Homeopathic Medicne and Palliative Care

Homeopathic Medicine in Supportive Palliative Care

Americans are turning to alternative medicine as well as health care practitioners in greater numbers each passing year; whether this is because of found cures or that society is fed up with the impersonal clinical approach that modern day medical facilities offer. Homeopathic medicine has found a place among the many advances in the medical field that sometimes border on science fiction. Even though homeopathic remedies are not FDA approved, purchased and consumed for ailments such as headaches, cramps, and back pain, these remedies have found a place in the lives of patients with terminal cancer. In some of these cases, it is a treatment, a last hope, while in others it is in supporting palliative care. Substantiated claims such as “No homeopathic medicine has been recalled for medically-related problems” (Foxman, 2004) have increased the sales of homeopathic remedies. Even though the affects may be the same as a placebo, people are willing to try these remedies. In some cases, these remedies have an effect on either the patient or the caregiver. A caregiver that is a critical thinker can put aside the critical thinking and hope will take its place when faced with the alternative.

Alternative medicine has a place in supporting palliative care in patients with terminal cancer by either offering that one last hope for a cure or an easier time dealing with the eventual outcome of death knowing that all that could be done was done instead of sitting around waiting helplessly. There is nothing worse that the feeling of helplessness, which is felt by many people daily, as they hear the diagnosis that they dread the most: terminal cancer. These words are followed by words that only register hours or days later indicating that the all that can be done is palliative care. This is followed by a massive information search that boggles the mind every possible way that that particular type of cancer can be researched is...