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

My Thomas Lodi post just keeps on generating ill-informed comments from altie morons. The latest tells me to read a couple of airport paperbacks called The China Study and Living Foods for Optimal Health (whose author Brian Clement is pictured) which are supposedly supporting evidence for a statement that Lodi is successfully curing cancer.

Sorry, these publications provide no supporting evidence for anything. They do nor even support their own conclusions.

They are baseless propaganda from vegetarianism/animal rights and naturopathy/macrobiotics activists respectively.

Their authors are simply plugging their self-interested agendas with no regards for the facts of the matter. These are political tracts, not valid sources of unbiased information.

Vegetarianism and macrobiotics (despite their repeated claims to the contrary) are not associated with lower rates of new cancers, neither are they associated with improved survival of cancer. The founder of macrobiotics, and several of his high-profile supporters themselves died of cancer.

Naturopathy is systematised quackery, whose "qualifications" are according to Quackwatch fiddled so that no-one fails. A "doctorate" in "naturopathic medicine" is not therefore even the equivalent of a first-aid certificate, as some people fail their first-aid certificates.

Lodi isn't curing anything other than any problems with his bank balance which might remain after his unsubstantiated past high-spending habits. As far as scientific evidence is concerned, he has published nothing at all of which I am aware.

A combination of mistaking wishful thinking for fact, and a lack of understanding of what constitutes valid evidence is seemingly the reason why so many are so confused. I'm not going to be cooperating with anyone's efforts to spread baseless propaganda for quacks or their fad diets to desperate people. No amount of airport paperbacks stacks up against a single peer-reviewed scientific paper.

Comments claiming miracle cures with no scientific evidence to support them are not going to be published on here. The comment has however persuaded me to revisit these baseless quack diet books for further comment at some point in the future.

Labels: china study, Living foods for optimal health, naturopathy, nonsense, Thomas Lodi, vegetarian

After hearing about the legal threats made by "An Oasis of Healing", seemingly on behalf of its founder Thomas Lodi, a fellow blogger thought it would be worthwhile to look into what "An Oasis of Healing" get up to, and it makes interesting reading. Have a look.

And then there's this.

It appears that threatening me has just spread criticism of your boss from my humble site to those with a far higher readership and Google rankings, and made you famous as a person who writes threatening letters to cancer patients for a living. I believe this is known as the Streisand effect.

That's quality marketing, Shayla!

Labels: Shayla McCallum, Thomas Lodi

Labels: An Oasis of Healing, Director of Marketing, Shayla McCallum, Thomas Lodi

Another poster on What Now has passed on the irresponsible claims of a "Dr" Lodi about chemotherapy.

Legal threats on behalf of Lodi prevent me from commenting further than to say that Mr Lodi is presumably seeking only to promote the oxidative, chelation, homoeopathic, and other quack therapies he offers at his private clinic by his attacks on proven conventional treatments. His motivation is therefore financial.

His profoundly unhelpful and scientifically unjustified claims that doctors would not themselves have the treatments they give to patients were published in "Get Fresh" magazine.

This publication looks like a harmless health and beauty mag, but seems to actually be a slick propaganda sheet pushing the raw food quack diet, and seemingly all other forms of dietary alternative medicine.

This is not a reliable source of scientific or medical information. I wouldn't even trust its beauty tips.

They have been reported to their local trading standards department and the The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency for what appears to be a clear breach of the Cancer Act, which prohibits anyone from making claims to be able to heal cancer of the sort they do on their website.

"Dr" Lodi is out of reach in the US, but these muppets are in the UK, and bound by our laws.

There is no alternative therapy which can strengthen the immune system. I'm sorry that anyone has been given false hope, or distressed by the false claims of a quack and a worthless magazine, but that's the truth.

Don't believe me? Ask Paul Merton's wife. Oh that's right, you can't, because she tried to beat cancer with the power of nutrition and positive thinking, and is consequently dead.

I think Gary38 is being a little too kind in describing this as "unproven" on the WN site, when "total and complete bollocks" might be more accurate, but sometimes it's hard to know which description is more convincing to the audience.

Labels: Alternative, Cancer, Chelation, Clinical, Diet, evidence, Get Fresh, Homeopathy, immune system, Insulin, Medicine, Oxidative, promotion, psychological, quack, Therapy, Thomas Lodi, Trial