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Steve Jobs and cancer
Look, I am a massage therapy student, just now undergoing training in the usage of Shiatsu and three of the hundreds of Traditional Chinese Medicine therapies. So, I don't claim expertise in any form of massage therapy or bodywork. However, I am alive, and inquisitive, and try to be well informed.
You're all aware of the recent death of Steve Jobs. For several years he tried to fight pancreatic cancer with alternative medicine treatments--herbs, prayer, Shiatsu, meditation--you name it, he might have tried it. His doctors claim that his form of pancreatic cancer could have been cured with a combination of surgery and drugs and radiation. Supporters of complementary and alternative medicine as loudly proclaim that, well, the odds were long against him all along; that, for whatever reason, his body fell out of alignment with chi, the universal life force.
However, cancer is not an imbalance of chi. Cancer is a growth. Cancer is cell metabolism out of control. A normal cell will in essence kill itself when it can't perform its duties. A cancer cell violates its "programming" and refuses to die; it replicates itself, and its offspring cells replicate themselves, a process that soon inhibits one or more organs' ability to fulfill their functions, eventually killing the entire body.
Chi is vital life force: all gases, all liquids, all solids, all forms of energy seen and unseen are chi. Chi flows constantly throughout the Universe, it is everywhere at once. Nothing happens on the other side of the Universe that does not immediately happen here on our little planet. But cancer is a blip in the ebb and flow. Cancer is aberrant, it is a rogue star in the inner universe of one tiny, insignificant being on one tiny insignificant planet in one corner of one tiny universe surrounded by billions of other universes.
Cancer is different, because cancers are not natural to the Universe. The man-made chemical admixtures that cause cancers are foreign to the Universe. Cancers are incapable of surrendering to chi... of being reordered by chi, because they are foreign to chi. It's analogous to a creature from the depths of the sea trying to survive on the planet's surface.
Therefore, it is foolish to rely on the power of chi to cure cancer. Man created the cancer; Man must treat the cancer, by killing or excising the cancer. When the cancer has been removed, and the body organism begins to walk the long road to recovery, chi can again flow unimpeded throughout the body's 100 trillion cells as it travels unimpeded through the Universe's 100 trillion planets and suns.
If you have a cancer, or love someone who does, I urge you to accept allopathic medical treatments. Because Man created the cancer: must must kill it.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Daniel Cohen on
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I urge a combination because cancer is a natural reaction to your balance within the environment. There are no 100% certainties. Both systems have their use and benefits. They work well in combination and no need to be a complete either or. My Mother had three incidents of Cancer in her life. Two she beat and one she didn't. Cancer is part of nature and using surgery as well as alternatives may save lives.
It is much harder to stop cancer than to prevent. Diet, exercise, environment, dealing with stress, genetics they are all factors. Try to avoid processed foods, they are made with known carcinogens. reduce inflammatories in your diet. You can check your foods in the search bar here http://nutritiondata.self.com. Get a lymphatic massage at least every other month. Do what you can to prevent and support efforts for a low toxin world free of GMO unknowns.
Be Well!
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Permalink Reply by Gary W Addis, LMT on
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Oh, yes, I agree with you all the way. As I said, I've just begun studying the Energy modalities. Not convinced yet, but less skeptical than I was on Day One (I have felt... things... in class). Some claim to see auras, I don't. But, also as I said, cancer is different: like the man-made chemicals that cause them, cancers are unnatural to the Universe. So, because Man made the chemicals, we should not expect the Universe to cure our cancers.
Good nutrition certainly helps. Working the meridians won't do any harm and might actually do some good. Massage itself will certainly make it easier to tolerate the ravages of cancer.
Pancreatic cancer is the deadliest kind. Jobs probably could not have survived it no matter what he had done. There's a note of hope, I just read. An artificial pancreas is under development that can produce insulin and glucagon!
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chemicals are not unnatural. They come from nature. In each age people ingested toxins at varying levels. The problem today is the massive way we use the chemicals. In traditional ways it is all about balance, harmony. The Navajo call it Hozho, The Hawaiians call it Lokahi and there are many more names. As man sought to dominate nature we forgot it. We need to restore it.
