The scope of complementary and alternative medicine in Poland

Abstract

Introduction.Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is widely used by patients. The most frequent CAM users are patients with cancer, but patients with other chronic diseases also utilize these methods. Materials and methods. Data on the use of CAM were obtained from Google searches. For each specific search term, the first three Google pages were analyzed.Results. The analysis included 91 CAM institutions matching the inclusion criteria. The most common anticancer services were intravenous vitamin C infusion, saltwater, intravenous infusion of glutathione, colon irrigation, an anticancer diet, bio-resonance, and intravenous ozone infusions. The most common non-cancer entities treated were rheumatic diseases, chronic fatigue syndrome, arterial hypertension, allergies, borreliosis, diabetes, atherosclerosis, and depression. Anticancer therapies were more expensive than those used for non-malignant diseases (medians 250 PLN and 170 PLN, respectively; p = 0.041). Conclusions. This study provides a comprehensive overview of CAM methods used in Poland. These data may facilitate social education and the development of preventive measures.

Health Professionals’ Perspectives on Commercially Available Intravenous Nutrient Therapies: A Preliminary Report

“…Despite this widespread presence of IVNT marketing, universities or conferences were seldom listed as a source of knowledge on intravenous infusions. These findings confirm previous reports which showed that the market for alternative and complementary services is doing well in Poland [5,13,16]. One in five of our respondents had a patient who used IVNTs.…”

“…However, it is worth noting that commercial infusions and injections are poorly studied in terms of both efficacy and safety [5,[10][11][12]. To date, there are few publications on their benefits, and all those that exist are anecdotal or lack scientific rigour [2,13]. In some cases, the use of IVNTs has been described as having negative or even fatal effects [1,2,7,14,15].…”

“…In some cases, the use of IVNTs has been described as having negative or even fatal effects [1,2,7,14,15]. Notably, many websites of the facilities offering alternative methods, including IVNTs, fail to provide sufficient information on contraindications and do not always specify in detail which medical personnel will administer the procedures [5,13].…”

Complementary and alternative therapies in oncology

“…Perdyan et al analyzed 91 institutions offering alternative therapies that most often concern rheumatological, neoplastic, and chronic diseases [5]. Most institutions offered both drug therapies and therapeutic techniques.…”

Complementary and Alternative Therapies in Oncology

“…The growing popularity and heterogeneity of CAM methods make them an important issue for patient-doctor relations in Poland and other Central European countries [4]. A recent study from Poland demonstrated that an astonishing number of CAM practices offered to manage multiple entities [5].…”