Customer Reviews

When Healing Becomes a Crime: The Amazing Story of the Hoxsey Cancer Clinics and the Return of Alternative Therapies

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Warning, when you read this book you might be scared away from “conventional medicine”! If you are suffering of cancer or have a relative that is terminally ill and has been given up by doctors, I recommend this book as a “second opinion”.

This book tells the story of how an alternative treatment was sabotaged by the medical community and by organizations that are supposed to protect our health (such as the Food and Drug Administration). As a European, I have been quite skeptical about this agency for some time, and this book doesn’t help at all! The picture this book gives you is that the main reason a drug gets accepted or not might be linked to serious lobbying inside the conventional medical community and to the financial gains that are linked to it. This isn’t hard to believe if you see how the tobacco lobby succeeded for years to cover up the problems smoking causes.

Yet, there is hope as far "conventional medicine" is concerned. Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) teaches doctors that they should stay current with recent research on drugs and learn how to interpret studies before administering drugs to their patients. I studied this subject in preparation of my Ph.D. I believe that EBM practices do drastically enhance our chances as patients to get the right treatment, especially if you read that 50% of doctors risk giving you a wrong or outdated treatment. No wonder many doctors admit that many patients get better DESPITE their doctor’s treatment.

The problem with EBM is that apparently some often used treatments such as many current forms of chemotherapy lack the statistical data to back them up, and that doctors seem to treat patients with those cures because they don’t have anything better. When I was doing my own research concerning whiplash, I was faced with a similar dilemma: conventional treatment in which patients have to wear a cervical collar may actually worsen the condition of patients. Yet 50% of MD’s still prescribe it today. On the other hand, if you would recommend a patient to throw away this collar, you might be pursued form “medical malpractice”.

On the other hand, I have known for years that the problem of many alternative cures (whether they are herbal remedies or psychological assistance) lies in the fact that they have not been proven scientifically. But, not being proven doesn't mean that the cure isn't valid, it only lets you know there is no way to tell. Therefore I keep trying to convince “alternative therapists” to do the necessary “homework” with regards to proving their protocols. The drama is that it doesn’t pay to do the scientific research for those cures, whereas there are billions to be gained from doing research for registered drugs.

Given that the death rate of cancer today isn't much better than in the 1950s, it's no wonder that today over 60% of cancer patients supplement their conventional treatment with one or more forms of alternative treatment. Reading this book should at least help you to be a bit more skeptical to what your doctor is telling you, and to be more willing to inquire for yourself what therapy will help to cure you.

Related books: “The Cancer industry” and “Questioning Chemotherapy” by Ralph Moss...

WHEN HEALING BECOMES A CRIME, Kenny Ausubel, Rochester, VT: Healing Arts Press, 2000, 461pp., $19.95

Despite being involved in alternative medicine (specifically homeopathic medicine) since 1972, I have always had strong skepticism of alternative therapies for cancer. I questioned their true effectiveness, and even more, I questioned the ethics of their advocates. After reading Kenny Ausubel's newest book, I realize now how effective the propaganda against alternative cancer therapies have been on me, despite my own predilections towards alternative medicine and my strong skepticism of conventional approaches. I was truly blown away by WHEN HEALING BECOMES A CRIME. What the SILENT SPRING did for the environmental movement, his book does for the alternative cancer movement (perhaps this book should have been called or sub-titled THE SUPPRESSED SPRING, since the AMA, the FDA, and the drug companies have been so effective in suppressing any positive information about these therapies and have been extraordinarily effective in providing misinformation about them). The general public is interested in alternative medicine, not only in recent times, but Ausubel references a Chicago Medical Society survey that discovered that 85% of Americans used "drugless healers" in the early 1940s. The misinformation and demonization of alternative medicine by the AMA and the FDA is quite remarkable and sad (no, St. Johns wort won't cure this depression!). This McCarthyization of alternative healers predated McCarthy and didn't simply destroy people's lives as McCarthy did, but also led to earlier death of hundreds of thousands of people by foisting upon them as the only appropriate treatment for cancer, the notoriously ineffective and dangerous primitive radiation and chemotherapy of the day. This book details the experience of Harry Hoxsey and his herbal formulas for people with cancer. Despite getting arrested over a hundred times in one two-year period and hundreds of more times before and after this, Harry Hoxsey's leading nemesis, AMA leader Morris Fishbein, acknowledged under oath that Hoxsey's therapy was indeed effective in treating certain types of cancer, though this statement never changed his heavy-handed efforts to make access to Hoxsey's treatment difficult or impossible. Hoxsey's clinic has been forced out of the US and into Mexico since the early 1960s, but it still provides care for people, even though, remarkably enough, it STILL is not allowed back in the US. The book also provides a fascinating history of the AMA's rise to respect in the 20th century, in large part to its leader, Morris Fishbein, MD, who never practiced a day of medicine himself and who flunked anatomy in medical school. His efforts to get drug and tobacco companies to advertise in AMA journals made the AMA rich and ultimately powerful, and it led the AMA to attack any others who questioned conventional medical treatment or who offered viable alternatives. This book is riveting but can and will lead to fits of anger at orthodoxy's impressively effective PR efforts to make successful spokespersons for alternative medicine into quacks and criminals. This book is also extremely well referenced, both to historical records as well as modern scientific literature. The amount of scholarship that went into writing this book is admirable. Dana Ullman, M.P.H. Homeopathic Educational Services

