Are Conventional Health Care Workers Idiots?

mylifeplantbased
Oct 1, 2024
13 min read

Updated: Oct 8, 2024

It has been 7+ years since I was diagnosed with cancer, specifically multiple myeloma – a cancer of the bone marrow, which my oncologists said was incurable. My cancer kept growing during the first 3 years of conventional treatment that included chemotherapy. Then my oncologist wanted me to switch to a stronger chemo treatment, which had alarming side effects that included leukemia, lymphoma and DEATH.

I was stunned. Why would I treat my cancer with a new chemotherapy if one of the side effects was another cancer?

As for the death part of the equation… it made me wonder if my oncologists thought I was an

idiot. But I said nothing to that effect. Instead, I rejected further chemotherapy and other conventional treatments since they did not promise future good health. I, then, developed a plant-based lifestyle that has reversed my cancer and other chronic diseases. My oncologists are amazed that my cancer numbers are reversing, but they refuse to credit my plant-based diet.

I am now at a point in my life plant-based where I am very infuriated with conventional health

care workers. I have met too many who do not prioritize personal observations and unbiased peer-reviewed scientific research over their expensive conventional medical training and practice manipulated by the pharmaceutical industry.

I initially used a plant-based diet to remedy my very painful arthritis, which was about to place me in a wheelchair. SIX WEEKS AFTER I STARTED MY PLANT-BASED DIET, MY ARTHRITIC PAIN STOPPED. Then I learned, via Chris Wark of the Chris Beat Cancer vlog, that some patients had remedied their cancers with a Whole Food Plant-Based diet.

Since I was adversely affected by chemo, and I was mired in brain fog, it took me some time to fully understand how to adopt an effective plant-based lifestyle. And I received no help from my oncologists at Princess Margaret Hospital even though the eminent institution is affiliated with the University of Toronto where radiation oncologist, Zahra Kassam is an associate professor who co-authored Eating Plant-based: Scientific Answers to Your Nutrition Question. Two years after that extensively researched book was published in 2022, my YouTube feed introduced me to the book via a Physician Committee for Responsible Medicine video where Dr. Shireen Kassam, the other co- author of the book, talked about using a plant-based diet to prevent cancer and improve the possibilities of surviving cancer. (There is a link to the video at the end of this blog.)

I belong to two multiple myeloma support groups where I have spoken about the positive

results I experience with a plant-based diet. I have sent group members the Chris Beat Cancer video, the Physician Committee video, other related videos as well as book titles worth reading at the beginning of one’s journey with cancer and other chronic diseases. The books include:

1. The Starch Solution: Eat the Foods You Love, Regain Your Health, and Lose the Weight

for Good! By John A. McDougall, MD and Mary McDougall

2. How Not to Die; Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse

Disease by Michael Gregor, MD.

3. The Future of Nutrition: An Insider’s Look at the Science, Why We Keep Getting It

Wrong, and How to Start Getting It Right by T. Colin Campbell PhD and Nelson Disla

4. Beat Cancer Kitchen: Deliciously Simple Plant-Based Anticancer Recipes by Chris Wark

and Micah Wark

Even though members of my support group congratulate me on my effective use of a plant-based diet to reverse cancer, they repeatedly reject a plant-based solution for themselves. And some members have died in the process. Two of those who died have been nurses. One was a long-time family friend, who was open to using herbal teas I recommended. But she continued to eat animal products and byproducts. When she fell in her home, she was placed in a nursing home, which found it convenient to serve animal products and byproducts. Then she made matters worse when next to her bed she installed a small fridge. There she placed ice cream, cakes, other desserts and pop that her many visitors brought her. Visitors kept bringing her favorite junk and processed foods even after she had a stroke from which she mercifully recovered. But her cancer kept growing. Some of her many medications caused her to double in weight. This was so distressing to witness. When she died, a number of her friends considered it a blessing. But I took issue with the situation because I believe she would still be alive if she had adopted a plant-based diet.

