CHICAGO (Reuters) - "Acupuncture helped alleviate lingering pain and decreased shoulder mobility in people who had surgery for head and neck cancer, U.S. researchers said on Saturday.
The ancient Chinese therapy also resulted in significant improvements in extreme dry mouth or xerostomia, which often occurs in people who have had radiation treatment for head and neck cancer, they said at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago.
Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York " (Further studies are cited at the link) "studied 70 patients who were at least three months past their surgery and radiation treatments. About half got standard treatments, which include physical therapy and treatment with anti-inflammatory drugs. The other half got standard treatment plus a weekly acupuncture session. After four weeks, 39 percent of those who got acupuncture reported improvements in pain and mobility, compared with only 7 percent in people who got typical care.
"Although further study is needed, these data support the potential
role of acupuncture in addressing post neck-dissection pain and
dysfunction, as well as xerostomia," Memorial Sloan-Kettering's Dr.
David Pfister said at the meeting."This article comes from Reuters
Several of my relatives had head and neck surgery for cancer and suffered from these symptoms. My uncle did use acupuncture for pain and discomfort after he left the hospital. My mother was open to it but never tried it; it was too far away from her established ideas, plus her insurance did not cover it. My aunt had serious back pain and immobility while vacationing in China, was taken to an acupuncture clinic as an emergency patient and got immediate relief. She talked about it for years later, but did not continue with acupuncture. She ended up wearing a narcotic patch on her back for pain and got very disturbed and ill-tempered when the time neared to replace the patch with a new one because the dosage in the patch was declining.