Kenny Ausubel spent 20 years of the prime of his life researching a story that everyone needs to know. Paragraph by paragraph, he reveals the motivations of those who would deprive suffering patients of history's most successful cancer treatment.

Personally, I have never been able to take Hoxsey the man seriously, but what erudition Hoxsey lacked, Dr. Frederic Mohs had in abundance -- and what is extraordinary is that their bloodroot paste formulae were essentially identical. Hoxsey was persecuted for his efforts to make his treatment available; the Mohs microsurgery method is now widely accepted and practiced in such illustrious institutions as Harvard Medical School.

Ergo, the pattern of suppression detailed in Ausubel's book is all the more important because it was not based on science but rather on the politics of medicine, something that demands questioning since fifty years later, the basic problem is not solved.

There is no question but that the public deserves access to anything that might alleviate suffering, prolong lives, or cure them of their illnesses. The Government is charged with protecting the public from fraud; but in its zeal to brand outsiders as quacks, it has lost focus on the humanitarian as well as clinical aspects of healing.

I therefore disagree vehemently with the review posted below by fraud investigator. Hoxsey made his money in oil and operated affordable facilities for people seeking a cure for cancer. Yes, he was lacking proper credentials, but knowledge and experience can be acquired in clinical settings where keenly observant people can by-pass indoctrination and determine whether or not patients are responding well to treatment. This point is important because in the greed for patents, the factors that determine patentability are seldom well aligned with the factors that determine efficacy and safety.

The Pacific Yew/taxol issue is a case in point. In its whole form, there are cytotoxic agents and those that protect the patient from harmful side effects. However, to patent a product, one must choose one or the other of the active principles of the herb. The end result is a product that poses significant risk factors to the patient.

In 1000 words or less, one cannot end the debate. My point is simply that the formal approval process is a patenting process, not a test of what is in the long-term best interests of the patient. If investors are to develop a drug that is unique enough to be patented and destructive enough to be approved, laboratories must ignore the whole in an effort to maximize the economic rewards of the part.

In my opinion, this system has gone too far. At this point, it serves industry rather than humanity. Kenny Ausubel has presented a detailed and insightful and extremely well documented case of persecution of a person and a method that constitutes a crime against the very patients who might benefit from a treatment that often succeeds where others fail. Read the book and make up your own mind.

This book was easy to read and it was scary about how much the American Medical Association influenced or even dictated medical practice in this country. You'd like to think that the best therapies are what we practice, but it's really the best therapies that large corps can control and profit from. I recommend it for anyone wanting proof of how little choice we have in medical care.

I have been reading books on Cancer for several years now. I found "When Healing Becomes a Crime" a very well researched and written book. I would highly recommend it for those who want to know more about alternative treatments of Cancer and how the current treatments, both traditional and alternative, came into being (such an odd mis-use of the words since the "traditional" treatments often have only been around a few years to a few generations and "alternative" treatments have often been used throughout many cultures and many hundreds of years).

There are two main parts to the book. Part 1 is about the life of Harry Hoxsey, his work on healing cancer, and his battles with the AMA. This part of the book reads like a novel. The story is incredible, well researched, and is very very interesting to read. It is also very hard to put down. Part 2 and Part 3 discuss many of the aspects of alternative medicine and its relationship to what is called "traditional" medicine. There is a lot of information in these parts to provide a basis for further research. One thing this book doesn't do or even try to do, is to provide in-depth research on the viability of different treatments. For this information, you will need to do more research and the book does offer an incredible amount of references for those interested.

I have looked a lot into the cause of cancer, the prevention of cancer, and the healing of cancer. I believe the causes to be primarily toxins or foreign substances within our food, our water, our air, and our environment which affect our immune system and our cellular regeneration. I believe prevention can be best done by a plant based organic diet with periodic cleansing fasts, and some method of healing movement such as yoga, tai chi, and certain types of massage. I truly believe most cancer can be healed, but only if one looks at it holistically and is willing to make life changes. While "Traditional" western medicine often only suppresses or removes symptoms, alternative treatments such as Hoxsey's, typically focus on working with the bodies immune system to heal itself. For alternative treatments to work at their best (and traditional treatments as well), it is very important for the patient to improve other facets of ones life at the same time.

