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A Research Study On Palliative Punctures

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Palliative Punctures Who would have thought that having 10 to 20 small stainless steel needles inserted into your body can actually alleviate pain and improve health? Well for cancer patients this practice can ease nausea, hot flashes, and yes pain. The practice is acupuncture, a 2,000 year old component of traditional Chinese medicine involving stimulation of predetermined points on the body called acupoints. These acupoints have needles inserted for a therapeutic effect. According to the Chinese history, it is the traditional belief that energy flows through the body through channels called meridians. Certain organs, tissue, or organ systems can have increased energy flow through these meridians by stimulating specific acupoints. Thus, in a 30 minute session any person can have a specialized treatment that targets only the ailments specific to that person. This is a great medical practice for anyone, with most patients experiencing no pain from needle insertion, and a fewer than 1 in 10,000 adverse event statistic in risk of injury to the patient (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 2010).
Acupuncture has been shown to assist with numerous health issues, such as osteoarthritis, high blood pressure, back pain, chronic headaches, and infertility to name a few. So someone came up with the ingenious idea to apply its abilities to cancer patients. Let’s just say that the people afflicted with breast cancer will forever be grateful for that light bulb.

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