Acupressure can relieve symptoms of breast cancer



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A new US study has shown that home acupressure can help women relieve some of the side effects of bad cancer treatment.

Conducted by researchers at the Rogel Cancer Center of the University of Michigan, this new study looked at the effects of acupressure on the symptoms experienced by bad cancer survivors after the end of the treatment, including chronic pain, anxiety, depression and lack of sleep, usually accompanying fatigue. .

The acupressure is derived from traditional Chinese medicine and involves applying pressure with fingers, thumbs or a device to specific points of the body.

The new research involved two types of acupressure that target different points of the body to produce different effects: the relaxing acupressure, which is traditionally used to treat insomnia, and stimulating acupressure, used to increase energy.

The researchers recruited 288 patients who reported symptoms, in addition to fatigue, and asked them to report weekly on fatigue, sleep quality, depressive symptoms, anxiety, and pain.

Women were also randomized to receive one of two types of acupressure, including learning how to find and stimulate acupressure points so they could practice it at home once a day for six weeks. weeks, or the usual care in which they slept. management techniques.

The results, published in the journal JNCI Cancer Spectrum, showed that after six weeks, relaxing acupressure was significantly more effective at improving depressive symptoms and sleep than stimulating acupressure or standard care.

In addition, both types of acupressure were more effective than conventional care in improving anxiety, pain and pain intensity and harming daily life.

"It was actually unusual for a woman to be just tired. These long-term side effects are a big problem.

"For some women, they pose significant barriers in their lives," says Suzanna M. Zick, author of the study.

"If you have a tired and depressed person, the use of relaxing acupressure would be an obvious conclusion.

"For anxiety or pain, one or the other approach could work," she added.

The researchers also investigated whether improving a symptom could actually help improve other symptoms, finding that improving these symptoms improved sleep quality, which accounted for about 20% of the improvement in fatigue.

"That means we do not know 80% of what has an impact on fatigue.

"Depressive symptoms and quality of sleep are only a small part, and it makes sense. But it's clear that there are other factors, "Zick says.

The researchers also reported in 2016 that acupressure could help reduce fatigue among bad cancer survivors, although until this study, they had not studied its impact on bad cancer. 39, other side effects.

They added that the new findings show that acupressure can be not only an effective treatment, but also a simple and inexpensive treatment, as it can be practiced at home quite easily with minimal negative effects. – AFP Relaxnews

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