21/10/2024
Hi, guess who has the driest mouth (primarily from meds) - meeeeeeeeeee. So I looked up ways to hydrate better, since all the water I'm drinking isn't helping the way it should. Obviously beyond higher amounts of fruits and some veggies and elctrolytes, what else could I do? Welp: NIH, Throat Cancer Foundation, and JAMA all pointed to acupuncture, so of course I'm going to read the articles to do self-acupressure because this level of dry mouth is extremely uncomfortable.
And what do I find? AWWW YEAH:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2818644
Points appear to be as follows:
"Acupuncture points were at 3 sites on each ear (Shenmen, point 0, salivary gland 2-prime19,20), a site on the chin (CV24), a site on each forearm (LU7), a site on each hand (LI 1-prime19,20), and a site on each leg (K6) with 1 placebo needle at GB32 for a total of 14 sites. For body points, standardized techniques for location were used."
Did I acu-pressure the points? YES. Did they work almost instantly to get the worst discomfort out of dry mouth and start up saliva again?
YEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG, thank you all things acu!!!!!!
This randomized clinical trial evaluates the use of acupuncture in the treatment of xerostomia in patients with head and neck cancer who received radiotherapy.