SAN DIEGO -- A 3,000-year-old Chinese therapy is being used to help women with breast cancer -- and it's working so well, some insurance companies are paying for it.

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New research finds women, who get acupuncture while being treated for breast cancer with chemotherapy or radiation, tend to have less side effects and pain than normal.

Deb Simpson, 47, was treated for breast cancer in 2000. Three years later, she says it came back with a vengeance.

"It came back in my bone, brain, liver and lung," Simpson told NBC 7/39.

Along with surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, she received acupuncture at Acupuncture Continuum in Encinitas.

How does it work? According to owner and licensed acupuncturist Karen Sulger, "there are acupuncture points that effect other areas on the body -- if you insert a needle into those places you can unblock the bad energy and heal faster."

Simpson said "I'm a needle ninny -- so I don't like needles."

But she said she liked the results.

"When you're being treated for cancer with acupuncture, it can help keep some of the nausea away and keep your energy level higher, at least that was my experience."

Sulger said, "Western medicine is very good at directly going to the areas and getting rid of the tumors, we're very good at trying to help with the side effects caused by these very strong treatments."

Simpson's cancer is now in remission, but she has continued with the acupuncture treatments.

Acupuncture Continuum is offering a day of free acupuncture on Oct. 6 to anyone who has breast cancer. For more information, call 760-635-0581 or click here to visit the Acupuncture Continuum.

The acupuncture is co-therapy and is not to be used in place of cancer treatments.