Recently, CCTV broadcast a sad news: Xiao Fan (alias), a 25-year-old Henan girl, This June was found to suffer from cancer, has transferred to thoracic vertebra. The 24-year-old Shandong boy Ayu (pseudonym), who fell in love for 5 years, resigned immediately to take care of him. The girl’s mother was afraid of delaying him and drove him away many times, but Ayu made up his mind to marry her: [Shenzhen worked when she accompanied me to eat instant noodles for a month…, she accompanied me so hard, I must protect her all my life! ]
When your lover is suffering from cancer, you are willing to go up the mountain and down the fire to find ways to defeat cancer and protect your loved ones. As a result, you will also collect a mountain of information-a variety of cancer therapies. You may be puzzled: Which is really effective?
There are two types of cancer therapy: traditional therapy and alternative medicine therapy.
Traditional therapies include surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and biotherapy may be added in the future.
The characteristic of traditional therapy is that there is sufficient scientific evidence (mainly refers to randomized, controlled and blind clinical trials) to prove its curative effect. Moreover, traditional therapy is being innovated with each passing day, and more effective drugs and methods with lower side effects are continuously added to traditional therapy, thus greatly improving the survival rate and quality of life of cancer patients.
The American Cancer Society did statistics, Because of the application of traditional therapies, since the 1970s, even though the overall incidence rate of cancer peaked in the early 1990s, the overall mortality rate of cancer has been declining year by year, and the rate of decline has accelerated since 2000. In other words, although there are more people suffering from cancer now, cancer is becoming less and less deadly and terrible, and the probability of death from cancer has decreased instead.
Figure 1. Cancer morbidity/mortality, 1975-2009 (from the American Cancer Society)
Alternative Medicine Therapy and Classification
Having said that, we should step into the theme of this article and talk about [alternative medical therapy]. Alternative medical therapy, as its name implies, is a therapy that attempts to replace traditional therapy. It is really called [heart is higher than sky]. In fact, alternative therapy is a therapy outside the mainstream medical field.
The classification of alternative medical therapies is not as simple and clear as traditional therapies. It can be said that it is spectacular and varied. However, according to the National Cancer Research Institute of the United States, it can be generally divided into five categories:
1. Psychosomatic therapy
This kind of therapy believes that people’s thoughts and moods can affect the body. Such as meditation, hypnosis, yoga, biofeedback and art therapy.
2. Natural Therapy
This kind of therapy attempts to treat cancer with foods or herbs that they think are “pure natural”. Such as vitamins, herbs, foods, special recipes. Such therapies are more common, such as [anti-cancer snacks] believed by Apple and former Microsoft executive Mr. Kai-Fu Lee, and potato juice, which is wildly popular on WeChat.
Figure 2. Kai-Fu Lee Weibo: Anticancer Snacks
3. Body-site-based therapy
Acting on one or more parts of the body in an attempt to affect cancer. Such as massage, spinal massage, reflex therapy (massage of hands and feet affects other parts of the body).
4. Energy Medicine
It is believed that the human body has [energy field], which can maintain health and cure diseases by acting on [energy field]. Such as Tai Chi, etc.
5. Complete non-mainstream medical system
It refers to the unique medical system popular in some regions or some ethnic groups, which is different from mainstream medicine. For example, our traditional Chinese medicine, as well as Indian herbal medicine, homeopathy and hunger therapy.
There is no alternative medical therapy that can fight cancer.
Because there is not enough scientific evidence to prove it.
On the contrary, many alternative medical therapies can harm cancer patients. The most direct damage is to delay formal treatment and mistakenly believe in alternative medical therapies. In reality, there are not too many bloody examples, such as Chen Xiaoxu, who plays Lin Daiyu, mistakenly believe in traditional Chinese medicine, Jobs, founder of Apple, mistakenly believe in homeopathy, and Yu Juan, a female doctor of Fudan University, mistakenly believe in hunger therapy.
In addition, if alternative medical therapies are applied simultaneously with traditional therapies, It may reduce the efficacy of traditional therapies or produce additional toxic and side effects. Harm to patients. For example, there are some Chinese patent medicines that claim to be able to resist cancer. The ingredients include Aconitum kusnezoffii or Aconitum kusnezoffii, which contain aconitine. It is a highly neurotoxic drug that can cause cardiac paralysis. 0.2 mg can cause poisoning and 3 mg ~ 5 mg can lead to adult death. However, this extremely dangerous side effect has not been mentioned in the side effect description.
Earlier [famous] anti-cancer swindler Wang Zhenguo used Hedyotis diffusa injection [shock therapy] and [fairy series] traditional Chinese medicine to kill many cancer patients. For details, please refer to China Newsweek’s < < Wang Zhenguo’s [anti-cancer myth]. How divine is it? > >.
Careful Selection of 11 Alternative Medical Therapies
Alternative medical therapy cannot replace traditional therapy at all and cannot be proved to cure or relieve cancer.
