Article: Acupuncture points to post-op comfort

[Guest guest]

I thought this might be of interest to some here

 

*Smile*

Chris (list mom)

 

http://www.alittleolfactory.com

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996210

 

 

Acupuncture points to post-op comfort

 

 

19:00 28 July 04

 

Exclusive from New Scientist

 

 

Acupuncture is a cheap and safe way of preventing people who have just

had an operation from being sick or feeling nauseous. That is the

conclusion of a review of 26 trials involving over 3000 patients.

 

Anna Lee of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Mary Done of the New

Children's Hospital in Sydney, Australia, focused on trials that studied

the effects of " P6 " treatment - stimulation of the " pericardium " (P6)

acupuncture point on the wrist.

 

Patients receiving P6 acupuncture were 28 per cent less likely to feel

nauseous and 29 per cent less likely to be sick than patients receiving

sham treatments, such as insertion of the needle at the wrong place or

pretended stimulation of P6.

 

They were also 24 per cent less likely to ask for anti-sickness drugs.

Without treatment, post-operative nausea and vomiting is estimated to

affect four out of five people who have had anaesthetics.

 

In head-to-head comparisons with routine anti-sickness drugs,

acupuncture was equally good at preventing nausea and vomiting. The

authors report that there were minimal side effects, and advocate P6

acupuncture as a safe and effective means of preventing post-operative

sickness and nausea.

 

Journal reference: The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2004

(DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD003281.pub2)

 

 

 

Andy Coghlan