Cancer treatment for the skeptical

I was listening to CBC Radio - the Current, as is my want, and there was a show on about DCA, or Dichloroacetic acid. DCA is a molecule so simple and cheap to make that drug companies are unable to patent it ... so they simply pass on researching it. Some say that DCA is a most excellent and effective cancer treatment.

I have to confess that I had never heard of DCA before. And so I perked an ear toward listening to the radio show as simplicity itself and uppity people spitting into the eye of arrogant medicos always tends to perk my interest.

As I was listening I was thinking, geez, some idiot is marketing yet another simple drug-like substance to vulnerable people. Just like that sugar substitute, Splenda, where three Hydrogens are cleaved off sugar and replaced with three Chlorines; so too has someone decided that cleaving two Hydrogens off Acetic acid (vinegar) and replacing them with two Chlorines is a superior innovation for body inserted substances.

All this interest in polychlorinating natural substances. When the drug companies do this to some substance or other they call it a remarkable discovery ... when, in fact, simply having more of the original, natural substance would probably be superior in the long run. And so, similarly, I was thinking in this case -- that drinking certified organic apple cider vinegar or just simple lemon juice in water would be far superior to taking DCA; especially in the treatment of cancer.

There is a line of reasoning in the Alternative health paradigm that cancer cannot live in an alkali (non-acid) environment. Very over-simplified but essentially true, nevertheless. This has Naturopath-type people artificially doping people with expensive, special coral calcium from the Australian outback, or anhydrous acetic powders or even chalk. Nature-cure practitioners would simply move people toward diets higher in raw, fruits and vegetables and skip the selling of supplements part.

It is all pretty basic to the informed Alternative health crowd. But many people seem to need poisonous pills or drug IVs or million dollar machines humming ominously about them in witch doctor-like fashion. And I just shake my head at the state of affairs with which a monopolistic system of medicine has shrouded the population.

Of course the show moved on to getting the opinion of medicos who kept repeating that self-health or self-medication is dangerous. Well, actually, it isn't but that is another story. I find it funny in a sick sorta way that the medicos keep harping on the presumed side effects of DCA without actually speculating as to why these side-effects may be occurring. They simply state that these types of side effects are often occurring and so self-experimentation is dangerous.

Well, the effect of DCA [excess] is similar to the tetany hyperkalaemia, and, in fact, it probably is most likely simple alkalosis. Sounds horrible ... alkalosis. Tingling in the lips or fingers, a lax muscle type of paralysis, and even a slower perhaps irregular heart. The treatment, stay hydrated, eat a steak or have a cookie (non-alkali foods), or simply stop pumping so much vinegar into your freakin blood stream!

If you drink too much lemon juice or too much apple cider vinegar then the same thing may happen ... the dreaded alkalosis! Don't drink certified organic apple cider vinegar without medical supervision![sarcasm]

We in the natural health business will modify your diet toward a healthy alkali balance. Naturopaths, the medico collaborators, will want to IV alkali chemicals such as DCA into your blood stream, and medicos will, of course, need to use some patented alkali drug as only they can procure.

Not talked about so far are those pesky Chlorines attached to simple molecules. Nobody knows what good they do except to make unique, patentable molecules such as are many, many drugs. Poly-Chlorinated chemicals are always nasty when introduced into the body and are certainly not part of the natural treatment realm but the pharmaceutically-trained medico shills love them.

So is DCA a miracle cancer treatment? Well, take off those chlorines to make it healthy and it may very well prove to be, given other considerations. The approach of IV injection is thoroughly unnecessary and not particularly justified as any holistic nutritionist with a practical knowledge of "raw food eating" can teach you how to both improve your health AND fight that cancer through alkali bias.

In the end, as with all plagues upon humanity, virtually everything has been resolved through improving the human condition, respect of fellow beings and following a nature-respecting course. Conquering cancer will prove to be exactly the same.


Such were my thoughts that morning listening to the radio.