Are there Miracle Cures for Cancer? With Dr. Jeanna Ford

Nobody wants a cancer diagnosis, and it is easy to be drawn to promises of a cure in search of normalcy. Dr. Matzo shares pointers to help you spot a fraud. Dr. Jeanna Ford joins us again to also share her experiences and as we discuss the role of holistic medicine and how to stay safe. https://bit.ly/4i510Pc

In this Episode:

• 04:07 - Kentucky Road Trip: The Origin of Little Green Men
• 06:06 - Recipe of the Week: Kentucky Benedictine Spread
• 06:44 - Disaster Preparedness & Documents You Should Secure
• 11:07 - Miracle Cures and Cancer
• 16:23 - How to Be a Critical Consumer
• 29:01 - Dr Jeanna Ford on Miracle Cures and Holistic Medicine
• 35:46 - Outro

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 4:07 Kentucky Road Trip: The Origin of Little Green Men
• 6:06 Recipe of the Week: Kentucky Benedictine Spread
• 6:44 Disaster Preparedness & Documents You Should Secure
• 11:07 Miracle Cures and Cancer
• 16:23 How to Be a Critical Consumer - Spot a Fraud
• 29:01 Dr Jeanna Ford on Miracle Cures and Holistic Medicine
• 35:46 Outro

Transcript

Hello and welcome to Everyone Dies, the podcast where we talk about serious illness, dying, death, and bereavement. I'm Marianne Matzo, a nurse practitioner, and I use my experience from working as a nurse for 46 years to help answer your questions about what happens at the end of life. And I'm Charlie Naverette, an actor in New York City, and here to offer an every-person viewpoint to our podcast.

We are both here because we believe that the more you know, the better prepared you are to make end-of-life decisions. Additionally, please note, this podcast does not provide medical nor legal advice. Please listen to the complete disclosure at the end of the recording.

Welcome to this week's show. Please relax, get yourself something to eat and drink, and thank you for spending the next hour with Charlie and me as we continue with our series titled, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Cancer, But Didn't Have Anyone to Ask. With a conversation about products promising miracle cures.

Like the BBC, we see our show as offering entertainment, enlightenment, and education, and divided into three halves to address each of these goals. Our main topic is in the second half, so feel free to fast forward to that chat-free zone. In the first half, Charlie has our recipe of the week and the documents you need saved in one place in case of a disaster.

In the second half, I'm going to continue our cancer series with a discussion about the miracle supplements that are advertised to cure cancer and the likelihood that they actually will. In the third half, we are fortunate to have Dr. Gina Ford join us for her perspective on miracle cures. So, Marianne, what's new? So, Charles, what's new? You know, I wish there was something new that would warrant being talked about.

An answer to that. Well, you know, I mean, sometimes no news is good news. Yeah.

Oh, I know one good news. Well, there goes that theory. Go ahead, what? My oldest daughter bought a house, bought a condo.

Oh, my gosh. It's so exciting. And she sent me the listing, and it said it was built in like 1780.

And I wrote her back, and I said, is it really built in 1780? Because she lives in Rhode Island. And I guess it's near a mill, and it was the original cotton house where they would store the cotton. So, it's very cute.

I love it. I would live there. Nice.

Oh, my God. I remember when the girls were like running around like little kids. Because they were.

Yeah, there is that. They grow up so quickly. Yeah.

Yeah. Remember, we went to New York to see the Macy's parade? Right. And we went with you and Michael to see them blow up the floats.

That was pretty cool. I don't even know if you can get close to that anymore now. It's.

Really? I mean, just because it's a huge event to blow up those balloons, and more and more people want to see that all the time. Oh, we were like right on top of them. Yeah.

Remember? We were like right next to them. How long ago is that now? Like 25 years or something? No. Well, no.

At least 20 years. 20. 20 years.

Yeah. Yeah. I think now either there's a lottery for it, or you just have to arrive hours in advance to pick up a ticket in advance.

Really? It's something like that. I don't know. Yes.

Good old days. Yeah. I would say I would look into it, but yeah, I'm not going to.

So in our first half, our Everyone Dies road trip takes us to Kentucky, the home of bourbon and horse racing. Bourbon. In fact, it has more bourbon aging in barrels than it has people aging in barrels.

