Health food store cancer advice puts patients at risk
Employees of health food stores could be putting patients with breast cancer at risk because the advice they give is not supported by sufficient evidence, a new study suggests. Furthermore, recommendations from store assistants are often unaccompanied by discussions about possible adverse effects of a product, or its potential interaction with conventional cancer treatments.
The authors of the study believe that action is needed: “Governing
bodies should consider health food stores as commonly used, yet unregulated,
sections of the health care system.” They suggest that regulations
are needed to protect vulnerable patients from the significant costs
of purchasing products that lack evidence of benefit.
In the study, conducted by Dr Edward Mills from the Canadian College
of Naturopathic Medicine and colleagues from the University of Toronto
and the University of Exeter, England, eight people trained to act as
customers whose mothers were suffering from breast cancer, visited 34
Canadian stores. They browsed the store until approached by an employee
and then asked for product recommendations, giving information about
their mothers’ treatment regimens only when asked.
The store employees recommended 33 different products, none of which
was supported by evidence of effectiveness. Most employees (68 per cent)
did not ask whether the patient was taking prescribed medicines. Only
three (8.8 per cent) discussed the adverse effects of the products and
only eight employees (23.5 per cent) pointed out that the products might
interact with prescribed drugs. Two employees suggested that the products
might cure the breast cancer, and one recommended that one of the mothers
should stop taking tamoxifen because it was “poisonous”.
The study highlights the possibility that breast cancer patients are
seeking advice and treatment from alternative sources. “Patients
might not disclose this information to their traditional health care
providers. However, the advice they seek could have a negative effect
on their response to medical treatment and be the source of unexplained
reactions,” the researchers warn (Breast Cancer Research 2003;5:170). |
