Background: Integrative oncology combines conventional and complementary, or integrative, therapies for a holistic treatment of cancer patients. Yoga is increasingly used as a complementary therapy for cancer patients, but there is no direct evidence for its effect on cancer pathophysiology like tumor response, or patient outcome like overall survival.
Summary: In this narrative review, we present in detail published studies from randomized clinical trials on complementary yoga therapy for cancer patients, including details about the biochemical mechanisms involved. Medicinal hatha yoga with breathing, postures, meditation, and relaxation enhances the quality of life of cancer patients by providing both psychological and physiological health benefits, highlighting the interconnectedness of mind and body. Yoga therapy reduces stress levels improving heart rate variability, leading to changes in hormonal regulation (e.g., cortisol), reduced oxidative stress, and improved immune function with reduced inflammation. Still, the biochemical effects of yoga on the cancer disease itself are unrevealed.
Key messages: More clinical and basic research is needed for further establishment of yoga as complementary therapy in oncology.
Introduction: Music is a non-pharmacological intervention often used to improve maternal mental health during pregnancy. However, there is limited evidence regarding the effectiveness of music-based interventions on maternal and fetal parameters during pregnancy. We present a systematic review of the available research literature on the effects of music interventions on maternal and fetal parameters.
Methods: A comprehensive literature search was conducted on the Web of Science, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus, CINAHL, MEDLINE, Cochrane, ProQuest, and Turkish databases. The review included randomized controlled and quasi-experimental studies. Two independent authors evaluated the methodological quality of each study using the Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies. The study was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42018102914).
Results: The literature review yielded a total of 723 studies. Among these studies, 13 were included in this study. Most of the studies involving low-risk pregnant women reported that music had no effect on stress but reduced anxiety and depression. The effect of music on pregnant women's blood pressure varied depending on the presence of medical conditions that could affect their blood pressure. While some studies showed that music interventions effectively increased fetal movement and acceleration, the available findings were limited.
Conclusion: Healthcare professionals can use simple, cost-effective, and practical music interventions to improve maternal mental health during pregnancy without neglecting medical treatment. Future well-designed studies are recommended to investigate the effects of music on maternal psychological, physiological parameters and fetal parameters in high-risk pregnancies.
Background: Neck reflex points or Adler-Langer points are commonly used in neural therapy to detect so-called interference fields. Chronic irritations or inflammations in the sinuses, teeth, tonsils, or ears are supposed to induce tension and tenderness of the soft tissues and short muscles in the upper cervical spine. The individual treatment strategy is based on the results of diagnostic Adler-Langer point palpation. This study investigated the inter- and intra-rater reliability and explored treatment effects.
Methods: We performed a randomized controlled trial with 104 inpatients (80.8% female, 51.8 ± 12.74 years) of a German department for internal and integrative medicine. Patients were randomized to individual neural therapy according to the pathological findings (n = 48) or no treatment (n = 56). In each patient, three experienced raters (20-45 years of experience in neural therapy) and two novice raters (medical students) rated Adler-Langer points rigidity on a standardized rating scale ("strong," "weak," "none"). The patients independently evaluated the tenderness on palpation of the eight points using the same scale. Pressure pain thresholds were assessed at the eight Adler-Langer points. All patients were retested after 30 min. The five raters were blinded to treatment allocation and assessments of the other raters. Video recordings were obtained to assess the consistency of the areas tested by the different raters.
Results: Agreement between patients and raters (Cohen's kappa = 0.161-0.400) and inter-rater reliability were low (Fleiss kappa = 0.132-0.150). Moreover, the individual agreement (pre-post comparisons in untreated patients) was similarly low even in experienced raters (Cohen's kappa = 0.099-0.173). Video documentation suggests that raters do not place their fingers in the correct segments (percentage of correct position: 42.0-60.6%). Pressure pain thresholds at five of the eight Adler-Langer points showed significant changes after treatment compared to none in the control group.
Conclusion: Under this artificial experimental setting, this method of Adler-Langer point palpation has not proven to be a reliable diagnostic tool. But it could be shown that, as claimed by the method, the tenderness in five of eight Adler-Langer points decreased after neural therapy.
Introduction: Infectious diarrhea (ID) is a highly prevalent disease worldwide that poses a substantial risk to human well-being. In China, numerous clinical studies have investigated the efficacy of Gegen Qinlian decoction (GGQLD) in treating ID. However, there is a need for additional rigorous and evidence-based medical research to enhance physicians' confidence in their prescribing practices.
Methods: Seven Chinese and English databases were systematically searched. The Cochrane Risk of Bias tool was used to assess the quality of the included studies. Meta-analysis was conducted using RevMan 5.3, and Stata 16.0 was used for the sensitivity analysis. Trial sequential analysis was performed using TSA v0.9, and GRADEprofiler was utilized to evaluate the quality of evidence.
Results: A total of 12 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving 1,240 patients were included. The meta-analysis demonstrated that the combination of GGQLD with conventional Western medicine had better effects on clinical efficacy (relative risk [RR] = 1.15, 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.10, 1.20]), duration of diarrhea symptoms (weighted mean difference [WMD] = -10.96, 95% CI [-11.97, -9.96]), duration of abdominal pain symptoms (WMD = -12.01, 95% CI [-14.12, -9.90]), duration of fever symptoms (WMD = -11.91, 95% CI [-13.39, -10.43]), interleukin-6 levels (WMD = -113.59, 95% CI [-113.03, -108.14]), and tumor necrosis factor-α levels (WMD = -62.18, 95% CI [-65.25, -59.11]) and that no significant adverse reactions occurred (RR = 0.45, 95% CI [0.10, 1.97]). The sample size of the included studies reached the expected size. The quality of evidence for outcome indicators was rated as low or very low.
Conclusions: The combination of GGQLD with conventional Western medicine demonstrates promising efficacy and safety in treating ID. Nonetheless, more high-quality RCTs are required to confirm this conclusion.
Introduction: The number of types of cancer, which is the leading severe health problem and is frequently seen in childhood period, has steadily increased over the years. This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the herbal treatment methods used by parents of children with cancer during the chemotherapy process for symptom management.
Methods: The study was carried out with the parents of 126 children diagnosed with cancer. The data were collected with a questionnaire form created in line with the literature and the form for the amount and frequency of use of herbal treatment methods used by parents. The data were evaluated with descriptive statistics and χ2 test.
Results: The mean age of the children included in the study was 8.08 ± 3.15 (min = 3, max = 17) years, and the mean duration of diagnosis was 14.35 ± 13.22 (min = 6, max = 60) months. 78.6% (n = 99) of the parents included in the study stated that they used herbal treatment for the treatment of their child's disease. 79.4% (n = 100) of the parents thought that the herbal treatment they used was effective. The first reason (48.4%, n = 61) for using herbal treatment was "to do everything we could for the treatment."
Conclusion: It was determined that the use of herbal treatment methods was related to the mother's profession, the education level of the parents, and the place of residence. In particular, it is necessary to inform parents about herbal treatment methods through nurses with up-to-date information and to create the right attitude toward this issue.
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