Where Complementary Medicine Helps

The table below summarizes the ways in which complemetary and alternative medicine (CAM) may be helpful. The table is this blog’s compilation based on the information in the paper cited below.

Acupuncture   pain, nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy
Energy therapies magnetic field therapy, reiki, Healing Touch, qi gong are not fully understood—may help reduce stress and pain
Massage and reflexology   anxiety, pain
Mind-body therapies meditation, guided imagery, expressive arts (art, dance, music), cognitive-behavior therapy anxiety, mood disturbance, chronic pain, quality of life, fatigue, nausea

It is arguable whether physical activity falls under CAM or not and it is for this reason that it is being added separately in this post. Physical activity may be recommended for quality of life, physical functioning, emotional well-being, fatigue, cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength, and body composition.

Clearly, people should seek out highly qualified and experienced individuals for all these treatements.

 Source: “Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guidelines for Integrative Oncology: Complementary Therapies and Botancials”, Journal of the Society of Integrative Oncology, Vol 7,  No 3 (Summer) 2009, pp: 85-120

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑

%d bloggers like this: