Category Archives: Alternative Medicine

Chiropractic, homeopathy, acupuncture, juice diets, and other forms of unproven alternative medicine cannot cure cancer, no matter what some quacks might claim.

[A]s a newstudypublished in theJournal of the National Cancer Institutemakes painfully clear, as a treatment for cancer, alternative medicine does not cure; it kills.

A team of scientists from Yale University perused theNational Cancer Database, a collection of 34 million records of cancer patients along with their treatments and outcomes, to identify patients who elected to forgo conventional cancer treatments like chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery in favor of alternative medicine.

After five years, 78.3% of subjects who received conventional treatments were still alive, compared to only 54.7% of subjects who used alternative medicine. Even more startling, breast cancer patients who used alternative medicine were five times more likely to die. Colorectal cancer patients were four times more likely to die. Lung cancer patients were twice as likely to die.

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post:Alternative Medicine Kills Cancer Patients, Study Finds

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Alternative medicine can kill you | Genetic Literacy Project - Genetic Literacy Project

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Tuesday, August 15, 2017, 4:00 PM

Crystal healing stones are evidently a less effective way of beating a tumor.

Going the route of alternative medicine to treat a form of curable cancer instead of undergoing conventional treatment more than doubles a person's risk of dying, according to a new study from Yale University researchers. One in three Americans has engaged in some kind of alt-therapy with varying results, but when it comes to cancer, the data suggests that herbs and crystals will not save a life.

"We now have evidence to suggest that using alternative medicine in place of proven cancer therapies results in worse survival," lead researcher Skyler Johnson told the Yale News.

The researchers looked at 10 years' worth of records from the National Cancer Database and found that 281 patients within that time who had early-stage breast, lung, prostate or colorectal cancer who decided to take an alternative approach to their treatment. Those patients were then compared to 560 others with the same diagnoses who chose more scientific approaches like chemotherapy, surgery and radiation.

Feeling bad about being down can make things worse, says study

Patients who chose alternative medicine approaches that include things like "herbs, botanicals, homeopathy, special diets or energy crystals which are basically just stones that people believe to have healing powers," Dr. Johnson told New Scientist, were two and a half times more likely than their modern medicine-opting counterparts to die within five years.

To account for disparities that people face in the medical world (such as not being able to afford expensive chemotherapy treatments) the researchers placed biases in favor of the alternative medicine group they were all younger, more affluent and were otherwise healthy.

"These patients should be doing better than the standard therapy group, but they're not," researcher James Yu told MedPage Today. "That's a scary thing to me. These are young patients who could potentially be cured, and they're being sold snake oil by unscrupulous alternative medicine practitioners."

With this data and the urging of oncologists and all of their cancer expertise, the researchers are hopeful that doctors can educate their patients and communicate to them all of the drastic risks of alternative medical approaches.

Puppies more likely to become guide dogs if not coddled by mom

"Because of patient autonomy, they can do whatever they want," Yu said. "We're always advising them (but) we can't make them do anything."

Link:

Alternative medicine for cancer more than doubles death risk - New York Daily News

Conventional medical treatments include surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, while any other unproven cancer treatment administered by non-medical personnel would be considered an alternative therapy.

Yale School of Medicine's Dr. Skyler Johnson, lead author of the study, said that based on what he's seen as a practicing doctor, patients are increasingly refusing or delaying conventional cancer treatment in favor of alternative therapies.

As a result of that, their cancer is "advancing: either getting larger or spreading to lymph nodes or spreading to distant sites," Johnson said. "This is concerning, because your chance of cure decreases as the cancer grows and spreads."

A breast cancer patient with stage I cancer, for example, has almost 100% chance of surviving five years, he explained. However, stage IV breast cancer -- in which it has spread to lymph nodes or a distant part of the body -- reduces a patient's chances of surviving five years to 25% or even 20%.

Delaying recommended medical treatment may allow cancer to spread and reach an advanced stage, which decreases a patient's ability to survive, said Johnson, who reported no conflicts of interest, though two of his three co-authors have received research funding from the pharmaceutical companies 21st Century Oncology, Johnson and Johnson, Medtronic and Pfizer.

With no scientific evidence to support a choice in favor of alternative therapy, Johnson and his co-authors at Yale Cancer Center believed it would be worthwhile to examine the issue "so we could have an informed discussion based on the evidence of what the risk might be if patients chose to move forward with alternative therapies," he said.

The researchers began their investigation by gathering information from 840 patients diagnosed between 2004 and 2013 and listed in the National Cancer Database in the US, a joint project of the American Cancer Society and the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons.

