Alternate medicine and radiotherapy are a combination that is growing in popularity. Radiotherapy treatment is normally used in cancer patients, with the most common type known as external beam therapy. This name evolved because the treatment consists of a beam of radiation that comes from a very sophisticated machine. The beam is focused on the part of the body that contains the tumor, and the largest amount of radiation possible is used to kill the cancer cells.

Radiotherapy is very hard on the body. The treatments are short in duration, no more than 10 to 15 minutes. There is no pain involved with these treatments, but the side effects afterwards can be brutal, depending on the individual. Extreme tiredness and nausea, pain, hair loss, and red and tender skin are a few of the most common. The use of alternate medicine and radiotherapy together is indicated when the patient wants natural relief from the ravages of radiation side effects.

Nausea is one of the most severe side effects of radiotherapy treatments. Most of the people who must go through the treatments would do anything to get some relief from the seemingly never-ending sickness. Alternative medicine and radiotherapy research has been done on a test group of cancer patients to determine whether or not acupuncture was effective in diminishing the persistent nausea and vomiting.  Patients reported that they could tell a dramatic difference in the frequency and amount of nausea they had.  Written records were kept by each patient of the times they were sick, and at the end of the research, these records were collated. The final analysis in this study was that acupuncture is useful in preventing nausea in radiotherapy patients.

Acupuncture has also been tested on groups of alternative medicine and radiotherapy believers to see if it could possibly be of help in the relief of pain, another unwelcome side effect of radiation treatments. Nearly all patients undergoing radiotherapy reported various degrees of pain that was definitely related to their treatments. Acupuncture once again proved to be effective in helping cancer patients undergoing treatments for their condition.

The Chinese medicine called acupressure works well with alternative medicine and radiotherapy in helping cancer patients control nausea. This natural technique involves massaging certain areas on the body, normally just under or on top of the skin. These areas are called acupoints, and they are supposedly interconnected with each other as well as to various organs and systems of the body. Devotees to this 5000 year old healing method say that a careful massage in a certain area can stimulate a person’s essential life force, which flows from area to area rather like the circulation of blood.  A look at an acupressure chart reveals that the areas that control nausea and vomiting are directly above the kneecap, on the wrist, and about 2 inches above the wrist. People who have tried acupressure are both surprised and delighted with how quickly it relieves their symptoms.