With that, have you ever wondered why aliens are shown as little green men with bulbous heads and oversized eyes? Me neither. But Kentucky is home to the origin of space people being little green men. The alleged encounter occurred on the Sutton's Farm in the tiny rural hamlet of Kelly, Kentucky, where the family lived in an unpainted three-room house without running water, television, radio, TV, or books.

Of all the details of their story, the UFO landing and the appearance of small alien creatures, one fact was indisputable. When the eight adults and three children arrived at the nearby Hopskinville Police Station at about 11 p.m., they were genuinely terror struck. They described the creature about three and a half feet tall.

It had an, quote, oversized head, almost perfectly round. Its arms extended almost to the ground. Its hands and talons and its oversized eyes glowed with a yellowish light.

The body gave off an eerie shimmer in the light of the night's new moon. They said as if made of silver metal. Terrified, the two men grabbed a 20-gauge shotgun and a 22 rifle and fired at the little man, its hands now raised as if held up at gunpoint as it came toward the back door.

They reported that it then did a flip, scrambled upright, and fled into the darkness. Aliens or Kentucky Bourbon? We may never know. What we do know is that Benedictine, a spread made of cream cheese, cucumber juice, onion juice, and seasonings, mashed together with a fork, was likely not on the menu that night.

Why, you may ask? Because this dip was invented by Jennie Benedict in Louisville, Kentucky in the late 1800s. Benedictine dip and or sandwiches appear on many Louisville tables during Derby Week. And now you, our loyal listeners, can prepare this dip for your next funeral lunch.

Bon Appetit! Moving on, we have watched the devastation caused by the wildfires in the western United States, tornadoes in the middle of the country, and oversized hurricanes in the east. It's normal to think it's not going to happen to us, just like we think we are immortal. I'm not sure that's true, but I'm dying to find out.

Well, any disaster can happen to any of us, and we're all going to die. So what things should you have in a safe place when a disaster strikes? I have a list for you and we will publish it in our show notes so you can print it out and make notes. Tax time is a great time, words no one has said, ever.

Since it bears repeating, tax time is a great time to find these documents, since you're hunting for other documents anyways. Get a fireproof box to put the originals in. You can also scan them to an external drive that you can keep in a safety deposit box or in a firebox.

Remember that if you put your documents in a safety deposit box, add someone else's name. Otherwise, if you die or become incapacitated, it will take forever to get access to the box. If you are a trusting soul and don't mind your information saved to the cloud, aka the iCloud, and if you don't know about the cloud, you might ask a grandchild to explain it to you.

You can scan and save your documents there. And again, remember to give someone access to your information. My point is, take the time while your house is still intact to find these documents, so that if disaster strikes, it can be a little less disastrous for you and your family.

So, here is what you need to find. Earth Certificates, Passports, Visas, Home Insurance Documents, Car Insurance Documents and Registration, Health Insurance Documents Medical Cards, Medical Records, Glass Prescriptions, Employment Records, Tax Returns, Driver's Licenses, Social Security Card, Backup ID, Student ID, Military, DD-214, VA, etc. Credit Cards, Medical History, Power of Attorney, Wills, Concealed Carry License, Important Telephone Numbers, Titles, Eads, etc.

Marriage License, At least one statement from all financial accounts with account number, phone number, address, etc. All military and VA records. Thumb drive with video of house and all contents.

Video of everything in the house, all rooms, all drawers open, all closet contents, basement, garage, attic, including artwork. Fat records for your pets, including rabies and other informations would be needed for boarding. Additionally, add the following advanced directives.

A health care proxy, also known as medical power of attorney and the living will. Please go to our webpage for this week's recipe for Benedictine Dip and additional resources for this program. Everyone Dies is offered at no cost but is not free to produce.

Can we count on you to contribute? Your tax-deductible gift will go directly to supporting our non-profit journalism so that we can remain accessible to everyone. You can also donate at www.everyonedies.org That's every, the number one, dies.org or at our site on Patreon. That's www.patreon.com and search for Everyone Dies.

Marianne? Thanks, Charlie. That was really good information. Now, according to the New York Times, more than 600,000 Americans die of cancer each year.

For all the medical advances achieved in recent decades, the number of therapies offered to patients whose cancer has metastasized, that means it's spread to multiple organs, is limited. In most cases, the standard of care is still chemotherapy and radiation, which can buy people with metastatic cancer more time but not cure them. Cure is what people are looking for and there are plenty of fraudulent products available that do promise a cure.

