Cancer patients using alternative treatments
On Monday I told you about the alternative health bandwagons suddenly groaning under the weight of health care providers who have become converts to ideas that until recently were considered fringe and sometimes even dismissed as unhealthy.
I came across an article on Reuters Health last week with a report about another type of bandwagon: a growing trend of independence among cancer patients.
According to the market consulting firm Datamonitor, an astonishing 80% of cancer patients in the U.S. supplement their medical care with alternative treatments ranging from special diets and supplements to herbal remedies and acupuncture.
Even more amazing: they estimate that throughout the world as much as $18 billion is spent every year on complementary and alternative methods to treat cancer, with over half of all cancer patients supplementing their care with an alternative to conventional medicine.
This trend is particularly strong in Europe where the use of herbal and folk remedies is more accepted than in the U.S. Germany leads the European use of alternative care with as much as 60% of their cancer patients seeking complementary treatments.
The report came with a warning, however, pointing out that some of these natural therapies may conflict with prescription drugs. That’s nothing new to HSI members and readers of this e-Alert. We’ve often talked about the need to discuss your own initiatives in supplementary care with your doctor to avoid treatment conflicts, especially with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.
The Datamonitor report also speculated that as further research is devoted to alternative medicines, new compounds could lead to breakthroughs in cancer therapy.
Heck, we could have told them that a long time ago.
To Your Good Health,
Jenny Thompson
Health Sciences Institute
“Many Cancer Patients Use Complementary Therapies” Reuters Health, 7/15/02
Copyright 1997-2002 by Institute of Health Sciences, L.L.C.
