Page 1209 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 April 1994
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MRS CARNELL (Leader of the Opposition) (4.19): Madam Speaker, I think it is important to take this issue seriously. We all know that cancer is one of the greatest killers in our society. We are all very well aware of the problems of breast cancer amongst women - it is the biggest killer of young women particularly - and of other types of cancer. I understand that prostate cancer is killing almost as many men as breast cancer is killing women. So it is an issue that must be taken on board seriously. I suppose that the most important issues involved are information, education and understanding of what we are dealing with.
Modern medicine, I think many of us would agree, is a matter of balance between the orthodox medicine that most of us have grown up with and natural medicine and oriental medicine - things that we in Western societies are only coming to grips with of recent days. When I was at university, particularly when I was doing medicine, the thought of anything oriental, anything natural, in the medical course was out of the question. Now we know that medicos are doing courses in acupuncture, in vitamin therapy, and even in homoeopathy in some circumstances. So what not all that many years ago we thought was a whole lot of rubbish we are now understanding does have a place.
Where both sides of this argument are getting it wrong is in the balance between the two. To suggest for one moment that shark cartilage is the answer for cancer therapy is obviously silly. To suggest for one moment that nothing in the natural medicine area is any good is equally stupid. We know very well, from examples of recent times and from some very interesting books that have been written, that one of the things Mr Stevenson brought up, stress management, is a huge issue in the control and treatment of cancer. I am sure that many people have read books on this subject - Gawler's is one of the most interesting - about people who have combated cancer by the appropriate use of meditation and keeping stress levels under control. Of course, that can be explained quite simply by looking at immune systems and at the sorts of things that stimulate immune systems in the body and take the pressure off it.
That can be achieved by a number of means. In terms of stimulating the immune system, we know that stress management is a big issue. We also know that vitamin C helps quite dramatically. There are a number of other vitamins and herbs that can go a long way to giving people a greater capacity to fight infections, to stimulate their white blood cell counts, and the list goes on. That is all quite scientific and easy to show. This debate should be looking at the balance between natural therapies and the more traditional therapies. It is unfortunate that amongst our traditional medicos there are still many who believe that all natural medicine, whether it be Chinese in nature or vitamin therapy on its own, is a whole heap of rubbish. I think all of us who have done any training in that area know that that is not the case.
One of the most important issues now in cancer treatment is screening, and that is one thing I do not think Mr Stevenson spoke about.
Mr Stevenson: I was brief.
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