Dear Health Conscious Friend,

Picture this: You've just come out the other side of a frightening bout with testicular cancer. Confident that you've beaten the disease, you're ready to move on with your life. But wait - the struggle through your treatment may have done permanent damage to your long-term health. The greatest risk didn’t come from the cancer itself. Oh, no – it comes mostly from those "highly effective" treatments.

Christine O'Brien reveals the deadly side-effects of chemotherapy...

In the name of good health,

Taryn Strugnell
Managing Editor of Nutrition & Healing

P.S. The treatment solution for Parkinson’s disease comprises of mainstream drugs, but over time these become less effective. Dr Wright recommends some safe, natural alternatives…

The treatment is worse than the disease!
Christine O'Brien
Contributor to Nutrition and Healing

The number of problems that survivors of testicular cancer are facing is much higher than previously thought. Simply because mainstream medicine just didn’t bother to take a look until now.

Clinicians only report treatment problems that are life-threatening or require medical intervention. And they only monitor most patients for five to ten years after treatment, meaning that many men suffering the after-effects of toxic cancer treatment have simply fallen through the cracks.

But researchers are finally getting a clue and took a look at data from the past 20 years.

Of course, what they've found is more or less all bad news. In a study that appeared in the Journal of the British Association of Urological Surgeons, researchers detailed an alarmingly long list of long-term effects.

Details like: Sensory nerve damage in 10-30% and hearing loss in 20% of patients on cisplatin-based (a platinum-based drug) chemotherapy. Pulmonary complications in men over 40 who are treated with bleomycin (an antibiotic) before surgery. Premature thickening of the arteries. Chronic fatigue in 17% of survivors (that's nearly twice the normal population). And survivors are nearly TWICE as likely to develop secondary cancer.

This laundry list of threats to your health didn't keep researchers from reaching for some good news. They reported that, "on a more positive note" up to 80% of men who try for fatherhood after treatment are successful.

I'm sorry, but with the possibility of permanent nerve damage, secondary cancer and hearing impairment, that doesn't just seem to be enough of a silver lining.

Let's hope that this serves as an example of why a close look at the long-term is so critical. I couldn't help but think of the recent swine flu vaccine studies – they gave the drug the seal of approval after only a month of safety trials.

And now there are promises of protection from the pandemic - but who knows what long-term risks are waiting around the corner? And are we willing to sacrifice our lives for short-term benefits?

Relief for Parkinson's... without the destructive new habits

Q: A recent diagnosis of Parkinson's has me seeking out every natural approach I can find. Can you help me?

Dr. Wright: For Parkinson's disease, I usually recommend coenzyme Q10 and vitamin B2. One study of 80 people with Parkinson's, supplementing with coQ10 reduced the deterioration of function and the degree of disability.

When researchers in Brazil examined a group of 31 Parkinson's patients, they found every single one had a riboflavin deficiency – even though their dietary sources were adequate. To fully explore the link, the researchers asked the patients to stop eating all red meat and to take 30mg of riboflavin every eight hours.

After just six months, motor capacity had increased nearly 30%. Tests for riboflavin deficiency had also normalised in all patients. Now, it might be hard to give up steak for six months, but when it means you could see such significant improvement, it could be worth trying. And you could go back to it – if you get positive results from riboflavin, you can probably add red meat back to your diet and increase your riboflavin intake.