Healing touch, acupuncture used in breast cancer treatment
Once a week, Patricia Duggan would go to a place where she’d gaze at nature scenes on a screen, listen to relaxing music, inhale the soothing scent of lavender and luxuriate in a foot massage.
This place? The Center for Cancer Care at White Plains Hospital.
Duggan was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2016. After her lumpectomy, she had the standard chemotherapy treatments, hooked up in a private cubicle as nurses came and went. One registered nurse, however, was Toyoko Yasui, a holistic nurse who offered complementary therapies such as healing touch, aromatherapy, Reiki, guided imagery, gentle touch massage and visualization.
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“All around you is total chaos, but you can imagine you’re somewhere else. I always chose a foot massage because you’re already hooked up like an octopus during chemo,” said Duggan, now 56, a middle school teacher from Yonkers. “Even though I hated going, I looked forward to seeing Toyoko part of the time. She’s very unassuming, but she’s very effective.”
Surgery, radiation and chemotherapy are standard routes in modern medicine when you get a breast cancer diagnosis.
But the less obvious, holistic treatments can help you feel better during that whole process. Practitioners call it complementary or integrative medicine. Meditation or massage won’t make your cancer go away, but your mind, body and spirit will feel a whole lot more up to the task.
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“Medicine takes care of physical pain, but patients are suffering from spiritual, emotional or psychological pain also, and this takes care of it,” Yasui said. “This empowers patients to do something for themselves to manage their stress, pain and anxiety.”
With more than 25 years of experience, Yasui was an oncological registered nurse before she became a holistic nurse. She’s also a breast cancer survivor. Yasui works through the Integrative Services program at White Plains Hospital, providing safe, evidence-based holistic methods to complement conventional medical care.
“Holistic care can maximize the effectiveness of the other medical treatments,” she said.
Preliminary findings indicate that supportive complementary and alternative methods are valuable from the time patients receive the diagnosis of cancer to the time of their rehabilitation and recovery, according to BioMed Central, publisher of about 300 peer-reviewed academic journals.
Instead of expecting to cure their disease, patients learn to deal with it, using these methods to strengthen their immune system, relieve pain and manage the side effects from breast cancer or its treatment, often working with a supportive practitioner. “In particular, the fatigue and nausea caused by primary cancer treatment may be alleviated, and recovery from chemotherapy may be hastened,” BioMed Central reports.
Acupuncture, mind-body techniques and massage can help relieve side effects and improve patients’ physical and emotional well-being. Also, about one in three breast cancer patients stops taking her hormone treatments against doctor’s orders, according to BioMed Central. By reducing the hot flashes or joint pain those hormones cause with complementary therapies, patients are more likely to take the hormones for the length of time the doctor prescribes them.
Eugenio Jimenez De Castro provides acupuncture therapy at the same White Plains cancer center where Yasui works, as well as at his Acupuncture Northern Westchester office in Mount Kisco. He’s state-licensed and certified by the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine.
Acupuncture can ease nausea, vomiting, anxiety, insomnia and pain, he said.
“It’s not replacing the other treatments; it’s just supporting them,” De Castro said. “We’re more and more integrating acupuncture into Western, traditional medicine. They’re starting to understand the mechanisms of acupuncture.”
In the hospital, De Castro’s patients are doctor-referred. In his private practice, most patients are self-referred.
De Castro and other practitioners give the same warning, however. Before jumping into other treatments and modalities, discuss it with your doctor. That precaution can reduce the risk of interfering with traditional medicine and dangerous drug interactions.
And don’t get misled by someone preying upon your fears during your most vulnerable time. A good practitioner won’t scare you into buying something you can’t afford.
“You have to make a realistic protocol for people, consider their time and money, and that provides parameters,” said Isadora Guggenheim, a naturopath, registered nurse, massage therapist and nutrition counselor. “Think about what kind of evidence you have to support doing that kind of treatment with them and follow the cancer markers you’re using.”
Guggenheim treats patients at Second Nature Naturopathic Care in Nyack and along with Dr. Janis L. Enzenbacher in Piermont. Besides the more common complementary therapies, she offers ozone injections, which oxygenate the blood, and supplements from Germany that help with nausea and “chemo brain.” When breast cancer patients suffer from leaky gut syndrome, she tests for food and environmental allergies.
“We encourage people to do the integrative model,” Guggenheim said. “We’ve had patients who refused to do any modern medical treatments, even surgery, and that’s tough because you want to support what someone’s idea of treatment is, but you don’t want them to risk their lives and ignore modern research. But we can’t force anybody to do anything. “
Guggenheim’s training is to do a biopsy first, so she can know what’s happening on the cellular level.