The United States has a long history of people offering patent medicine that promise to cure a wide variety of ailments including chronic pain, headaches, female complaints, and kidney trouble. In the 19th century, all of these false cures began to be referred to as snake oil. The snake oil salesmen of old have adapted into the deceptive high-tech marketers of today who prey on people's desires for easy solutions to difficult health problems, including Alzheimer's, arthritis, cancer, diabetes, memory loss, sexual performance, weight loss, and infectious diseases.

And people are increasingly open to them as a result of increasing use of the internet, social media, and distress of traditional medicine and traditional science. Conspiracy theories are created and also feed this distrust. People with life-limiting illnesses are often willing to try to do anything that might offer hope and plenty of entrepreneurs, many of them operating in countries with regulations less rigorous than those in the United States, are willing to take advantage of that desperation.

Some people have sought treatment from a doctor in Austria who said he could cure them with a machine he built underground that supposedly restores balance to cells. Others have gone to Mexico for injections of immunotherapy drugs straight into their tumors. In Antigua, blood filtering sessions costing $45,000 a session are offered to filter the cancer cells out of the bloodstream.

These treatments are expensive and not covered by insurance, which results in enormous out-of-pocket costs for people with cancer and their families. Also, fraudulent products may be manufactured by unregistered facilities with unknown, unclean, or dangerous conditions. According to the Food and Drug Administration, the FDA, a health product is fraudulent if it's deceptively promoted as being effective against a disease or health condition, but not scientifically proven and effective for that purpose.

Scammers will sell their products using tactics that target specific populations by the web and email, but also by word of mouth, newspapers, magazines, TV, and direct mail. Health fraud scans run rapid on social media sites and closed messaging sites like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. So what's the problem? It's your body.

You can put whatever you want in it, right? Well, this is true, but fear, that's science, is driving the decision to use your money to buy products that likely not only won't help you, but in fact could hurt you. When my sister had uterine cancer, she would purchase products she had read about that were extremely expensive and believed that they would cure her cancer. She'd say she wanted to talk to me about them, and I'd listen, and she'd say, I know you don't believe these things, and I'd tell her what I'm going to tell you.

If you have the money for them and you think they will help, tell your oncologist so that they can make sure that they don't interfere with your treatment, and I hope it'll work for you. But she was right. I didn't believe that they would help because scientific evidence is what counts, and we should use correct scientific information to guide our decisions.

For example, the people who went to Antigua for bloodstream filter, they were told could filter the cancer cells out of their blood, were told not to take chemotherapy between their blood filtering treatments. The filtering treatment was based on one study in Croatia of 12 people with metastatic cancer. Now, people were told that three people had been cured by their cancer and that one recovered from an operable colon cancer to such an extent that he was training for a marathon.

These statements were not backed up by any published data, and Dr. Pramuzic, who conducted the Croatian study, said in a New York Times interview that it would be, quote, highly suspicious to describe the filter treatment as effective at such an early stage of research without larger randomized clinical trials. He said that while his study had produced encouraging results, it was too small to reach any firm conclusions. I could talk for hours about the different miracle cures that are offered to people with life-limiting illnesses, but it's probably more worthwhile to help you identify products whose only guarantee is that you will have less money in your pocket at the end.

So what should you look for? One, if they tell you one product does it all, be suspicious of products that claim that they're going to cure a wide range of diseases. Miracle cures don't exist, they're bogus, and the only thing being sold is false hope. So look for these phrases.

Treats all forms of cancer. Miraculously kills cancer cells and tumors. Shrinks malignant tumors.

Selectively kills cancer cells. More effective than chemotherapy. Attacks cancer cells, leaving healthy cells intact.

Cures cancer. Number two, personal success testimonials. Success stories such as, it cured my diabetes or it immediately stopped my cancer, are easy to make up and are not a substitute for scientific evidence.

Reviews found on popular online marketplaces and social medias can be faked. Three, quick fixes. Few diseases or conditions can be treated quickly, even with legitimate products.

Beware of language such as, lose 30 pounds in 30 days, protects from viral infections, or eliminates skin cancer in days. Number four, all natural cure treatments. Don't be fooled by descriptors like, all natural cure.

Such phrases are often said in health fraud as an attention grabber to suggest that a product is safer than the standard of care. These terms don't necessarily equate to safety. Some plants found in nature such as poisonous mushrooms can be harmful or are fatal when eaten.

