ScienceDaily (Feb. 23, 2009) — More than 30 years ago the United States began embracing the theory, clinical practice and research of ancient Asian medical practices including non-contact therapeutic touch (NCTT). Now, according to a study at the University of Missouri, researchers discovered that 73 percent of patients receiving NCTT experienced a significant reduction in pain, had fewer requests for medication, and slept more comfortably following surgery.

An intentionally directed process of energy modulation to promote healing, NCTT allows practitioners to channel life energy through their hands to patients in a four-phase process. The four phases – centering, assessment, "unruffling" the field and intervention – allow a restoration of balance that enables ailing individuals to heal themselves. However, acceptance of the ideas that the human body is an energy-producing organism and that energy can be directed to benefit health is critical said Guy McCormack, lead researcher for the study and chair of the Department of Occupational Therapy and Occupational Science in the MU School of Health Professions.

In order to discover the effectiveness of NCTT, McCormack studied 90 patients receiving occupational therapy post-surgery and divided them into an experimental group where non-contact therapeutic touch therapy was given, a placebo group where a metronome acted as the treatment, and a control group where the participants did not receive any form of rehabilitation. When describing non-contact therapeutic touch, McCormack said the process involves physics and human energy fields.

"There seems to be some subliminal aspects we are not aware of that may have to do with the connectivity between people," McCormack said. "People don't question how you can text someone, transmit messages through computers, or visual images through televisions; thus the belief system is very powerful. If people believe that NCTT is going to be beneficial and are knowledgeable of it, it will be beneficial."

While the participants receiving non-contact therapeutic touch had considerable reductions in pain, patients in the placebo and control groups experienced an increase in pain perception due to the mechanical intervention of the metronome and chance.

"Although it is difficult to introduce this form of therapy into medical settings, more and more hospitals are using complementary therapies like NCTT because consumers are interested in abandoning pharmacological solutions for pain, and instead are interested in harnessing their own capacity to heal through an inexpensive and cost-effective process," McCormack said.

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This is a very informative article regarding the effects of certain vegetable compounds on cancers. It is wonderful to see how modern science and medicine is returning to it more natural "roots" when searching for cures to today's most debilitating diseases.

(For the original article, CLICK HERE.)

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Compounds extracted from green vegetables such as broccoli and cabbage could be a potent drug against melanoma, according to cancer researchers. Tests on mice suggest that these compounds, when combined with selenium, target tumors more safely and effectively than conventional therapy.

"There are currently no drugs to target the proteins that trigger melanoma," said Gavin Robertson, associate professor of pharmacology, pathology and dermatology, Penn State College of Medicine. "We have developed drugs from naturally occurring compounds that can inhibit the growth of tumors in mice by 50 to 60 percent with a very low dose."

Robertson and his colleagues previously showed the therapeutic potential of targeting the Akt3 protein in inhibiting the development of melanoma. The search for a drug to block the protein led them to a class of compounds called isothiocyanates.

These naturally occurring chemicals found in cruciferous vegetables are known to have certain cancer-fighting properties. However, the potency of these compounds is so low that a successful drug would require large impractical amounts of these compounds.

Instead, the Penn State researchers rewired the compounds by replacing their sulfur bonds with selenium. The result, they believe, is a more potent drug that can be delivered intravenously in low doses.

"Selenium deficiency is common in cancer patients, including those diagnosed with metastatic melanoma," explained Robertson, whose findings appear in the March edition of Clinical Cancer Research. "Besides, selenium is known to destabilize Akt proteins in prostate cancer cells."

To study the effectiveness of the new drug -- isoselenocyanate -- researchers injected mice with 10 million cancer cells. Six days later, when the animals developed large tumors, they were divided into two groups and treated separately with either the vegetable compounds or the compounds supplemented with selenium.

"We found that the selenium-enhanced compounds significantly reduced the production of Akt3 protein and shut down its signaling network," explained Robertson, who is also associate director of translational research and leader of the experimental therapeutics program at Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute. The modified compounds also reduced the growth of tumors by 60 percent, compared to the vegetable-based compounds alone.

When the researchers exposed three different human melanoma cell lines to the two compounds, the selenium-enhanced drug worked better on some cell lines than others. The efficiency was from 30 to 70 percent depending on the cell line.

The exact mechanism of how selenium inhibits cancer remains unclear. However Robertson, who has a filed provisional patent on the discovery, is convinced that the use of naturally occurring compounds that target cancer-causing proteins could lead to more effective ways of treating melanoma.

"We have harnessed something found in nature to target melanoma," said Robertson. "And since we only need tiny amounts to kill the cancer cells, it means even less toxic side-effects for the patient."

Human trials of the new drug are still some years away, but the Penn State researcher envisions a drug that could be delivered either intravenously to treat melanoma, or added to sunscreen lotion to prevent the disease.

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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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Other researchers on the paper include Arati Sharma and Arun K. Sharma, both assistant professors; Subbarao V. Madhunapantula, postdoctoral scholar; Dhimant Desai, associate professor; Sung Jin Huh, graduate student, and Shantu Amin, professor, all in the department of pharmacology, and Paul Mosca, assistant professor of surgery, Lehigh Valley and Health Network.

The American Cancer Society, The Foreman Foundation for Melanoma Research, National Institutes of Health, Elsa U. Pardee Foundation, and Melanoma Research Foundation funded this work.

Source: Amitabh Avasthi
Penn State