Naturopathy

There is no single mechanism here, because naturopathy is several different things at once. Being clear about which is which is the difference between useful care and dangerous care.

• Fixing the ordinary things first

  Constipation from opioids, dehydration, protein deficit, thirty tablets on an empty stomach, three hours of sleep. These are the commonest causes of feeling terrible during treatment, and they respond to unglamorous changes in food, fluid, timing and routine.

• Nutrition as physiology

  Protein and energy intake determine whether you keep muscle through treatment. Muscle loss predicts worse tolerance of chemotherapy and slower recovery from surgery. This is measurable, not philosophical.

• Herbs as pharmacology

  A herb is a mixture of active compounds. Some are genuinely useful — ginger for nausea, senna for constipation, peppermint oil for cramping gut. They act on receptors and enzymes exactly as drugs do, which is why they help and why they interact.

• Deprescribing the supplement pile

  Most people arriving here are taking six to fifteen products bought on the recommendation of relatives and the internet. A large part of the work is removing what is useless, duplicated, or actively unsafe with your treatment.

• Structured attention and self-efficacy

  An hour spent on what you eat and how you live gives back a sense of agency at a point where most decisions are being made by other people. That effect is real and worth naming, and it is not a reason to add products.

The strongest results are in the everyday symptoms that make treatment hard to tolerate, not in the disease itself.

• Appetite, weight and muscle loss

  Practical, tolerable ways to get protein and energy in when food tastes like metal and portions are frightening. Often the single highest-value thing we do.

• Constipation and bowel problems

  Nearly universal on opioids, and badly under-treated. Fibre, fluid, timing, and coordinating with the laxatives your doctor prescribed rather than competing with them.

• Nausea and taste change

  Ginger, temperature and texture changes, meal timing around infusions, and rescuing food from smells that have become unbearable.

• Mouth soreness and dryness

  Mucositis and dry mouth after chemotherapy or head and neck radiotherapy — practical rinses, textures and product choices, coordinated with your team.

• Fatigue

  Checking the correctable causes first — anaemia, thyroid, deficiency, sleep, medication timing — before anything is added. Most fatigue supplements sold to patients treat nothing.

• Drug–herb safety review

  Arguably the most important reason to book: an itemised check of everything you are taking against everything you are prescribed. Many people leave with a shorter list, not a longer one.

Especially worth considering if

• You are taking supplements that nobody on your medical team has actually reviewed.
• You are losing weight, or eating has become a daily battle.
• Family members keep arriving with new herbal products and you do not know how to say no.
• You are about to start chemotherapy or radiotherapy and want your cupboard checked first.

This is the section that matters most on this page. Herbal medicine is the one therapy we offer that can measurably change how your cancer treatment, your blood thinner or your heart medication behaves in your body. Read it, and bring every bottle to your appointment — including the ones you think are harmless.

Stop — clearance needed first

Do not start until your medical team has confirmed it is safe for you.

• Any herb or supplement during active chemotherapy, targeted therapy or immunotherapy

  Nothing new starts without a check against your regimen. Some agents are metabolised by liver enzymes that common herbs speed up or slow down, which can mean a weaker dose or a more toxic one.

• St John's wort — never alongside cancer treatment

  A powerful inducer of the CYP3A4 enzyme and drug transporters. It can substantially reduce blood levels of many chemotherapies, targeted agents, immunosuppressants, HIV medicines, anticoagulants and hormonal contraceptives. This is one of the clearest hard no's in integrative medicine.

• High-dose antioxidants during radiotherapy or chemotherapy

  High-dose vitamin C, E, selenium and similar are theorised to protect tumour cells from treatments that work by oxidative damage. The evidence is unresolved. Timing and dosing must be your oncologist's decision, not a supplement label's.

• Anything at all if you take warfarin or a DOAC

  Ginkgo, garlic, ginger, high-dose fish oil, turmeric, dong quai, vitamin E and many others affect clotting or the enzymes that clear anticoagulants. Both bleeding and clotting risk are real, and INR is not always checked in time.

• Liver or kidney impairment

  Clearance is reduced, so ordinary doses accumulate. Several herbs — kava, comfrey, germander, high-dose green tea extract — have documented liver toxicity even in healthy people.

• Hormone-sensitive cancers

  Soy isoflavone concentrates, red clover, dong quai, black cohosh and similar phytoestrogens need an oncologist's opinion. Whole soy foods in normal amounts are a different question from concentrated extracts.

