My Malignant Melanoma

I have been sent the following unsolicited testimonial for Thomas Lodi, whose minion Shayla threatened to sue me a while back:

What Thomas Lodi is doing is amazing. Anyone that goes through traditional methods is playing Russian roulette, I know because I went through it. I am now on 100% raw diet and lifestyle. I know you think this is all bullocks but it saved my life when nothing else could. If you open your mind and look at the science of raw food and detox as it correlates to cancer maybe you will learn that chemo alone is no more succesfull than a placebo. Watch the documentary "healing cancer from the inside out"

so let's have a look at this testimonial in the light of surgical oncologist Peter Moran's guidance on how to do so:

The basics ---

1. Was cancer definitely present , as shown by reliable tests, when treatment was commenced?

2. Did it go away? (or clearly respond otherwise, as judged by the same tests)

3. Was the advocated treatment the only one used ? (within 2-3 months of the apparent cancer response)

A "good" testimonial should fulfil these three requirements.

1. Was cancer definitely present? We don't know, no evidence to support the idea that this is anyone other than Lodi himself is offered, but let's give him the benefit of the doubt: Yes, though we don't know what kind, or what stage it was at.

2. Did it go away? again, no evidence offered, but again, let's be generous: Yes, though we haven't been told if this was a type or stage of cancer which commonly goes away of its own accord.

3. Was the treatment the only one used? By his own admission, No, he says he went through conventional therapy. For some reason he does not believe this cure was effected by the conventional therapy, and that his life was "saved" by the simple expedient of not cooking his food.

So why does he believe this to be the case? He tell us- he mistakenly believes that chemo is no better than placebo, and that raw food cures cancer, because he watched some quack's video on the internet.

Chemo which is not considerably better than placebo doesn't get licensed. Of course our correspondent believes in the conspiracy to suppress cancer cures- on his planet, cures don't get licensed, they get buried by the evil doctors and medical researchers.

But I'll open my mind- let's have a look at the science of raw food and detox as it applies to cancer, and "healing cancer from the inside out", a sickening promo video for yet another quack. OK, I looked: an open-minded investigation suggests to me that this is a scientifically groundless exercise in the cynical financial exploitation of desperate cancer patients.

I don't think this is bullocks, by the way - I do however think it is bollocks. I agree with the writer on one issue: that what Thomas Lodi is doing is amazing. How a video by a commercially interested party which claims in direct opposition to the truth that his competition (conventional medical treatment) is both financially corrupt, and ineffective would convince anyone other than a moron is a mystery to me.

Labels: Healing Cancer from the Inside Out, Thomas Lodi