Popular film star chose to "starve his cancer" and refused to consider alternative treatments. Patrick Swayze, the star of movies such as "Dirty Dancing" and "Ghost", died Monday at age 57 after a 20 month battle with pancreatic cancer. Although Swayze outlasted his original prognosis of only having a few months left to live, he refused to seek any natural or alternative treatments to help boost his immune system and nourish his body in addition to fighting his cancer – instead following the advice of his doctors to "starve out" the cancer.
Mr. Swayze also indicated that he did not want any advice from others on alternative treatments. According to Swayze, though he had taken some "specific immune system Chinese herbs," he said he hasn't tried many alternative therapies because he learned from his mainstream doctors that if "you feed your body, you feed the insatiable voracious appetite of the cancer."
Shortly after the interview with Ms. Walters, Mr. Swayze was hospitalized for pneumonia and tabloid newspaper ran photographs of him in April along with reports that the cancer had metastasized and that his weight had dropped to 105 pounds.
After the news about Swayze's cancer and the advice he was following appeared, the following article was posted at Natural News, which resulted in considerable flack from mainstream outlets:
"Patrick Swayze's Misguided Faith in Mainstream Medicine "
Now, sadly, it appears that the fears voiced in the article have come to pass.
No one can say for sure whether alternative treatments might have saved or at least prolonged his life or how much better Mr. Swayze's quality of life might have been if he had opted for less harsh and possibly more effective alternatives. However, those who advocate natural health and bemoan the failure of mainstream cancer treatments recognize that it makes little sense to starve the body, because doing so further diminishes the natural immune system. The immune system is the natural first line of defense against cancer and other illness, and cancer is only able to gain a foothold in the first place by overcoming the immune system.
Among the alternatives Mr. Swayze might have explored in addition to nourishing his body were oleander, black cumin seed oil (Nigella Sativa) and pancreatic enzymes – all of which have had success against pancreatic cancer, especially when combined with a healthy and nutritional diet and lifestyle that builds up the body instead of replenishes it. Efforts by this author to get information to Mr. Swayze about alternatives which might have offered hope proved fruitless, though it appears unlikely that such information would have made a difference, given his statements on his chosen course of treatment.
Although Mr. Swayze's star status should make his loss no greater or lesser than anyone who succumbs to cancer, perhaps his example of placing his faith in treatment that has such a poor track record will stand as an example for others to look outside the box that mainstream cancer treatments has placed us in.
May he rest in peace.