Non-Medical Cancer Treatment Methods

Non-Medical Cancer Treatment Methods.
When it comes to easing the opinion slang shit of certain breast cancer drugs, acupuncture may work no better than a "sham" version of the technique, a elfin trial suggests. Breast cancer drugs known as aromatase inhibitors often cause side crap such as muscle and joint pain, as well as hot flashes and other menopause-like symptoms effects. And in the new study, researchers found that women who received either bona fide acupuncture or a sham variation saw a similar recovery in those side effects over eight weeks.

And "That suggests that any benefit from the real acupuncture sessions resulted from a placebo effect," said Dr Patricia Ganz, a cancer artist at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine who was not knotty in the study. The placebo effect, which is seen in curing studies of all kinds, refers to the phenomenon where some people on an inactive "therapy" get better keepskincare.com. However, it's critical to know what to make of the current findings, in part because the study was so small, said Ganz, who studies quality-of-life issues in cancer patients.

And "I just don't reflect you can come to any conclusions. Practitioners of acupuncture introduce thin needles into specific points in the body to bring about therapeutic gear such as pain relief. According to traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture works by stimulating decided points on the skin believed to affect the flow of energy, or "qi" (pronounced "chee"), through the body.

The study, published online Dec 23, 2013 in the register Cancer, included 47 women who were on aromatase inhibitors for early-stage core cancer. Aromatase inhibitors include the drugs anastrozole (Arimidex), letrozole (Femara) and exemestane (Aromasin). They facilitate lower the body's pull down of estrogen, which fuels tumor growth in most women with breast cancer.

Half were randomly assigned to a weekly acupuncture sitting for eight weeks; the other half had sham acupuncture sessions, which active retractable needles. Overall, women in both groups reported an improvement in certain drug view effects, such as hot flash severity. But there were no clear differences between the two groups. And in an earlier study, the researchers found the same original when they focused on the side effect of muscle and joint pain.

Dr Ting Bao, who led the study, agreed that "you could conclude that it's a placebo effect". On the other hand, it's also recondite to develop a placebo version of acupuncture, said Bao, an aid professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. During the false procedure, the needles did not penetrate the skin, and they were placed on areas of the skin that are not considered traditional acupuncture points.

But the stimulation may have some physiological effect, Bao explained. "It might not be truly inert. Many studies have suggested that acupuncture can aide ease various types of pain, such as migraines and back aches, as well as critique nausea and vomiting from surgery or chemotherapy. Some recent research suggests that the needle stimulation triggers the rescue of pain- and inflammation-fighting chemicals in the body.

The current study was mainly designed to overlook at one side effect from aromatase inhibitors - muscle and joint pain, which all of the participants had suffered from since starting the drugs. Bao's side looked at hot flashes, sleep problems and other menopause-like symptoms as "secondary outcomes". That's another limitation, Ganz said, because the scrutiny was simply not set up to assess those particular effects. Eleven of the 47 women, for example, had no hot flashes when they entered the study.

Larger studies are still needed, said Bao. And they should also subsume a patient group that receives no acupuncture - to view whether the procedure is better than doing nothing. Still, Bao said that because acupuncture carries a unhappy risk of side effects, women could give it a shot - even if any benefits come from a placebo effect. "The facts are not definitive. But I think it's OK to explore this as an option because it's low-risk".

There are other options for managing aromatase inhibitor part effects.For hot flashes, unavoidable antidepressants and the anti-seizure drug gabapentin are often effective, Ganz said. For muscle and shared pain, Bao said there's evidence that exercise helps - if a woman can muddle through that. In some cases, the side effect clears up if a woman switches to a different aromatase inhibitor, Bao noted. While acupuncture may be subdued risk, there is the issue of cost propeptides scam. Prices vary, but a characteristic session runs around $100, and insurance may not cover it.