Alternative Medicine Today
Alternative and complementary therapies abound for breast cancer patients
That’s because the clinical and professional herbalist and certified flower essence practitioner who works out of her home in West Asheville believes more and more people are looking for alternatives to conventional Western medicine.
“Women have been using herbs on themselves for thousands of years,” Frezza said. “Western medicine has its place and can be used in conjunction with alternatives. A lot of people are really getting tired of pharmaceuticals.”
Frezza works in a field that’s getting more and more attention as the cost of conventional treatments continues to rise, and as research into a variety of alternatives yields more confirmed results. At the forefront of that research is the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. It’s one of the 27 centers and institutes that makes up the National Institutes of Health and is the federal government’s lead agency for scientific research on complementary and alternative medicine.
According to the center, a 2007 National Health Interview Survey found that about 38 percent of adults use the therapies. Complementary medicine is defined as medicine used in conjunction with conventional medicine, while alternative medicine is used in place of conventional medicine.
There are a number of ongoing research studies and clinic trials. For example, there are ongoing trials to study the effectiveness of tai chi and a cardiovascular exercise fitness program in improving the physical fitness and reduction of stress in adult survivors of solid-tumor cancers.
Another study is examining the effectiveness of the combination of mistletoe extract and gemcitabine in patients with solid tumor cancers. The FDA has approved mistletoe extract for use in cancer treatment studies, and mistletoe extract has been used either alone or together with conventional anti-cancer drugs to treat cancer in thousands of patients in Europe.
Frezza says she educates her clients on recent studies, points to resources such as a PubMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine that includes brief summaries of articles from scientific and medical journals, and can explain the folk history of plant medicine.
For someone with breast cancer, Frezza said that although every case is different, she might suggest the use of red clover or violet oil. She also said she would target the physical well-being of a client, as well as their emotional health and their energy level.
“I like to think of myself as a spokesperson for plants,” Frezza said. “What I’m really doing is helping people help themselves.”
Alternative Therapies for Ulcerative Colitis
People with IBD are very likely to have tried complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to treat their symptoms. There are several reasons for this, not the least of which is that many of the prescription medications for IBD carry unwanted side effects. But CAM isn’t always the easiest route to take, either, because what worked for one person may not work for another, and just because something is marketed to treat IBD doesn’t mean that it will actually help. In fact, for some CAM, there’s not much evidence to recommend their use. Some of the CAM therapies associated with ulcerative colitis include: Aloe Vera
Boswellia
Butyrate
Licorice Root
Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Slippery Elm
Alternative Biomedical Treatments for Autism: How Good Is the Evidence?
Parents who research treatments for autism are confronted with a bewildering array of options, almost all of which have never been tested for safety and effectiveness. Organizations like The Cochrane Collaboration, which reviews the quality of evidence for medical treatments, are putting more effort into evaluating popular alternative treatments.
So far, the most comprehensive review of alternative autism treatments comes from two pediatricians: Susan Hyman of the University of Rochester School of Medicine Golisano Children’s Hospital at Strong and Susan Levy, a clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Their 2008 analysis gave each treatment a letter grade for the quality of the research conducted up to that point; the mark, however, is not a ranking of the treatment’s safety or effectiveness.
The two pediatricians based the grades on the amount of testing done on the treatments, which in most cases was skimpy at best. Research that got an “A” grade included randomized control trials, the gold standard for medical research, and meta-analyses, which compare research from different labs. A “B” went to treatments that had been studied in “well-designed controlled and uncontrolled trials,” according to Hyman. The “C” grades, the lowest category (there were no “D”s or “F”s), were based on case reports, theories and anecdotes, which are not considered acceptable for mainstream medical research.
Research on just one treatment, secretin, was good enough to earn an A. In short, there is a lot more work that needs to be done toward testing popular alternative treatments and getting more potential treatments into development at research institutions and pharmaceutical companies.
Dietary supplements
B6/Mg++—Grade: B
Vitamin B6 and magnesium have been a popular treatment for autism over the past 20 years. The Cochrane Review identified three studies that compared outcomes of B6 and magnesium treatment with those for placebo or no treatment, but just 28 subjects were treated altogether. One study found no improvements; another reported improvement in IQ and social behaviors. But all the studies suffered methodological weaknesses aside from the small sample size.
DMG—Grade: B
Dimethylglycine (DMG), an antioxidant and derivative of the amino acid glycine, is marketed as an immune system booster. Two small double-blind studies of DMG found it had no effect on autism symptoms.
Melatonin—Grade: B
Melatonin is a hormone produced by the pineal gland that regulates sleep. Melatonin supplements are popular for self-treating insomnia or jet lag. Many people with autism-spectrum disorders report sleeping problems, and at least one study has found improvements in falling asleep and staying asleep.
Vitamin C—Grade: B
Vitamin C, an antioxidant, is often part of vitamin supplements given to children with autism. One study reported less repetitive behavior in a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of vitamin C in 18 children with autism.
Amino Acids—Grade: C; L-Carnosine—Grade: B
Neurotransmitter abnormalities have long been a focus of autism research. Some amino acids act as neurotransmitters or prompt their production, so amino acids like tryptophan have been tried as alternative treatments. No trials have studied the benefits of supplementation with tryptophan, taurine, lysine or GABA. L-carnosine, a molecule made of two amino acids that has antioxidant properties, is marketed as an anti-aging remedy. One double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of L-carnosine in 31 children with autism found improved expressive and receptive vocabulary.