Medical care for humans reaches deep into history, to long before the days of sterile clinical settings and high-tech pharmacology labs. In China, India and other parts of the ancient Eastern world, practitioners developed complex systems of treating illness based on herbs, energy meridians, yoga and other long-standing traditions of working with the body alongside nature.
Many of these approaches have survived to the present day and are gaining popularity as an alternative to harsher, chemical-based Western treatments. Western medical science often takes a skeptical view of traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurveda and other herb- and ritual-based treatments, and yet little by little, elements of these other modalities are finding a place in modern health care as complementary medicines to help ease the side effects of breast cancer treatment.
If you’re a breast cancer patient interested in alternative and holistic therapies, the first thing you should do is speak with your doctor about which therapies you want to try. Dr. Maryam Lustberg, breast medical oncologist and director of the survivorship clinic at the Stefanie Spielman Comprehensive Breast Center at Ohio State University, says “it’s important to have open conversations with patients so they’re not afraid to talk about what holistic or complementary treatments they’re pursuing.” There could be side effects or drug interactions that your doctor needs to be aware of, so for your own safety, “keeping the lines of communication open is important.”
[See: 7 Innovations in Cancer Therapy.]
Particularly if you’re using supplements, Lustberg says communicating which supplements you’re using, how much and how frequently is critical. Some supplements can pose risks through dangerous drug interactions that can actually make you sicker. Depending on the source, other supplements may be tainted or simply ineffective — as Lustberg points out, it’s often hard to know exactly what’s in that bottle because “it’s an unregulated industry.” What’s more, Lustberg says, “cancer survivors are a vulnerable population,” and some patients may become susceptible to promises of miracle cures and naturopathic approaches that do little more than lighten your wallet.
However, one area where a growing body of evidence points to an Eastern treatment being safe and effective for treating certain aspects of breast cancer is acupuncture. A 2010 study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology compared the effects of acupuncture and venlafaxine, a drug commonly used to address side effects of antiestrogen hormone treatment in breast cancer patients, and found that “acupuncture appears to be equivalent to drug therapy in these patients.” Other studies have also found that acupuncture can alleviate vomiting and nausea, joint pain and neuropathy, hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause and a range of other side effects of chemotherapy, radiation and antiestrogen therapies used to treat breast cancer.
In fact, the evidence for acupuncture’s effectiveness is so strong that many major cancer centers around the country have started offering acupuncture in an integrative medical setting. By bringing high-quality, licensed acupuncturists on staff, these hospitals offer patients access to this alternative therapy in a safe setting that makes it easy for doctor and acupuncturist to work together on each patient’s case. And in some cases, these treatments may be covered by insurance.
Maura Twomey, owner of Center & Spring Acupuncture in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, says some of her patients have been referred by the nearby Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and other Boston-area hospitals because the doctors there know that acupuncture can work. When Twomey takes on a new patient, her first order of business is to find out which side effect is most bothersome. “You could be having chemotherapy treatment and having terrible constipation and that’s the thing that’s aggravating. The next person could be having hot flashes, or you’re throwing up all the time. The symptoms that show up and are the most aggressive, that’s what we’ll address.”
Twomey says acupuncture treatments activate the parasympathetic nervous system of the body — this is the other side of the famed “fight or flight” response that is often overwhelmed in our busy lives. Both the mental and physical stress associated with breast cancer treatment can overwhelm the parasympathetic nervous system, but acupuncture can help put it back in balance by lowering blood pressure and reducing stress hormones like cortisol. “Patients always go home feeling better,” she says. And “they generally report sleeping better at night” after treatments.
[See: Breast Pain? Stop Worrying About Cancer.]
As more research is done, the potential for further integration of alternative treatments for breast cancer seems virtually limitless. But Lustberg, Twomey and Dr. Gary E. Deng, medical director of the Integrative Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, all say that any complementary medical interventions should be aimed at palliation, or reducing the impact of side effects to make the patient more comfortable and stronger, and never used as the primary means of treating the cancer itself.
Deng says some practitioners encourage patients to forgo the standard of care at the hospital and trust in the power of these alternative treatments to cure the cancer, which most Western doctors would agree could be risky because they don’t believe there’s been enough scientific evidence to endorse this approach. “This delay in treatment is not helpful, and that’s not what we do,” Deng says. “We incorporate nonwestern modalities into the regular cancer care therapies,” with the goal of this combination not to treat the cancer itself, “but to make the patient strong mentally and physically. We address side effects of their treatment, and hopefully keep them healthy and reduce the risk of cancer from recurring.”
In his practice, Deng focuses on counseling patients on proper nutrition, how to get more restful sleep and how to manage stress. He also advises patients about which herbs and supplements are safe and how to incorporate them in a way that doesn’t interfere with their other medications.
Other integrative approaches worth pursuing include practicing mindfulness, meditation and yoga, which have all been associated with a reduction in stress. Yoga is also a good way to get some gentle exercise, a plus considering physical activity has been shown to be helpful for breast cancer patients. Some hospitals have turned to art or writing therapy or even a practice called equine therapy that involves interacting with horses to help patients feel better during treatment.
[See: The 10 Best Diets for Healthy Eating.]
Use of any or all of these complementary and holistic therapies may improve your quality of life during treatment for breast cancer. And there could well be a lot more to Eastern treatments than we currently know. “I don’t have all the answers, and traditional medicine doesn’t have all the answers either,” Lustberg says. “With each intervention, I discuss the evidence we currently have. If patients want to pursue them — as long as they don’t interact with their treatments — I don’t usually discourage that.” She says offering a blanket “no” to the use of alternative therapies “can lead to distrust,” and it’s critical for doctor and patient to work from a platform of mutual trust. In that environment, “ultimately the patient benefits,” she says.
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Can Alternative or Holistic Treatments Help With My Breast Cancer? originally appeared on usnews.com
