Acupressure is a touch technique used by many massage therapists, and has been shown to effect numerous health benefits, including pain relief and weight gain in premature infants. New Research shows self-acupressure can increase energy in patients experiencing moderate-to-persistent cancer-related fatigue.
“We investigated if acupressure treatments with opposing actions would result in differential effects on fatigue and examined the effect of different ‘doses’ of acupressure on fatigue,” the researchers noted, in an abstract published on www.pubmed.gov.
Participants were randomized to one of three treatment groups: relaxation acupressure, high-dose stimulatory acupressure and low-dose stimulatory acupressure, and performed acupressure for 12 weeks.
Fatigue was significantly reduced across all treatment groups, with significantly greater reductions in the relaxation acupressure group, the abstract noted.
“In an adjusted analysis, relaxation acupressure resulted in significantly less fatigue after controlling for age, cancer type, cancer stage, and cancer treatments,” read the abstract. “Self-administered relaxation acupressure caused greater reductions in fatigue compared to either high-dose stimulatory acupressure and low-dose stimulatory acupressure.”
“The magnitude of the reduction in fatigue was clinically relevant [persistent cancer-related fatigue],” the researchers noted.
“Relaxation acupressure reduces persistent cancer-related fatigue” will run in the journal Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. (2011;2011. pii: 142913. Epub 2010 Sep 2.)
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