Product Description

In Knockout, Suzanne Somers interviews doctors who are successfully using the most innovative cancer treatments—treatments that build up the body rather than tear it down. Somers herself has stared cancer in the face, and a decade later she has conquered her fear and has emerged confident with the path she's chosen.
Now she shares her personal choices and outlines an array of options from doctors across the country:
 
EFFECTIVE ALTERNATIVE TREATMENTS
•without chemotherapy
•without radiation
•sometimes, even without surgery
 
INTEGRATIVE PROTOCOLS
•combining standard treatments with therapies that build up the immune system
 
METHODS FOR MANAGING CANCER
•outlining ways to truly live with the diease
 
Since prevention is the best course, Somers' experts provide nutrition, lifestyle, and dietary supplementation options to help protect you from getting the disease in the first place. Whichever path you choose, Knockout is a must-have resource to navigate the life-and-death world of cancer and increase your odds of survival.  After reading stunning testimonials from inspirational survivors using alternative treatments, you'll be left with a feeling of empowerment and something every person who is touched by this disease needs…HOPE.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #394 in Books
• Published on: 2009-10-20
• Released on: 2009-10-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780307587466
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
SUZANNE SOMERS is the author of eighteen books, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Ageless and the New York Times bestsellers Breakthrough; Keeping Secrets; Eat Great, Lose Weight; Get Skinny on Fabulous Food; Eat, Cheat, and Melt the Fat Away; Suzanne Somers' Fast and Easy; and The Sexy Years.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Preface

As I finished the final edits to this book, the New York Times featured an in-depth article about the failure of conventional medicine to cure more cancers.

According to the New York Times, adjusting for the size and age of the population, cancer death rates dropped only 5 percent from 1950 to 2005.

What other technology has performed so miserably over this fifty-five year period? Would you accept a medical therapy that has not improved much since 1950?

In contrast, the death rate from heart disease dropped 64 percent in that time, and for flu and pneumonia it fell 58 percent.

The New York Times was especially critical of expensive conventional treatments that subject patients to much mutilation and suffering, yet yield survival improvements of only a few months.

Clearly, as the Times states, "we are not winning the war against cancer."

This book is written to show another side of cancer treatment and what you can do now to prevent getting this dreaded disease.

As a reader, you must know there are no guarantees. Cancer kills and continues to kill. Yet there are some who beat it. Some beat it with traditional methods, and some with alternative methods. No one can tell you what will work for sure. You need to gather as much information as you can and make your own decisions.

But there is hope, and this book offers new choices. It is important you know that there are more methods than traditional chemotherapy and radiation available, and these are what this book attempts to bring to you, my faithful readers. Although I have always leaned toward alternative medicine, the testimonials of the "cured" patients made a believer out of me.

It is a very brave choice to go against traditional medicine and embrace the alternative route. It's easier to try the traditional route and then, if it fails, go to the alternatives, but often it can be too late. My friend Farrah—would she have made it if she had gone alternative first? There is no way of knowing.

When you receive a cancer diagnosis, you're more vulnerable than at any other time in your life. I've personally had the experience twice, as you will read in this book, and my only hope for survival was alternatives. But that was my decision, what I thought best for me.

I cannot make up your mind for you. I can only offer you these incredible professionals who have chosen to go another way. Some are completely alternative, while some are more integrated, but all are having success, great success.

Does everyone survive, though? The sad answer is no. Having cancer is a lonely experience. It is the one time in your life that you cannot ask those closest to you, "What should I do?" It's too heavy a burden to place on another person. This is your life, your decision, and cancer kills.

Read this book carefully. See and feel if the information resonates. I know that for myself, after having interviewed all of these incredible doctors, scientists, professionals, and patients, my choice overwhelmingly would be to use only alternative treatments regardless of what kind of cancer I contracted.

I am not a doctor or a scientist, but merely a passionate layperson, a filter, a messenger. I spoke with so many patients who are living normal, happy, fulfilled lives, and their enthusiasm and great quality of life convinced me that indeed you can live with cancer. You can manage cancer. You don't have to be degraded by humiliating treatments and protocols. And in some cases, you can be cured of cancer.

It is with great humility I ask you to read these pages and then listen to your heart and choose what is best for you. Writing this book has taken away my fear of cancer. I hope reading it does the same for you.

