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Oprah vs. Suzanne Somers
Knockout
Actually, there is no versus. In my opinion they are the two most praiseworthy women in our culture today and I would gladly put an Oprah for President bumper sticker on my car. And if Oprah were president, I would like to see Suzanne Somers in Oprah's cabinet as, say, Surgeon General or maybe head of the FDA? If the out-spoken Somers was helming the ship of the medical arm of the government, there would be some compulsory butt kicking. But, alas, my fantasies are moot, as there will be neither Oprah in the Oval Office nor Suzanne Somers in the dreary army uniform of the Surgeon General (She wouldn't be caught dead in that anyway.) However, Somers has written a very informative book called Knockout which I will review today.
In November of 2008, Somers awoke at 4 am unable to breath and with a full body rash. She and her husband raced for the emergency room where, after they got her breathing comfortably again, she underwent a number of tests including a CAT scan. An oncologist visited when the results were in and told her that "... it looks like your cancer (i.e. her breast cancer of 8 years ago) has metastasized to your liver, there are masses in your lungs and you have full body cancer plus you have a blood clot and pneumonia and we want to start aggressive chemotherapy right now." She felt that she had been "cold-cocked." Who wouldn't? But some smart person suggested a lung biopsy. This showed that Somers didn't have cancer. However, scary words like leprosy and tuberculosis were bandied about until coccidiomycosis (Valley Fever) was decided upon. (She works daily in her organic garden and probably got it there). After the cancer was ruled out, it turns out her attending oncologist at the hospital was actually annoyed that he was wrong and neither apologized nor even feigned relief that she didn't have cancer! At that point, she wrote in Knockout: "What if I wasn't a well-known health advocate? What if I hadn't been blessed to have studied with and talked to the best medical people there are? What if I were you?" So she wrote Knockout, which, through interviews, outlines the treatment plans and philosophies of four MD's who are actually curing cancer in a non-traditional way - no cut, burn and poison for these docs: Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski in Texas who uses antineoplastins in a very clever way to turn off cancer genes; Dr. Nick Gonzalez in NYC who uses special targeted diets and enzymes and has a grant from the NIH to study why he has such success in treating pancreatic cancer. Then there is Dr. James Forsythe in San Francisco, an integrative medicine oncologist who uses diet and supplements and was a leader in the AIDS epidemic. And lastly, Dr. Julie Taguchi who is Somers' personal mainstream oncologist. She is traditional, but is included because she is kind and compassionate and works with her patients and honors and supports their requests for alternative care. Somers also interviewed several cutting edge doctors who are specialists in the prevention of cancer. The bottom line suggestions of all the doctors could be summed up in this quote from Dr. James Forsythe: "You can never underestimate the importance of diet in beating (and preventing - my words) cancer. It's everything." She interviewed Dr. Russell Blaylock, Burton Goldberg, Dr. David Schmidt, Dr. Jonathan Wright, Dr. Stephen Sinatra, Dr. Michael Galitzer and Christiana Paul, M.S. Dr. Blaylock makes many dietary suggestions including ridding your diet of all excitotoxins including MSG, aspartame and glutamates. He suggests adding Vitamin D, good fats, green leafy vegetables and drinking purified water. Burton Goldberg has devoted his entire life - "he is 82 and looks 52" - to finding the answer to cancer. He says that "conventional medicine is superb in dealing with acute medical conditions and traumatic injury, but there is no question that alternative medicine works better for just about everything else." Dr. David Schmidt is the maker of Life Wave patches. Especially important is the one with glutathione which protects against cancer. Dr. Jonathan Wright is an old timer in the alternative medicine community and I have heard about him for years. He must be in his 80's now and practices out of Tacoma. He is interested in hormones like DHEA, pregnenolone, bio-identical hormones for both men and women and iodine for the prevention of cancer. Dr. Stephen Sinatra is a cardiologist by training. He is an espouser of the "attention and belief are the most important elements in self-healing" school of thought and leans more towards the spiritual side of health. "When the body gets sick it is giving a message that it is out of balance physically, spiritually and emotionally." Dr. Michael Galitzer is a western trained anti-aging doctor and starts his interview by stating that his basic premise is that "cancer is a disease of the whole body and a tumor is just a symptom of the disease." Nutrition is a keystone of his treatment plan, as is the last contributor's, Christina Paul. I wholly recommend Knockout. I think everyone should have it on their bookshelf if only to refer to the ideas for the prevention of cancer. What I have touched upon is probably 1/100 of the treasure trove of information presented by Somers.
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