[nightnurse30]

I've posted before about Healing Touch and how it has helped me overcome my PCS. My easiest explanation for Healing Touch is it is just like acupuncture but without the needles. The idea is to remove congested or stagnant energy (chi or qi) to restore balance to the bodys energy field and help the body physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. It invovles placing the hands gently on or above the body and working with the bodies energy centers.

But i wanted to share this study that was just done because i know people like to have evidence of something working. When I started taking classes in Healing Touch last year, my first instructor Rauni King, told us about this study that she had just completed with a doctor from our hospital who also does Healing Touch, Mimi Guarneri MD.

They did it at Camp Peddleton in Southern California and the results were absolutely astounding. There were 123 participants, and the group that got Healing Touch had such amazing success overcoming their PTSD that after the study was over, they gave Healing Touch treatments to all the non-HT group and then they all got amazingly better!! It just got published last month in Military Medicine journal.

This is a really important study for our community of PCS and TBI because it shows that there are ways to help with our depression and side effects we suffer from. Here are links to the abstract and an article about it! Not to mention it helps with pain reduction and can help those of us who suffer from headaches.

Here in San Diego, every hospital has a Healing Touch nurse along with training our nurses how to do Healing Touch so we can help our patients heal. It is very widely accepted and their are programs popping up all over the country for Healing Touch in our hospitals, including Stanfords Healing Partners program for Breast Cancer patients. Check out the links below about the study and also the website for Healing Touch so you can find a practitioner in your area! Im more than happy to answer any questions you might have about this Energy therapy


http://www.ingentaconnect.com/conten...00009/art00016

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0924102500.htm

www.healingtouchinternational.org

[Mark in Idaho]

I struggle to understand why the Pentagon is muzzling military chaplains as they try to counsel soldiers for stress but is moving forward at light speed with eastern religion based therapies.

The linked HT and GI study used a very weak standard for PTSD. Only one PTSD symptoms qualified the subject for the study. The relaxation skills taught in the Guided Imagery overlaps with simple relaxation skills. Single symptom PTSD would easily be responsive to learning relaxation and the CBT skills taught.

This sounds similar to the study the ImPACT people did that lead them to believe that a second concussion does not cause any more symptoms that a single concussion. If one reads the details of the study, they see the disclaimer that the ImPACT system may not be sensitive enough to measure a difference.

As was said long ago:

There are three kinds of lies,
lies,
damn lies, and
statistics.

YMMV

Your Mileage May Vary.

[nightnurse30]

Mark, I dont know why you constantly discount this type of treatment when you have never received it. You are very quick to say any research that is not done to your standards is not reliable. This is something that can really help people and you are trying to make this negative so no one will try it. I am proof that it works! i was so depressed and felt like my head was gonna explode everyday until I started getting these treatments and my whole life changed. You become a believer when someone takes your pain away.

I have given about 400 treatments since i started doing healing touch and I have had unbelievable results. Just the other day, I got a woman full feeling back in her arm. She has severe neuropathy from chemotherapy. Her arm has been numb for weeks. I did 1 treatment!!! And she has full feeling back in her arm and no longer needs neurontin. I could go on for days with stories of what i have seen personally and ailments i have taken away from people. I can open up congested sinuses, take away headaches, take away joint pain, take away nausea, etc. It is the simplest, easiest type of treatment because it works with our own energy and our hands. What happens when you bump your knee??? You immediately put your hand there and hold it to ease the pain....and you know it helps. You are doing energy work to yourself all the time and dont even know it.

My Level 4 instructor Anne Day does classes in Sun Valley Idaho.....so there are many practitioners in your area. maybe you should try a treatment and see for yourself before you dismiss it as not working. This is being used in hospitals all across the country, more and more research is being done. In my hospital, we are starting a study using BIS monitors on patients and staff when they are receiving a treatment. BIS monitors are used during anesthesia to see how sedated a patient is when they are paralyzed. We use them in ICU all the time too. We are getting people into anesthesia sedation levels during treatments....that is scientific proven data about the relaxation and sedation response people receive during a treatment.

Our physicians are all on board with this treatment and they write orders for their patients to receive healing touch all the time. This is where medicine is going, and it is going in a very positive, loving, compassionate direction where patients can heal in all areas of their life. Their whole being.