Then there’s always exercise, support groups and meditation.
After receiving a state Department of Health grant in the spring, the YWCA White Plains and Central Westchester started a program offering free yoga, Tai Chi and meditation classes for breast cancer patients and survivors, tailored just for them.
“Women who have been affected by breast cancer really benefit from these evidence-based classes. They’ve been shown to improve health,” said Ned Corona, assistant director of fitness at this YWCA.
The hocus-pocus image of these therapies and methods is becoming a thing of the past.
Established in 1998, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine — part of the National Institutes of Health in the United States — was allotted more than $120 million for research in 2008 alone. It’s the world's leading research facility for complementary and alternative medicine.
These methods are so widespread, they’re used at Stanford University Medical School, Harvard Medical School, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, which also has an integrative medicine program, like White Plains Hospital does.
Fans of this integrative approach want to not only improve their quality of life during this tumultuous time, but to improve their chances of long-term survival.
Because breast cancer runs in her family and she has the genes for it, Duggan took extra safety measures after her chemotherapy by having her breasts and ovaries removed. She also took Yasuri’s suggestions and regularly sees an acupuncturist, a massage therapist and a chiropractor.
“You have to have an open mind. You can’t keep feeling sorry for yourself. You have to go through the stages of grief right after you get diagnosed, of course,” Duggan said. “But the doctors are only treating the physical side of this. You also have to take care of the emotional and spiritual side.”
MORE HOLISTIC OPTIONS
Speak to your doctor about trying a few of these holistic, complementary options:
What: Integrative services, which can include acupuncture, aromatherapy, guided imagery, healing touch, massage, meditation, “M” Technique (gentle touch therapy), Reiki, relaxation techniques, therapeutic touch and yoga; supportive services for patients and caregivers; and Look Good, Feel Better workshops
Where: White Plains Hospital Center for Cancer Care, 2 Longview Ave., White Plains
Contact: A clinical navigator at 914-849-7500, or visit www.wphcancercare.org
What: Community Based Breast Cancer Support & Wellness Services
Where: YWCA White Plains & Central Westchester, 515 North St., White Plains
When: Tai Chi from 6:15 to 7:15 p.m. Wednesdays; meditation from 7:15 to 8:15 p.m. Wednesdays; yoga from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursdays
Contact: Ned Corona, call 914-949-6227 ext. 208, email ncorona@ywcawpcw.org and visit www.ywcawpcw.org
Also: Come in to fill out an application or to register and get a tour. This program is free to anyone with breast cancer.
What: Underwire Support Group, a safe place to share information and have a consistent network of supportive people
Where: The Center for Breast Health, next to at Good Samaritan Hospital, 255 Lafayette Ave. Suite 200, Suffern
When: 6 p.m. every second and fourth Thursday of the month
Contact: Call 845-357-7462 or visit http://goodsamhosp.org
Also: Ask about the Rose program, (Restoring Optimal Strength and Energy)
What: The Bruce and Andrea Yablon Cancer Health and Wellness Program includes nutrition assessment and planning; integrative medicine therapies including acupuncture, oncology medical massage, aromatherapy, Reiki, guided imagery, gentle touch and reflexology; a fitness evaluation and customized exercise plan; emotional wellness support from psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers; and a survivorship program.
Where: Northern Westchester Hospital Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center, 400 E. Main St., Mount Kisco.
For: Whether you are a cancer patient at this hospital or elsewhere, you can participate in this program, as long as you are seeing a Northern Westchester Hospital doctor
Contact: Marilyn Leroy Sterling, wellness coordinator, at mleroysterling@nwhc.net, 914-242-8146 or visit nwhbreastinstitute.org
What: Ozone therapy, nutritional counseling, MonaLisa Touch micro laser, intravenous treatments, medical massage, supplements
Where: Second Nature Naturopathic Care, 8 Rockland Place, Nyack
Contact: Isadora Guggenheim, registered nurse, call 845-832-4164, email isadoraguggenheim@msn.com, or visit .secondnaturecare.com
What: Ongoing healthy lifestyle classes and workshops, including open art; stretch and tone; yoga, Pilates; recipes and strategies; clay expressions; and many other free programs are available for people living with cancer
Where: Gilda’s Club Westchester, 80 Maple Ave., White Plains
When: Clubhouse hours: 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays and Fridays; and 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays
Contact: 914-644-8844 or email info@gildasclubwestchester.org or visit .gildasclubwestchester.org