Integrative cancer and oncology news with articles and the latest news on cancer.
Originally published in icon Spring 2009
PERSONAL CHOICE
I once went to see the Chief Executive of a leading UK charity. Your magazine is very good. But it’s ten years ahead of its time. It was (surprisingly, I thought) said as a criticism, so I asked ’Why?
Well, you just lay all the information out in front of people so they can pick and choose. Curses. We’ve been spotted! Our strategy is out in the open.
A couple of years ago, MacMillan conducted research that showed 49 per cent of all cancer
patients went onto the internet seeking information. I’m sure that figure is much, much higher today. The main reason given was ’self-empowerment’ or taking back control of your own life. Sadly, too many patients report that their doctor gives them too little information, often simply due to lack of time. This can result in doctors seeming dismissive, and even conveying an arrogant ’Doctor knows best do only as I tell you’ attitude. We receive a surprising number of complaints.
But that is where CANCERactive comes in. There is so much you can do, around your Doctors’ orthodox treatments, to improve your own, personal odds of survival.
Once a year we like to have a magazine devoted to Complementary Therapies. And the one you are reading now is it! Our theme for this icon is Personal Choice. Now, I’m perfectly aware that there are a few extremists in the UK medical profession that think all complementary and alternative therapies are on a par with voodoo and have absolutely no clinical support whatsoever. Well, I can tell you that they are very wrong.
In our last magazine we covered US research that basically said ’your cancer is as individual as you are’. We have even reported on the prestigious MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Texas who argue that building Integrated Therapy Packages is the approach every patient should take. It is on the home page of their web site. Even the more staid Memorial
Sloan-Kettering in New York covers complementary therapies on their site. The American National Cancer Institute has 26 pages of information on Energy Therapies.
For our own part we’ve brought you the clinical trials on meditation and beneficial bacteria. This issue we bring you the clinical studies on natural compounds from astragalus to bee propolis which show how they improve the success of radio and chemotherapy when used in a complementary way. In Cancer Watch we bring you two recent clinical trials on the benefits of acupuncture. We’ll just keep it coming.
We have so much more information on this web site - you really should take a look. Meanwhile this magazine features a report on the Cancer Clinics, the Cancer Centres, and the complementary pioneers who will help you build a personal programme. We then take you on a trip to one centre with a prostate patient, we have a case history of a breast cancer patient who rebuilt her life with complementary therapies, and a wife who refused to give up when told her husband needed both his kidneys removed. Through us she found a way they could be saved.
Then we have a bumper 12 pages of research from around the world, on the drugs and diets, and the complementary therapies that just might help. And on the causes that hinder. And following the announcement in the last issue that a top British Hospital is turning from drugs to Manuka Honey to reduce throat infections, we look at the research and science behind Bee Propolis.
And there’s lots more in this issue of icon, from our unique charity CANCERactive. Comprehensive information you can trust to help you make the best possible personal choices about your treatment and your life. We just ’lay it all out so you can pick and choose’.
Happy reading.