Also, the FDA has found numerous products promoted as all natural cures or treatments that contain hidden dangerously high doses of prescription drug ingredients or other active pharmaceutical ingredients. Five, miracle cures. Alarms should go off when you see this claim or others like it such as, new discovery, guaranteed results, or secret ingredient.

If a real cure for a serious disease were FDA approved, it would be widely reported through the media and prescribed by licensed health care practitioners. Not found in advertisements, in social media, messaging apps, websites, print ads, and tv and filmmercials. Number six, conspiracy theories.

Claims like, this is the cure our government or big pharma doesn't want you to know about, are used to distract consumers from the obvious common sense questions about the so-called miracle cure and we're not advocating that you give up hope. If you're facing a cancer diagnosis, we would rather empower you to live a meaningful and healthy life and not despair. Healing your body is not the same as curing it.

Consider an anti-inflammatory lifestyle and a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, low in sugar, processed food, and meat. When my sister had cancer, she started juicing and she would buy tons of vegetables and put them through this juicer and drink it and she'd say, you know, like I said, she knew I wasn't really thrilled with the money that she was spending on these miracle cures and I said to her, I'll do the juicing with you and I bought a juicer and I started juicing things. I didn't really like it, but I did it.

I did it out of camaraderie for my sister. It didn't help her cancer. I don't know, maybe it made her body healthier while she was being, you know, having surgery or taking chemotherapy, but you can join with the person who's living with cancer and eat healthy.

It's, I wouldn't say it's not going to kill you. You increase your exercise, yoga, and meditation and allow yourself to heal. Lower the stress in your life, even if it means changing jobs or leaving a dysfunctional relationship.

Do these things along with the standard of care for the type of cancer you have and stay realistic along with being hopeful. So often when people hear about these potential cures, just the possibility of a miracle cure can act itself like a drug. And the miracle that people are looking for is that of more time.

It may be worthwhile for us to ask ourselves what we're doing with the time that we already have. So Charlie, any thoughts or questions about that? Steve Jobs, you know, one of the founders of Apple. Marianne, didn't he do that? Just kept looking for any sort of miracle cures.

I mean, in the end, he died, but he did that, didn't he, I think? I don't really know. I wouldn't be surprised because it's a perfectly natural thing to want to do is that you think, well, of all the things that we've been able to do, why haven't we been able to cure cancer? So it would make sense, wouldn't it? That you'd say, well, there has to be something out there. Yeah.

And with that, that there has to be something out there. I mean, it's what you were talking about. People just go online or a friend of a friend's said, try this.

But with social media, I mean, social media, what I've seen is like a bright, shiny object. And you can go online and you will find something that will back up what you have in mind. And to your point, it's not necessarily something that's going to help you.

You might wind up getting ripped off. But yeah, I mean, people... Well, anybody can publish anything. There's peer-reviewed journals.

So if you look in peer-reviewed journals, that's the highest screening. So like when I send an article into a peer-reviewed journal to be published, they review it, and then they send it to three other people in that field for review. That's what makes it called peer-reviewed.

And then they have to agree if it's worthy scientifically of being published. The internet has no review. Anybody can post anything.

Right. Exactly. And people might say that about us.

Well, you're on the internet. Well, but what we do is everything that we present is peer-reviewed. It's from peer-reviewed sources, and all our sources are in our show notes that you can look them up and see where they're coming from.

And they're based on many years of clinical experience. So it's up to you. You can decide.

I see messages all the time that Dr. so-and-so from such-and-such a place cured my... And then there's a long list of things that they cured. Contact them, and they give a phone number. Well, you can do that.

It's your money. You can do that. I'm just saying that you might want to think that through and ask yourself, what are you going to trust? Are you going to trust the science, or are you going to trust a post that you saw on Facebook? So there's that aspect of it.

The other thing is that having worked in oncology for many years, as clinicians, it's heartbreaking when our patients die. We're not going to hold back anything that could be helpful. At the Cancer Center, we all worked on national and international research organizations.

We were involved in multi-site therapy, clinical trials. We worked hard on our own time to push the science as far as we could. So we're not going to hold something back.

