DIET AND CANCER: round 3, or maybe 4.

With Coleman, 2004.

In Tucson they say that “the ice broke in the San Pedro River” on the first day of the year that the temperature reaches 100⁰.  Well, the ice was supposed to break in Coyote Creek today  (here in the north Borrego valley) but it only groaned and cracked a little.  Maybe tomorrow.

But, as it reached 99⁰ I did as I had said yesterday – went for a hike early, then spent the bulk of the day indoors.  This gave me a perfect opportunity to investigate a lead sent me by Carolyn, concerning diet and cancer.  Here is the link.  It is remarkably uninformative:

https://www.facebook.com/Alternativehealthsolutions1?hc_location=timeline

This link basically is an ad for a book, by Tamara St. John, the title of which is Defeat Cancer Now:  A Nutritional Approach to Wellness and Other Diseases.  I have not read the book, and probably won’t – but some of you may.  If so, please get back to me.

Ms. St. John says she has had cancer twice, and has been at death’s door since 2009.  She has used diet – apparently very high to vegetable matter – to hold her cancers at bay.  It is very difficult to excavate any concrete information from her blog, which is actually a Facebook page.  She is not a scientist; rather, she is an MBA and motivational speaker. 

Well, dammit!, more power to her!  It goes without saying that none of her suggestions have ever been tested with an NIH-approved clinical trial.  Dr. Ioannidis and his METRICS cohort would smile and shake their collective heads.  But so what?  Just because a hypothesis has never been robustly verified doesn't mean that it's wrong..  Novartis and Pfizer sell drugs to combat cancer; they are, one and all, various kinds of bio-active, mainly organic,  molecules.  So are carrots.  So why can’t a diet of carrots (and brown bananas) help keep cancer at bay?  Maybe they can.  My guess, though, is that – if carrots and bananas are truly effective – their value would have been discovered long, long ago.  So probably this is pseudo-science, and cancer patients certainly should NEVER rely solely on diet.  But, as I've said many times before – what do I know?