Cancer Patients, Survivors and Family Members Support Healing
with Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)

In 1993, when Dr. David Eisenberg of Harvard Medical School, published the results of his famous survey on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), conventional medical experts were shocked to learn that 34% of US adults had experimented with at least one non-conventional therapy. However, cancer patients, survivors and their family members were not at all surprised by the Eisenberg report. They had been experimenting with CAM long before conventional physicians, researchers and scientists recognized this powerful trend in modern health care.

At some time during your cancer experience, you’ve probably participated in conversations (and maybe even some heated debates) about specialized diets, mind/body interventions, manual healing methods, and life style changes. It is also likely that you have experimented with vitamins, herbal supplements, and/or biologics–– and have researched or used one or two alternative therapies that piqued your interest. You’ve probably shared information with other survivors and caregivers about which CAM therapies seem to boost the immune system, lessen side-effects, relieve stress, or appear to keep cancer cells in check. And you know from first-hand experience that many people whose lives are directly affe
cted by cancer are constantly on the look out for non-traditional therapies that will build their physical, emotional and spiritual strength.

In this issue of our newsletter, we’d like to introduce you to some survivors who have used specific non-conventional therapies and some professionals who practice CAM in their work with cancer patients. We’d also like to suggest some resources that may help you sort through the smorgasbord of complementary and alternative therapies available.
No one can tell you, your caregiver, or your family members which specific combinations of conventional and non-conventional therapies will be most effective for you during your cancer journey. It is up to you to educate yourself about your choices in healing and to pay attention to your intuitions and feelings about treatments. As Dr. Michael Lerner, one of the country’s leading experts in CAM suggests (see recommendations), “In cancer, there is no single right choice for all of us, but there are surely right choices for each of us. There are no certain courses of action, but there are certainly educated and wiser choices, as opposed to uneducated and more foolish ones. The skill is in the movement from ignorance toward knowledge and from knowledge toward wisdom. In wisdom, we choose what we are least likely to regret.”

Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)
Do You Know?
Getting Started: Questions, Answers, Definitions and Some Advice...
Caregivers Corner: Nurse and Reiki Master, Pat Iyer, Is a Partner in Healing
Dr. David Rosenthal Speaks about the Zakim Center for Integrated Therapies
Chun-Han Zhu: Portrait of a Chinese Doctor
Creative Arts Are Complementary Therapies
In Her Own Words––Survivor Lynn Buckley Uses CAM Therapies
Diet & Cancer: Choosing Wisely to Live Well
Credits & Info