Complementary therapies may be used in addition to your medical and surgical treatment to enhance your recovery. Discuss these additional therapies with your health care provider to be sure they will help.
Some examples of complementary therapies include:
Therapies like acupuncture may help relieve fatigue, decrease nausea, reduce vomiting, and lessen pain in breast cancer patients.46
In an acupuncture session, special needles are put into your skin at certain areas throughout your body. This prompts your nervous system and may help decrease symptoms.46
The American Board of Medical Acupuncture® sets requirements for medical acupuncture board certification. Visit dabma.org to check if your physician is certified by the ABMA.72
Listening to music at home may reduce cancer patients' pain and fatigue and ease symptoms like loss of appetite and difficulty concentrating. Breast cancer patients who listened to 30 minutes of music 5 times a week had "noticeably" reduced side effects of cancer treatment over 24 weeks. Music helped their physical and psychological well-being because it helped them take their mind off cancer. Music therapy is convenient and can easily be used by people while walking or driving or in the comfort of their homes.47