It took a very long time, but Dr. Christine Daniel was recently arrested on two counts of wire and mail fraud. She claimed to be able to cure cancer through herbal treatments, and even appeared on the religious Trinity Broadcasting Network touting how her treatments had a 60% cure rate, even in the most serious cases.
She is also a Pentecostal Minister, and she used this position to home in on people in her community. She'd promise them help through unapproved treatments that cost thousands of dollars. She urged her patients to stop "toxic" chemotherapy and instead begin a regimen of prayer and her exclusive product, "C-extract," an "herbal" remedy.
Oh, the irony.
We applaud the federal government for cracking down on this alleged felon, who now faces up to 80 years in prison, but there's another point to be made here. Chemotherapy is ALSO an herbal remedy.
That's right—the "chemo" in the therapy is chemicals derived from plants such as mayapple and yew. These plants are found in nature, and are herbal by any definition. Are they toxic? You bet, that's why they kill cancer. They attack fast growing cells, many of which are cancerous. Unfortunately, stomach linings and hair follicles are also attacked, though there are new delivery methods that can help mitigate these unwanted side effects. The fact of the matter remains: if an "herbal" treatment works in the treatment of a medical condition, the modern medical establishment will use it! That's why the only working definition for "alternative medicine" is "medicine that doesn't work." If it did, it would be used by non-alternative medicine.
People like Daniel claim that the medical interest places greed ahead of their patients' best interest, and while there may be some truth to that, it is certainly MORE true of people like Daniel who ignore peer reviewed studies and positive results of mainstream medicine in favor of her own exclusive treatments which line her own pockets as her patients die. I wish cases like this could be dealt with more efficiently: she was arrested due to activities over five years old. How many people have suffered and died in the last five years who could have been saved had they followed the advice of respectable doctors?