Word of mouth is the likely reason a number of Olds residents are heading to a clinic in Mexico that offers alternative medical treatments, the clinic’s owner said. Dr.
Word of mouth is the likely reason a number of Olds residents are heading to a clinic in Mexico that offers alternative medical treatments, the clinic’s owner said.
Dr. Isai Castillo, who runs the CIPAG Clinic in Tijuana, said he does not have exact numbers on how many people from Olds or Alberta come to his clinic seeking alternative treatments for diseases and conditions ranging from cancer to osteoporosis to diabetes.
And he can’t give a definite answer as to why the clinic seems to be popular with people from Olds and other parts of Canada.
"I don’t really know," he said in a telephone interview from the clinic. "I think it’s just a matter of people talking about us. If you are in this type of work and you do good with people, people tell others."
At least two Olds residents currently battling cancer, Tanya Sayer and Andrea Barker, have received treatments at the clinic this year.
Barker, who was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma three years ago and has undergone two rounds of treatment at the clinic, said she learned during her time at the facility of a man from Olds being treated for multiple sclerosis at the clinic as well as a man from Didsbury undergoing treatments to help prevent illness.
Castillo said he believes people who have received treatments at the clinic are recommending the facility to others due to the "personal" relationships doctors at the clinic form with patients and the results patients are seeing.
"People get helped and then they tell others. That’s the most logical explanation."
He would not, however, go so far as to say people receive better care at his clinic than at facilities in Canada or the U.S.
"I am just saying that here, most people get results," Castillo said.
The clinic will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2014 and offers a combination of "regular medicine and alternative medicine," he said.
Alternative treatment programs at the clinic, which is staffed by 24 people, include chelation therapy where heavy metals are removed from the body, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) treatments, cell therapy and access to a hyperbaric chamber where patients receive oxygen.
Castillo said a patient’s particular health problems and needs will determine what type of treatment program they will undertake.
When asked how many people have sought out treatments at his clinic, Castillo said he has a computer database of 15,000 patients stretching back to 1991.
He added he first became interested in alternative treatments to diseases such as cancer after completing medical school.
"When I began working, my first paid job was in an alternative medicine cancer hospital (in Tijuana.) Back then, I didn’t know what alternative medicine was."
But as he became more immersed in the field of alternative medicine, he continued seeking jobs that allowed him to practise medicine "with the same philosophy."
By 1984, he said he felt "strong and knowledgeable enough" to open his own clinic that would combine various medical approaches to cancer treatment he had worked with in previous jobs.
While an emphasis is placed on natural kinds of medicine, Castillo said the clinic also offers traditional treatments.
"Having in mind that sometimes we have to use medications, sometimes we have to do surgery or radiation or even chemotherapy," he said. "The goal is to help the patient become the strongest possible, the healthiest possible, so the patient can face his challenges."
As for the costs, Castillo said there is a "world of possibilities" depending on the severity and scope of the patient’s health problems.
Barker said her first 21-day treatment period in the summer cost between $7,000 and $9,000, plus additional costs for a surgical procedure she underwent at the clinic.
The cost of her second, 10-day round in November was under $5,000.
Neither round included chemotherapy and Barker plans to return to the clinic in February.
She said she has "no complaints" about the care she has received in Canada for her cancer, but, unlike in Mexico, her treatment in Calgary was an isolating experience where she was put in a cubicle with a bed.
"You feel quite alone, to be honest with you. Just because you’re kind of in this little cubicle and you’d like to go talk to your neighbour but it’s almost like you feel like that’s not allowed there," Barker said.
In Mexico, she added, patients could be together during treatments to share experiences and offer one another support.
"You’re all in one big room and it’s just a bunch of chairs and IV poles and you get your treatment from two of the best nurses in my opinion, they’re awesome. And you just talk with one another," she said. "It’s so uplifting. It makes you so much more hopeful and just happy to be there and talking to these other people that are all going through some kind of the same scenario as you."
The treatment program at Castillo’s clinic, Barker added, "supports your body" and prepares a patient’s immune system for chemotherapy, if such a treatment is needed.
During her experiences in Calgary, she said, there was more of a focus on chemotherapy, with some discussions about what patients should be eating and things to stay away from such as vitamin C and probiotics.
Castillo encourages people to consume those things, Barker added.
"He wants your body to help you fight."
The majority of the comments on websites where people can rate their experience at Castillo’s clinic are positive and most people recommend the clinic to others.
The Alberta-Northwest Territories division of the Canadian Cancer Society could not comment on the potential benefits or risks of seeking treatments outside Canada as "medical tourism currently falls outside" the organization’s purview, said Paula Trotter, a spokeswoman for the division.
She added, however, that the society does encourage people who are looking at alternative treatments to carefully research their options.
"It’s crucial that patients considering an alternative or complementary therapy speak with their doctor or healthcare team," she said in an email. "The Society also strongly encourages all patients to take the time to evaluate the complementary and alternative therapies they may be considering.
"Please check www.cancer.ca/en/cancer-information/diagnosis-and-treatment/complementary-therapies/deciding-about-complementary-alternative-therapies, where we have prepared a list of things to consider and questions to ask when considering alternative or complementary therapies."
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