough one. From what I know medically (not much really) and what I read at the University yesterday it tends to be incurable if not detected early.(October is Pancreatic Cancer month so there was all sorts of literature sitting around and we had quite a wait.) Chemo does help keep death away for a while in many of these people. Many such as the professor who was known for "the last lecture" survived longer because the tumors where held in check longer with chemo. There are two ladies in our area that have received treatment (Chemo) for pancreatic cancer and are 5-6 years NED, but there cancers were caught very very early.

One other person who is missed and needed right now is my husband's best friend and cousin. He died in June from a 10 year battle with stage 4 stomach cancer, another cancer that has difficult statistics. He told his doctors that he wanted to do everything he could to beat the cancer and they persued traditional, trials and alternative methods for him. He had about 5 years being NED, but the cancer can back in his lungs and bones. He had chemo again to shrink the tumors and help with the pain. He was given more years of productive life. He is my inspiration I only wish he were hear to help us with this new path.

So in my journey (or walk down this ugly road) I am looking at all sorts of stuff. Along with my chemo I plan a detox thing at the end of treatment, to juice when allowed too, and will follow the things that Diane suggests. I will also keep my eyes and ears open and I will not use bottled water or use plastic in the microwave, for some reason I think this is a problem, I don't have facts it is just a thing I have.

If you have any other suggestions please I want to hear them, here or PM and let me know I am all ears!!!!!

Thanks again Emily
jan

thready said:

Sommers
I know history says something about Columbus, but according to one teacher here in Texas, America's independence was won at the Alamo!?!? I am glad I was raised in Colorado!

About Ms Sommers,
I read a little about her book on the web. She has many claims, she had breast ca and did radiation and surgery but not chemo. She does not believe in chemo, she said it does not help anyone. (That is a pretty broad statement) Anyway the ACS, our web hosts, are very concerned that people will follow her down this path and die without looking at all the options.
I read that that she was told by one Dr that her cancer had spread everywhere, but then discovered it had did not. The article also chronicled other celeb types who chose to have alternate therepy. Most have passed on. I think only God knows if they would have been helped with traditional stuff, but they were the ones who made their choice just as we all do.

I must ask-do you think that the surgery and radiation helped cure her cancer. I have several friends who have had breat cancer. They had surgery, radiation, and chemo and only one has not survived-she had liver lung and bone mets, the others have survived well past the 5 to 10 year mark. Some of these individuals have not changed anything about their life styles, many practiced healthy stuff already.

Oh by the way she told a tabloid that Patrick Swayze's chemo killed him, not his cancer. I am sure the Swayze family takes so much comfort in her words.

I am not at all apposed to alternate therapy, but to think that she thinks her choice makes someone else wrong. I guess that is what it takes to sell books. There are those of us who only have the choice for chemo. I guess I could just leave well enough alone, but my survival chances and my recurrance rate do not look so good without chemo. I want to survive. Along with chemo I will take a more holistic approach to my life, I will juice, do a mediterranean diet, take an aspirin a day, increase my Vit. D and exercise, (Thank you Diane) but I need the opportunity that chemo can give me.

Only one semis opinion, and only an opinion!
Jan

She said that??
Wow, that was awfully bold, and awfully stupid of Susanne Somers to suggest that chemo killed Patrick Swayze! How the hell does she know? I've read the books that say chemo doesn't kill cancer even when there is no evidence of disease. That the cancer is still there lurking, waiting for an opportunity to gain a foothold again. I know that sometimes chemo does work. My aunt had stage III melanoma ten years ago. All her doctors gave up on her, except one offered her interferon. She has been cancer free ever since. I know others who survived cancer without it (there are a few here among us), but they all DID change their lifestyles drastically. It seems to me that we're all very individualized, and what works for some may not work for others. I wasn't willing to take the risk the first time around, but when chemo didn't work, i decided a big change in myself was the only way i would survive. Chemo and radiation had done too much secondary damage to my body, and any more of it would slowly be the end of me.

I've heard dozens of testimonials from people on both ends of the controversy. Some swear their chemo saved them, some swear their surgery saved them, some swear their change in diet saved them. Jan is right, both sides also have many deaths. Though i believe diet is the number one factor as far as strengthening our terrain against the other factors, some of those other factors may just be too overwhelming to fight no matter what course of action is taken.

I dunno. It doesn't sound like she's trying to educate anybody on the evil's of chemo as much as she's trying to be shocking and controversial. I would hope if people are going to follow her down that path that she has a great plan? Gerson has a 90% cure rate with his program of diet and enemas, but his program is VERY involved, and requires a hell of a lot of discipline. I don't know what kind of plan she has. I haven't read the book yet.

Another semi's opinion!

Love ya!
Krista