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Page 386
| 3. Governments must give adequate importance to the utilization of traditional systems of medicine with appropriate regulations as suited to national health systems. |
| Unfortunately, a highly polarized situation exists in the United States today that must be resolved if we are to achieve the goals stated by the World Health Organization. Meanwhile, the incidence of cancer, along with the death rates from cancer, continues to rise. The average survival time for people with cancers of the breast, lung, ovary, or prostate has not changed dramatically in the last decade. On a more positive note, progress has been made in treating childhood leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and germ-cell cancers such as testicular cancer, but even here, we still have far to go. The nation's budget for cancer exceeds five billion dollars. The Federal government alone spends almost two billion dollars per year on cancer research. 1 Despite education and prevention, there have been no major changes in the incidence of cancer. |
| The battling between proponents of different approaches to curing cancer only exacerbates the problem. The cancer establishment has characterized natural adjunctive therapies as the work of quacks, offering questionably ''miraculous'' cures to desperate and hopeless cancer victims, while the proponents of alternative therapies have depicted established therapies as a "cut, burn, and poison" approach that is completely profit-driven. Although I believe there is some kernel of truth in both these exaggerations, it is unproductive to stereotype either side in this way. Who benefits? Surely not those who have cancer. We need to respect each other. We need to talk with each other. We need to put our resources together. This is what I am striving for. |
| Adjunctive nutritional therapies aren't simply less invasive options to replace surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy; they can also be used to enhance the effectiveness of these conventional treatments, reduce recurrence of the cancers improve quality of life, and increase survival. |
| Conventional therapies focus on the question: "What is the most effective way to kill the cancer?" Holistic medicine, including herbalism and other natural treatments, focuses on the question: "What is the most effective way to enhance the body's ability to fight the cancer?" |
| Because modern medicine has tried to function solely in a "scientific" way, it has sacrificed compassion. As Larry Dossey writes in one of his early books, |
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