Who Decides on What treatment a Child Gets for Cancer?

posted in: Musings from 20th Street | 0

Welcome to the second e-letter of Musings from 20th St.

I am happy to announce that I WILL NOT be arrested. I was running scared there for a while. As a member of the Nemenhah Native American Tribe, I was somewhat involved in the Danny Hauser case. If you haven’t been reading the papers in the last week, he is a 13 year old boy, diagnosed with cancer, who told his mother after one chemotherapy session that he would not have another. There was a court hearing to decide if he could be forced into chemotherapy, and Danny told the judge that if they insisted on giving him more chemo, he would kick and bite anyone who tried to force him to have it.

I got involved because the family, fellow-Nememhahs who embrace the concept of using the natural world as healer, was seeking a board-certified oncologist who would treat Danny without chemo – in hopes that this would satisfy the judge. Through various contacts, I was able to find such a doc. But, of course, these physicians must operate somewhat underground because NOT giving chemo to a cancer patient is a deviation from standard medical protocol – and any physician who engages in such behavior risks losing his license.

Danny and his mother fled – presumably leaving the country. Interpol was looking for them as fugitives. I was concerned that the Feds might confiscate various computers, and find an email trail from me. Thus, my fear of arrest.

I thought it would be interesting to look up other cases of state interference of perfectly sound ideas about health – and I found a doozey that I hadn’t known about previously.

Linus Pauling – a household name. He argued in the 50’s that radioactive fall-out was dangerous. The government disagreed, and released propaganda films of American children playing in fresh radioactive ash, proclaiming it to be “safe as snow.” Pauling joined with Einstein and five other notable scientists to form the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists. Their mission was to inform the public about the dangerous consequences that nuclear weapon and nuclear testing held for civilization. In 1958, Pauling submitted a petition that had been signed by over 9000 scientists to the Secretary General of the United Nations; it was a plea for a ban on future nuclear testing. Pauling traveled the country, giving hundreds of lectures.

Pauling was labeled a Communist sympathizer. He was denied a passport, thus preventing him from attending international scientific conferences. He was subpoenaed twice to appear before congressional committees investigating anti-American activities. In 1960, he was threatened to be held in contempt of Congress because he refused to reveal names of those who had helped to circulate his petition to ban nuclear testing. Despite unrelenting governmental oppression, Pauling continued his crusade, and wrote letters to both Kennedy and Khrushchev. Eventually the two superpowers agreed on a limited test ban treaty. It went into effect October 10th, 1963 – the very same day that Pauling received his second Nobel Prize.

The evidence that exposure to high-level radiation affects us malignantly in various ways is now incontrovertible. When we eat food that has been exposed to irradiation, we can expect to see neurological changes – degradation of the myelin in our bodies. Also, after nuclear bomb testing, we see an upsurge in the rate of suicides. One scientist’s theory suggests that the cause of the aberrant behavior has to do with the profound changes that water goes through from nuclear testing. Wh en the explosion occurs, waves are formed which die quickly in the ground. But water continues to fluctuate for another 30 days. Swinging like a pendulum, these waves create a new and pathological ordering in the water. This change in the structure of the water covers an area many miles away from the testing grounds. And it makes no difference whether the test has been conducted in the atmosphere, on the ground, or underground. Because the brain is 85% water, malignant changes in the brain can occur; the bioplasma of the brain is disrupted. Suicide may well be the consequence of these pathological changes.

The controversy over nuclear tests and nuclear weapons is one that is dear to my heart, as my recent forays in holistic healing have led me into the unlikely territory of the therapeutic use of low-level radiation. Pauling and Einstein, like most everyone else in this country, were probably not familiar with this healing technology. But, we Americans comprise an uninformed minority. Much of the rest of the world understands the basic scientific principle of hormesis – sometimes called “the reversal effect” – which states that low-level exposure and high-level exposure have opposite effects. High concentrations are detrimental, even lethal; medium concentrations suppress or inhibit; low concentrations have a stimulatory, beneficial effect. This hormetic effect pertains to chemical, biologic or radiologic agents. The phenomenon has been reported in biomedical literature since the 1880’s, and forms the basis for all immunology, vaccines and homeopathic treatment. Specifically in terms of radiologic exposure, Japan, who was home to two nuclear blasts, for obvious reasons became seriously interested in the effects of radiation. Currently, there are six spas in Tokyo alone that give deliberate exposure to its patrons for low-level radiation – with many double-blind studies documenting the therapeutic efficacy of the exposure. In many countries, including Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Russia, state insurance pays for people to go to spas that implement low-level radiation therapies. As in Japan, these countries have documented the effect through controlled, double-blind studies.

The biomedical research, as well as the compelling story of how a former helicopter mechanic, Jay Gutierrez, re-discovered this technology is told in my recent book, Because People Are Dying. Over the 15 years that Jay has been working with low-level radioactive stones, with more than 3000 patients, he has had fairly phenomenal success with cancer, as well as many other diseases. Using Jay’s stones, mined in Utah and Wyoming, La Casa Day Spa makes low-level radiation therapy available in two separate treatments.