A Questionnaire Study on Health Foods for Cancer Patients.

Abstract

There are many health foods presently available. Some health foods are sold with the sales message "a medicine for cancer", so a lot of patients pay a large amount of money for them. Therefore we carried out a questionnaire survey which was given to patients to find out how many patients take health foods. For comparison purposes we did the same survey on diabetics and patients suffering from chronic illnesses like hepatitis and hypertensions, and then we analysed the differences among disease. In addition, we also checked out the safety of health foods. The ratio of taking health foods was especialy high for cancer patients, and they also spent a lot of money on them. There are several reports about adverse reactions of health foods and interactions between medicines and health foods. In addition health foods are often sold with the sales message that they act like a medicine. For these reasons, we have to provide information on the safety, interactions, effects and prices of such health foods with patients and doctors. This remains an important task as pharmaeists which has to be confronted in the future.