Canadian researchers studying families with children in five specialty clinics at the Children's Hospital of Easter Ontario, Ottawa as well as the Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton have revealed that the use of alternative medicines like vitamins, chiropractic therapy, homeopathy, etc. is on the rise among children suffering from chronic conditions. The use of these medicines would warrant doctors to ask about them routinely, the researchers say.Pediatric patients, suffering from respiratory, oncology, neurology, gastroenterology and cardiology related issues, frequently use complementary and alternative medicines (CAM). The research established that most of these patients (almost 20%) do not reveal details about these medicines to their doctors. As such, they have greater chances of being affected by interactions between alternative and conventional medicines.The study revealed that the CAM products most popular among the respondents were vitamins and minerals, herbals, homeopathic medicines, food and hormone based products, fish oil and probiotics.
The most common CAM therapies opted for included massage, chiropractic therapy and relaxation techniques.Most of the respondents indicate that the CAM products and therapies they had used had been helpful. There were only 80 adverse events that were reported, with over 69% of them being minor.Herbologists like Robert Rogers indicate that in some cases though, the adverse effects of CAM on conventional medicines could be life threatening, especially in the case of blood pressure and cardiovascular issues (for instance, extensive bleeding or blood thinning).
The research also revealed that while families did trust their health care providers, they were more inclined to discuss the use of CAM only if the latter approached it with an open, nonjudgmental mind.Dr. Gideon Koren, a pediatrician and toxicologist at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children, runs a program that aims to educate families on the adverse effects of CAM as well as herbal alternatives on conventional medications and treatments.Koren urges doctors and physicians to understand why their pediatric patients opt for alternative medicines, indicating at the possibility that the child may not be doing well with the prescribed medications.Koren asserts that be it conventional or CAM, a medication or treatment would need to be prescribed to patients only after it has been tested to be effective and safe.
His hospital follows this same approach when treating patients. Based on these facts, the study published by the Canadian researchers, aims to educate clinicians to ask about the usage of CAM even when giving routine checkups to their patients.
