Sharing this article on ‘Thyroid Cancer Epidemic Caused by Misinformation, Not Cancer’. I have to share as this is one of the most misleading, mis-diagnosed health problems amongst SA women and probably even worse elsewhere. It a question addressed daily – thyroid issues….
As written (and shared) By: Sayer Ji
“Did you know the vast majority of thyroid cancer diagnoses are FALSE? And yet, the vast majority go ahead and get ‘treated’ anyway, with total removal of the gland, radiation and life-long hormone replacement.
Any diagnosis of cancer can be highly traumatic. Given the conventionally held view that screen detected, early-stage lesions or tumours will inevitably grow into invasive, lethal cancers without conventional treatment, receiving a diagnosis represents a psychic wound with adverse physiological consequences that can, in and of itself, injure the patient and reduce their chances of success in treatment.
This is all the more clear in the case of over-diagnosis, where a patient’s condition is misinterpreted to be potentially fatal, when in fact, the natural history of the lesion or tumour in question is that when left untreated it will never do harm, often producing no symptoms in the life of the patient; or, where it does produce symptoms, the patient does not experience significant disability or death before other causes intervene to take their life. There is also the overarching reality that the health risks associated with aggressive conventional treatment of early-stage ‘cancers’ often results in the ‘solution’ being far more harmful than the condition being treated.
The very real trauma (literally “wound”) of cancer diagnosis can no longer be considered a strictly theoretical concern. A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that, based on data from more than 6 million Swedes 30 and older between 1991-2006, a positive diagnosis of cancer increased the risk of suicide up to 16 fold and the risk of heart-related death up to 26.9 fold during the first week following diagnosis versus those who were cancer free. The association was prognosis correlated: the more severe and treatment resistant the condition (e.g. brain cancer was highest), the higher the increase in both suicide and heart-related death. Obviously the implications are astounding, especially considering that a misdiagnosis or over-diagnosis can have lethal consequences, putting the medical system in a position of responsibility for doing profound harm by applying screening programs to asymptomatic and otherwise healthy individuals, who are not given the opportunity of informed consent about the real risks associated with these so-called ‘preventive’ programs.
It should be noted that there are mechanisms available to explain this disturbing association between the trauma of diagnosis and increased risk for death. We now know that the secretion of adrenaline, associated with stress and the fight-or-flight response, actually activates genetic processes within cancer cells that make them more treatment resistant.1 Stress associated excess cortisol levels will also down-regulate cancer immune-survillence in certain individuals. In other words, this is not some ‘magical’ mind-body phenomena, rather, we now know how placebo/nocebo factors related to the latent symbolism and signification of the ritual of clinical interactions and the patient-doctor relationship gear into real physiological processes, whose adverse health consequences have been characterized down to a molecular level.
We have spent significant time researching and writing on the problem of over-diagnosis in the case of breast cancer, where it is now known 1.3 million US women were over-diagnosed for breast cancer over the past 30 years, due to misinformation driven breast screening programs. These women, many of whom were diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a condition known believed to be essentially benign, underwent unnecessary mastectomies, lumpectomies, radiation and chemotherapy treatments, resulting in massive psychic, financial, and health crises that should never have transpired. Many of these women suffer from a Stockholm syndrome-like state (victim identifies with aggressor), participating in promoting unnecessary screenings and treatments to women through breast cancer industry funded cause-marketing campaigns as part of their ‘healing process’ — never quite appreciating the nature of their trauma, while contributing to reproducing the same violation in other women while thinking they are helping to ‘save’ lives.
The Thyroid Cancer Epidemic Is Being Caused By the Medical System
Thyroid cancer is another epidemic level condition that participates in this truly horrific paradigm of over-diagnosis and over treatment. A recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Pathology titled, “revisiting over-diagnosis and fatality in thyroid cancer,” reveals that between the years 1975-1999 incidences of non-fatal forms of thyroid cancer rose (mostly due to papillary carcinomas) dramatically without the concomitant expected decrease in incidences of fatal forms of thyroid cancer – a classical indication of over-diagnosis. In other words, were these thyroid cancer screenings detecting early-stage cancers that were destined to progress to more lethal forms, the statistics would show that along with dramatically expanding rise in early state thyroid cancer detection and treatment a corresponding decline in late stage, more lethal forms. The clear absence of this relationship indicates that like with early stage ‘breast cancer’ there is an epidemic of inappropriate thyroid cancer diagnoses and victims of iatrogenic harm associated with their ‘treatment.’
The authors of the study concluded: “The results of this study support the notion that many thyroid cancers are part of a reservoir of non-fatal tumours that are increasingly being over-detected and over-diagnosed.”
A clear perspective on the problem is available through the National Cancer Institute’s U.S. Thyroid Cancer Diagnosis and Mortality statistics from 1975-2011. In the graph below you find new thyroid cancer cases have been rising on average 5.5% each year over 2002-2011, with death rates actually rising on average 0.9% each year over 2001-2010. We would expect to find the opposite trend if these early diagnosed and treated cases were actually cancer.
Even more cognitively dissonant is their graph of the seemingly successful 5-year survival rate, boldly declaring 97.8% of diagnosed cases between 2004-2010 survived 5 years, falsely implying that their lives were benefited or even saved by being over-diagnosed and over-treated. If any of these patients died at year 6 from an unnecessary treatment related cause, it is common practice to consider it a separate disease process, further generating the illusion that iatrogenic harm had not been done and of the success of the screenings and treatments being employed.”
Isn’t this just so sad, and if a young 12 year old is being treated with these chronic meds for Thyroid issues what is her chance of missing the Cancer a few years down the line?? Imsyser has access to a company producing natural alternative products ( with a fully fledged medical doctor on board) to assist with thyroid issues. Please consider these options before just starting any chronic meds and get to the route of the problem FIRST!! Normally – adrenals. This is merely a tip but well worth investigating.
Here’s to happy healthy days!!
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