Age-old techniques become new therapies
When Jeanne Pitcher, whose son Donny received a heart
transplant at Children's Memorial Hospital, was approached about enrolling her
son in an inpatient hospital study on the benefits of touch healing, she admits
she was skeptical.
“I'm not a New Age-y type of person, so at first I kind of rolled my eyes,”
says Jeanne, who is a nurse. “But I figured if it might help him, why not? And
you know what? It helped him almost immediately, and his vital signs improved
after each session. Now I recommend it to other parents I meet at the
hospital.”
The study, called “The Evaluation of Touch Healing
Techniques on Critically and Chronically Ill Children,” is being conducted under
the auspices of the hospital's Judith
Nan Joy Integrative Medicine Initiative
, a program that offers several
nontraditional, complementary therapies to patients. In addition to touch
healing, they include deep tissue massage, acupuncture and aromatherapy.
Integrative medicine — incorporating “complementary
and alternative” (CAM) therapies with traditional medical care — has been gaining
in acceptance in recent years. According to Pat Megregian, MDiv, BCC
, executive director of Children's Memorial's
Integrative Medicine Initiative, parents are increasingly requesting these
therapies for their children.
“They are aware of integrative medicine through exposure in the media,” says
Megregian. “They are asking for these types of therapies as part of their
child's medical journey, because they know what helps their child.”
Children's Memorial's Integrative Medicine Initiative
began in 2003, when the Jack Miller Family Foundation provided $1.7 million in
seed funding. David Steinhorn,
MD,
was named the program's medical director, and Megregian, a
former hospital chaplain, its executive director.
Megregian is also a trained touch healer. She says that touch healing is an
ancient form of healing with no known adverse reactions. The technique is based
on the idea that energy and consciousness underlies the physical and biochemical
structure of the body. Touch healing practitioners gently place their hands on
different places on the body to manipulate and/or increase the flow of the
body's own energy. The lack of flow is thought to create energy blocks which
prevent the cells from getting the subtle energy they need to maintain health or
return to health.
“Touch healing can reap benefits for patients with any disease or stage of
disease,” Megregian says. “It increases relaxation, capillary dilation and
steadies heart rates. Children find that positive, safe, loving touch by people
trained in these techniques makes them feel not only comforted but
better.”
Research is a key component in the program. In one current study on pain
perception, a mild irritant is applied to the arms of adult volunteers, who are
then measured to see if their perceived pain lessens after touch healing
techniques are used by both trained and untrained practitioners. Another study
is measuring whether touch healing can reduce pain and stress experienced by
young patients undergoing IV insertions.
“We're trying to systematically study some of these
therapies that have not yet been objectively validated,” says program research
director Sheila Wang,
PhD
. “We want to measure variables that are important to health
care providers and translate our findings into the kind of structure that
traditional medicine can understand.” Wang adds that additional funding will
help with further research.
Megregian says younger physicians tend to be more familiar with integrative
medicine because many medical schools now offer classes as part of their
curriculum, and that a growing number of seasoned physicians at Children's
Memorial embrace complementary therapies as well.
“They say, ‘My patient is at the center, and if this
will help my patient, I want it for them,'” she says.