Complementary and Alternative Medicine

 
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Complementary and alternative medicine includes practices such as massage, acupuncture, tai chi, and drinking green tea.

Credit: iStock

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is the term for medical products and practices that are not part of standard medical care. 

• Standard medical care is medicine that is practiced by health professionals who hold an M.D. (medical doctor) or D.O. (doctor of osteopathy) degree. It is also practiced by other health professionals, such as physical therapists, physician assistants, psychologists, and registered nurses. Standard medicine may also be called biomedicine or allopathic, Western, mainstream, orthodox, or regular medicine. Some standard medical care practitioners are also practitioners of CAM.
• Complementary medicine is treatments that are used along with standard medical treatments but are not considered to be standard treatments. One example is using acupuncture to help lessen some side effects of cancer treatment.
• Alternative medicine is treatments that are used instead of standard medical treatments. One example is using a special diet to treat cancer instead of anticancer drugs that are prescribed by an oncologist.
• Integrative medicine is a total approach to medical care that combines standard medicine with the CAM practices that have shown to be safe and effective. They treat the patient's mind, body, and spirit. 

NCI provides evidence-based PDQ information for many CAM therapies in versions for both the patient and health professional.

Are CAM approaches safe?

Some CAM therapies have undergone careful evaluation and have found to be safe and effective. However there are others that have been found to be ineffective or possibly harmful. Less is known about many CAM therapies, and research has been slower for a number of reasons:

• Time and funding issues
• Problems finding institutions and cancer researchers to work with on the studies
• Regulatory issues

CAM therapies need to be evaluated with the same long and careful research process used to evaluate standard treatments. Standard cancer treatments have generally been studied for safety and effectiveness through an intense scientific process that includes clinical trials with large numbers of patients.

Natural Does Not Mean Safe

CAM therapies include a wide variety of botanicals and nutritional products, such as dietary supplements, herbal supplements, and vitamins. Many of these "natural" products are considered to be safe because they are present in, or produced by, nature. However, that is not true in all cases. In addition, some may affect how well other medicines work in your body. For example, the herb St. John's wort, which some people use for depression, may cause certain anticancer drugs not to work as well as they should.

Herbal supplements may be harmful when taken by themselves, with other substances, or in large doses. For example, some studies have shown that kava kava, an herb that has been used to help with stress and anxiety, may cause liver damage.

Vitamins can also have unwanted effects in your body. For example, some studies show that high doses of vitamins, even vitamin C, may affect how chemotherapy and radiation work. Too much of any vitamin is not safe, even in a healthy person.

Tell your doctor if you're taking any dietary supplements, no matter how safe you think they are. This is very important. Even though there may be ads or claims that something has been used for years, they do not prove that it's safe or effective.

Supplements do not have to be approved by the federal government before being sold to the public. Also, a prescription is not needed to buy them. Therefore, it's up to consumers to decide what is best for them. 

NCI and the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) are currently sponsoring or cosponsoring various clinical trials that test CAM treatments and therapies in people. Some study the effects of complementary approaches used in addition to conventional treatments, and some compare alternative therapies with conventional treatments.

Source by: National Cancer Institute 

Don’t Waste Your Opportunity

For most of us, our biggest sin is taking things for granted. I’m as guilty as anyone else- I’m alive! I’ve been given another amazing day, full of opportunities, and that is truly breath-taking. I’m human, with a body and a conscious mind … and what an opportunity that is! We take this for granted, but if someone came up to you and said, “Hey, I can give you the power to make 10 people’s lives better every day of your life” and they could prove beyond a doubt they’re telling the truth … would we just pass this opportunity up without thought, and go to our favorite online social network to see what updates we’ve missed?

That would be a huge missed opportunity, and that’s exactly what we’re doing each day we pass up the opportunity of being human without thought.

What kind of opportunities does being human bring us?

How about the opportunity to experience the wonders of the world, each moment bringing with it an overwhelming amount of experience that we can soak up?

How about the opportunities to investigate, explore, learn, discover, invent, create, inform, play, imagine, and build?

How about the opportunity to connect deeply with another human?

How about the opportunity to care, to lessen the suffering of others, to not participate in the suffering of animals, to make lives better?

How about the opportunity to practice mindfulness and appreciate all that’s in front of us?

How about the opportunity to create your own opportunities, ones that I can’t imagine?

What does this moment offer you that you are passing by without thought?

Are you willing to make the most of the opportunities of this moment, of being human?

The Simple Health Plan...

There are a lot of complicated diet and exercise plans out there, a lot of workouts that are the latest craze, a lot of fad diets and detox juicing and more. If it’s the newest craze, I recommend skipping it.

Instead, let’s get down to the simple fundamentals: it’s not that complicated to get healthy. In fact, I’ve boiled it down to two strategies.

