The hypnosis was performed on breast cancer and thyroid patients. ”In all of these procedures local anaesthesia is feasible but not, on its own, sufficient to ensure patient comfort,” says Professor Roelants from the Department of Anaesthesiology at the Cliniques Universitaires St. Luc, UCL, Brussels, Belgium.

“In addition to reducing drug use and hospital stay time, being able to avoid general anaesthesia in breast cancer surgery is important because we know that local anaesthesia can block the body’s stress response to surgery and could therefore reduce the possible spread of metastases,” said Professor Roelants.

The anesthesiologists use eye fixation, progressive muscle relaxation, or the retrieval of a pleasant memory to focus a patient’s attention on one particular point, enabling a modified state of consciousness, with a different perception of the world.

“There is still a lot of debate around the exact mechanism that allows hypnosis to reduce pain perception,” said Professor Roelants,” but what it absolutely clear is that it does so. The result is that one third of thyroidectomies and a quarter of all breast cancer surgery carried out at the UCL hospital are performed under local anaesthetic with the patient under hypnosis.”

The anesthesiologists have confirmed that, regardless of sex or age, and if the patient is motivated, ready to co-operate, and trusts the doctors, hypnosis will work. It can also be applied to surgical patients who undergo carotid artery surgery, inguinal hernia, knee arthroscopy, gynaecological surgery, ophthalmology, ear nose and throat, plastic surgery and egg retrieval for fertility treatment.

The research findings were presented June 12, 2011 at the European Anaesthesiology Congress in Amsterdam.

The MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas provided findings on 163 women with breast cancer as part of a study to assess the benefits of yoga vs. simple stretching exercises. The study is part of an ongoing effort to scientifically validate the age-old belief that mind-body interventions have a beneficial impact on the health of cancer patients. The research was conducted in collaboration with India’s largest yoga research institution, Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana in Bangalore, India.

In the study of 163 breast cancer patients, those who completed radiation treatment and participated in the yoga and stretching groups were the only women to report a reduction in fatigue. They also had the steepest decline in their cortisol levels throughout the day. This is one of the more important findings, since higher stress hormone levels across the day, known as a blunted circadian cortisol rhythm, have been linked to worse outcomes in breast cancer.

According to Lorenzo Cohen, PhD, professor and director of the Integrative Medicine Program at MD Anderson, developing a yoga practice also helps patients after completing cancer treatment. “The transition from active therapy back to everyday life can be very stressful as patients no longer receive the same level of medical care and attention. Teaching patients a mind-body technique like yoga as a coping skill can make the transition less difficult.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s data used for the study suggest that praying increased among those not only with chronic health problems but also with an acute health issue to cope with their changing circumstances. The groups of people more likely to pray about their health included females, African-Americans, those of the lowest income status, the well educated, and people who exercise less.

While the study didn’t indicate which types of prayer people used, lead author Amy Wachholtz, PhD, of the University of Massachusetts Medical School said: “There is also a greater public awareness of Buddhist-based mindfulness practices that can include prayerful meditation, which individuals may also be using to address a variety of health concerns.”

“We’re seeing a wide variety of prayer use among people with good income and access to medical care,” Wachholtz said. “People are not exchanging health insurance for prayer.”

The article appears in the May issue of the APA journal Psychology of Religion and Spirituality.

“There’s good evidence to support using mind-body therapies clinically,” said lead author Aditi Nerurkar, MD, Integrative Medicine Fellow, Harvard Medical School and BIDMC. “Still, we didn’t expect to see provider referral rates that were quite so high.”

The study shows that attitudes about healing are changing and that the use of complementary medicine is on the rise. This is especially true for patients who are sicker and are seeking alternatives to their failed traditional treatments.

“What we learned suggests that providers are referring their patients for mind-body therapies as a last resort once conventional therapeutic options have failed. It makes us wonder whether referring patients for these therapies earlier in the treatment process could lead to less use of the health care system, and possibly, better outcomes for these patients,” said Nerurkar.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is currently evaluating a drug for its ability to protect against radiation sickness, but it is difficult to make in large amounts, and the drug has side-effects that prevent its use for cancer patients. To overcome these disadvantages, Michael Epperly, Kazunori Koide and colleagues originally studied whether resveratrol — a natural and healthful antioxidant found in many foods — could protect against radiation injuries, but found it didn’t offer the same level of protection that acetyl resveratrol does. The scientists caution that it has not yet been determined whether acetyl resveratrol is effective when orally administered. The report appears in ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters.

