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SURGERY LOCATION DR ALAN TRAN 3 WHARF ST FORSTER AUSTRALIA NSW 2428 02 6555 9284 0413 186 690 FAX:02 65559284 Acupuncture Chinese Medicine Herbal Medicine Allergy Testing Pain Management Menopause and Hrt
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The Value of Herbs in the Treatment of CancerOf all conditions which the herbalist/traditional Chinese medical doctor may treat, cancer represents a major test of the herbal tools we have at our disposal. A common and largely accurate perception of the damaging effects of malignancy is that "if the cancer doesn’t kill you, the biomedical treatments for it will." This statement, while accurate in some regards, doesn’t take into account the growing effectiveness of chemotherapy against many forms of cancer. Determining the effectiveness of biomedicine must be considered within a long-term perspective, however; survival rates are commonly measured in 5- and 10-year intervals, while a "cure" is considered when a cancer survivor has been cancer-free for seven years after cessation of treatment. The issues surrounding human health and the sequelae of malignancy are not as simple as these statistics suggest, however. While some rapidly growing forms of cancer may develop within ten days to two weeks of cancer cell implantation (malignant melanoma, for example), other slower-growing tumors (consider prostate cancer) may take up to ten years to make themselves detectable. To use the term "cured" for a patient who remains cancer-free after seven years is both unrealistic and arbitrary, given the unpredictability of cancer. Aside from whether or not a cancer survivor is presently ‘cancer-free’, also of consideration is the general state of health of the individual, which oncology tends to disregard. Of primary concern to the oncologist is whether malignancies have redeveloped, not whether conditions exist which may portend the derangement of cellular processes which could ultimately lead to loss of differentiation. This is one of the most appropriate and effective roles the TCM doctor/herbalist can fulfill—to help reestablish an underlying balance in the individual, and to unravel the complex patterns inherent in the body which can, if left untreated, lead to the development of cancer. Another appropriate role for TCM doctors and advanced herbalists is in the use of herbs as an adjunct to ongoing biomedical treatment for existing cancer. This can be addressed using any or all of three main approaches: 1) to offset the damaging side-effects of radiation and chemotherapy; 2) to benefit the patient’s immune system, which biomedicine overwhelms and supplants with its powerful agents; and 3) to aid in tumor reduction itself, potentially shortening the length of time the patient needs to receive radiation and/or chemotherapy. Listed below are ten herbs from the Chinese and western herbal traditions which address this third treatment approach--tumor reduction itself, via their 'antineoplastic' action. Consider that different forms of malignanacy are treated with different substances, and each individual case may require entirely separate treatment principles, suggesting that anti-neoplastic herb choices must be chosen from appropriate categories of action. Obviously, there are more than 10 herbs with antineoplastic action in the Chinese and western pharmacopeia, but these can be considered a 'jumping off' point for further study; this is my personal intent. Information provided on these herbs is based on both empirical and clinical evidence gathered third-hand; verification of clinical and/or empirical findings is difficult to provide without access to the studies themselves, and no guarantees are made for these herbs’ effectiveness. References for all information is provided below. |
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