Andreas Moritz
Andreas Moritz (born 1954) is a book-author, iridologist, vaccine opponent and inventor of pseudo-medical methods. He was born in Germany, and has been living in Greer (South Carolina, USA) since 1998.
In his books and his own websites, Moritz propagates strange and pseudoscientific opinions on cancer as well as his liver cleansing method (liver cleansing according to Moritz).
In his own descriptions he views himself as a medical intuitive, practitioner of Ayurveda, Iridology, Shiatsu and Vibrational Medicine and uses the title of a doctor of Ayurveda.[1] Moritz tells his website readers that he used to be a teacher for meditation in the past and that he was interested in Ayurveda when he was in New Zealand and India.
He is not only the inventor of a liver cleansing method, but also of a "Ener-Chi Art" (Ener-Chi Wellness Center, LLC) claiming that the contemplation of a particular oil-painting had healing effects. His "Sacred Santèmony – Divine Chanting" - methods allegedly "deletes" interfering "Akasha-chronicle entries" by the use of "healing sounds".
Andreas Moritz and Cancer
In his book Cancer is not a Disease - It's a Survival Mechanism, Moritz describes cancer as but one of many ways the body tries to change the way you see and treat yourself. He adds: [...] as you are about to find out, cancer is on our side, not against us [...]. 95% of all cancer cases healed spontaneously, if no medical treatment interfered such self-healing process. Similar convictions are known from the German quack and former physician (now barred) Ryke Geerd Hamer, the inventor of Germanic New Medicine, and also from followers of metamedicine and biologie totale of French Georges Sabbah.
According to Moritz, cancer always was an extremely rare illness, except in industrialised nations during the past 40-50 years. He ignores the fact that cancer is a disease affecting mostly elderly people. Progress in medicine led to an increase in life expectancy. Together with progress in cancer detection, the increase of life expectancy led to an increase of cancer incidence. Fewer cases of infectious diseases and fewer cases of death due to accidents led to an increase in the percentage of cancer as the cause of death.
Moritz sees the origins of cancer in constant conflicts, guilt and shame, as they paralyzed basic functions of the body, and led to the growth of a cancerous tumour. Elimination of these alleged cancer-inducing factors would lead to a complete healing of cancer, says Moritz. Therapies used in scientific medicine (operation, radiation therapy or chemotherapy) would lead to a healing in only 7% of the cases, and only a few patients would survive that form of healing. According to Moritz, more people died because of therapeutic efforts than due to their disease. These strange allegations without any proof are not backed by scientific literature and contradict solid scientific evidence of modern medicine.
Moritz instead believes in alleged statements of a Dr. Hardin Jones (University of California, see below), who is quoted Den Patienten geht es genauso gut, oder noch besser, wenn Sie [sic] nicht behandelt werden [...], i.e. Patients are as well or even better without treatment [...].
He also believes in the concept of a cancer prone personality, obsolete and outdated theories of psychiatrists Wilhelm Reich, Hans Eysenck, Ronald Grossarth-Maticek, Lydia Temoshok (typus C) and Hürny and Adler (1991). He confounds personality traits and consequences of cancer (for instance depression as a consequence of a severe disease).
"Liver Cleansing" According to Andreas Moritz
Moritz is the inventor of a pseudo-medical method called "liver cleansing" according to Andreas Moritz. Moritz believes that the majority of all adults in the industrialised world (and especially persons affected by heart disease, arthritis, diabetes, cancer or MS) carried hundreds or thousands of gall bladder stones, blocking liver function. A so-called "liver cleansing" (an almost identical method is known from American quack Hulda Clark) would "flush" gall bladder stones.
The patient must drink one litre of apple juice every day for six days and then take magnesium sulfate and 1/8 litre of olive oil and grapefruit juice or lemon juice. These substances will build up in the gut soft lumps looking like gall stones in the gut; these will end up in the toilet and convince the patient he successfully eliminated his gall stones. In fact, as scientific evidence shows, no gall stone will be excreted in these cases.[2][3][4]
Hardin Jones, Jones H. B. and Cancer Therapy
On many webpages linked to alternative medicine, allegations and speculations can be found, claiming that a conventional cancer therapy would harm cancer patients more than no treatment at all. On English language webpages, an American physiologist named Hardin Jones is often presented as "a prominent cancer researcher" from the University of California (Berkeley). A quote often presented is the following: My studies have proved conclusively that cancer patients who refuse chemotherapy and radiation actually live up to four times longer than treated cases.
This quote is assigned to a conference paper of the year 1969.[5] But in this text, Hardin's above quote can not be found, see that document here: [6]
So what did Hardin actually say? Hardin was never active as clinical oncologist[7]. He worked a statistician and for the former "Atomic Energy Commission" in Berkeley.
Quotes by Hardin are linked to a presentation in 1956,[8] this was more than 50 years ago, when chemotherapy was in its early stages. The article of 1956 contains statistical data related to treated and untreated female patients with breast cancer. Author Jones in this article says: 'It is most likely that, in terms of life expectancy, the chance of survival is no better with than without treatment, and there is the possibility that treatment may make the survival time of cancer less (page 331). Jones in turn quotes articles, one dating back to 1926 and two from 1927. But even these very dated articles (with 651, 100, 64 and 100 cases) contradict his opinion.
These studies were not modern studies with a control group. According to Jones, the death-rate in case of cancer would remain constant over time (the death rate for all kinds of cancer remains nearly fixed from the moment when cancer is identified page 314). This theory was also known as "The Hardin Jones Principle" and was cited by Linus Pauling in 1989. However, it is known today that this simple theory is invalid. Different cancers have their own and different curve of survival.
The description given by Jones is false, if it was to be related to our times. At the end of the fifties, 25% of all breast cancer patients were still alive after 5 years. In industrialised countries of today, this figure amounts to around 80% (USA, year 2003),[9] even considering that breast cancer is detected much earlier today.
Weblinks
- http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2010/02/andreas_moritz_legal_intimidation_in_the.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+scienceblogs%2Finsolence+%28Respectful+Insolence%29
- http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/alternative_medicine/
References
- ↑ http://ener-chi.com/about.htm
- ↑ Christiaan W: Could these be gallstones? The Lancet, Volume 365, Issue 9468, Seite 1388, 16 April 2005, doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(05)66373-8
- ↑ Dekkers R. Apple juice and the chemical-contact softening of gallstones. Lancet 1999 25:354, 2171
- ↑ Ewald, N, Hardt, P D: Flushing stones? „Leberreinigung” und „Gallenspülungen”. DMW 36, 2009
- ↑ Hardin B. Jones, Ph.D. "A Report on Cancer," paper delivered to the ACS's 11th Annual Science Writers Conference, New Orleans, march 7 1969
- ↑ Hardin Jones: "A Report on Cancer" 11th Annual Science Writers Conference, New Orleans, march 7, 1969
- ↑ http://www.users.on.net/~pmoran/cancer/hardin_jones_and_cancer.htm
- ↑ Jones H. B. Demographic consideration of the cancer problem. Transactions, New York Academy of Science, 1956, series 2, v. 18, pages 298 - 333, PMID: 13312067
- ↑ Jemal A, Thomas A, Murray T, Thun M. Cancer statistics, 2002. CA Cancer J Clin. 2002: 23-47 Also: Weir HK, Thun MJ, Hankey BF, Ries LA, Howe HL, Wingo PA, Jemal A, Ward E, Anderson RN, Edwards BK Annual report to the nation on the status of cancer, 1975-2000, featuring the uses of surveillance data for cancer prevention and control. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2003 Sep 3;95(17):1276-99