I mean, it's sort of a little bit insulting and a lot distressing to think that healthcare practitioners are going to do that. But aren't we seeing... What I've noticed, I mean, thankfully, I rarely have to go see a doctor. But I've had enough friends tell me, oh, my doctor wants me to take... When I say that to friends, they say, oh, boy, that I'm lucky because their doctors are prescribing this, and then they want to prescribe that, and then maybe try this too.

They just seem to keep... Like you're in a candy store and just prescribing the different colors of M&M's. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, obviously, it's profitable for pharmaceuticals and doctors.

It's not profitable for... No, it's not profitable for the doctors. The thing is, I can prescribe. I'm a nurse practitioner.

I can prescribe. Mm-hmm. And I would talk with somebody who's depressed and say, well, there's this... Exercise is... If you look at the data, exercise is one of the best things to help depression.

Right. And people either don't feel like it or don't want to do it or whatever. No, I don't want to do that.

Do you have a pill? Yeah, I got a pill. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I got a few pills, and I'm willing to prescribe that pill and suggest that you also walk and meditate or do these other things.

But I don't say to patients, here's six pills because I'm not, A, getting any money back from anybody. I get my salary, and that's it. I don't get... There's no advantage for me to order six pills or one pill.

As a practitioner, I'm going to order just what you need and nothing more. And I worked with exactly the same people who did the exactly same thing. So I know it's easy to say there must be some conspiracy between big pharma and healthcare or healthcare practitioners or whoever you want.

And if that makes you feel better to believe that, then go ahead. Go ahead. But what you want is more time.

What you want is to feel better. What you want really is for your cancer to go away. And we will do everything we can to help that happen.

But the reality of the situation is that it's not possible to make all cancers go away. So buyer beware. In our third half, we welcome back Dr. Gina Ford, a clinical nurse specialist from the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of New Mexico Health System in Albuquerque.

Gina? Gina, welcome back to Everyone Dies. And our topic today is about miracle cures or things that people have for sale that they try to target to people who are living with cancer. And we were interested in hearing your perspective on this topic, plus if you can bring anything from your work with Native American and Hispanic populations in New Mexico, that would be great too.

So welcome back, Gina. Thanks for having me. Yeah, I always love coming to talk with you and share some of the things that I've seen.

You know, I think that unfortunately, this is something that we see all too often. You know, anytime anybody gets a serious, life-threatening illness, you know, one of the first things we do is ask, you know, am I going to die? How can I be cured of this? Am I going to be, you know, I want to be, you know, quote unquote, normal again. And I think that culturally speaking, you know, I know we've spoken about this before in some cultures, there's a big, big mistrust of Western healthcare system for lots of reasons.

There's been lots of recent historical traumas that have led to that. And so, you know, they come into this with some skepticism. And I think that that is a bit different than these miracle cures that we're looking for.

So I'll speak about that first. And so what I do a lot with my Indigenous patients and even the Hispanic patients is, you know, to date, I don't believe that I have ever cared for an Indigenous patient, a tribal patient that has just done Western medication without their own natural or tribal medicine as well, which is fine. And what I tell them is, you know, you can continue doing that, you know, just make sure you let your oncologist know because, you know, at least the cancer centers I've worked in, you know, the physicians have these databases that they can, you know, put in some of the herbal supplements, you know, or what have you to make sure nothing interacts with the chemotherapy.

And, you know, contrary to most beliefs, oncologists are not going to say you can't do this. They just want to know what you're taking. I think that Western medicine has gotten a lot better before they used to just say, what medications are you taking? And a lot of people think, oh, that means prescription medication when really we want to know everything you're taking.

Over the counter, naturally, you know, what have you. And so they'll say, you know, what herbal supplements are you taking? What vitamins, minerals? And so, you know, I think that we've gotten better from a medical standpoint about asking for that. And I think that that's good that we have a multi-modality approach to that where people are doing that.

And I think that's important. Where I get nervous is when I see, you know, what I call them requacks out there saying that this is a cure-all for cancer. And that's where I get very, very nervous.

And I don't see that in the indigenous community or the Hispanic community. I see that a lot online. And I, you know, as I've shared before, I live in New Mexico and I have a few, you know, quote unquote, doctors here.

They're not physicians. I don't even know what their, I don't even know what their credentials are, but they sell natural or homeopathic remedies. And what makes me nervous is that they tell people to stop taking their chemotherapy, their immunotherapy, their radiation, and say, you need to take our natural remedies and this will cure you.

