The Assertive Cancer Patient

A Light Box to the Rescue!

It's been storming in Seattle for three days now--snow on Saturday, which was gorgeous: heavy wet flakes that swooped and swirled around my car as I drove home from my massage that afternoon.

Then heavy, heavy rain on Sunday--I didn't leave the house for the entire day. Didn't even get dressed, as a matter of fact. My friend Laurie came over to work on holiday projects with me, and I stayed in my flannel robe as I knit and ate soup and biscuits. (I kept the honey off the yarn, but it was a near thing.)

Today, the rain continues and it is dark, dark, dark.

Fortunately, the light box that I ordered a couple of weeks ago arrived on Saturday. Laurie, who is a massage therapist and uses a light box in the winter herself, helped me get it out of the box and set up.

HappyLight

That's what it's called, the "HappyLight." Actually, the "HappyLight Deluxe," although there is no "HappyLight Lite," or "HappyLight Regular," as far as I can tell. The name is painted on the plastic cover, along with this text: "Sunshine Supplement Light System."

I think it's pretty funny, which is a good thing, because there's no way I can get that writing off of there without damaging the light box.

So I've been sitting here with my light box shining on me for the past several hours, and I think it's working. I certainly feel more energetic than I would if I were just moping around here on this dark, rainy day without it.

I ordered my light box from a catalogue called Gaiam Living. It cost about $200, plus shipping.

This is what the catalogue says about the light box:

Bathe in the healing power of 10,000 lux glare-free Natural Spectrum light when you need the healing relief only sunlight can bring. The Deluxe Light Bath helps alleviate light-deficiency symptoms--whether from rainy days, seasonal change, jet lag or shift work. ...

Let's see if it's powerful enough to get me out the door to walk Connie in the pouring rain!

This is the first time I've ordered from this catalogue, which has some interesting things, and some that definitely belong on the "Quack" list.

For example, a bra with built-in bumps to massage the lymph glands under the arms.

Uh, huh.

The text doesn't say so, but you can't help but think that this is being sold as something that might help prevent breast cancer, by "...promot[ing] circulation and allow[ing] the tissues to relax in this area that contains 80% of the lymphatic glands that help process impurities."

I asked Laurie, who, as I said, is a massage therapist, about the "Brassage Bra" and she said, "NOPE, don't think so," so don't go out looking for this one.

I forgot to ask her if 80 percent of the lymph nodes are under the arms, because that sounds high to me. Don't forget, there are lymph glands in the groin, and in the chest, all over, really, so that number sounds wrong.

@ Jeanne Sather 2007.

Australian Quack Banned

A couple of readers in Australia have been keeping me up to date on the case of Paul Rana, a Quack among quacks, who exploited people dying of cancer with his bogus "cures."

Rana failed to appear in court on May 9 to hear a federal judge ban him from making claims that he could cure cancer or prolong the life of cancer sufferers with a $35,000 package of vitamins, coffee enemas, and other so-called "alternative therapies."

The judge said that Rana and his two sons had demonstrated "consistently cynical and heartless exploitation of cancer victims and their relatives when … at their most vulnerable," according to the newspaper The Age.

Rana's Web site has been taken down and his clinic has closed.

It was the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission that originally took civil action against Rana and his sons after complaints from family members of cancer patients.

Two things make me really angry. One, that legitimate alternative medicine practioners will be lumped together with quacks like Rana in the public's mind. And two, that snake-oil peddlers of bogus “cancer cures” are allowed to advertise and sell their products in the United States with seemingly no regulation and little fear that they will be prosecuted.

Want to see what I mean? Go to Google and type in "cancer." Then check out the "sponsored links," i.e., paid ads, in the right column. Try this one: "How to shrink tumors in 5 days," and always a favorite, "What your doctor doesn't want you to know."

