Acupuncture and Nutrition Clinic – Houston

I have a number of patients who come to my clinic to get help with managing the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation. Without a doubt, the treatments required to battle cancer are strong and can be debilitating to quality of life. The diagnosis is emotionally devastating and then coping with the treatments which are physically challenging becomes a double whammy.

I was pleased to read the article below because for those of us who treat patients going through the rigors of cancer treatment, we know that acupucnture is a wonderful option. One of my patients came to me after her chemotherapy, radiation and surgery was finshed. She was exhausted, anxious, not sleeping, having hot flashes and night sweats. These symptoms were a result of the post surgery medications as well as finally connecting to the emotional trauma of the battle to fight cancer. What many people on the outside don’t understand, is that the healing only begins once the treatment and surgery is over. Most patients are just too busy and preoccupied with surviving the process of fighting cancer rather than really processing what it all means.

Another patient came to me after her second diagnosis with cancer. She had been diagnosed many years earlier, had gone through chemotherapy and surgery and had been in remission for ten years. Suddenly she was faced with the diagnosis once again. She remembered what the treatment did to her physically and emotionally and had heard that acupuncture could be an option to help her get through it better. As she started her chemotherapy, she came to me with the information given to her by her doctor about what side effects to expect from the drugs she would be receiving.

As would be expected these patients were nervous. Anxious about what would be. So much unknown but at the same time aware that they would be feeling worse than horrible as the chemotherapy progressed. All I can share with you is what not only these two but numerous patients have told me during the course of their various cancer treatments.

“I feel calmer now”
“My nausea and vomitting is less”
“My stomach doesn’t hurt”
“My bowel movements are better”
“I am sleeping deeper”
“My energy is improving”
“I feel I can get through this”
“I don’t ache as much all over”
“I’m not getting as many headaches”
“My anxiety is better”
“My hot flashes are less frequent and/or less intense”

If any of these sound familiar for yourself or your friends and loved ones, it’s helpful to know that acupuncture helps. Based on what patients say, the tongue and pulse and an assessment, acupoints are chosen to address the constitiution of the patient as well as the symptoms. Please feel free to read this article that describes what many hospitals are now encouraging for their patients.

As I was contemplating writing a blog about some of my patients who are undergoing chemo and/or radioation therapy, I received this blog from another acupuncturist. I thought she wrote about it so well that instead of writing my own, I decided to go ahead and post her blog.

Top 10 Ways Acupuncture Can Help Anyone Going Through Cancer Treatment!

Getting the diagnosis of Cancer is a real life-changer. I think you’ll probably always remember everything about that day when your doctor sat you down to tell you the news. And it certainly does have the chance to be a real life-ruiner, doesn’t it?

As a person, I have been dealing with cancer in my family for as long as I can remember, and as an Acupuncturist I have been working with Cancer patients since I was in Grad school. I’ve seen both sides of the story and I’m here to tell you that although getting the news of Cancer will probably always be one of the worst days you can imagine, your cancer treatment doesn’t have to be as scary as it sounds. Find a good Oncologist (shameless plug for one of the best Oncologists in Denver, Dr. Samir Witta of Mountain Blue Cancer Care Center) and you will find plenty of options if your cancer is treatable. Now bring on an Oncology Specialized Acupuncturist and you have a very well rounded team to get you through your cancer treatments.

Does it seem strange to think of a Medical Doctor and an Acupuncturist working so well together? Well it shouldn’t! Many of the best hospitals in the country offer Acupuncture as part of their treatment program.

Here are 10 things Acupuncture can help anyone going through cancer treatments with:
· Fatigue
· Neuropathy
· Nausea/vomiting
· Headaches
· Body-aches
· Insomnia
· Surgery Prep/Recovery
· Blood counts/Immune System
· Depression
· Hot flashes

Although that’s the list of things I most commonly see, there is so much more that Acupuncture can help with! The timing, a frequency, can change depending on what works best with your body and your chemo schedule, so be open to playing around with timing of treatments. A good place to start is the day before your Chemo treatment. Although once a week is useful, many of my patients, who have done the very best, have come in twice on the week of chemo and once a week otherwise.

So there you go… while the diagnosis of Cancer will always suck, the treatment doesn’t have to. Things like rest, sleep, good nutrition, laughter and Acupuncture, you are giving your body the tools it needs to take care of itself, while you go thru treatment, and I know that it will return the favor tenfold!

