People facing a cancer diagnosis often have choices to make about their treatment plan, and some choose to consider homeopathic cancer treatment. Practitioners of homeopathic medicine believe the symptoms of an illness are what fight the illness. As a result, homeopathic treatments involve using minute amounts of substances that create the symptoms of a particular illness in an attempt to support those symptoms in their fight against the illness. When trying to choose the best homeopathic cancer treatment, a patient needs to consider whether it will be the only treatment or simply one used in conjunction with traditional medicine. Other considerations include determining the specific symptoms in need of treatment, so the patient gets the right medicine; the risks involved in choosing homeopathic treatment over conventional medical care; and finding a skilled practitioner.
Homeopaths offer a range of homeopathic cancer treatments, from those targeting actual cancer tumors to those intended to treat the side effects of conventional medicines such as chemotherapy. Other treatments involve strengthening specific parts of the body’s overall function, while still others tackle the entire patient — mentally, physically and emotionally. Practitioners of traditional Western medicine, including government health organizations in both the United States and the United Kingdom, do not recommend homeopathic cancer treatment to the exclusion of traditional treatments, saying scientific studies have not shown that homeopathic remedies have any effect on cancer or its symptoms.
A key element of homeopathic cancer treatment is correctly identifying the symptoms, from understanding the specific type of tumor involved to recognizing symptoms such as the patient’s mood and what he is or isn’t eating. Once the symptoms have been thoroughly analyzed and identified, the practitioner determines which treatment options best suit the full range of symptoms. For example, Arsenicum album is a derivative of arsenic that is used in vastly diluted form to treat physical symptoms ranging from cold hands and a craving for sour foods and psychological symptoms such as obsessive compulsive disorder and fear of the cancer.
Along with correctly identifying the symptoms, a key element of homeopathic cancer treatment is having a skilled practitioner. That allows for better identification of the symptoms and better identification of the proper treatments for those symptoms. A skilled practitioner also can determine whether the treatments are working as expected. If they aren’t, a skilled homeopath takes that as an indication that there may be other illnesses at work that require further medical testing to identify for treatment.
Homeopathic treatment in and of itself poses little to no risk. The substances used as homeopathic medicine are so diluted by the water with which they’re mixed that scientists say they can do no real harm, at least when properly prepared. The real risk, practitioners of traditional Western medicine say, is in foregoing proven cancer care in favor of homeopathic cancer treatment that scientific studies have shown has no more of an effect on cancer than a placebo would have.
