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Acupuncture is more
widely accepted by doctors
The extreme sickness experienced by cancer patients undergoing high-dose
chemotherapy could be eased by electroacupuncture. Nausea and vomiting
caused by the powerful drugs used to fight cancer can prove extremely
debilitating for patients.
Doctors offer an arsenal of various anti-emetic drugs to lessen the
reaction, but in recent years acupuncture has been joining mainstream
medicine as a possible extra help.
Any therapy which involves the insertion of needles is always going to have
somewhat of an image problem
Mark Bovey
Exeter University
Acupuncture involves the insertion of tiny needles at various set points
around the body. Although there is evidence that it works for a variety of
conditions, no-one is fully sure how.
Electroacupuncture also involves inserting needles, but then passing
different strengths of electrical current through them.
The latest study to back the technique was carried out at the National
Institutes of Health in Maryland, US, and reported in the Journal of the
American Medical Association.
Thirty-seven patients were given electroacupuncture through two "classic"
points.
They were also given three conventional anti-emetics, while 33 other
patients had a less intense form of acupuncture, and 34 only drugs.
Among the acupuncture group, the average number of sickness bouts during the
five following days was five, 10 for those receiving the less intense
acupuncture, and 15 for those simply taking anti-emetics.
Recommended treatment
The authors are now recommending that hospitals offer the treatment to
patients in whom conventional drugs have failed to prevent vomiting.
Mark Bovey, a research co-ordinator, at the Acupuncture Research Resource
Centre at Exeter University, said that doctors were beginning to become far
more accepting of acupuncture as a viable therapy.
He said: "Acupuncture is well-known as a control of various sorts of nausea
and vomiting, such as post-operative pain, morning sickness and travel
sickness.
"There a single particular point on the wrist which is always used."
He said: "Any therapy which involves the insertion of needles is always
going to have somewhat of an image problem, but a recent BMA survey found
80% of GPs were interested in acupuncture for their patients."
Search BBC News Online
British Acupuncture Council
Journal of the American Medical Association
Information resource:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1061732.stm |
