Course overview

Useful Herbs During Cancer Treatment

This course will cover herbs that are most likely to be useful for prevention of cancer, addressing side effects, and will identify herbs at high risk for herb-drug interactions.
 Faculty

Mary Hardy, MD

 Board Review Series

AIHM 2018 Annual Conference

 Required Lessons

1

 Time to Complete

45 minutes

 Non-CME Eligible*

0 Credits 

What you will learn

  • Course Summary

  • Herbal products can be very helpful throughout the cancer care continuum. Because of their excellent safety profile, selected plants are being developed as preventative agents. During active treatment, herbs such as ginger, chamomile, turmeric (curcumin) and others have proven very useful for managing side effects of chemotherapy and radiation. Symptoms that persist into survivorship, such as hot flashes or cancer related fatigue for example, can be managed with black cohosh and ginseng respectively. Conventional cancer treatment has a narrow therapeutic index and oncologists are very concerned not to diminish the effectiveness of their toxic therapies. Therefore, it is critical that the safety of the herbal products be considered seriously. Products need to be well made without contaminants or variable concentration of key constituents. Herb drug actions can occur but this risk can be minimized. With sensible use of high quality herbal supplement, great benefit to patients can be attained.
    By the end of this course, learners will be able to:

    • Identify which herbs are most likely to be useful for primary or secondary prevention of cancer
    • Identify useful herbs to address specific side effects of active cancer treatment
    • Identify herbs at high risk for herb-drug interactions, in order to avoid using them

Course includes:

  • Video recording
  • Downloadable audio
  • Speaker handout(s)
  • 1 Quiz
  • Certificate of Completion

Included in this course

Course Faculty

Mary Hardy, MD

About Mary
Dr. Mary Hardy, board certified in internal medicine and a specialist in botanical and integrative medicine, has actively combined complementary and alternative therapies with traditional Western medicine for over twenty-five years in both her clinical practice and research projects. After completing her undergraduate studies at Vassar College, she returned to her hometown, New Orleans, to attend medical school at Louisiana State University. She completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Tufts New England Medical Center.

Dr. Hardy, the recent past Medical Director of the Simms/Mann-UCLA Center for Integrative Oncology, is a recognized leader in the field of Integrative Oncology. She has served as a board member of the Society for Integrative Oncology and as co-leader of the Oncology Interest Group in the Consortium of Academic Health Centers of Integrative Medicine. She has been a member of the Stiles Integrative Oncology Center at UCLA and has been co-director of a fourth year elective in Integrative Oncology.

Dr. Hardy is recognized as an authority on integrative medicine and herbal/natural products by organizations such as the Office of Dietary Supplements, the California Medical Board, the Canadian government, the United States Pharmacopeia, American Medical Association, the American Pharmaceutical Association, National Geographic, CBS, NBC, Discovery Channel and the Los Angeles Times.

*CME/CEU Credits

The CME for this course has expired, however you will continue to have access to your purchased content. 

Enroll Now!

This course is self-paced with no set beginning or end date. You may complete this course on your own schedule and pace. Enrolling in and purchasing this course grants you access to its contents in perpetuity.