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Aro­mather­a­py and Cancer

The focus of an onco­log­i­cal cen­ter is the holis­tic treat­ment of peo­ple suf­fer­ing from can­cer. In addi­tion to clas­si­cal med­i­cine, sup­port­ive inte­gra­tive pro­ce­dures have also been estab­lished for this pur­pose in recent decades. For exam­ple, aro­mather­a­py in the hos­pi­tal. It is already an inte­gral part of inte­gra­tive treat­ment in many hos­pi­tals in the USA, Eng­land and Australia.

Inte­gra­tive Oncology

Many can­cer patients ask them­selves what they can do them­selves to con­tribute to a pos­i­tive course of the dis­ease and treat­ment. In par­tic­u­lar, due to the com­plex diag­nos­tic and treat­ment pro­ce­dures, patients often feel pow­er­less. Com­ple­men­tary med­i­cine pro­ce­dures can be a valu­able sup­port dur­ing and after tumor ther­a­py in order to alle­vi­ate side effects and late effects of tumor ther­a­py and to improve the qual­i­ty of life. The term “com­ple­men­tary med­i­cine” encom­pass­es a wide range of dis­ci­plines and treat­ment meth­ods that are based on alter­na­tive mod­els of the devel­op­ment of dis­eases and their treat­ment than those of con­ven­tion­al med­i­cine. How­ev­er, they do not replace con­ven­tion­al med­i­cine. Fur­ther­more, they are to be con­sid­ered as a sup­ple­ment. Com­ple­men­tary med­i­cine includes natur­o­path­ic advice, offers to strength­en self-heal­ing pow­ers, relax­ation meth­ods and com­ple­men­tary nurs­ing applications.

It is now wide­ly accept­ed that the inci­dence of many tumor enti­ties can be reduced by appro­pri­ate nutri­tion. This is how nutri­tion­al advice has become estab­lished in almost every onco­log­i­cal med­ical facil­i­ty in Ger­many. Expe­ri­enced nutri­tion coach­es advise patients and empow­er them with knowl­edge. What is new, on the oth­er hand, is the area of com­ple­men­tary treat­ment with aro­mas. So-called aro­mather­a­py can have var­i­ous pos­i­tive effects on patients who suf­fer from the side effects of can­cer ther­a­py (chemother­a­py, radi­a­tion, etc.).

Aro­mather­a­py and Cancer

In a hos­pi­tal atmos­phere, where the can­cer is treat­ed with strong drugs such as chemother­a­py, it is par­tic­u­lar­ly good for the patient to be cared for with insin­u­at­ing, warm­ing and psy­che-enlight­en­ing scents. At the same time, the immune sys­tem can be stim­u­lat­ed with the right aro­mas, so that fears, hope­less­ness, men­tal stress, help­less­ness and iso­la­tion fade into the back­ground. In con­nec­tion with a hos­pi­tal stay, var­i­ous aro­mas are now known to be fac­tors that can reduce an immune response in the body. In a psy­cho-emo­tion­al bal­ance, the body can coun­ter­act the tumor and sup­port onco­log­i­cal ther­a­py. Essen­tial oils obtained from plants can be used as part of an indi­vid­ual treat­ment and achieve pos­i­tive effects.

For exam­ple, in the case of nau­sea and loss of appetite, two com­mon accom­pa­ny­ing symp­toms of chemother­a­py, gin­ger oil, pep­per­mint oil or fen­nel oil can be inhaled or applied as a mas­sage. Anoth­er option is mouth­wash with aloe vera gel and a few drops of Cana­di­an turmer­ic oil (Hydrastis canaden­sis) to treat inflam­ma­tion of the oral mucosa, which can occur as part of chemother­a­py due to the dam­aged gas­troin­testi­nal mucosa.

Many doc­tors would like to inte­grate aro­mather­a­py or aro­mather­a­py into their treat­ment con­cepts. It is there­fore impor­tant that the patient him­self or the nurs­ing staff have a sound edu­ca­tion. Essen­tial oils must be safe to use in patient work. At the Char­ité, includ­ing at the women’s clin­ic on Cam­pus Vir­chow Klinikum, there are offers of a wide vari­ety of com­ple­men­tary ther­a­pies. Stud­ies on the effec­tive­ness and safe­ty of com­ple­men­tary med­ical pro­ce­dures and the eval­u­a­tion of inte­gra­tive med­ical approach­es are car­ried out in sev­er­al insti­tutes and work­ing groups. Research in this area is impor­tant because alter­na­tive med­i­cine is dis­ad­van­taged due to the (still small) num­ber of stud­ies and the lack of sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence.
Nev­er­the­less, the num­ber of open-mind­ed (school) physi­cians who also rec­og­nize and inte­grate self-col­lect­ed knowl­edge and expe­ri­ences is growing.

Sources:

Klaus Bahlsen Cen­ter for Inte­gra­tive Oncol­o­gy
https://www.mhh.de/klaus-bahlsen-zentrum

C. E. Elson, D. M. Pef­fley, P. Hen­tosh, H. Mo: Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. 221, 294–311 (1999). D. Big­ga: Mit ätherischen Ölen gegen Nach­wirkun­gen der Bestrahlungs- ther­a­pie. Forum Essen­zia, Heft 18: Kamille (2000).

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