Thursday, March 25, 1999
The Globe and Mail

Alternative treatment centres, such as the one Tyrell Dueck is visiting, are clustered along the Mexico-U.S. border. A look at some of them and the treatments they offer:
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA
-Immune boosting
-Detoxification
-Diet recommendations
TIJUANA, MEXICO
American Biologic
-Mixed metabolic therapies
-Oxymedicine
-Electromedicine
Bio Medical Center
-Hoxsey herbals
Clinica Manner
-Manner cocktail
-Colonics
-Special enzymes
Hospital Ernesto Contreras
-Laetrile
-Low-dose chemotherapy
-Sing-along sessions
-Bible study
Hospital de Baja California del Sol
-Gerson therapy
-Coffee enemas
-Pressed liver juice
-Fresh fruit juices
Hospital Santa Monica
-Hydrogen peroxide
-Mixed medication intrusions
-St. Jude International Clinic
-Amino acid therapy
-Sulconar herbal
-Panama gas

THE CANCER CURE?

Max Gerson, the German-born physician whose nutritional approach to cancer treatment, developed in the 1920s, laid the philosophical groundwork for alternative treatments provided at some Mexican cancer centres, explained his perspective:
"The body must be detoxified -- activated with ionized minerals, natural food so that the essential organs can function. For healing the body brings about a kind of inflammation. That is a tremendous transformative reaction. This renders the body hypertensive or allergic to the highest degree against abnormal or strange substances (including bacilli, cancer cells, scars, etc.). Consequently, the more malignant the cells, the more effective the treatment."

Types of metabolic therapies, which purport to attack and destroy tumours, are:

Urea (based on the idea that urine has cleansing powers);

Cesium chloride;

Hydrazine sulfate;

Germanium sesquioxide;

Hydrogen peroxide;

Laetrile;

Also considered useful are: prayer, Bible study, singalong sessions, imagery, exposure to coloured lights, bioelectrical stimulation, use of magnetic devices.

The American Cancer Society, in a 1990 paper, Questionable Cancer Practices in Tijuana and other Mexican Border Clinics, explained metabolic therapies this way:

"The metabolic therapies defy precise and fully accurate evaluation. For the most part, the few recognizable unifying concepts lack reasonable scientific rationale or logic. On the other hand, so many modalities are utilized, including some that have a basis in responsible science, that one could not definitely claim that all aspects of these therapies are useless."