Hodgkin’s Disease Treatments — Naturopathic Medicine

Naturopathic Medicine for Hodgkin's Disease

In addition to conventional treatments for Hodgkin’s disease, the cancer experts at Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) also provide several supportive therapies. Naturopathic medicine is one of the many complementary and alternative medicine therapies available at our CTCA facilities.

Here, our expert care physicians consult with naturopathic practitioners to customize your Hodgkin’s disease treatment. The goal is to help you maintain your physical well-being while also attempting to lessen the side effects of Hodgkin’s disease treatments.

What is Naturopathic Medicine?

Naturopathic medicine, also called “naturopathy,” is a distinct system of primary health care. It is a practice of diagnosis, treatment and prevention of illness. A central goal of naturopathic medicine is to use the healing power of nature to maintain and restore health.

Naturopathic practitioners are specialists in natural health care who use natural, non-toxic therapies to support the whole person, with an emphasis on building health. Working together with naturopathic practitioners, our oncologists are able to provide diverse therapies for Hodgkin’s disease, including modern and traditional, scientific and empirical methods.

Naturopathic Medicine is founded on the following principles:

The Healing Power of Nature
Focused on the natural healing power of nature, naturopathic medicine centers on your body’s inherent ability to establish, maintain and restore health. The healing process is ordered and intelligent; nature heals through the response of the life force. The practitioner’s role is to facilitate and augment this process, to identify and remove obstacles to your health and recovery, and to support the creation of a healthy internal and external environment for you.

First Do No Harm
Naturopathic practitioners use methods and medicinal substances that minimize the risk of harmful side effects, and apply the least possible force or intervention necessary when both diagnosing and treating cancer. Naturopathic practitioners respect and work with the healing power of nature in diagnosis, treatment and counseling. Therapeutic actions should be complementary to and synergistic with this healing process.

Practitioner as Teacher
Beyond an accurate diagnosis and appropriate prescription, the naturopathic practitioner must work to create a healthy, sensitive interpersonal relationship with you. A cooperative practitioner-patient relationship has inherent therapeutic value, helping to empower the patient to assume responsibility their health. The practitioner's major role is to educate and encourage you to take responsibility for your own health. The practitioner must strive to inspire hope as well as understanding.

Treat the Whole Person
Naturopathic practitioners treat the whole person and not just the cancer. They recognize that health and disease result from a complex of physical, mental, emotional, genetic, environmental, social, spiritual and other factors. Naturopathic medicine recognizes the harmonious functioning of all aspects of you as being essential to health. The multifactorial nature of health and disease requires a personalized and comprehensive approach to cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Prevention
The ultimate goal of naturopathic medicine is prevention, and building health rather than fighting disease. This is accomplished through education and promotion of lifestyle habits that create good health. Naturopathic practitioners assess risk factors and hereditary susceptibility to disease and make appropriate interventions to avoid further harm and risk to you. Because it is difficult to be healthy in an unhealthy world, it is the responsibility of both you and your practitioner to create a healthier environment and lifestyle.

Naturopathic Practice at CTCA

While naturopaths are trained to be primary care physicians, some choose to emphasize particular treatment methods (see below) and others may concentrate on particular medical fields such as pediatrics, gynecology, allergies, arthritis, etc.

Even though it has its own therapeutic specialties, naturopathic medicine incorporates the natural therapies of many different healing traditions. What makes a therapy part of the naturopathic scope of practice is the way it is applied, (i.e., on the basis of the six naturopathic principles of healing). The current scope of naturopathic practice includes, but is not limited to:

Clinical Nutrition:  That "food is the best medicine" is a cornerstone of naturopathic practice. CTCA naturopaths collaborate with our dietitians to support Hodgkin's disease patients with healthy dietary options and nutritional supplementation.

Botanical Medicine:  Many plant substances are powerful medicines. Where single chemically derived drugs may address only a single problem, botanical medicines are able to address a variety of problems simultaneously. Natural botanicals also tend to have less toxic side effects than chemically derived drugs due to their organic nature and natural compatibility with the body's own chemistry.

Physical Medicine:  Naturopathic medicine has its own methods of therapeutic manipulation of muscles, bones and spine. CTCA naturopaths collaborate with our rehabilitation therapist to use ultrasound, diathermy (the controlled production of "deep heating" beneath the skin in the subcutaneous tissues, deep muscles and joints for therapeutic purposes), exercise, massage, water, heat and cold, and gentle electrical therapies.

Chinese Medicine:  Chinese medicine is a healing philosophy that naturally complements naturopathic medicine. Meridian theory offers an important understanding of the unity of the body and mind and adds to the Western understanding of physiology. Acupuncture is one oriental medicine technique offered by CTCA for Hodgkin’s disease that can help stimulate the immune system and the healing response.

Psychological Medicine:  Mental attitudes and emotional states may influence, or even cause, physical illness. Counseling, nutritional balancing, stress management, hypnotherapy, biofeedback and other therapies are used to help patients heal psychologically. Mind-body specialists at CTCA provide counseling and other methods to psychological and emotional support.

Homeopathic Medicine:  Homeopathic medicine is based on the principle of "like cures like." Clinical observation indicates that it works on a subtle, yet powerful, energetic level, gently acting to strengthen the body's healing and immune response and triggering a healing process.

Naturopathic practice also includes the use of any medical substances that contain elements that are components of bodily tissues, or can be employed by the body, for the maintenance of life and the repair of tissues. This also encompasses methods of diagnostic testing and imaging, including X-ray and ultrasound.

Next Topic: Mind-Body Medicine for Hodgkin's Disease