Complementary therapies are health approaches that do not form part of standard medical treatment, such as herbal remedies, yoga, tai chi and massage therapy.
Complementary therapies may cause harmful side effects or interfere with standard cancer therapies; you should always discuss any alternative therapies with your GP or oncology specialist prior to initiating them.
What is CAM?
CAM stands for “complementary and alternative medicine.” This form of health care encompasses practices that do not fall under traditional medical treatments such as acupuncture, massage therapy, yoga, meditation or herbal supplements and vitamins. Most complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) therapies have not been scientifically evaluated but some have proven safe while some have even helped ease cancer symptoms or reduce side effects during cancer therapy treatment.
Conventional medical treatments include those provided by healthcare providers with medical degrees such as an M.D. or osteopath; this form of care often uses drugs, surgery and radiation to treat disease; it’s sometimes known as allopathy medicine, Western, mainstream or orthodox.
There are two forms of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Complementary therapies may be used in addition to conventional treatment and can help people feel better, cope better with illness and cope with life better overall. Alternative therapies, however, are used instead and may prove particularly helpful for cancer patients. While overlap may occur between these categories it’s essential that one understands their respective differences.
Some complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies have been scientifically researched and proven effective, such as acupuncture, yoga, and massage. Others may not have been thoroughly investigated, and may cause adverse interactions or be harmful when combined with certain medicines. It’s best to speak to your physician prior to engaging any CAM therapies and ensure the therapist possesses all of the required qualifications and training.
If you decide to try complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), it’s essential that you notify your physician. In doing so, they can determine whether the therapies will interact well with other treatments you are undertaking and any possible side effects of any therapies you try.
Talking with your physician about any complementary health approaches you are exploring is crucial, even if they seem unorthodox. They want to ensure they can offer you the highest standard of care possible and can assist in finding a therapist with appropriate credentials who is safe for working with you.
Can alternative therapies cure cancer?
Alternative cancer therapies often claim they can help, yet no scientific proof exists to support their claims. Furthermore, some may be harmful; taking high-dose vitamins may cause side effects while cutting food groups could prevent you from receiving essential nutrition for staying healthy.
If you are living with cancer, it’s essential that you listen to and follow the advice of the hospital team in regards to what treatments would work best. They can assist in understanding evidence behind various therapies and ensure they won’t interfere with other forms of therapy. While alternative therapies may seem attractive after hearing that someone else used them successfully; keep in mind that these claims often go untested; also, its hard to know whether or not the person telling their tale is reliable and what happened after they stopped using alternative treatments.
Alternative therapies often make claims that they can treat cancer by killing cancer cells directly or halting their spread, but this simply isn’t true. All medical treatments for cancer must first undergo rigorous clinical trials to prove their efficacy whereas alternative remedies haven’t undergone similar scrutiny and there’s no evidence to show they stop cancer spreading or kill cancer cells.
Studies have demonstrated the risks of alternative medical practices can be dangerous if used instead of conventional therapies, particularly without proper research being performed beforehand. Megavitamin therapy, diets claiming to treat cancer or coffee enemas with apricot kernels can all pose potential dangers that increase health risks or even risk.
Many cancer patients can be persuaded by claims that alternative therapy will cure their illness, yet these are rarely proven or reliable. Furthermore, alternative therapies can often be costly and not covered by insurance or the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme (PBS). Before considering alternative therapies as a potential solution for you or any member of your hospital team. It would also be prudent to explore complementary therapy solutions more likely to be covered by insurance or the PBS instead.
Are they safe?
Keep in mind that alternative therapies are unregulated, with practitioners who lack training or qualifications in some instances offering unsafe or ineffective treatments or potentially even harmful ones. Furthermore, many may lack any formal medical credentials or professional memberships, which makes it hard to assess their competence or experience.
However, some complementary and alternative medicine practitioners fail to follow proper research protocols, making their claims about treatments unlikely to be tested and proven. Instead, their claims often rely on testimonials, anecdotes, religion, superstition, belief in supernatural “energies”, pseudoscience, errors in reasoning, propaganda or fraud as the basis for them.
Mental health patients are increasing their use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), yet its exact reasons remain obscure. While some individuals seek natural solutions for treating their conditions, others may seek alternative therapy out because they’re dissatisfied with conventional healthcare or distrustful of its practices.
As a rule, those who utilize alternative therapies tend to belong to a cultural group known as ‘cultural creatives’ who seek new experiences and ideas. This can include individuals committed to environmentalalism or feminism as well as spiritual practices or personal growth psychology that are considered “esoteric”, or those interested in exploring foreign and exotic places.
Other potential factors leading to CAM use could include perceptions that traditional medicine is insufficiently treating psychological disorders, or that conventional healthcare is too expensive. Furthermore, many who engage in CAM also practice other forms of self-healing, like meditation and yoga.
No matter your interest in complementary therapies, it is wise to consult your healthcare team first. They can advise on which ones might best meet your individual health condition as well as provide access to scientific sources of information regarding them. In addition, visiting a library or medical centre (such as a hospital) where librarians specialize in alternative therapies may also help locate reliable books or journals on them.
Are they effective?
Alternative therapies often lack evidence of effectiveness; however, many patients still believe them to be beneficial, including herbal remedies, acupuncture and meditation. If you already have medical conditions it is wise to discuss any complementary and alternative therapy with your physician first as some therapies can have side effects and interactions with existing treatments; it’s also worth taking into consideration whether a particular practice contradicts scientific understanding of human bodies.
People seek alternative medicine treatments for various health problems, with chronic pain being one of the most prevalent issues. Anxiety and depression, sprains/muscle strains and strains also typically make use of alternative therapies more prevalent among users; those using them often report greater overall wellbeing with reduced stress than their counterparts who don’t use alternative medicine treatments.
However, most patients turn to alternative therapies in conjunction with conventional treatment and this could actually be harmful to their health. Some CAM practices are based on theories which contradict how the body functions scientifically; others appeal to supernatural or superstitious notions; still others have plausibility but lack positive risk-benefit outcome probability; research into some alternative therapies doesn’t always follow proper protocols (ie placebo-controlled trials and blind experiments), leading to potentially misleading results.
Alternative therapies could have benefits that seem real at first glance; however, their success could be explained in part by a placebo effect (which involves believing something will make them better) or could reflect natural disease progression; additionally, some may use them due to limited access to effective treatments.
Before embarking on any complementary and alternative therapy regimen, it’s advisable to first speak to your GP or healthcare provider to ensure it won’t conflict with any current treatments for your condition. This is especially important for mental health conditions that might involve both talking therapy and alternative therapies for treatment. Furthermore, discussing any new plans for therapies with family can help everyone better understand why you may use them.