Members of my support groups disagree with my assessment while they themselves

continue to suffer ill-effects from their conventional treatments and the consumption of junk food and their animal-based diet. A few of those members are/were nurses with multiple myeloma. One nurse got so ill that she was compelled to sell her house, leave the city where she had many friends, and move to another city where she would live with her daughter.

Another nurse was married to a man who also had multiple myeloma. She complained

about her husband for most of the time a mutual nurse friend and I knew her. She said her

husband would not eat a plant-based diet even though I told her about books and videos that

explained how such a diet arrested and reversed cancer. (There is a list of those videos below). This whining nurse did not want to prepare different dinners. I told her that her husband could prepare his own animal-based meals, and she could prepare her own plant-based meals. I use a similar strategy in my household where I am the only person who is plant-based. Even though my family sits down to have dinner together most nights, they eat animal-based meals while I eat plant-based meals.

The whining nurse did not do as I suggested. She continued to eat animal-based meals

and developed many ailments, which she told me about during the long complaining phone calls she made to me. After a while, I had to accept the fact she only wanted to complain and play the beleaguered victim instead of acting in her own best interest. So, I simply kept quiet and listened.

Yes, I listened even though I was frustrated with her. PEOPLE WITH CANCER NEED

TO VENT. They need to vent on Day One when they learn they have cancer. They need to vent during their cancer journey. They need to vent even if they are privileged to experience a remedy for their cancer. Sometimes they need to vent years after, and even decades after their recovery. And if you are in their presence at that time, one simply has to be gracious and definitely NOT PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE.

People with cancer know they are being judged for whatever you think they did that

caused their cancer, but they do not need to listen to your judgement more than one or two

times if ever. This is especially true of people who have lung cancer caused by smoking or liver cancer caused by alcohol consumption. THE LAST THING CANCER PATIENTS NEED IS TO BE CRITICIZED AND/OR REJECTED WHEN THEY WANT TO TALK TO

SOMEONE ABOUT THEIR ISSUES.

During the 1980s, I worked with what was then a stigmatized group – People with Aids. I

learned that if you put a lot of weight in a person’s history of bad choices, it maybe hard for

you to support such a person during his/her life-threatening illness. But if you feel obliged to do something, the least you can do is show up, be gracious and make no pointed

criticism. SUCH PATIENTS KNOW WHERE THEY HAVE ERRED. BUT THEY DO

NOT NEED YOU TO PUT MORE NAILS IN THEIR COFFINS WHEN THEY ARE ON

THEIR POSSIBLE DEATHBEDS.

Since I now have my own life-threatening illness, it is even more important to me to be

considerate even when I am frustrated with an ill person who acts in a manner that does not make sense to me. So, I listened to the whining nurse. And listened while her ailments increased.

Two weeks ago, she phoned our mutual friend around midnight to say she was dying. I tried to call her, but she was always sleeping. I knew that happened in the final stage of the disease since I watched my mother go through that experience five years before when she died of cancer.

My whining nurse friend had a large funeral after which there was a reception where the

people who celebrated her life banqueted on animal-based food and animal-byproducts –

the type of food that caused her cancer and stroke. I did not go to either event. I have had

enough of this madness. It is basically IDIOTIC. And it detracts from my healing process. It

drains my spirit.

The funeral home is across from the hospital that houses the Cancer Centre.

How convenient.

That hospital has corridors where “Compassion is our Passion” is printed on posters with

photographs of physicians. One corridor leads to the food court where restaurants serve

processed food as well as food that is animal-based and/or have animal by-products. Midway

along that corridor is the hospital gift shop that sells greeting cards as well as junk and processed food. So, visitors can buy Get Well cards as well as toxic food that causes cancer and other chronic diseases.

I, therefore, assert the posters in the hospital should actually say, “POISON IS OUR

PASSION.”

After all, the hospital poisons people with junk and processed food as well as food

that is animal-based and have animal by-products. Then the hospital treats patients with

toxic drugs.

