The better ‘alternative’

I owe much of this column to a friend and a colleague, who I’d like to hide as Engr. Allan Chan (oops) who provided me the resources to come up with something to write today (thank God) which is about the present state of the alternative medicine industry.

I recall, I wrote a great deal against the cost of medicine in this country which makes us the most expensive in Asia next to Japan and that’s because of the sheer greed of their makers who are incurably sick of cashing in on sick people.   

In the audio-video presentation that he gave, Purdue University recently published and documented more than three hundred of cytotoxic compounds or proven cancer-fighting agents isolated from more than 3,500 plant species which to date have not reached to mainstream medicine.  Reason:  The government of the United States and the drug companies are said to be in cahoots to block any effort of their commercialization.

In another resource material, Dr. Francsisco Contreras, a surgical oncologist who runs a successful cancer facility, using scientific and alternative medicine, in Tijuana Mexico cites in his book “Dismantling Cancer” the apathy of the US government to fund researches because legislators and doctors in medical organizations are pampered so well by these Goliaths in the drug industry that they have become their missionaries to move heaven and earth to debunk any findings of alternative medicine for fear they will run out of business quickly.  

In the seventies, the world declared war on cancer but did we win in the campaign?  An SMS news service popped on my mobile phone yesterday that the incidence of cancer in Asia alone will double by 2020. This is very alarming indeed. And I fear for myself and for my children because it looks like we are losing the war very clearly every single day.

Yet these giant pharma companies are saying that they have invested a lot of money in research and development and insist that we need to pay more to pay for those investments they made. Now, I don’t get it.  Why do we have to pay more and yet expect more dead men walking in the next ten years? Isn’t that quackery?    

Sometimes I resign to the belief that all that’s left of conventional medicine today is an empty shell of an industry that claims to treat patients but really just uses them as cash-machines to enrich some of the wealthiest corporations in the world.

And why don’t we give alternative a chance? It is not uncommon today to meet some of your friends who were given “death sentences” by mainstream oncologists but who are now free of the dreaded disease because some herbs did the job.

Also, I’m proud to say that I am a living testimony to the benefits of herbal medicine. You wouldn’t believe this, having renal stones is more painful than giving birth or getting hit by a bullet (If you still don’t believe me, try reading a medical book or ask your doc). And every time my stones moved, I ran to my doc and shoot me with a very strong pain reliever like Nubain or Demerol.

But it’s slowly getting smaller now after my urologist at Cebu Doctors Hospital advised me to try Sambong pills and they worked not to mention they are twice cheaper than what I used to take before.

Of course, I don’t buy the idea just because they are alternative they are good. The point to everything about this approach is that there are already tons of private initiatives that bring overwhelming scientific evidence that there are alternative medicines that hold great promise to treating or even eliminating many of the world’s most fearsome diseases.

And we only need to be open about it.

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