Studies and Progress Notes (Sep 2009)

* *  SPIRITUAL AWARENESS AND WHOLISTIC HEALING * *       

The effect of reiki on the level of free radicals       

Abstract     
High levels of Free Radicals in the human body have been shown to correlate with disease and aging. The intention of the researchers was to show that Free Radical reduction could be facilitated by Reiki intervention. Reiki is an ancient energy healing modality closely related in method to Therapeutic Touch. Sixty-seven subjects were recruited. Thirty-four volunteer subjects served as the intervention group. Thirty three volunteer subjects served as the control group. All subjects were given a pre-intervention OxiData™ Urine Test, used to test the amount of free radical activity within the body by measuring free radicals excreted in urine, and filled out State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) questionnaires, a self-reporting measure used to monitor anxiety level. The intervention group subjects were given three Reiki interventions of one-half hour each, by Master Level Reiki practitioners, on alternating days of the same week. The control group was asked to schedule a follow-up appointment for four days after the initial testing was done. All subjects of both groups were again administered an OxiData™ Urine Test and STAI questionnaires. Statistics were compiled and the pre- and post-intervention measurements compared. The differences in the two OxiData™ urine tests showed a post-intervention reduction of an average of one color change representing a drop of approximately twenty percent, with statistical significance at a level of .0001. The measurements of the pre- and post-intervention STAI questionnaires also showed high statistical significance, with an overall drop in State Anxiety of over 7 points representing an approximate drop of twelve percent.

Source: Garrison, Nancy L. The effect of reiki on the level of free radicals, Doctorate in Theology Dissertation, Holos University 2005.

IJHC – WHR Observations

While the mechanism whereby a healer brings about an influence upon a healee has yet to be scientifically demonstrated, it is most helpful to see how the effects of healing can produce helpful alterations in the body.

**  FUTURE RESEARCH IN WHOLISTIC HEALING * * 

The IJHC/WHR E-Zine features monthly suggestions for future research in healing.
READERS ARE INVITED TO SUBMIT SUGGESTIONS FOR TOPICS TO STUDY
If your topic is chosen, you ill receive free access to the IJHC for a month, including the current issue and all back issues.

* *  WHOLISTIC APPROACHES * * 

Exercise after age 30 may curb breast cancer risk

After age 30, exercising for more than an hour a week may help cut a woman's chances of developing breast cancer, according to a study presented at the American College of Sports Medicine's annual meeting in Seattle.

"An average amount of exercise was defined as 60 minutes per week," Lisa Sprod of University of Northern Colorado in Greeley told Reuters Health, "so anyone exercising less than 60 minutes was below average, above 60 minutes was above average, and anyone that considered themselves 'highly competitive' chose that category."

Fewer women who classified themselves as "highly competitive" between the ages of 30 and 50 developed breast cancer, compared to women who were less physically active. Likewise, fewer women who classified themselves as highly competitive at age 50 or older developed breast cancer when compared to women who exercised less than 60 minutes per week.

Source: Reuters Health, Wed Jun 3, 2009 5:01pm EDT
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE55253420090603

IJHC – WHR Observations

Since cancer and cardiovascular disease are the two highest causes of death in the US today and since both respond to regular exercise, hopefully this will be greater inducement to encourage people to attend to the physical fitness of their bodies.

Personally, I enjoy biking, hiking and cross country skiing. For me, the added benefit of being out in nature is a big plus as well.

Music may improve feeding, reduce pain in premature babies

As long as there have been babies, adults have crooned lullabies to soothe them. But research suggests music might also help premature infants learn to suckle better and reduce their pain.

If confirmed, this would be a simple, low-cost way to help these tiny babies feed on their own faster and move them out of neonatal units sooner, says Dr. Manoj Kumar, an assistant clinical professor in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry's Department of Pediatrics. "If you can get them to feed earlier then you can save health-care resources," Kumar says.

Music also appears to reduce infants' pain during circumcision and some medical procedures, he says.

Music is increasingly being played in neonatal units on an informal basis because parents and caregivers have a perception that it's beneficial for the infants.

