Another great post Robyn. Many people have so much faith in cancer screening. I've noticed skin screening clinics are also very popular these days and every slight mark on the skin is hailed as being a budding killer melanoma. They give strict instruction to never let direct sunlight fall on your skin and slap on toxic 50+ at the mere thought of going outside, it's lunacy.
Makes me wonder how many other ‘scheduled’ screenings have a similar lack of usefulness. Thank you for the excellent reporting that you offer to you Substack community!
Soooo many! This is one of the papers I referenced in the article: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25596211/. "Conclusions: Among currently available screening tests for diseases where death is a common outcome, reductions in disease-specific mortality are uncommon and reductions in all-cause mortality are very rare or non-existent."
Well, that all vindicates my decision to blow off a colonoscopy after a positive FOBT test some three years ago (and here I am, still alive and thriving!). With a false positive rate of some 96%, the FOBT seems ill-suited for a mass screening test, particularly for someone with no family history of colorectal cancer, previous tests which were all negative and only one of the samples this time being negative (what are the chances of a cancer suddenly cropping up in the 24 hour gap between tests?) and with no risk factors for bowel cancer and, in fact, a very high fibre diet that is highly protective, I wasn’t keen on a colonoscopy that would reveal no cancer (more likely an anal fissure/tear) and subject me to the risk of perforation, or a tear, from the procedure, not to mention the risks from general anaesthesia (not to also mention being unable to eat anything fibrous pre-procedure whilst taking some gawd-awful concoction to evacuate the gut).
The invitation to take a colonoscopy was also signed by the Commonwealth Minister for Health, and the Chief Medical Officer, the turkeys who brought us the Covid debacle. They had by then blown anything left of their credibility by their embrace of medical pseudoscience and the policy of fear and panic over Covid. Oh, and the gastroenterologist and nurse (I did go to an appointment with them to discuss the issue) were both wearing masks (this was during a period of mask mania in South Australia) which further questioned their medical expertise.
The colonoscopy racket seems designed to funnel a whole bunch of taxpayers’ and private money into the cancer screening industry whilst allowing governments to look good - see how much money we are throwing at this cancer problem, and with KPIs to envy (test kits mailed out, samples analysed, colonoscopies performed, etc) which simply measure outputs and not outcomes which, as your interpretation of the study shows, DOES NOT SAVE LIVES.
Mind you, all my Covidian friends would have duly fronted up for a colonoscopy just as they did for the Covid jabs because ‘experts’, etc. I prefer to take my own counsel, however, especially when it is supplemented by informed and sensible sources such as your invaluable Substack.
Well, it looks like you made the right decision! Taking responsibility for your own health (e.g. eating a diet high in fibre) is always going to beat out deferring to 'experts' who have no capacity for critical thinking. The masked wonders really get me going. How am I supposed to take anyone seriously when they're wearing a face nappy, let alone if they're presenting themselves as an 'expert' doctor?
Spot on. The reason it seems so logical is because we have a fundamental misunderstanding of the biology and natural history of cancer. H. Gilbert Welch explains this so well in the video I embedded. In a nutshell, 'bad' cancers are bad from the get-go, and 'good' cancers are good from the get-go. Screening doesn't change the underlying nature of the cancer, it just turns more people into cancer patients.
I'm becoming increasingly wary and skeptical of the push for health screening. It's another means of gathering data and lining the pockets of the medical-pharma industry.
The data-gathering aspect of it can't be underestimated when it comes to any test that involves genetic info. And generally, it's a great business model for the medical-industrial complex.
More fresh vegetables prepared at home, beans, whole grains, and less smoked meat, smoked cheese, soda, artificial sweetener, corn syrup , additives and refined food in general. Digging with your hands in your vegetable garden improves the health of your gut bacteria, and your whole body. Cabbage-family vegetables may be somewhat anti-cancer. Fermented foods are healthful.
Keep your vitamin-D level up in the upper normal range and avoid immune-system suppressants, such as mRNA gene-products, which allow cancers to grow more readily.
Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes!!!!! You and I should get together to swap notes on our gardening adventures. I'm in a subtropical climate where just about everything thrives except many of the brassicas, which just run to seed in the heat. I haven't had my vitamin D tested in many years, but I have no doubt that it's high normal now that I'm spending so much more time outdoors.