Chapter 1
A CANCER STORY—MINE
 
November 2008, 4:00 a.m. I wake up. I can’t breathe. I am choking, being
strangled to death; it feels like there are two hands around my neck
squeezing tighter and tighter. My body is covered head to toe with welts
and a horrible rash: the itching and burning is unbearable. The rash is in
my ears, in my nose, in my vagina, on the bottoms of my feet, everywhere—
under my arms, my scalp, the back of my neck. Every single inch
of my body is covered with welts except my face. I don’t know why. I
struggle to the telephone and call one of the doctors I trust. I start to tell
him what is happening, and he stops me: “You are in danger. Go to the hospital
right now.” I knew it. I could feel that my breath was running out.
 
No time to wait for an ambulance. We race to the emergency room. I
am gasping, begging for yet one more breath. I am suffocating. I am running
out of time. I don’t have time to think or be frightened; I can only
concentrate on getting one last breath. I am dizzy . . . the world is spinning.
Breathing is all I can think about.
 
We arrive. My husband has called the hospital in advance. They are
waiting for me. The emergency room workers—nurses, doctors, and other
professionals—are wonderful people. They have dealt with this before.
They are reassuring: “Okay, we’ll take care of her.”
 
As soon as I am in the emergency room they inject me with Decadron, a
powerful steroid. “Why can’t you breathe?” the ER doc seems to be
yelling in my ear, but I can’t answer. I am unable to get words out. They
inject me with Benadryl for the welts and the rash. Now I’m inside the
ER, but I still can’t breathe. I can’t even sit up. I am bent over trying to
find oxygen anywhere . . .
 
They put me on oxygen and albuterol to get me breathing, and slowly,
slowly, life returns. I am still grabbing for each breath, and there
are spasms in my lungs, like someone is turning a knob that pulls my
lungs inside out, but unlike before, the breath is there . . . labored but
there.
 
“We have to do a CAT scan,” he says. I already know that there are
large amounts of radiation inherent in CAT scans, and it bothers me to
think of doing that to my body. This is the first time I have had any pharmaceutical
drugs in me in eight years.
 
I always say, “I am not anti-pharmaceutical, but they should be saved as
the last tool in the practitioner’s back pocket.” My life was just saved by
pharmaceuticals. Maybe this is one of those times that radiation is justified
to find out what is wrong? Because something is seriously wrong. I
am healthy. I don’t know anyone who does more for her health than I do
on a daily basis. CAT scan . . . I don’t know.
 
 
I say to the doctor, “It seems to me that I’ve either been poisoned or am
having some kind of serious allergic reaction to something. I mean,
doesn’t that make sense? The rash, the strangling, the asphyxiation.
Sounds classic, doesn’t it?”
 
“We don’t know. A CAT scan will tell us. I really recommend you do
this,” the doctor says. “Next time you might not be so lucky—you might
not get here in time. You were almost out.”
 
I know that. I could feel the life going out of me in the car ride over.
 
“Okay,” I answer meekly. I am concerned and wary. My husband is with
me, holding my hands, rubbing them. His face is twisted with fear, concern.
Nothing is making sense.
 
A week ago, I was the picture of health. I hosted a beautiful evening at
my home for all the wonderful doctors who had participated in my bestseller
Breakthrough. It was a beautiful, warm evening, and together we all
celebrated health and wellness. The stars were out that night in full force,
and while the air was filled with the sounds of live musicians playing my
soft jazz favorites, the forty people at the table were enthusiastically conversing
about the possibilities of aging without illness; aging with bones,
brain, and health intact; dying healthy at a very old age. We were all
turned on. We had all realized it was attainable, and we were excited to
know that we had jumped on this incredible bandwagon in time.
 
This was an amazing group of people. These doctors were the courageous
ones who stepped out of the Western “standard of care” box to declare
that the present template of medicine is not working. Drugs are not
the answer. Drugs and chemicals are degrading the brains of our elders
and sneaking up on the unsuspecting young ones.
 
I looked around at this group of healthy-looking, vibrant people and
was excited to bring them all together. We were all living this new approach
to wellness. And before our delicious organic meal was served,
everyone pulled out their little bags of supplements. We all got a laugh
over that one.
 