However, there are some alternative medical therapies that can relieve the symptoms of cancer, such as pain, tension, despair, fatigue, etc. by supplementing traditional therapies. There are also some alternative medical therapies that can relieve the side effects of traditional treatments, such as nausea, vomiting, etc.
The famous Mayo Clinic in the United States has recommended 11 alternative medical therapies for cancer patients. However, you need to consult your doctor before using them.
1. Acupuncture
There is scientific evidence to confirm that, Acupuncture can relieve nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy in cancer patients. However, there is not enough evidence to prove that acupuncture has other effects on cancer patients. For example, relieve cancer pain and reduce hot flashes related to treatment. Side effects of acupuncture and moxibustion are few, but needles after strict disinfection must be used. Cancer patients’ resistance is mostly weaker than normal people and easy to infect, so acupuncture and moxibustion disinfection is more important.
Step 2: Aromatherapy
Let the patient smell sesame oil to calm the patient. You can massage at the same time, or add sesame oil to bath water. Most sesame oil comes from lavender. Aromatherapy can relieve some anxiety and pain of patients. Aromatherapy is safer, but attention should be paid to whether there is allergic constitution.
3. Biofeedback
It refers to the use of some instruments to enable patients to autonomously control body functions, such as heartbeat and muscle tension. These instruments tell patients that the heartbeat is slowing down and muscles are relaxing through flash. There is some evidence that biofeedback may relieve cancer pain in patients. In fact, this is a psychological self-suggestion effect.
4. Campaign
Exercise can relieve fatigue, relieve anxiety and promote sleep. However, not all cancer patients are suitable, such as some patients with bone metastases. Exercise may increase the risk of fracture.
5. Yoga
There is some preliminary evidence that, Yoga practice can reduce anxiety, despair and stress in cancer patients. It may also help breast cancer patients to reduce cancer-related fatigue. However, the overall quality of yoga-related research is not high. Yoga practice is also a sport that is not suitable for all cancer patients and is dangerous for patients with bone metastases.
Step 6: Hypnosis
Hypnosis relieves fatigue and pain by making soft sounds that focus the patient’s attention. It may be helpful for patients who are experiencing pain, anxiety or stress, and can also help patients with chemotherapy to prevent nausea and vomiting. Hypnosis is safe, but patients with a history of mental illness may not be suitable.
7. Massage
This therapy can relieve the pain, tension and fatigue of patients. However, for deep and focused massage, attention should be paid to the possibility of inducing bone metastasis patients’ fractures. Massage and massage cannot be carried out on radiotherapy irradiation sites and lump sites. Many chemotherapy patients will have thrombocytopenia and internal hemorrhage risks. Massage and massage may increase this risk.
8. Meditation
Let the patient focus on a picture, a sound or an idea, such as positive and positive thoughts. At the same time, take deep breaths or relax exercises. Meditation can relieve the anxiety and tension of the patient.
9. Relaxation therapy
Use visible training or gradual muscle relaxation to relieve anxiety and fatigue of patients.
10. Tai Chi
Tai Chi can relieve patients’ anxiety and nervousness. Like most of the therapies mentioned above, it is essentially a psychological suggestion and can improve the mental symptoms of cancer patients.
11. Art Therapy
Music, dance and other methods are used to make patients feel happy and relieve nausea and vomiting caused by cancer pain and chemotherapy.
It should be noted that, Some alternative medical treatments can relieve the symptoms of cancer, But it is not the cancer itself. The 11 therapies mentioned above, Although there is evidence to prove it, However, most of the evidence is not sufficient. So let’s not mention whether there is any evidence for alternative medical therapies other than 11. Moreover, some alternative medical therapies can relieve cancer symptoms, and mainstream medicine can do it completely. For example, some anti-vomiting drugs can relieve chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting more effectively than alternative medical therapies.
Identifying Alternative Medical Therapy Fraud
Through the previous introduction, We know that alternative medical therapy cannot replace the status of traditional therapy, can only relieve some superficial symptoms, and has no curative effect on cancer itself. However, some swindlers often deceive cancer patients under the guise of alternative medicine. Especially in today’s developed network, various cancer scams and rumors spread from place to place in an instant, causing very bad effects.
How to identify these scams? As long as a therapy has any of the following five points, it is likely to be a hoax:
1. Declare to be able to [cure] cancer, or [cure rate] is very high
2. Declare that there are no side effects or that the side effects are very small
3. Claims to be able to treat all or most types and parts of cancer.
4. Claims that it is an exclusive or ancestral secret recipe, and the specific treatment measures and drug ingredients are kept secret or vague.
5. Claims that there is evidence to prove it, but there is no decent scientific evidence. More are some [magical] cases. Even if these cases are true, they cannot be counted as scientific evidence.
Author: Ding Chao