The symptom of pain is common in patients with cancer. Pain in cancer patients results from excessive stimulation of every kind. Since cancer grows rapidly most of the time and fatally occupies organs very fast, pain in the later stages of the disease is severe and hard to control through medication. Some cancer patients might not feel pain during the growing period of cancer, but begin to experience pain with traditional cancer treatment, such as chemotherapy, surgery or radiation.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, pain is considered a Qi and Xue stagnation on the meridians. As a result, the treatment for cancer pain is to control the pain by removing the stagnation from the meridians.

Pain in cancer patients can be divided into three levels:

• Patients have mild pain, which is tolerable, and do not need medication or treatment;
• Patients suffer strong pain; pain affects regular daily activities and sleeping; and medication is needed
regularly to control the pain;
• Patients have severe pain, cannot handle regular daily activities and cannot sleep; patients usually have to stay in certain positions to reduce their pain; regular painkillers are not effective to control the pain; opiate medicine taken regularly may provide some relief.

Over thousands of years’ practice, acupuncture has been demonstrated to be an effective analgesia. Acupuncture stimulation can activate different kinds of afferent fibers and inhibit the nociceptive response of the neuron. The transmission of the acupuncture information traveling in the ventrolateral quadrants of the spinal cord terminates the reticular formation of the brain stem and thalamus. This can activate the cerebral descending modulatory system of negative feedback, which inhibits input of noxious messages in the central nervous system.

In the whole procedure of acupuncture treatment for pain, the transportation of acupuncture information to the central nervous system is most important. In many cases of cancer patients, the advanced disease and weakened physical and mental conditions reduce the input information from acupuncture stimulation to the central nervous system, and limits the ability of acupuncture to control the pain. In clinical practice, practitioners sometimes encounter difficulty controlling cancer pain; patients experience either no pain relief or pain controlled for only a very short time. This usually requires more acupuncture stimulation in quality and quantity. This problem could be helped by providing a special Qi and Xue adjustment technique to enhance the acupuncture result. That is a primary goal of GCG.

Active Acupuncture.
GCG Active Acupuncture combines Gu’s Exercise (Jin Gong) with a special acupuncture technique, improving the connection of internal organs, target place and the central nervous system. By using Active Acupuncture, the stagnation of energy pathways is removed or partially removed by doing Jin Gong acupuncture, which increases the analgesic effect of the acupuncture because more acupuncture information can be transported to the central nervous system. The strong and lasting stimulation from Active Acupuncture helps cancer patients to control pain better, regardless of whether or not they are on painkillers.

Jin Gong was developed by Mr. Cheng De Gu. It is based on ideas developed over thousands of years of Chinese therapeutic exercise, enhanced by modern scientific study and medical practice. The purpose of Jin Gong is to guide a patient’s limited energy to certain areas of the body; to remove the stagnation from meridians; and put the body in the best condition to receive the stimulation from acupuncture. Jin Gong does not require a lot of energy as regular exercise does, and lack of energy is a major problem in many cancer patients. Since Jin Gong does effect specific areas, it shows faster results than Tai Ji. When cancer patients come to get Active Acupuncture, they will have some guided exercise to activate the blood flow into those parts that need repair, strongly supporting them and allowing them to respond more effectively to acupuncture stimulation. In this way, Active Acupuncture remedies the limitations of traditional acupuncture techniques by simultaneously providing acupuncture stimulation and improving the internal environment. Thus, Active Acupuncture increases the effectiveness of traditional acupuncture, enhancing its treatment and further stabilizing the treatment results, helping cancer patients to increase the natural painkillers in the body to control the pain experienced as a result of the cancer or traditional cancer treatment.

Jin Gong for cancer pain control treatment includes:

• Open the Gate of Life, make the body alert for the treatments holistically;
• Open the Lung, get more external Qi to work with internal Qi, to help produce and adjust Xue;
• Loosen the spasm of certain areas by stretching the area where pain is involved to reduce or remove the stagnation from meridians.

When patients get acupuncture after Jin Gong, when Qi and Xue are more balanced, the acupuncture stimulation is more effective. It is important to keep in mind, however, that patients with cancer are often very weak, so the treatment should select the right points and right amount stimulation. For cancer pain, some points are particularly effective:

• Pain from brain and throat cancer: St. 8, LI 7, Wrist Ankle point, upper 5 (both sides);
• Pain from breast cancer with or without surgery: H7, LI 16, Wrist and Ankle point, upper 5 (abnormal side);
• Pain from stomach, pancreas and esophagus cancer: Sp 4 , St. 36, Wrist and Ankle point, lower 2 (left side);
• Pain from liver cancer: Li 3, Li 9, Li 14, Wrist and Ankle point, lower 3 (right side);
• Pain from ovary, uterus and urinary bladder cancer: B 59, St. 39, Wrist and Ankle point, lower 2;
• Pain from lung cancer: Lu 8, P 6, Wrist and Ankle point, upper 5 (abnormal side);
LI 4 is a very effective pain control point when used with the right technique. It could be used in conjunction with other points when a cancer patient is in severe, sharp pain.

Pain control in cancer patients is more difficult than pain from other diseases; the effectiveness of the acupuncture stimulation is the key. With the right point and the right technique, one could use acupuncture as a strong and natural painkiller to help cancer patients with their pain, and leave them more energy to concentrate on fighting their cancer.

Magnolia Goh will be presenting the GCG Active Acupuncture technique for treating cancer pain at Pacific Symposium 2001.