Recently Diagnosed or Relapsed? Stop Looking For a Miracle Cure, and Use Evidence-Based Therapies To Enhance Your Treatment and Prolong Your Remission
Multiple Myeloma an incurable disease, but I have spent the last 25 years in remission using a blend of conventional oncology and evidence-based nutrition, supplementation, and lifestyle therapies from peer-reviewed studies that your oncologist probably hasn't told you about.
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Can Myeloma Survivors Treat Sarcopenia?
Can myeloma survivors treat sarcopenia? More to the point, can I treat both my sarcopenia and nerve damage with acupuncture? According to the studies linked below, I can.
Sarcopenia aka muscle loss, is a common side effect of aging. MM patients are, as a group, over the age of 60. To compound this problem, chemotherapy also causes sarcopenia.
I have also developed radiation-induced lumbar-sacral plexopathy. Nerve damage below my waist due to radiation therapy that I underwent as a newly diagnosed MM patient. The radiation zapped the bone lesion but it sure caused long-term problems.
Regular exercise may have slowed my muscle loss but I am looking to do more than slow my muscle loss. I am undergoing acupuncture twice a week in an effort to build back muscle that I’ve lost as well as regain nerve function.
Sarcopenia, what is it, what is the cause and what can you do about it?
I began my acupuncture therapy in earnest in 2025. I’ll keep you posted as to my progress… cross your fingers.
Are you an MM survivor? Have you lost muscle mass due to aging and chemotherapy? Have you lost nerve conduction as well? Email me at David.PeopleBeatingCancer@gmail.com. I will reply to you ASAP.
Hang in there,
David Emerson
- MM Survivor
- MM Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Efficacy and safety of acupuncture for sarcopenia in older adults: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis
Introduction Sarcopenia is a prevalent skeletal muscle disorder among older adults that can significantly diminish their quality of life. While acupuncture is gaining traction as a treatment for various skeletal muscle disorders, there is currently insufficient evidence supporting its efficacy specifically for sarcopenia. Therefore, this systematic review and meta-analysis aims to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture interventions for sarcopenia…
Methods and analysis A comprehensive search will be conducted across eight databases (PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, China Biology Medicine disc, China Science and Technology Journal Database and Wanfang Database) from their inception until December 31, 2025.
Additionally, clinical trial registries and other relevant sources will be searched. All randomised controlled trials (RCTs) related to acupuncture treatment for sarcopenia will be included. Data extraction will encompass study details, design, participant demographics, intervention specifics, outcome measures and reported adverse events.
The primary outcomes of interest will be muscle strength, muscle mass and physical performance…
We anticipate that acupuncture therapy may have a positive impact on the treatment of sarcopenia. At the efficacy level, acupuncture is expected to increase skeletal muscle mass and strength and improve gait speed, balance assessments and other physical performance. At the micro level, acupuncture may decrease the release of pro-inflammatory factors, elevate the levels of hormones such as testosterone and insulin-like growth factor and improve the imbalance of autophagy and apoptosis. At the safety level, the incidence of adverse effects occurring during acupuncture treatment, such as localised reactions like pain and bruising, needle sickness and transient weakness, is relatively low…
Acupuncture treatment improves nerve conduction in peripheral neuropathy
The etiology of peripheral neuropathy (PN) often remains elusive resulting in a lack of objective therapeutic strategies. We conducted a pilot study to evaluate the therapeutic effect of acupuncture on PN as measured by changes in nerve conduction and assessment of subjective symptoms.
One hundred and ninety-two consecutive patients with PN as diagnosed by nerve conduction studies (NCS) were evaluated over a period of 1 year. Of 47 patients who met the criteria for PN of undefined etiology, 21 patients received acupuncture therapy according to classical Chinese Medicine as defined by the Heidelberg Model, while 26 patients received the best medical care but no specific treatment for PN.
Sixteen patients (76%) in the acupuncture group improved symptomatically and objectively as measured by NCS, while only four patients in the control group (15%) did so. Three patients in the acupuncture group (14%) showed no change and two patients an aggravation (10%), whereas in the control group seven showed no change (27%) and 15 an aggravation (58%).
Importantly, subjective improvement was fully correlated with improvement in NCS in both groups. The data suggest that there is a positive effect of acupuncture on PN of undefined etiology as measured by objective parameters.
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