Acupuncture May Improve Joint Symptoms in Breast Cancer Patients Treated with Aromatase Inhibitors
For women treated with aromatase inhibitors for early breast cancer, acupuncture may help to relieve the joint pain and stiffness that sometimes accompanies these drugs. The results of this study were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

The majority of breast cancers are hormone receptor-positive. These cancers are stimulated to grow by the circulating female hormones estrogen and/or progesterone. Treatment of hormone receptor-positive breast cancer often includes hormonal therapies that suppress or block the action of estrogen. These therapies include tamoxifen [Nolvadex®] as well as agents known as aromatase inhibitors. Tamoxifen acts by blocking estrogen receptors, whereas aromatase inhibitors suppress the production of estrogen in postmenopausal women.

Joint pain and stiffness are one of the potential side effects of aromatase inhibitor therapy. Successful management of this side effect could improve quality of life and reduce the likelihood that patients will discontinue aromatase inhibitor therapy.

Acupuncture is a form of traditional Chinese medicine that aims to improve health by stimulating specific points of the body.[1]

To explore the effects of acupuncture on aromatase inhibitor-associated joint pain, researchers conducted a study among 43 women.[2] All of the study participants were receiving an aromatase inhibitor for early breast cancer, and all reported musculoskeletal pain.

Study participants were assigned to receive either true acupuncture or sham acupuncture twice a week for six weeks. Sham acupuncture involved superficial needle insertion at nonacupoint locations.

Women treated with true acupuncture experienced improvement in joint pain and stiffness over the course of the study. No such improvement was observed among women treated with sham acupuncture.

The results of this study suggest that acupuncture may help women manage the joint pain and stiffness that can accompany aromatase inhibitor treatment.

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It’s February and we are still seeing patients come in for the common cold and the flu. Besides the respiratory viruses that were prevalent earlier in the winter season our healthcare team at the Tao of Wellness has seen more stomach virus cases since the beginning of the year. This has been true with other healthcare groups I’ve spoken to around the country. These viruses are highly contagious often affecting every member of a family and cause stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, weakness, and with or without fever.

Each year, one in three Americans suffers from the common cold or the flu. In past blogs I have suggested natural ways to support the healthy functions of your immune system in raising your resistance against the common cold. Common sense practices include washing your hands frequently with soap, and wash your face at least twice a day. Refrain from touching your nose and face with your hands except with tissues. Also, protect your upper back and neck area when it’s cold or windy by using a scarf, because this is where most of the colds will attack the body leading to stiff and achy neck and head. Here are six more natural strategies to avoid the common cold and the flu.

1. Rest up to restore your immunity. Studies show that your immune system function drops by an average of 60% after just three nights of poor sleep, so be sure you are getting plenty of quality rest, at least eight hours each night. Can’t fall asleep or stay asleep? Try taking a hot bath at night before bedtime or soak your feet in Epsom salt bath for 15 minutes. It will help relax your mind and body in preparation for your sleep.

2. Eat sweet potatoes and mushrooms. These foods help optimize your body’s immunity function. Sweet potatoes contain higher amounts of vitamin C and beta-carotene than carrots, as well as being rich in plant source DHEA, a potent immunity booster. Certain types of mushrooms, like shitake, maitake and reishi, contain polysaccharides, sterols, coumarin, vitamins, minerals, and amino acids that have been found to increase immune functions and activities.

3. Garlic keeps more than vampires away. Throughout human history garlic has been loved as well as loathed. Loved by those who enjoy its intense aroma and pungent flavors and loathed by those who are repelled by its odor. The strong odor of garlic actually comes from a sulfur-compound called allicin that studies have found to be a powerful antibacterial and antiviral agent. Not only has it been shown to be effective against colds, flu, stomach virus and candida yeast, it has also been shown to be effective against antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria such as MRSA. Besides repelling microbes, apparently even vampires don’t like it either.

