Acupuncture can prevent radiation-induced chronic dry mouth, study finds

ScienceDaily (2011-11-10) -- When given alongside radiation therapy for head and neck cancer, acupuncture has shown for the first time to reduce the debilitating side effect of xerostomia, according to new research.

Evidence-Based Interventions for Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy

Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) continues to be a significant, debilitating symptom resulting from the administration of neurotoxic chemotherapy for the treatment of cancer.  CIPN is an important consequence of cancer treatment because of its potential impact on physical functioning and quality of life.  Oncology nurses play an important role in assessing, monitoring, and educating clients about CIPN.  Despite investigations concerning pharmacologic and nonpharmologic approaches to either preventing or minimizing the neurotoxicity resulting from certain chemotherapeutic agents, evidence to support the interventions is lacking.  This article presents information concerning CIPN and summarizes the pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic approaches to the prevention and treatment of CIPN.  

Alex writes:  Acupuncture and some nutritional supplements I have found are very effective for this problem.  

Acupuncture For Surgical Pain

Reported June 30, 2008

Acupuncture for Surgical Pain

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DURHAM, N.C. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- For centuries, acupuncture has been used for its pain-relieving benefits. Now, doctors are using the therapy in a setting where pain management is crucial -- during surgery.

Lauren Hennessey is being prepped for surgery. And along with drugs to numb the pain, she's getting acupuncture. Duke University anesthesiologist TJ Gan said acupuncture sparks the release of endorphins and other natural pain killers in the body, making pain medication work more effectively.

"We have found that by using acupuncture, you can potentially reduce the amount of painkillers that you otherwise would need to use during surgery,” Dr. Gan told Ivanhoe. “Some studies suggest that accupuncture can also reduce the amount of anesthetic that you need to provide for the patients."

And fewer drugs mean fewer side effects.

"I never vomited,” Hennessey said. “I was nauseous for very shortly and my pain was very minimal."

Dr. Gan said the pain relieving benefits of pre-operative acupuncture may last far longer than the effects of any drugs.

"There is evidence to suggest that if you control the pain well during surgery, not only does it benefit the patient immediately post-operatively, but there is also increasing evidence to suggest that this will prevent longer-term pain problems," Dr. Gan said.

But even with the growing body of evidence of its benefits, Dr. Gan said acupuncture should only be used as a complement to traditional anesthesia.

"For most of the conditions, I think we still need powerful drugs to control pain, but I think acupuncture would be a very useful addition to that regimen," Dr. Gan said.

Dr. Gan said he targets both universal and localized acupuncture points in patients, depending on the part of body that will be affected by the surgery. Acupuncture for surgery pain is also used at Yale, Stanford and Massachusetts General, among others.

Acupuncture for Surgical Pain -- Research Summary

BACKGROUND: The ancient Chinese art of acupuncture can be traced back to the Stone Age. Stone acupuncture needles from 3000 B.C. were discovered by archaeologists in Mongolia. The art has come a long way from there, but the principles remain the same. Based on the principles of yin and yang, the theory is that the thin needles (0.18 millimeters to 0.51 millimeters thick) create a balance between blood and energy to relieve pain. The technique has been theorized to treat a wide array of ailments, ranging from stress to indigestion to infertility, but there has been little evidence to support these claims, making it a controversial technique in the medical community, but recent clinical studies have produced results convincing some of the world's brightest minds to believe there may be some science behind the technique for certain conditions.

NEEDLES RELIEVING PAIN? During surgery, anesthesia and pain-killing medications are often used to make patients comfortable and make invasive surgery possible. After surgery, patients are often left with post-operative pain requiring additional medication. These drugs, ranging from narcotics to opioids, can cause unpleasant side effects like nausea, vomiting, constipation and hallucinations. A 2007 study out of Duke University Medical Center suggests acupuncture may reduce patients' post-operative pain, therefore reducing the amount of painkillers needed.

After analyzing 15 studies on acupuncture for surgical pain, Duke researchers found performing acupuncture before or during certain operations reported significantly less pain afterwards than patients who did not receive acupuncture. The patients also required less painkillers after surgery, thereby reducing related side effects. Acupuncture patients experienced 1.5 times lower rates of nausea, 1.6 times fewer reports of dizziness and 3.5 times fewer cases of urinary retention compared to the other patients, the study found; however, it was used as a compliment to traditional surgical anesthesia and painkillers -- not a replacement.

CONVINCING FOR SOME: While many will continue to discredit the controversial practice, T.J. Gan, M.D., vice chair of the department of anesthesiology at Duke University School of Medicine, is convinced it's right for some cases. "There has been a fair amount of evidence both in animals and humans that stimulating the acupuncture points can result in the release of body own pain killers systems such endorphins and enkephalins," Dr. Gan told Ivanhoe.