They looked at "the most common cancers in the US: breast, prostate, lung and colorectal cancer," Johnson said.

He and his co-researchers compared and analyzed survival data on 280 patients who had chosen alternative medicine, as well as data on 560 patients who had received conventional cancer treatment.

Of all the patients choosing alternative therapies, about 44% had breast cancer, nearly one-quarter had prostate cancer, just over 18% had lung cancer, and nearly 12% had colorectal cancer.

Patients who received alternative medicine instead of chemotherapy, surgery and/or radiation had a 2-times greater risk of dying during the 5-year followup period than those who opted for conventional treatment, the team discovered.

Broken down by type, breast cancer patients who chose alternative instead of conventional treatment had a fivefold greater death risk, while colon cancer patients increased their risk fourfold and lung cancer patients twofold. Prostate cancer patients showed no increased risk by choosing alternative medication.

Commenting on the new study, Dr. David Gorski, a surgical oncologist at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, wrote that "There are other studies showing similar results, but unfortunately they are relatively few."

The new study has "limitations," he wrote, including the possibility that the use of conventional medicine is likely to have been undercounted since some patients who choose alternative medicine ultimately "come back to conventional medicine."

"However, if such a bias occurred, it would have tended to make the differences in survival between the alternative medicine group and the conventional treatment group smaller, not larger," Gorski wrote. "If such a bias occurred in this study the harm caused by choosing alternative medicine is likely to be significantly worse than reported.

"There is no good evidence of specific anticancer effects from close to all (if not all) alternative medicines," Gorski noted, adding that many alternative medicine patients aren't receiving effective supportive care, "resulting in inadequate (or nonexistent) relief of cancer-related symptoms and unnecessary suffering."

The reasons for choosing alternative instead of conventional medicine are "pretty broad," Johnson said, adding that "patients are hesitant sometimes to discuss their thoughts with their physicians."

"Anecdotally, there's this belief that alternative therapies are as effective and nontoxic, so in their minds, why not do something just as good but have no side effects associated with that?"

The caveat is that patients will hear success stories about someone who has chosen alternative therapy but won't realize that those people often received some or all of the recommended conventional treatment as well, Johnson said.

Other people may have a "distrust of medical institutions as a whole ... or maybe physicians," he said. "There's a concern that maybe there's a cure that's being hidden. There's a small conspiracy theory to it, as well.

"We identified people who were more likely to choose alternative medicines," Johnson said. "And it's usually people who have a higher income, who are more well-educated, who are healthier and who live in the West and Pacific regions of the US. We have this group of people we know who are doing this; we don't know why.

"You'd assume that someone who is more well-educated, they have an understanding of science and medicine, they'd be less likely to make a choice like this, but that's clearly not true, based on this data," he said.

"There's a path now, when we've achieved the goal -- which is to cure cancer -- where we kind of ramp down the aggressiveness of the treatment," Johnson said. Doctors ask themselves, "Can we still obtain this cure rate and reduce the doses of the medication or reduce the doses of radiation or maybe not do such a huge surgery?"

"That's something that's new," he said, and new therapies are frequently found, such as immunotherapy, that can be less toxic for patients.

"Every therapy offers a certain advantage and benefit, and some people kind of pick things a la carte," Johnson said. "The assumption is that's not the best for survival. That's something we're looking at."

Link:

Choosing alternative cancer therapy doubles risk of death, study says - CNN

As alternative medicine becomesmore and more popular to defend against everything from the common cold to depression, researchers at Yale University looked athow effective these nontraditional routesare when it comes to combating cancer. The study included 281 people with breast, prostate, lung and colorectal cancer who tried these alternative options instead of doctor-recommended treatments.

The data was then compared against 560 cancer patients who received conventional treatments. Overall, people who tried the unproven methods were 2.5 times more likely to die. Breast cancer patients were at a five times greater risk of death, while lung cancer patients doubled their chances of not surviving after trying alternative therapies. Those with colorectal cancer were 4.5 times more likely not to beat their cancerwhen forgoing a prescribed treatment.

Dr. Skyler Johnson, oncologist at the Yale School of Medicine and study co-author, wasnt able to identify specific alternative treatments, but sayshis own patients haveused a wide variety of remedies. They could be herbs, botanicals, homeopathy, special diets or energy crystals, which are basically just stones that people believe have healing powers, he told New Scientist.

From the results, it may appear that these atypical treatments work for some patients, however,Johnson says this is likely because some people actually undergo conventional treatments when their conditions worsen,New Scientist explains.

The magazine reports that people who typically pick these nontraditional methods are wealthy and well educated, as medical insurance doesnt extend to experimental options.