I had early childhood food allergies, so my grandmother found him to be my doctor until I was 6&1/2 and we moved away (USMC family). I never thought I'd go into medicine... :-)
When I was in naturopathic college, we learned about Pottenger's cat experiments and the insights into human nutrition that they gave rise to. How amazing that you were treated by him!
We have 5 acres in a climate zone 10 area, in the middle of sugarcane country. Fruit trees grow like weeds here - I have a dozen papayas that grew out of the compost pile! I'm harvesting more eggplants than I know what to do with at the moment. In addition to developing my gardening skills, I need to learn the old-timey arts of canning and other forms of food presentation.
I remember Dr. Pottenger. He was nice. He let me listen to my heart, but not long enough. I wanted to listen longer. I remember looking at all the pictures on the wall in the waiting room, the same pictures you will see of people and animals, when you read his work.
I remember getting the polio vaccine on a sugar cube. I was not permitted to have sugar, but it seemed to be OK if it was medicine from Dr. Pottenger.
I'd be happy to have other discussion outside the comments section, -Robyn.
One way might be to leave a comment on my less traveled (now) Google blog www.johndayblog.com , which will notify me in my email, and which I can then delete. I think we have shared purpose in what we do.
Another great post Robyn. Many people have so much faith in cancer screening. I've noticed skin screening clinics are also very popular these days and every slight mark on the skin is hailed as being a budding killer melanoma. They give strict instruction to never let direct sunlight fall on your skin and slap on toxic 50+ at the mere thought of going outside, it's lunacy.
Funny you should mention that; I have an article on melanoma coming soon....
Nice. Very nice. In some ways endorses my attitude of not seeing doctor’s because “they might find something”.
I know right ! The doubts and fear can cause more damage. Our body is a beautiful machine. Given the right conditions it will heal itself.
You are absolutely spot on. In many cases, it would be better if the 'something' wasn't found because the cure is worse than the (non-)disease.
Makes me wonder how many other ‘scheduled’ screenings have a similar lack of usefulness. Thank you for the excellent reporting that you offer to you Substack community!
Soooo many! This is one of the papers I referenced in the article: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25596211/. "Conclusions: Among currently available screening tests for diseases where death is a common outcome, reductions in disease-specific mortality are uncommon and reductions in all-cause mortality are very rare or non-existent."
Well, that all vindicates my decision to blow off a colonoscopy after a positive FOBT test some three years ago (and here I am, still alive and thriving!). With a false positive rate of some 96%, the FOBT seems ill-suited for a mass screening test, particularly for someone with no family history of colorectal cancer, previous tests which were all negative and only one of the samples this time being negative (what are the chances of a cancer suddenly cropping up in the 24 hour gap between tests?) and with no risk factors for bowel cancer and, in fact, a very high fibre diet that is highly protective, I wasn’t keen on a colonoscopy that would reveal no cancer (more likely an anal fissure/tear) and subject me to the risk of perforation, or a tear, from the procedure, not to mention the risks from general anaesthesia (not to also mention being unable to eat anything fibrous pre-procedure whilst taking some gawd-awful concoction to evacuate the gut).
The invitation to take a colonoscopy was also signed by the Commonwealth Minister for Health, and the Chief Medical Officer, the turkeys who brought us the Covid debacle. They had by then blown anything left of their credibility by their embrace of medical pseudoscience and the policy of fear and panic over Covid. Oh, and the gastroenterologist and nurse (I did go to an appointment with them to discuss the issue) were both wearing masks (this was during a period of mask mania in South Australia) which further questioned their medical expertise.
The colonoscopy racket seems designed to funnel a whole bunch of taxpayers’ and private money into the cancer screening industry whilst allowing governments to look good - see how much money we are throwing at this cancer problem, and with KPIs to envy (test kits mailed out, samples analysed, colonoscopies performed, etc) which simply measure outputs and not outcomes which, as your interpretation of the study shows, DOES NOT SAVE LIVES.
