In 1971 James Reston, a NY Times columnist described how acupuncture had relieved his pain after an emergency appendectomy. Shortly afterwards other reports of seemingly improbable acupuncture "cures" came to public attention including deaf children hearing again, asthmatics abandoning long-needed medication, and people with metastatic cancer who experienced pain relief, enhanced immune functioning, and the shrinkage of tumors.

We were doubters. We assigned these to the category of the placebo effect. Or perhaps the reports were just fraudulent. However the numbers of successful "cures" were in the thousands, something hard to discount entirely. Then we heard of successful acupuncture treatment of animals, oxen cured of inflammation of their hooves, thoroughbred horses healed of all sorts of ailments. Then we experienced acupuncture ourselves, it relaxed and energized us, relieving long-standing muscle and joint pain. We felt our Qi move within our muscles, sinews, skin, and along our spine.

Chinese medicine is a world of yin and yang. However, it is not as simple as black & white. Yin becomes yang, as the night gives way to the day, and yang turns into yin, as the light gives way to darkness. Each contains the other within it. The first Chinese physicians were monks. They lived in a pastoral world, alert to the ebb and flow of nature. They practiced meditation, going within to experience the energy, the Qi, that animated all the processes in their minds and bodies. They came to know the body, not through dissection after death, but as living, sensitive organisms which were in tune with all of nature around them. They felt the subtle changes within themselves as the weather changed. They felt their mood swing slightly with the phases of the moon. They knew the early signs of disease, before anything could be seen physically because they felt their Qi stagnate, and the emotional consequences of that stagnation. They grew to understand how the entire body's energy could be shifted by a single external event, or internal emotion, or draft of wind on their neck. And they discovered that filiform needles placed through the skin at certain points in the body could alter the flow of Qi and promote health. They developed sophisticated techniques to recognize disease based on pulse and tongue diagnosis. This is how the medicine evolved, over 3 thousand years ago. It has been tested empirically, by millions of treatments since then.

Although there are general principles of treatment, Chinese Medicine individualizes the therapeutic approach to each cancer patient. Even when the cancer type, pathologic diagnosis, and stage are precisely the same in Western terms, the Chinese Medicine diagnosis may be quite different. For example, one patient's breast cancer may be characterized primarily by "Qi stagnation" while another's might manifest as "Liver yin deficiency with heat". The approach to treatment would be quite different for these two pattern differentiations. Practitioners who are not adequately trained in Chinese Medicine could easily mistake these two patterns and apply a treatment which is harmful to the patient.

Chinese herbs and herbal formulas that are used to treat cancer patients have a number of significant modes of action including immune stimulation, anti-tumor activity, enhancement of circulation, stress reduction, mood and energy enhancement, and reduction of nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy.

Acupressure, is a system of massage in which finger pressure on the acupuncture points is used in place of needles, both in diagnosis and treatment. The system we use is Shiatsu. According to David Eisenberg, M.D., of Beth Israel Hospital and Harvard Medical School, who has studied Qi and observed the science of Chinese Medicine since 1979.

"Claims of energy transfer were used by my mentors in describing what they were doing in diagnosing and treating patients on the massage table. I was impressed clinically by the extent to which patients with acute or chronic musculoskeletal pain and chronic neurological problems found relief through acupressure alone. More importantly, in many instances patients' relief was not short- lived, but rather lasted for days, weeks or months in a fashion I could not explain. These were my most humbling observations." (David Eisenberg, "Energy Medicine in China: Defining a Research Strategy which Embraces the Criticism of Skeptical Colleagues," Noetic Sciences Review 1990, p 4-11.)

The Chinese physician directs his or her attention to the complete physiology and psychological individual. All relevant information, including the chief complaint as well as the patient's other general characteristics is gathered and woven together until it forms what is called in Chinese Medicine a pattern of disharmony. The actual cause of this pattern of disharmony is always secondary in importance to the overall pattern.

Although many western medical practitioners remain skeptical about the benefits of oriental medicine, MD's treating cancer patients are increasingly recognizing the importance of this medicine in benefiting their patients.

Well-recognized uses for acupuncture in the treatment of cancer patients include:

1. Controlling chemotherapy-related nausea
2. Controlling pain
3. Controlling radiation-induced injuries
4. Extending survival with cancer
5. Use of herbal formulas for immune enhancement, stress reduction, and promoting a sense of well-being