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http://ellenrennard.blogspot.com/2011/03/hozho.html
It is clear that Einstein's notion of "harmony" is vastly different from "hózhó." Witherspoon explains that the Western ontological paradigm focuses on a "seemingly never-ending search for the most elemental, the least divisible building blocks of the universe." (Think of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein...) This Western emphasis on analysis, on dissection, is fundamentally "atomistic," Witherspoon concludes, whereas the Dineh focus is "holistic," leading toward synthesis and integration as a means of expressing the nature of existence. (In splitting the atom, Einstein took a Western approach.)
The implications of the Dineh ontolological perspective for social relationships also differ from the Western idea that puts the individual at the center. For the Dineh, Witherspoon explains, "No individual, no partial group, either a majority or a minority, was invested with the right or power to impose its will on the whole," so leaders relied on the power of persuasion to build consensus. Existence is in community, in relationship, in kinship. Having worked in institutions that departmentalize learning and that yield to majority rather than consensus views, I have long chafed against the limitations of the Western ontological perspective. But back to Witherspoons explanation of "hózhó":
"'Hózhó' means 'beauty' or 'beautiful conditions.' But this is a term that means much more than beauty. For the Navajo, hózhó expresses the intellectual notion of order, the emotional state of happiness, the physical state of health, the moral condition of good, and the aesthetic dimension of harmony.
The Navajo do not look for beauty; they normally find themselves engulfed in it.
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But they are unnatural if, first, the rocks containing them are crushed, and filtered, and washed, and conjoined unnaturally with other chemicals. For instance, iron ore through a chemical process becomes aluminum, a very different material. Here's a better analogy. The form of sodium known as sodium chloride is very helpful, even necessary to the human body, but sodium hydroxide is a caustic acid that will dissolve tissues. Both are sodium, but have very different effects.
Mankind's manipulation of chemicals trying to mimic the actions of enzymes and hormones that act within the body; of ores that form the metals that support our cars and homes; of this or that to make our clothing sometimes has unintended consequences. Plastics, for instance--what a difference plastics have made in our lives. But inside our bodies, even one atom of plastic is a horrible thing. Plastics dissolve back into their respective chemicals very very slowly--thousands of years slowly. Radiation occurs naturally and harmlessly in the environment, but after uranium is manipulated by Man, it can become deadly to life for--well, forever.
Sorry about running off on a tangent, Daniel. I know you aren't disagreeing with me--and I'm not disagreeing with you, either. We have ingested chemicals in their natural states since the first human took his first bite of the apple. But for the last couple hundred years we have become quite adept at manipulating the world bequeathed to our care, much to our detriment in various ways. The ingredients used in their manufacture are natural, but the new manmade compound "plastic" is an abomination to hozho, chi, the Great Spirit, God, the Universe--to all life as we know it.
Daniel Cohen said:chemicals are not unnatural. They come from nature. In each age people ingested toxins at varying levels. The problem today is the massive way we use the chemicals. In traditional ways it is all about balance, harmony. The Navajo call it Hozho, The Hawaiians call it Lokahi and there are many more names. As man sought to dominate nature we forgot it. We need to restore it.
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Permalink Reply by Lee Edelberg on
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Cancer is as natural as anything else, Gary, and it's been around forever. It's not caused only by manufactored compounds.
I'd run that theory about cancer and chi past an experienced, traditional acupuncturist. Tell us what they say!
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Lee, I don't remember stating that all cancers are caused by industrial compounds.
Actually, all cancers result from mistakes in the nucleus of cells. Mistakes due to repeated injury to the tissue, either by bacteria, viral agents, repeated woundings, advancing age or...industrial compounds. A cell can reproduce only so many times before mistakes in the DNA/RNA are made--programmed cell death makes certain of that. Apoptosis kills aged, malfunctioning cells. But, sometimes, the cell "refuses" to die.
