A New Approach to Cancer:
Acupuncture Treatment
In our clinic we are seeing more and more patients with cancer. Acupuncture treatment is proven through many scientific studies to improve side effects of chemotherapy and radiation, and improve the quality of life for these patients. This page is meant to give you an overview of the research. We will add pages later that highlight specific studies.Patients receiving acupuncture treatment have less nausea and vomiting than control groups during chemotherapy. A common side effect for these patients is xerostomia, or dry mouth. Several research studies show that patients undergoing cancer acupuncture treatment produce more saliva and self-report significant improvement in their dry mouth symptoms as compared to control groups. Vasomotor symptoms such as hot flashes are a common experience for patients with malignancies in the breast or prostate. Acu-therapy helps to relieve this symptom considerably. Since chemotherapy and radiation treatments can damage the immune system, many patients are left vulnerable to dangerous flus and other communicable diseases. Acu-therapy has a unique effect in that it can both up-regulate and down-regulate the immune system. There is no other drug or modality that provides such a profound homeostatic effect on the immune system. Research shows that these patients benefit from the up-regulating effect of acupuncture therapy. Lymphedema patients have few options to treat this uncomfortable condition but cancer acupuncture therapy has been demonstrated in clinical studies to relieve edema from the lower part of the body after treatment for gynecological malignancies. Many studies have demonstrated that patients psychological well-being or mood improves with acu-therapy. Many chemo and radiation patients suffer with profound fatigue. Scientific research and our own experience here in the clinic shows that we can help relieve fatigue in patients with malignancies. So for many patients with cancer, acupuncture therapy provides lasting relief from symptoms and side effects.
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