I was fortunate to attend SPOHNC's 15th Anniversary Celebration of Life event yesterday at the New York Marriott LaGuardia Hotel. I must say that the quality of speakers was outstanding.

I wanted to tell everyone about one particular lecturer, Dr. Richard C Niemtzow, a physician and Colonel in the USAF. He also maintains a private practice College Park, MD. His lecture, titled "Acupuncture Treatment For Dry Mouth In Head And Neck Cancer Patients, was terrific and I want to share his website address with you: http://www.n5ev.com/general_info.htm.

I think that anyone suffering from xerostomia as the result of radiation, should definately visit his site. I am curious if anyone has tried this and if they were succesful or not. He has contact information on the site for anyone that might be interested in more information. He seems to be having a high rate of success with his patients. There were at least 8 people in the audience that have had their saliva restored after treatment by him. One man in particular stood up and described his feelings when he was able to lick his finger and turn a page for the first time.

I am always looking for anything that shows signs of promise for my fellow survivors and I hope this information is beneficial.

Jerry

I know that a number of posters here have tried acupuncture for dry mouth, with mixed results. When I did a search of the forum using those terms, several threads popped up with both positive and negative comments. Gail Mac did mention that Johns Hopkins has been using this for awhile with H&N patients, apparently with some success.

Brian made a good observation in one of those posts -- he pointed out that some of the studies involving acupuncture have been done during the specific post-recovery period when the normal healing process would tend to show some improvement in saliva flow anyway. (One website I found concerning this procedure did not appear to include a "control" group, i.e., not receiving acupuncture, for comparison purposes, so it was questionable to me how they demonstrated that it was acupuncture that made a difference over a period of many months.)

As someone who had XRT 17 years ago (it was the only option then), and nothing of a preventive nature to save my salivary function, I've still gotten back a surprising amount of saliva flow over an extended period of time. I originally thought that that part of the healing process was as good as it would get after a couple of years, but I was wrong -- it has continued to improve over a much longer period of time, with some help from regular use of Salagen and Biotene. As I've said before -- I now wake up sometimes during the night to find that I'm drooling on the pillow!

Jerry, For some reason that link didn't work for me.

The link contains a trailing period -- . Just backspace over it to get rid of it, and the link will work. Or click here .

Try this: http://www.n5ev.com/ It should work now.

Sorry

There have many, many discussions about acupuncture for salivary function improvement and even some traditional Chinese acupuncturists are skeptical that it can make a difference. Many here have tried it and a few claim that it has made a difference. The jury is really out on this. It's too bad that it gets otherwise reputable institutions and sources endorsing it potential benefits.

I would sure like to see some science and double blind studies instead of some testimonials based on 100 patients with no control groups.

Here is a link to what Quackwatch has to say about acupuncture http://www.quackwatch.org/search/webglimpse.cgi?ID=1&query=acupuncture

Edited by Gsry Allsbrook

I would love to see some good scientific studies too. I'm willing to beleive it can be of help but anecdatoes will only take you so far.

That said, I will tell this one anecdote (not directly related to acupuncture and salivation) which is that my grandfather, a thoracic surgeon and researcher, spent a year practicing in China in the 1970s. Although that quackwatch site says that acupuncture is not used for anesthersia in China as often as it's proponents suggest, that may be a function of using more Western Medical practices in the last few decades.

In the 1970s, my grandfather (the ultimate skeptic about the value of acupuncture when he went there) said he saw several surgeries in which he was pretty sure the ONLY anesthetic was acupuncture and the patient appeared to experience no pain, even when the procedure being done should have been excruciating without anesthetic. Either that's a testimony to the power of placebo effects (and an indication we should look more at what placebo effects are), or he was fooled (and he was pretty had to fool about stuff like that), or there's really something to it.

Just thought I'd add that story.

Nelie

nelie

Hi Guys
Pete did try the acupuncture...given by Doc at Emory who was previously in one of the armed services. I wish I could remember his name ... Pete was not impressed after 20 treatments and many dollars... but hey.. it might work for others.
Marica

Maybe as a Chinese and someone who did give acupuncture a try for six months after finishing radiation, I can share my experience.Acupuncture has been found effective in curing a couple of illnesses especially those related to nervous system and has been gaining significance recently in Hong Kong.While there have been plenty of success stories, there are also patients who give up trying acupuncture after spending a lot of money. As I always said, what works on others may not work on ourselves. The acupuncturist I sought help from did tell me honestly that his treatment wouldn't improve my mouth dryness but could help ease my limb numbness. He also gave me some herbal tea trying to stimulate my salivary glands. I stopped visiting him during the SARS outbreak. I really couldn't feel improvement in mouth dryness or limb numbness but I have got adjusted to them and learnt to live peacefully with these side effects. I have to take sugar-free candies or gums to moisten my mouth, without which my voice can become very raspy. Little sips of water can help a lot already. Same old piece of advice. If the acupuncturist is reliable and not charging too much, you can have a try. Just make sure that he practises it in a professional way and in a sanitary environment.

Karen

Hi;

I'm writing for my husband Ken who had SCC of the left tonsil. Had 6 wks. radiation & chemo (4 treatments/"Cisplatin) Also, neck desection. This was almost 2yrs. ago and is still troubled with dry mouth/no saliva. Has anyone here tried Evoxac for dry mouth with any success? He did try Salagen which didn't help but I wonder if was because he wasn't on it long enough. He is not trying the Evoxac but has not helped yet. Of course, he also has no taste of food yet. He does use biotene every day.

Thanks for any advise/help you can give us.

Linda K.