Herbs and diets dont sound expensive, but when these things are delivered through providers, they can come with a hefty bill, John Bridgewater, oncologist at University College London Hospital, told the publication. Its a multibillion dollar industry. People pay more out-of-pocket for alternative treatments than they do for standard treatments.

While medical professionals dont recommend using alternative medicine as the primary treatment, some will give the OK when used to counteractthe unpleasant symptoms accompanying cancer. People dealing with anxiety, fatigue, nausea, pain, sleep problems and stress may turn to things like acupuncture as a way of feeling better, reports Mayo Clinic. According to the hospitals website, aromatherapy may provide relief of stress, pain and nausea.

The American Cancer Society explains when these methods are considered complementary and alternative. We call these complementary because they are used along with your medical treatment. You may sometimes hear them when discussing methods that claim to prevent, diagnose, or treat cancer. We call these alternative because they are used instead of proven medical treatments, the organization writes on its site.

However, the organization also points out, The choice to use complementary or alternative methods is yours, offering a list of items cancer patients should consider before choosing their treatment plan, including not giving up proven treatments for those that havebeen disproven.

See the rest here:

Why Alternative Medicines Should Not Be The Main Treatment For Cancer - Medical Daily

Wednesday August 16 2017

Theres no evidence alternative treatments alone cure cancer

"Cancer patients who use alternative medicine more than twice as likely to die," is the stark message from The Independent. Researchers found that people who chose alternative medicine instead of conventional cancer treatments were much less likely to survive for at least five years.

Conventional treatments included surgery, radiotherapy,chemotherapy or hormone treatments. The research only applies to people who choose not to have conventional treatments.

Overall, 78% of people having conventional treatment for cancer survived at least five years, compared to only 55% of people having alternative treatment alone. The difference was biggest for breast cancer, where people who chose alternative therapies were more than five times as likely to die within five years as those who chose conventional treatments.

Because this is an observational study, we don't know if other factors might have affected people's survival chances, as well as treatment choice. However, treatment choice seems the most likely explanation.

There are reports that some people find complementary treatments of benefit during cancer treatments. For example, some people have said thatacupuncture helped them cope better with the side effects of chemotherapy.

But importantly, the emphasis is very much on the "complementary" and not on the "alternative". Ignoring medical advice on the treatment choices that potentially offer the most benefit couldprove fatal.

The study was carried out by researchers from Yale School of Medicine. No funding information was provided. Two of the four researchers had received previous grants from companies involved in conventional cancer treatments, and one received research funding from the organisation 21st Century Oncology.

The study was published in thepeer-reviewed Journal of the National Cancer Institute as a "brief communication", meaning not all the study data was published. Some additional data is published online.

Most of the UK media ran reasonably accurate and balanced stories. Several notably the Mail Online and The Sun speculated on the types of alternative therapy people might have been using.

For example, the Mail said: "Breast cancer patients are 5.68 times more at risk if they opt for homeopathy." However, the researchers did not record the alternative therapies used, so we don't know whether homeopathy was one of them.

The Mail also refers to "herbs, botanicals, diets or energy crystals." While these are sometimes promoted as alternative treatments for cancer, again, we don't know which of them were used by people in this study.

This was an observational case control study. This means researchers identified people with cancer who chose to use alternative therapies (cases) and compared their outcomes with those of people with cancer who chose conventional treatments (controls).

The controls were matched as far as possible with each case based on age, sex, demographics and type of cancer. Observational studies can show trends and links between factors (in this case between type of treatment and length of survival after cancer diagnosis) but cannot prove that one causes the other.

Researchers used data from the US National Cancer Database to identify patients with breast, lung, colorectal or prostate cancer, who opted not to receive conventional cancer therapies, but were recorded as having had "other-unproven cancer treatments administered by non-medical personnel."

These patients were matched with two patients with the same type of cancer, who were similar in other ways, but had opted for conventional treatment. Researchers then looked to see how many people lived for at least five years, comparing those who chose alternative therapies with those who chose conventional cancer treatments.

Researchers only included people who had cancer that had not yet spread from the initial site. This type of cancer is usually treatable by conventional treatments They also excluded people with stage 4 (advanced) cancer, those whose treatment was intended to be palliative rather than curative, and people whose treatment was unknown.

Researchers found 281 people who matched the criteria and who had opted for alternative therapy only. Of these, 280 were matched to 560 people with the same cancer, who chose conventional cancer treatments.

To minimise the effect of confounding factors researchers matched people in the study using these criteria:

In addition, when calculating relative chances of surviving five years, the researchers adjusted their figures to account for the effects of medical and demographic factors.

