Ep. 271: Alternative medicine: Is it the real deal?

Guest: Dr. Dugald Seely, Ottawa Integrative Cancer Centre

In 2017, Dr Dugald Seely was awarded the Dr Rogers Prize for contributions to complementary and alternative health in Canada.

It is a unique Canadian prize that acknowledges the role of CAMs and it supports research with the awarding of a $250,000 prize.

What exactly is the contribution of complementary therapies to healthcare? Is it a feelgood kinda thing with a placebo effect? Are there direct and verifiable outcomes? And how do complementary and alternative therapies intersect with allopathic medicine?

The pushback against CAMs over the years has been fierce. Up to the 1970s, non-allopathic therapies were known as irregular practices and derided as not being evidence based, meaning those therapies could not be accepted as biomedicine.

Since then, the door of acceptance has cracked open thanks to the efforts of physicians like Dr Rogers, who were willing to introduce therapies they believed would benefit their patients. Those who did so risked their reputations and their license to practice medicine.

Dr Rogers was brought before a review board for employing the use of ozone in the treatment of a patient who was about to have his foot amputated. The treatment was successful and saved the patient's foot. However, a nurse on the ward where the treatment was administered complained to the College of Physicians and Surgeons.

At great expense to himself, Dr Rogers defended his practices, his reputation and the right of physicians to introduce complementary and alternative therapies.

The World Health Organization in 2019 at its 72nd assembly produced a report on Traditional and Complementary Medicine in which is says, “98 member states have developed national policies on T&CM and 124 countries have implemented regulations on herbal medicines.” The report goes on to say that where traditional and complementary care converge, they can help tackle the unique health challenges of the 21st century.

In Canada, Dr Seely is one of a significant number of dedicated health care professionals delivering complementary and alternative care and conducting peer reviewed research.

Dr Seely’s research on cardiovascular disease has been published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. He is in the midst of an 11 year Thoracic POISE trial in partnership with Ottawa Hospital and he is the founder and executive director of the Ottawa Integrative Cancer Centre, as well as the executive director of research at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine. He says evidence-based complementary medicine has a positive impact on patients and the healthcare system.

We invited Dr Dugald Seely to join us for a Conversation That Matters about empowered health through a holistic approach to wellness.