Acupuncture post-operative nausea: study

If you’ve ever had surgery or know someone who has, you might be familiar with postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV). It’s a pretty common side effect, and while there are drugs to help prevent it, they don’t always work for everyone. That’s why researchers have been looking at alternative methods, like stimulating the PC6 acupoint on the wrist.

A team of Hong Kong and Australian scientists reviewed 59 trials involving 7667 participants which looked into the use of  Pericardium six, a well known acupuncture point on the wrist to relieve the post-operative symptoms like nausea.

The results show that compared with a sham treatment, Pericardium six stimulation reduced nausea by 29 percent, vomiting by 30 percent, and the need for drugs that suppress nausea by 31 percent.

In short acupuncture has been just as effective as routine anti-sickness drugs, but had few side effects. Additionally, it was cheaper than medicine, the study found. And as always, more and higher quality research is needed.

Generally, physicians and patients are not aware of this simple, yet effective natural treatment for preventing postoperative nausea and vomiting. If you are going for a surgery, talk to your doctor about this.