Click here for more about this article and acupuncture for cancer

In many ways we should consider ourselves healthcare customers. We are customers with our doctors just like we are customers in a restaurant or store. There are certain ways we expect to be treated. If we don’t like the service in a restaurant or how a salesperson has spoken to us, we have the right to leave and to complain to management. When it comes to healthcare and medicine, I also believe that we can have a say in how we are treated and to ask as many questions as necessary to understand what is being recommended for our care.

I do believe everyone with a new condition or problem should be evaluated by a medical doctor. Western medicine does have the best diagnostic equipment in the world. Western medicine is also the best for emergency medicine.

When there is a non-emergency or chronic condition, we can become advocates in our own healthcare. It’s good to hear what the doctor recommends and take it under consideration. Afterall, the doctor does have your best interests in mind. But the doctor may not be well versed in options that may be less invasive or requiring less medications. This is where we as patients have a right to have a voice in our treatment process.

I believe that one of the many reasons acupuncture has become such a popular option for many, is that in addition to making all kinds of physical problems better, acupuncturists listen to patients and treat them as a whole person. The doctors today who still subscribe to the “my way or the highway” mentality are not the doctors that patients like to go to or speak well of to others.

So, it’s up to us, as healthcare customers to consider all of the options to treat our specific problem. Because there are alternatives and different ways to treat problems, we have to do our research and find out what might work as well or even better and with fewer side effects.

Just because a doctor tells you to take another drug or have asurgery, (it might be that you need to take that drug and have that surgery), you can also wonder and question whether there may be another way to treat the pain or deal with the problem (reflux, depression, hot flashes, migraines, etc). Is it possible to manage or treat the problem without drugs? Can surgery be avoided through acupuncture and physical therapy? Remember, once you cut, you can’t go back. It’s certainly worth trying everything before undergoing anesthesia. So I do think we have to be smart consumers of medical care. It’s about taking responsibility.

We are very lucky in Houston as we have a world class medical center and hospitals and world class doctors. But it’s also ok to have a little healthy skepticism and consider all our options.

This is a comment I had from a recent patient.

“I went into a regular doctor to get my hot flashes treated and they ended up prescribing antidepressants which I chose not to fill and chose not to proceed with because I’m not a depressed person.”

There are some antidepressants that doctors prescribe for hot flashes and symptoms of menopause that seem to help some people. But of course taking antidepressants is not for everybody and they are not without side effects. My preferred approach to treating menopausal issues is with acupuncture and herbal therapy.

When I was learning about menopause and hot flashes during my studies, it was as if a light bulb went off. It was that special aha moment. An interesting way to understand hot flashes is to first get the concept of Yin and Yang. One of my previous blogs talks about Yin and Yang.

To reveiw briefly, Yin, our moist, cooling energy and Yang, our hot, rising energy should be in relative balance. As we age, our Yin and/or Yang energy becomes deficient. For many who experience the internal heat sensations of hot flashes, it means that the cooling energy has become depleted causing a relative excess (too much) of the Yang, hot energy. The heat is not coming from the outside, but from the inside and rises up into the head and face area.

Treating the hot flashes in Chinese medicine is more about strengthening the Yin energy thereby cooling the relative excess of Yang (hot) energy. It’s not about trying to trick the body into thinking we are younger hormonally again by giving hormone replacement. It’s more about tonifying or strengthening the Yin, cooling energy which has become depleted over time.

When I learned that, I said, “Wow! What an interesting common sense way to understand the mechanism of hot flashes in menopause!” The treatment goal in Chinese medicine for hot flashes is to tonify or strengthen what has become depeleted. We increase the Yin, cooling, moisturizing part of us to put the Yin and Yang back in balance. The goal is not necessarily to reduce the Yang by itself because it’s only elevated due to too little of the Yin. It’s better to treat the root of the problem (too little Yin) rather than treat the symptom (too much Yang). It’s a beautiful way to treat the symptom while treating the root of the problem. So what I do is I put needles and give herbs to help tonify and strengthen the cooling mechanism so the Yin and Yang are in balance and the hot flahses are reduced or eliminated.

I love treating menopause because along with hot flashes comes disturbed sleep, irritability and mood swings. Acupuncture can help regulate a lot of those problems.

What’s important to understand with Chinese medicine and menopause and hot flashes is that our goal as acupuncturists when a woman comes in is to help a woman through this time in her life. It’s to help balance them so their life isn’t defined by menopause.

I have a lot of patients who do not want to take hormone replacement. The acupuncture helps. I have helped women wean off of hormone replacement who didn’t want to take it anymore. So it’s certainly a very viable option to try. It makes sense because the heat comes from inside. It makes complete sense that your cooling mechanism is off.