This situation continues to happen more than a year after I gave my oncologist, who

works at that hospital, four books that moved me to use a plant-based diet to remedy cancer. The books are –

1. The Starch Solution: Eat the Foods You Love, Regain Your Health, and Loss the Weight

for Good! by John McDougall, M.D.

2. How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse

Disease by Michael Gregor, M.D.

3. The Future of Nutrition: An Insider’s Look at the Science, Why We Keep Getting it

Wrong, and How to Start Getting it Right by T. Colin Campbell, PhD., author of The

China Study.

4. Sickening: How Big Pharma Broke American Health Care and How We Can Repair It by

John Abramson, M.D. M.Sc.

In subsequent appointments with my oncologist, she admitted that she had yet to read the

books. After she told me she was amazed by my cancer numbers, which are reversing, she asked, “What are you eating, carrots?”

“Yes,” I said, “and fruits and other vegetables.”

She appeared to be in disbelief and ended the appointment.

I have had similar experiences with family members and friends, of whom a few are

conventional doctors, nurses, pharmacists and pharmaceutical sales people. They are not

intellectually brave enough to consider natural alternatives to conventional medicine or glaring evidence that many medical procedures and pharmaceutical drugs do not promise good health in the future. They, therefore, remain ignorant about the truth of conventional health care.

Devin Foley said, “True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, BUT THE

REFUSAL TO ACQUIRE IT.”

I am so infuriated that although adopting a plant-based diet is an immediate matter of life or

death for members of my cancer support groups, they continue to hold tight to their ignorance. Many have not read the books or watched the videos I sent them. They have also not followed my suggestion to read peer-reviewed scientific articles at PubMed

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ The National Library of Medicine, which indicate than animal product and animal by-products promote cancer.

This deplorable situation is happening at a time when President Biden’s “Cancer

Moonshot” initiative is well underway. In 2022, Biden, who has lost loved ones to cancer, started the Cancer Moonshot program to reduce cancer death rates by 50% in the next 25 years.

SAY, WHAT!?!

It does not have to take 2 more decades before we make significant progress with

cancer treatments.

WE HAVE A CURE FOR THE MAJORITY OF CANCERS RIGHT NOW. In a

video link below, Dr. Joel Fuhrman explains how that is possible.

President Biden needs to be set straight with remedial plant-based information Max Gerson successfully employed 20+ years before President Nixon launched his war on cancer with the National Cancer Act of 1971.

But Biden, like me and my support group, is apparently surrounded by idiotic health-

care advisors, who refuse to acquire the knowledge about natural remedies that can

prevent, arrest and reverse cancers.

****

In ancient Greece, sick people were cared for in temples, where the fate of patients were

apparently determined by temple gods and their earthly workers. During the 4 th century,

Hippocrates, the Greek philosopher turn physician, developed a systematic approach to clinical medicine and in the process became the Father of Medicine. One of his strategies was a natural one – he used food as medicine.

Food, however, did not do much to mend the bloody wounds of battle. Yet during the 19th

century, Florence Nightingale did her best to help soldiers injured during the Crimean War. By the end of the Victorian era, she had developed the idea of nursing as a profession. That concept occurred at a time when many women demanded the right to vote, the right to higher education and to use that education in intellectually challenging jobs. Since, women were still expected to get married, and leave the workplace after marriage, their jobs were not well-paid. Some nurses, of course, did not marry; many were nuns who worked in hospitals operated by religious orders.This made it possible for the cost of health care to remain relatively low. In the process, healthcare was viewed as a benevolent enterprise.

In the United States that enterprise underwent significant changes in the late twenty-

century. Hospitals were increasingly managed by MBA-type administrators, who adhered to the maxim, “Greed is Good,” which emerged from the 1987 movie, Wall Street. As such, health care evolved from a benevolent enterprise in to a high-profit business influenced by the burgeoning pharmaceutical industry, the animal industry and the fast-food industry – all intent on making as much money as possible. So, hospitals are now profit centers, bigger and bigger profit centers where Dr. Gregor says even hospital food service departments are expected to make a profit. He deems this “A METAPHOR FOR OUR SICKNESS-CARE SYSTEM IN GENERAL, WHERE HEALTHY TREAT-THE-CAUSE APPROACHES ARE ECLIPSED BY THE PILLS AND PROCEDURES THAT BRING IN THE MOST MONEY.” 1

This situation is even true in Canada where health care has been free since the mid-twentieth century.

