Acupressure brings relief to breast cancer survivors

Symptoms such as fatigue, chronic pain, anxiety, depression and sleep difficulties may be an everyday struggle for some breast cancer survivors once treatment is completed.  These difficulties are often two to four times higher than women of the same age who have not been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Now, a new study is showing that it appears relief may be found in self-applied acupressure for these women.  The prevailing thought as to why acupressure seems to help is that it changes neurochemicals in the brain.

What is acupressure?

Used for thousands of years in China, acupressure applies the same principles as acupuncture to promote relaxation and wellness and to treat disease.  Sometimes called pressure acupuncture, acupressure is often thought of as simply acupuncture without needles.

The principle behind acupressure it that is involves the application of manual pressure (usually with the fingertips) to specific points on the body. According to the principles of traditional Chinese medicine, the body has invisible lines of energy flow called meridians. There are thought to be at least 14 meridians connecting our organs with other parts of the body. Acupuncture and acupressure points lie on those meridians.

If the flow of energy (also called “chi” or “qi”) is blocked at any point on a meridian, it’s thought to cause various symptoms and health conditions anywhere along the meridian. That’s why a practitioner may apply pressure to an acupressure point on the foot to relieve a headache. Some theorize that the pressure may promote the release of natural pain-relieving chemicals in the body, called endorphins. Another theory is that the pressure may somehow influence the autonomic nervous system.

The uses of acupressure have been applied to many symptoms such as cancer-related fatigue, headache, menstrual cramps, motion sickness, nausea or vomiting, and stress management.

Study showing benefits of acupressure for breast cancer survivors

A study composed of 288 breast cancer patients were recruited who were experiencing problems of not only fatigue but also depressive symptoms, anxiety, pain, and poor sleep.  Those participating in the group were split into three groups: usual care, which offered sleep management techniques; relaxing acupressure; and stimulating acupressure. The two acupressure techniques – relaxing acupressure and stimulating acupressure - differ by which points on the body are stimulated.

The study participants who were in the two groups using acupressure were taught to use the tip of a finger, thumb or pencil eraser to push down with a circular motion on five points on the body. The points they applied pressure to were between the eyebrows; behind the ears; inside the wrist; inside the ankle; and on the top of their feet.

For six weeks the participants applied acupressure each day for 10 minutes. At the end of this time, the usual participants using acupressure were found to have significant symptom improvement than the participants using usual care.  Those who suffered from depressive symptoms improved by more than 41 percent compared to 25 percent for stimulating acupressure patients and about 8 percent for patients receiving usual care.

Another significant improvement seen by patients using acupressure was a greater reduction of anxiety than the patients who used usual care. Researchers with the study were impressed with the results.  One of the best things about utilizing acupressure for post-cancer symptoms was that the technique has few if any side effects compared to medications. For example if a patient it treated with medication for pain, they could develop constipation which may also need a medication to treat that problem. 

Another benefit of using acupressure is that it can be used to treat multiple symptoms a person may be experiencing.  This could lead to much better compliance.  In addition, when patients are experiencing pain and anxiety, they are often highly motivated to feel normal so most should be open to learning self-acupressure.