Mixing faith, science and health

Wow, I am disappointed by an apparently Christian site. But maybe I should expect that? After all I heard over the weekend that Billy Graham got held up by an armed gunman in a hotel recently. The gunman had rushed into the lobby of a hotel, holding up all guests present at the time, and rifling their pockets for valuables. He came to Billy Graham and instantly recognised the famous preacher/ evangelist. "Its OK, you are Bill Graham, you can keep your wallet" he said. "After all, we Baptists had better stick together!". So not all Christians get it right all the time!

A a Christian who attends a Baptist church I would love to get the best advice from them. I found what appears to be an excellent hospital in the USA with a Baptist foundation. Their cancer care seems excellent, but it is in the USA!

On the converse I found this site that initially looks authoritative, yet is the opposite to most of Professor Jane Plant's ideas. It rates red meat as good, and suggests cutting vegetables. It rates vegetables as bad foods... and quotes references as though they prove this point. BUT IT IS WRONG, the quoted references prove vegetables are good, The specific reference I looked at was entitled "Dietary influences on bone mass and bone metabolism: further evidence of a positive link between fruit and vegetable consumption and bone health?" It is taken from the authoritative American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2000;71:142-151."

So I find a serious error in what claims to be a Christian site......sad

So where is the truth? What is the best source for a cure? When it becomes a matter of life and untimely death I think I will bow to science. I believe we have seen God's grace in this cancer situation. The delays in getting NHS treatment have left us time to read and research in depth.

Before surgery we probably spent 90% of research time in prayer, 10% in internet based research. We prayed for a miraculous cure, but did not receive such a gift. Instead Jan has joined the mass of others receiving successful surgery but followed by what I would describe as questionable and often ineffective treatment. The delays in receiving this treatment has given us 10 weeks to study how to best use and prepare for radiotherapy. It took us nine weeks to even grasp that complementary medicine was indeed complementary, and could dramatically enhance the benefits whilst cutting risks of radiotherapy. Much of this latest information has come from Chinese and Indian medical ideas. As these may seem strange to some I will cover complementary / alternative in detail in the next post.

We are not taking on the spiritual concepts behind traditional Chinese medicine. As soon as I read "Yin and Yang" in a paper or book I stop reading it. Shame as our NHS cancer booklet mentions Yin and Yang, so I missed any further help from it for at least 4 weeks! But importantly the East and West differ in their rates of cancer, with the lowest rates of cancer in Japan, southeast Asia, North Africa and China. So much fruitful research asks "why the difference in cancer rates?" It questions eating, lifestyle, traditional drugs etc. These questions stand genuine scientific scrutiny, and are tested in labs in Texas by Dr. Bharat Aggwhal. and others. The sort of differences coming out as worthy of investigation and appealing to us are:

• Increased vegetable reliance rather than meat - surely Hindus eat no meat?
• Restricted dairy - Chinese eat almost no dairy produce
• Ginger, Garlic, Tumneric and spices - traditional Indian remedies.
• Use of tea, Japanese drink much green tea

We started by discounting Chinese medicine, mainly because of its questionable diagnosis techniques. But God led us to a Chinese nurse with impeccable CV and training who whilst being a Christian opened our eyes to the far simpler Chinese medical practices coupled with prayer. Since then we have been led to read Professor Jane Plant and Professor Richard Beliveau's books, and from Richard's ideas on curcumin onto Professor Bharat Aggwhal's work. As far as I can see he is an Indian looking to simple Indian spices for safe low cost remedies, Yet on reading last night his curcumin at less than a pound a bottle is as effective as Tamoxifen at £10 per month, and far safer and tastier! If one wants one can combine the two to get even more reduction is cancer cell growth, a win win situation.... great.

So our priority will be good science in evaluating a cure rather than the faith or world view of the person discovering it. This is not to discount God's leading, he has led by amazing coincidences. But I believe God has a universal grace to all mankind, and gives knowledge and healing to all. So we welcome good Indian, Chinese, Japanese and Polish ideas.