Review by Brievel -- Manifesto for a Cancer Patient

[Brievel]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Manifesto for a Cancer Patient" by Colleen Huber, NMD.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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One cannot describe Manifesto for a Cancer Patient without first describing the author, Colleen Huber. I would very much like to meet her personally – she is the epitome of a strong woman, and who I would like to be. Fiercely compassionate, highly intelligent, tough as nails, passionately determined to do what’s right no matter the cost, with a vicious whip of a tongue to those who would oppose her for the sake of greed and corruption, a true heart for her patients, ferocious and caring – one is reminded of the proverbial mother bear. It is not difficult to imagine her dishing out some tough love – and then standing beside you, guiding and supporting you every step of the way. Simply from her writing – from one book – I find her highly admirable.

Dr. Huber does not pull her punches in Manifesto. In the introduction she describes a horrifying and intriguing world of graft and corruption in the oncology industry. She viciously takes to task the FDA, established medicine, vaccines, even the very American culture. She clearly isn’t a fan of establishment medicine: “Ask your doctor if Quack-o-pill is right for you. Side effects may include brain fog, brainwashing, coma, excessive obedience, and death.” She presents case after case of adherence to dogma preventing true furtherance of anti-cancer treatments (eg, the cause of cancer is damage to the mitochondria, rather than genetic damage, as is commonly posited.) She traces Big Pharma back to the Rockefeller and Carnegie families (of particular note to those who follow politics back into, to borrow a phrase from my favorite news site, “the deep weeds.”) She provides startling statistics on the number of pharmaceutical-related deaths each year, putting it into perspective with statistics of deaths from both WW1 and the Vietnam War. “128,000 deaths per year in the US are from “properly” prescribed pharmaceuticals. [citation number removed] That’s the number reported by doctors and hospitals to the FDA. That’s more Americans than died in all of World War I (116,516) or all of the Vietnam War (90,220).16 And that 128,000 is killed each year. Also, that number does not include deaths from chemotherapy, which are incorrectly called deaths due to cancer.” Were I one of her adversaries, I would be very wary of Dr. Colleen Huber.

Nor does the good doctor merely attack. She backs her assertions up (with 295 citations!) Despite the disclaimer that each [cancer] case is unique, the author offers some examples of treatments used, using the scenario of lung cancer. She suggests Vitamin C as especially effective. She also observes that cancer creates and easily adapts to an acidic environment so alkaline treatments are usually best (for instance, sodium bicarbonate.) She also suggests generic diet plans, briefly discussing her own diet (with disclaimers.) She acknowledges no treatment is perfect but insists on further research and study to perfect treatment methods. With empathy surprising in one who so far had clearly painted medical doctors as villains at worst and complicit (in blocking anti-neoplastic research) at best, she describes the difficulties doctors face in day-to-day practice, never mind fighting the mainstream.

Rather amusingly, the author warns the reader that chapters 6, 7, and 8 are dreary, tedious, and boring. As warned, in chapter 7, she gets a little heavy on the medical jargon, but an attentive reader can gather the gist; especially as it’s largely anonymous graphs of varying treatments, and their results in remission or death, as well as the stages of cancer. She does repeat herself a couple of times – for instance, chapters 7 & 8 are actually medical papers she and her clinic wrote and published in medical journals, and from which she took excerpts for the preface and introduction.

As heavy reading as it is, Manifesto for a Cancer Patient is not a book to be undertaken lightly. It is dreary, depressing, concerning, and grim. One cannot be mentally lazy and understand it – I read deep politics and economics for fun and found my eyes glazing over a couple of times. And yet… I feel as though every person who is at all intelligent, or open-minded, or questions “the establishment,” or just wants to know about the world around them, or wants to guard their own health, or merely recognizes human nature (!), should read this book. For all it took me five times longer to read it than would normally take me to read a book of this length, I do not regret it, and will probably refer back to it often throughout my life.

It caught my eye because every woman in the maternal side of my family, as far back as we can trace, has had cancer (including my mother and older sister.) All have gone into remission – my mother without chemo, radiation, or any other treatment besides mastectomy. With a reasonable assumption that I’m at risk – and with a deep-seated and instinctive distrust of doctors in general and Big Pharma specifically – any “off the beaten track” manual for how to deal with said malady appeals to me. But in the Manifesto, I found so much more than just how to deal with cancer. I found a book to be a friend. I found advice – not only on dealing with cancer, but how to live a healthy lifestyle, how to avoid cancer. My scientific education was furthered significantly!

Dr. Huber says in her introduction she hopes readers can draw conclusions from the information she presents, that she and her clinic missed. I am not nearly so conceited as to think I have done so, but an author can only put so much into a 280 page book – I did draw some conclusions of my own that she didn’t discuss. (Sorry, no spoilers.) On the other hand, much of what occurred to me, and questions that popped into my mind, were answered not too much later. For being so short, the book is impressively comprehensive, but with no wasted space. impressively, though, once Dr. Huber gets past all the darkness of medical politics, her turn of phrase occasionally takes a rather wryly amusing bent. More than once I found myself giving a giggle – so it is not purely dreary. After all, laughter is the best medicine, right?

I would very strongly recommend this book to anyone besides those who enjoy being told what to do and never question orders, even when said orders are harmful. To anyone cynical, or suspicious, or intelligent, or curious, or who enjoys politics, or wants to know alternatives, or who is sick, or who cares about their health, I say this: you need this book. If only I could give it five stars, alas, I can give it only 4 out of 4 stars. Colleen Huber did an excellent job in Manifesto for a Cancer Patient, and I regard it highly.

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Manifesto for a Cancer Patient
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Like Brievel's review? Post a comment saying so!

[priyankak6]

I will say completely different as you said.
This book is not only bad but also dangerous. First, the author makes unsupported medical claims that can endanger and mislead cancer patients. Huber fills pages with the repetitive statements about the advantages of the naturopathic oncology treatment over the traditional chemotherapy without referencing any reliable clinical studies. A cancer patient who would blindly follow this book’s suggestions may lose the precious time needed for the early treatment of cancer in favour of questionable treatments that are only effective in reducing post-chemo symptoms, not destroying cancerous cells themselves. In addition, Huber manages to turn a medical issue of the dangerous illness treatment into some sort of political manifesto. The book makes sweeping generic statements about some mythological “traditional” oncologists who do not listen to patients and push chemotherapy as the only available treatment. However, the author does not make it clear what type of cancer, in what stages, and under what circumstances can be successfully treated with the naturopathic oncology methods. An again, no medical trials, statistics, and clinical studies are cited to support these claims. Finally, the author pushes some sort of propagandistic agenda about the freedom of patient’s choice. The book makes it sound as if American cancer patients are forced to undergo chemotherapy against their will. The author claims that cancer patients have no free choice of what treatment to take, or whether to take it at all. Huber’s book, in pursuit of some sort of naturopathic oncology agenda, will confuse and mislead its readers and might endanger the lives of cancer patients by delaying their consideration for the scientifically-proven treatment methods.
Think as if your dear one has cancer, and you are reading this. Your view might be changed.
I will rate this book as 1/4 stars.

[Ana Megrelishvili]

"I would very strongly recommend this book to anyone besides those who enjoy being told what to do and never question orders, even when said orders are harmful." - This statement made me laugh. It is exactly what I think. You've managed to put this idea in words better than I did. Thanks a lot for a great review.

[Stephanie Elizabeth]

Great review!
That's wonderful that you found this book so helpful. I truly believe that with proper nutrition and exercise, we can prevent some cases of cancer.

Obviously much more research is necessary, but I think this book is a step in the right direction!

I wish you good health in the future!