Bernadette Fersch - January 2001
Seeing both parents die of cancer ( Mother in 1960 /Father in 1985) motivated me to investigate alternative medicine–for cancer and general health care, as well. But those 15 years evaporated into panic on May 11, 2000, when the radiologist started explaining the mammogram results. They said how lucky I was to “find it so early”, yet the recommended treatment was still a double mastectomy. I wondered what the ‘lucky’ part was. Having a slow growing cancer allowed me the cushion of taking 6 months for testing and as much frantic research as I could absorb. There is a vast sea of information out there. It’s overwhelming.
I began treatment at the (Orange County) Immune Institute on Nov. 1, 2000. This is a clinic like nothing you have see seen before. Its healing energy has aspects of a clubhouse, a family gathering. Group therapy, spiritual awakening, a college classroom, a health spa… and once in a while, “boot camp”. The physical treatment has three main components: a sugar and chemical free vegetarian diet, highly specialized Vitamin C intravenous infusions, and nutraceutical supplements. Zero tolerance for sugar, including no fruit, is critical – cancer loves sugar. Also used daily is the infra-red sauna, lymphatic ohatic drainage massage, thermal resonance treatment, and a Rife-technology Bio-Ray machine.
The other crucial element is the care and guidance of the physicians and staff, the licensed nutritionist and psycho-therapist, and their connections to the world’s labs and scientific study. For me, their iconoclastic commitment alone commands respect and instills confidence. They personalize the protocol for each patient. I always feel protected and cared for.
This is not a quick fix. At the beginning, it’s an anxiety provoking mountain of pills, potions, rules and facts, needing several weeks to mold a personal daily plan and begin feeling centered in a new point of view. The program is not complicated, but it’s not easy – it’s very demanding, requiring both a profound shift in understanding health care itself, and the deepest level of life-long commitment to your own health and all this while “swimming upstream’ with regard to the majority of people, perhaps even family members. As in traditional treatment, there is no guarantee. Not everyone gets better. But, the treatment is benign, doesn’t attack the body, it builds and nourishes the vital organs and restores the immune system so the quality of life and health is enhanced immediately.
My name is Phyllis Cohen. I’m 58 years old. I Was an amateur bicycle racer. The diagnosis of cancer in both breasts was confirmed by a PET scan in October 2000. In July 2001, a follow up PET scan showed my right breast to be clear of cancer, and only a small affected palpable lymph node ran remaining in the left Willa. Yesterday, October 3, 2001, for the first time, the doctor was unable to see it. All tumor marker tests are normal. I’m still on the program. I’ll be on this diet for the rest of my life. I love it! I’m getting better and expect to get completely better… along with riding and racing….
When I was diagnosed with cancer in January of 2001, I had already been fighting a nuerological disorder called Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP) for ten years which left me paralyzed for months at a time. Having been a patient a twelve hospitals, I knew that traditional cancer treatments were not my first choice. A friend pointed me in the direction of the Moss Reports where Dr. Moss had rated the Orange County Immune Institute as the number one integrative clinic in America. I called immediately. After faxing my medical records, a telephone interview was set with Dr. Ferre Akbarpour. Her inevitable compassion came through as she sympathized with pain I had been dealing with for the last ten years. I burst into tears when she told me that she could help me with not only my malignant melanoma but with my neurological disorder as well. I have been a patient of Dr. Ferre’s for 3 years now and have learned more about integrative and alternative medicines then I ever thought I’d need to know. She is a genius who has empowered me to take charge of my own health. I have not had one relapse of paralysis or pain from my CIDP and my cancer has gone into remission. Dr. Ferre’s insight into our toxic world, our body’s immune systems, and cancer, is the only reason I am alive today, engaged to the man of my dreams, and looking forward to a future as an Opera Singer. Thank you, Dr. Ferre, from the bottom of my heart,
Mrs. Florence Such
Dr. Ferre treated me for many years for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Diabetes and Fibromyalgia and anything else that was a problem to my health. She was a magnificent doctor.
If you are looking for a doctor to treat any of your immune disorders, including cancer, go no further. She is the most compassionate person you will ever meet and the most knowledgeable. Her care for each person is individually dealt with, you immediately feel hopeful, and very encouraged, you really can have a chance to be healed. She is encouragement because she has such a vast array of knowledge to handle so many illnesses. It is remarkable when you visit her institute and experience all that she has to offer her patients.
We all wish we could find a person who truly cares for us, well let me tell you, she is your doctor, but she is your friend also. If everyone could attain her attributes, our world would be operating at its very best.
Thank you Dr. Ferre for all your care, I know I can always count on you.
