Biofield Therapies: Helpful Or Full Of Hype? Review Looks At Reiki, Therapeutic Touch And Healing Touch
As we continue to explore research on biofield therapies, including Reiki, it is important to consider that many researchers have an agenda when conducting their work. Biofield therapies are still considered controversial. I am curious when biofield therapies like Reiki will no longer be called “complementary and alternative medicine”. I find it interesting that biofield therapies like Reiki, some of which have been around for thousands of years, are considered “alternative medicine,” and allopathic medicine, relatively new, is called “traditional medicine”. Somehow, those two phrases do not logically make sense based on which is traditional and which is the new “alternative”. I’m interested in your thoughts and perceptions on the following review: Biofield Therapies: Helpful or Full of Hype?
Biofield Therapies: Helpful Or Full Of Hype? Review Looks At Reiki, Therapeutic Touch And Healing Touch
Biofield therapies — Reiki, therapeutic touch and healing touch — are promising complementary interventions for reducing the intensity of pain in diverse conditions, anxiety for hospitalized patients and agitated behaviors in dementia. A review of the science behind biofield therapies has now been published.
Biofield therapies, which claim to use subtle energy to stimulate the body’s healing process, are promising complementary interventions for reducing the intensity of pain in a number of conditions, reducing anxiety for hospitalized patients and reducing agitated behaviors in dementia, over and above what standard treatments can achieve. However, longer-term effects are less clear.
Biofield Therapies: Energy (healing or psychic or spiritual)
Dr. Shamini Jain, from the UCLA Division of Cancer Prevention and Control Research, and Dr. Paul Mills, from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, and the Moores Comprehensive Cancer Center in San Diego, US, publish their review1 of the science behind biofield therapies online this week in Springer’s International Journal of Behavioral Medicine.
A significant number of patients use biofield therapies — Reiki, therapeutic touch and healing touch — despite very little research proving that they work. These techniques have been used over millennia in various cultural communities to heal physical and mental disorders. They have only recently been under the scrutiny of current Western scientific methods.
In a detailed review of 66 clinical studies looking at biofield therapies in different patient populations with a range of ailments, Jain and Mills examine the strength of the evidence for the efficacy of these complementary therapies. They show that overall, published work on biofield therapies is of average quality — in scientific terms.
Bearing that in mind, they find strong evidence that biofield therapies reduce pain intensity in free-living populations, and moderate evidence that they are effective at lowering pain in hospitalized patients as well as in patients with cancer.
There is also moderate evidence that these therapies ease agitated behaviors in dementia and moderate evidence that they reduce anxiety in hospitalized patients. There is inconclusive evidence for the efficacy of biofield therapies on symptoms of fatigue and quality of life in cancer patients, as well as for overall pain reduction, and anxiety management in cardiovascular patients.
The authors conclude that there is a strong need for further high-quality studies and suggest specific areas for further research. They add: “In order to better inform patients of the potential benefits or non-benefits of these biofield-based interventions, clinicians and scientists within behavioral medicine should familiarize themselves with current theory, practice and research of such techniques.”
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Springer. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference:
Jain S & Mills PJ. Biofield Therapies: Helpful or Full of Hype? A Best Evidence Synthesis. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 2009; DOI: 10.1007/s12529-009-9062-4
What have been your personal experiences with biofield therapies like Reiki? What questions do you have about biofield therapies like Reiki?
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Michael Swerdloff
Providence Holistic Counselor, Coach and Reiki
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