• Before surgery

  Most herbs and supplements should stop one to two weeks beforehand because of bleeding, blood pressure and anaesthetic interactions. Tell your surgeon and anaesthetist exactly what you take.

Proceed, with changes

These do not rule the therapy out. They change how it is delivered — tell us so we can adapt it.

• Turmeric and curcumin

  Popular and usually mild in food. Concentrated extracts affect liver enzymes, may increase bleeding, can worsen gallstone and bile duct problems, and rare liver injury is reported. Culinary use is a different matter from capsules.

• Green tea extract

  Drinking green tea is fine. Concentrated EGCG capsules carry documented liver toxicity and are reported to interfere with the chemotherapy agent bortezomib.

• Ginseng

  Interacts with warfarin, may affect blood sugar, has stimulant effects that disturb sleep, and has an estrogenic question mark in hormone-sensitive disease.

• Licorice root

  Raises blood pressure and lowers potassium — a genuine problem alongside diuretics, steroids or heart medication.

• Grapefruit and grapefruit juice

  Not a supplement, but one of the strongest CYP3A4 inhibitors in an ordinary kitchen. It raises levels of many medicines. Check before making it your daily juice.

• Melatonin

  Widely used and generally well tolerated for sleep, but it interacts with anticoagulants, anticonvulsants, diabetes medication and immunosuppressants. Dose and timing matter more than most people realise.

• Traditional jamu and imported herbal products

  We support traditional medicine used knowingly. The problem is unlabelled ingredients: independent testing has repeatedly found undeclared steroids, painkillers and heavy metals in some products. Bring the packet so we can look at what is actually in it.

• Restrictive or 'anti-cancer' diets

  Ketogenic, fasting, raw-food and juice regimens during treatment risk weight and muscle loss at precisely the wrong time, and food-safety risk when immunity is low. Any of them needs oncology sign-off first.

Medicines, devices and interactions

Bring your full medication list, including anything bought without a prescription.

• How the interaction actually happens

  Most clinically important herb–drug interactions run through a handful of liver enzymes (especially CYP3A4) and the P-glycoprotein transporter. Speeding these up lowers your drug level; slowing them down raises it. Neither is safe when the drug is chemotherapy.

• Bleeding risk stacks

  Ginkgo, garlic, ginger, ginseng, high-dose fish oil, vitamin E and turmeric each nudge bleeding risk upward. Combined with an anticoagulant, an antiplatelet, or a low platelet count, small effects add up.

• Blood sugar and blood pressure

  Cinnamon, fenugreek, bitter melon and berberine can lower blood sugar on top of diabetes medication. Licorice and some stimulant herbs raise blood pressure. Both need monitoring, not guessing.

• Sedation stacks too

  Valerian, kava, passionflower and high-dose melatonin add to opioids, benzodiazepines and antihistamines. The result is falls and confusion, particularly in older people.

• Every plan here is checked before it is given

  No herbal recommendation leaves this clinic without being run against your full medication list, and anything uncertain goes to dr. Ricky and, where needed, your oncologist before you start it.

Before

• Bring every bottle, packet and jamu sachet — not a list from memory. Photographs of labels are acceptable; guesswork is not.
• Bring your prescription list and recent blood results if you have them.
• Come ready to talk honestly about what you actually eat, not what you feel you should be eating.

During

• A long consultation — 60 to 75 minutes for the first visit. Diet, digestion, bowels, sleep, energy, mood, treatment schedule and side effects.
• A full review of everything you are taking, with each item marked keep, stop, or check with the medical team.
• A short written plan with a small number of specific changes. If it comes to more than a handful of things, it will not survive a hard week.
• Honest statements about what is not known. 'There is no good evidence for that, and here is what I would do instead' is a normal answer here.

After

• You may leave with fewer supplements than you arrived with. That is a successful consultation, not a wasted one.
• Dietary changes usually show up within one to three weeks — bowels first, then energy and appetite.
• Any herbal recommendation that touches your prescriptions is confirmed with dr. Ricky before you start it.
• A copy of your plan goes into your Solacea record so the rest of the team, and your oncologist, can see it.

Naturopathy is easy to evaluate because the targets are concrete. Pick two — for example bowels open comfortably most days, and weight stable over a month — and track exactly those.

