Did Natural Cancer Treatments Save My Life?

And today is the last day for guaranteed shipping by Christmas Eve in the US at Good.Store and DFTBA.com!

So happy to be cancer free (at the moment anyway) because chemotherapy absolutely exploded those cancer cells. Also, I get to have curly hair now! At least for a little while...

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[nymphti]

As Dara O’Briain has said, yes, people did use “natural” remedies for thousands of years. And then we tested it all and the things that *worked* became medicine. And the rest became tea and potpourri.

[Maya-xvnn]

THANK YOU. People giving their ~hot take~ when someone is going through something as tough as cancer drives me MAD. I'm so glad you are better, thank you for talking about cancer. So many of us have been affected by cancer wether directly or indirectly. My mom died of brain cancer when I was 9 & it would have broken my heart to know that people were making her life harder by giving all their opinions about her treatment.

[Natnizer]

Ah, the appeal to nature fallacy. As a chemist who understands that literally everything is chemicals, this one drives me up the wall.

[juliaxchung]

Welcome to the curly hair club! I guess you can tell people the curls are ~natural~ :)

[simonastor]

Sure, those people are right, chemotherapy, surgery, radiation therapy, none of those are “natural” forms of treatment. But you know what is natural? People making stuff like that to help other people live long and happier lives.

[cbpd]

My mom worked at a cancer hospital for decades. She worked in urology, so she mostly saw prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is very common, it is also extremely treatable! The treatments are so effective, they really didn't expect patients to die from prostate cancer.
She did have one patient die of his cancer, though. He decided not to the highly effective treatment regimen that was recommended to him, he decided he was gonna beat this thing with diet, exercise, and herbal supplements.
Diet and exercise are good things, I think a lot of herbal supplements can be good or at least neutral things, but they will not eliminate tumors. He died within a few years. He could have lived decades more, but he chose not to.

[emaarredondo-librarian]

History shows that until pretty recent times a cancer diagnosis was a death sentence. Even movies show that; the doctor says "cancer, " and the patient says, "how long?"
If cancer could have ever been cured with teas, baths, diets, or meditation, it would have never been the absolutely terrifying thing that so many biographies, novels, and illustrated medical textbooks show.

[cmicham]

I have a chronic lung disease (CF). My general response is "humans had thousands of years to figure out how to treat CF, the best they could do was ~5 years of age of survival. With Western medicine I take two pills in the morning and one at night, and I don't cough anymore, and I'm expected to live past my 50's. I'll take what's been proven to work."

I have a particular hatred for those who try to make you feel like your disease is your fault, ie "you're just not thinking healthy thoughts", or "you just need to do yoga" like it will somehow cure my lung infections. Those people are insidious and are usually trying to either profit off you or make you feel ashamed for being sick. Ignore those wackos, they are a blight on society.

[rahsahphlow]

"Cancers are not chill" I'm an oncology nurse, I agree

[kamidsjournee]

My thyroid cancer required radioactive iodine treatments. They kept the two capsules in a 40# lead lined ammo box, used tongs to put the two capsules into a small Dixie cup, gave me the capsule cup and a cup of water and told me to swallow them. Then they used a Geiger counter to show me how radioactive I was and told me if I went to the airport I would set off all the alarms. I’m pretty sure this is a natural treatment, too. It’s amazing to me how people much smarter than I am have figured out how to treat people like me.

[TheSuzberry]

Steve Jobs tried that, my sister-in-law tries that. They both died from the cancer. I’m glad you took advice from qualified medical experts and hope you will live a long, happy and healthy life.

[mirandabianchi]

My Dad died at sixty with a very treatable cancer because he fell (or was pulled) down the rabbit hole by people telling him chemo would be terrible, surgery would "give the cancer oxygen", and that he could eat raw food only and do lots of other "natural" things that would cure it (like the coffee enemas and apricot pits you mentioned). He forwent chemotherapy and he died because of conspiracy theorists (some of whom are still posting on Youtube), not because of cancer. I'm so grateful you're posting this video, and so grateful you're still with us.

[LaGloriana]

As someone who's going through cancer treatment right now, I have to say the most difficult part for me is my mother trying to convince me to try "alternative, healthy methods" (to be clear though, I've avoided chemo so far and if I'm very lucky I won't need it at all, so my side effects are a lot less horrible). I know my mother means well and only wants what's best for me, but she doesn't seem to understand that by continuously trying to get me to use additional methods, she's also trying to make me doubt my doctors and their decisions. And that's the part I struggle with because I really, really need to believe that my team of doctors know what they're doing and I mentally can't afford to lose my trust in them.

[clairenollet]

I didn't get the lung damage from bleomycin, or the cardiac damage from adriamycin, but I did get the nerve damage from vinblastine. Balance is bad, I have trouble walking down stairs, and I can no longer ride a bicycle. Persisting for 33 years. The numbness in my hands and feet only lasted a year. I'll take it, because it beats dying at age 29.

[twilightfyre]

I actually did a presentation on Vinblastine in my medicinal plants class, and it was one of the first chemotherapy drugs, and is used for a few different cancers. However for a few plant based anticancer drugs theres actually been shortages due to the small amount produced in the plant, including for vinblastine (which also is converted into vincristine, a arguably better anticancer drug), which can make it harder to get effective treatment. Research in these areas is needed in order to find more ways to increase yield sustainably so that more people can get the treatment they need

[abdullahenani]

your hair is growing back! and it’s getting darker, it’s weird but I’m happy for you! I love how open you are with your experience with cancer, thank you for always teaching us. You will now know the joy of having curly hair like me, mine is black! It’s an awesome club <3

[charlesa]

"Do you know what they call alternative medicine that's been proved to work? Medicine." -Tim Minchin

[alleycaaat]

So, what I'm hearing is that a pretty flower and soil saved your life? That. is. AWESOME! As an agriculture science major, conservationist and farmer, this made me ridiculously happy.

[emilys]

Fascinating to see how your body rerolled your hair! Curly hair is neat!

[AnthonyMorganti]

Two of my sons have had lymphoma. Almost 7 years ago, my youngest son was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and 2 years ago my second oldest son was diagnosed with Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma. Thankfully we have a renowned cancer center 20 minutes from our house. Both have been treated and are doing great. I couldn’t imagine having a child that could not have an opportunity at life. Thank you Hank for what you and your brother are doing. We ordered your cancer socks and will wear them proudly.