Herbal medicine and cancer: an introductory overview.
OBJECTIVE
To present Western herbal medicine from the perspective of a "food" model of herbs in contrast to the pharmaceutical "drug" model derived from mainstream medicine. Historical, political, and regulatory aspects of herbal medicine in the United States; core principles of herbal medicine in terms of the natural link between food and medicine; dietary chemopreventive plant compounds in the form of herbal medicines; and herb-drug interactions are briefly discussed, with an emphasis on beneficial interactions with conventional chemotherapy.


METHODS
Literature on dietary chemopreventive compounds; phytotherapeutic training and clinical practice.


CONCLUSIONS
Botanical medicine, based on dietary chemopreventive compounds plays an important role in integrative cancer treatment.


CONCLUSIONS
Knowledge of the differences between herbal and conventional medicine in terms of a food, medicine, and poison model will help nurses facilitate patient decision-making choices in integrative cancer treatment.
Treasure
Jonathan
J
Centre for Natural Healing, Ashland, OR 97520, USA. jtreasure@herbological.com
D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D008517:Phytotherapy; D010936:Plant Extracts; D014481:United States
D010936:Plant Extracts