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Chemotherapy, the most common mainstream cancer treatment, is considered by many to feel worse than the disease: while it may provide a cure, it also causes hair loss, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, energy loss, and as an effect of its side effects, even depression. On top of that, while radiation can send cancer into remission, it isn't guaranteed to save every life. It comes as no surprise, then, that patients are eager to look to alternative medicine for help with the side effects of mainstream cancer treatments, as well as for new treatments altogether.

It is important to remember that complementary therapies should not be equated with alternative medicine. Therapy often requires the voluntary mental participation of the patient in order to be effective. Efficacy is subtle at best, and never guaranteed by honest practitioners. Because meditation, calming techniques, and aroma therapy claim only to help the mental or "spiritual" well-being of a patient (sometimes adding subtle physical benefits), without having potential negative side effects, therapy is both unlikely to be dangerous and is recommended by doctors of mainstream medicine.

Medicine, on the other hand, must work regardless of the mental participation, consciousness, or consideration of the patient. Medicine (rather than therapy, which is like medicine but not the same) is based more in the hard sciences, and due to both its guarantees and its risk factors, should be held to strict standards. Alternative medicine, which fails or avoids the rigorous testing undergone by mainstream medicine, can be dangerous not only in its potential to do harm, but in the tendency of its users to shun mainstream medicine altogether. If an alternative medicine technique is adopted into mainstream medicine (and some have been, especially in cancer treatment), it is no longer considered alternative.

Because complementary therapies and alternative medicine are so often confused, both will be covered below: this article is concerned with what should be pursued as well as what should be avoided.

Complementary Therapies (potentially effective):

Meditation is a broad term describing many mental techniques used to help cancer patients continue living with energy and happiness. Fundamentally, meditation is the process of studying one's own mind, watching and objectifying brain states in order to learn to prevent oneself from being tied up in them. Pain and suffering are events which, while caused by many external circumstances,

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