Beyond the 7 Healing Practices: Other Complementary Therapies
Key Points
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We discuss therapies in two broad categories:
- Those that are intrinsically health-promoting, with little risk compared to their benefits
- Those that involve increasing or even substantial risk compared to their benefits
Intrinsically Health-Promoting Therapies
The 7 Healing Practices—eating well, moving more, managing stress, sleeping well, creating a healing environment, sharing love and support, and exploring what matters now—are typically endorsed by major cancer centers.
Beyond these practices, many cancer centers also recommend and offer practices that complement conventional cancer treatments, including these:
- Acupuncture or acupressure
- Energy therapies
- Journaling
- Massage
- Nature immersion (under development)
- Religious and Spiritual Approaches
These health-promoting practices and therapies are generally considered to enhance the body’s natural wellness and healing processes. Known benefits for cancer patients of one or more of these practices:
Choosing Therapies Wiselyby Laura Pole, RN, OCNS I have worked with many people with cancer who have thought that "more is better" when deciding on complementary therapies, including natural products/supplements. Though it makes sense to integrate a variety of therapies and lifestyle practices, the key is to choose therapies that will complement each other, will target your particular terrain and tumor microenvironment, will not interfere with nor increase toxicity of conventional treatments, and fit your goals. When thinking about natural products and supplements, these points are important: |
Other Complementary Therapies and Treatments
Moving along the spectrum toward therapies involving both benefits and increasing risks, we find further complementary and other therapies. These may involve techniques that some conventional cancer practitioners don’t know about or haven’t studied, or that are outside the culture of mainstream oncology practice.
Many of these therapies and treatments are widely used and increasingly tolerated by conventional clinicians and patients:
- Electromagnetic and other energy therapies
- Off-label, overlooked or novel cancer approaches: ONCAs
- Therapies using heat, sound, light and cutting-edge radiotherapy
- Natural products, herbal therapies and supplements
- Diets and metabolic therapies
- Biologic treatments including hormones, vaccines and other biological interventions
- Psychedelic substances including MDMA, psilocybin and more
- Other experimental therapies under investigation in conventional medicine circles
- Traditional medicine practices
More Information
- Dr. Deirdre Orceyre: Naturopathic and Integrative Cancer Care
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