Doug Ford, the conservative premier of Ontario is on a mission to privatize health care.

He claims private clinics will NOT charge extra for services. Louis Cooper was, therefore,

moved to talk about her experience where she was referred to an eye clinic that charged her

$7000+. 2 I experienced something similar, but not as expensive. One of the long-term side effects of my conventional cancer treatments was severe eye damage. It took months before my optician

1 https://nutritionfacts.org/video/hospitals-profit-on-junk-food/

2 https://stopforprofithealthcare.ca/

addressed the matter. She finally referred me to a private eye clinic that charged me $500 extra if I wanted to see the right colors. I paid. But I did not cough up the suggested $3000+ for a procedure that would give me perfect vision or something to that effect. And of course, none of the medical staff indicated that a plant-based diet could have prevented or reversed my eye problems.

Health care is obviously a high profit business in league with the toxic animal-based food

industry that is destroying our health. Making the situation worse, is the toxic pharmaceutical

industry, which fund medical schools and require doctors to employ treatment plans that manage diseases instead of offering future good health.

What’s a person to do?

I chose to counter the situation with this blog. But so much more needs to be done.

Should have been done yesterday. Last month. Last year. Last century.

And health care workers keep dropping the ball to the point where in 2022 a well-

meaning, ill-informed president – the most powerful person in the world - believed it will take

until 2047 before we see a significant decrease in cancer deaths.

Can someone in contact with Biden show him my blog?

If the right action is taken, we can win the war on cancer this year.

And definitely by 2025.

Of course, it is going to take a significant amount of work to change the mindset of

westerners who have been ill-informed that they must get their protein from meat and their

calcium from dairy. But I believe the more often people hear about the benefits of plant-based nutrition, the more likely they will embrace a plant-based diet. Then a significant amount of people will do the necessary work rather than deal with their deteriorating health, and watch loved ones experience painful, horrible deaths.

That said, I am a realist. I know many people will not give up meat and dairy. I know

some people want to continue eating junk and processed food, and rely on pills and procedures to stay alive. This is evidently true about members of my cancer support groups. It is their life.

They can do what they like.

I have my own life. And I would like to be as healthy as possible for as long as possible.

So, I want my taxpayer funded health care system to assign a reasonable amount of its budget to plant-based clinics that are 100% free to people who seek plant-based advice and solutions as well as CONTINUOUS SUPPORT. That will make it possible for my loved ones to be in a position where they can make well-informed choices regarding their health. I am not a doctor.

So, despite my success with reversing cancer with a plant-based diet, my love ones do not

connect my dietary lifestyle to my healing process as well as the various health issues they have.

But I believe many of my loved ones would listen if the health care system promoted plant-

based solutions for chronic diseases.

Brenda Davis, a registered dietician and nutritionist, authored Becoming Vegan. She says,

“Not everyone is willing to make the necessary lifestyle changes, but EVERYONE HAS THE

RIGHT TO KNOW THAT LIFESTYLE CHANGES ARE A SAFE AND HIGHLY

EFFECTIVE TREATMENT OPTION.

Surprise! Surprise! A member of my cancer support group just phoned me. Yes, she is a

nurse. I put her on hold while I finished writing this blog. Then I will spend a considerable amount of time listening to her vent about her ailments. I know she will be polite enough to ask how I am doing, and seem pleased my plant-based diet is working for me. She will then give reasons why she won’t do it. I will be silent. She will continue to vent. When the phone call ends, she and her family will have an animal-based meal; I will eat sweet potatoes sprinkled with a teaspoon of black cumin seeds and stuffed with herbs, mushrooms and green vegetables.

This is MyLifePlantBased.