4. Vitamin C to your rescue. The late Nobel laureate Linus Pauling did pioneering research on the benefits of vitamin C. It is regarded as the safest and most effective nutrient. A recent look at over 100 studies on vitamin C in the last 10 years revealed many conclusive benefits of vitamin. Not the least is its well-known property of supporting immune functions especially when the immune system is suppressed by stress. It may not prevent the common cold or the flu but it can reduce the risk of complications like pneumonia and lung infections. One can safely take up to 2,000 mg of vitamin C daily.

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EVEN though traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is gradually catching on, especially among younger people, there are still cynics out there who question the effectiveness of its methods in preventing and treating illnesses. But physician Zhou Yan from the Eu Yan Sang Specialist TCM Centre says there are no doubts about its efficacy.

TCM – a science that was developed centuries ago through constant experimentation and real-life experiences – is the real deal, she said. “The successes are accumulated, researched upon and passed down from generation to generation.

The fact that TCM is still surviving and has not been extinguished by medical advances is because it has proven to be useful,” said the 45-year-old in Mandarin.

The TCM physician and acupuncturist with about 20 years of clinical experience has seen more than 160,000 patients in her career.

She said TCM can be extremely effective – with almost a 100 per cent success rate – in treating illnesses, provided the physician makes an accurate diagnosis.

Treatments – such as acupuncture, herbal medicine, therapeutic massage (or tui na) and cupping – can be very complex and vary substantially depending on the illness and a client’s constitution, as well as factors such as the climate, the client’s physical environment and whether he or she cooperates, she said.

“A physician needs to look at all these things holistically and consider each individual’s situation before deciding on treatment,” she added.

In a talk on Saturday, Ms Zhou will be focusing on issues surrounding “sub-health”, a state between wellness and illness where there are frequent onsets of unhealthy symptoms but where no definite disease or illness can be diagnosed.

According to a global survey by the World Health Organization, only 5 per cent of the world population enjoy good health; 20 per cent are diagnosed as being ill and up to 75 per cent are in the sub-health category.

Using TCM methods is best for people who are at the sub-health stage, because the treatment does not produce any side effects and can bring balance to your body and prevent illnesses before they strike, said Ms Zhou.

my paper posed the physician some burning questions from readers.

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An extract from green tea may be useful in treating uterine fibroids, a condition that affects 25%-30% of U.S. women, new research indicates.

Fibroids of the uterus, a condition called uterine leiomyoma, can be debilitating, leading to excessive vaginal bleeding, anemia, and fatigue.

Dong Zhang, MD, and colleagues from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn., say they’ve found that an extract of green tea could kill uterine fibroid cells in test tube studies and reduce the size and weight of fibroids in mice.

Their work is published this week in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The researchers injected 20 mice with fibroid cells. Ten mice were given epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) mixed with their water, and 10 mice were given plain water. EGCG is a polyphenol in green tea and is a compound found in vegetables and fruits.

The mice were followed for up to eight weeks. At both four weeks and eight weeks after treatment, fibroid growths were smaller and weighed less. The researchers note that one mouse in the EGCG group had no tumor seen at the end of eight weeks.

In test tube studies with rodent fibroid cells, cells treated with EGCG grew more slowly and were smaller after 48-72 hours. EGCG also prompted fibroid cell death. The researchers write that it is “highly encouraging that, in our work, a relatively modest dose of EGCG … that was delivered in drinking water was successful in inducing a dramatic and sustained reduction in fibroid tumor size up to eight weeks after treatment.”

The researchers say their study suggests that EGCG “might be particularly useful for long-term use in women with a low fibroid tumor burden to arrest tumor progression and avoid the development of severe symptoms that necessitate major surgery.”

Ayman Al-Hendy, MD, PhD director of Clinical Research at Meharry, says in the news release that women who suffer from uterine fibroids may lose time from work, have higher medical bills, and might need advanced treatment in order to become pregnant.

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Green tea may reduce the risk of lung cancer, particularly for smokers, according to a study released this week.

At least a cup a day was associated with more than 5-fold lower lung cancer risk among Taiwanese adults, reported I-Hsin Lin, of the Chung Shan Medical University in Zhonghe City, Taiwan, and colleagues.

