Complementary alternative therapies can aid a cancer patient in different ways by helping to lessen pain, improve sleep, ease muscle soreness, and even lessen the effects of depression. San Juan Regional Cancer Center includes only those alternative treatment processes which have proven evidence-based results. These processes complement the best treatments that modern medical science has to offer by taking advantage of the mind-body connections.

Therapies Considered for the Program

• Massage Therapy: The term “massage therapy” covers a group of practices and techniques. There are over 80 types of massage therapy. In all of them, therapists press, rub, and otherwise manipulate the muscles and other soft tissues of the body with varying pressure and movement. Massage therapists most often use their hands and fingers but may use their forearms, elbows, or feet. Typically, the intent is to relax the soft tissues, increase delivery of blood and oxygen to the massaged areas, warm them, and decrease pain.

• Acupuncture: The term “acupuncture” describes a family of procedures involving the stimulation of anatomical points on the body using a variety of techniques. The acupuncture technique that has been most-often studied scientifically involves penetrating the skin with thin, solid, metallic needles that are manipulated by the hands or by electrical stimulation. Practiced in China and other Asian countries for thousands of years, acupuncture is one of the key components of traditional Chinese medicine.

• Healing Touch: Similar to Reiki, healing touch has evolved over the years to promote or maintain the balance of vital energy fields in the body. Healing touch is a therapy in which practitioners pass their hands over another person’s body with the intent to use their own perceived healing energy to identify energy imbalances and promote health. This modality involves movement of the practitioner’s hands over the patient’s body to become attuned to the condition of the patient. With the idea of doing so, the practitioner is able to strengthen and reorient the patient’s energy.

• Reiki: Reiki is based on the idea that there is a universal (or source) energy that supports the body’s innate healing abilities. Practitioners seek to access this energy, allowing it to flow to the body and facilitate healing. In a Reiki session, the patient lies down or sits comfortably, fully clothed. The practitioner’s hands are placed lightly on or just above the client’s body, palms down, using a series of 12 to 15 different hand positions. Each position is held for about two to five minutes or until the practitioner feels that the flow of energy—sensations such as heat or tingling in the hands—has slowed or stopped. People use Reiki for relaxation, stress reduction, and symptom relief to improve overall health and well-being. Reiki has been used by people with anxiety, chronic pain, HIV/AIDS, and other health conditions, as well as by people recovering from surgery or experiencing side effects from cancer treatments.