There is no question that desperate people will do anything. I was appalled not too long ago to read that people with cancer were buying a totally untested cancer drug through the Internet. According to the BBC, the drug had been shown to shrink tumors in rats but tests on humans are years away.

The report did not say who was selling the drug, but did say that the FDA was investigating.

Read:
Untried cancer drug bought on Web

Comments from readers

News report on Rana:
Judge bans bogus cancer therapist

@ Jeanne Sather 2007.

If It Quacks Like a ... Quack: UPDATE

Australia's The Age reports today that the federal court imposed an injunction on Paul Rana and his two sons to stop them from selling their $35,000 alternative therapy.

The injuction remains in place until the court makes a decision in the case, according to The Age. The Ranas' Web sites are still open for business, however, as of 5 p.m. Pacific Time, December 1. Maybe the Australian judges need lessons in Web surfing?

I just checked again today, December 16, and Paul Rana's Web site is still up and running, despite the court order. I e-mailed the Australian newspaper, The Age, weeks ago asking them about this, but no reply.

Read: Court blocks sale of cancer 'cure'

If It Quacks Like a … Quack

One thing that angers me is that snake-oil peddlers of bogus “cancer cures” are allowed to advertise and sell their products in the United States with seemingly no regulation and little fear that they will be prosecuted.

Things are different in Australia, apparently. A Melbourne businessman and his two sons are being sued by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for allegedly selling a “system” of vitamins, massage, and “energy zappers” as a cure for cancer.

The government organization is also prosecuting several companies that sold the so-called “alternative therapy,” the RANA System, which costs $35,000, to the terminally ill. According to recent press reports, five companies, all using the NuEra name, were selling the product.

The three men who are being sued are Paul Rana and his two sons, and the ACCC also is seeking an injunction to shut down the companies and to force them to remove their claims from various Web sites that sell both the products and RANA System franchises.

As of today, however, the Web sites are still live, preying on desperate people with cancer.

To read more: ACCC sues over cancer cure claims

Finding a Cure on the Web—Beware
Back in 2003, as part of a cover story for Seattle Weekly, I wrote a Soapbox on this topic, and Google’s role in promoting bogus cancer cures through its sponsored links, which are paid ads.

The ad that I mentioned in my rant is still my all-time-favorite snake-oil cancer “cure”: the "New Marine-Grade Coral Calcium Complex From Okinawa," which, according to the ad, is a cure for cancer and the reason the people of Okinawa live so long.

Well, I’ve visited Okinawa, and I certainly didn’t see any of the locals gobbling down “marine-grade coral calcium complex.” But I did see people eating a healthy diet of fish and lots of fruit and vegetables.

I wrote to Google, complaining that it was irresponsible of the company to accept ads like this to run on cancer search pages.

I received a very polite, but somewhat garbled, reply from a woman identified only as "Heather from the GoogleAdWords Team" that said, in part:

“Google believes strongly in freedom of expression and therefore offers broad access to content across the Web without censoring results. . . . You may be aware that a different set of laws and regulations apply to commercial speech (advertising) than to the search results we show when you do a Google search. As a business, Google must make decisions about where we draw the line in regards to the advertising we accept, both from a legal and company values perspective. . . .”

This is hogwash, of course. I realize that the Web is still the Wild West of publishing, and buyer-beware seems to be the standard. Reputable print publications would never accept ads for the kinds of products Google promotes, however.

After I received this letter, Google announced that it would hire a third-party company to verify online pharmacies before allowing them to advertise on the site. Google has done nothing about the companies selling phony cancer cures, however. There are more than ever.

Write to Google, and ask the company to stop accepting ads for bogus products that prey on the hopes of people who are dangerously ill. Here's the e-mail address: adwords-pr@google.com.

Please forward me any replies that you receive--it amuses me to see how Google continues to justify this shaky business practice. I wonder, could I sue Google if I tried one of these "cures" and it didn't work? Maybe I should move to Australia, and then sue Google.

@ Jeanne Sather 2006