Health Care Hijacked

Shuford was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma at age 15 in 1958 after a malignant tumor was removed from her leg.  After the cancer was discovered, her family doctor sent her from North Carolina to Sloan-Kettering hospital in New York City.  “My doctor, Dr. Kenneth Francis, was the head of the orthopedic cancer unit.  After a few days of testing, they said that the cancer had spread.  They said that there’s nothing much we can do, but we as doctors will do our very best.  Chemotherapy wasn’t invented at the time.  I was told that surgery was my only option and that they would remove my leg to give me three to six months of life,” remembers Shuford.  Her family was told that after her leg was removed, she would need monthly chest x-rays because the cancer would metastasize into her lungs.

Unwilling to accept the diagnosis, her mother turned to Dr. Gerson.  “My mother was interested in nutrition and alternative medicine for four or five years.  She had read about Max Gerson who was renowned in Germany.  At the time, he had a clinic in New York City for patients who were given no hope by Western medicine, and he was having fantastic results.  He would have taken others (besides those worst cases), but most people at the time didn’t think about alternative medicine,” says Shuford.  “My mother went to see him, and he said, ‘Please don’t have her have the surgery’.  My mother was in a quandary.”  Her mother decided to follow the course of action recommended by both Dr. Francis and Dr. Gerson.  As a result, Shuford’s leg was amputated at the hip before she began treatment with Dr. Gerson.   She went to his clinic and had metabolic testing before beginning the new diet.  “They didn’t like people to do it (the Gerson Therapy) at home because they knew that it would be hard – next to impossible – for anyone to do the diet at home.  We didn’t have the money to stay at the clinic, and mother promised that she would follow the plan faithfully,” says Shuford.  After starting the diet, she had monthly chest x-rays as instructed by Dr. Francis.  “That was the last I ever knew of the cancer,” says Shuford.  The cancer never spread to her lungs or anywhere else in her body.

At the time, a diagnosis of any type of osteosarcoma was virtually incurable.   According to orthopedic surgeon Dr. Eugene Mindell, “The big problem we faced [in the first half of the 20th century] was why did so many of these patients die? Most of these patients were being treated with an amputation, and more than 80% of those patients died anyway.  There weren’t a lot of good options back in those days.”

Shuford believes that it was the Gerson Therapy that saved her life.  “For skeptics, I cannot swear on the Bible that it was the Gerson Therapy that did it because I also had surgery.  But I know what the prognosis was, “she says.  “In my heart, I believe that it saved me.”

“When you see the goodness of this diet, it’s good common sense.  Eat things that are wholesome and grown in good soil and keep toxins at a minimum,” says Shuford.  Today, at age 66, she continues to eat a modified version of the diet and says that she is “almost religious” about what she eats.  She is known around town in Chapel Hill, NC as the woman who would prefer an organic apple with a bruise and a bite out of it over a shiny red apple that has been treated with pesticides.  She describes herself as very healthy although she does admit life isn’t easy because of her amputation.  Because her leg was removed at the hip, she was never able to use a prosthetic.

Brian broke his neck in a 1992 car accident when he was just 21 years old.  He was transported to Albany Medical Center in New York, and he remained in the ICU for about four months.  Because he was in a medically induced coma, he has no memories of this time. 

When he woke up from the coma, he learned that the accident had left him a quadriplegic.  Except for being able to lift his shoulders and move his head, he was unable to move his body.  According to Brian, “I was dead from the neck down.  I knew that I had a battle in front of me right away.”

Because he couldn’t breathe on his own, doctors made a hole in his windpipe and inserted a tracheostomy tube.  Nurses had to suction the secretions out of his lungs because he had no muscles to clear them on his own.

Brian was eventually moved to a rehabilitation hospital where he received intensive physical and occupational therapy.  He relearned how to chew and swallow and progressed to the point where he could breathe on his own.  By the time he left the hospital, he had limited movement in his arms and was barely able to feed himself with special feeding tools that were strapped to his wrists.  He was also able to sit up for short periods of time without getting dizzy.  Other than that, there was nothing that he could do.  He moved in with his mother, and she took care of him.  “I couldn’t even dress myself or use the bathroom,” remembers Brian.  “It was tough, but it was all part of the ride.”  He acknowledges that he could have never made it without his supportive family.  “My mom is an amazing woman – my whole family is amazing.  My friends are amazing,” he says.

