Astonishing findings were recently published in the American Cancer Society peer review journal ‘Cancer’, which has claimed that most of the cancer survivors resort to alternative and complementary methods (CM), like relaxation, prayer, meditation, massage and supplements.

Another astonishing fact which was revealed by the researchers at the American Cancer Society that the patients, who used the CM methods the most were the ones who were more educated, young survivors, whites, women, and people with a superior income.

“Our study found that several CM types are used by nearly half of cancer survivors. Surprisingly, other methods such as acupuncture and hypnosis were used by fewer than 2% of cancer survivors, even though recent studies found them to be useful in relieving some cancer-related symptoms, such as pain. We also found that the use of various CM types is significantly influenced by gender, race, age, education, cancer type, and how far the cancer had spread,” reported Ted Gansler, M.D., American Cancer Society and study co-author.

Survey was conducted on 4000 survivors of ten different cancers. The researcher asked these participants if they used any of the 19 CMs to deal with cancer. The response for the questionnaire, which was then converted into a report, showed that, prayer/spiritual practice (61.4%), massage (11.2%), faith/spiritual healing (42.4%), acupuncture/acupressure (1.2%), support groups (9.7%), nutritional supplements/vitamins (40.1%), hypnosis (0.4%), religious counseling (11.3%), meditation (15%) and biofeedback therapy (1.0%) were the most frequently used CMs.

Earlier too, studies on CMs used by the patients were conducted but they were inefficient as it concentrated on small sample sizes and limited cancer types. The present study with large data confirmed these earlier studies. The cancer patients vastly use the methods of spirituality such as relaxation, dietary supplements and other practices to over come the trauma of the disease.

The study also revealed other facts like the use of CM was higher in breast cancer and ovarian cancer survivors whereas less in kidney and melanoma cancer survivors.