Adjunctive Care with Nutritional, Herbal, and Homeopathic Complementary and Alternative Medicine Modalities in Stroke Treatment and Rehabilitation

Abstract

This article presents an overview of nutritional, herbal, and homeopathic treatment options from complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) as adjuncts in stroke prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation. Despite many promising leads, the evidence does not favor recommendation of most of these treatments from a public health policy perspective. However, simple preventive interventions such as use of a high-quality multivitamin/multimineral supplement in patients with undernutrition may improve outcomes with minimal long-term risk. Natural agents such as the antioxidant alphalipoic acid, certain traditional Asian herbal mixtures, and some homeopathically prepared remedies show promise for reducing infarct size and associated impairments. A number of nutrients and herbs may assist in treatment of stroke-related complications such as pressure sores, urinary tract infections, and pneumonia. Individualized homeopathy may even play a helpful adjunctive role in treatment of sepsis. However, a great deal of systematic research effort lies ahead before most of the options discussed would meet mainstream medical standards for introduction into routine treatment regimens.

Keywords:

• alpha-lipoic acid
• antioxidants
• herbal mixtures
• homeopathy
• multivitamin-multimineral supplements
• nonlinear doseresponse relationships
• stroke complications
• stroke prevention
• stroke treatment
• traditional Chinese medicine