Integrative Medicine at Swedish Medical Center

Complementary Therapies Available to Cancer Patients

Cancer patients sometimes find relief from physical and emotional pain through the use of complementary therapies. While these therapies are not intended to treat the cancer itself, they may ease some patient's side effects and improve quality of life.

Integrative Therapies

• Acupuncture
• Craniosacral Therapy
• Healing Rhythms
• Herbal Consultation
• Laughter Yoga
• Life Energy Flow Tai Yi^®
• Massage Therapy
• Meditation
• Mind-Body Therapies
• Music therapy
• Nutrition Counseling
• Physical Exercise 
• Reflexology
• Stress Management
• Yoga
  
  

Randomized controlled studies indicate that complementary therapies can control treatment-related physical and emotional symptoms including pain, fatigue, nausea, xerostomia, anxiety, and depression in both adult and pediatric cancer patients. Importantly, many of these interventions can produce long-lasting improvement², including:

• ease chemotherapy nausea
• reduce pain from cancer and treatment

At Swedish Medical Center, we work with the Progressive Health Center to provide integrative therapy options.

About Integrative Medicine

• What is Integrative Medicine from Duke Integrative Medicine

• Visit Integrative Oncology from Medscape

• Visit Complementary Therapies and Cancer from WebMD

²-Cancer Drug Discovery and Development: Supportive Care in Cancer Therapy. 2009, 1-9. Integrative Oncology: Complementary Therapies in Cancer Care. Barrie Cassileth; Marjet Heitzer; Jyothirmai Gubili; Published 2.12.2009.