Great reply.
I thought the OP toxic enough to make one ill.
My opinion is that it should be enough to make anyone fill ill, because everyone should approach the matter rationally.
The fact is that alternative 'medicine' is not rational.
- Tim Minchin
For those not familiar with Tim Minchin's work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGuXCuDb1U
"Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (eCAM) is an international, peer-reviewed journal that seeks to understand the sources and to encourage rigorous research in this new, yet ancient world of complementary and alternative medicine."
don't forget : 51% Unknown effectiveness ..
http://clinicalevidence.bmj.com/ceweb/about/knowledge.jsp
one example "Unknown effectiveness"
"Pancreatic cancer New option(s) added for: Chemoradiotherapy for resected pancreatic cancer One long-term follow-up study added. It found no significant difference between adjuvant chemoradiotherapy and surgery alone for overall survival or progression-free survival at 11.7 years' follow-up. Categorisation unchanged (Unknown effectiveness), as the evidence is not strong enough to draw definitive conclusion."
If all people had to do to halt cancer is vary their diet, far fewer people would succumb to the malady. The only way you can make that work is by taking a derisive and dismissive attitude to everyone, saying they must be too stupid and stubborn to want to live; moreover you must also posit that all doctors involved in oncology are evil and ignoring the facts.
This seems like a far more toxic worldview than quiet regret that Steve isn't still with us that I get from this article.
http://www.abundantwellbeing.com/Nischala/CancerStudyOrnish....
"Purpose: Men with prostate cancer are often advised to make changes in diet and lifestyle, although the impact of these changes has not been well documented. Therefore, we evaluated the effects of comprehensive lifestyle changes on prostate specific antigen (PSA), treatment trends and serum stimulated LNCaP cell growth in men with early, biopsy proven prostate cancer after 1 year
...
Conclusions: Intensive lifestyle changes may affect the progression of early, low grade prostate cancer in men. Further studies and longer term followup are warranted." DOI: 10.1097/01.ju.0000169487.49018.73
===== and ....
"Clinical Events in Prostate Cancer Lifestyle Trial: Results From Two Years of Follow-Up"
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0090429508...
"Changes in prostate gene expression in men undergoing an intensive nutrition and lifestyle intervention"
http://www.pnas.org/content/105/24/8369.short
"Increased telomerase activity and comprehensive lifestyle changes: a pilot study"
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470204508...
"Can lifestyle changes reverse coronary heart disease?: The Lifestyle Heart Trial"
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/01406736909...
The idea that "diet" is alternative is ludicrous. What's alternative is "curing cancer" with diet. The science of how diets affect cancer—and the resulting medical advice that falls out—is an open and somewhat understood topic and a good part of a whole spectrum of treatment; one that all indications suggested were ignored in this case.
I always think it's funny that naturopaths say they're treating the "whole patient" but almost inevitably they focus on ONE THING that CURES EVERYTHING, whereas doctors come at the problem with a whole spectrum of tools ranging from diet and lifestyle to chemical interventions.
Diet is largely considered alternative medicine in America. Obviously pancreatic cancer cannot be cured with diet. However, some conditions respond favorably to diet and other lifestyle modifications.
Hypertension can be reversed through weight loss and diet, the Mayo Clinic even publishes books about how to do it. However, in the USA, it's largely considered a secondary line of treatment because doctors assume (correctly) that most Americans won't change their eating habits, even if it's a matter of life and death.
I think doctors probably make a judgment call based off your described lifestyle and age. In my case diet and weight loss were easy, since I've been vegetarian at various points in the past and am fairly young.
It's only when a diet is some outrageously expensive and super-implausible idea like "only eat berries and uncooked food" that it enters the realm of alternative medicine. "Diet & Exercise" is even in the American vernacular.
The only people who want to co-opt diet is alterantive are the CAM proponents who are attempting to use it as the thin edge of a wedge to get themselves funding and legitimacy.