DALLAS – April 11, 2019 – One-third of people diagnosed with cancer use complementary and alternative medicines such as meditation, yoga, acupuncture, herbal medicine and supplements.
UT Southwestern Medical Center Dr. Nina Sanford has made discoveries that are now drawing renewed attention to the habits she says cancer patients should disclose during treatment. Dr. Sanford is an assistant professor of Radiation oncology which specializes in and treats cancers of the gastrointestinal tract.
Herbal supplements were the most common alternative medicine and chiropractic, or osteopathic manipulation, was the second most common, according to Dr. Sanford’s analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control’s National Health Survey and Prevention. His findings were published in the journal JAMA Oncology.
“Younger patients are more likely to use complementary and alternative medicine and women are more likely to do so, but I would have thought more people would talk to their doctors about it,” Dr. Sanford said, referring to to the finding that 29 percent of people use complementary and alternative medicine. alternative medicine didn’t talk to their doctors about it. Many survey respondents said they didn’t say anything because their doctors didn’t ask or because they didn’t think their doctors needed to know.
Dr. Sanford and other cancer specialists agree that this is concerning, especially in the case of herbal supplements.
“You don’t know what’s in them,” Dr. Sanford said. “Some of these supplements are kind of a hodgepodge of different things. Unless we know what they contain, I would recommend that patients avoid using them during radiation therapy, as there is likely no data on some supplements that may interfere with treatment. When it comes to radiation specifically, there is concern that very high levels of antioxidants may make radiation less effective.
Dr David Gerberlung cancer specialist and professor of internal medicine and population and data sciences at UTSW, said doctors need to know if their patients are using herbal supplements because they may abandon traditional treatments altogether. against cancer.
“They can interact with the drugs we give them, and through that interaction it could change the drug level in the patient,” he said. “If levels get too high, then toxicities increase, and if levels get too low, effectiveness will decrease.”
Nancy Myers wanted to use supplements during her cancer treatments from 2015 to 2017, but she asked her doctors first.
“I asked the doctor: ‘Could I?’ and everyone said, ‘No, we don’t know how this interacts with your conventional medicine,’ so I respected that,” said the 47-year-old mother of four. Only after treatment did she start taking turmeric, omega-3, vitamin D and vitamin B6.
“I have met many friends who are taking supplements on this cancer journey. A lady I met recently takes 75 supplements a day. It takes him two hours to prepare his supplements every week,” she said.
Ms. Myers said every member of her cancer support group uses some kind of alternative medicine. In addition to supplements, she practices meditation and yoga with guidance from a smartphone app.
“That’s what we can control. We can’t control all of cancer,” she said. “It helps because it takes your mind off just thinking about it.”
Dr. Nina Sanford
She said she knew people with cancer who used only alternative medicines – and no traditional medical treatments. Dr Sanford said this was a dangerous approach that could be fatal. The most famous case is that of Apple founder Steve Jobs, who reportedly resorted to special diets, acupuncture and other alternatives after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He turned to traditional medicine at the end of his battle with cancer and died in 2011.
Although doctors are very cautious about using herbs and other supplements during treatment, they are much more open to meditation and yoga, practices that can help patients cope with the shock of a cancer diagnosis and the stress of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery.
“We strongly advise patients to stay active and exercise during treatment,” Dr. Sanford said. “Fatigue is a common side effect of radiation. I let patients know that the patients who experience the most fatigue are those who are the most sedentary and those who exercise are the ones who often have the most energy.
Belindy Saremock, 53, of Dallas, said she practiced yoga during her breast cancer treatments. She started the classes with skepticism and was quickly convinced of the benefits.
“Before breast cancer, I would have laughed at yoga, but now it helps me so much,” she said. “It’s so relaxing, I feel so good after I leave. It’s so peaceful. For your body, I can’t think of anything better than that.
She said she suffered from neuropathy, or nerve damage from chemotherapy, and yoga made the pain go away almost immediately.
“I couldn’t get up. After the second time By going to yoga, I was able to get on my tiptoes,” she said. “I wish I knew yoga earlier. It really was such a benefit and helped me a lot. I highly recommend it to everyone.”
About UT Southwestern Medical Center
UT Southwestern, one of the nation’s leading academic medical centers, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty has received six Nobel Prizes and includes 22 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 17 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 15 investigators from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The full-time faculty of more than 2,500 drives groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to rapidly translating scientific research into new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide care in approximately 80 specialties to more than 105,000 inpatients, nearly 370,000 emergency department cases and oversee approximately 3 million outpatient visits annually.
