Complementary Medicine for Cancer Patients
Exploring Complementary Therapies, Complementary Medicines & Alternative Medicines with Grace Gawler
Practising Qualified, Safe & Responsible Naturopathy & Botanical Medicine & Pharmaco-Vigilance
It would be unprofessional and unethical of me to use this page to tell you what complementary medicines you can take to cure cancer.
There are plenty of websites that will tell you what you should take to cure your cancer.
A brief Google search for natural or complementary medicines that can contribute to curing cancer yields more 13 million results. Patients are often overwhelmed by the number of supplements than are touted to help with treating/curing cancer.
Without knowledge and training, patients will inevitably implement the more is better principle often leading to dangerous self-prescription thereby purchasing excessive amounts of concentrated and often highly expensive supplements that will not only be ineffective but also damaging. Without any monitoring of interactions with either conventional treatments or supplement-supplement interactions.
Complementary Therapies are now accepted in medical settings
Let us begin by defining the various therapies available to cancer patients. There are 3 types of therapy approaches available to cancer patients today.
Complementary Therapies – acceptable by most doctors, hospitals, treatment hubs & cancer councils. As a positive adjunct to conventional treatments. NOTE They are meant to complement conventional treatments and are not an alternative to conventional treatments.
They include:
Acupuncture, Aromatherapy, Exercise, Hypnosis, Massage, Meditation & Relaxation techniques, Music therapy, Tai chi & Chi-Gong, Reiki, Yoga-gentle stretching with deep breathing
Complementary Medicines - embraced by patients - problematic for oncologists
Complementary Medicines are usually not recommended by conventional oncologists and doctors. Why? Because these terms are often grouped together under the title CAM (Complementary “and” Alternative Medicine) which is confusing both for oncologists and patients. The terms differ greatly.
What oncologists say:
Oncologists usually tell patients not to take alternative or CAM while undergoing conventional cancer treatment. This advice is given in the patient’s best interest because CAM prescribed ad hoc or self-prescribed, can change the way cancer drugs are metabolised by each individual.
What is Natural?
People assume CAM means ‘natural medicines.’ But such products are often highly concentrated and when combined with other concentrated natural products, the potential for harm and side effects is greatly increased.
As well, when natural substances are tampered with and active principles extracted, the natural substance is no longer natural.
Prescriptive advice from internet websites is not personalised and promotes a one size fits all approach.
If you are taking self prescribed CAM alongside conventional cancer treatment, you might be interfering with your metabolic pathways causing too much of your treatment to be absorbed, (creating side effects) or the opposite, too little absorbed due to excretion and therefore causing the treatment to be ineffective. Are you aware that there are genomic tests that help to personalise and target your complementary medicines? Go to Genomic DNA tests on the menu.
Generally patients believe that natural CAM products can do no harm. But nothing is further from the truth. You might not be immediately aware of harm; but internally, your inner pharmacy and metabolic pathways maybe experiencing biological distress & stress.
To date; we have discussed the guesswork approach adopted by most patients. The good news is that with genomic diagnostic testing and the interpretation of a skilled practitioner, your complementary medicines can now be targeted. No more guesswork.
Targeted Complementary Medicines
Gene testing and genomic diagnostics have changed the landscape of prescribing targeted complementary medicines. Unfortunately most oncologists do not understand the science of botanically based complementary medicines, especially when they can be targeted according to a patient’s genes and genomic results.
Targeted complementary medicines can take much of the guesswork out of naturopathy and when skilfully prescribed, can provide a significant contribution to a patient’s recovery.
We encourage our patients to open a conversation with their oncologists and be disclosive about their use of targeted complementary medicines.
As patient advocates, we also provide our patients with credible evidence based research to support complementary medicines as an adjunct to their treatments.
Many of our Survivorship Care Plan patients can testify to the value of their prescribed, targeted complementary medicines, especially in terms of managing side effects, symptoms and wellbeing whilst undergoing conventional treatment.
Our patients tell us they are disappointed when they feel they have significantly contributed to their longevity and life quality, yet, their oncologists remain critical and unsupportive. However; we encourage our patients to persist. This has proven to be a successful strategy.
Anna and Alan's success with Targeted Complementary Medicines
Anna’s Experience – Ovarian Cancer & Ulcerative Colitis
Grace supports me to craft communication that I can use with my medical team. This has been invaluable because I have had involvement with many medical disciplines as well as complementary. Grace helped me to figure out what I needed to do and what complementary medicines I needed to take.
Grace identified the cause of long-term severe inflammation of my colon. As well as ovarian cancer I suffered from ulcerative colitis for 30 years. Grace peeled back the layers getting to the root cause and I no longer have the problem. You can read Anna’s full story on our testimonial page.
Alan M – metastatic facial SCC
A naturopath friend recommended Grace Gawler. I had a one-hour solutions focussed consultation with Grace. She took a thorough history whilst I was in her consulting room, then contacted an oncologist she knew whom she believed could help. Within minutes it was all arranged, and I was booked in for an urgent consultation with him later that same day. That day signified a turning point. Guided by Grace, my disease had gone into complete remission. My quality of life was high and I returned to work as a pharmacist. I continue my chosen path with Grace’s guidance, now 74 I’m retired and enjoying life and family. You can read Alan’s full story on our testimonial page.
Our long term survivors embraced the Grace Gawler Institute’s intelligent science-based approach to cancer recovery. We observed that our survivors were often seekers of ‘out of the box’ or innovative approaches, but did not know how to self-navigate though the cancer maze. Our Survivorship Care Plan provided them with the perfect partnership; self-empowerment combined with knowledge and experienced guidance.