Here’s my simple plan:

1. Eat a crapton of vegetables.
2. Do something active and fun every day.

No, you don’t have to eat only vegetables — but you should make them the foundation of your diet, and eat them first.

I believe that if you follow this plan, you’ll be healthy. It might not be a miracle weight-loss plan, but you’ll be healthy, and you can definitely lose weight. You can gain muscle. Get lean. Live healthier.

So just eat a lot of vegetables and be active every day.

Optional upgrade: Get an accountability partner if possible.

Frequently Asked Questions

You might have a few questions about the plan. Here’s everything you want to know

1. Can I eat meat?
   A: Yes. Just eat a crapton of veggies first. 
2. What about sweets? Or grains?
   A: Yes. Just eat a crapton of veggies first.
3. What kind of vegetables can I eat? Should they be superfoods?
   A: Vegetables are all superfoods. Eat any kind you want. Green ones are the gold standard, but all colors are welcome: white, yellow, orange, red. Eat a lot of the greens, and a bunch of the others.
4. What about starchy vegetables like potatoes?
   A: Yep! Eat those too! Yum.
5. Can I eat fruits?
   A: Yes. Just eat a crapton of veggies first.
6. Do I count calories?
   A: If you want to. But no, you don’t have to, if you’re eating a crapton of veggies first.
7. How much is a crapton?
   A: It’s a scientific measurement that means, “A helluva lot.” Basically, if you’re filling up a plate with food, it should be mostly vegetables. Two thirds is better than half, and three fourths is even better.
8. What if I have an allergy?
   A: Don’t eat the things you’re allergic to. But do eat a crapton of vegetables.
9. Are there other foods I should aim for?
   A: Sure, beans, fruits, proteins. If you’re not trying to lose weight, nuts and healthy oils. But mostly veggies.
10. Can I eat fast food?
    A: Yes. Just eat a crapton of veggies first.
11. Why do you recommend eating a crapton of veggies?
    A: They’re the food that has been proven by research to be the healthiest, and they have pretty much all the nutrients you need (yes, including protein). There is no optimal diet, but all the healthiest diets (including the Blue Zones) put vegetables at the forefront, and have smaller amounts of protein, fats, nuts, seeds, grains. If you fill your plate with veggies at every meal, you will get healthier. You’ll probably lose weight if you’re overweight. You’ll be filling yourself with the best things for your body first, and then adding the other things as a taste satisfier.
12. Can I put dressing on my veggies? Or how should I prepare them?
    A: You can use dressing, as long as you eat a crapton of vegetables. Prepare them however you like, but this is my preferred order: raw, steamed, baked, cooked in stews or chilies, stir-fried, blended into a smoothie, sautéed. Deep-fried would be last.
13. Can I just juice the veggies?
    A: No. Eat them.
14. What if I hate veggies?
    A: Try different ones. Cook them in different ways — try to bake or sauté them. Season them. It’s delicious. Try dipping them in hummus. If you have to, hide them in soups and chilis so you can’t taste them much.
15. What if I don’t like salads?
    A: No one said you have to eat a salad, dude. Think of baked cauliflower and broccoli (seasoned, maybe add some olive oil), or a bunch of kale, mushrooms, carrots and broccoli in a stir-fry (tempeh or tofu are my favorite proteins), or baked sweet potatoes.
16. When you say to be active every day, can you give me an example?
    A: Anything that gets you moving: play a sport, go for a walk, do some push ups, go for a bike ride, do a few sprints, run for a few miles.
17. How long should my daily activity session be?
    A: Not long if you’re just starting out — even 5 minutes a day is a good start. But if you’re already pretty active, then you can shoot for 30 minutes a day, and do some of those days with some intensity. If you’re already active but not doing strength training, add some of that in.
18. What if I miss a day?
    A: Start again the next day.
19. Can I do a fad workout, like tae bo or soul cycling or whatever the latest workout DVD is?
    A: Yes. Whatever seems fun to you.
20. Why should I get an accountability partner?
    A: It keeps you on track when you find a dip in your motivation, it’s fun to go for walks or do workouts with people, and if it’s your spouse, you can take turns cooking each other a crapton of veggies!
21. What if I want to lose weight?
    A: Eat a crapton of veggies, and not a lot of calorie-dense foods like oils, fats, nuts, refined sugar, refined flour. To your veggies, add beans, protein, some whole grains, fruit. Also: wait until you’re actually hungry to eat, and stop before you’re really full. Don’t snack or drink beverages with calories.
22. What if I want to gain weight?
    A: Still eat a crapton of veggies, but increase your proteins and add some fats to your meals (olive oil, coconut oil canola oil, avocados, nuts, peanut butter). Eat more grains if you’re really active. Be sure to be lifting weights so the excess calories become muscle.