Vinegar technique used in rural villages helps prevent cervical cancer

Wednesday, October 12, 2011 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer

(NaturalNews) While industrialized nations like the US push human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines like Gardasil and Cervarix as a preventive measure in the fight against cervical cancer, rural villages in Thailand and other areas are taking a different, more natural approach. The New York Times (NYT) reports that many clinics in poorer villages are successfully preventing and treating cervical cancer using simple vinegar.

Experts from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine developed a simple procedure involving vinegar and carbon dioxide that successfully locates precancerous white spots on the cervix, and allows them to be removed with a cooled, metal probe. The procedure is simple, inexpensive, and safe, say experts, and has helped to significantly reduce the cervical cancer rate in primarily Asian, rural villages.

The Pap smear, a procedure commonly used in developed countries to identify the presence of cervical cancer, is not as effective in poorer areas due to a lack of testing laboratories. So when samples are taken, they have to be sent to distant facilities where they can take weeks to be evaluated -- and the women waiting for the results are often difficult to locate as they typically live far from clinics.

But the vinegar and carbon dioxide procedure is simple. By applying vinegar to the cervix, a nurse can identify the presence of precancerous spots, which will turn white upon contact, and remove them using a cryotherapy device that freezes them. And the best part is that the entire procedure can be completed during the first visit.

The procedure is not foolproof, however, as it can falsely identify harmless spots as malignant, leading to unnecessary cryotherapy procedures. But it is still the easiest, safest, and most effective way to help women in rural villages avoid cervical cancer, claim some experts.

"Some doctors resist; they call it poor care for poor people," said Dr. Wachara Eamratsameekool, a gynecologist at Roi Et Hospital in rural Thailand, to NYT. "This is a misunderstanding. It's the most effective use of our resources."

The procedure is definitely a better approach than getting a Gardasil or Cervarix shot series, like many women and young girls in the US are being prompted to do. These vaccines are alleged to help prevent cancer from forming the type of spots that the vinegar treatment is designed to eliminate -- but HPV vaccines do not prevent cervical cancer as their manufacturers claim they do (http://www.naturalnews.com/031432_H...).

Sources for this story include:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/h...