If you had cancer would you pick a medical doctor or a herbologist or a minister to go to for help?

Question

If you had cancer would you pick a medical doctor or a herbologist or a minister to go to for help?

Answer 1

I'd seek professional medical help. If they told me there was nothing they could do for me I'd probably seek out some alternative treatments just in case. Some have remarkable successes.

Answer 2

I would go to an alternative medicine doctor, since they will get you better results than an oncologist or a minister.  However, for the alternative medicine doctor, I would not see a herbologist, since I think that approach is also fairly useless.

Answer 3

medical doctor

Answer 4

Well, medicine isn't perfect but no-one ever got cured from cancer by praying or by taking some dumb quack potion.

Answer 5

I'd say all of the above.  (Well, I wouldn't go to a Christian minister as I'm not a Christian, but I'd accept the prayers and positive thinking of my own religious authorities.)

Alternative treatments and standardized medicine work best when ALL options are taken into account, especially if you have a different genetic profile (for example, Asians often find that some Western medicine works on them and some doesn't, due to different body chemistry!)

Let's take a simple example -- milk thistle is verified by multiple studies as a powerful tool to heal and cleanse the liver.  Your average GP might know nothing about this, but if you have liver cancer it has well-regarded beneficial effects.  

Or, more likely, what if he prescribes something with a serious liver impact?  By going to a mainstream doctor and consulting a natural practitioner on the side, one could fortify the body against the negative side effects of mainstream treatment.  If you're in some US states, naturopathy is a practice that combines standardized medicine with herbal and alternative medicine -- a naturopath will work with other doctors, is licensed to prescribe medicines, etc. Otherwise, second opinions would be the way to go.

I'm a natural foods fan and I take a zillion supplements, most of which are definitively working for me (I discontinue them every so often to check) and I will tell you in a heartbeat that if I found that I had cancer, I would be signing up for the best chemo and/or radiation treatment money could buy.   I don't believe natural medicine has a cure for cancer.  But I do believe that adding herbal medicine to the regimen of treatment for any serious ailment increases your chances of surviving the ailment and the treatment.  Especially in the case of chemotherapy, which works by killing your cells.

New advances are being made and the body's own defenses being discovered all the time.  For example, in the link I list below, a study from the National Academy of Sciences suggests fasting may improve the results of chemotherapy, due to a starvation response that protects healthy cells (thus enabling higher doses to go in and scour out the malignancies.)

Answer 6

Well this is totally up to Your decision. You live in the free world, don't ya???

Answer 7

a doctor. an oncologist. use the alternative and spiritual options as complements to the professionals who have billions in research backing them up.

Answer 8

Medical doctor, that's the smart and sensible thing to do.

Answer 9

I would go to all three and try not to choose any one that is an emotional bully. Often times cancer patients are told that 'it's my way or the highway' by the very people who are supposed to be their support system. Ultimately, you need to decide which treatments and support that is offered is most appropriate for you.

Answer 10

As human beings are not just physical beings, does it not make sense that one would attempt to effect a cure using ALL methods at one's disposal, picking and choosing through which ones work for you (or me) personally?  It has been my considered experience that with "cancer treatment" under allopathic medicine, the cure is often far worse (and far more deadly) than the disease(s).  I would use all methods at hand, shutting out nothing that could possibly help me.

Answer 11

A Dr.herbologiest minister,for if it's cancer,you mite as well find someone that is all three,hit the cancer with everything right up front and personal...