Alternative health therapists in the State should be subject to some form of regulation, according to the Medical Council.
Council president John Hillery said the need for such regulation was re-emphasised this week following the inquest into the death of Mayo man Paul Howie.
The inquest heard Mr Howie (49) died after he was suffocated by a cancerous tumour in his throat. He had been treated by Mulrany-based alternative therapist Mineke Kamper.
It was claimed at the inquest that Ms Kamper, who did not attend the inquest, had discouraged him from seeking medical help, saying if he did, he would die. She is alleged to have claimed she would cure him.
Dr Hillery said the case was "hugely tragic" and he urged people worried about their health to get the advice of a properly trained, registered medical practitioner.
"There is no control of alternative practitioners . . . I think a regulation of alternative practitioners would be a good idea," he said.
Dr Hillery said he did not know a great deal about alternative therapies "except enough to be nervous about them", but he accepted some people felt they were less toxic than "ordinary" medicine.
However, he emphasised that ordinary medicine and ordinary medical practitioners were subject to training and scrutiny to which alternative practitioners were not.
When regulation of alternative therapists was being looked at, it would be a good idea to put an onus on the therapists to ensure people attending them also sought medical advice.
This would stop people "forbidding" people from going to a doctor, he said.
Most paramedics, such as dieticians, looked for referral letters from doctors before they would even see patients, "so it's quite doable, I think", added Dr Hillery.
Meanwhile, general practitioners who engaged in alternative medicine must be able to show that what they were doing had an appropriate basis under current Medical Council ethical guidelines, if not they would be struck off, Dr Hillery said.
Clare GP Dr Paschal Carmody was struck off last year after being found guilty of professional misconduct.
Two of the cases on which he was judged related to his involvement in the provision of an alternative light therapy to treat a patient with advanced cancer and the use of chelation therapy to treat a patient who suffered from angina.