20/11/2019
Reiki therapy research with people and rats ...concludes Reiki is Better than Placebo!!
Research shows reiki from attuned masters is more effective compared to "sham reiki"(sham reiki involved an actor not attuned mimicking hand positions)
I join all Reiki masters and their clients who know firsthand the benefits of Reiki. It also extremely validating when science backs us up.
My friend and fellow Reiki Master, Elaine Wood, of Inner Peace Energy Therapy, sent me this National Institutes of Health article on a 2017 Australian study that "reviews the available clinical studies of Reiki to determine whether there is evidence for Reiki providing more than just a placebo effect. "
If the following excerpts and the link are way too much to read right now, just scroll to the bottom and check out the shorter Conclusion paragraphs.
Here are some highlights from the article
"From the information currently available, Reiki is a safe and gentle, 'complementary' therapy that activates the parasympathetic nervous system to heal body and mind. It has the potential for broader use in the management of chronic health conditions, and possibly in postoperative recovery."
The report goes on to say,
"One of the key defining features of Reiki is that the ability to practice is conferred through an "attunement" process and is not dependent on any innate personal healing capability. Attunement is done by a Reiki Master through a serious of rituals that are said to open the energy channels of the body."...
"Understandably, the ability to confer special healing abilities through an attunement ritual is regarded with skepticism by many people. It could be argued that any health benefits of reiki are nothing more than a placebo effect and that the same benefits could be achieved without attunement...."
Rats and Reiki
The study includes "2 studies that used laboratory rats as experimental recipients of Reiki. These rigorously conducted studies that conducted studies collected 'hard' evidence through microscopic tissue examination and implanted telemetric transmitters, with care taken to ensure statistically significant outcomes. These are regarded as highly significant studies because they preclude the possibility of a psychological placebo effect. Even so, a sham Reiki placebo control was used in each study...."
"All 5 of these studies provide evidence that Reiki is better than a placebo for inducing a physically relaxed state. This appears to be an objective fact, given that it is it has been replicated in both humans and rats. Physiological measurements indicate that Reiki is more effective than a placebo in reducing resting heart rate, increasing heart rate variability and reducing blood pressure. These results indicate that Reiki is more effective than placebo in activating the parasympathetic nervous system"
"In three of the studies, Reik was found to be more effective than placebo, resulting in reduced anxiety and depression, and improved self-esteem and quality of life"
Okay, now we get into the nitty-gritty of the research ...too interesting for me to not continue to add...hope it not TMI :-)
"Viewed collectively, these studies provide reasonably strong support for Reiki being more effective than placebo. Two of the studies were conducted on rats and produced clear, objective evidence of a benefit of Reiki over placebo. This suggests that there is some merit to the claim that Reiki 'attunement' imparts an extra healing capacity to the recipient. Although there is currently no scientific explanation of this, the clinical trial evidence is compelling. Further research is warranted to better understand this phenomenon.
Reiki has been shown to be better than placebo for inducing a state of relaxation. Physiologically, this means that Reiki is effective in activating the parasympathetic nervous system, quantitatively measured as reduced heart rate, reduced blood pressure, and increased heart rate variability. The parasympathetic nervous system is one branch of the autonomic nervous system, the other branch being the sympathetic nervous system. In a healthy individual, the activity of the 2 branches can be rapidly modulated in response to changing environmental demands, but overall are maintained in a state of dynamic balance, or homeostasis, This regulatory process is primarily mediated by the parasympathetic nervous system via the vagus nerve.
It is known that the vagus nerve plays a vital role in mediating the mutual interactions between the brain and body. According to the neurovisceral integration model, the vagus nerve plays a key role in processes that regulate the health of the body, including inflammatory responses, glucose regulations, and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal function. In each of these process, the regulatory role of the vagus nerve is thought to be associated with its function as part of the 'inflammatory reflex' "
"According to the polyvagal theory, the autonomic nervous system is the neurophysiological substrate for emotional expression and contingent social behavior.... For patients with chronic health conditions, Reiki has been found to be more effective than placebo for reducing pain and anxiety, depression, and improving self-esteem and quality of life. It seems likely that these effects are the result of Reiki's ability to activate the parasympathetic nervous system and increase heart rate variability, which can be understood in terms of neurovisceral integration model and the polyvagal theory."
Conclusion:
"Reiki is a safe, gentle, and profoundly relaxing healing modality that can be practiced by anyone who has received an attunement from a Reiki master. This review has found reasonably strong evidence for Reiki being more effective than a placebo, suggesting that Reiki 'attunement' leads to a quantifiable increase in healing ability.
Reiki is better than placebo in activating the parasympathetic nervous system, as measured by reduced heart rate, reduce blood pressure, and increased heart rate variability. For patients with chronic health conditions, Reiki has been found to be more effective than placebo for reducing pain, anxiety, and depression, and for improving self-esteem and quality of life. Accounting to the neurovisceral integration model and the polyvagal theory, these effects are due to high parasympathetic nervous system activity, mediated via the vagus nerve.
This understanding suggests that Reiki has the potential to provide valuable support for a broad range of chronic health conditions. However, there is no justification to regard Reiki as a cure for any health condition. Instead, Reiki should be regarded as a complementary therapy that can be implemented alongside all other medical therapeutic techniques.
Further research is recommended to help optimize the application of Reiki for specific health conditions and to examine the benefits arising from provision of multiple Reiki sessions over an extended period of time."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5871310/
This study reviews the available clinical studies of Reiki to determine whether there is evidence for Reiki providing more than just a placebo effect. The available English-language literature of Reiki was reviewed, specifically for peer-reviewed clinical ...