May God bless you, your wonderful husband and your family.
Bernadette Fersch - January 2001
I was 57, it was 1999 and I had gone along for my first medical check up for 25 years [first mistake]. I thought I was pretty healthy. Some five years earlier, I’d given up the excesses of the 70’s and 80’s–alcohol, cigarettes and a diet high in animal products, fat and sugar. I played A grade golf two or three times a week and ran my own property consultancy the rest of the time.
The diagnosis was colorectal cancer–a tumor the size (how ironic) of a golf ball. It was in the sigmoid colon, and any closer to rectum and it would be in an awkward spot. The advice was radiation therapy combined with chemotherapy to shrink the tumor, before operating to remove it. “Start immediately”, “aggressively attack the tumor”, “reduce the size” with the radiation and the chemotherapy will guard against the cancer spreading. The treatment was designed to save the colon–removal did not offer a pleasant option.
It seemed there was no option, so with my wife Suzie, we consulted a naturopath and adopted a macrobiotic diet to maximize oxygen uptake and minimize the effects of the chemotherapy and radiation with pro-biotic supplements, immune strengthening supplements and enzymes. I lost a lot of weight but I remained well during the treatment with no chemotherapy side effects at all. The final stages of radiation, however, I was in extreme pain from the radiation burns.
The problem with all this is you tend to be in a panic mode and rather than take your time to explore the options, you do as you are told and accept the consequences. The advice was, “It is serious but we have every chance of fixing it.” Or at least that’s how we heard it. The pre-op treatments over the 2 month period–the radiation and the chemotherapy–had no affect on reducing the tumor. In fact, it was the size of a cricket ball by the time the surgeon got to it. Tim Wilson operated. He was a leader in the field and we had in fact attended the same school all those years ago. I was six hours in surgery; the operation showed up other growths in the colon so a full resection was performed and out of surgery I came with a colostomy. A subsequent scan gave me the all clear. This was in February 2000. My recovery period was fourteen days in hospital and six to seven weeks with home nursing.
I was warned not to get my hopes up yet, that blood tests in three months and a CT scan in six months would make sure. The May blood test showed no cancer activity–a relief. By this stage we’d done a lot of research and knew a lot about the life expectancy of colorectal cancer patients. I progressed from a macrobiotic diet to vegetarian with just a little dairy. I needed to put weight back on but I wanted to keep as healthy as possible. I kept up my vitamin supplements. In August I went for a blood test and was referred for a CT scan. It was not a good result. The cancer had metastasized (progressed) to the liver–the next stage of colorectal cancer. 12 months or so, they said.
Tim Wilson referred me in September 2000 to Professor David Morris at St George Hospital, Sydney. Professor Morris is revered in medical circles. He is considered a leader in liver resection and at the time he was championing chryosurgery (freezing) for tumors in the liver, and hepatic artery pumps to deliver chemotherapy direct to liver tumors. When I was first diagnosed I was given a life expectancy of two years, then, it was one. This was like a replay–the same story, tumor in a different place, more serious. There was only one option: chemotherapy and possibly a resection or cryosurgery, depending on the results of a round or two of chemotherapy.
I was absolutely aware that with all the conventional treatment options side effects would be involved. Consequently, like many others faced with little choice, this time we didn’t rush. My wife and I had embarked upon a journey of discovery and a mission.
We found that public demand for nutritional therapy was growing with some intensity, and gaining support through an increasing number of published scientific findings. We realized this was due to the poor record of chemotherapy over the past 30 years as a cure for cancer. However, three years ago here in Australia, there were no coordinated complementary, alternative or integrated programs (chemotherapy and radiotherapy backed up with nutrition and bioceuticals) available for cancer patients. What we did find were the mind-body therapies, particularly the programs conducted by Ian Gawler at the Gawler Clinic in Melbourne and by the well-known Petrea King, both survivors of cancer.
I had no idea of the pandora’s box we would open in our exploration. A web search on cancer brings up 7.8 million sites; cancer and nutrition provides 582,000 sites. We refined the search to cover therapies–80,000 sites–and even further to cover complementary therapies. Still there were 16,500 sites.
We followed leads, we read, we bought and borrowed books, we spoke to people, doctors and other practitioners, patients and families. We found that many cancers do require aggressive chemotherapy and surgery to reduce the tumor burden and that perhaps no complementary therapy, at least at that time, was potent enough to shrink large or multiple tumors. We found that there is no “magic bullet” cure for cancer but still even the most die-hard proponents of mainstream medicine (and we found plenty of those) concede that chemotherapy and radiotherapy leave the immune system suppressed at best, collapsed at worst, causing health problems over and above the cancer itself.