Alternative Medicine Techniques Research Articles

Complementary and alternative medicine therapies in mood disorders

This article reviews the potential uses of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) techniques for individuals with mood disorders. Mood disorders are among the most prevalent mental health issues today and there are many approaches towards their management. While many different types of medication are available, more and more people turn to CAM interventions to help manage their mood disorders. CAM interventions can include herbal remedies, acupuncture and meditation. There is an increasing number of research studies on CAM intervention in mood disorders, and this article critiques such data and attempts to provide a clinical perspective within which these CAM interventions might be considered.

Cost Savings With Clinical Solutions: The Impact of Reforming Health and Health Care Economics With Integrative Therapies

With all the time, effort, heated debates, and battles that have taken place to date on health care, the discussion has actually been limited to reforming our health care economics but has not been focused on a genuine reform of health care itself. Therefore, as the effort to revise the US health care system unfolds, it is imperative that we evaluate and implement integrative strategies that will yield genuine and substantial cost savings while having a favorable impact on patient care. Before going forward, it is essential to acknowledge that without broadening the existing medical model, we will continue to perpetuate our inadequate and costly health care system. Integrative treatments have the potential to reduce health care costs in a remarkable number of ways—from providing effective approaches for prevention to relieving treatment consequences. For instance, integrative lifestyle counseling may reduce the need for certain prescriptive medications, shrinking not only the initial costs for these drugs but ultimately the number of adverse drug reactions. With hospitalizations for adverse reactions to prescription medications running to 1.6 million annually and deaths amounting to more than 100 000 per year, such reactions are definitely contributing to runaway health care costs. So too is the lack of educating and training Americans in new health care behaviors. Over the past few decades, we Americans have become a sick society. The scourges of obesity, diabetes, and cancer continue to escalate with almost no success at prevention and only limited success with treatment. When it comes to cancer, the publicized survival breakthroughs are measured in a few weeks to a few months. The need to fix our system is beyond desperate in light of the financial and clinical health crises we find our country in. A disease prevention model should be core to any reform. Introducing a variety of preventative measures is crucial if we are going to right our sinking health care system while encouraging a healthier American populace. The purpose of this article is to present some of the immediate and long-term benefits of introducing integrative therapies to counter certain consequences of invasive treatments. Implementing such treatments can help defray the costs burdening the US medical care system. A previous editorial discussed a systematic review of studies of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) techniques compared with conventional therapies used for the same clinical conditions. This included a cost-effectiveness analysis. Of these studies, 7 found that CAM therapy outcomes were significantly better than conventional methods but had lower or similar costs: 4 CAM therapy outcomes were similar to conventional outcomes but had lower or similar costs; 4 CAM therapy outcomes were better than conventional outcomes, but had higher costs; and 1 CAM therapy had similar outcomes but higher costs. Examples include the following: a relaxation tape used before colon surgery reduced the length of hospital stay by 1.6 days, at a cost savings of $3200 per patient, whereas hypnosis as an adjunct to sedation for interventional radiology produced a savings of $338, along with reductions in both oversedation and undersedation. Parenteral glutamine given to adult bone marrow transplant (BMT) patients in a 1994 study resulted in a reduced hospital stay of 1 full week with a savings of $21 095 per patient.

Therapeutic touch affects DNA synthesis and mineralization of human osteoblasts in culture

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) techniques are commonly used in hospitals and private medical facilities; however, the effectiveness of many of these practices has not been thoroughly studied in a scientific manner. Developed by Dr. Dolores Krieger and Dora Kunz, Therapeutic Touch is one of these CAM practices and is a highly disciplined five-step process by which a practitioner can generate energy through their hands to promote healing. There are numerous clinical studies on the effects of TT but few in vitro studies. Our purpose was to determine if Therapeutic Touch had any effect on osteoblast proliferation, differentiation, and mineralization in vitro. TT was performed twice a week for 10 min each on human osteoblasts (HOBs) and on an osteosarcoma-derived cell line, SaOs-2. No significant differences were found in DNA synthesis, assayed by [(3)H]-thymidine incorporation at 1 or 2 weeks for SaOs-2 or 1 week for HOBs. However, after four TT treatments in 2 weeks, TT significantly (p = 0.03) increased HOB DNA synthesis compared to controls. Immunocytochemistry for Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA) confirmed these data. At 2 weeks in differentiation medium, TT significantly increased mineralization in HOBs (p = 0.016) and decreased mineralization in SaOs-2 (p = 0.0007), compared to controls. Additionally, Northern blot analysis indicated a TT-induced increase in mRNA expression for Type I collagen, bone sialoprotein, and alkaline phosphatase in HOBs and a decrease of these bone markers in SaOs-2 cells. In conclusion, Therapeutic Touch appears to increase human osteoblast DNA synthesis, differentiation and mineralization, and decrease differentiation and mineralization in a human osteosarcoma-derived cell line.

Psycho-oncology: Review and update

The field of psycho-oncology is moving forward rapidly, especially for a relatively new field. Cancer patients and survivors are willing to discuss their needs and interests relating to diagnosis and treatment. There are guidelines and algorithms for determining levels of distress in cancer patients in both inpatient and outpatient settings. The pharmacologic treatment of distress, particularly depression, has vastly improved. Randomized controlled trials are becoming available for patients in order to determine the efficacy of psychotropic drugs. Numerous interventions are available to help cancer patients move forward with their lives. Some of these interventions began in the 1980s and have progressed to the use of complementary and alternative medicine techniques as coping strategies for cancer. With the rapid expansion of the Internet, cancer survivors' thirst for information also has grown. Many resources are available to help guide cancer patients through the maze of the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

Introduction

Introduction

Functional magnetic resonance imaging of real and sham acupuncture

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is an ideal method to noninvasively explore the whole brain for cortical activation related to acupuncture. The results from this study demonstrate that fMRI can identify specific cortical regions associated with acupuncture stimulation. The choice of acupuncture stimulation using visual or auditory points simplifies the interpretation of the results because the anatomic correlates are well defined. The magnitude and extent of the activations were different for the auditory and the visual stimulation; this may be due to the relative potency of the acupuncture points used, the overall imbalance associated with these systems, and the interpretation of the acupuncture point by the acupuncturist. Nevertheless, these data reflect significant blood-flow changes within the appropriate regions of the brain in response to stimulation of acupuncture points in the lower leg. With the appropriate experimental design, a clearer understanding of the neural substrate associated with acupuncture is likely to provide considerable insights into acupuncture treatment. This type of scientific approach to investigating and validating alternative medicine techniques is critical for the widespread acceptance of these methods.

An introductory program to alternative medicine in the undergraduate medical curriculum

Background: Alternative medical therapies are widely practiced in many countries. In the United Arab Emirates, the Ministry of Health has encouraged research in this area. The medical graduate needs to understand the principles of current alternative medicine techniques and the ethical basis of the relationship between the various systems of healing. Description: A course was delivered through problem‐based learning; which aimed at defining alternative medicine common practices, the principles on which they are based, and their advantages and disadvantages. Students interviewed families on their uses of alternative medicine and techniques. Attitudes of students toward alternative medicine before and after the courses were studied. Evaluations: All families used herbal remedies for treating common symptoms before consulting physicians and they believed that such remedies were safe. The attitudes of students toward herbal medicine, homeopathy, and acupuncture were modified by the program and the students described the program as an opportunity to learn an important topic. Conclusion: To increase knowledge and awareness about alternative medical practices it is necessary to introduce alternative medicine into the undergraduate medical curriculum, as today's medical students will be tomorrow's physicians.