Living Proof: A Medical Mutiny

by Michael Gearin-Tosh

Book Overview

Written six years after the author was given only months to live, "Living Proof" is a beautifully told, compelling examination of how one cancer patient battles the conventional health system and chooses the "crazy way through"--alternative medicine.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743225171
• ISBN13: 9780743225175
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.08 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.9" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Valuable message, terrible editing

It could save your life. He talks about how he heard all of the conflicting pieces of advice about how to treat his cancer and how, with logic, he came to use alternative holistic treatments for his cancer and how this saved his life. Interesting to see how he came to this decision. Valuable message about how to come to health and cure disease for anyone grappling with a diagnosis of cancer - we can all move towards health. The editing was pretty terrible, though. At places, it does not move from one idea to the next smoothly. I had to thumb through earlier pages to figure out what he was referring to several times as I read the book.

Ignorance is NOT bliss

As someone who's had cancer, I found this book particularly wonderful for a variety of reasons. Not only do I admire Gearin-Tosh's independence and courage but I applaud the fact that he actually THINKS. And he sure can write too! For those of us who love language, Gearin-Tosh is a particular joy. How many cancer self-help books quote Chekhov and Shaw? And G-T also cites many cancer "memoirs" by folks who had conventional treatments (and died) like Liz Tilberis and John Diamond. The citations from these books are so very moving. (I was reminded of the late Gilda Radner's story many times, the suffering and the seemingly endless chemos she endured.)I also did what G-T did when I got my diagnosis--I reached out to everyone I knew who'd had cancer (and asked my friends to find me people to talk to) to find out how they dealt with it. I was particularly interested to know if they pursued any alternative therapies and to find out which ones. I now take many "anti-cancer" supplements and follow nutritional therapies that hopefully will discourage a recurrence of cancer. So far, so good. G-T says the cancer specialist Dr. Barlogie wanrs that the most important thing is not to have "a recurrence." Amen to that but I know many folks with cancer who've had chemo and radiation and experienced recurrences. If the medical profession had all the answers, there wouldn't be such a demand for books like this!! Not only does Gearin-Tosh think, write in an accessible format that's both charming and amusing, but he's a role model in courage. In the real world, many folks do both conventional protocols and alternative protocols for a variety of conditions including cancer. Often they don't tell their doctors because the doctors are hostile, indifferent or just plain ignorant. G-T's portraits of medical people are marvelous. In a few words, he sketches an entire person. I think this book would be very helpful for doctors too. A little humility is in order. I agree with Gearin-Tosh that medical exceptions should be studied, not dismissed as mere anomalies. People get entrenched in positions. G-T never said he'd "never" go the chemo route. but he did say it was a last resort. He also says he'd be thrilled if the medical community came up with a real "cure." But given the death rates and horrific side effects of conventional therapies at the time he embarked on his journey, the choice was his to make. The dirty secret of the medical profession is that cancer patients are guinea pigs for the most horrible therapies. And if we die from them, so what? We were going to do die anyway. A cancer diagnosis is indeed terrifying; but there's a lot to be said for empowering yourself. Hurrah for Michael Gearin-Tosh.

Response to William of Ohio

With reference to the review from William of Cincinatti, Ohio that appears elsewhere on this site. It is heartening to hear from someone who has benefitted from a conventional medical approach to the disease of Myeloma. However, his warnings and comments about Living Proof are not only misinformed (the writer cheerfully admits that he has no intention of reading the book), they are also quite harmful. To call a book dangerous is a serious allegation. Readers of the book, however, will find that Living Proof is a memoir of a highly intelligent man who merely asked questions about the nature of his illness and the treatment his own body was to receive. His questions led him to construct a highly personalised regime that has so far proved effective in managing his disease. He is not prescriptive and he is not trying to sell anything. He shares his experiences with the reader with candor and humour. Moreover, the book itself concludes with a well researched and sourced essay from a doctor that addresses the very issues which trouble this writer. That essay was endorsed by a qualified and reputable expert in the field of Myeloma - Dr. Robert Kyle. On the website of the Myeloma Foundation can be found another sympathetic endorsement of the book from Dr. Robert Durie. These experts do not conclude that Mr. Gearin Tosh has found a cure for myeloma but they do say that he is well worth listening to. Living Proof can offer hope and insight to anyone has an open mind. And Mr. Gearin Tosh has proved with his book that an open mind is the one thing you need when diagnosed with a serious illness.

How To Save Your Life

In the debates about education we seldom hear about the primary uses of thinking. Not just figuring and scheming how to get or stay ahead, not abstract philosophical or practical problem-solving, but as tools for survival. When, almost a decade ago, Michael Gearin-Tosh received news that he had advanced myeloma, he faced two stark choices: begin chemotherapy at once or die in a few months. As a professor of literature at Oxford University, Gearin-Tosh was accustomed to giving much less weighty matters a great deal of thought, so he hesitated. He consulted other opinions, one of whom said that any of the radical therapies would kill him. At most he would have an extra couple of years, and miserable ones at that. After a great deal of thinking, using linguistic and etymological analysis on each shade of meaning used by doctors and others, and doing a great deal of research into unfamiliar areas, Gearin-Tosh decided against chemotherapy and undertook various alternative therapies. Some of these have been deplored by many in the medical profession and hardly any of them would have been recommended by them. Mr Gearin-Tosh has not been cured, but he is very much alive today. He is "Living Proof" of how to take charge of one's own life, instead of surrendering it helplessly to experts. The most chilling moment of this enormously readable and gripping book comes when the patient has explored a range of unconventional therapies and goes to consult Sir David Weatherall, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford, and one of the most eminent medical authorities in the world. He asks the expert whether he thought him mad for not following medical advice, and Sir David pauses - to think. Finally he says: "What you must understand, Mr Gearin-Tosh, is that we know so little about how the body works." The book is a triumph of the mind not over the body but for the body. It never preaches or makes any claims for one particular method over another. Gearin-Tosh simply describes what happened, and the process of thinking that made him into a living proof. He carefully avoids telling you, if you have been diagnosed with cancer, what to do. But he teaches you to think for yourself so that you would have a chance to save your life. And that is all that a great teacher can do.

For those that think they already know the answers...

Cancer. Few words conjure up as much emotion or such fervent reaction as this one. 'Living Proof' is brilliantly written and accurately presents MGT's personal experience of facing in his own body, one of the worst forms of incurable cancer. Read of his emotions, his reactions and those of other people around him, from close friends to 'renowned experts'. He is clear and concise, and given the nature of the subject and the challenges it presents to him (life or death) about as unbiased as it is possible to be. I confess to being biased but I've never read such a well-documented account of someone who has access to the very best resources and contacts and who records his journey toward making an immense decision about which treatment to choose in such an entertaining way.Cancer Research is now one of the world's largest employers and if everyone involved with it read this account, I doubt that we would continue to lose so many loved ones to a disease that breeds ignorance with such spellbinding effect.If you think you already know all the answers then read this book, regardless of whether you are 'for or against' conventional treatment. I'm going to give away a free copy to anyone I meet who is facing this disease. I hate cancer but not nearly as much as I hate ignorance.