Signs it is helping

• Weight steady, or muscle maintained, through a course of treatment.
• Bowels moving comfortably without an escalating laxative habit.
• Fewer days when nausea or taste change stops you eating altogether.
• Mouth comfortable enough to eat normal food again.
• Your supplement list is shorter, cheaper and fully known to your medical team.
• You know what to do with the next herbal product a relative brings to the house.

Pause and tell us if

• Any new rash, itching, yellowing of the eyes or skin, dark urine, or unusual bruising — stop everything herbal and contact your team the same day.
• Nausea, vomiting or diarrhoea starting after a new product.
• Unexplained changes in your INR, liver enzymes or kidney function.
• You are losing weight despite the plan — that needs a medical review, not more supplements.
• You are being asked to buy an expensive proprietary product, or to spend more than a modest amount monthly.
• Anyone suggests a herbal protocol as an alternative to your medical treatment. Leave that consultation.

Length of a session

First consultation 60–75 minutes. Follow-ups 30–45 minutes.

Initial course

Initial visit, a review at four to six weeks, then as needed. Most of the work happens between appointments, not in them.

Continuing

A review whenever your treatment changes, whenever a new supplement is suggested to you, and before any planned surgery.

When we review it

At every change of chemotherapy regimen, every new prescription, and any time your liver or kidney function shifts.

• Bring the bottles. All of them.

  Including vitamins, the tea a neighbour recommended, the jamu from the market, and the product a relative ordered online. What is on the label — and what is missing from it — is the consultation.

• Tell your oncologist everything you take

  Surveys consistently find most patients do not, usually fearing disapproval. Your oncologist needs the full picture to keep your dose right. We will help you word it if that helps.

• Change two things, not ten

  Plans that survive a bad chemotherapy week are short. Two changes done consistently beat a page of ideal advice abandoned by Wednesday.

• Treat 'natural' as meaning nothing about safety

  Digoxin, morphine and chemotherapy agents are all plant-derived. Potency is the point — the question is always dose, purity and what else you are taking.

• Be careful with anything sold as a cancer cure

  High-priced proprietary formulas, testimonial-driven marketing, instructions to stop conventional treatment, or pressure to buy quickly. These patterns cost Indonesian families a great deal of money and, sometimes, their treatment window.

• Stop herbs before surgery and say so

  One to two weeks beforehand as a rule, and tell the anaesthetist regardless. Bleeding and blood pressure surprises in theatre are avoidable ones.

• Watch your kidneys and liver, not just your symptoms

  If you take herbs during treatment, your team should be checking liver and kidney function anyway. Ask for those numbers and keep an eye on them yourself.

• Keep food ordinary and achievable

  During treatment, the food you will actually eat beats the theoretically optimal food you will not. Perfection is a common route to weight loss.

The evidence splits sharply. Nutritional support during cancer treatment is well established — maintaining protein, energy and muscle mass measurably improves treatment tolerance and recovery, and is mainstream oncology, not alternative medicine. Individual herbal agents have real, if narrower, support: ginger for nausea, senna and related agents for constipation, peppermint oil for functional gut symptoms. What is not supported is any herbal or dietary regimen as a treatment for cancer or another serious disease, and we will not offer one. The interaction risks described above are among the best-documented parts of the field. Our position: the nutrition and deprescribing work is high-value and low-risk; herbal prescribing is useful but must be checked, narrow, and shared with your medical team.

Sources informing this page

• Society for Integrative Oncology / ASCO — integrative oncology guidelines and cautions on supplement use during treatment
• US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) — herb–drug interaction resources
• Memorial Sloan Kettering 'About Herbs' database — herb-by-herb interaction summaries
• ESPEN — clinical nutrition guidelines in cancer
• Indonesian BPOM — product registration and reports on adulterated traditional medicines

Named for transparency about where our position comes from. Specific study references are added by our clinical team at review.

Take these to your doctor before you start. They are the questions that change what is safe for you specifically.

• “Here is everything I take — is any of it a problem with my treatment?”
• “Are there weeks in my cycle when I should stop supplements entirely?”
• “Do my liver and kidney results allow herbal medicine at all right now?”
• “Should I stop anything before my operation, and how far in advance?”
• “Am I losing muscle, and does anything in my bloods explain my fatigue?”
• “If a relative brings me a herbal product, who should I check with before taking it?”