Weblogic

A few weeks ago, I had coffee with a friend who told me an interesting personal story about her husband and his cancer treatment.  It so amazed me, I can’t help but share it in this blog.

This is the short of it:  Bob has been diagnosed with lymphoma and has been treated with chemotherapy various times.  During this past year, my friend discovered multiple tumors on his torso and, once again, they scheduled another bout of chemo with his oncologist.  Soon after, Bob and Missy (my friend) discussed the possibility of trying an alternative treatment due to the debilitating side effects of chemo…just watch ‘The Bucket List’ and you’ll see what these people have to go through.  They came upon a product that contains zeolites and after a few months of daily use, the tumors had shrank.
Of course, I had never heard the word zeolites and wanted more information about this supplementt. This is where things get a bit sticky.

Missy is an entrepeneur.  She started a company from scratch and sold it for $1 million!  In other words, she’s got the knack (or the magic) for sales and marketing.  The product that Bob uses is manufactured and sold by the company, Waiora.  There are many alternative cancer treatments that have proven to work for some people.  This one particular product which uses zeolites, Natural Cellular Defense (NCD), claims to be clinically formulated to boost the immune system by removing heavy metals, toxins and other harmful substances, as well as, balancing the body’s pH levels.  This product does not claim to cure cancer.  

A few days ago, it happened again..was it just a coincidence or is the universe trying to tell me something?

It started with a conversation I had with a patient early one morning.  He was explaining a new business he had recently become involved with.  He is selling a device that attaches to a cell phone in order to avert electrical waves that are suspected of causing brain tumors.  It sounded interesting until he mentioned “multilevel marketing”….ah-ha…of course I warned him of the old pyramid scheme.  I listened and respectively agreed to read up on this product when I had time.

Later that afternoon, I happened to have a discussion with a doctor who works in our office.  I’m not sure what type of doctor she prefers to be called as her name is followed by multiple letters that signify she’s a brainiac.  She is our nutritionist slash biochemist whom we rely on to “dumb it down” so we can understand the mechanism of action in certain supplements.  For whatever reason, we came upon the subject of cell phones and she commented that we would be seeing more brain cancer due to the increase usage of cell phones.

Trust me, no one in the medical community is surprised about the use of Viagra (the little blue pill) for women who are concerned about a nill libido. Viagra has been around for ten years and used by men all over the world…and it’s taken this long to break the news that some women have experienced some benefit from it? It’s a man’s world, but again, it wouldn’t be nuthin’ without a woman…thank you, James (Brown).

Viagra was introduced in 1998 to treat erectile dysfunction in men by the pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer. Shortly after, they started researching its use in women but these Viagra studies failed to be the big cashflow breakthrough hoped for. Viagra works by blocking an enzyme that inhibits blood flow, which in men, allows more blood flow to the penis…it worked. In women, the drug increased engorgement of genital tissue but just wasn’t able to enhance women’s enjoyment of sex…so Pfizer bailed on the studies for female sexual arousal disorder in 2004…how frustrating is that?

We’ve all heard the warnings about Lyme disease but until recently, I didn’t realize how complicated this disease can be. The reason is that it has the potential of causing chronic diseases of the skin, joints, nervous system and heart if gone untreated. Once you've met a person with the unfortunate luck of suffering from Lyme disease, it will remind you how important it is to check for that nasty blood-feeding parasite, the tick.

Lyme disease is the infection that is spread by a tick bite. Infected ticks spread a bacteria, borrelia burgdorfer, which is usually found in mice and deer. The ticks pick up the bacteria when they bite an infected animal and transmit it when they bite people or animals. The two types of ticks that carry Lyme disease in the U.S. are the deer ticks in the Northeast and Midwest, and the Western black-legged ticks along the Pacific coast.

The problem with Lyme disease is it mimics a variety of other disorders and is difficult to diagnose. One sign that is a sure diagnosis is a round red rash that can spread from the bite site. Flu-like symptoms are common anywhere from 3 days up to a month and some people may not even notice any symptoms.