Alternative Medicine Use in Dialysis Patients: Potential for Good and Bad

Although alternative medicines are widely used within the general population, the extent of their use within the dialysis population is unknown. It is possible that dialysis patients may be more likely to turn towards alternative therapies in view of the chronicity of their disease. In addition, this particular patient population could be at an increased risk of toxicity from these therapies due to an absence of renal excretion. A detailed assessment of complementary and alternative medicine use in our dialysis patients revealed that 18% of our patients had used or were using some form of alternative medicine therapy.An additional 63% of our patients, however, were willing to use a complementary or alternative medication. Our results suggest that hemodialysis patients are extremely receptive to the use of such therapies and are therefore exposed to all their potential benefit and harm.