Therapy

About a year ago, news was made when a vaccine for cervical cancer was put on the market. Controversial in many ways, including the notion that young girls were the ideal targets for the vaccine, it was the first time that a vaccine was marketed to prevent a risk factor for cancer.

We all know that the reason chemotherapy is such a difficult treatment is because it kills both good and bad cells as it attacks the cancer. It’s why people suffer hair loss along with a number of other debilitating side effects. New research out of MD Anderson Cancer Center may turn the world of cancer treatment completely upside down.

In a recent CNN editorial, author Glenn Beck talks about being treated more like a number than a human patient in the hospital he visited for outpatient surgery. As he put it, it didn’t matter how “up to date” the hospital was or whether patient rooms had great TVS with lots of channels – he was treated more like an inanimate object than a person who was in pain or with lots of questions.

I’ve blogged before about the positive effects of complementary and alternative medicine for cancer patients, but cautioned that such therapies shouldn’t replace conventional medical care. But what if the prognosis from conventional medicine is grim—is alternative medicine a good place to turn to for hope?

Many women have talked to me about how their cancer treatment journey has been helped by many things that at first blush appear to be very non-conventional techniques. Yoga, meditation, hypnosis, acupuncture, massage and other mind-body relaxation techniques seem to top the list of complementary and holistic treatments that have helped women deal with everything from nausea, and pain management to fears over needles and coping strategies to deal with normal life occurrences.