05:52 PM PDT on Monday, July 12, 2004

By JEAN ENERSEN / KING 5 News

Clarence Read wouldn't have even thought about mowing his lawn last summer.

"If it was hot, and the sun was shining, I just didn't dare. I'd break out in a rash in just a few minutes," he said.

Clarence needed hormone injections for prostate cancer, but they left him with hot flashes, a common side-effect.

Now, Clarence is one of 25 prostate cancer patients in a clinical trial at Oregon Health and Science University, which is a follow-up to a Swedish study.

"This was a study of seven men, and they experienced a 50 to 70 percent reduction in the frequency and intensity of hot flashes," said Dr. Meg Hayes, family physical and acupuncturist at Oregon Health and Sciences.

Hot flashes are associated with low levels of the "feel good" hormone serotonin.

"We're hoping to increase the levels of serotonin and its metabolites throughout the body, and we're going to be checking that through a series of blood tests and urine tests," said Dr. Hayes.

Patients also keep track of their hot flashes in a daily diary. Clarence has gone from up to 10 hot flashes a day down to less than two a week.

Clarence isn't the only patient reporting changes.

"So far, the first three out of three men had significant reductions in hot flashes after four weeks of acupuncture, but these are very preliminary results," said Tomasz Beer, hematologist/oncologist at OHSU Cancer Institute.

Conclusive results will be available next year. For now, Clarence says he's just happy to be mowing his lawn again.

Doctors say the risks of acupuncture are minimal, but do include infection, and redness where the needles are inserted.