REIKI GRANT 2003
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/147775_reiki11.html
UW study examines possible benefits of Reiki
Some swear by the Japanese treatment, others say it is
simply quackery
Tuesday, November 11, 2003
By MARY VUONG
SPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER
Eyes shut, hands clasped on his chest, a fully clothed
Chad Beck lay still on the massage table, his chest rising and falling
as a clock ticked steadily.
Several feet away in the small, dimly lighted room, a
seated woman, eyes also closed and breathing deeply, held her hands toward
Beck. For a half-hour, she changed their position every few minutes.
The seated woman may be what's known as a Reiki master,
practicing an ancient Japanese method of what is said to be energy medicine.
Or she may be an actor, pretending to be a master. Beck doesn't know which.
This study at Harborview Medical Center is being conducted
under a $304,808 grant from the National Institutes of Health to determine
whether Reiki can alleviate a chronic muscle pain condition called fibromyalgia,
suffered by about 6 million people in the United States. The cause is unknown,
but symptoms include headache, fatigue, sleeping problems and psychological
distress.
Half of the participants receive direct-contact Reiki
(pronounced "RAY-key"), in which the patient is lightly touched in specific
spots for up to five minutes. The rest, like Beck, receive distant Reiki,
where providers "send" their energy across the room without ever touching
the patient.
Some swear by the treatment. Critics say it smacks of
quackery.
The providers, whose anonymity is necessary for the blind
study, are either Reiki masters -- experts with at least a decade of experience
-- or actors. During his second session, Beck, 49, who for years has endured
pain throughout his body, said he felt the table shake briefly. The Seattle
man left feeling more relaxed and said he had even experienced "a little
bit of tingling."
Principal investigator Dr. Nassim Assefi first observed
a patient enlist Reiki to lessen the pain of cancer, when Assefi was doing
her residency at a Boston hospital. Now a women's health specialist at
Harborview Medical Center, Assefi is seeking fibromyalgia patients to participate
in this research, the second major Reiki study under a grant from the National
Institutes of Health. (The first was granted to the University of Michigan
for diabetic painful neuropathy. The results are not yet available.)
Reiki, a Japanese word that means universal life force,
is considered most effective for alleviating pain, depression and anxiety,
Assefi said. It emerged in the late 1800s and draws from the idea that
spiritual energy flowing through a Reiki provider can heal the patient's
spirit and body. Some Reiki practitioners also believe it can heal wounds.
Assefi chose Reiki for its simplicity; regardless of the
diagnosis, it follows a set pattern of about a dozen hand positions. Conventional
treatments, such as Western medicine, don't work well on fibromyalgia patients,
Assefi said. An estimated 80 percent of them use complementary and alternative
medicine.
Jane Thompson of Whidbey Island has turned to acupuncture,
acupressure, massage and other treatments to relieve assorted pain. When
she completed the Reiki study in July, "I was feeling pretty sassy," said
Thompson, 52. Energized, not drained, she sleeps better and feels less
pain now. She's weaned off the drug she was taking for fibromyalgia and
has learned to administer Reiki on herself.
"You have to be open minded," Thompson said. "You want
to get better."
And, she added, "I'd rather have a healing treatment than
take drugs."
Others aren't as convinced.
The American Medical Association advises patients to educate
themselves about the potential hazards of abandoning conventional treatments
before they turn exclusively to alternative therapies.
And critics of Reiki say relying on an unproven treatment
can be expensive and even harmful for patients.
"What does it mean to have an energy you can't measure
with an instrument? Physics has a definition for energy. This is just magical
thinking," said Dr. Stephen Barrett, a retired psychiatrist who runs the
Web site, Quackwatch.com.
He added that patients who attribute improvement in their
condition to Reiki may be more inclined to rely exclusively on alternative
therapies for future diagnoses, when their decision to abandon conventional
treatments could be life-threatening.
The average Reiki session costs between $40 and $75 an
hour. In addition to the price tag for individuals, Barrett objects to
using precious research grants to fund Reiki studies.
"There are research projects that go begging," said Barrett.
"In the meantime, money is being wasted on silly stuff like this."
There are about 100,000 Reiki providers in the United
States, according to the International Reiki Alliance. There is no state
licensing process or medical board overseeing Reiki practitioners.
"I have little awareness of who can hang out their shingle,"
said Dr. Steve Overman, a Seattle rheumatologist who treats patients with
fibromyalgia.
Still, Overman doesn't object to incorporating Reiki and
other alternative therapies into a patient's plan for managing the pain
from a chronic illness.
"To the degree that we can sometimes not prove these things,
does that make them wrong? No," said Overman. "Ultimately with a lot of
these complementary therapies, the bottom line is are (the patients) functioning
better?"
Donna Wahwasuck, a registered nurse, has performed Reiki
on teens' menstrual cramps and received it herself while battling breast
cancer. Reiki Master Judith Robar, another registered nurse, helps patients
manage stress through the energy medicine.
"We have tremendous self-healing capacities, emotionally
and physically," she said.
Valarie Matinjussi, a licensed massage practitioner and
Reiki master, has guided the energy to everything from patients in pain
and the New York site of the Sept. 11 attacks to injured animals and a
poorly functioning car.
"Our thoughts are what create our reality," she said.
"And your thought forms are energy. Every thought you think, you're creating
with that."
Assefi approaches Reiki more conservatively, incorporating
aspects of it into her traditional treatment of patients, sometimes subconsciously.
"Being touched and receiving positive energy feels good
to anybody," she said. "I don't understand how it works, but when I do
Reiki, people feel better."
VOLUNTEERS WANTED
Reiki study participants must have fibromyalgia, be at
least 18 years old, not be pregnant or nursing, not have received energy
medicine treatments before the Reiki sessions and not be using narcotics
regularly, among other requirements. Each participant comes in twice a
week for eight weeks. For more information, call 206-521-1731, email reiki@u.washington.edu
or visit depts.washington.edu/reiki/
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P-I reporter Julie Davidow contributed to this report.
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