Treatment of side effects of Chemotherapy

This is the excerpt from the book, ????? (Infinite Nourishing Moxibustion), written by Dr Namsu Kim (“Gudang”).  I hope that the translation will be helpful for those who do not understand the Korean language.  The clinic trains the patients to do direct moxa at home, sometimes with help from their family.  This is how the patients recover from their diseases sooner.  Once the patients have their first treatments, they have moxa points marked clearly and burned.  They use the points for self moxa treatments.

The Gudang clinic selected 100 patients among the cancer patients Gudang treated for a year between Jan 21, 2013 and Jan 21, 2014.  He intended to study the effectiveness of direct moxa treatments.

The data is based on the intake during their first visit, and the questionaire which was done after the treatments or through phone conversation.  The patients had moxa done at home for more than a month.

(1) Age and Sex of Cancer Patients

As we get older, there is likely more risks of having cancers.  There were more cancer patients in the age group of the fifties to seventies.

(2) Number of Patients by the Cancer

There were 24 different cancers.  Breast cancer came first, followed by Lung cancer, Stomach cancer, etc.

(3) Chief Complaints

Chemotherapy and radiation therapy damge normal cells along with cancer cells.  Most of the patients suffer from hair loss, decrease in white blood cell and platelet, which results in chronic fatigue, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, pain, and so on.  The patients complained of being lethargic and tired, followed by pain, insomnia, shortness of breath, etc.

(4) Type of Treatments

Some of the patients had more than two treatments.  There were 19 cancer patients who were in the terminal stage.  All 80 patients, except for one breast cancer patient, who refused surgery and chemotherapy, came to the clinic after received surgeries.  Most of the patients had 1 to 3 surgeries, and 1 to 29 chemotherapies.  Some had 33 radiation therapies.

(5) Frequency of self moxa treatment

68 % of the patients had moxa done on a daily basis.  84% of the patients had moxa done, when we counted in the patients who did moxa 3 to 4 times a week.

(6) Degree of Improvement

95% of the patients reported they experienced improvement.

(7) Degree of Satisfaction

95% of the patients responded that moxa was helpful.

(Excerpt from ?????)