North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Road's End Farm <organic87@frontiernet.net>]

On May 19, 2009, at 5:49 AM, Heath Flax wrote:

> This possibly may be only semi-related  or tangentially related, and
> as well mainly just anecdotal, to this "Curing cancer with food"
> thread, but for what One spring a few years ago, I noted on my cheek a
> small cluster of blemishes, sort of, --kind of not too too
> significant-seeming, but it occurred to me I had first noted them
> about a year before, and upon refection about what I understood about
> what skin cancer spots looked like, yes these were a little
> uncomfortably like that.  And what if this had been ongoing for that
> whole year, with me just not quite noticing very much?
> So, being in the blueberry business, and the bearing season coming up
> soon, I decided I would see if I could make a point of ramping up my
> blueberry consuming--tending in season to be liberal already--to a
> particularly high level, daily when possible.
> So, during July, August, and much of September, I ate I guess about
> (an average of)  a pint to a pint and a half probably the large
> majority of days.
>
> Come about the end of the growing and marketing season,  and the
> chance to slow down a little, take more note of things, etc, one day
> looking in the mirror, I noted,  no more my long standing
> blemish/problem spot--gone, completely, no trace remaining at all!
> And I had had another reason for feeling particularly good about
> this--a brother of mine, just one year different in age, that same
> year had mentioned to me that he had run into facial blemishes which
> proved to be skin cancer which he had had to have removed. And though
> in complexion  and hair as my platinum blond brother, I'm still on
> that hazardous (for skin cancer) light side, it was me, not him, who's
> had the outdoor career.
>
> Again, this experience is just anecdotal.  [ . . . ]

Not only is it anecdotal, but you have no evidence whatsoever that your blemishes were cancer in the first place.

Eating lots of blueberries is unlikely to do you any harm, and is quite likely to do you some good. It may well even help prevent cancer, especially if your diet is otherwise also good. But failing to take a potential skin cancer to the doctor because somebody posted on line that skin cancer can be cured by eating blueberries is, umm, not good. Skin cancer is almost always curable by standard medical techniques if caught early; but some types can kill you (quite unpleasantly) if ignored for too long.

--Rivka
Finger Lakes NY; zone 5 mostly