Acupuncture provides cancer patients with much-needed relief

• Some cancer patients experience side effects that can interfere with their lives, from the disease or from the treatment.
• More and more cancer patients are turning to acupuncture to help them feel better.
• "Went in for a biopsy and they definitely determined it was malignant," said Donna Hughes.
• She had a lumpectomy and 35 treatments of radiation while she was taking the drug Arimidex.
• The pain in her joints, especially her back, was really unbearable.
• Hughes said, "I talked it over with my oncologist.
• He said anything that he could do for me that would offer me any kind of relief would put me at risk."
• Acupuncturist Clarence Lu has worked on all types of cancer patients.
• The painless needles are strategically placed in her leg and arm for pain relief and in her ankle and stomach to increase the flow of energy.
• Lu said, "It helps regulate the endocrine system, the hormones in our bodies.
• It also releases neuropeptides, a lot of pain relief."
• Chi Ching, or acupuncture, is used on cancer patients to give them relief during treatment but it is frequently being used on patients before treatment is even started.
• Lu said, "Pre-surgical use, to try to help with the person's immune system before they undergo the rigors of cancer treatments."
• "In the West perspective, they talk about a five year survival rate as beating cancer.
• For me, what I have seen in China, often it really helps people reach that five year survival rate or much further," he said.
• Her appetite and hot flashes have both decreased.
• "I had pains in my hands, my feet and my knees and all of those have been relieved," she said.