35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Landmark Book, June 2, 2009
This review is from: Life Over Cancer: The Block Center Program for Integrative Cancer Treatment (Hardcover)
Dr. Block is a pioneer of integrative oncology, with about three decades of experience in cancer research and clinical care for thousands of cancer patients. For the past three years, I've followed his work with great interest, and I knew a while back that he was working on this book, so I awaited the book with eager anticipation. I bought the book the day it came out and have just finished reading it in its entirety.
Though the book has a limitation which I'll get to in a moment, it's still overall an outstanding resource. In these 500+ pages, Dr. Block explains the philosophy behind his integrative treatment approach, and he also provides abundant details on how he implements this approach for patients on an individualized basis, addressing the goals of both extending survival and improving quality of life. Because (a) cancer is a huge social problem, (b) an integrative approach makes sense, is supported by evidence, and is (hopefully) the wave of the future, and (c) Dr. Block's credentials are as authoritative as one can find, this book will hopefully have a large influence and thereby offer a major contribution to human welfare.
The limitation of this book is that it simultaneously addresses both patients/caregivers and physicians/researchers, but these are two audiences with very different technical backgrounds. I think two seperate books for these audiences would have been preferable, though this obviously would have required more work on Dr. Block's part.
For patients/caregivers, I think that a more streamlined book would have been preferable, since the current book has the potential to be overwhelming (even with the "quick maps"). However, for patients/caregivers who are sufficiently motivated and have sufficient time, I suggest reading the book through once quickly, then reading it a second time to carefully absorb the details, and then referring to it as needed. That won't be a small effort, but the effort will be worth it, since it could add years to a patient's life if Dr. Block's advice is followed diligently.
And for physicians/researchers, I think that a stronger case for Dr. Block's treatment approach could have been made if the book had been written at a higher technical level, and more details would also have helped physicians in applying this treatment approach. Of course, the Pubmed abstracts available through the website for the book are meant to address this issue, but it still would have been nice to include more technical information in the book itself. (The recent book
Integrative Oncology (Weil Integrative Medicine Library) partly fills the need for a more technically advanced book and nicely complements Dr. Block's book, so I recommend it.)
Despite this audience-related limitation, again, I do think this a landmark book which has the potential to make a major contribution, so I very highly recommend it to all cancer patients/caregivers and physicians/researchers, and I wouldn't dream of giving it less than 5 stars. This is the best book on integrative oncology that I know of, and therefore one of the best books on cancer treatment that I know of.
Also, for those dealing with malignant brain tumors, please note that you're welcome to join the Yahoo! Brain-Research Group which I founded and co-moderate. The aim of the group is to identify and discuss treatments for malignant brain tumors, including promising ways to use and combine treatments, and the majority of the group members favor an integrative approach similar to what Dr. Block describes. In fact, I've referred many patients to Dr. Block's treatment center.
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45 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Almost authoritative, not quite, May 2, 2010
This review is from: Life Over Cancer: The Block Center Program for Integrative Cancer Treatment (Hardcover)
This book is a mixed blessing. Consequently, I have to categorize it as helpful but not authoritative. In fact, some of the recommendations, based on factual errors, should not be followed. I will identify those, in a moment.
On the positive side, the author explains the why and how of going past the allopathic paradigm of mainstream American cancer treatment. The mainstream focus is on reducing the tumor size and then "getting the cancer" through radiation or chemo. This part is more like the tripod of a stool, and Dr. Block explains why.
In many cases, mainstream cancer treatment is essentially assisted suicide (my words, not Dr. Block's). Dr. Block provides some examples proving this, but there are thousands of such examples in the medical literature as well. Dr. Block's approach is to actually engage in health care, not something most medical care providers are willing or able to do. Unfortunately, his formal training is in medical care and he has some errors in his understanding of health care.
Before I explain his errors, let me put things in the proper perspective. I am appalled by what I see in shopping carts at the grocery store. It's as if people are obsessed with getting sick. Only in rare cases do I see a cart (other than my own) that doesn't contain contaminated "food" not fit for human consumption. And here I am talking only about such major contaminants as high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oil.
Give this background, even if you accept the dietary recommendations Dr. Block, even with their flaws, it is nearly certain that your diet will improve dramatically and health benefits will flow from that single decision. His advice is mostly very, very good. But it does have some errors. If you can correct those errors, you can get the full benefits he intends for you to get. I hope in a future revision of this book, the errors are corrected. From reading this, I have the impression that Dr. Block truly cares about people with cancer and thus will make the needed corrections.
Another impression I got is the book is somewhat of an advertorial for the treatment center Dr. Block is part of. Only somewhat, though. Of course, there's the subtitle giving this impression. But, the tone isn't advertorial and the book really isn't about the Block Center. It's about what the Block Center is doing and why it works.
I think, given the complexity of the topic, Dr. Block is trying to speak from experience. As he doesn't work at other centers, that leaves using this one as the basis. He may also feel that it's not his place to tell other cancer care providers how to do their jobs. So, his position is, "Here's what we are doing and you can see it works measurably better than non-integrated approaches. Please consider this."
The errors I can identify are related to either nutrition or exercise. I'm providing a complete list, so you can print out this review and use it as an erratum to the book.
Errors: Nutrition
Nutrition is a subject that most doctors know very poorly and in which what little they do know is often incorrect. I point that out so the reader understands Dr. Block has actually done a pretty decent job here. Lots of good advice, but some errors.
