Episode Twenty: The Gospel of Cancer Book Two, Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer helps us understand the religion of health care through a very unique lens.  For any religion to be effective it must instill fear into its adherents, have priests who offer a means of alleviating that fear, and then provide appealing but ultimately deceptive techniques to "cure" someone that seems to be sensible and effective but which in fact are dangerous and misleading.  Prostate cancer inflicts about 30-40% of all men, but kill less than 1% of those who get it.  Most men die with prostate cancer, not of it.  But the Medical Industrial Religion and its Medical Dogmatists (MD's) have used this common and frightening disease to convince millions of trusting men to put their bodies and pocketbooks in the hands of the medical priests to their and society's detriment.  About 1% of men who have prostate cancer die of it, and the very expensive and dangerous treatment (hormones, radiation, surgery, chemo) does not change that calculus.  Let me say that again: 1% of men die of prostate cancer whether they are treated or not.  Since it's a slow growing cancer, it's fairly resistant to treatment.  We can measure a PSA lab test to see if a man may have cancer.  If it's high, we can do a biopsy to confirm it.  Then we can assault that man with treatment that may maim or kill him and almost certainly will cause some palpable harm, but it will not help him live a day longer.  A recent study confirmed this, as have so many others. Checking PSA levels doesn't help anyone live longer or better, and treating prostate cancer doesn't help anyone live longer or better; just the opposite in fact.  But the Medical Industrial Religion has so bamboozled the public as to make them think that PSA testing is useful and treatment is both necessary and effective.  We pay over $100 billion a year to the medical priests and hospitals and other agents of the faith all to lower the PSA number (treatment does do that!) but not to help a soul.  We pay that money to deceive people and harm them all in the name of salvation.  Listen to this podcast to learn how well prostate cancer helps us to understand the power and appeal of the medical religion.