Veggies and Coffee enemas against cancer

[The Don]

Is being covered by the BBC, in a skeptical way, as a public service

[The Don]

Person supporting it is saying that coffee stimulates the liver to produce enzymes. This apparently "cures" cancer although he has now says it doesn't cure cancer. And neither does vitamin C, but then turns around and says that it does. He can't even make up his own mind.

I'll go search for studies

[Soapy Sam]

Coffee enemas.

Where do they put the vegetables?

[Rolfe]

Watched it. Thanks to my Mum who phoned me in the first minutes and said, change channel, dummy.

Those poor people. Last night I saw a programme about Caron Keating, and while she obviously gave a lot of money (she could presumably afford) to woos, she didn't skimp on the real medical treatment as far as I saw, and she did appear to get some sort of occupational therapy from the woo-community.

But this lot make people's last months into living hell.

I don't know where the money came in because the "biochemist" (didn't get his name, should have done, could have looked him up in the ACB membership book, bet he isn't there) anyway he said the "Trust" was a charity and didn't charge. But the Radio Times said that the treatment cost thousands of pounds.

At least a lot of fairly forthright language ("parallel universe" - "not so much alternative medicine but alternative physiology" - "gobbledegook" - "snake oil") got used.

Unfortunately the programme format didn't give anyone a chance to challenge the "biochemist's" assertion that the coffee enemas were backed up by a great deal of scientific research. The presenter just said there's more research shows it doesn't work, and he didn't deny it.

Anybody surprised Prince Charles is publicising these quacks?

Rolfe.

[Zombified]

That is not where coffee goes! Yeesh!

[Prester John]

I thought it was good, very sceptical. The lady from the clinic who said the Colon was connected to the Liver was downright dangerous. I think she came over as such as well. The cost seems to come from the purchase price of all the ingredients (all organic stuff, costing maybe £8000/yr). I'm wondering where it (the clinic) gets its funding from. Its patients i bet, donations. It doesn't charge but i imagine donations are expected.
Frightening.

[Rolfe]

Originally posted by Prester John
I thought it was good, very sceptical. The lady from the clinic who said the Colon was connected to the Liver was downright dangerous. I think she came over as such as well. The cost seems to come from the purchase price of all the ingredients (all organic stuff, costing maybe £8000/yr). I'm wondering where it (the clinic) gets its funding from. Its patients i bet, donations. It doesn't charge but i imagine donations are expected.
Frightening. The "biochemist" sort of explained that by referring to the portal venous system. It's true that the hepatic portal vein does draw blood from the colon among other parts of the GI tract, but that fact of vasculature doesn't mean that any of these frankly scary claims were true.

When they got to the bit about coffee enemas three times a day, I was nearly sick!

But hey, Prince Charles has got up on his hind legs in public and given them the sort of advertising puff most multinationals could only dream about. If jug-ears says he's heard of someone who was given only a short time to live and now four years on he's happy and healthy thanks to this crap (literally), then of course it must be true!

Rolfe. (disgusted).

[Prester John]

Yes, i noticed the stand the Prince Charles was at had MacMillan Cancer Nurse Logos and another Cancer Charity. I bet they had fits at what Prince Charles said.

I heard the clarification of the Liver/Colon part, but the receptionist clearly didn't understand. The Biochemist certainly took a battering.

The last point thats interesting is that is was a consumer affairs program (Watchdog), not a science program.

[Rolfe]

Originally posted by Prester John
Yes, i noticed the stand the Prince Charles was at had MacMillan Cancer Nurse Logos and another Cancer Charity. I bet they had fits at what Prince Charles said.Has that guy got no sense? (OK, silly question.) I mean, doesn't he understand the advertising power of his words? Doesn't he realise he gave these quacks the sort of puff marketing managers would pay tens of thousands of pounds for?

Vive la République!

Rolfe.

