Cancer and Complementary Medicine : Your Guide to Smart Choices in Symptom Management

Help your patients make the smart choices about complementary therapies! A diagnosis of cancer can have devastating effects - not only physically, but mentally and emotionally as well - leading patients to look for "cures" or relief from the side effects and symptoms that ravage their minds and bodies. Often, your patients will turn to complementary or alternative medicine (CAM), looking for a "safe" or "natural" solution to their ailments. While these treatments may promise relief from pain or some other debilitating symptom, they also have the potential to cause as much harm as any drug could inflict. Cancer and Complementary Medicine provides your patients with an introduction to CAM and its use in cancer symptom management, allowing patients to make informed and safe choices. Chapters examine issues such as symptom management, healthy living, safe usage of complementary and alternative therapies, and details the types of CAM available as well as herbs, vitamins and supplements. Written by Colleen Lee and Georgia Decker, two nurse experts in the field of integrative medicine, this easy-to-use text provides patients with cancer a convenient resource to help sort out what can help and what can cause harm.