Moreover, for current and former smokers, regular green tea intake was associated with a nearly 13-fold lower risk than abstaining from the drink, suggesting that the antioxidants in tea have “an inhibitory effect…elicited by smoking,” the researchers said.

These findings were reported at the American Association for Cancer Research-International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer Joint Conference on Molecular Origins of Lung Cancer.

“We suggest smokers or nonsmokers, both of them, should drink green tea to keep away from lung cancer,” Lin told MedPage Today. “However, the cessation of smoking is the best way for cancer prevention.”

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A new medical study finds that acupuncture, an ancient form of healing that has been around for thousands of years, is as good as, or better than modern medicine in helping ease the side effects of breast cancer treatment.

Acupuncture may alleviate some unpleasant side effects of hormone therapy.The findings, which were presented today at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology’s annual meeting in Boston, suggest that this ancient therapy can give cancer patients a wide range of benefits above modern medicine.

Cancer treatments, like chemotherapy, which kills breast cancer cells, can wreak havoc on a woman’s body, throwing many into menopause with severe symptoms.

“I got about two hot flashes an hour,” said Susan Azar, 43, a breast cancer survivor. “Very intense ones where you would break out in a sweat.”

The “conventional” remedy for Azar’s chemotherapy-induced hot flashes is a daily anti-depressant. But these pills can produce side effects of their own, including dizziness, nausea and constipation.

In an effort to find a way to alleviate some of chemotherapy’s symptoms, Azar enrolled in a clinical trial to receive acupuncture once or twice a week, for 30- to 45-minute sessions.

“Two to three weeks into the study, you start to notice the hot flashes, the intensity and the frequency would decline,” Azar said.

Acupuncture, an ancient Chinese therapy, practiced for thousands of years, uses very thin needles to reduce pressure at specific points. Most patients do not feel any pain from the needles.

Most women in the study said they saw the same dramatic effect from the acupuncture treatment as Azar did.

“Acupuncture is equal to drug therapy in decreasing hot flashes,” said Dr. Eleanor Walker at the Henry Ford Hospital and lead author of the study. And even better, she said, it has no side

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Newark resident Ann Monske slipped on ice and fell in January 2009.

The 76-year-old went through rehabilitation with spinal decompression all summer long, but the pain remained intense. Because of her osteoarthritis — which she has had for more than 10 years — and her allergy to many pain medications, Monske looked for alternative methods to treat her pain.

Her massage therapist told her about acupuncture, and Monske did her homework. Soon, she was convinced it would help her. She had to travel to Canal Winchester until she found local acupuncturist Lisa Hicks. Monske started going for treatment three times a week, but now is down to once every three weeks.

“I believe her skill in treating me has a great deal to do with it (my pain relief),” Monske said. “She knows where to put the needles, and it is relatively pain-free and very relaxing. She is a wonderful find for me.”

Instead of relying solely on pain pills and steroids, a few alternative treatments are available that might help to relieve arthritis pain, including acupuncture, which involves pricking the skin or tissues with needles to alleviate pain or treat certain conditions.

Hicks is quick to point out acupuncture does not cure arthritis but is effective in treating chronic pain, such as pain caused by headaches, arthritis, shingles, spastic colon and colitis.

“Arthritis is not a treatable disease,” Hicks said. “We treat the symptoms. Acupuncture does not heal the body. It jump starts it to heal itself.”

Hicks found about acupuncture through her own experience of dealing with chronic pain from a hand and shoulder injury. She was in so much pain she couldn’t even open a bottle or turn a key.

After 14 acupuncture treatments, she realized she was going to get better. She said her accident was the best thing that happened to her because it changed her life and her career.

After dealing with arthritis in his joints and lower back for 10 years, Bill Redmond, 49, of Newark, tried chiropractors, massage therapy, back decompressions and medication, to no avail.

His wife started going to Hicks for migraines and suggested he go, too.

“I can definitely feel a difference,” Redmond said. “Acupuncture makes my pain manageable.”

