It is very important to evaluate every therapy, whether complementary or conventional, to determine if it is safe and effective.
- “Safe” generally means that the therapy will not cause harm or be detrimental to your health and well-being.
- “Effective” means that the therapy works in the way that it is intended to work.
In reality, it is nearly impossible to determine with 100% certainty whether any treatment or therapy is absolutely (in all cases) or universally (for all people) safe or effective.
So another way to look at this question is to examine the risks, benefits, and evidence. Ask the following questions and do the research to get good answers.
Risk: Is the therapy harmful? Just because something is natural does not mean that it is safe. There are many natural substances that are poisonous! A therapy may also put you at risk if it interferes with other treatment that you are receiving. For example, people who have had organ transplants are required to take drugs that suppress their immune system for the rest of their life. If they don’t take these drugs, they are at risk for rejecting the organ that was transplanted. St. John’s Wort may interfere with the immunosuppressive drugs – thus putting the person at risk.
Benefit: What will the therapy or treatment do? Does it work? Will it be effective? How will it contribute to my overall health and well-being?
Evidence: How much evidence is there that a given treatment is safe (no or low risk) and effective? Note that there is much debate about what constitutes evidence! Start by looking to see if there are rigorous scientific studies that have been conducted on the therapy for the proposed use. Note also if there is anecdotal evidence accumulated because a treatment has been used for over 5000 years. Stories or anecdotes are generally not given the same weight as scientifically conducted studies, but experience and accumulated wisdom should not be ignored.
It is important for you to evaluate all three – risk, benefit, and evidence and then determine if the therapy right for you. (The Making a Decision [0] [0]activity leads you through this process.)
Expert contributor: Mary Jo Kreitzer, Ph.D., R.N. [0]
Created: March 2006
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