The Medical Freedom Channel

Every time a libertarian tries to argue for getting the government out of a “social issue” (thereby presumably removing the element of enforced coercion from the equation?), the immediate response from the average non-believer is, “well how are you going to handle it?” And the knee-jerk reply of the libertarian is apt to be some minor variation on, “the market will take care of it.”

In spite of the validity of this claim, in an ideal world of free society – with no coercive government, just individuals choosing to do the “right” things to perpetuate the culture – it falls far short of an explanation of liberty for those who have yet to absorb the reading-list and drink the kool-aid. The transition from the current state-dominated culture and “market” (which is about as far from “free” as it gets), if it succeeds at all, will require a considerable amount of rethinking, if it is to avoid causing major havoc on all those caught in the backwash. All it takes to realize this is a glance at the day’s headlines, whatever day it happens to be.

A classic example comes from the news that Canadian researchers may have discovered that a drug currently being used to treat rare metabolic disorders may hold a major key in battling certain cancers — not just keeping them at bay but actually defeating them and restoring healthy function to the patients in the process. The drug has also been proven to have very few negative side-effects, and can be administered without major equipment or expertise. What’s more, because there is no patent on this substance, it could be produced in huge quantities, at very low cost, and be made available wherever it was needed. That is both good and bad news for healthcare reformers.

The drug is called Dichloroacetate, or DCA. It reportedly is capable of repairing damaged mitochondria in cells that have been attacked by cancer, and has been shown to shrink cancerous tumors dramatically, in both animal and lab tests, as well as on genetically cultured human cells. Moreover, the way it apparently operates is by targeting cancerous cells, while having no adverse effects on the healthy cells and tissues surrounding a tumor. Unlike most chemotherapies, this would avoid the deleterious damage to those surrounding healthy cells, and so far researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada have found positive results on cancers in the lung, brain and breast.

According to a story in New Scientist, the researchers have hypothesized that DCA makes use of how cancer cells produce their energy, by consuming the sugars in the cell itself, using a process called glycolysis. This method must be employed, since apparently the condition of the mitochondria of these cells is below functionality levels. However, the presence of DCA reportedly revitalizes the mitochondria in those cells, which not only makes them stronger but “reawakens” their capacity to recognize abnormal cells and cause them to self-destruct.

The challenge according to both the New Scientist story and another from the Chinese website People’s Daily Online, is that the funding for further test may have to be absorbed by “charities, universities and government agencies,” since with no patentability for DCA, there would be no perceived profit-margin for some major pharmaceutical company to justify funding such studies.

However, beyond this, there is a strong likelihood that unless one of those Big Pharma firms does get involved, the Food and Drug Administration might never approve the process, even if it were shown to be both effective as a true cancer cure and virtually harmless in its side-effects. The frequency with which such unorthodox channels have produced a product that reached the open market in the past is so low as to be negligible at the very best.

And it is here that we must pause, and contemplate the probability that even if DCA proves to be both effective and safe, and as inexpensive for dosage as it already seems to be, and the day comes that it is made available to the public … the FDA in its wisdom and “concern for public safety” will merely place a ban on its sale, distribution or use in the United States, while it becomes readily and easily available in pretty much every other country in the world. Since it already does exist here, its employment as a cancer cure will be demonized – just as laetrile and other nutritional methodologies have been for generations … as more and more people heal their physical problems with a simple change of diet and personal habits.

There’s a longshot chance this will not become true. But the only way it will happen is if enough people resist the tyranny of the FDA/Big Pharma cartel, and refuse to knuckle under to its most likely and predictable edicts. Then and only then will DCA get a true test in “the market,” and rise or fall on its own merits.