Additional areas of knowledge to heal cancer which are not discussed in detail within this book, but which may be of extreme importance, are "cleansing fasts" to remove toxins within the body, "plant based organic diets" to promote the best health of the cells within the body, "personal and social psychology" to promote the best environment for the healing and cellular regeneration of the body, and the use of yoga, tai chi, and similar physical systems which can promote a tremendous amount of healing within the body. Some excellent related books are (a mixture of books ranging from highly researched, to highly emotional and inspiring):

1. "Reclaiming Our Health" and "The Food Revolution" by John Robbins.
2. "Fasting and Eating for Health" by Joel Fuhrman M.D.
3. "Miracle of Fasting" by Paul Bragg N.D., Ph.D.
4. "The Master Cleanser" by Stanley Burroughs
5. "Dr. Christopher's Three-Day Cleansing Program" by Dr. Christopher.
6. "Mad Cowboy" by Howard F. Lyman.
7. "You can Heal Your Life" by Louise Hay.
8. "The Complete System of Self-Healing" by Dr. Stephen T. Chang.
9. "Fit for Life" series by Harvey Diamond.
10. "The Politics of Cancer" and "TPofC Revisited" by Samuel Epstein.
11. "The Serpent on the Staff" by Walinsky & Brune.
12. "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson.

Books by well known authors Andrew Weil and Deepok Chopra also provide an excellent overview of Natural Healing methods.

I was in most respects very impressed by this book. Ausubel did a great deal of meticulous research in order to tell the complete story of Harry Hoxsey's (and his successor's) efforts to bring his cancer remedy to mankind. He is a very careful, conscientious investigative jounalist. Ausubel puts the story in the context of a centuries-long war between allopathic and empiric medicine. He covers all of the bases and is extremely informative. Ausubel is also a fine, clever writer. Having said all of this, it is very tempting to give the book 5 stars. I would except Ausubel ultimately makes one mistake which detracts from his great history and analysis.

Despite all of the evidence of how corrupt the medical establishment is and the degree to which the regulators have derailed promising alternatives, Ausubel still pins his hope on bureaucrats conducting or overseeing valid medical research which will ultimately determine the appropriate direction for cancer treatment. However, central planning never works, not in the Soviet Union and not in determining medical practice in the U.S. While Ausubel does give it some exposure, he does not enthusiastically endorse the only practical solution to advancing the state of medicine: a genuine free market, where patients can go to whatever type of doctor they want to and use any type of treatment they choose. And where insurance companies are allowed to decide which types of treatments they will or will not cover, whether "orthodox" or alternative. Only medical freedom will allow encouraging alternatives to thrive and for advances in treatments to replace protocols which are seriously lacking.

What about quackery you say? Well, many of the treatments in use today are quackery by any objective standard, so we are not talking about some dreadful contingency, but the reality of today's regulated system / protection racket. And given complete freedom, we would see independent labs conduct their own investigations to determine which treatments to recommend and certify, much as we have organizations like Consumer's Union and Underwriters Laboratories doing in their domains.

This is a fascinating look into the politics of medicine and how the AMA became the monopoly it is today. Harry Hoxsey, a high-profile healer was having great success curing cancer. That was enough to trigger an all-out war against him by the American Medical Association. The problem the AMA had in convicting him of "quackery" though, was that his cured patients refused to testify against him. This book reads like a novel and is hard to put down. You will not look at medicine in the same way again.
And you may learn to beware of those who would cry "quack". Follow the money...

There is also a documentary film based on this book with the same name.

This book had me riveted from the very first pages. The amount of work and research that went into this book proves, at least to me, the dedication Kenny Ausubel had for getting the full facts on both sides of the medicine involved -alternative and traditional. His deep research left me with even less confidence in traditional scientific medicine than I already had, which wasn't much except for acute care. My already very low opinion of the AMA, FDA, and big pharma was only confirmed and strongly convicted after reading this book. I have been recommending this book to everyone and that includes my online radio show audience. I very highly recommend everyone read this book so you can be informed to make the decisions for your own health.

co-author of Whole Health for Happy Dogs

Many just feel the subject is a joke, even the ones I know who have cancer, but this book is so well written and footnoted that if you can get past your prejudices and just read the book, you might just have a different outlook on these things. If what he writes about is true, it should make you really mad to know such evil people are running the show.

I actually went back and bought a second copy to give to my coworker who has cancer. I guess that's how much I liked the book.

Ausubel's book is a real eye-opener, not only of the alternative cancer treatments that are out there, but of the unfortunate way of business that perpetuates keeping them under wraps. So many people could be using viable treatments that don't harm in the way that radiation and chemo do, but organized medicine/pharmaceutical companies have too much to lose if the word gets out.
This book should be a must read for anyone studying "health" care, politics, and ethics. Also, anyone faced with cancer in their life or the life of someone they care about.