Difficulty Swallowing? Acupuncture as a Cure for Dysphagia

Dysphagia, or difficulty swallowing, is used to describe a range of problems related to swallowing foods and liquids. Unfortunately, it’s a common side effect following chemoradiation therapy for head and neck cancer (HNC), as well as a possible complication for stroke survivors. In every case, finding a cure is important in order to:

• prevent the discomfort of having trouble swallowing
• avoid risks of weight-loss and malnutrition if left untreated
• minimize the pain and complications of prolonged feeding tube use

Why it happens

Often, people suffering from dysphagia will experience a sensation of food being stuck in their throat, or they will physically gag, cough or choke when attempting to chew and swallow. These responses can be caused by a variety of factors, but many of them are side effects of surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy associated with cancer treatments.

Swelling, fibrosis and infections in the mouth and esophagus can interrupt normal swallowing ability, and difficulties can often be compounded by other side effects like xerostomia, or dry mouth, and mucositis.

Getting off the feeding tube

In some cases, patients who suffer from dysphagia end up needing to be aspirated, and rely on a feeding tube for sustenance.

Since feeding tubes and aspirators tend to cause their own range of complications, and significantly lower a patient’s quality of life, it’s promising that studies are showing acupuncture to be an effective treatment for dysphagia, lowering the amount of time sufferers must spend relying on feeding tubes.

How acupuncture can help

Luckily, acupuncture has emerged as a way to augment traditional swallowing therapies in reducing local pain and time spent using a feeding tube. Though I’ll focus on the studies in further detail during next week’s post, researchers believe that acupuncture’s efficacy as a treatment for dysphagia is linked to its ability to:

• increase production of saliva (mentioned in my previous post on acupuncture and xerostomia)
• restore the swallowing reflex by stimulating local nerve sensory receptors
• inhibit the fibrosis process (the scarring and stiffening of the throat, esophagus and mouth muscles)

With a number of promising case studies and clinical trials investigating the further possibilities of acupuncture as a part of post-treatment palliative care, results already show clear benefits to using acupuncture to treat dysphagia and other HNC complications. If you or a loved one are suffering from difficulty swallowing, get in touch with us for relief and a possible cure.