More on Holistic Cancer Treatments, the Benefits of Bacteria, Physician As Patient, and Raw Milk
Thursday, March 29, 2007 at 12:01AM A few odds and ends:
--Thanks to Linda Diane Feldt for her suggestions about herbs and diet shifts (regarding my post about Elizabeth Edwards) that can be helpful in dealing with breast cancer. This is exactly the kind of educational information I wish we’d see more of (or even a little bit of) from the mass media. There has been some attention paid to lifestyle changes that can help prevent breast cancer, but most of the coverage is about the standard treatments of chemotherapy and radiation. And some is just totally uninformed. I saw one reporter speculate about whether removing the rib where Elizabeth Edwards’ cancer was detected might solve the problem.
--Thanks also to Ken Conrad for his highly readable explanation about the benefits of bacteria, and how their interactions help maintain balance in the natural world around us. I suspect that the move to pasteurize almonds involves more than nudgy bureaucrats. It is symptomatic of a number of problems in our society, including the unfortunate distance we’ve moved from the farm and other parts of the natural world, our need to control ever more of our environment, and the nearly hysterical fear around so much of life that’s been fomented by the media, lawyers, and government officials. I think this latter problem has its origins in our legal system and media structure, both of which encourage laying blame and assessing penalties on those found to be “at fault.” Lots of business and government officials are simply covering their rear ends.
--Are doctors who work for insurance companies to aid in denying patient claims violating their Hippocratic oath to “first, do no harm”? A physician whose claims for treatment of his five-year-old daughter with cerebral palsy were denied asks this question in a recent Boston Globe Magazine article. It’s encouraging when doctors who experience patient outrages respond with their own outrage. Unfortunately, doctors don’t generally gain the full patient experience, since they push each other and family members to the front of the lines for sophisticated tests and treatments, and then heavily discount any charges.
--Finally, there's some encouraging news on the raw milk front. Ohio's appeals court agreed to the state government's request to withdraw the appeal of the Carol Schmitmeyer case, in which her cowshare arrangement was upheld by a lower court. And in both Ohio and Maryland, there are aggressive efforts to gain legislative approval of cowshare arrangements...and both seem to have realistic chances of succeeding.
Reader Comments (3)
A simple e-mail that now makes me afraid. I did respond noting that the info was incorrect and asking who suggested they contact me?
No response in the last 24 hours.
The only reason I'm not really concerned is the return e-mail is a local corporation. Can we just make this clearly legal so we can all relax and enjoy a simple glass of milk?
I'll have one now so I'll sleep well tonight...
I have read in a number of discussions about global warming that methane passed by cattle is a significant factor in global warming, due both to the number and size of cattle as well as, to the greatly increased global warming impact of methane as compared to carbon dioxide (hundreds of times more potent a greenhouse gas than CO2).
Assuming that fermentation in the animal's digestive system is the cause of methane, is it reasonable to suppose that less fermentation will produce less gas? And, by extension, that grass-fed animals have less fermentation going on, than do animals fed grains? Fermentation of grains is regarded, I believe, as a problem for the production of e coli since the fermentation produces an acidic environment which the 0157:H7 e coli prefer. Does it make sense that grass-fed bovines could help solve the global warming problem, as well as provide better and safer nutrition in both the milk and in the meat?
But I bet the agri-business (like their auto producing brethren that resist building more fuel efficient vehicles) will fight tooth-and-hoof on making any changes on this front. For them it would mean giving each animal actual acreage, rather than keeping them confined to a pen where they can't even lie down. And if any changes are to be made, they only way is if consumers demand it. I hope they don't come just up with a grass-based feed, that only replaces grain-based feed, and still keep the animals in unsanitary, inhumane conditions.