Natural Medicine and Conventional Cancer Treatments
By Tina Kaczor, ND
- Can natural medicines be used while receiving conventional treatments?
- Why use natural medicines if I'm receiving conventional treatment?
- When are natural medicines appropriate?
- How do you know which natural medicines to choose?
- Are the therapies proven?
- Is there any supplement that everyone with cancer should be taking?
Can natural medicines be used while receiving conventional treatments?
Yes, natural medicines are safe to use, but I recommend proceeding with caution as there can be supplements that have unknown interactions with conventional medicine. Knowledge of the mechanism of action of natural medicines as well as conventional treatments can help determine if they are likely to interact. For example, you may have heard that antioxidants should not be taken while receiving chemotherapy. The blanket statement, "absolutely no antioxidants" does not make sense since several chemotherapies are not involved in the biochemical pathways that use antioxidants. Furthermore, antioxidants are necessary in the pathway of cell death, or apoptosis, and increasing cancer cell death is the goal of every cancer treatment. Given the complexity of the interactions, and that many of the interactions are yet unknown, it is prudent to pursue natural medicine with someone who is versed in both conventional and natural medicines.
Why use natural medicines if I'm receiving conventional treatment?
It has been my experience that patients receiving natural therapies fare better throughout their conventional treatment. The goals of naturopathic support are:
- Maintain muscle mass and maintain hydration.
- Boost the effectiveness of chemotherapy, radiation or other treatment.
- Decrease side effects of conventional treatment.
- Address organ damage induced by conventional treatments (i.e., liver, kidney, nerve, etc.)
- Address nutritional deficiencies known to be induced by the conventional treatment.
- Address any concurrent health conditions and medications being taken.
In the case of chemotherapy, it may be dosed every day, once weekly, once every three weeks, etc. There are many cycling regimes, but most have some time off between treatments in which to recover from the toxicity. During the interim between treatments, you can bolster your immune system, aid in repair of damaged tissue (including your liver), and clear the chemotherapy from your system so you can tolerate your next treatment better. Most chemotherapeutic agents have no therapeutic effect two days after the infusion (there are a few that are longer lasting). They do, however, remain toxic to your body long after their therapeutic effect. Every person and every treatment is different, but generally everyone tolerates the treatment better when they undergo a detoxification program between treatments.
When are natural medicines appropriate?
There are many schools of thought about the timing of natural medicines in conjunction with conventional treatment. In general, if there is any concern about taking natural medicines alongside chemotherapy, I recommend taking a supplement vacation on the days of chemotherapy infusion. Since regimes differ greatly, and some chemotherapies are given daily, this is not always a feasible option. Again, working with someone knowledgeable in the mechanisms of both the natural and conventional medicines, you may be able to take natural medicines throughout treatment.
How do you know which natural medicines to choose?
This is a question whose answer encompasses the science and art of medicine.
The science is knowing the way in which the herbs or nutrients interact with the cells of the body (cellular mechanisms). The art is in observation by the practitioner-what has worked in the past, what type of patient is best suited to a given medicine-as well as in knowing the patient well enough to predict what may happen.
There is a large and growing pool of research regarding nutrients, herbs and other alternative therapies in conjunction with conventional treatments. Some of this research is done by the very companies that make a given product. Such studies must be reviewed with skepticism, but not thrown out completely. When a given medicine, natural or pharmaceutical, needs to be proven effective through clinical trials, it is the maker of such medicines that initiate the trials. While this may seem to be a conflict of interest, it is the current system in place for all medications. Public funding and grants are used to gather further data, but funds for such studies on natural medicines is currently limited. Therefore, a healthy dose of skepticism should be the norm when reading any studies of new medications, be they natural or pharmaceutical. (Also, most natural medicines are not patented, therefore no party has a financial gain in proving its worth to society. With no financial incentive, many natural treatments go unproven.)
Is there any supplement that everyone with cancer should be taking?
This is difficult to answer since cancer is a very general term and each person with cancer essentially has a variation of the disease. When looked at closely, on a molecular level, no two cancers are alike. If I had to choose one supplement that every person receiving chemotherapy should take it is milk thistle, containing 80% silymarin. Milk thistle is well proven to favorably affect liver detoxification pathways and increase the regeneration of new liver cells (hepatocytes). Since it does influence detoxification, I recommend NOT taking milk thistle on the day(s) of chemotherapy infusion . In between treatments, however, it is a highly recommended supplement in my practice.