Researchers found that people choosing alternative therapies were more likely to be younger, female, have fewer other ailments, a higher cancer stage, a higher income and education level.

Taking all types of cancer together:

The type of cancer made a difference, though. This is probably because some cancers can kill quickly without treatment, and treatment is very effective. We can see this in the breast cancer results:

However, for prostate cancer, it made little difference whether people opted for conventional treatment (91.5% lived for at least five years) or alternative treatment (86.2% lived for at least five years).

This is probably because prostate cancer usually grows very slowly in the early stages so few people die.

For the first five to 10 years, there's little difference in those who have conventional treatments and those who have their prostate cancer monitored, with no treatment unless it starts to grow. So, you would not expect to see a difference in a five year study.

The researchers said: "We found that cancer patients who initially chose treatment with alternative medicine without conventional cancer treatment were more likely to die."

They added: "Improved communication between patients and caregivers, and greater scrutiny of use of alternative medicine for initial treatment of cancer is needed."

The results and conclusions of this study are clear: people who choose conventional treatments for cancer (such as surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and hormone treatments) are likely to live longer than those who choose alternative medicine only.

It's rare for people to choose to ignore conventional treatment completely when faced with a cancer diagnosis. More often, people choose to add complementary therapies to their conventional cancer treatment. This study doesn't apply to people combining conventional and complementary therapies.

There are some limitations to the study to be aware of:

People who are diagnosed with cancer and want the best chance of surviving should choose conventional cancer therapies. These give the best chance of helping people with cancer to live longer lives.

Complementary therapies such as acupuncture and tai chi may help some people but they should never take the place of potentially life-saving treatments such as chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy.

See the original post here:

'Alternative cancer therapies' may increase your risk of death - NHS Choices

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Alternative Medicine - The New York Times

I was terribly disturbed by the report (More harm than good; Aug 15) which gave the impression that nearly all complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) are harmful.

This will potentially deprive patients of an avenue to seek better outcomes for their health conditions.

The report mentions studies that were carried out, but as we know studies can be biased, depending on who funds them. It is nice to give a textbook answer but what is more important is to find out whether CAM benefited the patient, and if so, in what way.

The news report cites studies on arthritis and how patients had suffered from delayed treatment because they had first sought CAM.

However, I have also seen patients recover solely from diet change and herbs.

I agree that herbs may interact with medications. This is why patients should seek qualified CAM professionals for advice, who are also trained in herb-drug interactions.

In contrast, most medical doctors are not trained professionally in herbs and diet.

I am not trying to defend CAM. All kinds of medicines, whether is conventional or natural has value and we should not drive a wedge between the two groups.

Sebastian Liew

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Alternative medicine has its own benefits - The Straits Times

Researchers from the Cancer Outcomes, Public Policy and Effectiveness Research (COPPER) Center at Yale School of Medicine and Yale Cancer Center studied 840 patients with breast, prostate, lung, and colorectal cancer in the National Cancer Database (NCDB) a joint project of the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons and the American Cancer Society.

The NCDB represents about 70% of newly diagnosed cancers across the United States.

The researchers compared 280 patients who chose alternative medicine to 560 patients who had received conventional cancer treatment. The patients were diagnosed from 2004 to 2013.

Conventional treatment was defined as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery and/or hormone therapy. Use of alternative therapies was undertaken alone, rather than in conjunction with conventional treatment.

The patients who used alternative therapies alone were two and a half times more likely to die within five years of their diagnosis: 54.7% compared to 78.3% of those who used conventional therapies were still alive at the end of five years.

The risk of death spiked to 5.68 times more likely for those with breast cancer who used only alternative treatments.

The growth of interest in pursuing alternative medicine instead of conventional cancer treatment has created a difficult situation, the researchers say; there is limited research evaluating the effectiveness of alternative medicine.

We became interested in this topic after seeing too many patients present in our clinics with advanced cancers that were treated with ineffective and unproven alternative therapies alone, said the studys senior author, Dr.James B. Yu, associate professor of therapeutic radiology at Yale Cancer Center.

Lead author Dr Skyler Johnson said that the research provides evidence that using alternative medicine in place of proven cancer therapies results in worse survival.

It is our hope that this information can be used by patients and physicians when discussing the impact of cancer treatment decisions on survival.

Dr. Cary Gross, co-author of the study, called for further research, adding, Its important to note that when it comes to alternative cancer therapies, there is just so little known patients are making decisions in the dark.

We need to understand more about which treatments are effective whether were talking about a new type of immunotherapy or a high-dose vitamin and which ones arent, so that patients can make informed decisions.

