Kelly A. Turner, Ph.D., was working as a counselor at a cancer research hospital in San Francisco when she came across a cancer patient who had achieved a recovery without the use of conventional western medicine. Surprised, she looked into other cases and realized there were many similar occurrences. Then she became quite frustrated that no one was seriously studying these cases. Worse, she found that some oncologists don’t even want their patients to know about these cases for fear it would give them false hope. So, Dr. Turner courageously studied these types of recoveries herself to find out what these patients did and then put what she learned into her New York Times Bestselling book, Radical Remission: Surviving Cancer Against All Odds.
I must say that I wasn’t sure what I would think of this book when I first started reading it. But I was very pleased to find that a main theme of the book is that radical remission is NOT the same as “spontaneous remission.” This is because spontaneous remission implies that no treatment at all was used and the patient did not do anything special to make their cancer go away. it is a concept that many doctors will jump to right away when they hear of a patient recovering without the use of their prescribed treatments. But, from what Dr. Turner writes, it appears that none of the cancer patients she investigated did nothing. In other words, most implemented diet changes, eliminating or greatly reducing their intake of sugar and other refined foods. Many also reduced or eliminated red meat and dairy products. Many employed supplements, herbs, meditation or energy work. Most also implemented lifestyle changes and worked on their thinking patterns to reduce stress and process emotions better. In fact, she came up with 9 main characteristics common to those cancer patients who were able to bring themselves into remission and long-term cure without the use of mainstream medicine. Many of the cases were from people who conventional treatment failed at first, and many were terminal. So, they are impressive recoveries.
Radical Remission is excellent and I highly recommend it! No two cases did exactly the same thing, so it’s not a book about which alternative treatments to use. But, as we all know, it is critically important for anyone dealing with a serious illness to have a good dose of hope and encouragement. Dr. Turner’s book does just that. A strength of the book is that the many case stories are presented beautifully and in intimate detail. Se made sure to describe all aspects of the changes each person made, whether in their diet, the supplements they chose to take, or in their relationships with others and outlook on life.
Honestly, the book had me enthralled. Most importantly, I believe it is the best book I’ve come across for showing that there is more to recovering from cancer than just using this or that alternative treatment. (Though that is super important, too.) But, you will have to read Radical Remission to find out for yourself just what that more is that these people did!
by Tanya Harter Pierce, Author of OUTSMART YOUR CANCER