Nausea and vomiting caused by the powerful drugs used to fight cancer can prove extremely debilitating for patients. Doctors offer an arsenal of various anti-emetic drugs to lessen the reaction, but in recent years acupuncture has been joining mainstream medicine as a possible extra help.
Acupuncture involves the insertion of tiny needles at various set points around the body.
Although there is evidence that it works for a variety of conditions, no-one is fully sure how. Electroacupuncture also involves inserting needles, but then passing different strengths of electrical current through them. The latest study to back the technique was carried out at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland, US, and reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. They were also given three conventional anti-emetics, while 33 other patients had a less intense form of acupuncture, and 34 only drugs. The authors are now recommending that hospitals offer the treatment to patients in whom conventional drugs have failed to prevent vomiting.