Re: hepatitis c treatment focus - cirhosis or virus?

When looking back over this thread I noticed that I appear to give the impression of having great discipline. That is far from the truth. I have copied part of a blog response I gave to someone considering undergoing drug treatment for hep c. It is from a conventional medicine Hep c blog:

I personally made the decision to do the therapy and have not regretted it even though it failed. The reason that I did the drug treatment was because I knew that I did not have the discipline to do it naturally. I knew that in order for my liver to purge, not just bile , but down to the actual organ tissue where the steatosis and fibrosis resides, it would take a very prolonged juice fast, or else a Gerson-type diet, most of the time and probably for life. I knew that I couldn't do it. I had tried very hard and could not manage it. I realized very clearly it was more like digging a ditch than finding the magic herb that would make everything all better.

Sometimes, as they say, you have to hit rock bottom, and the interferon/ribavarin therapy threw me down hard. I probably failed the program precisely because I had been doing so much cleansing that my body was too reactive to accept the drugs, but it ruined my health and immune system, and then I had no choice but to be dedicated to the natural way, because I wasn't ready to die. The greatest motivations are fear and pain, and I had plenty of both.

I look at my quality of life now and I realize that all of it - the horrible reactions, the long painful healing process, and even the disease in the first place is a blessing. It was a challenge, and we all are challenged, or will be even without hep c, and your life is all about how you live and respond.

But please have no delusions. The holistic way is hard; brutal, even. I call it holistic chemo. Last year in the New England Journal of Medicine a case history was written about a man on a rapid weight loss program that was in the intensive care unit because the vast amount of toxins released in his blood stream from detoxifying almost killed him. Aggressive techniques are required and they will hit you hard. Less than aggressive techniques may not be enough. Most people do not have the dedication that maybe only extreme desperation brings.

Good luck to you. I hope you find your way and all is good for you!

This was a response to another blogger:

I'm sorry, I don't think I was being too clear. The holistic program that I engaged in is based on diet manipulation, not herbals or supplements. In the history of holistic healing the pioneers all used diet manipulation - juice fasting especially, to cleanse and heal the body (see Max Gerson, Bernard Jensen , Dr. John Christopher, Arnold Erlich, etc.). Supplements follow the drug, or medical model in that everyone looks for the silver bullet herb, exactly like the drug researchers are looking for the silver bullet drug, to do all the work.

But juice fasting is a process that powers the bodies natural healing and cleansing response, rather than by manipulating it with an outside drug. The two systems are completely different. They are like two different logic systems. What works and makes sense in one is wrong in the other because the corollaries, or fundamental unquestioned truths are actually diametrically opposed. In other words, in the medical drug model the system is manipulated by, and flooded with drugs. In the holistic system drugs are expelled with all other toxins and the aim is for the body's normal systems to be reset and normal function restored. I think I failed the drug program because I had trained my body to shed toxins, and my body did that with a vengeance. I was like the centerfold in a clinical dermatology textbook - I had about five different seeping, sloughing, bleeding, itchy skin conditions covering 3/4 of my body by week 12.

I found the process to be a lot about taking control. In the drug model, the patient reliquishes control and will, and has faith and hopes for a favorable outcome. In the holistic program its about establishing control over one's diet and choices and steering the ship back to health in a very agressive way. It is about powering the systems of the body and having faith that the body, in its infinite wisdom, knows what to do. But it takes a high degree of committment, which I was fortunate to have, being beaten and terrorized by the drug regimen. At that point, what seemed impossible seemed not so hard after all. Certainly much easier that what I had just gone through.

I know all about scientific research. I'm trained to read and understand scientific medical studies. But in reality, a study is like a grainy black and white photo of a marathon Shakespearian play. Looking at the photo one has no idea what the true colors of the costumes are, much less the plot, the characters personalities, the interactions between the players, and what's going on behind the curtain. No scientist can know the incredible intricacies of the body's healing processes - because our mind and vocablulary is limited and is incapable of understanding all that the body does naturally to heal. We can only look at grainy snapshots and try to guess what is going on.

A last word about taking responsibility and control. When I called my GE about my alarming condition caused by the drug, he refused to see me, telling me to "get to a dermatologist". Of course the dermatologist tole me to get off the drugs if I wanted it to stop. That was the last consultation my GE had with me. At my six month checkup I saw only a phlebotomist to draw blood and was shown the door. So responsibility was firmly thrust back in my lap, with what I considered to be a shrug and a yawn. No one is nearly as concerned about your condition as you are.
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