Acupressure

Acupressure is an ancient healing art that uses the fingers to press key points on the surface of the skin to stimulate the body’s natural self-curative abilities. When these points are pressed, they release muscular tension and promote the circulation of blood and the body’s life force (sometimes known as qi or chi) to aid healing. Acupuncture and acupressure use the same points, but acupuncture employs needles, while acupressure uses the gentle but firm pressure of hands and feet.

Acupressure is an ancient healing art that’s based on the traditional Chinese medicine practice of acupuncture, but instead of using needles, pressure is put on specific places on the body, called acupoints. Pressure on acupoints helps to relieve muscle tension, promote blood circulation and can even relieve many common side effects of chemotherapy. Pressure Point P-6, also known as Neiguan and located on your inner arm near your wrist, for example, can help relieve nausea and vomiting related to chemotherapy, according to Memorial Sloan Cancer Center.
Source: Survivingbreastcancer.org

Acupressure is a great option not only for relief from chemotherapy symptoms, but can be used to help alleviate lingering symptoms of treatment that many who are diagnosed with breast cancer experience. The results of a randomized study published in JAMA Oncology found that six weeks of self-administered acupressure reduced fatigue in breast cancer survivors by as much as 34% as compared to those with no intervention. Suzanna M. Zick, ND, MPH, of the departments of family medicine and nutritional sciences at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, one of the authors of the study, notes  “Fatigue is an underappreciated symptom across a lot of chronic diseases, especially cancer. It has a significant impact on quality of life.”
Source: Survivingbreastcancer.org

Acupressure continues to be the most effective method for self-treatment of tension-related ailments by using the power and sensitivity of the human hand. Acupressure can be effective in helping relieve headaches, eye strain, sinus problems, neck pain, backaches, arthritis, muscle aches, tension due to stress, ulcer pain, menstrual cramps, lower backaches, constipation, and indigestion. Self-acupressure can also be used to relieve anxiety and improve sleep. There are also great advantages to using acupressure as a way to balance the body and maintain good health. The healing touch of acupressure reduces tension, increases circulation, and enables the body to relax deeply. By relieving stress, acupressure strengthens resistance to disease and promotes wellness.

In acupressure, local symptoms are considered an expression of the condition of the body as a whole. A tension headache, for instance, may be rooted in the shoulder and neck area. Thus, acupressure focuses on relieving pain and discomfort, as well as responding to tension, before it develops into a disease—before the constrictions and imbalances can do further damage.

The origins of acupressure are as ancient as the instinctive impulse to hold your forehead or temples when you have a headache. Everyone at one time or another has used their hands spontaneously to hold tense or painful places on the body. More than 5,000 years ago, the Chinese discovered that pressing certain points on the body relieved pain where it occurred and also benefited other parts of the body more remote from the pain and the pressure point. Gradually, they found other locations that not only alleviated pain, but also influenced the functioning of certain internal organs.

(Definition, in part, from the book Acupressure’s Potent Points, by Michael Reed Gach, director of the Acupressure Institute, Bantam, 1990.) Click here to find an acupressure practitioner.