Radiation sickness - of greed If you've been with me for any time at all, you already know how I feel about the most common mainstream treatments for prostate cancer. If you haven't, in a nutshell, it's this: When a guy in a white coat comes at your privates with a knife, run… Seriously, unless there really is no other option, don't go under the knife for prostate cancer. Take it from me: Chances are good that you'll end up impotent and/or in diapers. You'd have to have been with me a while to know this - but I actually faced down that choice myself a few years ago. I saw my own reflection in the scalpel's blade, and turned away from it. It was the best medical decision I've ever made. Now, I pee like a racehorse… But that's another story. Today's essay is about the latest in mainstream prostate treatment scams, er, I mean options. It's a doozy, too. As though there were any more ways to complicate making the right choice in prostate therapies, now you've got to contend with this: Your doctor's greed. According to a recent expose` in the New York Times - it's true, they've been coming through with some pretty good stuff lately - there's a "cutting edge" new darling-of-the-mainstream treatment for prostate cancer. It's called IMRT (intensity modulated radiation therapy). It uses multiple focused radiation beams to shrink the prostate without damaging healthy tissue surrounding it, and everybody's raving about it… And no wonder. It pays doctors almost $50,000 per patient! Compare this to the $1000 or so the average urologist banks for radioactive "seed" implants, another popular treatment option for prostate cancer nowadays. Or the $2000 the typical scalpel-jockey makes for prostate surgery, according to the Times piece. What I'm a getting at? Something I've touched on before - the fact that medicine is, above all things, a business. Yes, even doctors are motivated by the almighty dollar. And this new treatment certainly generates lots of these. It does this by requiring patients to endure 45 radiation treatments over 9 weeks, and by requiring the use of an extraordinarily expensive piece of high-tech equipment. Here's why this is dangerous for patients: The therapy is far more expensive than patients can afford to pay for out-of-pocket - which means that insurance companies and government programs have to get involved in order to people to afford it… After all, they're the ones with the money. And once the "money" entities get involved, that's when YOU take a back seat in the equation. Remember: Over the last 30 years, doctors have become conditioned to look almost exclusively to insurance companies and Medicare/Medicaid for their incomes. Think about it: When was the last time you or anyone you know paid cash for any kind of doctor's visit, hospital stay, or even a minor surgery? But I digress. Back to the IMRT therapy… According to the Times piece, there isn't much research clinically comparing IMRT therapy to other options out there - I mean, other recommendations of mainstream medicine. In other words, there's nothing proving that ultra-expensive Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy works any better than surgery, radiation "seeds" or any other of the establishment's "cures." In fact, it's possible that IMRT could exacerbate other kinds of cancers, according to sources cited in the Times article. But it pays better, so that makes it better. In my opinion, there isn't any proof that any of these treatments are better than NOTHING AT ALL. And they certainly aren't any better than some of the natural substances you can use to help shrink a swollen prostate. In other words, be slow to act on a diagnosis of prostate cancer - especially if it's based on results of that worthless PSA test… That's another mainstream scam you shouldn't put a lot of stock in. But then, if you're a reader of mine, you already knew that. | 
