Alternative Cancer Treatments and Insurance
If you or a loved one has ever dealt with cancer, you know what a nightmare treatments can be. While they can work wonders in curing the disease itself, side effects like losing one’s hair, nausea, exhaustion and a laundry list of other symptoms can leave patients feeling drained and sometimes hopeless.
If you are one who believes in treatments beyond the norm, you may want to learn more about alternative forms of therapy. Some may be covered by your health insurance provider, while other simply reply on positive thought or just moving your body. Even if you are initially skeptical, opening your mind to alternative treatments may prove incredibly rewarding for your health and well being.
Take Control of Your Body: Biofeedback
Personally, I’m very intrigued by this form of therapy, as I feel it could be applied to so many things beyond dealing with cancer treatments. Biofeedback basically a form of therapy that strives to connect the body and mind. It’s designed to enable the patient to use thoughts and will to control the body. Biofeedback is based on the idea, confirmed by scientific studies, that people have the innate potential to influence with their minds many of the automatic, involuntary functions of their bodies.
A certified biofeedback therapist uses an electronic device to monitor a specific body function, such as your pulse, heart rate or any tension seen in your muscles. The machine uses a beeping sound or a flashing light as cues to tell you things like if your pulse or heart rate is slowing down, or your muscles are relaxing. Working with the biofeedback therapist, you learn to control these functions by paying attention to the cues and how your body is feeling.
On Pins and Needles: Acupuncture
If you are experiencing the typical side effect of cancer treatment like nausea, you may want to see if your health insurance plan covers acupuncture. An ancient form of healing, tiny needles are inserted under the skin all over the body. The pressure points that are targeted by the needles (which make you look like a human pincushion but don’t hurt at all) can help in battling the queasy stomach feeling that so lovingly accompanies chemotherapy. Acupuncture is not dangerous, but make sure you do your homework and feel comfortable with the doctor you find, as it sounds like the stuff of nightmares to be poked and prodded by someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing.
Stop and Smell the Roses: Aromatherapy
If you have ever found your mood altered by what you were smelling, you may want to look into aromatherapy. While they may not be able to help with any physical pain you are feeling from the cancer, oils can help in providing a very calming and centering effect. Oils can be applied to the skin or soothingly massaged into the scalp. You may even find some upset stomach relief in smelling mint oils, because mint is excellent at quelling nausea and bringing up the feeling of invigoration.
You Are Getting Sleepy: Hypnosis
Cast aside any stereotypes you may be holding about people swinging watches back and forth in front of your eyes and staring at you like a crazy person. Today’s form of hypnosis is very gentle, and while you are “under,” a hypnotist can help you identify ways you can deal with aspects of your cancer like managing stress or reducing your pain. If you are anticipating pain from past treatments, like nausea and vomiting, hypnosis can help cut these off at the pass so you may not have to deal with them again.
Fortunately, as medicine and the insurance world continue to evolve together, many of these treatments may be covered by your health insurance plan, whether you have breast cancer, prostate cancer, or any of the other common forms. Always check to see if they are, because trying alternative therapies to deal with your cancer could help you deal with pain and make you feel like there are always other options out there to try.
Photo Credit (in order of appearence, from top to bottom): Martin Pettitt, maerzbow, Dennis Wong, photo credit: magnetbox
Tags: accupuncture, acupuncture, alternative therapies, aromatherapy, biofeedback, cancer, health care, health insurance, hypnosis
December 24th, 2008 at 1:52 am
[...] Alternative Cancer Treatments and Insurance [...]
October 8th, 2009 at 5:02 am
[...] I don’t imagine that any of you are running around rolling in chemicals, but they can be lurking where you least expect it. If your body is constantly being invaded with chemicals, it has to focus on that rather than keeping cancerous cells at bay. Again, Med Health Insurance says you should pay attention to your health by using your body’s biofeedback. [...]
October 17th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
[...] I don’t imagine that any of you are running around rolling in chemicals, but they can be lurking where you least expect it. If your body is constantly being invaded with chemicals, it has to focus on that rather than keeping cancerous cells at bay. Again, Med Health Insurance says you should pay attention to your health by using your body’s biofeedback. [...]