“Tai chi appears to be a safe alternative to low-to-moderate intensity conventional exercise training in patients with HF,” says Gloria Yeh, MD, MPH, a physician in Division of General Medicine And Primary Care at BIDMC and an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Research and Education in Complimentary and Integrative Medical Therapies at Harvard Medical School.

“Tai chi is safe and has a good rate of adherence and may provide value in improving daily exercise, quality of life, self-efficacy and mood in frail, deconditioned patients with systolic heart failure.”

The ancient Chinese exercise has already been suggested to be helpful for a variety of medical issues, including hypertension, balance, and musculoskeletal disease, including fibromyalgia.

The study’s results showed that daily consumption of green tea polyphenols (GTP), about 4-6 cups per day, and participation in tai chi independently enhanced markers of bone health by three and six months, respectively. A similar effect was found for muscle strength at the six-month time point. Participants taking tai chi classes also reported significant beneficial effects in quality of life in terms of improving their emotional and mental health. Perhaps most remarkable, however, was the substantial effect that both GTP and tai chi had on biological markers of oxidative stress. Because oxidative stress is a main precursor to inflammation, this finding suggests that green tea and tai chi may help reduce the underlying etiology of not only osteoporosis, but other inflammatory diseases as well.

Investigators from the Universities of Exeter & Plymouth (Exeter, UK) and the Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine (Daejeon, South Korea), reporting in the April 2011 issue of PAIN®, conclude that numerous systematic reviews have not generated enough convincing evidence that acupuncture is effective in reducing pain, and serious adverse effects continue to be reported.

“Many systematic reviews of acupuncture for pain management are available, yet they only support few indications, and contradictions abound,” commented lead investigator Professor Edzard Ernst, MD, PhD, Laing Chair in Complementary Medicine, Peninsula Medical School, Universities of Exeter & Plymouth, UK. “Acupuncture remains associated with serious adverse effects. One might argue that, in view of the popularity of acupuncture, the number of serious adverse effects is minute. We would counter, however, that even one avoidable adverse event is one too many. The key to making progress would be to train all acupuncturists to a high level of competency.”

The investigators acknowledge that many high-quality randomized controlled trials have shown that various forms of acupuncture, including so-called “sham acupuncture,” during which no needles actually penetrate the skin, is as good as or better than standard care, but that safety concerns remain. Adverse effects from acupuncture treatments – which include infection, trauma and other detrimental effects – do not necessarily arise from the treatment itself but rather malpractice of practitioners.

In an accompanying commentary, Harriet Hall, MD, states her position forcefully: “Importantly, when a treatment is truly effective, studies tend to produce more convincing results as time passes and the weight of evidence accumulates. When a treatment is extensively studied for decades and the evidence continues to be inconsistent, it becomes more and more likely that the treatment is not truly effective. This appears to be the case for acupuncture. In fact, taken as a whole, the published (and scientifically rigorous) evidence leads to the conclusion that acupuncture is no more effective than placebo.”

Herbs and supplements, such as fish oil, glucosamine, Echinacea, flaxseed oil, or pills, and ginseng, are the most widely used therapies by adults. They also tend to use deep breathing exercises, chiropractic manipulation, massage, and yoga for therapeutic purposes. Children tend to use Echinacea, fish oil, herbal supplements, flaxseed oil or pills, chiropractic manipulation, deep breathing exercises, yoga, and homeopathic treatments.

Some of the findings include:

• Although best known for its sedation effect, which has yet to be verified, chamomile tea has moderate antimicrobial activity and significant antiplatelet-clumping activity

• Peppermint has been found to have significant antimicrobial and antiviral activities, strong antioxidant and antitumor actions, and some antiallergenic potential

• Hibiscus tea lowered blood pressure in a group of pre-hypertensive and mildly hypertensive adults

In addition to funding by the USDA, the research was partly funded by Boulder, Colo.-based Celestial Seasonings, a popular herbal tea supplier.