{"id":3319,"date":"2011-12-02T00:24:43","date_gmt":"2011-12-02T06:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/?p=3319"},"modified":"2011-12-04T21:34:29","modified_gmt":"2011-12-05T03:34:29","slug":"honest-medicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/?p=3319","title":{"rendered":"Honest Medicine"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Honest Medicine” highlights the need for medical reform.\u00a0 Julia Schopick’s husband, Tim Fisher, was diagnosed with a devastating form of brain cancer.\u00a0 After years of watching him suffer through chemotherapy, radiation, and numerous complications and side-effects, Julia discovered that doctors don’t always act on the patient’s behalf.\u00a0 Julia became a patient advocate, and her passion turned into a campaign to help others, resulting in her book, Honest Medicine<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 In her book, Julia gives those facing serious illness hope, and also offers inexpensive, nontoxic alternatives to costly, side-effective-laden pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore often than not, when we get really sick, we go to the doctor, we get better, and life goes on; but sooner or later that\u2019s not going to work\u2014for any of us.\u201d \u2013 Jim Abrahams<\/p>\n

Jim Abrahams, movie director, producer, and Founder of The Charlie Foundation to Help Cure Pediatric Epilepsy<\/a>, understands what it\u2019s like to battle disease.\u00a0 His son, Charlie, experienced epilepsy.\u00a0 Then, years later, Abrahams himself was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML).<\/p>\n

Jim Abrahams’ son, Charlie, was cured by the Ketogenic Diet, and the learning curve that Abrahams and his family experienced when Charlie was sick saved Jim’s life as well.\u00a0 When he was diagnosed with AML, Abrahams immediately knew to trust his own instincts, to \u201cput on the gloves and fight.\u201d\u00a0 He fired his original oncologist who, in his words, \u201cmade me feel like he had more important things to do than explain how and why I was going to die, or what he was going to do about it,\u201d and chose another doctor who allowed him to be a partner in his own treatment.<\/p>\n

Charlie’s success story and Jim Abrahams’ thoughts on “compressing the learning curve” are included in Julia Schopick\u2019s book, \u201cHonest Medicine<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0 an inspired, powerful and well-researched work that offers not only hope for those suffering chronic illness, but also alternative ways of combating many diseases affecting millions of people throughout the world.<\/p>\n

When faced with the possibility of our own demise\u2014when the doctors in whom we put our trust and power can no longer help us\u2014we go through an entire range of emotions from denial to absolute fear and desperation.\u00a0 \u201cBut somewhere along the line, before we decide to throw in the towel, we realize that these feelings are a kind of emotional wheel-spinning, and the instinct to fight kicks in,\u201d says Abrahams.<\/p>\n

Our instinct for survival is strong, and the sooner we get to this stage and begin \u201cfighting for our lives\u201d the better.\u00a0 \u201cLike every creature in the animal world, human beings have a fierce instinct for survival.\u00a0 The will to live\u2014that instinct to fight when our lives are threatened by illness or some other crisis\u2014is a natural impulse in all of us.\u00a0 Yet some people are easily destroyed by the mental and physical effects of disease, while others call on inner resources to sustain them through the experience.\u201d (Dr. Ernest Rosenbaum, \u201cEveryone\u2019s Guide to Cancer Therapy:\u00a0 How Cancer is Diagnosed, Treated, and Managed Day to Day\u201d)<\/p>\n

Unfortunately and all-too-often, many people don\u2019t come to the realization quickly enough that they hold the power to give themselves that \u201cfighting chance\u201d when faced with a life-threatening or serious illness.\u00a0 And in the precious time that is wasted in fear or inability to act, they\u2019ve gambled their lives and lessened their chances for survival.\u00a0 As Abrahams points out, \u201cThe quicker any of us can get from that initial onset of fear to the raw instinct to fight, the better our chance of winning.\u201d\u00a0 He believes that there is a \u201clearning curve\u201d involved, and \u201cthat the sooner we make it through that curve\u2026then the sooner we take off the gloves, and the better our chance for good health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Julia Schopick\u2019s husband, Tim Fisher, was diagnosed with a devastating cancer of the brain. \u00a0At the time of the diagnosis, Julia was stunned and allowed the doctors to \u201ctake over\u201d care of her husband without question.<\/p>\n

Tim endured years of surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation, side effects, and complications that changed both of their lives forever.\u00a0 Throughout the process, Julia learned that not everything the doctors did made Tim \u201cbetter.\u201d\u00a0 In fact, some of what they did actually made Tim worse.\u00a0 Julia began researching treatment options.\u00a0 One of those treatments was a cloth patch called Silverlon, made from a material containing silver ions, that almost instantly helped heal a stubborn head wound that Tim had developed during the course of repeated surgeries.\u00a0 To Julia\u2019s amazement, however, her husband\u2019s doctors were not only uninterested in learning about the treatment, but also dismissed it as even playing a role in the healing.\u00a0 At that point, Julia \u201cwoke up,\u201d and she realized that something more dangerous was going on.<\/p>\n

Julia decided to become an advocate for patients worldwide.\u00a0 As a result, she wrote \u201cHonest Medicine\u201d in hopes of helping other people compress the \u201clearning curve\u201d more quickly and to bring hope to people suffering serious illness.\u00a0 Through her book, Julia offers a way for people to \u201cfind potentially lifesaving treatments your doctor probably doesn\u2019t even know about,\u201d safe and effective treatments like those that helped her husband, Tim, live years beyond his doctors\u2019 prognoses.<\/p>\n

At a time when health care reform is much needed, Julia Schopick is leading the charge.\u00a0 And although Julia believes she cannot change the medical system, she firmly believes that she can \u201chelp people by educating them and giving them confidence and knowledge, so that they will be able to change the way they relate to the medical system, and to their doctors.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Julia points out, \u201cWhen patients and their families become more knowledgeable and more proactive, I strongly believe they won\u2019t need to use this flawed medical system so often; and when they do need to use it, they will be in a more educated, powerful position, and will be able to evaluate and choose treatments for themselves\u2014including treatments like those I feature in my book\u2014even if their doctors don\u2019t approve of their choices.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Honest Medicine” highlights the need for medical reform.\u00a0 Julia Schopick’s husband, Tim Fisher, was diagnosed with a devastating form of brain cancer.\u00a0 After years of watching him suffer through chemotherapy, radiation, and numerous complications and side-effects, Julia discovered that doctors don’t always act on the patient’s behalf.\u00a0 Julia became a patient advocate, and her passion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-articles","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3319"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3365,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3319\/revisions\/3365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}