Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM): These terms are usually used together to define any type of alternative medicine or non-conventional approach to treatment. Complementary medicine alone can include alternative practices that are used along with conventional medicine. For example, the use of electro-acupuncture where electrical stimulation is added to acupuncture needles will be a complementary treatment. Alternative medicine includes treatment options used instead of conventional medicine, such as chiropractic medicine, nutritional supplementation, and diet-based therapy. Among the major caveats people give about alternative medicine is that many of the treatment methods aren't backed by scientific support; however, this often has more regarding a lack of quality clinical investigations than ineffective treatment protocols. In other words, there isn't any scientific support because (a) no person has done the study or (b) the existing research is of low quality. And false hope isn't only for patients. Doctors-traditional and integrative alike-also may become dependent. No doctor wants to be hope's executioner, in particular when they don't learn how to get it done properly. The vast majority of doctors receive no formal trained in how to deliver catastrophic news. Most hospitals don't give a social worker to take over once parents find out their child has autism. Instead of thinking about how to proceed whenever there are no options for a cure, it's easier, as Katz puts it, to never go out of options.
Yet between 2000 and 2008, the National Institutes of Health funded a collaborative study by the University of Washington, the University of Pittsburgh, Wake Forest University, Johns Hopkins University and the University of California at Davis to ascertain whether ginkgo worked. A lot more than 3,000 elderly adults were randomly assigned to receive ginkgo or a placebo. Decline in memory and onset of dementia were the same in both groups. In 2012, a study greater than 2,800 adults found that ginkgo didn't defend against Alzheimer's disease.Alternative Medicine 2017 main slogan is to address the challenges to make a safer, sustainable and affordable system for medication, and health through consolidating the underpinning Alternative Medicine research platforms. Natural & Alternative Medicine 2017 conference prepares a ground for seeding new concepts and nurturing knowledge through discussions and analysis on Traditional and Alternative Medicine developments.How come no mention made of electromedical approaches that are much safer and perhaps far better than drugs, particularly for certain types of cancer. Similarly, cranial electrotherapy stimulation is FDA cleared for treating insomnia, depression and other stress related complaints and has a 30 year record of safety and efficacy supported by numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals.Cancer patients, in particular, should know that using complementary therapies could interfere with, and in certain cases even destroy, the benefits associated with traditional treatment. Antioxidants such as Vitamin C, accessible in supplement form and aggressively marketed as cancer fighters”, can in fact prevent patients from fully profiting from chemotherapy. In mesothelioma specifically, the main one FDA-approved chemotherapy, Alimta, operates as an anti-folate. Overuse of the common daily supplement,” folic acid, can in fact block Alimta's therapeutic benefit. This is a risk no mesothelioma patient should undertake blindly.
