Cancer For The Rest Of Us: A Necessarily Flawed Guide For Epidemic Times

This book attempts to answer two burning questions of our times – why is American oncology still so bad at its job? And – what else is there? It views the commercial, experiential and social aspects of our epidemic through a wide-angle lens, building a logical case for an alternative, whole-body cancer healing path – not because chemo and radiation are scary and repellent, but because when our current cancer system is seen as it really is, warts, handicaps and all, it makes sense to look elsewhere. It then discusses numerous alternative strategies and treatments that are effective and accessible, now. It re-focuses the epidemic and frames patients’ rights, responsibilities and options in terms of healing cancer as a correctable, whole-body condition and not merely as a kill zone for short-visioned, high-tech medical weaponry.

Three books in one, it first dissects the cancer industry, examines the viscera and explains how this big medical juggernaut can’t create better answers for us, precisely because of its innate design flaws and the forward momentum of epidemic-sized business logic. It then gives an insightful, un-pc view of the conventional treatment experience, identifying surgery, chemo and radiation more as historic phenomena than as inevitable features of our survival hopes, and it analyzes the many ways that cancer creep is affecting our epidemic society and popular psychology. Finally, it catalogs practical possibilities for reversing cancer, with thoughtful discussion and external links to the science behind them.

Cancer is a hot topic; this book respects differences but squarely sides with a philosophy of medicine that differs from the shotgun oncology model down to its very core. Engagingly straightforward, this dogged survivor’s take on cancer is incisive, well-researched, and persistently, humanely vested in the individual’s best shot at deep healing, and not just clobbering cancer into temporary remission with the usual big guns.

Part recovering existentialist, part investigative cancer war reporter, wholly freelance, Linda Jaques has taken a magnifying lens to our epidemic, exposed oncology and pink-hued cancer culture as optional, not mandatory, and given readers something else to aim for – and with. Whether you’re facing tough treatment decisions, you’re committed to alternative healing, interested in making your chosen conventional treatment more effective and less harmful, or just cancer-curious, this book is thought-provokingly practical. It’s for anyone with an even slightly open mind.

There really isn’t anything else like it out there.