How integrative medicine can help with cancer treatment and recovery

When it comes to cancer treatment and care, most of us think of chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. But there’ s another level of care that can be offered right along with traditional medicine. It’s called integrative medicine. Dr. Russell Greenfield of Novant Health walks us through it. To sign up for an upcoming conference on integrative medicine and cancer that's coming to Charlotte, click here.

Transcript:
Roland Wilkerson 0:06

When it comes to cancer treatment and care, most of us think of chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. But there's another level of care that can be offered right along with traditional medicine. It's called integrative medicine, and it focuses on treating the entire mind and body. I'm Roland Wilkerson, and in this episode of Novant Health Healthy Headlines, you'll hear Dr. Russell Greenfield explain how integrative medicine, working in tandem with your oncologist and other providers can help with your recovery. And for our Charlotte, North Carolina area listeners stick around at the end to learn about a conference on the integrative medicine cancer that's coming to Charlotte on October 26.

So what is integrative medicine and what does it have to do with treating cancer patients?

Dr. Russell Greenfield 0:58

Thank you for asking integrative medicine. My peers and I defined as healing oriented care that takes account of the whole person. So certainly its body, but it's also mind its spirit, family, community environment, it's all of that. So we are indivisible systems and conventional medicine parses us out, you know, our physical body over here we take care of our spirit over here. in integrative medicine, we say we have to look at the totality of a person, we have to look at the whole person before us in order to help optimize health and well being and bring forth that gift that they have within that innate capacity to heal, to respond as well as possible to treatment and to fend off disease. That's our goal to bring that forth wherever we can. Now, we're not saying that this is alternative medicine, alternative pretty much implies we're not going to use conventional medicine. So we're not saying to folks, Hey, you know what, don't do surgery, don't do radiation or chemotherapy. Just take this herb. We're not saying that we're saying that we have a trust and a belief in good excellent conventional medical treatment. But together with that, there are things that people can do on their own to enhance their health and well being, maybe even enhance the successful outcome of treatment and help minimize side effects and stay well for the long haul. But that's where we come in, because there's so much information out there internet books, health, food stores, etc. Where are you going to go for credible information, we would like to believe that you can come to us, because otherwise, you're going to sources that may not be quite so credible. And then oftentimes, patients are uncomfortable going back to their doctor and asking questions about these types of things. Because they feel like they're going to be judged, or just flat out told, don't take any of that stuff. But there's so much pressure out there on the internet or in the media, or amongst our friends or other practitioners saying, well, you got to take this and you don't even have to tell your doctor about it. The problem with that is that some of these things we might take might actually counteract the conventional medical treatment we're using to try and beat that cancer in the first place.

Roland Wilkerson 2:57

What's an example, Dr. Greenfield. an integrative medical practice when it comes to cancer that wasn't done a generation or two ago. And how's that going?

Dr. Russell Greenfield 3:09

In the United States has actually been quite a growth in integrative medicine practice, starting with education that has been going on oh, I would say since the late 1990s. But remembering that even folks who have not gone through, let's say, formal fellowship, education, there are a lot of people in this country and beyond who said, you know, what, just focusing on prescription medication, there's got to be more to help. And so there are folks who were very brave and very forthright and saying, I'm going to learn more, and I'm going to work towards transforming our healthcare system to really make it be about health. So there are lots of brave individuals out there who saw that there was something better who explore things like acupuncture, explore things like Mind Body therapies, who took a look and discern between what might be promising what might be harmful and dangerous. And so there's a lot A lot of different things going on. And so now within the cancer space, there are societies like the Society for Integrative Oncology, which has many, many members. There are institutions like our own Novartis health, but also MD Anderson, Sloan Kettering, etc, that are all offering aspects of integrative oncology. In fact, National Cancer Institute certified comprehensive care centers, the vast majority of them offer some form of integrative oncology. Why? Because number one, our patients are asking about it. Number two, we have to help keep folks safe in the midst of all this. And number three, we want to give them ideas about things that might actually help them. So to that end, one of the things that's different these days, acupuncture is being used widely. Why? Well, in theory from a Chinese medicine perspective, part of what acupuncture does is it balances the chi, the life force energy of a person, and in part what that does theoretically is it helps the medication go exactly where it needs to go, while limiting side effects, how beautiful and what a almost poetic way to move forward and help to take care of oneself or other people. So you asked about what area might be a little bit different. Acupuncture is being offered widely in association with chemotherapy or immunotherapy. And certainly afterwards in case people have any side effects related to treatment, that is certainly a sea change compared to what was going on 20-30 years ago.

Roland Wilkerson 5:27

So I can see a lot of old school folks out there going acupuncture and chi, that sounds like a flaky hippie thing. It's so so so here's your chance to tell them why they might want to rethink that attitude.

Dr. Russell Greenfield 5:43

So I was one of those people you should know. So back in the late 1990s, I went off and did a two year fellowship at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, integrative medicine, in part because I wanted to see where are their data, if there are data at all? Is there an evidence basis to this kind of thing. And I learned something very, very important that I share with my peers all the time. There's a big difference between there not being any evidence, and my simply not being aware of the existing evidence. So as an example, you know, where my peers, and are all struggling to stay up to date in our own fields, let alone figure out what's going on with acupuncture. You know, we're trying to figure out what's the newest medication, the newest procedure, the newest study, whatever the case may be, but sometimes we're so busy, we just flipped past that acupuncture article, when there are evidence points around this. So the evidence perh...