It was so exciting to talk about true health enthusiastically instead of in
the hushed tones that accompany talk of a loved one in a diseased state. I
felt there always seemed to be a hopelessness that accompanied so many
of today’s approaches to health. Even when they worked, there seemed
to be an undesired reaction in the body. Somehow you weren’t the same
person anymore; you became slowed down, aging faster, fragile.
 
Socially, in most groups I tempered my conversations on my approach
to health because those who entrusted their lives to allopathic, “standard
of care” Western doctors might not want to entertain the idea that they
might have made the wrong choice or that their way wasn’t the best way.
I respected that. Life and health are about choices. There is the old way
and the new way, and each of us has to do what makes us most comfortable.
 
 
I chose the new way and I have never felt better, happier, more energetic,
more hormonally b...

Customer Reviews

Deserves careful reading.
I decided to read this book after watching Suzanne Summers on TV with Larry King. Suzanne was very passionate about her conviction but the program left me with a number of unanswered questions and I hoped that reading this book will clear some of mine doubts...

Unfortunately I cannot say that I am now, after reading this book, much smarter than I was before. To start with, Suzanne's story at the beginning of the book is bizarre to say the least. Could that all be true? Could so many doctors be so wrong all at the same time? Possibly, but maybe Suzanne omitted some facts detrimental to the story to make it for a better read. We will never know...

Some of the reviewers do not hold punches and simply call Ms. Summers greedy salesmen "selling snake-oil, and laughing all the way to the bank!" I don't think so. I think the opinion that "she is selling unproven remedies not recommend by any accredited institution" can only be spread by the proponents of so called "conventional" medicine - the establishment. Keep in mind that there are Charlatans in both conventional and alternative medicine who will exploit patients.

The main problem that I have with conventional medicine is that it is focused on treating symptoms but it is absolutely failing in prevention of diseases. The oncologists may be relatively good in treating some cancers but they offer nothing in the way of prevention. I cannot say conclusively that Suzanne is right in her approach but she at least brings our awareness to the potential prevention protocols.

I think this book deserves careful reading. I am not saying that I agree with everything Suzanne Somers says, she may be wrong, but her findings definitely deserve proper consideration. I have studied some of the doctors she is promoting, and I find it very hard to disagree with Dr Blaylock. He is not promising any miracles and he backs his opinions with solid data. I encourage you to get a good look at them. I was surprised to learn that Suzan failed to mention in her book Dr. Tombak. His book "Cure th e Incurable" sheds a lot of light at a number of "incurable" diseases, cancer being one of them. You will find that there indeed exist successful alternative treatments of diseases written off by conventional medicine as incurable.

An Education for All of Us
Knockout:Interviews with Doctors who are Curing Cancer--And how to Prevent Getting It in the First Place, by Suzanne Somers, is a must-read.

The book begins with a foreword by Dr. Julian Whitaker who challenges the very paradigm of curing cancer--that is, of removing or destroying it--with surgery, radiation or chemotherapy, Instead, she writes, the challenge to curing cancer lies in stopping the cells from dividing; do that and the cancer disappears.

Somers relates her harrowing story of her gross misdiagnosis that occurred in November 2008. She woke up covered in hives and was rushed to the hospital. She was told that she had cancer throughout her body. The hellishness of the experience prompted this book, because Somers explains that if she--a health advocate, best-selling author and famous person could get so mistreated, it can certainly happen to anyone.

Shockingly, the medical community has made little strides in curing cancer in 60 years, and it will soon be the second leading cause of death in our country.

The purpose of this book is to educate us on the alternatives to the traditional treatment of cancer--surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, and to prevent cancer from happening in the first place. As a cancer survivor, this is a topic close to Somers' heart.

There are chapters on the sad state of Western medicine, and how most of us poison ourselves daily--with drugs, chemicals in our food and more.

The crux of the book are the interviews with alternative doctors. They are divided into two sections--doctors curing cancer and on preventing it in the first place.

Some examples from the interviews:

* One doctor interviewed said that mamograms increase the risk of breast cancer.

* Sugar and artificial sweeteners feed cancer and help it spread.

* Tumeric is one of the most powerful cancer inhibitors. (One note on tumeric--several years ago, I read that there is a significantly low incidence of Alzheimer's Disease in India. Studies proved it was due to the high consumption of tumeric. Lately, I read that tumeric is great in preventing inflammation, increases memory, and a whole bunch of other fantastic qualities. You can buy it in capsule form if you don't eat much of it.)