Sometimes, the cell begins to replicate without control--at that stage, it is called cancer. The cancerous cells grow so numerous so quickly that they begin to interfere with properly functioning cells, which obviously causes the entire organism to falter, and if not treated, to eventually die.
We humans cannot control everything in our environment. Actually, we are so dependent on chemical compounds, even those we know to be carcinogenic, that we are forced to try to live with them. Plastics, for instance. Asbestos, for instance. Therefore, I have not said anything that is not 100% true about cancer.
Regarding chi: what, pray tell, did I say about acupuncture or any other energy modality that set you off? Lee, please provide me with documented proof of just one documented cancer patient who was cured of cancer with Therapeutic Touch or Acupuncture. Sorry, Lee...I don't believe faith-healing pastor Oral Roberts ever cured a disease with prayer, I don't believe any living human can cure a cancer with a packet of needles or hovering hands. What can your experienced, traditional acupuncturist say in order to convince me to trust my life to his needles? That for it to work I must have the faith of a mustard seed?
Now, having said that, I am legally deaf, my ears drain fluid (sometimes bloody) constantly. Allopathic medicine hasn't found the cause or the cure. I have treated my condition with reflexology and every other method I have stumbled upon--ear candling, mega dosages of vitamins and herbs and acupressure and-- whatever. Has it helped? A better question is, has it done any harm.
A few decades ago, actor Steve McQueen decided to treat his cancer with injections of laetrile and mega-dosage vitamin C. Did the apricot pits kill him, or did the cancer? did he prolong his life a few weeks with the unconventional treatments, or did he shorten it by years, as some in the medical community believe? Steve Jobs certainly had the right -- and the money-- to treat his cancer by leaping off an Andes cliff strapped to ten giant condors if he had wanted to. It was pancreatic cancer, the fastest acting, deadliest cancer. His doctors claim that because his cancer was caught early, he had had a slightly better than even chance of survival. Jobs decided not to take that bet. His life, his choice; ultimately, his death.
As you seem to imply, I am not anti TCM or smoking the pipe in Navajo sweat lodges or chanting Ommm on a Tibetan mountain. However, I believe unequivocally that one should not swear off modern medical care while undergoing the alternative medical treatment of one's choice. I mean, if a client's knee is crushed into powder in an automobile accident, you wouldn't counsel the client to refuse knee replacement in favor of Deep Tissue massage therapy, would you?
I don't disbelieve in the existence of chi. As I said earlier, I was once quite skeptical. I am less so now. Science confirms TCM in its core belief that energy cannot be either created or destroyed; that all matter was created with the use of energy and can be converted back to energy-- that a chair differs from my fingertips only in the arrangement and number of atoms. But what does that mean, exactly?
How many energy modalities are there worldwide? Ten thousand is a good round number, and likely as accurate as any other I pull from a hat. In this long list are these well-known modalities: Ayurveda, Amma, Tai Chi, Shiatsu,Therapeutic Touch, Healing Touch. Hozho is known to a relatively few, as are hundreds of others. Someone will correct me, I'm sure, if I'm wrong in my assumption that all mentioned believe that the Earth and you and I and the littlest mouse as well as the largest rock are constantly being deluged by radio waves, radiation, electromagnetism, and magic, unseen particles flowing from trillions of light years away (let's call this mysterious substance "chi"). I believe all these things affect us in various ways, some of them probably harmful.
The universe is unimaginably large. Earth is one speck amongst trillions of specks. It's unlikely that we are the only inhabited planet; undoubtedly, a few of these billions of other lifeforms are farther up the evolutionary scale. I think it unlikely that such a powerful, elemental force as chi can be manipulated for good or ill with the waving of a puny human's hands. Frankly, we humans are just not that important.
Therapeutic massage in its many forms can do miraculous things. But surely you admit that there are some serious conditions better left to a surgeon's knife and a bag of prescription drugs. Steven Jobs' cancer was probably one of them.
