The cessation
of atomic bomb testing, and stopping "Operation Plowshare" with the planned
plutonium economy, saved thousands and possibly millions of people from cancer
and death. Not since Semmelweis, Lister, Jenner, or Salk have
more lives been saved.
Two monumental
new studies by Gofman (1996, 1999 that do not share the same
methods or data) both find that in the United States, ionizing radiation
from medical X-rays is a necessary co-actor causing most breast
cancer (between 75 and 90% of cases). The 1999 study finds that medical
X-rays are a necessary co-actor also in over 50% of all other types of cancer,
and 60% of coronary artery disease. Both of the new studies have been
ignored by editors of leading medical journals and cancer organizations.
Press releases about the studies, issued by the University of California,
have also been ignored by the media. Was Gofman a credible scientist
before, but not now? What is the difference?
Why will you
likely never learn about Gofman's research from a cancer organization? Gofman's
studies divert attention from their own research. Why publicize the
discoveries of someone else? If the cause of most cancer were recognized
and the way to prevent it known, there would be less need to donate for cancer
research. Funding would decline or cease. Because of belief in
the importance of their work, it is difficult for cancer scientists to believe
anything that could end the need for their dedicated search.
Why do medical
journals and nearly all medical doctors who use X-rays ignore Gofman's research?
No one wants to face the fact that doctors cause cancer - in the past or
present. Doctors do not want to be constrained in how they practice
medicine or have their judgment questioned when they order X-rays.
X-rays are necessary to protect doctors from lawsuits so more X-rays are
performed instead of less with no limits placed on how many X-rays are given.
Most patients will not confront those who order or perform X-rays because
the patients do not want to alienate themselves from their doctors.
The media will
not mention Gofman's research because it does not come from a medical journal
or cancer organization. Those who produce the news do not want
to provoke doctors who use X-rays. If the media does consult a cancer
expert or doctor about how much cancer is caused by medical X-rays, they
get a biased opinion (denial) from someone who has never examined Gofman's
work. The opinion carries more weight than 1123 pages of comprehensive,
documented research from one of the world's foremost scientists. As
a result nothing is published and nothing is broadcast.
Meanwhile each
year in the United States 180,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer
and 44,000 will die from the disease. The incidence of breast cancer
50 years ago was 1 in 30, today it is 1 in 8. This year more than 600 high risk women in the
U.S., who do not have breast cancer, will have
their breasts removed to prevent the disease,
because no one tells them what else
can be done!
Are we more
concerned about not upsetting doctors who use X-rays than we are about saving
people from cancer? Clearly we are. It seems modern medicine
is a "sacred cow" that cannot be criticized. The paradox of the denial
is that doctors and X-ray technicians know X-rays cause cancer - evidenced
by how they protect themselves when X-ray examinations are given.
Gofman's research
could save countless people from a horrible death if we can face the hard
truth. Admitting that between 1920 and 1960, X-rays were used not to
diagnose but to treat many conditions X-rays should not have been used for,
would be a beginning. Listing X-ray exposure as a risk factor
would be the next step. Then we must ask, "Are patients still being
exposed to more x-radiation than is necessary?" The answer is an unqualified
"YES." Gofman shows how X-ray exposure could easily be cut in half
without buying new equipment, without compromising the quality of health
care, and without the loss of necessary medical information. An
estimated 120,000 lives could be saved each year in the United States by
cutting X-ray doses in half (forty times more lives than were lost in
the September 11th terrorist attack on the World Trade Center).
Progress in
the war on cancer cannot be made until someone will publish or broadcast
this dominant cause of cancer - even when the finger points to modern medicine.
You could be among the first to make the new research by John Gofman known
and do something about it.
FIRST, tell
as many others as possible and send the review of Gofman's research "Better
Than a Cure for Breast Cancer" (see reference below) to your friends.
SECOND, take or send
a copy to your local newspaper, radio or TV station.
THIRD, do not accept
a defensive opinion from a doctor or X-ray technician who has
never examined Gofman's research. More important than what such
people know is what they do not want to know. See Gofman's research
if you are told the radiation is no more than you would receive from a day
in the sun or from taking a trip in an airplane.
FOURTH, Refuse unnecessary
X-rays and X-rays that will not change how you are going to be treated, especially
if the doctor or X-ray technician refuses to stand next to you when the X-rays
are given.
FIFTH, Insist that
the radiation exposure of every X-ray procedure you receive is known and recorded
as a permanent part of your medical record.
Sixth, Refuse dental
X-rays unless they are digital (no lead apron and the tech does not leave
the room).
It took the FDA more
than thirty years to even acknowledge that folic acid prevents neural tube
birth defects. Thousands of deformed babies were born because the FDA
prohibited claims that pregnant women should take folic acid. Now it
is accepted and widely publicized. Should we wait for loved ones to
suffer and die unnecessarily with cancer?
Darrell Stoddard, Founder - Pain Research
Institute, 266 East 3200 North, Provo, UT 84604 U.S.A.
Phone: 801-377-3891 Website: http://www.healpain.net
Email: stoddard@healpain.net
For more information
and a review of Gofman's research, see:
Better Than
a Cure for Breast Cancer and
A
Compelling Reason Why Medical X-rays Are A Major Cause of Cancer on this
web site:
You can also read an
executive summary of Gofman's research at:
http://www.ratical.org/radiation/CNR/RMP/.
See also http://www.x-raysandhealth.org
For more breast
cancer research - what every woman, even those who have received
numerous X-rays, can do now to prevent the disease, see on this web site:
Could Bra-Wearing
Increase the Incidence of Breast Cancer?
Far more
important than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know -- Eric Hoffer
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