Post cancer related symptoms or cancer adverse effects may be present from chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, bone marrow transplants, biological therapies or hormone therapies all of which may contribute to the following side effects (1, 2):
We understand that one or more of the above symptoms can place a burden on you, or a loved one’s quality of life in relation to physical function, ability to perform daily activities or psychological distress. We also understand the financial pressure that may be involved or the inability to work, and the distress that this or the impact of symptoms may have on you, your family or friends. We want to be able to provide you and your family with as much support as possible.
In saying this, we take into consideration your body as a whole and treat according to the presenting symptoms, your lifestyle and dietary habits and also make note of any environmental or emotional distress that may be present. By understanding this allows us to design a treatment plan specific to your needs in hope that we can help successfully enhance your quality of life in combination with any current or usual care that you already receive.
Chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting is an unwanted side effect of cancer treatment and is often not fully controlled even with state-of-the-art antiemetics. Acupuncture can assist in improving quality of life for these cancer patients and is accepted as an appropriate referral option (7, 8). Acupuncture is also recognised as having a potential positive effect on cancer pain and cancer-related fatigue (7).
One of the post-cancer related symptoms we are particularly interested in is cancer-related fatigue.
Cancer-related fatigue is difficult to understand unless you have truly experienced it. It is unlike any other fatigue you may have expereinced. It is commonly defined as a subjective feeling of physical, emotional or cognitive tiredness or exhaustion that is not proportional to the recently performed activity (3). Acupuncture is well-tolerated and may be effective in particular fatigue contexts that favourably affect symptoms that amplify fatigue such as:
Acupressure has been shown to significantly help with the reduction of fatigue in post-cancer patients (4). The acupressure is done on acupoints that specifically relate to relaxation and insomnia. We are able to incorporate acupressure into your treatments and we will show you how to perform self-administered relaxation acupressure to yourself or family member to help enhance or prolong the treatment effects.
If you have any questions about how we may be able to help you or a loved one, or if you are interested in knowing more about the self-administered acupressure techniques please phone our team on (07) 5515 0409. We look forward to meeting you.
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