Alternative & Integrative Medicine

Herbal medicines involve the integration of several therapeutic experiences and practices of indigenous systems of medicine that may span many previous generations, which often provides valuable guidelines to the selection, preparation and application of herbal formulation for the treatment, control and management of variety of ailments. According to World Health Organization, 60% of the world’s population depends on traditional medicine and 80% of the population in developing countries depends almost entirely on traditional medicine practices and herbal medicines for their primary health care needs. As a result of increasing demand for herbal medicines, there are increasing concerns about the safety, standardization, efficacy, quality, availability and preservation of herbal products by policy-makers, health professionals as well as the general public. Improvement in the quality of herbal medicines could be achieved by deliberate implementation of good agricultural practices (GAPs) at the point of cultivation of medicinal plants and good manufacturing practices (GMPs) during the process of manufacture and packaging of finished herbal products, as well as post-marketing quality assurance surveillance. Additionally, following the current sustained improvements in quality control and regulatory measures in many countries of the world, it is envisaged that in the near future, herbal medicinal practices will be integrated into the conventional medicines.

Objective: To evaluate the feasibility and effects of acupuncture on insomnia, anxiety, and depression in women with Chronic Liver Disease. Patients and Methods: Twenty-four women patients over the age of 18 years who had liver disease complicated by psychiatric disorders such as insomnia, anxiety, and depression were randomly assigned to either the treatment group (n=12) or the control group (n=12). In the treatment group, acupuncture was performed 3 times per week for 4 weeks (12 sessions in total). In control group, there was no acupuncture but the same assessment with treatment group. Insomnia, anxiety, and depression were measured using the National Cancer Center (NCC) scoring system. We assessed deterioration of liver disease using the Child score and blood tests. Results: In the treatment group, the mean NCC insomnia, anxiety, and depression scores decreased significantly over the treatment period; control group scores did not decrease significantly. After 12 acupuncture treatments, the total NCC score for insomnia, anxiety, and depression was significantly lower in the treatment group compared with that of the control group. After the trial, liver function of neither group got worse. Conclusions: These results suggest that acupuncture treatment may be beneficial in improving insomnia, anxiety, and depression among patients with chronic liver disease without worsening of liver function. Further study with a larger sample size including male participants is needed to confirm our findings.

Raoultella ornithinolytica is belongs to the family of Enterobacteriaceae, a Gram-negative encapsulated aerobic bacillus associated with bacteremia and urinary tract infections. As biofield therapy is increasingly popular in biomedical heath care, so present study aimed to evaluate the impact of Mr. Trivedi’s biofield treatment on antimicrobial sensitivity, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), biochemical study, and biotype number of multidrug resistant strain of R. ornithinolytica. Clinical sample of R. ornithinolytica was divided into two groups i.e. control and biofield treated which were analyzed for the above parameters using MicroScan Walk-Away® system on day 10 after treatment. Antimicrobial sensitivity assay results showed a significant increase (60.71%) in sensitivity pattern of antimicrobials i.e. changed from resistant to susceptible while 10.71% of tested antimicrobials changed from intermediate to susceptible as compared to control. MIC results showed a significant decrease in MIC values of 71.88% tested antimicrobials as compared to control. Biochemical reaction study showed 15.15% alteration in different biochemical such as cetrimide, cephalothin, kanamycin, and ornithine after biofield treatment as compared to control. A significant change in biotype number (7775 4370) was also observed with organism identified as Klebsiella oxytoca after biofield treatment as compared to control (7775 5372). Overall results conclude that biofield treatment could be used as complementary and alternative treatment strategy against multidrug resistant strain of R. ornithinolytica with respect to improve the sensitivity and reduce the MIC values of antimicrobials. Hence, it is assumed that biofield treatment might be a suitable cost effective treatment strategy in near future, which could have therapeutic value in patients suffering from multidrug resistant pathogens.