[Lothian]

but the treatment cures cancer in 95% of cases, that's all I remember. I didn't really understand all the arguemnts, but the Charity had proof that it had worked with some of their patients.......

It is always difficult. In debunking an activity you also give the ludicrous ideas airtime and exposure it would otherwise not get.

There will be some desperate people who will look for any chance of a ’cure’ no matter how slight that chance may be.

Fortunately watchdog has a reputation of picking on bad guys so even a mere mention will damage these people but I worry that as in many cases this lot will merely resurface under another name, and will probably now add “as seen on TV� to the “by royal appointment.� tagline.

[Suezoled]

Have coffee enemas progressed that much since a few years ago? Last I heard we, um, I mean, some people drunk off their... I mean, erm, well, one young woman got really ...um..sleepy (but it's not from all the beers she drank or anything! Really!)...so, she was given a coffee enema to wake her up. By her frien...uh, by her caring colleagues. Anyway, we learned from that experim...case study that perhaps it's not a good thing to push coffee up someone's butt... an ice cold coffee won't make her sober, but on the other hand, it will wake her up.

Either that or we I mean the people who did that shouldn't have used Maxwell's House instant crystals.

[Lothian]

Originally posted by Suezoled
Have coffee enemas progressed that much since a few years ago? Oh yes there has been much development.

Amongst others you now have the

Expresso treatment – A strong but thankfully short burst of energy !

Cappuccino treatment – The Jacuzzi of enema’s and the

Mocha treatment- For those that want extra umm….er….. chocolate

[The Don]

In order to test whether the diet and enema regimen works, you'd need to do a double blind study. Imagine finding out that you's been in the control group all along and you'd been taking a hose three times a day for fun. Yuk !

[Benguin]

Originally posted by The Don
In order to test whether the diet and enema regimen works, you'd need to do a double blind study. Imagine finding out that you's been in the control group all along and you'd been taking a hose three times a day for fun. Yuk !

Would that mean 'taking' decaff?

[The Don]

Originally posted by Benguin
Would that mean 'taking' decaff?
Which means that the whole thing could just be a misunderstanding resulting from the following conversation:

Other person: Coffee ?

The Don: Please

OP: Decaff

Don: Up yer ar5e !!!

[Soapy Sam]

Given the confusing crap that Starbuck's sellalready, I suppose it's just a matter of time...

"Coffee enema please, skinny!"

"You want that to go, fatso?"

[Goshawk]

Prince criticised over therapies (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3876431.stm)

Thursday, 8 July, 2004, 23:07 GMT 00:07 UK

A leading cancer expert has criticised the Prince of Wales for embracing "unproven therapies".

Professor Michael Baum of University College London said Prince Charles had "overstepped the mark" by promoting some alternative treatments.

His comments in the British Medical Journal come just weeks after the prince suggested a controversial diet had helped one woman to beat cancer.

< snip >

Prince Charles told a conference in June..."I know of one patient who turned to Gerson therapy having been told that she was suffering from terminal cancer, and would not survive another course of chemotherapy. Happily, seven years later she is alive and well."

Professor Baum said there was no evidence that the diet worked.

In an open letter to the prince, he said: "You promote the Gerson diet whose only support comes from inductive logic - that is, anecdote."

Professor Baum said he supported the use of complementary treatments if there was evidence to show they worked.

But he added: "I have no time at all for 'alternative' therapy that places itself above the laws of evidence."

He urged the prince against promoting alternative treatments that have not been proven.

"The power of my authority comes with a knowledge built on 40 years of study and 25 years of active involvement in cancer," he said.

"Your power and authority rest on an accident of birth."

He added: "I do beg you to exercise your power with extreme caution when advising patients with life threatening diseases to embrace unproven therapies."
Not an accident of birth--an accident of marriage. :D

[Jas]

Hmmm...I can't think of many worse things that having cancer.

Except having cancer AND having coffee up your bum 3 times a day on top of it. They probably use instant coffee as well.