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EDITORIAL: IT'S OFFICIAL
From The Cancer Chronicles #20
©March 1994 by Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.
It's official. Even the Journal of the American Medical
Association now admits that the war on cancer is a failure. An
article in the Feb. 9 [1994] issue says that cancer incidence and
death rates are rising. Most people knew that smoking-related
cancers were on the rise. Now we learn that a "baby boomer's"
chances of getting non-smoking-related cancers are double what
their grandparent's odds were. "In all age groups, cancer
incidence is increasing...," the article reveals.
In addition, "few new, effective treatments have been devised for
the most common cancers." This follows similar revelations in
Scientific American (2/94).
Of course, apologists for the status quo quickly jumped forward to
explain away these dismal figures. Some claimed that the reason
for the increase was that modern medicine has been so darned
successful; people are living long enough to die of cancer. (This
ignores the fact that these statistics are age-adjusted.) Others
(such as a doctor cited in the 2/12 Science News) claim that death
rates were rising at the time of the study, but may in fact now be
declining, since most of these cancers "had their origin many
years ago." Contrary to all experience, the main causes of cancer
are said to be under control.
Meanwhile, cancer marches on. Dramatic changes in prevention
and life style are necessary to seriously decrease these rising
rates.
As for the orthodox failure to find effective new therapies,
Paracelsus said it all, almost 500 years ago: "From nature comes
the disease, and from nature will come the cure."
The AMA routinely condemns natural cancer treatments as
quackery. But isn't it high time that it dropped its quackbusting
crusade and replaced it with an open-minded investigation of such
methods? We think so.
Coordinator Anne Beattie
@ 144 St. John's Place,
Brooklyn, NY 11217;
Phone 718-636-4433
Fax 718-636-0186