Hicks graduated in 2008 from the American Institute of Alternative Medicine with a five-year degree. But she still is working to get the word out about the treatment.

“Ohio hasn’t adopted acupuncture because it is still too new, even though it has been around for 4,500 years,” Hicks said. “You have to keep an open mind. If a closed mind says something is not going to work, no matter what it is, it won’t work.”

During an acupuncture session, Hicks will swab each acu-point area with alcohol before tapping a hair-thin, metal needle into the site. The needles are so thin that several acupuncture needles can go into the middle of a hypodermic needle.

The number of needles used during treatment can vary and are placed at various depths. They are placed under the skin in carefully determined points on the body. After inserted, the needles stay in place for several minutes or up to an hour. Hicks energizes the needles electrically to intensify the effect of the treatment.

Ed Monroe, 63, of Jacksontown, has arthritis in his shoulders and back. He had physical therapy for eight weeks and three shots of cortisone, which didn’t help. He was in so much pain that he had to do something, so he started going to Hicks after a friend told him about his experience in Mexico.

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Acupuncture is just as good as standard medication to ease hot flashes and other uncomfortable symptoms in women undergoing breast cancer treatment.

And as an added bonus, the needle treatment may boost the patient’s sex drive and contribute to clearer thinking.

“I think the data shows you that acupuncture is a good option for these patients [and] it has no side effects,” added Dr. Eleanor Walker, division director of breast services in the department of radiation oncology at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, and lead author of a study appearing online Dec. 28 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

But another expert warned against taking the findings too seriously at this stage.

“It’s provocative but the problem is it’s a small number of patients and, having participated in research trials in vasomotor [hot flashes, night sweats, etc.] symptoms in women, it’s a field that has a large placebo effect,” said Dr. Jay Brooks, chairman of hematology/oncology at Ochsner Health System in Baton Rouge. “It needs to have a bigger trial.”

Prior studies have shown that acupuncture can reduce hot flashes in postmenopausal women without breast cancer.

All of these studies, however, compared acupuncture to sham acupuncture, not to commonly used drugs, Walker noted. This is the first randomized controlled study to compare acupuncture alongside medication.

Many women with breast cancer receive anti-estrogen hormone therapy, usually for as long as five years, in addition to other treatments.

Although hormone therapy is effective in reducing tumor recurrence, it does cause hot flashes and night sweats.

The antidepressant Effexor (venlafaxine) is the most commonly used therapy for relieving these symptoms, but the drug brings its own problems, namely dry mouth, reduced appetite, nausea and constipation.

“We need something that’s accessible that doesn’t add adverse effects,” Walker said.

For this study, 50 women with breast cancer were randomly assigned to receive 12 weeks of acupuncture (twice a week for four weeks then once a week) or daily Effexor. They were followed for a year.

Initially, both groups of women experienced similar reductions (about 50 percent) in hot flashes and depression, with an overall improvement in quality of life.

But the acupuncture benefits were longer lived. Two weeks out, women taking the antidepressant saw a resurgence in hot flashes while women in the acupuncture arm continued to have far fewer problems.

About 25 percent of women receiving acupuncture also reported more interest in sex while many also reported more energy and clearer thinking.

How might acupuncture work its magic? One expert had a theory.

Acupuncture operates as a balancing mechanism, said Janet Konefal, a licensed acupuncturist and assistant dean of complementary and integrative medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. “It is a regulator for the systems of the body,” she explained. “It doesn’t add or take anything — it simply increases activity or decreases activity depending upon the points used. In this situation, it helped regulate the endocrine system, thus helping to balance the activity of hormones, neurotransmitters, and other biochemical reactions that regulate the body.”

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An acupuncture session may bring some itch relief to people with the allergic skin condition known as atopic eczema, a preliminary study suggests.

Eczema is a general term for conditions marked by inflammation and dry, red, itchy patches on the skin. The most common form, atopic eczema, is seen in people with a predisposition to allergies, like hay fever or asthma.