The final chapter is advice for those who do choose traditional treatment to combat cancer.

The resources include integrative health practitioners listed by state.

I appreciate that Somers interviews a variety of doctors to get all kinds of advice. For those suffering from cancer and for those hoping to prevent it, this book provides solid alternative choices to traditional therapies that don't seem to be working.

This book provides hope. Highly recommend.

Author of Harmonious Environment

skewed results, dangerous advice
I am recently diagnosed with cancer, and a neighbor gave me this book; while I sincerely believe in the power of nutrition, and adjunctive alternative therapies, this book raises so many red flags for me! I am a critical care nurse and read with skepticism of her diagnosis of "full body Cancer" as well as the demands that she to sign a contract to take multiple drug therapies; no physician would ever use a vague and broad term like that, if for no other reason than being sued later-the same with coercive drug therapy before culture results are back-AND almost every culture that she referred to would at least have an initial result in 24-48 hours-no a ridiculous 6 weeks . I also feel that as incensed as she was about her treatment, that if events happened as she reports, that she would have easily been able to sue and win; I also find the reported resistance to her suggestion of an allergic attack questionable as well; her symptoms were classic allergen induced, which shows in how she was treated in the ED.

She is flabbergasted when she is confronted about being on steroids, and outraged at the suggestion, but yet she was taking cortisol, which is a heavy duty steroid, which will rapidly impair your immune system. At many points in the book, she writes, and her experts mention, the need for "thin blood" to deliver oxygen-one thing I find odd is that while she preaches allowing the body to behave naturally, and not changing it's functions with "western" medicine, yet she preaches altering the body's mechanisms in all kinds of ways-back to the "thin blood" issue; while they preach this, they also preach increasing Vitamin K intake; not only is it easy to become toxic from too much vitamin k, since our body 'recycles' it; Vitamin K can induce a pro-clotting state in the average person, and in someone who takes coumadin for DVT's, PE's etc, Vitamin K will interfere with it's activity, yet this is never mentioned anywhere in the book; a very dangerous omission. The only thing that "thinning blood" does is reduce clotting and increase bleeding, bruising and some anemias; it does not influence the delivery of oxygen in any way. I find this book hard to accept, not for it's belief in nutrition, and alternative/conjunctive therapies-I use a wide variety of therapies in my practice; what makes me question the credibility is the entire hospital scenario in the beginning of the book that she bases so much else in the book upon; so much of it doesn't ring true for even the worst hospital, much less than for a very likely "upper echelon" hospital that Ms. Somers would go to; plus she is a celebrity, her views are well known; the hospital and it's staff would have been well-aware of all of this and handled the situation accordingly-if there is one thing that hospital management is desirous of, it's good press, and a happy celebrity. This skepticism, and the fact that Ms. Somers continues to have as her personal oncologist a "traditional" practitioner, speaks volumes to me. Also if one reads carefully, you will see that many of the practitioners that she speaks with talk about being very selective and testing, etc, to make sure that the patients that they accept into their programs are the ones most likely to have success; most hospitals and oncologists do not have this option; think about that for a minute-it really affects the ratios of outcomes. This book has some good ides-but ones that you will find anywhere else-get good organic nutrition; avoid red meat; eat brightly colored and cruciferous veegies; stay hydrated; exercise; find support; do yoga, visualize wellness, etc; but the rest of it often contradicts itself, has dangerous omissions, dangerous advice; and is being pushed forth by a person who has used "traditional" medicine for every major medical crisis in her life, and does not go to one the alternative practitioners in her book; she goes to a "traditional" regular practitioner (everything-tests, etc-that she claims that she has to go to this practitioner for, any alternative practitioner who is a licensed MD or NP could order for her); she preaches natural medicine, boosting the immune system, and her quest for knowledge, and yet was taking the heavy duty steroid Cortisol-to help with menopausal symptoms; taking cortisol for such a vague dx is fool-hardy and dangerous; cortisol will "tank" your immune system-which shows by how quickly and how severely she got sick; yet she claims to not be on any steroids; she is either ignorant of what she is taking, or duplicitous in what she says and does; either way, not a very credible person to take advice from.