Five Element
Acupuncture For Support During Chemotherapy
Acupuncture For Support During Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy plays a crucial role in modern cancer treatment, using powerful drugs to target and destroy rapidly dividing cells. While this can be life-saving, it also affects healthy tissues — leaving many people dealing with exhaustion, nausea, changes in appetite, disrupted sleep, and emotional strain. These side effects can accumulate over time, impacting both physical resilience and mental wellbeing. Acupuncture is widely recomended for its role in supportive care of patients undergoing chemotherpy. Specifically, it is cited by both NICE and the WHO for its effectiveness in managing related side effects, which help patients navigate treatment with greater stability, vitality and emotional ease. — complementing medical care by supporting the whole person.
Acupuncture During Chemotherapy FAQs
Q: How can acupuncture help during chemotherapy?
Chemotherapy can leave patients depleted, nauseous, or anxious. Acupuncture supports recovery by easing side effects, calming the nervous system, and promoting gentle energy renewal. It helps patients feel more balanced, grounded, and resilient through treatment.
Q: Which acupuncture points are used?
Two key points include ST36 (Zusanli), which strengthens energy, digestion, and immunity, and BL43 (Gao Huang Shu), which nourishes the vital essence and supports the lungs and spirit. Both are powerful for rebuilding strength during chemotherapy.
Q: Why is moxa used alongside acupuncture in these treatments?
Moxa — a therapeutic herb gently warmed over the skin — is used to tonify and warm the body when Qi is weakened. Over ST36 and BL43, it enhances the body’s ability to recover, rebuild blood, and stabilise energy.
Western Approach to treatment
From a Western medical perspective, acupuncture is increasingly recognised as a valuable supportive care option during chemotherapy. This recognition is supported by official guidence. The National Institute For Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recognises acupuncture for managining related symptoms, while the World Health Organisation (WHO) explicicitly identifies acupuncture as proven effective in controlled trials to 'treating 'adverse reactions to radiotherply and/or chemotherpy (WHO 2003).
Beyond these specific, evidenced based areas, studies and oncology clinics globally integrate acupuncture as part of a holistic model of care. The goal is clear: not to replace medical treatment, but to help patinets tolerate it and recover from side effects more smoothly, offersing a bridge between conventional medicine and overall wellbeing.
The Five Element Acupuncture Lens
In Five Element Acupuncture, the focus is never solely on symptoms, but on the person experiencing them. Treatment honours the full spectrum of what each patient is navigating — from the physical effects of chemotherapy to the emotional toll of uncertainty and fatigue.
By working with the body’s elemental energies — Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water — treatment helps bring the system back into alignment. This approach doesn’t fight against what’s happening; it supports the body to adapt and recover, helping patients feel grounded, resilient, and more at ease.
Acupuncture can be a deeply quiet and restorative experience — a moment of stillness in a process that often feels clinical and rushed. It reconnects patients with their sense of self, their breath, and their strength.
How Acupuncture Can Help During Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy can leave patinets depleted, nauseous, or anxious. Acupuncture supports recovery by easing these side effects. Its effectivness in easing nausea and other adverse reactions is documented by the World Health Organisation (WHO 2003). Treatment focusses on calming the nervous system and promoting gentle energy renewal, helping partients feel more balanced, grounded, and resilient through treatment.
Two acupuncture points are especially important in this context:
Stomach 36 (ST 36, Zusanli) — known as “The Point of Longevity,” this point strengthens vitality, supports digestion, and replenishes energy depleted by treatment. It helps restore appetite, stabilise the system, and anchor the body’s strength when it feels most drained.
Bladder 38 (BL 43, Gaohuangshu) — Known as “Rich for the Vitals,” this point nourishes deep reserves and replenishes the body’s essential energy. It’s used to help rebuild strength, immunity, and emotional stability through long or demanding treatment journeys.
Both points are often supported with moxibustion — a traditional therapy that involves the gentle warming of acupuncture points using moxa, a refined form of mugwort leaf. The warmth from moxa penetrates deeply into the body, enhancing circulation, stimulating the immune response, and strengthening vitality at a level that needles alone cannot reach.
For patients undergoing chemotherapy, this warming approach helps offset coldness, weakness, and depletion, encouraging the body to recover its inner fire — that spark of energy that fuels healing and resilience.
Many of my patients describe these sessions as a moment of calm and reconnection — a chance to rest, to breathe, and to feel supported rather than treated. Over a course of sessions, they often notice improved sleep, reduced nausea, steadier energy, and an increased sense of inner strength and emotional ease.
Important Note: Acupuncture is offered as a holistic therapy. Claims about its effectiveness are based on traditional Chinese medicine principles, observational data, and evidence from bodies such as the World Health Organization (WHO). We aim to comply with all UK advertising standards and only make claims where supported by rigorous evidence, such as guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Acupuncture treatment is always tailored to the individual.
