Acupunctura melhora imunidade em doentes oncológicos

Estudo realizado em dois hospitais do distrito do Porto revelou que a acupunctura possui efeitos benéficos em doentes

oncológicos submetidos a quimioterapia nomeadamente na melhoria do sistema imunitário, na redução dos efeitos secundários da quimioterapia, na melhoria do estado psicoemocional bem como na melhoria da qualidade de vida dos doentes.

Autores e Afiliações:

Irene Pais,¹ Nuno Correia,^1,2 Isabel Pimentel,³ Maria José Teles,^4,5 Esmeralda Neves,⁶ Júlia Vasconcelos,⁶ Judite Guimarães,⁶ Nancy Azevedo,⁶ António Moreira Pinto,⁷ Jorge Machado,^1,8 Thomas Efferth,⁹ and Henry J. Greten^1,10

¹Instituto Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar, Universidade do Porto, Rua de Jorge Viterbo Ferreira No. 228, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal
²Service of Emergency, Internal Medicine, Hospital Center of S. João, Oporto, Portugal
³Service of Oncology, Hospital Center of S. João, Oporto, Portugal
⁴Service of Clinical Pathology, Hospital Center of S. João, Oporto, Portugal
⁵ISPUP-EPI Unit, Institute of Public Health, University of Oporto, Portugal
⁶Service of Clinical Pathology, Porto Hospital Center, Oporto, Portugal
⁷Department of Oncology, Hospital Center of Vila Nova de Gaia/Espinho, Portugal
⁸Oporto Biomechanics Laboratory, Portugal
⁹Department of Pharmaceutical Biology, Institute of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Johannes Gutenberg University, Germany
¹⁰Heidelberg School of Chinese Medicine, Germany

Abstract:

Chemotherapy is one of most significant therapeutic approaches to cancer. Immune system functional state is considered a major prognostic and predictive impact on the success of chemotherapy and it has an important role on patients’ psychoemotional state and quality of life. In Chinese medicine, chemotherapy is understood as “toxic cold” that may induce a progressive hypofunctional state of immune system, thus compromising the fast recovery of immunity during chemotherapy. In this study, we performed a standardized acupuncture and moxibustion protocol to enhance immunity in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and to assess if the improvement of immunity status correlates with a better psychoemotional state and quality of life.

Revista: Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/217397