Integrative oncology or integrative cancer medicine is a medical discipline that, while respecting conventional treatments, provides complementary treatment to help the patient overcome the disease, i.e. it treats the patient as a whole.
Receiving a diagnosis of cancer is a hard blow and many patients focus all their energies to get the best treatment. It is logical to turn to anything that can offer some help, but the patient finds himself in separate worlds: that of conventional medicine and that of natural therapies. The vast majority do not tell their oncologist that they are following other treatments, because they believe that they will not understand and will be advised against them. This lack of communication can cause stress for the patient, or lead him or her to follow other treatments.
Complementary treatments play a fundamental role in treating the patient as a whole: with physical, psychological, social and family aspects, improving the quality of life and contributing to the overall health of the patient.
Objectives of Integrative Oncology
Integrative oncology aims to overcome these problems by offering the possibility of combining all types of therapies that improve the quality of treatments.
Its objectives are:
- To offer information about therapies and other medicines that improve the quality of life of oncology patients.
- To guide patients so that they do not rush to try all therapies, but choose according to the therapeutic benefit they are looking for.
Part of the positive effects can be explained by a reduction in stress, which leads to a more effective immune response.
In addition, it is crucial from the moment of diagnosis to follow an anticancer diet to treat the side effects of conventional treatments.
Benefits of Integrative Oncology
Integrative oncology allows enhancing the efficacy of conventional treatments such as chemotherapy, and minimizing its side effects with the intervention in three fundamental pillars:
- Nutritional, immunogenetic and immunoactivating treatment.
- Detoxification and cellular oxygenation.
- Always keeping in mind the psychoemotional perspective, so important to achieve a good quality of life.
Thus, integrative oncology strategies such as nutrition, exercise, stress management and specific supplements can reduce inflammation and increase immunity, which can reduce the risk of relapse.