Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies
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Focus Alternat Complement Ther©2005 Pharmaceutical Press
Focus Altern Complement Ther 2003; 8: 147
Diet and nutrition were excluded from Ernst’s ‘Desktop Guide’ but are an important part of naturopathic practice. Dietary intervention is now a part of government policy to reduce cancer risk. The aim was to summarise recent evidence, and to compare that with the information readily available to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners.
Recent evidence was summarised from the World Cancer Research Fund review in 1997, and more recent systematic reviews from PubMed. The sample of ‘readily available’ literature included What Doctors Don’t Tell You, a holistic medicine textbook, a Daily Mail article and some web sites. The comparison was presented to a group of naturopaths for discussion.
The systematic reviews provided ‘convincing or probable’ evidence that certain dietary elements affect cancer risk. There was little or no evidence that individual components such as minerals are important. The strongest evidence is wholly consistent with traditional naturopathic advice of a diet rich in variety, balance, vitality and vegetables. The evidence was in stark comparison with the messages from the media and CAM literature. These often promote quirky regimes, such as daily consumption of tomato ketchup. Juxtaposition of the two types of literature was instructive for the naturopathic practitioners and showed how evidence from single studies with a strong positive finding could be used to persuade or to sensationalise.
Comparison of research evidence with unsystematic information can be a useful tool in educating CAM practitioners about evidence.
