Nontraditional Therapy Has Role in Health Care

Re “Helping to Shut Illegal Clinics,” July 21:

I’m all in favor of shutting down bad clinics, but sometimes the FDA is wrong.

I personally know of someone who was given up for dead after chemotherapy failed to work, then went to using alternative medicine and the cancer went away. This person went to an underground Chinese medicine cure that is an example of what the FDA commonly tries to shut down.

For another example, read what happened in Florida. The problem started when an oncologist complained to the FDA that some people were using an unapproved cancer drug, aloe extract, instead of the chemotherapy. Aloe extract had a history of success since 1996 with over 600 patients in the U.S. and other countries.

Your article talked about county officials, not the FDA, and about going after bogus drugs, but I can’t help being a little skeptical. Will this effort be an excuse for similar crackdowns?

William Leech

Newport Beach