Several conventional therapies that are used currently to treat cancer include chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and surgery may not be applicable to treat many types of cancers like lungs, pancreas, liver, bones, and in an advanced stage of breast and colon cancer. In addition, these conventional therapies have various side effects.
Healthy lifestyle management prevents several types of cancer. For example, avoidance of smoking and healthy dietary measures has cancer-preventive effects. The following alternative measures can reduce the risk of cancer cell growth. They also assist in treating cancer along with conventional therapies.
Hormonal Therapies
Hormonal therapy involves melatonin and dehydroepiandrosterone. These are the two most promising hormones that regulate estrogen and progesterone. Thus, this therapy helps to fight against reproductive cancer and provide preventive action against breast and prostate cancers.
Herbal Therapies
Several herbal remedies like alfalfa, Irish moss, dandelion root, rose hips, oat straw, etc. augment skin tissue healing and prevent the risk of skin cancer development. The topical application of tea tree oil as an ointment can act as antiseptic cream and prevent skin infection.
Turmeric, ginger, capsicum, bilberry, etc are different herbs that regulate the blood composition, and liver function and may prevent unwanted cell growth. Astragalus herb has an immunity-boosting effect. Chinese cucumber seeds and peels have an anti-cancer effect. Noni is a fruit that can alter cancerous cell growth to normal cell growth and can block tumor growth. DandGuiLonghui wan is a Chinese Traditional herb used as a folk medicine for treating leukemia.
Nutritional Therapies
- A grape seed extract has an inhibitory effect on cancer cell growth.
- Obesity increase the risk of cancer, grapefruit has an anti-obesity effect and can assist to prevent cancer by controlling obesity.
- Vitamin E, Vitamin C, lycopene, selenium, alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, and other antioxidant-rich fresh fruits and vegetables fight against cancer cell growth. In addition, it has been also found from different nutritional recommendations that omega 3 fatty acids, quercetin, genistein, fiber-rich food, and even low fat-containing foods have preventive actions against stomach cancer, leukemia, lung cancer, ovarian cancer, etc.
- Wheatgrass juice has a remedial effect against cancer, especially for cancer patients who are treated with radiation therapy.
- Green tea has an anti-angiogenesis effect and can shrink the malignant tumor.
Essential Oil Therapies
Lavender oil can boost immunity. Geranium oil assists in regulating hormonal balance. While tea tree oil, Frankincense oil, and Clary Sage oil have an anti-inflammatory effect. Sandalwood oil, Rosewood oil, Rose oil are good for skin health. All these therapeutic effects of essential oils indirectly provide beneficial effects against cancer development and its progression.
Ascorbic Acid Flush
Vitamin C-rich dietary items like calcium ascorbate or Ester-C with a dose of 1000 mg for adults and 250 mg for children are suggested to be added into a cup of water and drink at half an hour interval till diarrhea occurs. From this, the dose can be calculated that can promote diarrhea, then reduce one unit of the dosing and continue to take the remaining dose for the next two to four days with four hours intervals. This process can be performed once a month to excrete all the internal toxins and prevent cancer risk.
Color Therapy
Dr. Alexander Schauss explained that when color enters through our skin tissue to internal body parts it plays several roles like stimulates pituitary and pineal glands and regulates hormonal balance. Thus, this therapy maintains several physiological functioning. Green color has a significant role in cancer progression.
Light Therapy
Photodynamic light therapy is applied in the treatment of cancer. The light-absorbing dye is injected into the cancerous tumor cells and causing a chemical reaction and kills the cancer cells.
UV-A (ultraviolet-A) rays have longer wavelengths and have skin cancer-preventive effects.
Pain Control therapy
Mostly cancer provides chronic pain symptoms. Several alternative pain control therapies apply to reduce the pain symptoms in cancer, which include biofeedback, and guided imagery.
Other Alternative Anticancer Therapies
- Dimethylsulphoxide (DMSO) alone or in combination with other therapies assists in cancer treatment.
- Hyperbaric oxygen therapy can reduce the risk of healthy tissue necrosis during radiation therapy. Thus, hyperbaric oxygen therapy can decrease the adverse effects associated with radiation therapy.
- Shark cartilage can suppress the angiogenesis on the cancer cells and can restrict the growth of cancer cells. Researchers expect that squalamine present in shark tissue has a promising anticancer effect.
