Acupuncture treatments, real or fake, improve side-effects of cancer drugs

Medical professionals know all too well the "placebo effect" is a powerful, insidious force wreaking havoc on scientific studies attempting to make headway with medical discoveries.

The belief that something will cure your ailment, can be just as powerful as the treatment itself.

The latest example of this comes from a small, randomized study that looked at both acupuncture and sham acupuncture in treating the side effects of breast cancer drugs among women.

The New York Times reports that both real and sham acupuncture were effective in reducing symptoms in women taking aromatase inhibitors, a breast cancer medication which can cause menopause-like side effects as well as joint and muscle pain.

Researchers followed a group of 47 women being treated with the breast cancer drugs for eight weeks. Twenty-three of the women received acupuncture and the rest received "sham acupuncture" -- where non-penetrating needles were placed on the skin randomly and not at traditional acupuncture points.

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The results? Both groups of women, neither of which knew what treatment they were receiving, reported relief of their symptoms, especially hot flashes. Both groups reported relief in equal measure.

Another example of the placebo effect relating to acupuncture comes from a 2010 Harvard University study where irritable bowel syndrome patients were divided into two groups -- one that received no treatment and the other that received sham acupuncture. Researchers told the sham acupuncture group they were receiving a placebo. Despite this knowledge, patients still reported significant symptom relief -- twice as much as the group that received no treatment.

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So what do these two studies -- and countless others that test a placebo effect -- tell us?

Firstly, the mind is powerful tool. Promising drug treatments can end up looking useless in clinical trials when pitted against placebo pills.

Secondly, placebo treatments can stimulate real physiological responses, from changes in heart rate and blood pressure to chemical activity in the brain.

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More importantly, just because a treatment is proven to be a placebo doesn't mean we should necessarily write it off.

If you believe acupuncture can help you, and you have not stopped conventional treatments, there may be no harm in trying it if your doctor gives you the go ahead.

"It has a minimal risk and potentially significant benefits," says Ting Bao, lead researcher of the acupuncture and breast cancer drug study.