Cancer pain can be debilitating, whether it's pain caused by the disease itself or pain related to treatment. Fortunately, research suggests acupuncture can serve as a viable, nondrug therapy to combat cancer pain, giving patients already in great physical and emotional distress much-needed relief.
An important systematic review and meta-analysis just published in JAMA Oncology suggests acupuncture and/or acupressure is effective for reducing cancer pain. Researchers examined randomized clinical trials that compared acupuncture and acupressure with a sham control, analgesic therapy or usual care for managing cancer pain.
Overall, 17 RCTs (1,111 total patients) were included in the systematic review, and 14 RCTs (920 total patients) in the meta-analysis. The primary outcome was pain intensity measured by the Brief Pain Inventory, Numerical Rating Scale, Visual Analog Scale, or Verbal Rating Scale, with findings summarized as follows:
"Seven sham-controlled RCTs (35%) were notable for their high quality, being judged to have a low risk of bias for all of their domains, and showed that real (compared with sham) acupuncture was associated with reduced pain intensity."
"A favorable association was also seen when acupuncture and acupressure were combined with analgesic therapy in 6 RCTs for reducing pain intensity. ... and in 2 RCTs for reducing opioid dose."
These findings are significant because, as the authors state, more than 70 percent of cancer patients experience pain, but pain is inadequately controlled in nearly 50 percent of cases; and also because "addiction to analgesics and the adverse effects of pharmacological interventions pose critical challenges to pain management."
People today want convenience, whether it be from their bank, credit card, favorite retail store, or restaurant. They demand it from the companies who hold their loyalty, including their health care providers (you). They don’t want to call and possibly be put on hold, and they want to use an app or schedule an appointment on your website. Here are three reasons your practice can gain by switching to online appointment scheduling.
While there aren’t any meridians associated with fire that cross the pelvis, that doesn’t mean the lower tan tien is void of fire. Fire has a more ethereal quality to it in relationship to the pelvis and can be connected through discussion of the lower tan tien, the lower san jjao, the ming men, and the bao mai. In this article, we’ll journey through the anatomy of subtle fire in the pelvic bowl and look a bit at how it is kindled, carried and cultivated.
In 1997, the World Health Organization and the National Institutes of Health convened a multiday conference on acupuncture to evaluate its clinical utilization and mechanisms of action. The resultant document recommended acupuncture for a wide variety of clinical issues; and also recommended acupuncture be taught in medical schools and brought into mainstream medicine.Twenty-eight years later, acupuncture is far from integrated in the way that the document portends.