The research was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

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Alternative medicine doubles risk of cancer death - Australian Journal of Pharmacy (registration) (blog)

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Screen grabbed image taken from video issued by NATS showing air traffic over the UK yesterday at 12:15pm, with red representing departures, yellow arrivals, purple domestic and blue overflights. Air traffic controllers are dealing with the busiest day in the UK's aviation history. A total of 8,800 planes are to be handled by controllers across the country over 24 hours, at the start of a summer season which is due to see a record 770,000 flights in UK airspace - 40,000 more than last year

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Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon shows off his cufflinks after cutting steel on the first Type 26 frigate at BAE System's Govan Shipyard near Glasgow.

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Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson looks at a bipedal humanoid robot Wabian2 at Research Institute for Science and Engineering at Waseda University's Kikuicho Campus in Tokyo

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A damaged road in Coverack, Cornwall, after intense rain caused flash flooding in the coastal village.

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Prince George holds hands with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge as they leave Warsaw

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Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon during her visit to the site of Aberdeen Harbour's expansion into Nigg Bay

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Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson arrives at Downing Street for the weekly cabinet meeting

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Daniel Goodfellow and Tom Daley of Great Britain compete during the Men's Diving 10M Synchro Platform, preliminary round on day four of the Budapest 2017 FINA World Championships on July 17, 2017 in Budapest, Hungary

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Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson speaks to the press upon his arrival at the European Council for the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels

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Switzerland's Roger Federer holds aloft the winner's trophy after beating Croatia's Marin Cilic in their men's singles final match, during the presentation on the last day of the 2017 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon, southwest London. Roger Federer won 6-3, 6-1, 6-4.

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Garbine Muguruza of Spain celebrates victory with the trophy after the Ladies Singles final against Venus Williams of The United States on day twelve of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club at Wimbledon.

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The hearse departs St Joseph's Church after the funeral service for six year old Sunderland FC fan, Bradley Lowery on in Hartlepool, England. Bradley was diagnosed with neuroblastoma aged only 18 months. Hundreds of people lined the streets to pay their respects to the Sunderland football supporter who lost his battle with cancer last Friday.

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The EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, right, receives an Arsenal football top from Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn prior to a meeting at EU headquarters in Brussels

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Cancer patients who use alternative medicine more than twice as ... - The Independent

Treating curable cancers with alternative medicine techniques is a choice that at least one in three Americans makes, including former Apple CEO Steve Jobs before his death from a curable form of pancreatic cancer in 2011. But even if treating the body with these natural methods sounds appealing, a recent study suggests that using alternative medicine to treat cancer more than doubles the risk of dying within five years.

Scientists examined a decades worth of medical records and found 281 patients with curable forms of breast, prostate, lung and colorectal cancer. All of these 281 patients decided to try alternative forms of medicine instead of more conventional treatment such as chemotherapy, surgery or radiation. Compared to the 560 patients who opted for regular treatment, the alternative medicine patients overall were two and a half times more likely to be dead five years later. Among specific cancers, that rate was higher breast cancer patients were 5.68 times more likely to die, while those with colorectal were 4.57 more likely to die.

We now have evidence to suggest that using alternative medicine in place of proven cancer therapies results in worse survival, study author and oncologist Skyler Johnson said in a release. It is our hope that this information can be used by patients and physicians when discussing the impact of cancer treatment decisions on survival.

Alternative medicine is a loose term, but it can encompass anything from hypnosis, yoga and aromatherapy to ingesting herbs and dietary supplements. Steve Jobs reportedly tried hydrotherapy, consulting psychics and limiting his diet to just fruits and vegetables before his death at the age of 56, according to Scientific American. But at the end of his search for cutting-edge treatments, Jobs reportedly regretted his choice to delay traditional surgery for alternative medicine, biographer Walter Isaacson told CBS.

He said, I didnt want my body to be opened. I didnt want to be violated in that way. Hes regretful about it, Isaacson said. I think that he kind of felt that if you ignore something, if you dont want something to exist, you can have magical thinking. And it had worked for him in the past.

The study also showed that some people are more likely to try alternative medicine than others. It may be counterintuitive to survival rates, but those who chose alternative medicine generally had the advantages of higher incomes and higher education levels, plus they tended to be much younger.

These patients should be doing better than the standard therapy group, but theyre not, James Hu, the studys senior author and the director of Yales prostate and genitourinary cancer radiotherapy program, told MedPage Today. Thats a scary thing to me. These are young patients who could potentially be cured, and theyre being sold snake oil by unscrupulous alternative medicine practitioners.

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Treating your cancer with all-natural alternative medicine may double your risk of dying - Mic