Cancer Care | Integrative Therapies
Naturopathic Medicine’s focus is on safe, whole-person care and striving to identifying the root causes of disease. Treatment is set up to empower patients to understand their situation and to access the fundamental healing power of nature to aid in their recovery. Your cancer care plan may include:
Personalized nutrition
Targeted supplementation
Specialized IV therapy
Mind body medicine support
Sexual wellness support
The compatibility between natural therapies, conventional treatment, personal medications, health issues and past medical history is taken into account. The result is a safe and individualized treatment plan that is both evidence-informed and addresses the unique goals of each patient. A growing body of research is supporting the use of naturopathic and integrative strategy in whole-person cancer care.
A few examples are listed below, however this list is by no means exhaustive.
Targeted Supplementation
An integrative approach to ovarian cancer suggests improved survival. A 2019 review reported that the addition of integrative medicine (combining evidence-informed natural medicine with conventional medicine, in this case with targeted supplementation), demonstrated improved survival in gynacologic oncology patients, compared to patients who only used chemotherapy. (BMC Cancer. 2018 Sep 20;18(1):904.)
Intravenous Therapy
Intravenous vitamin C in the supportive care of cancer patients: a review and rational approach. This article reviews intravenous vitamin C (IV C) in cancer care and offers a rational approach to enable medical oncologists and integrative practitioners to safely provide IV C combined with oral vitamin C to patients. “The use of IV C is a safe supportive intervention to decrease inflammation in the patient and to improve symptoms related to antioxidant deficiency, disease processes, and side effects of standard cancer treatments.” (Curr Oncol. 2018 Apr;25(2):139-148.)
Lifestyle Changes
Intensive lifestyle changes may affect the progression of early, low grade prostate cancer in men. In this study the healthy living group saw a 4% decrease in PSA while 0% had to undergo treatment. In the control group, there was a 6% increase in PSA and 10% had to undergo treatment. The analysis also demonstrated that over 500 genes were affected through healthy living practices. (J Urol. 2005 Sep;174(3):1065-9; discussion 1069-70.)