At that point, there was little hope for Brian.  When he was discharged from the rehabilitation hospital, he was told that there was nothing else that they could do for him.  After one year at home with his mom, Brian says, “I had small little bits of progress but nothing to write home about.  I was just trying to deal with life on a daily basis”.  That was when his stepmother, a registered nurse, heard about Dr. Brucker’s biofeedback clinic in Miami.  Through fundraisers and contributions from his family, he was able to raise the $10,000 that he needed for the three week session (that was the cost of the program only and did not include airfare, hotel, etc.)  Although Brian had insurance through his ironworkers union, the biofeedback treatments were not covered.

Brian travelled to Miami with his father and stepmother and began treatments at Dr. Brucker’s clinic.  “It was completely amazing and eye-opening,” he remembers.  “They gave me a lot of hope.  They didn’t promise me anything – they told me point blank that it doesn’t work for everyone.”  Dr. Brucker told him that he was a perfect candidate for the procedure because his spinal cord had not been severed in the accident.  As for the sessions themselves, Brian says, “It was some of the hardest work of my life.  It was physically and emotionally exhausting.”  Although he admits that the biofeedback process is difficult to explain, he says, “Think of it like this.  You go from your house to work every day and then one day there is an accident.  You have to find another way to get to work.”  Because of his spinal cord injury, he needed to attempt to teach his brain a new way to move his limbs.

Brian’s sessions initially focused on his triceps, biceps and lower arms.  When he arrived in Miami, he had very limited movement in his left hand and no movement at all in his right hand.  By the end of the three weeks, his left hand was totally functional.  When he came back the following year for another session, he started to get movement in his right hand.  By the end of his fourth year of three week sessions, he had regained the use of his triceps, biceps, and trunk muscles.  He no longer had to be strapped into an electric wheelchair and was able use a regular wheel chair that he powered with his arms. 

Brian also worked on his leg muscles during his time at the clinic.  “They worked on my legs and did everything that they could, but I was never able to get any signals,” he says. “But, I was just so happy that I was able to get to the point that I could take care of myself.  That’s all that I wanted to be able to do.”   

In addition to travelling to Miami for treatments, he stresses how important it was that he came home after each session and continued to work on strengthening his brain to muscle signals.  He connected with Ned Norton who runs an organization called Warriors on Wheels in Albany.  “I went to the gym with him two or three times a week.  It got me back into society.  It was a regular gym with ‘normal people’.  It was my first step back into regular life in a wheelchair.  I got strong enough that I was eventually able to dress myself and use the bathroom on my own.  Ned did amazing things for me,” says Brian. 

Today, Brian is completely independent.  After his last biofeedback session, he was able to move out on his own and attend college.  He eventually earned a master’s degree in Public Administration and now works as manager for the New York State Department of Education.

“I am so independent,” he says.  “Nothing holds me back in life.  I have an amazing life.  I appreciate things more.”    When asked if there is anything that he can’t do, he responds, “Not a thing.”  In addition to crediting his biofeedback sessions and his commitment to working on his recovery at home, he says, “This game is all mental, even to this day.  I’m a firm believer that I have gotten back everything physically because of the support of my family and friends and my positive attitude.  I have always been positive my whole life.”

        Susan is an example of a patient whose physical illness was misdiagnosed as mental illness.  When Susan was thirty-three years old, her life changed in an instant.  Although she had never had any type of mental illness during her life, she experienced a sudden psychotic episode.  “Literally overnight, I suffered an acute manic episode.  It was a psychotic episode, and I had visual hallucinations and delusional thoughts.  I had insomnia – I wasn’t sleeping at all.  I became obsessed with my delusions and thought that the world was coming to an end,” says Susan.  “Within three days, it got to the point where my family didn’t know what to do with me.”   They ended up taking her to a hospital in Syracuse, New York for help. 

            Susan’s family told the doctors that she has spent the last 13 years working at a printing company where she was exposed to a variety of chemicals.  According to Susan, “I loved my job, but the only problem was that management had let the equipment get old, and it leaked chemicals.  There were two pieces of equipment that I worked on directly, and the chemicals literally poured out of the bottom.  It was quite a mix of chemicals.  It was an accumulation of a variety of different toxins.”  Her mother was concerned about the chemical fumes that her daughter was being exposed to, but Susan wasn’t worried because she had no health problems.  “Everyone else would have headaches or bloody noses, but it never bothered me.  There were also a high number of miscarriages.  They did call OSHA at one point,” notes Susan.

            The doctors ignored Susan’s family’s concern about chemical exposure and instead asked if anyone in the family had a history of mental illness.  After learning that her father had struggled with depression in the 1970’s, they diagnosed her with bipolar disorder.  “They told me I was bipolar with no questions asked.  The hospital completely failed me.  There are so many underlying factors that could cause mania in someone, and they don’t even look at them.  They immediately rubber stamp ‘bipolar’ on everyone.”

