RESOURCES

The Moss Reports

We hesitated to pay $300 for engaging Dr. Ralph Moss as a consultant, but finally went ahead. We are glad we did. Anyone facing decisions about cancer treatments should utilize this valuable resource. First we received a large, 500-page binder in the mail, with information specifically oriented toward breast cancer. Anyone can receive the free weekly newsletters. But the best part is being able to write questions to Dr. Moss via email, and receive personal answers.

As a young doctor, Moss went to work at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute. He met a scientist who was working on laetrile and became enthusiastic about it. When he informed his superiors that he wanted to write a press release about the wonderful new possibilities of laetrile, he was forbidden to do so. In fact, they said he could only write negative reports about laetrile. Young and idealistic, this was a shock. So he decided to look into Sloan-Kettering. He found that the board of directors was filled with executives from the pharmaceutical and petrochemical industries and tobacco companies. These were the folks that either give people cancer, or who profit from the drugs used for cancer treatment.

Disillusioned, he wrote the press release anyway, and was fired. That was 1977. He decided to look into what other forms of treatment may be out there which had been suppressed by "the medical industrial complex." Consider, after all, that we allow the sale of some things that actually kill people (i.e., tobacco), while outlawing some that help make them healthy. When you're in the medical business, you're playing with the big boys.

Ralph Moss has spent the last 30 years learning all about alternative treatments, and keeping up with conventional ones, as well. He is well-known on the international circuit, and by clinic owners, and has authored a number of books. The Moss report costs half of what we paid for an hour-long session with the oncologist. The report introduced us to clinics in Germany. That alone saved us thousands of dollars. Plus they take a sincere interest, encouraging us to stay in touch and ask any further questions. This is a great use of technology. Ironically, last year, Moss was asked to speak on alternative medicine at . . . where else . . . Sloan-Kettering!

In January, 2007, I received a letter from Dr. D. Jack Grasse, a medical doctor, who had apparently found this website. Very concerned, he asked if I realized that Dr. Moss was a Ph.D., not an MD. I responded that I had received excellent advice from Dr. Moss and trusted his research. He wrote back and again emphasized that Dr. Moss wasn't a doctor. I responded by asking him to read the newsletters and perhaps some of Dr. Moss's books. Once he had a specific criticism, then we could continue our discussion. Clearly after 30 years, Dr. Moss knows more than most doctors about this subject. When we asked Ruth's first oncologist about alternative treatments, she said she didn't know of any to recommend. That is likely true with many doctors busy making their living with chemotherapy and radiation.

You can reach Dr. Moss at: www.cancerdecisions.com

Quack Watch

This is a site by two conventional doctors attempting to debunk alternative therapies. They even question whether diet matters. Their papers have the look of long, studied reports. One of the authors of many papers gives a short bio in one of them. He worked for 23 years at . . . where else . . . Sloan-Kettering.

For example, they report that two people in Seattle died after doing coffee enemas. Therefore, that is quackery. Have they noticed how many people died after chemotherapy? In fact, the two women in Seattle did something like an enema per hour for many hours. It was a great misuse of a practice that can be helpful. It was more like suicide by enema. Similarly, the writers in Quack Report question every practice if the person who invented it died of cancer. If their alternative technique was so great, they would ask, then why didn't it help them?

Concerned about Quack Report, I called Dr, Moss's office and talked to his assistant. She said that within the alternative medical community, you aren't anybody unless you have been attacked by Quack Report. Until then, you apparently haven't offered enough of a threat to allopathic medicine. The more effective your treatment, the more they will attack you. She also questioned the integrity and motivation of the people involved. It is was not based on impartial, "pure" science.

Incidentally, the word quack comes from 19^th-century miracle cures that used mercury in them (quick silver). Then, it was considered unethical. Quick-ery, as it were. Ironically, dentists now use mercury in their amalgams, to the detriment of people's health. (Ruth and I had all of our mercury removed.) So most dentists could actually be called quacks nowadays.

Here's the link for Quack Watch: www.quackwatch.com

Books

There are more recent books available. these were some that we used.

Forbidden Medicine by Ellen Brown. (Not to be confused with another book with the same name about using marijuana for medical reasons.) This is a story about the trial and conviction of Jimmy Keller, an alternative practitioner who was kidnaped at gunpoint from his Mexican clinic and brought back to the US, where he was tried, convicted, and sent to jail. It presents a hair-raising account of the power of the medical establishment to squash its competitors. Available from Third Millennium Press (800-891-0390)

An Alternative Medicine Definitive Guide to Cancer, by W. John Diamond, M.D., and W. Lee Cowden, M.D., with Burton Goldberg, 1116 pp., $49.95, available at Barnes & Noble and some health food stores. We found this VERY helpful, with a wealth of information. In fact, it led us to the foreign clinics.

Cancer: Increasing Your Odds for Survival, a resource guide for integrating mainstream, alternative and complementary therapies, by David Bognar, 300 pp., $15.95.

In the back of the Moss Report are several pages of suggested books. For example:

Questioning Chemotherapy by Ralph Moss himself. He says it is the only book in English fully treating the subject.

Cancer Therapy: The Independent Consumer's Guide to Non-Toxic Treatment and Prevention, also by Dr. Ralph Moss.

The Cancer Industry by . . . who else . . . Dr. Ralph Moss.