[Mark in Idaho]

I did not say it does not work. I said the study that said it works so well was severely flawed. A subject with only one symptoms of PTSD does not necessarily have true PTSD. If you read the study, the single symptoms could be due to just the exhaustion of combat. The study started with any Marine who returned from combat with the expectation/assumption that a high percentage of them returned with PTSD. They then use a very low standard to fit them in as PTSD qualified for the study.

Studies show that similar improvements can be achieved with placebo therapies. They also look at the therapies and find that within them, they find therapies that have know improvement effects. In this case, the relaxation taught and suggested can be a major cause of improvement. The pain relief attributed to HT has been replicated with many placebo therapies.

It would be like someone saying that anybody whose head has come in contact with a rigid object causing pain qualifies for a concussion recovery study. That cohort would have a very high percentage of full recovery if most of the subjects contact with a rigid object did not cause the brain to bang around inside the skull.

It would have been interesting if they listed how many subjects had one symptom, two symptoms, etc. or listed them by the PTSD symptoms they identified.

Many studies are done to prove or support a concept so they are designed to enhance the likelihood of a positive result. Plus, in this study, Guided Imagery was included with each treatment so there is inadequate data to identify the cause of any improvement.

My concern with HT is it has a religious belief system as its founding principle. Promoting it as a form of medicine rather than a religious belief is a concern. If one does not consider the concept of the body being controlled by energy fields within it as in conflict with religious beliefs, then I see no reason for that person to try it. But, the potential HT subject needs to be given adequate information to make an informed consent.

I understand the power of the mind. Once, I cut my hand badly. I started to feel faint. I convinced myself that the cut was not enough to lose enough blood to feel faint. The faint feeling went away. After a little more time spent washing the cut, I ended up on the floor regaining consciousness. I had talked myself out of the feeling but not the effect.

As I said, YMMV. Your Mileage May Vary or to each his own.

[nightnurse30]

Im sorry, but again you are wrong. There is no religious belief system associated with Healing Touch. You mentioned this before, and i actually told one of my instructors that you brought up the church in response to me mentioning Healing Touch last year. The energy fields and chakras are used in Yoga, Acupuncture, ayurvedic medicine, native american medicine, chinese medicine, indian medicine, reiki, vibrational medicine, sound healing, etc. Quantum physics studies them. I can feel if someones chakras are open or not, there is a rotation to them. I can feel if someone has pain, or if someone has a headache. Energy is pretty strong stuff and i can feel congested energy even better. call it placebo all you want....but i am studying, reading, and learning more than you could ever imagine about this therapy in my certification process and it works...its real....whether you believe it or not.

[Mark in Idaho]

I did not mention church as the religious aspect. Body energy is a religious or religious type belief system.
Of the various entities and therapies you mentioned, these are of a religious foundation

Yoga ..... Hindu
Chakras ......The concept of chakra features in tantric and yogic traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism.
qi... is found in Prana in Vedantic philosophy, mana in Hawaiian culture, Lüng in Tibetan Buddhism, and Vital energy in Western philosophy.
Acupuncture is a practice based on qi Research shows sham acupuncture is just as effective as targeted acupuncture. The belief is the needle insertion supports the placebo effect since sham needle positions have the same sensation as targeted acupuncture. In some cases, nerves can be stimulated by acupuncture even though it is not the intended purpose.
ayurvedic medicine ...... Hindu based
native american medicine ...... pagan and/or creator/spirit based
chinese medicine .... usually Qigong based has a mystical base or Buddhist base
indian medicine ..... Hindu based
reiki ..... Buddhist
vibrational medicine ..... Just another name for chakra based energy medicine
sound healing ..... basically Tibetan Buddhist but also adapted to other belief systems
energy fields ...... Another name for chakra, qi, and qigong


The human mind is a powerful organ. It can ignore things and focus on other things. Ignoring pain is achieved with a wide variety of mental efforts. The positive effect of placebo can work wonders. Stress has an enormous ability to negatively effect health and pain. Using placebo to reduce stress about an illness or pain can be very effective. This can be scientifically validated.

The placebo effect has shown to routinely have up to a 60% positive effect on health improvement.

If you believe in HT and can transmit this belief to your patients, they will likely benefit. I believe there are powers or powerful entities in this world besides a Divine Creator. We can choose which powers to put our belief and faith in. People deserve an opportunity to make informed choices.

[worried12378]

this is too long for me to read