on Jan 25th, 2006Alternative Therapy for Prostate Cancer
Give the mind credit. When bad news hits, the mind goes into overdrive to solve problems that may, in the end, have no solution. I’m reminded of a college physics professor who used to routinely add questions to exams that he knew darn well had no answers. His goal: to get the overachievers, the ones who strive to get perfect scores, to rack their brains under pressure to discover an invented solution.
A new study by Eric Elkin of the University of California-San Francisco, looks at how patients who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer suddenly turn to alternative or complementary medicine to treat the problem. How many? Try one third.
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Past studies have found that prostate cancer patients often begin taking alternative or complementary medicines after receiving their diagnosis. To investigate more specifically, Elkin and his colleagues looked at use of more than 50 different types of complementary or alternative medicines in a group of 2,582 men in a registry of prostate cancer patients.
One third reported using some type of alternative medicine, with 26% using mineral or vitamin supplements, 16% taking herbs, 13% taking antioxidants and 12% taking some type of alternative treatment for “prostate health,” such as saw palmetto or lycopene.
Alternative therapy common in prostate cancer
by Anne Harding, Reuters
Tue Jan 24, 2006