The results of their review are being published online ahead of print on May 28, 2009, in the London-based journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, Fetal and Neonatal Edition.

In particular, Kumar notes one 2003 U.S. study reported that feeding rates increased significantly with use of a pacifier-activated lullaby (PAL) system in preterm infants who previously were having difficulty in making the transition to oral feeding. This result warrants further investigation, given its potential implications for health-care budgets, he says.

Source: ScienceDaily (May 28, 2009) http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090527210726.htm

IJHC – WHR Observations

Here is a lovely, low-tech, non-invasive contribution to the health of premature babies, with no know side effects.


* *  COMPLEMENTARY THERAPIES * * 

Britain’s first Postgraduate Diploma in the Study of Integrated Medicine for doctors and nurses receives accreditation from the University of Buckingham Medical School (UBMS).

The Faculty of Integrated Medicine (FIM) is now recruiting and welcomes applications for the Postgraduate Diploma in the Study of Integrated Medicine which will commence on THE 30TH SEPTEMBER 2009.
 
The establishment of FIM represents achievement of the first strategic objective of Bath-based charity the Integrated Health Trust (IHT) which is pioneering the study of IM at the new Faculty at Bailbrook House, Bath, which was opened on July 9th by IHT Patron, actress Hayley Mills. The DipSIM has been designed by FIM Director Dr Rosy Daniel in consultation with Buckingham Course Director Professor Andrew Miles, Doctor Course Leader, Dr Mark Atkinson and Nurse Course Leader/Course Tutor, Dr Ruth Sewell.
 
 Dr Rosy Daniel is the Faculty Director: Dr Daniel has worked as an Integrated Medicine pioneer, focusing in integrated cancer care for twenty five years and is dedicated to the development of training standards and a regulated framework for integrated medicine doctors and nurses. Dr Daniel and colleagues are committed to delivering a sound academic and scientifically based course which will enable assessment of the value of an integrated model of healthcare practice. This will help to lay down the foundation for the evolution of integrated medicine as a recognised medical and nursing speciality. At the heart of the course is the self development of the student and the essence of the course is the reintegration of the art and science of medicine and nursing and the development of compassionate, pro-active healthcare which is so urgently needed.
 
To review the Diploma Course Prospectus see www.IntegratedMedicine.org.uk
To review the work of the Integrated Health Trust see www.IntegratedHealthTrust.org  
 
Integrated Health Trust, Bailbrook House, London Road West, Bath, BA1 7JD. Tel: +44 (0) 1225 319131

IJHC – WHR Observations

This is an innovative approach to better understanding about what happens to our trash.

Of course, the best approach is to have products designed so that all trash can be recycled.


* *  ENVIRONMENT (HEALING OUR PLANET) * *

Bolivians copy ancient farming methods

By James Painter
BBC News, Trinidad, Bolivia

Poor farmers in the heart of Bolivia's Amazon are being encouraged to embrace the annual floods - by using a centuries-old irrigation system for their crops. They are experimenting with a sustainable way of growing food crops that their ancestors used. It could provide them with better protection against the extremes of climate change, reduce deforestation, improve food security and even promise a better diet. Pre-Columbian cultures in Beni from about 1000BC to AD1400 used a similar system.

There were bad floods in 2006 and 2007, but last year the region saw the worst flooding in at least 50 years. The floods affected some 120,000 people - a quarter of Beni's population - and caused more than $200m (£119m) of damage.

These are the bold aims of a two-year-old project being carried out by a non-governmental organisation near Trinidad, the capital of the department of Beni. The system is based on building "camellones" - raised earth platforms of anything up to 2m high, surrounded by canals. Constructed above the height of flood waters, the camellones can protect seeds and crops from being washed away. The water in the canals provide irrigation and nutrients during the dry season.

"One of the many extraordinary aspects of our camellones project is that poor communities living in the Beni today are using a similar technology to that developed by indigenous pre-Columbian cultures in the same region to solve a similar range of problems," says Oscar Saavedra, the director of the Kenneth Lee foundation. He experimented for six years in his own garden to develop the complex system of hydrology. Ancient and modern communities face the same problems - regular flooding followed by drought. "The floods were the basis for development and the flourishing of a great civilisation," says Mr Saavedra…

[The original article has photos of the earth platforms and canals.]

