Complementary Approaches

 

Complementary vs. Alternative Therapies: Is There a Difference?

Cancer patients, and those at risk for the disease, are turning to so-called "complementary and alternative therapies" in extraordinary numbers. Yet while some refer to these supplemental treatments as "complementary," and others as "alternative," and still others as "complementary and alternative," there actually is a difference.

Simply put, a therapy is generally called "complementary" when it is used in addition to conventional treatments; it is referred to as "alternative" when it is used instead of conventional treatments. Together, complementary and alternative therapies include a broad range of healing philosophies and approaches.

Complementary methods are not intended to cure disease, but rather to help control symptoms and improve well being. For example, a patient may drink peppermint tea to help with nausea, practice meditation to reduce stress, or undergo acupuncture for chronic pain. Other complementary methods that are sometimes used along with standard treatments include: aromatherapy, art therapy, biofeedback, massage therapy, t'ai chi, and yoga.

Alternative therapies refer to treatments that are sometimes promoted as cancer cures. There is considerably more risk to the patient when traditional medical treatments are abandoned in favor of unproven or untested alternative therapies. Furthermore, the use of alternative therapies may counteract the benefits of standard medicines, skew lab test results, or even cause direct harm. Examples of alternative therapies include mega-doses of a particular vitamin or mineral, extreme diets, or products such as shark cartilage that are touted as cancer cures.

Classifying Complementary and Alternative Therapies

In an attempt to bring a semblance of order to this exploding field of healthcare, the National Cancer Institute's Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine has grouped these types of treatments into five major categories:

Alternative medical systems include healing practices that have evolved within individual cultures throughout the world. Some of the more common include:

Mind-body interventions adhere to the principle that the mind has the capacity to affect bodily functions and symptoms. Patient education programs and lifestyle/behavioral changes are considered by some experts as types of mind-body interventions that have been accepted by mainstream medicine. However others, such as meditation, hypnosis, music therapy, prayer, and mental healing, are still considered complementary or alternative therapies, depending on their use.

Biological-based treatments include herbal therapies that employ individual herbs or mixtures of herbs for therapeutic value. This category also includes special diet therapies that are believed to prevent or control illness, as well as the controversial uses of laetrile, shark cartilage and other compounds to treat cancer.

Manipulative and body-based methods include practices that manipulate or move various parts of the body to promote wellness and healing. These include chiropractic techniques, which focus on manipulating the spine to promote and restore overall health; osteopathic techniques, which place particular emphasis on the musculoskeletal system and its relation to the overall health of the body; and massage therapy, which targets the soft tissues of the body.

Energy therapies focus on energy fields believed to originate within the body (biofields) or on energy fields from other sources (electromagnetic fields) that can impact health. Examples of energy therapies include Qi gong, Reiki and therapeutic touch. They combine movement, meditation, and regulation of breathing to enhance the flow of vital energy and heighten immune system function.

Risks vs. Rewards

Headlines everywhere are touting the myriad health benefits of soy, the cancer-fighting properties of antioxidants, the cancer-preventing properties of a Mediterranean diet, and literally hundreds of other such treatments. There is little doubt that many of these therapies-when undertaken in appropriate measures and under medical supervision-could indeed be beneficial.

However, there are also risks, especially when there is little research to back up claims, or if results are based solely on animal experiments and not on human clinical trials.

Take garlic, for example. Substances found in garlic have been shown to fight cancer in a test tube but, as yet, there is no significant evidence that they can do the same in humans.

And recently the Food and Drug Administration warned the public about St. John's wort. The agency based its ruling on a study published in the British medical journal The Lancet, which concluded that the herbal supplement interfered with the actions of certain drugs used in the treatment of cancer and other diseases.

Do Your Homework

If you are considering a complementary or alternative treatment, the National Cancer Institute's Center for Complementary and Alternative Therapies recommends the following:

SOURCES:

The National Cancer Institute (www.nci.nih.gov)
The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (www.nccam.nih.gov)
The American Cancer Society (www.cancer.org)
The University of Texas Center for Alternative Medicine Research in Cancer (www.sph.uth.tmc.edu:8052/utcam)
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (www.fda.gov/cder/drug/advisory/stjwort.htm)
The Lancet, Feb. 12, 2000; 547-548

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