John Matzke was only 30 years old when the doctors said that he had only a year and a half left to live! It was hard to believe in this, since John was an example of male beauty and health. Tall, broad-shouldered, he was an avid soccer player, defending the gates of the college team where he studied geology, enjoyed great success with women and found his future wife Lin among them. In 1973, Matzke and Lin, after graduating from college, decided to dramatically change their lifestyle and moved to Wisconsin, where they acquired a farm and began to grow vegetables.
Ominous diagnosis
But in 1974, a few weeks after the spouses had their first child, John discovered a kind of thickening under his armpit. A tumor biopsy confirmed the darkest fears: malignant melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer! Similar thickenings appeared in other parts of John's body. They were removed surgically, but by 1984, metastases had penetrated the victim's lungs! He turned to oncologist Joseph F. Donnell for help. The doctor decided to immediately conduct an examination and start the treatment procedure, but warned that, according to statistics, only half of cancer patients with metastases in the lungs survive after the operation for a year and a half.
The patient himself enters the fight against the disease
John Matzke decided to fight the misfortune that had befallen him himself and for this he developed a kind of healing system. The system included hiking in the mountains, healthy eating and … meditation! In addition, the patient regularly convinced himself of the inevitability of a complete recovery and constantly instilled in himself a picture of the battle of immune cells with cancer cells. A month later, the patient again appeared at the attending doctor, who, after a thorough fluoroscopy of the patient's chest, did not find any signs of oncology in him! Doctors called this case a medical miracle, since the patient, who was given only a year and a half by medicine, lived for 18 years! And, although cancer still took John's life on November 8, 1991 (metastases penetrated the brain), the fact remains: the metastases in the lungs healed by themselves!
Promotional video:
White rings
Self-healing from cancer is extremely rare. According to some data, one patient recovers in one hundred thousand, according to others - one in 60 thousand.
And although in many situations the statistics are distorted by erroneous diagnoses or unknown methods of treatment, true cases of self-healing from cancer are still recorded. And from this disease, half a million people die every year in the United States alone!
Although researchers argue that far-reaching conclusions cannot be drawn from the example of one patient, the precedent of John Matzke makes one think about the role of the immune (defense) system in the process of self-healing of the body. This patient, who had adhered to his own mode of life for a month, had white rings around the malignant thickenings! According to doctors, these rings indicated the activation of the immune system, which destroys melanocytes - pigment cells in the skin that are responsible for the development of malignant tumors. A question arose that haunted doctors for a long time: what exactly makes the immune system join the fight? And how do immune cells recognize "enemy" cells without destroying "friendly" ones?
Protective infections?
The first to try to solve the mystery of self-healing from cancer in the 19th century was the American surgeon William Coley. He became interested in this problem after the death of 17-year-old Bessie Dashieli from sarcoma. The girl came to the surgeon with a swollen right hand. A biopsy revealed sarcoma in her and, wanting to save the patient's life, William Coley amputated her right arm below the elbow. But despite all his efforts, the girl's life could not be saved, since the cancer had already spread throughout her body. She died three months after the operation.
Shocked by the death of a young patient, Kolya rushed to the medical archives to study cases of sarcoma and found that, as happened more than once, cancer patients suffering from severe infectious diseases quickly recovered from cancer! This led the doctors to the idea of specifically infecting cancer patients with diseases such as syphilis, gangrene and "Antonov fire" (a serious skin disease). Unfortunately, some patients died, but not from cancer, but from infectious diseases they had been vaccinated!
Signaling molecules
As it turned out, several dozen immune cells in a cancer patient release from 50 to 100 so-called signaling molecules that “tell” other cells what they need to do and at what moment.
A change in the behavior of one cell or signaling molecule affects the state of the entire system. The complexity and unpredictability of these interactions makes cancer treatment extremely difficult.
In addition, cancer cells disguise themselves as platelet clots moving in the bloodstream. Since the immune system usually protects its own platelets, this camouflage allows cancer cells to travel throughout the patient's body. However, its internal defense mechanisms prevent the development of cancer. The cells of the patient's body recognize the imbalance and acquire the ability to self-destruct.
Interaction of body and spirit
Many experts are convinced that the psychoemotional state of the patient plays an important role in the development of cancer and in their cure. Sociologist Alice Epstein was diagnosed with cancer of the left kidney in 1985 and was talking about removing it. One month after this operation, the cancer had spread to the lungs. According to doctors, the patient had two to three months to live. The woman decided to turn to psychotherapy. After six weeks of treatment with a psychotherapist, the tumors in her lungs began to shrink and after a year they disappeared without a trace! It was 22 years ago and now the patient is completely healthy, although she recently celebrated her 80th birthday!
Oncologist Joseph Donnell met in his practice a patient with metastases in the colon. He had a maximum of six months to live.
The terrified patient immediately began counting the remaining weeks on the calendar of his wristwatch. One night, the calendar started clicking by itself and stopped at the half-year mark! The patient was hospitalized in a state of extreme stress. The patient still survived that night and, to the endless amazement of the doctors, lived for another 14 years! And all these years he continued to count the months and years until his very death from pneumonia.
Many oncologists agree that the patient's state of mind has a beneficial effect on the healing process. Stress and fear can weaken the functioning of the immune system by reducing the number of killer cells that attack cancer cells. A new science, psychoneuroimmunology, deals with these problems. According to her, in particular, among men and women who have lost their spouses within a month, the risk of death increases by more than one and a half times!
Early self-healing
If cases of late self-healing of patients from cancer are very rare in medicine, then early self-healing (when cancer is detected under a microscope) can become commonplace. Oddly enough, this turn of events alarms some doctors.
It would seem that the earlier the diagnosis is made, the more chances the doctors have to cure the patient. However, in fact, such a diagnosis in oncology can harm the patient more than help. And the fact is that many forms of cancer never manifest themselves at all, and medical intervention (for example, surgical) can play the role of a trigger that triggers destructive processes. Doctors include prostate cancer, breast cancer, some forms of melanoma, and neuroblastoma (adolescent cancer) to such "dormant" forms of cancer.
German GORDEEV