Acupuncture technique works better than prescription medicine for post-op nausea, study proves

• A needle-free acupuncture technique may outperform standard medication in preventing nausea and vomiting after major surgery, researchers reported Wednesday.
• Their study of 75 women undergoing breast surgery found that those who received so-called electro-acupoint stimulation during surgery suffered less post-operative nausea than either women who received no treatment or those who got a standard drug called ondansetron.
• The findings are published in the journal Anesthesia and Analgesia.
• Nausea and vomiting are common post-surgery reactions to anesthesia, but women undergoing breast surgery have a particularly high incidence, said Dr. Tong Joo Gan, an anesthesiologist at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, and lead author of the study.
• Certain surgeries, he noted in an interview, are tied to a higher risk of nausea and vomiting, and women are three times more likely than men to suffer such side effects.
• Acupuncture, in which thin needles are used to pierce the skin at specific points, is probably best known as an alternative method for pain relief.
• The electro-acupoint technique Gan and his colleagues used eschews the traditional needle and instead relies on electrodes that are placed on the skin to deliver a small electrical pulse to traditional acupuncture points.
• Two hours after surgery, the researchers found, only 19 percent of women who received electro-acupoint stimulation were suffering from nausea, compared with 40 percent of those on medication and 79 percent of patients who received sham therapy.
• In a finding Gan called "a little surprising," women who received acupoint stimulation also had less post-surgical pain.
• This is the first time stimulation of P6, specifically, has been shown to dull pain.
• Exactly why acupuncture, or electrical stimulation of acupuncture points, thwarts nausea is not fully clear, according to Gan.
• He said that the pain relief attributed to acupuncture is thought to be related to the release of endorphins, brain chemicals that naturally dull pain.