Having teed off religious folk as well as the practitioners of dozens of energy-based modalities, I close with this. Energy work and belief in faith healers may or may not dip into the river of chi in order to cure human ailments. But they have never harmed anyone. Which is more than all other forms of medical treatment, including massage therapy can claim.
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Gary W Addis said:as I said, cancer is different: like the man-made chemicals that cause them, cancers are unnatural to the Universe. So, because Man made the chemicals, we should not expect the Universe to cure our cancers.
---------------------------------------------- and also:
Lee, I don't remember stating that all cancers are caused by industrial compounds.
I have a simple mind, Gary, and to me those two statements, in the context of this thread, contradict each other.
Regards......Lee.
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Cancer is different, Lee. Chi flows in, chi flows out of the body. Cancer is a disruption, correct? a dysfunction of the natural flow in and out of the organism, correct? Nature (chi) is pro-Life. Nature has provided every single cell creature and every whale with the means to feed itself and to propagate and yes, to die--for no individual life is meant to live forever.
Bacteria can be killed without killing its host. A virus neither eats nor excretes until it gets inside a living cell. Both can cause so much harm that they eventually kill their host organism. However, both bacteria and virus can migrate to another host, and thus survive as a distinct life form. Cancer is different, in that its sole purpose is to kill its parent; its job is to disrupt. When mommy Jane Doe dies, her cancer dies.
I agree that cancers are part of the natural order of things--for Death is Yin to Life's Yang. Both bacteria and viruses can become the causative factor in a body's cancer. But we are perfectly suited to our environment. Individuals die, while Life survives. This is as it should be.
Everything is composed of chi, correct? Man interferes. Separately, as they exist in nature, each of the chemicals comprising plastics are perfectly natural to the universe (are in fact chi); combined by Man into everything from baby bottles to weapons of war, plastics are unnatural, jumbled chi, and therefore remain dangerous to all forms of life until, millenia later, chi breaks the plastic down to its natural, harmless components.
The Universe created the ingredients. But the Universe did not mix the witch's brew called BPA. Acupuncture, Hozho, etc, can restore the flow of chi through blocked channels, but such Natural remedies cannot cleanse unnatural industrial pollutants from our bodies. Unfortunately, Man isn't very good at it, either.Once again, I reiterate my point, that relying on natural cures for unnatural ills may shorten a sufferer's life. After all, no one would depend on acupuncture to dissolve a bullet lodged inside a chest cavity--no, you'd cut the thing out. A cancer is in effect a bullet that can often be excised more efficiently with a scalpel.
Comprende' now?
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Cancer is excess Qi. The Qi gets blocked and builds to excess. The natural flow is disrupted there are many things that cause this both physical and emotional. In Korean Martial Therapy much of the work centers on removing blockage. When Qi flows well there is a natural state of good health.
THe use of chemicals both natural and man made which is out of balance with our nature can disrupt Qi flow.
Done properly balance is restored and the body should cure itself. Cancer is not a bullet, it is your own cells. Unblocking Qi, Lymph Massage & Myofascial Release of the surrounding tissue can do amazing things. With the addition of surgery the tools are astounding.
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What I've been saying, not as well as you just have with just a few words. With this addendum: that excess Chi is alive and aggressive, it consumes energy resources that should be feeding healthy cells that are needed to produce enzymes and hormones; that excess Chi will eventually kill the entire body.
The question is, what is the best method to treat cancer once it activates. If a client has a visible cancer on his arm, should you, as a practitioner, refer the client to an allopathic doctor for proper diagnosis and treatment, or should you advise the client to receive, say, acupuncture, or Therapeutic Touch? Obviously, we are required by our scope of practice to refer to the medical doctor.
Nothing in our scope of practice says we cannot refer to both MDs and to one gifted in the energy modalities. However, it absolutely would violate sanity and ethics of our profession to insist that the client rely solely on, say, shiatsu to kill visible cancer. Doing so would be both legally and morally indefensible.
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I don't think we have enough common ground to have a practical discussion about this Gary. Catch you on the next one.....Lee
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