Dangerous idiot with bogus medical advice

I have just read the most awesomely insane but calmly stated collection of dangerous medical advice ever. Andreas Moritz claims cancer is not a disease — it's a healthy response to stress. Guess what causes cancer? Guilt, low self-esteem, and insufficient spirituality.

Cancer has always been an extremely rare illness, except in industrialized nations during the past 40-50 years. Human genes have not significantly changed for thousands of years. Why would they change so drastically now, and suddenly decide to kill scores of people? The answer to this question is amazingly simple: Damaged or faulty genes do not kill anyone. Cancer does not kill a person afflicted with it! What kills a cancer patient is not the tumor, but the numerous reasons behind cell mutation and tumor growth. These root causes should be the focus of every cancer treatment, yet most oncologists typically ignore them. Constant conflicts, guilt and shame, for example, can easily paralyze the body's most basic functions, and lead to the growth of a cancerous tumor.

After having seen thousands of cancer patients over a period of three decades, I began to recognize a certain pattern of thinking, believing and feeling that was common to most of them. To be more specific, I have yet to meet a cancer patient who does not feel burdened by some poor self-image, unresolved conflict and worries, or past emotional trauma that still lingers in his/her subconscious. Cancer, the physical disease, cannot occur unless there is a strong undercurrent of emotional uneasiness and deep-seated frustration.

It goes on and on like that — it's a whole chapter of a book that I presume must go on even longer with this quackery. The whole thing is this illogical mish-mash of unsupported claims and ridiculous conclusions. Cancer has been known for ages; it wasn't that rare. Animals get cancer, and I doubt that it is caused by "emotional uneasiness". We see more cancers now than we did a thousand years ago because today you are less likely to be slaughtered by the pox, poor sanitation, or a spear in the belly, and are more likely to live a longer life. We know many of the genetic causes of cancer: somatic mutations that knock out portions of the apoptotic pathways (cells are always on the knife edge of spontaneously killing themselves if errors occur in replication, for instance, and removing the hair trigger can allow more errors to accumulate) will increase the cell's predisposition to become cancerous. Those mutations are not induced by subconscious worries.

The entire premise behind this guy's schtick is false. Anyone who thinks an essential question to ask yourself if diagnosed is "What is the spiritual growth lesson behind cancer?" is a quack who's out to take advantage of you and the worries that having cancers will naturally cause.

Another clue is to look at his qualifications.

Andreas Moritz is a medical intuitive; a practitioner of Ayurveda, iridology, shiatsu, and vibrational medicine; a writer; and an artist.

Dear sweet jebus, if that guy asked me to blow my nose I wouldn't trust his medical advice. What the hell is a "medical intuitive"? Someone who doesn't have a scrap of knowledge or evidence, but diagnoses and prescribes on the basis of his feelings? That's the impression I get from the collection of lies he has written.

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