More Than 70 Percent With Cancer Use Alternative Therapies

[Guest guest]

SEATTLE - More than 70 percent of adult cancer patients in western

Washington use alternative therapies and almost all report

substantial improvements in well-being as a result of using

alternative medicine, according to a Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research

Center survey.

 

The results of this survey - the first population-based study of its

kind to look at predictors, motivators and costs of different types

of alternative-medicine use in adults with cancer - appear today in

The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine: Research on

Paradigm, Practice and Policy.

 

http://www.fhcrc.org/news/science/2002/09/04/alternative.html

[Guest guest]

, " James Ramholz " <

jramholz> wrote:

> SEATTLE - More than 70 percent of adult cancer patients in

western

> Washington use alternative therapies and almost all report

> substantial improvements in well-being

 

 

the devil really is in the details:

 

" Income, in contrast, was not significantly associated with

alternative-therapy use and did not seem to be a barrier to

treatment. Overall, the median cost of alternative therapy was

about $70 per patient per year, although individual expenses

ranged from $4 to $15,000. Dietary supplements averaged $50

per person annually. "

 

Half the " users " of alternative medicine spent less than $70 per

YEAR, less $6 per month. that would suggest that much so-

called benefit was actually placebo.