Herbs during cancer treatment? Are they safe?
February 28, 2009 by Marijke Durning, RN
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
If you are battling the effects of cancer treatments, it may be tempting to use herbs to relieve stress, pain, and other problems – if you’re not already. You don’t even need to go to a health food store or natural products store; you can find these herbal products in many drugstores and even in big name stores.
But if you have cancer, should you even consider taking them? First of all, it’s important that you speak with your doctor, because the treaments you’re receiving may interact with certain herbs or substances, which could make the treatments more intense (not always a good thing), weaken the treatments, or have a completely different reaction than what you wanted.
If you want to do some research on your own, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), part of the National Institutes of Health, has made available this list of the most common herbs used in North America, their uses and cautions, including some that do have cancer warnings: Herbs at a Glance.
What do you think? Do you use herbs? Would you like to?
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Image: Newscom.com
Tags: cancer blog, complementary medicine, alternative medicine, cancer and herbs, CAM in cancer treatment