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8187866.stm

IJHC – WHR Observations

Ancient wisdom often has much to offer us in adapting to our environment.

India's water use 'unsustainable', per satellite measurements
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website

Much of the water used in paddy fields is pumped from underground. Parts of India are on track for severe water shortages, according to results from Nasa's gravity satellites. The Grace mission discovered that in the country's north-west - including Delhi - the water table is falling by about 4cm (1.6 inches) per year.

Writing in the journal Nature, they say rainfall has not changed, and water use is too high, mainly for farming. The finding is published two days after an Indian government report warning of a potential water crisis. That report noted that access to water was one of the main factors governing the pace of development in the world's second most populous nation.
 
About a quarter of India is experiencing drought conditions, as the monsoon rains have been weaker and later  than usual. But weather and climatic factors are not responsible for water depletion in the northwestern states of Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab, according to the Nasa study.

"We looked at the rainfall record and during this decade, it's relatively steady - there have been some up and down years but generally there's no drought situation, there's no major trend in rainfall," said Matt Rodell, a hydrologist at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center near Washington DC. "So naturally we would expect the groundwater level to stay where it is unless there is an excessive stress due to people pumping too much water, which is what we believe is happening."

The Grace (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment) mission uses two satellites flying along the same orbit, one just in front of the other. Minute differences in the Earth's gravitational pull cause the two craft to shift slightly in their positions relative to one another.
 
The mission can measure groundwater depletion because the amount of water in aquifers has a small gravitational attraction for the satellites.

"Over the six-year timeframe of this study, about 109 cubic kilometres of water were depleted from this region - more than double the capacity of India's largest reservoir is gone between 2002 and 2008," Dr Rodell told the BBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8197287.stm
Schiermeier, Quirin. Satellite data show Indian water stocks shrinking, Nature 2009, 460, 789-789  doi:10.1038/460789a News

IJHC – WHR Observations

Limited water supplies and population growth that is out of control are threatening to produce crises of major proportions over the next decades.


* *  HUMAN ECOLOGY * * 

Who's behind the attacks on a health care overhaul?
MARGARET TALEV - McClatchy Newspapers

Much of the money and strategy behind the so-called grassroots groups organizing opposition to the Democrats' health care plans comes from conservative political consultants, professional organizers and millionaires, some of whom hold financial stakes in the outcome.

If President Barack Obama and Congress extend health insurance coverage to millions of uninsured Americans, raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for it, and limit insurers' discretion on who they cover and what they charge, that could pinch these opponents.

Most of them say they oppose big government in principle. Despite Obama's assurances to the contrary, many of them insist that the Democrats' legislation is but the first step toward creation of a single-payer system, where the federal government hires the doctors, approves treatments, sets the rules and imperils profit.

These opposition groups appear to have spent at least $10 million so far on ads attacking the Democrats' plans. Still, supporters of a health care overhaul have outspent opponents by more than 2-to-1 so far, according to Evan Tracey of the Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks ad spending. Supporters include drug makers angling for their own protections, unions, the American Medical Association and AARP, the seniors' lobby. Supporters announced this week that they intend to spend $150 million promoting an overhaul.

The opposition groups' names sound catchy and populist: Patients First. Patients United. Americans for Prosperity. Conservatives for Patients' Rights. FreedomWorks. 60 Plus. Club for Growth.

Here's who's behind them…

Source: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/73765.html

IJHC – WHR Observations

The boundaries and differences between news and propaganda have been deliberately blurred by proponents of various propaganda campaigns. People are more likely to accept propaganda when it is presented as news. Manipulating public opinion has become an industry unto itself. It is important to develop a sense of the biases of news sources

SchwartzReport

Thoughtful, exelllent notes and references on current wholistic healing and relevant political issues

webmaster@schwartzreport.net

IJHC – WHR Observations

This daily summary of world news on ecology, politics and healing items is well worth the attention of our eZine subscribers.