homeopathic supplements?

[Alyce]

I have gained about 25 lbs. in the last 2 years. I'm on my 4th year of Femara. I have recently looked into homeopathic supplements and have found a great provider who has done lots and lots of work in this field. I know the Oncologists are totally against most supplements but this Homopath really makes sense. I have had my cells and urine tested and she was right on the money about my cholesterol, metabolism, and congested liver that is all part of my weight gain. Anyone out there with experience with these supplements???
My antidepressants have probably added to the weight issue and she very slowly weans them away and replaces them with a balancing and emotional support supplement.She has 3 excellent phone conferences about Cancer.

[Jackie07]

Alyce,

Be sure to check with your oncologist about possible conflicts with the chemo agents.

The abstract below confirms the efficacy of complimentary homeopathic treatment:

BMC Cancer. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21241504#) 2011 Jan 17;11:19.
Classical homeopathy in the treatment of cancer patients--a prospective observational study of two independent cohorts.

Rostock M (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Rostock%20M%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=21241504), Naumann J (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Naumann%20J%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=21241504), Guethlin C (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Guethlin%20C%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=21241504), Guenther L (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Guenther%20L%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=21241504), Bartsch HH (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Bartsch%20HH%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=21241504), Walach H (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Walach%20H%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=21241504).
Source

Tumour Biology Center at Albert Ludwig's University Freiburg, Germany. matthias.rostock@usz.ch

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Many cancer patients seek homeopathy as a complementary therapy. It has rarely been studied systematically, whether homeopathic care is of benefit for cancer patients.
METHODS:

We conducted a prospective observational study with cancer patients in two differently treated cohorts: one cohort with patients under complementary homeopathic treatment (HG; n = 259), and one cohort with conventionally treated cancer patients (CG; n = 380). For a direct comparison, matched pairs with patients of the same tumour entity and comparable prognosis were to be formed. Main outcome parameter: change of quality of life (FACT-G, FACIT-Sp) after 3 months. Secondary outcome parameters: change of quality of life (FACT-G, FACIT-Sp) after a year, as well as impairment by fatigue (MFI) and by anxiety and depression (HADS).
RESULTS:

HG: FACT-G, or FACIT-Sp, respectively improved statistically significantly in the first three months, from 75.6 (SD 14.6) to 81.1 (SD 16.9), or from 32.1 (SD 8.2) to 34.9 (SD 8.32), respectively. After 12 months, a further increase to 84.1 (SD 15.5) or 35.2 (SD 8.6) was found. Fatigue (MFI) decreased; anxiety and depression (HADS) did not change. CG: FACT-G remained constant in the first three months: 75.3 (SD 17.3) at t0, and 76.6 (SD 16.6) at t1. After 12 months, there was a slight increase to 78.9 (SD 18.1). FACIT-Sp scores improved significantly from t0 (31.0 - SD 8.9) to t1 (32.1 - SD 8.9) and declined again after a year (31.6 - SD 9.4). For fatigue, anxiety, and depression, no relevant changes were found. 120 patients of HG and 206 patients of CG met our criteria for matched-pairs selection. Due to large differences between the two patient populations, however, only 11 matched pairs could be formed. This is not sufficient for a comparative study.
CONCLUSION:

In our prospective study, we observed an improvement of quality of life as well as a tendency of fatigue symptoms to decrease in cancer patients under complementary homeopathic treatment. It would take considerably larger samples to find matched pairs suitable for comparison in order to establish a definite causal relation between these effects and homeopathic treatment.