Reprinted from: https://mesothelioma.net/craniosacral-therapy-mesothelioma-patients/
Patients living with mesothelioma face a lot of difficult decisions, including what treatment approaches to take. While traditional treatments, like surgery, chemotherapy, surgery, and important emerging treatments are necessary to help battle any type of cancer, more patients are also including alternative practitioners and strategies in their treatment plans.
There are many options for complementary and alternative medical practices, and most oncology teams will happily work with these practitioners to give patients the best overall care. Craniosacral therapy is one of these alternative practices that can be a great complement to the traditional treatment mesothelioma patients undergo. It may provide benefits like pain relief, increased mobility, faster recovery from surgery, and many others.
Craniosacral therapy, which is also sometimes called cranial therapy or cranial osteopathy, is a type of body work, massage therapy, and osteopathic manipulation. The practice involves gentle manipulation, much like massage, of bones and connective tissue. The main targets of this type of therapy are the skull and the sacrum, which is the bone at the base of the spine.
The philosophy behind craniosacral therapy is that the spine and brain, which make up the central nervous system, give off subtle rhythmic energies or pulses that are important for health and well-being. Practitioners claim to be able to sense and manipulate these pulses to help patients get relief from symptoms of certain conditions. These include chronic pain, neck pain, headaches, insomnia, asthma, scoliosis, irritable bowel syndrome, sinus infections, chronic fatigue syndrome, and many more.
Research into the effectiveness of this alternative practice is limited, but patients often report finding at least some relief from symptoms. For mesothelioma and other types of cancer, there is no proof that craniosacral therapy is a valid treatment, but this does not necessarily mean it should be discounted. It has been found to be a useful complementary treatment as it helps cancer patients feel more relaxed and relieves tension, which results in improved quality of life and better overall well-being.
Mesothelioma patients often suffer from a number of symptoms of the cancer and of the treatments that are fighting the cancer. While craniosacral therapy does not treat the cancer directly, it may help patients get relief from some of the symptoms and side effects of living with this illness. One of the most common symptoms of cancer and cancer treatments is pain, and pain relief is one of the most common uses for craniosacral therapy.
Cancer patients who have undergone surgery, for instance, experience pain after the procedure and craniosacral therapy has been successfully used to reduce that pain. The results have been difficult to quantify through research, but many cancer patients have turned to this therapy to get relief from all kinds of associated pain.
Relief of pain helps to make movement easier and craniosacral therapy may provide patients with greater mobility as a result. Another important benefit is relief of stress and anxiety. Many patients say that the treatment helps them relax and minimizes the negative feelings that are common with cancer. Together all of these benefits have the overall advantage of giving mesothelioma patients a greater quality of life while fighting cancer.
Another benefit of craniosacral therapy is that it may provide a good alternative to massage therapy. Massage has many benefits, but some patients are too sensitive to be able to withstand the physical manipulations. Especially for advanced mesothelioma patients, the touch provided by massage may cause more pain in areas where there are metastatic tumors. Craniosacral therapy is conducted with a very light touch and more sensitive patients are better able to tolerate it.
If you are interested in learning craniosacral therapy, we offer a course on that! View it here: https://massagetherapyceu.com/course_details.php?cid=10&cname=Craniosacral_Therapy