"The acupuncture needs to be inserted about half an hour to 45 minutes before surgery because it typically takes about five or 10 minutes for the body to start releasing some of these pain killing effects of the acupuncture," Dr. Gan explained. "We typically maintain the acupuncture throughout the surgery to the end of surgery. And during that period there is the release of body’s own endorphins."

Acupuncture programs are also in place at Yale, Stanford, Bringham and Women's and Massachusetts General Hospital, among others.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Melissa Schwarting

Senior Media Relations Strategist

Duke University Medical Center

(919) 660-1303

melissa.schwarting@duke.edu

Alex's comment: It is much easier to treat pain before it starts than chase it afterwards. This is true with medication and as this article demonstrates with acupuncture too. For my patients that are going into surgery there are homeopathics that can be safely taken prior to surgery that are very beneficial in reducing or even eliminating the use of pain medications afterwards. Send me an email if you would like my pre and post surgery protocols.

Acupuncture Regulates Many Aspects of The Immune System as Measured in the Blood

Acupuncture Regulates Leukocyte Subpopulations in Human Peripheral Blood

Acupuncture has recently been attracting more and more people throughout the world as an alternative treatment, however little is known about its physiological activities (i.e. immune system). We examined acupuncture both quantitatively and qualitatively by measuring CD-positive cell counts and cytokine expression levels in the blood, to determine the activity of T cells, B cells, macrophages and natural killer (NK) cells. Fifteen milliliters of peripheral blood obtained from 17 healthy volunteers aged 21–51 years, were analyzed using flow cytometry before and after acupuncture treatment. There was a statistically significant increase in the number of CD2⁺, CD4⁺, CD8⁺, CD11b⁺, CD16⁺, CD19⁺, CD56⁺ cells as well as IL-4, IL-1β and IFN- levels in the cells after acupuncture stimulation of meridian points. These observations indicate that acupuncture may regulate the immune system and promote the activities of humoral and cellular immunity as well as NK cell activity. In this article, we discussed how acupuncture regulated leukocyte numbers and functions since they are considered to be potential indicators for evaluating complementary and alternative medicine.

For the full text article click here

Acupuncture shines in this kind of basic research of objective changes. Acupuncture is amazing. Can sticking a needle in the skin really have all these effects? Apparently, Yes it can!

Acupuncture vs. Cancer: Re-Engaging the Body's Immune System

Can acupuncture retrain the immune system and brain toward a natural and successful antagonistic approach to dangerous cell growth? Some Oriental medical doctors are now using acupuncture in new ways to help the body's immune system relearn its original "seek and destroy" mission against cancer.

One such doctor, Dr. Wang Fuda, of Greenville Research Clinic in southern Taiwan, currently sees 100-200 patients per day. Over 70 percent of his clinic patrons are cancer patients. Dr. Fuda believes that acupuncture, employed correctly, can retrain the body's immune system to defeat cancer, and correct or erase faulty body signals hospitable to cancer.

Dr. Fuda sees the needle as a homeopathic instrument. The point of the needle is actually perceived by the body as an enemy. As the needle pricks, the body musters its defenses against the invader. Fuda says the trained hand can actually feel the qi energy and body tissue resist penetration of the acupuncture needle. Applied at key points, he believes the immune system can be retrained and reactivated in some people, and this defensive action can be channeled to the site of the cancer. For the rest of the story click the link above.

For more information about Dr. Fuda click here

Acupuncture, massage helpful after cancer surgery

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A combination of acupuncture and massage may help ease pain and depression symptoms after cancer surgery, a new study suggests.

Acupuncture has been shown in many studies to ease pain, and there's growing evidence that it helps quell post-surgery nausea. Massage, meanwhile, has been shown in certain studies to aid cancer patients' anxiety.

Until now, however, no studies have tried combining the two therapies for people undergoing cancer surgery -- a physically and emotionally difficult process.

Acupuncture on Oprah

Oprah has done more to promote acupuncture than probably anyone has done.

Acupuncture The Evidence: Documentary film

This documentary is a good and entertaining examination of acupuncture from a scientific from a skeptics point of view who examines the evidence and walks away impressed.

the programme demonstrated an experiment being conducted by Hugh MacPherson, Senior Research Fellow at the University of York. This mapped the effect of acupuncture on brain structures with both MRI and MEG scanners at the newly opened York Neuroimaging Centre. kathysykes.jpg (2129 bytes) Kathy Sykes the presenter The team found that superficial needling resulted in activation of the motor areas of the cortex, a normal reaction to the sensation of touch. But with deep needling, the brain’s limbic system, which is part of the pain matrix, was deactivated, a result that could not have been predicted from what we know about neural pathways. This line of research suggests that the deactivation of the pain matrix may explain in part the mechanism by which acupuncture has an effect when used to treat chronic pain.