            Susan was placed on the antipsychotic drug Haldol.  After two weeks on the medication, she experienced Parkinson’s-like symptoms, was unable to sleep at all and became suicidal.  She spent the next two years on a variety of different medications and in and out of psychiatric wards.  During the times when her mania was under control, she continued to work around chemicals at the printing company.  Her doctors reassured her and her family that her problems were unrelated to the chemicals.

            Things changed for Susan when she met someone who told her of an orthomolecular doctor in Syracuse.  Hoping to find an underlying cause for her problems, she went to see the doctor, and he ordered a series of laboratory tests.   “At the time, I was totally manic and ended up in a psychiatric ward right after I had the tests done.  The psychiatrist there told me that the doctor that I saw was a quack and that I should throw away 300 dollars worth of supplements that I had bought,” she remembers.  “He said that I was mentally ill and that I would be mentally ill and need medication for the rest of my life.  I actually had to lie to the doctor that I wouldn’t go back to see the results of the tests.  When I went back, my tests were all out of whack.  One of the things that I had was high levels of lead in my hair.  In the printing company, they did use leaded ink.  I also had high levels of vanadium in my blood.  Vanadium is in photographic developer.  High levels of vanadium have been associated with symptoms of manic depression.”  According to an article that appeared in the Nutrition Journal, “Some biochemical abnormalities in people with bipolar disorder include oversensitivity to acetylcholine, excess vanadium, vitamin B deficiencies, a taurine deficiency, anemia, omega-3 fatty acid deficiencies, and vitamin C deficiency.”

            “I went to the medical library and started digging through things.  I found all of these studies that related the printing chemicals to mania and manic depression.  One little pilot study that I came across indicated that past exposure to lead could cause manic depression,” says Susan.  According to the study that she refers to, “The analysis of hair samples taken from ten symptomatic bipolar patients and from ten normal controls matched for age, sex and race suggest that a relatively high body burden of lead may be associated with episodes of bipolar illness.”  Interestingly, in 1988, a sample of hair that belonged to legendary composer Ludwig van Beethoven was analyzed at the McCrone Research Institute in Chicago.  The hair was found to contain lead levels that were 42 times higher than control samples taken from three living people.  Other studies on Beethoven’s hair performed by different laboratories yielded the same results.  It is well documented that Beethoven suffered from a variety of mental and physical illnesses, and many researchers have surmised that they may have been caused by lead poisoning.  A psychiatrist and medical professor at the University of Ottawa spent six years cataloguing the documented symptoms of Beethoven.  He concluded that Beethoven “would fit in the category of what we now call bipolar disorder.”

            After Susan’s many hours of research, she became convinced that her chemical exposure was the underlying cause of her problems.  Based on the recommendations of her new doctor, she began intravenous chelation treatments.  After ten weeks of treatment, she began to feel improvement.  She had a total of 22 treatments.  According to Susan, “I wasn’t able to continue with the chelation treatments because the state of New York went after my doctor and tried to shut down the center and take away his medical license.”

            Susan’s orthomolecular doctor in Syracuse was Dr. Charles Gant.  Gant’s medical license was suspended for six months in 2003.  The New York State Department of Health accused him of various infractions including misrepresenting his credentials and improperly prescribing nutritional supplements that were sold by a company that he had a financial interest in.  Dr. Gant unsuccessfully argued to an appeals court that the committee that heard the charges against him should have included doctors who were experienced with complementary and alternative medicine.  In a newspaper article, Gant said, “"The U.S. health care system exists largely for the purpose of profiting from illness, mostly from pharmaceutical sales and other services.  Any licensed health-care professional, especially physicians, who actually reverses diseases, as opposed to simply managing symptoms of diseases with drugs, will be prosecuted because they threaten the entire economic structure on which the U.S. health care system is based."

            In addition to receiving chelation treatments before Dr. Gant’s center was shut down, she also tried other CAM treatments including acupuncture, massage and bioenergetic therapy.  Today, Susan says that she is doing very well and has no bipolar symptoms.  “I have been off medications for the majority of the past ten years.  I have had a few manic episodes over the years, and I have to be very careful to keep myself healthy, not take on too much in my life, take my supplements, and guard against insomnia.  It is my belief that following a maintenance protocol is a key factor in preventing symptoms from exacerbating,” she states.  She devotes much of her time to mental health advocacy and frequently writes to doctors who are interested in the subject of toxic causes of mental illness.   “Psychiatrists have a single minded approach and do not look at the underlying factors that cause symptoms of mental illness.”