Speaking of people disconnected from reality

[giza]

I must be in a mood this week or something. Well, can't let that go to waste! That brings me to this article on CNN:

Mexican clinics sell hope, questionable cures

Here are some interesting quoutes from the article:

Among the treatments offered: blood transfusions from guinea pigs, colon cleansings, and the zapping of cancer cells with electrical current.

Uhhhh...

"Were patients to return from Mexico cured and doctors saw the unbelievable, positive results, we would pursue it, but we just don't see it," said Dr. Jack Lewin, chief executive of the California Medical Association. "We don't have patients coming back with miraculous cures."

Bingo! If these "alternative medicine" clinics really cured people, it'd be all over the news and people would be demanding it from their doctors.

On Thursday, the Santa Monica Health Institute -- the clinic where Coretta Scott King died last week -- was shut down by Mexican authorities. Mexican state officials said the clinic had been carrying out unproven treatments and unauthorized surgeries, employed people who were not properly trained, did not follow proper procedures for treating terminally ill patients and failed to meet sanitary requirements.

Remember, wash your hands AFTER you wipe. After!

The clinic's director has a criminal past and a reputation for offering dubious treatments. But the clinic's assistant administrator, Cesar Castillejos, defended its record and said he believed the government closed the clinic because of King's death. King "wasn't stupid," Castillejos said. "She was very smart. She wanted an alternative."

Or maybe she was very desperate. Being told that you have terminal cancer can do that to a person.

The first of the clinics opened in the 1950s to administer laetrile, a substance made from apricot pits that is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The clinics received widespread attention in 1980, when cancer-stricken actor Steve McQueen went to one for laetrile treatment. He died there.

Ooh, laetrile. That is metabolized by the body into... cyanide! Fun for the whole family!

Peggy Pousson went across the border out of desperation in 1978, when her son, Shawn, was battling leukemia. She credits a Tijuana clinic's vitamin-heavy regimen for extending her son's life a year. Pousson said Shawn died at age 10 because doctors at a San Diego hospital bungled a drug prescription.

Oh he did, did he? May I see the autopsy report? (I tried Googling for this, with no success)

For the past decade, Pousson, 65, has ferried patients across the border to clinics in and around Tijuana. She favors those that emphasize nutrition and limit chemotherapy doses.

"There are a lot of bad clinics that I don't go to," she said. "A lot of the patients I took there died, so I stopped going."

That sure is a relief! There I was thinking that she was taking people to clinics with treatments that didn't work!

The clinics typically charge about $7,000 a week for treatment, meals and lodging, Pousson said.

o.O

Tibor Fodor checked in on Tuesday, one day after Las Vegas, Nevada, doctors delivered a grim prognosis for his 57-year-old wife, Marcela, who has lung cancer.

"They told my wife she had three months to live, but I know that's a lie," said Fodor, whose wife registered at a Tijuana clinic for radiation and hoxsey, a combination of plant extracts.

Ah yes, hoxsey. Supposedly created in 1840, and used to "treat" cancer from 1924 to the 1950s, Hoxsey ended up getting in trouble with the FDA. Total number of scientific studies done on his treatment: 0.

Hoxsey also contracted prostate cancer himself in 1967 and tried treating himself with his tonic. When that didn't work, he had surgery done on himself. That doesn't exactly inspire confidence, you know.

Kurt W. Donsbach, a former San Diego chiropractor, opened the clinic in 1987. In 1988, the U.S. Postal Service ordered him to stop claiming that a solution of hydrogen peroxide could prevent cancer and ease arthritis pain. In 1997, he was sentenced in San Diego federal court to a year in prison for smuggling more than $250,000 worth of unapproved drugs into the United States from Mexico, according to court records.

Oops.

Required reading: www.quackwatch.org

Comments

[doco.livejournal.com]

Hello Dr. Nick! :)

[giza.livejournal.com]

"Say, that reminds me!" *washes hands*

[taral.livejournal.com]

Heh. Yeah, scam artists everywhere. However, going to Mexico for orthodox treatments can save you money, if you're careful and do your research ahead of time.

[foxcutter.livejournal.com]

As someone once said about alternative medicine:
The alternative to medicine is medicine that doesn't work.

[furahi.livejournal.com]

Oh, after you wipe? uh oh... umm.. wait a moment..

Ok, back, glad you cleared that up

There're tons of quacks all over Mexico, but especially in Tijuana, where gullible or desperate Americans, with a lot more money than gullible and desperate Mexicans, go down for treatment.

As you probably know my mom's a Pathologist. Her job description doesnt require her to have any interaction with the patients themselves whatsoever, but every now and then a doctor will see a particularly depressed patient (especially after a mastectomy) and they send them to talk to her (she's not a shrink or anything,b ut she does help them feel better).

Patients often ask her about alternate treatment. With few exceptions she tells them to go ahead and do whatever they want: Take naturist drugs, travel a few states on their knees to visit the temple of whatever their saint of preference may be (and people actually do that), sleep standing up, limpias from witches and all sorts of things that quacks (or priests) tell them to... provided they don't interrupt or it doesn't interfere with their /real/ medical treatment (Chemo or radio therapy). Most of those things are placebos that won't cause any harm (obviously not talking of the one that metabolizes into cyanide =P), so if it gives them peace of mind, and makes them feel they're doing something, for a situation that is mostly beyond their control, all it can do is help... as long as they don't stop going to the doctor and taking their real treatment for that (some places do recommend them to stop taking their chemo; she advises to look for a different alternate treatment if they're recommending that)

Steven McQueen didn't only come here for alternate treatment, in addition to that he was receiving chemo therapy
In fact my mum was his Pathologist... not personally, but through the hospital she works for. She was assigned his biopsies and diagnosed his (those little glass things Pathologists study under the microscope, however they're called in English). Which is interesting, my mom works for the Social Security Institute (the biggest health provider in mexico, by FAR); I would've guessed someone with money like him would've gone to a private hospital (especially since the Social Security Institute charges a LOT to people that isn't covered). Maybe he knew someone in that particular hospital, or his private doctor was also a doctor in the Institute.

[giza.livejournal.com]

Holy CRAP, that was educational. Thanks for posting all that. (Stuff like this is why I love the Internet!)

I agree with you on using alternative medicine as a supppliment as well. Thing is, at least here in the states, I get the impression that quacks want people to forego medical treatment and only use their treatment. Eh, oh well.

[furahi.livejournal.com]

It was? Wow, thank you! I'm not sure exactly how it was educational, but I'm real happy you found it educational :D

Oh, sure, some quaks tell people to stop going to get their chemo, those are the real dangerous ones, especially since some kinds of chemo are so expensive that the patients "want" to hear someone say they don't need to spend all that money.

When they ask my mom she either tells them to go to someone else, or to not listen to that part; but it's frustrating (for her) because sometimes she stops seing them, or starts seing them less and less...

[murakozi.livejournal.com]

Many such clinics and purveyors of alternate treatments are simply making a hefty profit off the desparation of their patients. Nobody wants to hear that the only available treatment for their ailment will be unpleasant or might not work.

At least two of the editors of the newsletters my last employer publishes are listed on quackwatch. It's a sad sign that the subscriber base of those two far outnumbered the numbers for the editors of the newsletters that promoted a logical, balanced approach to nutrition and dealing with disease.

I agree with furahi's posts here that there's nothing wrong with many alternative treatements, so long as they don't replace or interfere with the regular medical treatment. Many of them are fairly benign and while they may not help the actual problem, they can give some peace of mind or hope to the person.