I thought I would share this study with others that have joint pain or hands/feet pain. I have now finished 3 treatments and it is helping!! It is costly and unfortunately my insurance will not pay for it (but they will pay for a chiropractor in the same building - that is crap) and it is $75 a visit. However, I will charge every payment because it is making a difference!!! After all this treatment the past 2 years the collateral damage frankly SUCKS because I want to go and do, I want to ride my bike, and just live my life more then ever before. I have tried to ignore the pain but it is always nagging like a toothache and someday's it just makes me want to just go lay down and do nothing. Then it makes me angry, frustrated and emotional and I AM SUPPOSED TO BE DONE BESIDES TAKING TAMOXIFEN!!
I am supposed to go for 12 visits which I will do because as you all know you worked/battled/fought to survive cancer so now is not the time to give in to the pain. Each time I have learned something new about acupuncture and the Traditional Chinese Medicine.
If anyone decides to try it a few things to know; It only takes 130 hours to be licensed to do Acupuncture, and I believe that isn't near enough time to know where to put the needles in to make a difference. If you do not find the right pressure points it will not be effective and too many needles can be too many and cause more pain.....Kind of like they found out by removing all your lymph nodes isn't better it just causes a greater risk for lymphadema. I learned so many things after the fact, and I am sure with the MOUNDS of literature every doctor gave me some of the things might have been available BUT I was too tired, too emotional, too angry and overwhelmed to read it all or figure it out (at least I was). Just getting through each treatments, surgeries and making it to work was all I could do. I had no idea of things that might have helped me along the way.
I read this about it, and I had to share with everyone!!
A new study, led by researchers at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive
Cancer Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University
Medical Center, demonstrates that acupuncture may be an effective
therapy for joint pain and stiffness in breast cancer patients who are
being treated with commonly used hormonal therapies. Results were
published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Joint pain and stiffness are common side effects of aromatase
inhibitor therapy, in which the synthesis of estrogen is blocked. The
therapy, which is a common and effective treatment for early-stage,
hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer in post-menopausal women, has
been shown in previous research to cause some joint pain and stiffness
in half of women being treated.
"Since aromatase inhibitors have become an increasingly popular
treatment option for some breast cancer patients, we aimed to find a
non-drug option to manage the joint issues they often create, thereby
improving quality of life and reducing the likelihood that patients
would discontinue this potentially life-saving treatment," said Dawn
Hershman, M.D, M.S., senior author of the paper, and co-director of
the breast cancer program at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer
Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical
Center, and an assistant professor of medicine (hematology/oncology)
and epidemiology at Columbia University Medical Center.
To explore the effects of acupuncture on aromatase
inhibitor-associated joint pain, the research team randomly assigned
43 women to receive either true acupuncture or sham acupuncture twice
a week for six weeks. Sham acupuncture, which was used to control for
a potential placebo effect, involved superficial needle insertion at
body points not recognized as true acupuncture points. All
participants were receiving an aromatase inhibitor for early breast
cancer, and all had reported musculoskeletal pain.
Among the women treated with true acupuncture, findings demonstrated
that they experienced significant improvement in joint pain and
stiffness over the course of the study. Pain severity declined, and
overall physical well-being improved. Additionally, 20 percent of the
patients who had reported taking pain relief medications reported that
they no longer needed to take these medications following acupuncture
treatment. No such improvements were reported by the women who were
treated with the sham acupuncture.
"This study suggests that acupuncture may help women manage the joint
pain and stiffness that can accompany aromatase inhibitor treatment,"
said Katherine D. Crew, M.D., M.S., first author of the paper, and the
Florence Irving Assistant Professor of Medicine (hematology/oncology)
and Epidemiology at Columbia University Medical Center and a
hematological oncologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia
University Medical Center. "To our knowledge, this is the first
randomized, placebo-controlled trial establishing that acupuncture may
be an effective method to relieve joint problems caused by these
medications. However, results still need to be confirmed in larger,
multicenter studies."