Mind you, all my Covidian friends would have duly fronted up for a colonoscopy just as they did for the Covid jabs because ‘experts’, etc. I prefer to take my own counsel, however, especially when it is supplemented by informed and sensible sources such as your invaluable Substack.
Cheers,
Phil
Well, it looks like you made the right decision! Taking responsibility for your own health (e.g. eating a diet high in fibre) is always going to beat out deferring to 'experts' who have no capacity for critical thinking. The masked wonders really get me going. How am I supposed to take anyone seriously when they're wearing a face nappy, let alone if they're presenting themselves as an 'expert' doctor?
Absolutely fascinating. It’s one of those things that seems logical or to make sense but when you dig into it, it doesn’t. Thanks for this.
Spot on. The reason it seems so logical is because we have a fundamental misunderstanding of the biology and natural history of cancer. H. Gilbert Welch explains this so well in the video I embedded. In a nutshell, 'bad' cancers are bad from the get-go, and 'good' cancers are good from the get-go. Screening doesn't change the underlying nature of the cancer, it just turns more people into cancer patients.
I'm becoming increasingly wary and skeptical of the push for health screening. It's another means of gathering data and lining the pockets of the medical-pharma industry.
The data-gathering aspect of it can't be underestimated when it comes to any test that involves genetic info. And generally, it's a great business model for the medical-industrial complex.
More fresh vegetables prepared at home, beans, whole grains, and less smoked meat, smoked cheese, soda, artificial sweetener, corn syrup , additives and refined food in general. Digging with your hands in your vegetable garden improves the health of your gut bacteria, and your whole body. Cabbage-family vegetables may be somewhat anti-cancer. Fermented foods are healthful.
Keep your vitamin-D level up in the upper normal range and avoid immune-system suppressants, such as mRNA gene-products, which allow cancers to grow more readily.
https://www.johndayblog.com/2016/07/liberty-garden-central-texas-climate.html
drjohnsblog.substack.com
Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes!!!!! You and I should get together to swap notes on our gardening adventures. I'm in a subtropical climate where just about everything thrives except many of the brassicas, which just run to seed in the heat. I haven't had my vitamin D tested in many years, but I have no doubt that it's high normal now that I'm spending so much more time outdoors.
Hi Robyn, Our larger garden is in climate zone 9a, so it still freezes pretty hard in winter.
It sounds like your zone might even be warmer than Yoakum, in the Texas coastal plains.
It is certainly warmer than our Austin garden (zone 8a).
Are you at all familiar with the work of Francis Pottenger MD?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_M._Pottenger_Jr.
Even today, some people have heard of him.
I had early childhood food allergies, so my grandmother found him to be my doctor until I was 6&1/2 and we moved away (USMC family). I never thought I'd go into medicine... :-)
When I was in naturopathic college, we learned about Pottenger's cat experiments and the insights into human nutrition that they gave rise to. How amazing that you were treated by him!
We have 5 acres in a climate zone 10 area, in the middle of sugarcane country. Fruit trees grow like weeds here - I have a dozen papayas that grew out of the compost pile! I'm harvesting more eggplants than I know what to do with at the moment. In addition to developing my gardening skills, I need to learn the old-timey arts of canning and other forms of food presentation.
You can probably find this Ball Blue Book in good condition used. It's "the bible" of pickling and canning. https://www.amazon.com/Ball-Blue-Book-Guide-Preserving/dp/0972753702
This blog post has a picture of some of my canning, which is mostly what people will get for Christmas this year. https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/distant-realities
I remember Dr. Pottenger. He was nice. He let me listen to my heart, but not long enough. I wanted to listen longer. I remember looking at all the pictures on the wall in the waiting room, the same pictures you will see of people and animals, when you read his work.
I remember getting the polio vaccine on a sugar cube. I was not permitted to have sugar, but it seemed to be OK if it was medicine from Dr. Pottenger.
I'm inspired - thank you!! I'm sure your home-made presents will be far more treasured than store-bought gifts.
I'd be happy to have other discussion outside the comments section, -Robyn.
One way might be to leave a comment on my less traveled (now) Google blog www.johndayblog.com , which will notify me in my email, and which I can then delete. I think we have shared purpose in what we do.
More flavorful.
:-)