The National Cancer Institute stated that in a large survey of cancer survivors, 61 percent reported using spirituality and prayer as a complementary treatment.
Spiritual healing includes intercessory prayer, also called distance healing and distance prayer. With intercessory prayer, the person praying asks a higher power to intervene to help a person, who may or may not be known by the prayer.
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A new literature review suggests that a simple, healthy diet low in fat and high in fruits, vegetables, and fiber may be a useful alternative or complementary therapy for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Various dietary treatments have been proposed as substitutes or supplements to medication and behavioral treatments for children with ADHD, including sugar-restricted, additive- and salicylate-free (Feingold), oligoantigenic (elimination), ketogenic, megavitamin, and polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) supplement diets.
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Dr. Victor Marchione has reported for the Doctors Health Press, “Healing Food Could Boost Cancer Treatment.” A new study has discovered that compounds in soy could improve the effects of cancer radiotherapy. The target was lung cancer, which is the most difficult of all cancers to cure. These researchers found that soybeans can help the therapy to be more effective, while preserving more healthy tissue.
There have been heated public debates and court battles over the years regarding the benefits of natural health care to orthodox treatments for cancer. Complementary medicine, which refers to use of alternative medicine together with conventional medicine, is often seen as offering the best hope for many cancer patients. People suffering from cancer in Syracuse who are being treated with orthodox interventions and who are seeking a better prognosis should therefore welcome news that soy may enhance the effects of cancer radiotherapy.
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The national survey of Australians aged 50 and over found that on the day the snapshot was taken:
•Medicines were used by the majority of Australians (87% of Australians aged 50 and over used at least one medicine)
•The use of multiple medicines was common with one third of 50-64 year olds, almost half of 65-74 year olds, and two thirds of people aged 75 and over taking five or more medicines on that day; and
•Women were more likely overall to be medicine users than men (90.3% versus 83.9%).
NPS CEO Dr Lynn Weekes says the study’s findings emphasise the importance of the availability of accurate information about medicines, and of health professionals speaking with their patients about the medicines they are taking.
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Consumer interest in alternative medicine (AM) is accelerating across the globe on account of rising healthcare costs associated with contemporary therapies. A growing number of individuals are falling prey to hypertension, depression, sleep disorders, and other lifestyle-related diseases, and are resorting to conventional medical treatments to cure or prevent the onset of such conditions. Complementary and alternative medicine currently provide healthcare to about 75 percent of the population in developing nations and over 50 percent of the population in the developed world for lifestyle-related diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. Health Insurance companies, such as those in the US, are increasingly offering patients coverage for more kinds of CAM and AM therapies.
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According to a recent survey by the American Hospital Assn. and the Samueli Institute, a nonprofit research group focusing on complementary medicine, 42% of the 714 hospitals that responded offered at least one such therapy in 2010; five years earlier, only 27% of hospitals offered such treatments.
Experts say hospitals are embracing these therapies for many reasons, including a growing recognition that some integrative therapies, as they’re also called, are very effective in certain instances.
Elderly people with diets high in several vitamins or omega 3 fatty acids were less likely to have the brain shrinkage that usually accompanies Alzheimer’s disease than people whose diets were low in those nutrients.
Those whose diets were high in omega 3 fatty acids and in vitamins C, D, E and the B vitamins were also more likely to score better on tests of mental ability than those whose diets were low in those nutrients.
Those whose diets were high in trans fats were more likely to have brain shrinkage and perform less well on thinking and memory tests than those whose diets were low in trans fats.
Oncology clinicians are constantly searching for treatment options that can provide relief for their patients. A number of them are exploring multimodal interventions. One such group investigated the feasibility of using acupuncture combined with holistic education to relieve CRF. The results of their study were published in BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine.3 The group, at the UCLA Medical School and Center for East-West Medicine, studied breast cancer survivors in a pilot randomized controlled trial. The study was small because the investigators had difficulty recruiting subjects—a challenge the researchers had not anticipated encountering. After attempting several strategies to recruit study participants, the researchers were able to enlist 12 participants: 5 participants for the treatment group and 7 participants for the control group.
The treatment group received weekly acupuncture sessions for 8 weeks. The investigators wrote: “… the practitioners oriented patients towards a holistic view of health, built up their self-efficacy through a structured set of progressively challenging mastery experiences, and delivered acupuncture early on to achieve results that would enhance commitment to and confidence in self-care.”3 There were no adverse effects from the acupuncture; there was no bruising, infection, and no incidences of fainting, panic, or disorientation. The control group received standard care. Both patient groups continued to see their personal physicians and receive pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic treatments as before.
Studies by Mayo and others are part of rising tide of clinical trials into possible health benefits of nutritional supplements, which represents a $6 billion industry in Utah. Some research is independently funded, but much is sponsored by the industry itself and is conducted on university campuses and in contract-research labs, such as Medicus Research in Northridge, Calif.
More than 50 percent of men diagnosed with cancer in Australia are turning to complementary and alternative medicine to help find a cure, or to improve their health, according to new research from the University of Adelaide.
The study, recently published in Annals of Oncology, is based on an Adelaide questionnaire of 400 men with various types of cancer carried out by psychology PhD student Nadja Klafke.
Klafke’s findings provide evidence that the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is common and widespread in men with cancer, who modify their diet in conjunction with conventional treatment, as well as turn to meditation, yoga, and exercise.
Noah Karrasch is a certified Rolfer and licensed massage therapist, and holds a teaching degree from the University of Missouri, Columbia. He teaches core bodywork skills throughout the midwest and also works with the Wren Clinic in East London. Noah lives and works in Springfield, Missouri.
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