Hi my name is Weidong Lu. I'm the lead oncology acupuncturist at the Dana-Farber Cancer
Institute Zakim Center. Today I'm going to tell you two things that could help the neuropathy
caused by the chemotherapy. Neuropathy is a very common side effect of chemotherapy. Neuropathy
causes pain, tingling, numbness, swelling, and muscle weakness of different parts of the body.
It usually starts in the feet and the hands.
There's two things that could help you with the neuropathy. One is acupuncture. Acupuncture is a
therapy that uses very fine needles to place on the different part of the body, particularly on the
feet and the arms, to stimulate the nerves and the brain to reduce the symptoms of neuropathy.
According to our study about 64 percent of patients with the neuropathy would benefit from
acupuncture. The second thing you could do is acupressure or called reflexology.
Acupressure is like a type of a massage that you could do yourself at the home
or can be done by your loved ones for you. Let me show you how to do it.
First of all use your right hand with your thumb
and gently press on the inner side of your foot. Okay, from one direction from here
inside and goes up towards the toes. Let's move here for 10 times. One... two...
Three...
Four...
Five...
Six...
Seven...
Eight...
Nine...
And ten. Very good. Now the second step is put the thumb on the bottom of
the big toe. Alright. Making a circular motion with a pressure. So let's do this.
One...
Two...
Three...
Four...
Five...
Six...
Seven...
Eight...
Nine...
Ten.
Very good. Don't be too light or don't be too strong. So gentle but firm. Now you repeat
on the second toe. Do things again. One, two, three, something like that. Okay you repeat with all the toes.
According to study you need to do this 15 minutes each foot, twice a day for six weeks.
This will help your neuropathy. However, if your neuropathy symptoms is severe
you may want to consider doing acupuncture, which is considered to be more powerful.
Give us a call. Our acupuncturists at the Zakim Center will help you.
Thank you very much. Have a good day.