Home Health Matters Discussion Healthy Habits Discussion San Francisco-based health writer Michael Castleman is the author of 10 consumer health books that have sold a combined total of more than 2 million copies. Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Approaches to Cancer, offers weeklong residential retreats for people with cancer in a beautiful, bucolic, Pacific coast setting. Everyone who attends must be under the care of an oncologist. Support grows for complementing mainstream oncology with Chinese medicine . Acupuncture and acupressure prevent nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy .
Several studies show that acupuncture reduces chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting.
For example, at UCLA researchers gave 30 women undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer either real acupuncture at points used to relieve nausea, or acupuncture at placebo points. The real-acupuncture group reported only half as many episodes of nausea and vomiting. The patients were fitted with Sea Bands, elastic bands with buttons that press on Pericardium 6, a point used to treat nausea. More than 75 percent enjoyed significant relief from nausea. Pericardium 6 is located on the inside upper arm two thumb widths above the wrist crease.