Document Type

Article

Disciplines

Alternative and Complementary Medicine | Medicine and Health Sciences

Abstract

Energy medicine therapies based on a human biofield have been practiced for thousands of years and can trace their origin in Ayurveda. Our goal was to determine if Therapeutic Touch (TT), a more recently developed energy medicine practice, had any effects on cancer cells. Previous work in our laboratory demonstrated that TT significantly increased the growth of normal human osteoblasts and increased the synthesis of bone matrix proteins and mineralization in cell culture. In this study as was practiced in our previous studies, TT was performed twice a week for 10 minutes and was compared to untreated cultures and 'placebo-treated" cultures. Two different cell lines of human bone cancer, osteosarco~a, were used; Saos-2 and HOS, derived from different patients. TT significantly (p=O.01) decreased HOS proliferation determined by radioactive thymidine incorporation into the DNA, but had no significant effect on Saos-2 cells compared to untreated control and placebo-
treated groups. At 2 weeks, TT significantly decreased mineralization, determined by assaying calcium content of the cell layer of Saos-2 and HOS cells (p=O.03), compared to control and placebo-treated cultures. Additionally, Northem blot analysis indicated a TT-induced decrease in mRNA expression for several bone matrix proteins in both Saos-2 and HOS cell cultures. In conclusion, Therapeutic Touch decreased differentiation and bone formation in human osteosarcoma-derived cells and significantly decreased cell growth in the HOS but not in Saos-2 cells. These results demonstrate that a human
biofield exists, which is able to affect cell activities and may have therapeutic value in patients.

Comments

Elements: Ayruveda Health and Nutrition v.8;no.2 (2011)

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