NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
... x side effects, those who have been advised that conventional medicine can do nothing more to help them have little to lose by exploring cartilage as an alternative. (Shark). Hearing this quote sparked some knew-found hope in Amy and Adam. They were determined to find more information about this shark cartilage; what it was, and how it will aid in Amy's healing process. Amy and Adam are among the fifty-percentile of cancer patients who turn to unorthodox treatments (Podolsky). Amy and Adam discovered that shark cartilage is tissue from a shark.
Cartilage, a translucent elastic tissue, composes most of the skeleton of embryonic and very young vertebrates and, through a process of calcification, is transformed into bones, which make up the fully developed skeletal system. (Shark) The couple was interested in how these bones could aid in healing and curing Amy of her cancer. As they continued to read they discovered their answer. Shark cartilage contains a substance that significantly inhibits the development of blood vessels that nourish solid tumors, thereby limiting tumor growth Medical researchers of Harvard University Medical School found that it could inhibit angiogenesis the development of tumor-based cancer. (Shark). All this information sounded too good to be true to the ears of Amy and Adam so they continued their researched. They wanted to know if this substance actually worked. The found there answer in Greens article.
It states Alternative Medicine practitioners who use shark cartilage as a treatments for cancer claim to have successfully treated patients in clinics in Tijuana, Costa Rica and Panama. They claim that more than 3, 000 cancer patients in the US are currently taking shark cartilage. (Green) The results of William Lanes experiment with shark cartilage against cancer encouraged the couple as well; Of the original 29 terminal patients nine (31 percent) died of cancer, all within the first 17 weeks; non have died of cancer since; six others have died of accidents, heart failure, or other natural causes; 14 (48 percent) are completely well and cancer free after 34 months (almost three years) as of June 15, 1995. (Shark) With this new information Amy and Adam were ready to try this treatment. Amy contacted her local health food store that carried this shark cartilage. When inquiring about the substance she was given the name of a nutritional doctor who dealt with this type of cancer treatment.
Amy contacted and met with the doctor. Within their appointment the doctor encouraged Amy and Adam that she was doing something good for her body. He also advised Amy to take 60 gm/ day of the cartilage for 16 weeks. After the 16 weeks ended she was then advised to remain on a maintenance dose of 20 gm / day . Almost three years after being diagnosed with terminal cancer Amy revisited her medical doctor for a final checkup. To her joy and the doctors amazement, Amy was cancer free.
Amy had fought off the grasp of death with alternative medicine. The focus of Western Medicine has always been an pathology, says psycho-oncologist Stephen Hersh, director of the Medical Illness Counseling Center in Chevy Chase, to give the disease a bad name, focus on it as an enemy, cut it out, blast it away, poison it with chemicals. (Elliot) In the past few years Americans have been turning away from this traditional treatment of illnesses just as Amy had. They are beginning to become more aware that there is another way to fight off sickness. One out of three Americans use alternative medicine at least once a year, according to a Harvard School of Medicine Survey. (Day) Although medical technology is expected to contain answers and cures for every disease, Americans are realizing that this is not the case.
Sometimes they say Western Medicine has failed them, but more often the reason is that the technology doesnt offer them enough enough protection against pain or medicines side effects, enough boosts to their own immune defenses, enough hope. (Elliot) Not only are Americans becoming more aware of the benefits which nature provides, but the members of the medical world are as well. The national Cancer Institute (NCI), believes cancer treatments can be found in nature (Day). This is a breakthrough for the medical world; a place, which only a few years ago denied any importance in natural products. At a growing number of premier hospitals treatments long scoffed at by mainstream doctors as alternative medicine are now being offered to cancer patients. (Podolsky) With the traditional medical treatment in our country alone 600, 000 patients die from cancer each year. (Lane) With this death toll so high it is almost necessary for the medical doctors to turn to an alternative. They do not necessarily have to ignore all the knowledge gained during their extensive schooling, but simply combined the two treatments. Each drug that we have presently was originally derived from a natural source.
Through technology and research man was able to synthesize it and create a drug for specific uses. Through the system ization some of the natural healing elements of the plant were lost and thus we ended up with a less effective drug. Medical research centers across the nation are beginning to join with alternative researchers to devise a way to develop joint trials for a variety of products to be used in the future. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) and OAN are embarking on some joint trials, including one on shark cartilage (Elliot) As this cooperation continues more doctors will become educated in the uses of natural products and as a result, their patients will as well. Grant money is one of the major advantages that the alternative research centers are experiencing from the newly formed bond with medical research companies.
In William Lanes 1984 research and experimentation with shark cartilage he was financing his own research, thus he was unable to conduct a state-of-the-art testing environment. As this alternative to clinical treatments of cancer began to show success and grow in popularity the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began to take interest in Lanes work. With this governmental group conducting studies of this cancer treatment money is no longer a limitation for this research. Can alternative medicine and traditional treatments of cancer co-exist in the future? The answer is a positive and encouraging yes. Hospitals are presently suggesting alternative treatments under the care of their physicians.
Opportunities for medical doctors to be introduced to these alternative, untraditional treatments are becoming more frequent. Elliot describes one such opportunity in her article, Increasingly, medical schools are offering weeklong seminars on herbs, acupuncture, Chinese medicine, and some of the mind-body methods Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, and UCLA all do (Elliot) This is encouraging news to individuals and cancer survivors such as Amy. Many lives are and will be saved as more cancer victims are informed of treatments that have no side effects or harmful substances that will destroy their bodies. Elaine, a cancer patient, was informed of the advantages to the use of the combination of traditional and alternative medicine. Elaine realized she needed Western technology to survive, but other methods to withstand the toxicity and side effects of radiation. (Elliot) Our children may no longer hear that cancer is responsible for one-out-of-four deaths in the United States; but rather the news that alternative and traditional treatments, together, have tamed the terrible tyrant. Works Cited Day, Kelly A.
and Frisvold, George B. Cooperative Research Bolsters War on Cancer. Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy. 7 (1996): 60 - 64. Elliott, Laura. Whatever it Takes. Washington. 34. 2 (1998): 50 - 53 +.
Green, Saul. Shark Cartilage. Healthcare Reality Check. (1996): Yahoo! Search. Available: http: // Healthcarerealitycheck. com / shark cartilage .
html Lane, William. Shark Cartilage, Its Medical Applications, A Review. Medicine. 6. 5 (1996). Money, Lawrence. Checklist of Cancer Treatments. Time. 151. 19 (1998): 46 - 47.
Podolsky, Doug. A New Age of Healing Hands. U. S. News & world Report. 10 (1996): 71 +. Shark Cartilage and Cancer.
Real Life. (1995): Yahoo! Search: Available: web Sharks are Your Friends Shark Cartilage. Nutrition News Focus. (1998): Yahoo! Search. Available: web Friends. html.
Simone, Joseph V. Cancer Treatments: Today and Tomorrow. Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy. 10 (1995): 35 - 37. Sobel, Rachel K. Targeting Tumors. U.
S. News & World Report. 129. 13 (2000). What is Radiation Therapy and What is Chemotherapy? . ONCOLINK The University of Pennsylvania's Cancer Center. (2000).
Yahoo! Search: Available: web
Free research essays on topics related to: amp world report, alternative medicine, national cancer institute, cancer patients, u s news amp world
Research essay sample on National Cancer Institute U S News Amp World
