News about cancer treatments – phony and legit – Tiger Woods’ knee, losing weight by eating at McDonald’s and menthol cigarettes are featured in this week’s  Health and Fitness Advice Ramble.

Hope for Cancer Patients.  There was news this week about a terminal melanoma cancer patient who experienced a complete cessation of symptoms within 2 years of undergoing experimental cancer treatment.  This Oregon man suffered from a melanoma that traveled from his back to his right lung and groin and was given less than year to live, but after 2 months of immunotherapy had no tumors and seemed to be cancer free after 2 years.  This non-toxic treatment, in which the immune system is tweaked to attack skin cancer cells, had no side effects.  However, this man’s case was the only success out of a total of 9 patients, and 2 years after the study ended dropped out of sight and has had no contact with the researchers and there’s no word on is current condition.  A lot more work needs to be done to determine if immunotherapy is bona fide or if these results are a fluke.

Lose 80 Pounds By Eating at McDonald’s?!?  A Virginia man has lost 80 pounds eating McDonald’s healthier menu items and avoiding Big Macs, French fries and milkshakes.  My bet is that this guy is a savvy self-marketer/promoter who wants to be the next Jared (the guy who’s probably made millions because he lost weight eating Subway sandwiches).  Let’s see if this story has legs over the next several months and if this guy starts appearing in Mickey D’s advertisements.

Tiger Woods’ Knee.  The world’s greatest golfer suffered a torn ACL in his left knee almost a year ago and had surgery on this knee for torn cartilage about 3 months ago, and yet still nobody can beat him.  Woods has been hobbled since last July and provided the sports world with one of it’s greatest moments ever last weekend when he won the U.S. Open in dramatic fashion, playing on a leg with a torn ACL and twin stress fractures in the shin.  That’s a lot of damage and no matter the surgery, once an athlete gets cut they are never the same again and no surgery ever has “good-as-new” results.

Two things; 1) Tiger hurt his knee jogging and 2) he put off surgery which undoubtedly has led to more damage to the knee. There’s no way an athlete of Tiger’s stature – or any athlete for that matter – should be jogging; it’s just not necessary.  And while Woods may have provided us with drama and dominance since last year, this short-term situation may prove to be his long-term undoing.  We won’t know for a while, but it’s quite possible Tiger – who has had 3 knee operations in 5 years - may have seriously shortened the effective years of his career by the damage done to his knee.

Phony Cancer Treatments.  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a crackdown on companies who are marketing phony, fake, ineffective cancer treatments that are available via the Internet.  These teas, creams and supplements have no proven track record of effectiveness and just serve as a danger to cancer patients.  Making money by deceiving cancer patients is one of the most scurrilous enterprises that anyone could be involved with and prosecution, jail time and fines are the least of the punishments these cretins should face.  These phony treatments can prevent people from seeking out real medical care and can harm cancer patients by negatively interacting with their real medications and treatments.  These treatments contain bloodroot, shark cartilage, coral calcium a variety of mushrooms and a host of other nonsensical and worthless ingredients.  If you know any cancer patients keep them away from this garbage.

More Meaningless Tobacco Legislation.  The FDA will be given the power to ban all flavored tobacco products, with the exception of menthol, and the American Medical Association’s president and delegates are going along with this meaningless legislation.  Here we have yet another anti-smoking half-measure.  You see, menthol-flavored cigarettes account for almost 75% of all cigarettes sold so of course politicians are not going to kill the golden tobacco goose that provides all kinds of tax dollars.  The excuse provided by all parties is that there is other pending legislation that will allow the feds to control other – ostensibly harmful - ingredients of cigarettes, and that banning menthol will endanger this other legislation. It seems to me that if tobacco was banned outright – and thousands of lives saved as a result - the feds wouldn’t have to create a whole new bureaucracy to micromanage the ingredients and flavors of cigarettes.