Cancer Treatment and Alternative Medicine

The second most cause of death in the United States is Cancer. Alternative Health will become a method for half an estimated half of these patients. Herbal Medicine is one of the most used alternative medicine therapies for cancer patients, and most patients don’t even tell their physician what they are taking. The safety and effectiveness of herbal medicine is still not understood, and is being studied.

Herbal medicine is ancient, and has been used for medicine and healing. Chinese herbs are still used in developing countries as a healing medicine. There are a lot of drugs today that originally came from herbs or plants.

Alternative herbal medicine treats the person as a whole instead of individual symptoms. Holistic practioners are more interested in the underlying cause of illness, they believe there is imbalance. Cancer patient’s immunes are low, so practioners try to bring back balance and strength to the immune system, which fight against infectionous disease; so the body can fight the cancer. Through a physician they would first attack the tumor using different surgery procedures, chemotherapy treatment, and radiation treatments for cancer.

Herbs may be used in conjunction with cancer treatments. Chemotherapy uses drugs to destroy the cancer cells, while radiation treatments are hard on the body, sometimes even damaging normal cells; both have side effects.

Here are some herbs that have been beneficial to treat cancer: PC-SPES – showed to lower PSA levels for treatment of prostate cancer; Baikal Skullcap- infections inflammation and insomnia; stimulates immune system; Astragalus- stimulates the immune system, reduces sides effects of chemotherapy; Essiac, Laetrile- claim, from seeds of apricots; and Mistletoe- stimulates immune system and lower blood pressure. They are used as an alternative cancer treatment fighting bacterial and viral infections, respiratory, and gastrointestinal problems and other ailments.

Alternative medicines for cancer need more study to challenge them for their effectiveness and they are still not understood. They can’t be relied on for a total treatment option. There may be claims they work, but several have gone through clinical trial, and then taken off the market for various reasons. Herbal medicines could also be interfering with other cancer treating drugs. Healthcare providers aren’t sure of their safety and effectiveness at this point. There are certainly more work that needs to be done by researchers to prove if they are worth taking or not.