Will Acupuncture Help Reduce My Pain Or Nausea Caused By Breast Cancer Or Its Treatment?
Question: Will acupuncture help prevent or reduce my pain and/or nausea caused by my breast cancer or its treatment?
Answer: Acupuncture most definitely reduces pain in many people. It reduces nausea in many people. We have both an NIH, National Institutes of Health, consensus conference and a publication which is a meta-analysis of all of the research that's been done on acupuncture, and we know that acupuncture definitely has beneficial effects for many individuals. The problem is: it doesn't work for everyone. Nothing works for everyone.
Welcome to the ABC News OnCall+ Breast... View Full Caption
So we generally recommend to patients that if they are still having nausea in addition to the pharmacologic agents that they're taking with chemotherapy -- which really should reduce the nausea almost to zero -- if they're still having some nausea, they should try acupuncture.
It may very well work. It works in the majority of patients. We are also finding, anecdotally -- and we're about to study this to see whether, in fact, it works across the board -- that acupuncture for many individuals helps reduce hot flashes, fatigue, shortness of breath, and a variety of other problems.
Previous: Should I tell my doctor if I am using complementary or alternative therapies?
3 minutes ago
41 minutes ago
1 hour, 56 minutes ago
2 hours, 7 minutes ago
Today in ABC News
