Complementary and lifestyle treatments are very important, they’re extensively used by our patients and it’s really important for us as urologists to understand them. 

Unfortunately the role is not established but that’s not to say that they’re not of great use and some patients find these different therapies extremely useful. 

You can really divide these into five categories. 

First there are mind, body and spirit methods and these include mediation, aromatherapy and tai chi. 

Second, manual healing and physical therapy such as acupuncture, massage and exercise. 
The third type is herbal treatment and that can be the use of saw palmetto which requires further investigation. 

The fourth is diet and nutrition, that is the use of supplements, vitamins, minerals and special diets and the last is pharmacological or biological treatments such as homeopathy and shark cartilage. 

So all these treatments, these complementary and lifestyle treatments are very important and it’s important to consider these with patients. 

There’s more research going on them and I think really that some of these are very beneficial for patients but of course we’ve got to be careful with some pharmacological agents because they may have specific side effects that we’re not aware of as yet.