Highlights:

• Open heart surgery with acupuncture and a local anasthetic. The patient is conscious for the whole operation.
  

• Good explanation of an fMRI study of the effect of acupuncture on the brain about 50 minutes into the show.

Stress, Hormones and Cancer

I am fond of saying that "nothing ever gets better with emotional stress". Now, new research demonstrates this in the cancer realm. The overproduction of stress hormones/neurotransmitters causes cancers to grow in vitro and in a rat model.

Norepinephrine up-regulates the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2, and MMP-9 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma tumor cells.

Chronic stress promotes tumor growth and angiogenesis in a mouse model of ovarian carcinoma.

When the animals were tightly confined in plastic chambers for several hours at a time — causing a surge in their stress hormones — the tumours multiplied in size and number and were far more likely to metastasize. But blocking the stress hormones stalled the spread of the cancer. Moreover, the cancer grew more slowly in mice restrained in groups.

Cancer is way more than aberrant cells and perhaps can be significantly impacted by stress reduction practices and things like acupuncture that modulate the sympathetic nervous system (flight or fight neurotransmitter/hormonal response) to stress. However the scientific research controversies about this play out the public is not waiting for a scientific consensus. Studies show that two thirds of cancer patients are pursuing complimentary and alternative practice and mostly not telling their Doctors!.

All this to me is like the debate over energy efficiency and fossil fules. Until recently fuel economy was not given a lot of credence by American automakers and energy policy designers due to the erroneous assumption that energy efficiency does not have that big an impact (see link to Amory Lovins talking about energy policy). Meanwhile the Japanese automakers kept their eye on fuel efficiency (and quality) and are now the most successful car manufacturers. The same is true for therapies and practices that reduce the stress response in cancer. They may not cure cancer (although they might) but they sure can improve the quality of life while a person is alive and sustain the length of time that it takes for aggressive metastasis to develop.

A little history is in order here:

The controversy (over mind-body medicine) started 15 years ago when a study conducted by researchers at Stanford University's medical school found — quite to their astonishment — that in a decade-long assessment, women with metastatic breast cancer assigned to support groups had survived an average of 18 months longer than those receiving no psychological support. Scientists have been bickering ever since.

A study by researchers at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital a few years back, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, was touted as the nail in the coffin of the theory that the mind can influence disease. An attempt to replicate the Stanford study, it divided 235 women with metastatic breast cancer at random between those attending support groups where they could share their thoughts and fears with other patients and those left to their own devices. It found no difference in survival. What the research did show, however, is a huge improvement in the women's moods and perceptions of their pain.

“We were also able to achieve significant improvement with depression, anxiety, psychosocial adaptation,” says Molyn Leszcz, head of psychiatry at Mount Sinai and the study's principal co-investigator. “We didn't hit a home run. A home run would have been to show a survival effect. But we had evidence we were doing something right.”

This comes from a very well written feature story, Cancer in the Mind's Eye for the Toronto Globe and Mail newspaper. The author is struggling with cancer herself. She also explains her journey into healing with Alastair Cunningham a scientist who has integrated spirituality into group therapy. He has also written a book, The Healing Journey: Overcoming the Crisis of Cancer. It looks fascinating. If anyone has read this book let me know.

Acupuncture Works Really Well for Hot Flashes

This comes from a syndicated column that I found from the People's Pharmacy. I have seen their Q and A column in the LA Times Health Secotion every Monday.

A woman writes in:

I have had such success with an alternative therapy that I wanted to get the word out.

I was a premenopausal breast-cancer patient two years ago. My tumor was estrogen positive, so I have to avoid any sort of estrogen compound, including plant-based estrogen products. (It is still not known if plant-based estrogen could hurt someone with my type of breast cancer.)

I take tamoxifen to prevent a cancer recurrence. This drug acts as an "anti-estrogen" in breast tissue.

I was thrown into chemical menopause after chemotherapy and have experienced symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia and bone and joint pain.

I just tried acupuncture (four sessions so far) and have had unbelievable success in curbing hot flashes and night sweats. My daytime hot flashes have virtually disappeared. The night sweats still occur occasionally, but much less often than before. As a result, my sleep is much improved, and I am not waking up in the middle of the night.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Acupuncture has been used for a range of conditions. We were unaware that it might be helpful for hot flashes.

Now the folks at the People's Pharmacy know and so do you.