Meditation may add support during cancer treatment
[11/01/99; Cable News Network]
(WebMD) -- It might not seem like Pat Fobair has a lot to smile
about. First diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987, the 64-year-old
Northern Californian is now fighting the deadly disease a second
time. But she's excited because she recently completed her chemotherapy
treatment and can now muster the energy to attend a weekly meditation
class.
"I'm not looking to meditation as a cure for my cancer, but I
am looking at it as a way to relax myself and to help me handle
anxiety," says Fobair, a clinical social worker at Stanford University
Medical Center's radiation oncology department.
Fobair shares her interest in the unconventional with a growing
number of patients. According to a recent study in the Journal
of the American Medical Association, more than 6 percent of Americans
in 1996 had some form of unconventional therapy such as meditation,
acupuncture and biofeedback in addition to conventional medical
care. The researchers found that practitioner-based unconventional
therapies serve more as a complement to conventional medicine
than as an alternative.
The full article can be found at:
http://cnn.com/HEALTH/cancer/9910/01/bcam.cancer.meditation.wmd/index.html
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