Due to its safe and non-evasive procedure, acupuncture is growing in popularity with cancer patients who are already suffering under the effects of vigorous chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgical procedures.
While acupuncture does not treating cancer, it can help relieve some of the symptoms from treatment, which can often feel worse than the cancer itself, as well as reduce feelings of stress and anxiety which can also slow down recovery time and make and understandably stressful time feel even worse.
Acupuncture is a form of traditional Chinese medicine that has been practiced for centuries as a way to provide pain relief, reduce side effects and symptoms, and reduce recovery times. It is based on the theory of energy that travels through the body can become blocked by illness or anxiety amongst others, and that acupuncture helps break down these blockages and restore the body’s natural flow. Western acupuncture works under the same principles, by inserting tiny needles under the surface on the skin to cause a physical response with the nerve cells and parts of the brain. In turn the body reacts to the ‘pain’ by flooding the area with proteins hormones and chemicals to speed up the recovery.
By stimulating the body’s natural pain killing endorphins, rather than using chemicals or drugs, cancer patients using acupuncture as an adjunctive therapy are finding they are reducing their pain killers and spending less time trapped and immobilized by illness. Clinical studies back up the validity of acupuncture as an adjunctive therapy, and are showing that in breast cancer patients, acupuncture has been found to reduce symptoms of nausea, drug induced hot flushes and bodily aches and pains and that in cases it is proving as effective as prescribed hormones for tackling symptoms. In addition to this, its effects also lasted a lot longer that its drug alternative and test studies also reported a greater sense of wellbeing and boost in energy levels, which is incredibly important for maintaining a sense of you in a time that can be dominated by illness. If you, or someone you love is dealing with the side effects of cancer treatment, give us a call. We’ll start working with you to strengthen your bodies natural response and give you some relief.