For over two thousand years, Chinese medicine practitioners have used acupuncture to ease a variety of ills. This practice involves the insertion of special needles into various points in the body. Although this sounds painful to anyone who’s never had an acupuncture treatment, most people don’t feel any discomfort when a qualified acupuncturist inserts each needle. Modern acupuncture often adds electrical stimulation to traditional techniques for an even more effective treatment.

It’s no real surprise to people who turn to alternative medicine techniques that this older method from Chinese medicine can bring relief to many cancer patients. Now, even experts trained in Western medicine appear to agree. Some specialists at New York and New Jersey hospitals are suggesting that their patients consider acupuncture to control their nausea, pain, and fatigue.

Some skeptics of Chinese medicine may hesitate before believing even an expert opinion. However, the fact that acupuncture can be used successfully in veterinary practices to relieve pain and provide anesthesia services on animals proves that you don’t have to believe in it for it to be effective. Even the skeptics may find some relief if they venture near an acupuncturist’s needle.

One study evaluated 58 patients who had surgery for their lymph nodes due to cancer near their larynx and thyroid. This is typically a very painful form of cancer and medical procedure. Half of the group received conventional pain relief therapy in the form of physical therapy and prescription medications. The other half received the Chinese medicine stand-by for pain, acupuncture treatments. The group that received acupuncture experienced less pain overall when compared to the other group. As a bonus, they also had less cases of the dry-mouth side effect that many radiation patients experience. In this example, it would appear that Chinese medicine was the clear winner.

Similar studies have been done on leukemia and breast cancer patients. Keep in mind that acupuncture doesn’t work for everyone, and you may have to try more than one Chinese medicine practitioner before you find the right one for you. Make sure that each one is certified to practice.

Like everything else, Chinese medicine is doing its part to become part of the “green” movement. Green medicine attempts to look at every possible source of medical treatment to provide a unified and balanced approach. While Chinese medicine is not the only type of treatment included in the green movement, it is a major part.

Many people have been frustrated with the symptomatic approach offered by Western medicine. In some cases, it may solve one problem, but create another one. Instead of treating isolated symptoms, green medicine along with Chinese medicine looks at the patient’s entire system to try to connect symptoms that may occur in seemingly unrelated parts of the body. Green medicine’s philosophy is to heal not only the body, but also the heart, mind, and soul of the patient.

Instead of trying to stifle symptoms, Chinese medicine looks at what each symptom means. As the body tries to self-regulate and heal itself, symptoms are generated. Sometimes the body succeeds at self-healing, and sometimes it needs help. Trying to pop pills to relieve the latest symptom can work against a body’s self-healing mechanism.

Green medicine, with its Chinese medicine component, has a theory that the suppression of symptoms can make them mutate into another disorder. This reasoning attempts to explain why one major illness can be medicated away only to have another one, sometimes much worse, appear. Green medicine explains that this could be the reason that there has been such an increase of chronic diseases, auto-immune diseases, and psychiatric disorders over recent years.

Many patients have already reached the point where they see practitioners of alternative medicine techniques in addition to their standard Western doctors. This could include Chinese medicine areas like acupuncture or herbalists in addition to chiropractors, homeopathic doctors, nutritionists, and spiritual healers. The green medicine advocates are urging Western doctors to encourage their patients to include these alternative medicine practices in their overall health care program instead of discouraging it. After all, patients are going anyway. All parties involved would do better to work together instead of separately.