COMPLEMENTARY THERAPIES

Patients and families turn to complementary therapies looking for care as much as cure. “Complementary therapy” is a description preferred to “alternative therapy”, as there is every reason to use such methods alongside orthodox medical care if the patient finds them helpful.

All patients need ways of coping with cancer. If they find non-harmful complementary therapies supportive they should be encouraged to participate, providing they can afford the costs, and provided the practitioners are not leading them to hope inappropriately for a cure. There is no evidence that any such therapies are effective, and they occasionally cause side effects (for example, laetrile can cause a neuromyopathy due to cyanide intoxication).

Before a doctor or nurse decides to advise against a complementary therapy it is important to ask “How is this therapy helping the patient and family to cope, and what will we provide in its place?”

“I would like to see doctors and practitioners of complementary therapies come together - anything that improves the quality of life must be strived for.” (Maggie H., a cancer patient)

The author and publisher have taken precautions to ensure that the information in this book is error-free. However, readers must be guided by their own personal and professional standards of good practice in evaluating and applying recommendations made herein. The contents of this book represent the views and experience of the author, and not necessarily those of the publisher.