Reiki: Therapeutic Touch to Heal Your Body

Disclaimer: Results are not guaranteed*** and may vary from person to person***.

The word “Reiki” is Japanese for universal life-force energy. Reiki is a holistic, light-touch, energy-based healing method. Reiki attempts to reestablish a normal energy flow of “ki” (life force energy) throughout your entire body. When you balance this life-force energy, you could also improve your body’s healing ability.

What can Reiki do for you? Reiki could help you to feel more balanced, less stressed out, and more relaxed. Reiki might also give you more energy and help you to feel more creative and connected to the world. Reiki treatments could help you heal old injuries. Reiki could help lessen pain and improve your range of movement. Reiki has also been used in the treatment of sleep disorders. And Reiki has been used to treat those with weakened immune systems. In general, treatments should improve your overall sense of well-being.

In one clinical trial, researchers wanted to find out which would better help patients undergoing cancer treatment: bed rest or Reiki. Fatigue is a common side effect experienced during cancer treatment and recovery. In the clinical trial, researchers from the Department of Psychology at the University of Calgary gave 16 patients either Reiki treatments for five consecutive days or bed rest for one hour each day for five consecutive days. In both cases, participants completed questionnaires investigating cancer-related fatigue and overall quality of life before and after all Reiki or resting sessions. They also completed a visual scale that monitored daily tiredness, pain and anxiety before and after each session of Reiki or rest. The researchers discovered that tiredness decreased in the Reiki group compared to the “resting” group. As well, participants receiving the Reiki treatment! s experienced significant improvements in quality of life compared to those assigned the one-hour resting periods.

In another clinical trial, researchers wanted to find out if therapeutic touch could benefit patients with dementia. Knowing that approximately 80% of nursing home residents who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia develop behavioral symptoms and that pharmaceutical drugs can have harmful side effects, researchers set out to study alternative interventions. They put together a randomized, double-blind study. Fifty-seven residents, aged 67 to 95 years, with the behavioral symptoms of dementia were divided into three groups. The first group received therapeutic touch, the second group acted as a placebo group, and the third group was the control group receiving the usual care for dementia patients. The therapeutic touch group was given two short treatments daily for three days. All three groups were monitored for symptoms of dementia that consisted of restlessness, searching and wandering, tapping and banging, pacing and walking, and vocalization. The researchers found that therapeutic touch was more effective in decreasing behavioral symptoms of dementia than usual care, particularly when it came to restlessness and vocalization.