Fish. He repeatedly recommends eating fish and taking fish oil. Aside from the moral imperative to reduce the demand for human consumption of fish (read about fish depletion, some time), there is the fact that fish flesh contains high concentrations of various toxins. If you're sick, you should avoid fish rather than eat more of it.
Egg yolk. He is under the impression that egg yolks are bad. The opposite is true. Eating the whole egg is much healthier than tossing away half of the egg. Yolks contain some great nutrients, including vitamin D. Read about vitamin D, and you see it reaches into just about every bodily system. It's arguably the most important of the vitamins. Why throw it away?
Dr. Block recommends eggs that come from chickens that have Omega 3 added to their feed. This is also wrong. What you want are eggs that come from chickens that aren't on chicken feed (regardless of what's added). In CAFOs (read about those), chickens are routinely fed pig poop, ground chicken, and chicken poop in addition to the non-natural grains. That is what commercial chicken feed is, and adding Omega 3 to it doesn't make for healthy, good-tasting eggs.
Free range chickens or those raised on smaller farms (e.g., Amish) naturally produce eggs high in Omega 3. To test if you have good eggs, check the shell. A good egg has a tough shell that you must whack hard to crack open. The cheap, mass-produced eggs have thin, fragile shells (the chickens that lay them also have fragile skeletons).
Whey protein. This is a short molecule protein that the gut absorbs rapidly. Bodybuilders consume it right after very hard workouts, and the muscles uptake it quickly. But consume it outside that "depleted muscle window" and most of it just turns to fat. This is why there are protein blends. There are alternative proteins also, such as buckwheat and hemp, that do not come from dairy products. Dr. Block rails against dairy constantly in this book, yet a cornerstone of his dietary advice is whey--a dairy product.
Fruit juice. He actually recommends this, so my recommendation to him is to ask an endocrinologist to explain why fruit juice is not fit for human consumption. Yes, there is some upside to fruit juice consumption. But the downside is comparatively so immense that the question of whether to drink it isn't open for debate. The effects include insulin spiking, and Dr. Block devotes considerable space in this book to the subject of moderating insulin (which he says cancers require for metastasizing). You can't moderate insulin and spike it; these are mutually exclusive.
Kale. If you grow this in soil enriched with crumbled eggshells and coffee grounds, you get a dark, calcium-rich plant that contains all of the nutrients you need for absorbing calcium. The calcium chart Dr. Block includes in the book does not account for bioavailability or other factors that determine how much of the calcium you can use from a given source. On the one hand, Dr. Block advises to reduce calcium intake and on the other he advises to eat more kale. I'm not sure how to resolve this conflict, but I would lean toward the latter.
On page 84, he rates eggplant as "OK for Daily Use" but not "OK for Every Meal." I think he's referring to breaded/fried eggplant. I grow eggplant in rich soil and cut it up into cubes that I add, raw, to my veggies and soups. Eggplant is an anti-oxidant powerhouse, particularly in relation to colon cancer. Eggplant is OK for Every Meal.
Also on page 84, he recommends eating corn. No, no, and no. On page 85, he calls corn a vegetable. It is not. Corn is a grain, and it is the one grain that has been cultivated for over 5,000 years to be high in sugar and less nutrient-dense. Consequently, the typical corn product is not fit for animals (including humans) to eat. That includes sweet corn. Canned corn adds more toxicity to the mix.
The exception with corn is popcorn. Popcorn has a very hard kernel and is low in sugar. You must heat it and burst the kernel to eat it. Popcorn with garlic and cayenne pepper on it is healthy and a good fat loss food (I'm at 6.3% body fat as I write this, and have been eating this almost daily for the past month and a half), provided you have a moderate amount, pop it in olive oil (or some other safe oil, not the microwave stuff), and eat it with beans to get a nearly complete protein profile.
Highly glycemic grains. Millet is highly glycemic. It will spike your insulin. This, and some other grain recommendations from Dr. Block, are to be avoided.
On page 86, Dr. Block advises eating crackers. These are typically made with multiple toxins, including hydrogenated oil, refined wheat flour (which is highly glycemic), and corn syrup. If you choose to buy anything that comes in a box or can, read the label very carefully before putting it in your shopping cart. If you are eating out, just assume the crackers are toxic and don't eat them.
On page 94, he recommends raisins. In other places, he recommends other dried fruits. These are all highly glycemic. You can eat these in tiny amounts with a fat or protein.
On page 94, he recommends pineapple. This particular fruit has been bred to be high in sugar. It's sweet. It's highly glycemic. Canned pineapple adds extra toxicity over fresh. Fresh pineapple may be OK if eaten in small amounts along with something to blunt the glycemic effect, but why take the risk? There are plenty of other fruits to choose from.
On page 99, he recommends decaf coffee and doesn't elaborate on what this means. Typically, decaf coffee can also be called "formaldehyde enriched." Formaldehyde is a potent carcinogen. If you put decaf grounds on garden plants, they usually will die. That said, there is a caffeine-reduction process that doesn't use formaldehyde. The actual plant has been bred to produce less caffeine. As caffeine is normally harmless unless taken in huge quantities and formaldehyde is toxic even in low amounts, I think I'd stick with regular coffee.
On page 354, he recommends canola oil but says to avoid safflower oil. I disagree with this. Canola oil isn't a natural oil, and it has some significant downsides. I use safflower oil regularly.
He disses peanut butter and in one spot mentions commercial peanut butter. Peanut butter is very healthy, but look on the label to ensure it's not commercial peanut butter. That will be true if the ingredients are listed as "Peanuts" or "Peanuts and salt."...
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