On Jun 22, 2008, at 8:02 AM, Hugo wrote:
all off the search, I've found it. Case dismissed and, I have to say, quite rightly so. I should have added ayurveda to my list of things the TMO should be testing (or rather independent people should be testing). The thing that gets me riled the most is the cancer curing claims made for amrit kalash. There haven't, as far as I know, been any tests done on humans with this stuff and yet it is routinely prescribed in large doses to people with terminal cancer. I have known two people who died after being reommended the wonder gloop, both of whom had a long slow miserable death.
We've talked about this before here Hugo. One of the disturbing things is the blank slate recommendation of Amrit Kalash in patients undergoing chemo and radiation therapy, to make them more "comfortable". The disturbing thing is that one of the primary ingredients in Amrit Kalash paste is the Indian fruit, "amla" (emblica officinalis). Amla is a fruit that has over a thousand times the free- radical scavenging activity that vitamin C has. But that's not the disturbing part. The disturbing part is that this will interfere with certain mechanisms of tumor necrosis. In other words, they potentially shunt the effectiveness of Oncological radiation therapy and certain chemotherapies whose mechanism of action is free radical damage.
Imagine having a tumor or tumors growing throughout your body then being giving treatment to destroy those specific tissues--but then because a guru authority figure (or his followers) suggest false information on an "Ayurvedic snakeoil", you unknowingly forestall your own therapy and reduce or eliminate it's real effectiveness by taking the recommended herbal preparation. What happens? You do not heal: you die a slow death.
When I make the claim that the Maharishi has blood on his hands, this is one of the reasons (above and beyond the suicides, etc.). IMO, those members of the TM org or it's zealous followers, who recommend these herbal products without proper knowledge of tumor necrosis mechanisms and the corresponding mechanisms of the herbal compounds themselves should be brought up on charges of practicing medicine without a license, at the very least.
Ruth, perhaps if your listening you could chime in on this one.
What justification is there for this? A study showing cancer cells are destroyed in a petri dish, what they don't mention is that bodies behave somewhat differently and one result cannot be infered from the other. Didn't stop the TMO though did it? Shame it isn't illegal to refuse medical help in favour of untested folk medicine. The fact that it's time-tested wisdom of the vedas cuts no ice with me, it works or it doesn't. Judy, a serious question: Given that you're into fighting for truth and justice and all that shouldn't you be on Skolnicks side in this? Far from muckraking he was making some serious points about medical quackery that should be exposed. How much of ayurvedic medicine has actually been double-blind tested and independently at that?