In the new study, German researchers looked at the short-term effects of acupuncture on skin inflammation and itching in 30 people with atopic eczema. They found that the therapy, when done minutes after patients’ skin was exposed to an allergen—either pollen or dust mites—appeared to soothe subjective feelings of itchiness.

In addition, when patients were exposed to the allergen for a second time shortly after the acupuncture session, they tended to have a less-severe skin reaction, the researchers report in the journal Allergy.

The findings show that in this “experimental setting,” acupuncture seems to ease the itch of atopic eczema, lead researcher Dr. Florian Pfab, of the Technical University of Munich, told Reuters Health in an e-mail. The study does not, however, answer the question of whether acupuncture as practiced in the real world would have similar benefits.

For the study, Pfab and his colleagues looked at all 30 patients under three different test conditions. In one, patients had their skin exposed to either pollen or dust-mite allergens, then received true, or “point-specific,” acupuncture, in which needles were placed in traditional acupuncture points that, according to Chinese medicine, are related to itchy skin.

In another condition, the allergen exposure was followed by “placebo-point” acupuncture, where the needles were inserted into skin areas not used in traditional Chinese medicine. In the third condition, patients received no treatment.

Overall, Pfab’s team found, patients’ itchiness ratings were lower after they received true acupuncture, compared with both no treatment and placebo acupuncture. Then, when the researchers exposed patients’ skin to the allergens a second time, skin flare-ups tended to be less-severe following the point-specific acupuncture. As for itchiness, however, both the true and placebo therapies had similar benefits compared with no treatment.

Acupuncture has been used for more than 2,000 years in Chinese medicine to treat a wide variety of ailments. According to traditional medicine, specific acupuncture points on the skin are connected to internal pathways that conduct energy, or qi (“chee”), and stimulating these points with a fine needle promotes the healthy flow of qi.

Modern research has suggested that acupuncture may help ease pain by altering signals among nerve cells or affecting the release of various chemicals of the central nervous system. Pfab explained that pain and itchiness have similarities in their underlying mechanisms, so acupuncture’s effects on pain mechanisms may also account for the benefits seen in this study. The researcher pointed out, however, that more research is needed to see whether and why acupuncture might be helpful for people with eczema.

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For thousands of years, the people of China, Japan, India, and Thailand have consumed green tea and used it medicinally to treat everything from headaches to flatulence. In fact, the ancient Chinese proverb, “better to be deprived of food for three days, than tea for one,” gives us an idea of how much they believed in its curative abilities. Over the past few decades, however, research in both Asia and the West has begun providing scientific evidence of green tea’s numerous health benefits.

As a whole, studies indicate that regular consumption of green tea may slow or prevent conditions including high cholesterol, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, impaired immune disease and liver disease. In addition, some studies have indicated green tea may have cancer-fighting properties, lowering the rate of gastric, esophageal, and mouth cancers. And in a conference this week sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), researchers reported that Taiwanese smokers who consumed one cup of green tea each day significantly reduced their chances of developing lung cancer.

For their study, Dr. I-Hsin Lin, of Chung Shan Medical University in Taiwan, and her colleagues recruited 170 people with lung cancer and 340 healthy patients as controls. The participants completed questionnaires regarding their lifestyle habits, including how much they smoked, how much green tea they drank, their dietary intake of fruits and vegetables, cooking practices and family history of lung cancer. They also underwent genotyping on insulin-like growth factors: IGF1, IGF2, and IGFBP3, all of which have been reported to be associated with cancer risk.

The results showed that both smokers and non-smokers who did not drink green tea were 5 times more likely to develop lung cancer compared to those who drank at least one cup of green tea per day. Smokers who did not drink green tea at all were more than 12 times more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer than those who drank at least one cup of green tea per day. However, the protection was greatest for those carrying certain genes. Green tea drinkers, whether smokers or non-smokers, with non-susceptible IGF1 (CA)19/(CA)19 and (CA)19/X genotypes reported a 66 percent reduction in lung cancer risk compared with green tea drinkers carrying the IGF1 X/X genotype.

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