And that makes me very, very nervous. And- And they actually tell people that this is going to cure. Yeah, not all of them.

I will say we have a lot of really, really good natural homeopathic practitioners here. I'm thinking of a couple in particular that are terrible that, you know, if I ever went into them in a dark alley, you know, only one of us will be walking away and it'll be me. But- You are so badass, Gina.

I know, I'm really aggressive when it comes to certain things. But I would say, you know, 98% of the people in New Mexico that practice this are wonderful. We have a few that are terrible.

And these terrible ones that I'm thinking of, unfortunately, they charge just a ridiculous amount, $500 a pop for these people to come in, which, you know, that's not a reality for most people to pay at every visit. And they say, don't go back to your doctor. And anytime anybody tells you that, that should be concerning.

I think right there, they say, don't go back to your doctor. Don't listen to them. Just listen to what I tell you.

And then that's just to visit with them. That's not even for the, you know, remedies that they're going to give you. And then inevitably, six months later, they're coming back into my office and the cancer has metastasized throughout their body and they're dying.

And they're just, they feel completely heartbroken. They don't understand what happened. And, you know, anytime anybody tells you something that says this is a that is very, very concerning to me.

And it's not just, you know, natural or herbal remedies. You know, I think there's nothing wrong with taking natural or herbal remedies in conjunction with your treatment. I think you should do it.

In fact, there's evidence out there that shows some of these are very helpful, but I don't think that you should have to hide it. And I think a lot of people take it and just let your oncologist know, hey, I'm taking this and, you know, all for it. But, you know, one thing that really concerns me is when, you know, again, they tell you to stop taking this memo and just do this.

Another one I see is when people say, oh, I have this cure for your cancer and it's diet. That's really, really concerning to me because, you know, a lot of it is, you know, if you've never eaten like this, you never would have gotten the cancer. You know, right before we got on, I just Googled cure for cancer diet and over 637 books popped up on Amazon.

637. Really? Yeah. And that is really, really frightening.

And I think that's really dangerous. Now, as just a disclaimer, whenever I see somebody with a new diagnosis of cancer, one of the first things I do is put in a referral to a dietitian because nutrition is very, very important. I will say that.

However, it's not going to cure you of your cancer and it's not going to prevent you from getting cancer. You know, I do think once we are on that trajectory, yes, you need to have, you know, a well-balanced diet and that's why I want, you know, your dietitian involved and some of the treatments, you know, do cause a lot of side effects. So, you know, I, you know, get the dietitian involved.

I get your physical therapist involved. I get an occupation. You know, all of these people are very important.

But again, the key here is anything that says it's a cure for cancer. I think that it's important to eat a healthy, well-balanced diet, but it's not going to cure you. And, you know, I've been on the other side of this where I've had loved ones, you know, diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

I've lost my favorite uncle to ALS. And, you know, we've been down these rabbit holes. I've had family members go down these things, okay, well, we're going to have to just do all of these horrible herbal, you know, protein kale shakes or, you know, get all of these fillings removed and get them replaced and that will cure them.

And it's because of these people that have put things out there and it's just so, so dangerous and it's false. It's false. And, you know, it's really, really sad.

And I think it just kind of ties back into that we are looking for answers and we are looking for ways to... Nobody wants to have these diagnoses and nobody wants to go through these treatments and we want to return to a level of normalcy. But anytime anybody, you know, tries to sell anything that's a cure-all, I think that should immediately raise a level of alarm. And it is, you know, it's a very cruel deception and it's really, really something that, you know, I try and warn people about that we have to be very, very careful of that.

Anytime they say it's a miracle, anytime it's a cure-all, all of that should really, I think, raise some alarms for people. Well, and I've had patients say, well, look at all the things, you know, they can do with technology. They can, you know, put a man on the moon.

They can do this, they can do that. Why isn't there a cure for cancer? And that's a good question, you know, and I've been to conferences where people have said, you know, when you look at the funding for research, American Cancer Society, National Institute of Health, you know, it severely went down during, you know, the 20-year war that, you know, we had. You can't fund everything, right? You know, there's only so much money.

So if we're allocating, you know, the government for one thing and not another, then that, you know, the research is understanding what's the mechanism that's making this happen and then testing what is it we can do to stop that from happening. And that's where the science comes in and that process takes time, right? Absolutely. And, you know, I think that it's important to remember, you know, and, you know, we just simply don't have enough time in this podcast to get either one of us on our soapbox about this, but we don't have a cure for the calm and cold.

