{"id":4330,"date":"2025-09-29T19:30:34","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T19:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/aging\/health\/beware-natural-cancer-treatments-are-trending-online-but-doctors-heed-these-warnings\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T19:30:34","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T19:30:34","slug":"beware-natural-cancer-treatments-are-trending-online-but-doctors-heed-these-warnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/aging\/health\/beware-natural-cancer-treatments-are-trending-online-but-doctors-heed-these-warnings\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware: Natural Cancer Treatments Are Trending Online, But Doctors Heed These Warnings"},"content":{"rendered":"
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People can\u2019t get enough of actor Parker Posey after playing the eccentric, lorazepam-popping Victoria Ratliff on HBO Max’s The<\/em> White Lotus<\/em>. But the 56-year-old is raising eyebrows after her recent appearance on the Smartless<\/em> podcast, where she suggested that going on a certain diet could “cure cancer.”<\/p>\n

The comments came while Posey talked about her experience at an Ayurvedic retreat, noting the different treatment options available based on people’s health needs. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with receiving holistic treatments, “there were people who had cancer who did the Ayurvedic [treatment],” she said on the podcast. “Through diet, they\u2019ve healed themselves,” she added.<\/p>\n

Posey went on to mention a documentary she watched when her father dealt with prostate cancer, “which had an interview with all these people who said, \u2018I\u2019m not doing chemo. I\u2019m just going to see what happens with my diet when I change it,'” she said. Then, Smartless<\/em> co-host Will Arnett chimed in with his own story: “I\u2019ve met two people in my life who had different forms of cancer who did similar things\u2014who changed not just their diet but their lifestyle and were able to completely eliminate the cancer,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Arnett also told the story of a former firefighter with lung cancer who “quit his life,” moved to California, and became a golf caddie. “He refused the chemo, and he beat it. He really did it,” Arnett said.<\/p>\n

But fans pushed back on this touchy conversation in the comments. “She lost me on the whole fake science B.S. about people healing their cancer through diet,” one listener wrote. Another said they were “disappointed” by the talk around natural cancer treatments. People on Reddit even called the segment on cancer treatments “really disturbing” and “dangerous.”<\/p>\n

This is hardly the only chatter swirling online about so-called “natural cancer treatments.” TikTok is packed with videos of people talking about diets to “heal” cancer. Plus, the Netflix docuseries Apple Cider Vinegar<\/em>, based on the real events of influencers claiming natural remedies treated their cancer, also got a lot of buzz earlier this year.<\/p>\n

With alternative treatments to less severe ailments floating into the mainstream right now, it’s fair to have questions about the potential effects of things like diet on cancer treatment. For the record, the oncologists cited in this article stress that nothing<\/em> can replace conventional, science-backed medicine, especially when treating cancer. However, there is some room in treatment regimens for natural therapies alongside standard treatments.<\/p>\n

Here’s what the experts want you to know about “natural cancer treatments,” whether they can even cure cancer, and ultimately, whether you should add them to your recovery regimen, despite what the online chatter says.<\/p>\n

What do ‘natural cancer treatments’ consist of?<\/h2>\n

This is a little tricky to say. “There is no good definition of ‘natural’ treatments,\u201d says Ashley Davenport, MD, breast medical oncologist with The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute.<\/p>\n

The term ‘natural’ is more common with average people than it is with doctors, says Kara M. Kelly, MD, an oncologist, associate dean for pediatric translational and population health research at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo, and chair of pediatric oncology at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.<\/p>\n

“Some people perceive certain herbs, vitamin supplements, and dietary changes to be more ‘natural’ and not manufactured or processed by a pharmaceutical company,” Dr. Kelly says. \u201cIt gives people a sense that these treatments are safer,” which, for some people, is not always the case. Other treatments might include things like acupuncture, massage, and physical movement, says Monica Avila, MD, MPH, a medical oncologist in the Gynecologic Oncology Department at Moffitt Cancer Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because these treatments are so popular, Pavani Chalasani, MD, MPH, division director at GW Cancer Center, says she fields questions about natural cancer treatments from patients all the time. “There\u2019s a lot of information out there about supplements and other [alternative] treatments,” she says. “People always ask about things they can do on their own.”<\/p>\n

This train of thought is common, as Dr. Kelly discovered through several studies and research. “We thought maybe about 30 percent of patients had been using some form of complementary or alternative therapy when in fact the numbers were 85 percent\u2014way more than we expected,” she says. “But 50 percent of those people didn\u2019t report the additional treatments to their healthcare team.”<\/p>\n