Here’s the story of one man who learned all this the hard way.
Stan Rutner was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma and underwent conventional therapy. The cancer went into remission in 1989 and he felt he had dodged a bullet. Then in 2011, he developed a chronic cough. He went to his doctor who diagnosed pneumonia and prescribed conventional treatment. Once the pneumonia had subsided, the doctor ran several tests on Stan’s lungs and found Stage 4 lung cancer that had metastasized to his brain—Stan also had an inoperable brain tumor.
At the time, Stan was in his late 70s; he underwent the standard chemotherapy and radiation, which caused his health to deteriorate rapidly and severely. He lost a huge amount of weight (not a heavy man to begin with), was chronically exhausted, and experienced constant nausea—all by-products of conventional cancer therapy.
Four months after treatments began, Stan was admitted to the hospital with radiation pneumonitis—radiation-induced lung disease. According to Radiopaedia.org:
“Radiation-induced lung disease (RILD) is a frequent complication of radiotherapy to the chest for chest wall or intrathoracic malignancies and can have a variety of appearances, especially depending on when the patient is imaged.” (1)
“Imaged” sounds like they took a photograph. Hardly. An example of how the treatment doesn’t fix the problem and causes another.
Death Sentence
Stan was given an oxygen tank to wheel around and needed to use it continually. Three weeks later, he went into palliative care and given four weeks to live, at most.
Stan had tried alternative therapies like Reiki and acupuncture during his illness but they didn’t prove effective for him. He was preparing to die. Stan’s family couldn’t bear to see him in such pain, so very thin and sick. His daughter and her fiancé researched the use of cannabis to treat cancer and suggested Stan try cannabis oil, if only to relieve his nausea. Stan’s perspective was that he had nothing to lose, so he tried it.