So, you know, to go down that path of, you know, cure for cancer, but if we look back to where we were 50 years ago versus to where we are now, we have made so many leaps and strides and, you know, the life expectancy for cancer is shown, you know, people are living longer. I mean, even look at HIV and AIDS, it's not a death sentence anymore. HIV isn't a death sentence before it was a death sentence.

And to where we are now, it's a chronic illness. You know, so, you know, I don't think that, you know, I think saying it's cure for cancer is just, you know, kind of a blanket statement because there's so many different types of cancer, so many different types of mutations, but our treatments are getting so much better and we have targetable mutations. That's what immunotherapy is about.

And, you know, and I know I'm biased, but I will say in terms of oncology, I think it's the most rapidly changing field in terms of treatment. You know, it's not something that you can walk away from in 10 years, come back and just pick up where you left off because it changes so rapidly. I mean, I think we are making great leaps and strides, but to just say there's a cure for cancer, you can't say that because there's so many different types of cancer and so many different types of mutation, but I mean, even look at, you know, HPV.

We have a vaccine for that now, you know, and that's going to help, you know, and, you know, cancer is caused by that, you know, and so I just, I don't know. I think that we have to be, you know, really careful and that, yes, we are making great leaps and strides in that, but anything that we say is a cure-all, it's just, I immediately, I'm kind of on guard about that. Right.

Well, do you have any final thoughts that you wanted to share with us? You know, I had an oncologist, you know, I think diet is the one that I really start to like, you know, my eye starts twitching when people start talking about that going, well, you know, I'm going to put, you know, them on a diet and, you know, God bless my patients. I mean, they're going through so much as it is and, you know, they feel lousy and then their loved ones, you know, who, it is coming from a place of love that are forcing them to drink these horrible, horrible shakes that are just like full of, you know, I don't know, they just look wretched. And this is like, this is all I want to do is just have a burger and a milkshake and if they can tolerate it, I'm like, oh my gosh, just let them do it.

And, you know, the oncologist I worked with, you know, he used to say, well, you know, if it doesn't taste good, yeah, you probably should be eating it. It's good for you. But, you know, if you can eat it and, you know, and it's what you want, then at this time, just do it.

I want you to have the calories. I'd rather you have the calories. And I loved that advice.

I thought that was great. And, you know, that's kind of where I'm at, you know, because if we have that cancer diagnosis, I think it's more important that you're eating. You know, I have, you know, several patients that, you know, were, you know, vegetarians that grew, honest to God, grew their own, you know, vegetables, never ate meat their entire life and have colon cancer and, you know, are just sitting there going, I don't understand.

I don't know what happened. I did everything right. And so, you know, by all accounts, these 637 books that I just pulled up probably knocked out, you know, 600 of them.

And so, you know, I think there's always going to be something that offsets that. So I just really want people to be careful about that. You know, anytime you see something that is a, you know, a cure or, you know, a miracle, or this is a cure all, I mean, it's just, it really, really needs to be careful of that.

Well, amen to that. Thank you, Gina, for your input. We always appreciate when you take the time to come on our show and hang in there.

I appreciate you having me and letting me rant. So that's always good. It is.

It is good. Thank you, Gina. Thanks again, Gina.

That wraps up this week's episode. Please stay tuned for the continuing saga of Everyone Dies, and thank you for listening. This is Charlie Navarette.

Writer Saul Bellow wrote, Losing a parent is something like driving through a plate glass window. You didn't know it was there until it shattered, and then for years to come, you're picking up the pieces. And I'm Marianne Matzo, and we'll see you next week.

Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And every day is a gift. This podcast does not provide medical advice.

All discussion on this podcast, such as treatments, dosages, outcomes, charts, patient profiles, advice, messages, and any other discussion are for informational purposes only and are not a substitute for professional medical advice or treatment. Always seek the advice of your primary care practitioner or other qualified health providers with any questions that you may have regarding your health. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard from this podcast.

If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor or 911 immediately. Everyone Dies does not recommend or endorse any specific tests, practitioners, products, procedures, opinions, or other information that may be mentioned in this podcast. Reliance on any information provided in this podcast by persons appearing on this podcast at the invitation of Everyone Dies or by other members is solely at your own risk.