Do not stop standard treatment to try folk remedies or health supplements

For a cancer that could otherwise be treated, people who use only alternative therapy and skip standard treatment have 2.5 times the risk of death of people on standard treatment. People who use complementary therapy while also being treated more often refuse surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, and the extra deaths come from that. Some herbs also weaken anti-rejection drugs and anticoagulants; ask the treating doctor before taking any.

Cost

No cost; you also save what you would spend on supplements. No extra time. The hard part is holding firm when others keep pushing you to try something.

Benefit

Two US cancer-registry studies looked at non-metastatic, potentially curable breast, prostate, lung, and colorectal cancer. The first compared patients who used only alternative therapy and did none of surgery, chemo/radiotherapy, or endocrine treatment with matched standard-care patients: death risk 2.5-fold (HR 2.50, 95% CI 1.88–3.27, about 1.5 times higher). Breast cancer 5.68-fold (3.22–10.04), lung 2.17-fold (1.42–3.32), colorectal 4.57-fold (1.66–12.61). The second looked at standard treatment plus complementary therapy: refusal rates were surgery 7.0% vs 0.1%, chemo 34.1% vs 3.2%, radiotherapy 53.0% vs 2.3%, endocrine therapy 33.7% vs 2.8%. Five-year survival 82.2% vs 86.6%; death risk 2.08-fold (HR 2.08, 1.50–2.90, about double). After accounting for delay and refusal, complementary therapy alone was not linked to death (HR 1.39, 0.83–2.33). The author’s conclusion: extra deaths came from refusing standard treatment. China’s State Administration for Market Regulation requires health-food labels to state: “Health food is not medicine and cannot replace drugs to treat disease.” The US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) states that St John’s wort (贯叶连翘) weakens several drugs, including cyclosporine for transplant rejection and the anticoagulant warfarin

Notes

B only. Both studies were cancer-only, registry follow-up without randomized groups; people who chose alternative therapy may differ in other ways. Stopping meds in hypertension or diabetes: see item 1 (full adherence). Tell your treating doctor before any supplement. Whether to pay for supplements: Section 6, item 10 (supplements, tonic formulas, tonics)

Sources · 4

1. Johnson SB, Park HS, Gross CP, Yu JB (2018). Use of Alternative Medicine for Cancer and Its Impact on Survival. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 110(1), 121-124. doi.org/10.1093/jnci/djx145
2. Johnson SB, Park HS, Gross CP, Yu JB (2018). Complementary Medicine, Refusal of Conventional Cancer Therapy, and Survival Among Patients With Curable Cancers. JAMA Oncology, 4(10), 1375-1381. doi.org/10.1001/jamaoncol.2018.2487
3. 国家市场监督管理总局 (2019). 市场监管总局就《保健食品标注警示用语指南》和《保健食品原料目录与保健功能目录管理办法》有关情况举办专题新闻发布会. samr.gov.cn/tssps/sjdt/tpxw/art/2023/art_4b65…
4. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (2025). St. John's Wort. nccih.nih.gov/health/st-johns-wort