Acupuncture has been clinically proven for two thousand years to be an effective solution for many pain conditions.   It is also very effective for treating conditions and symptoms that modern medical treatment offers few desirable treatments.

A study out of Sloan-Kettering compared acupuncture to standard care for pain and dry mouth in cervical neck cancer surgery patients.    The authors concluded “Significant reductions in pain, dysfunction, and xerostomia were observed in patients receiving acupuncture versus usual care”.    Acupuncture certainly has a place aside modern medicine to provide better care for many surgical patients.

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Acupuncture for Dry Mouth

Another recent acupuncture research article demonstrated that acupuncture can be effective for people whose salivary glands are damaged by radiation or chemotherapy.  In this study the acupuncture point Large Intestine 2 (LI 2 on the index finger just distal to the knuckle) was stimulated (the only point that was used!) to determine if it increased saliva production over ’sham’ acupuncture. The ’sham’ acupuncture was a point on the pinky side of the anterior forearm a couple of inches up from the wrist crease using a non-insertive needle.  Read the rest of this entry