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Feb 8, 2006 6:58 pm US/Central
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Local Heart Center Uses Healing Touch Therapy
by Dennis Douda
St. Paul (WCCO) ―
Three days after having a heart attack and open heart surgery, Barat Shah is on the mend and feeling pretty great. He believes healing touch therapy may have something to do with that.
"I had one artery that was 100 percent blocked," Shah said. "I don't know whether you can attribute everything to one thing, but it definitely helped me. It was peace of mind."
Barat isn't recovering at a new age spa, but at St. Joseph's, a major St. Paul hospital. Healing touch has been under study in their high-tech cardiac surgery unit for three years.
"I just see technology racing, and yet we have to keep in mind the whole person," clinical director Barb MacIntyre said.
While the study isn't finished, researchers say preliminary results are impressive. Hospital stays are shorter, and patients have fewer complications.
"Their anxiety was decreased," MacIntyre said. "They asked for less pain medication. They seemed to get up faster. And there are some things you can't measure."
Healing touch therapy is offered to every coronary bypass surgery patient who comes through this unit, and 90 percent say yes.
All of the therapists are also registered nurses. Music and aromatherapy are added for relaxation.
HealthEast cardiac surgeon Arlen Holter, M.D. says science has proven we can't deny the mind-body connection.
"That obviously plays a role in how people are able to relax and achieve a state of mind to heal," Holter said.
The heart study involves more than 230 patients using the energy of healing touch.
Next on the agenda: studying the effects of healing touch on Alzheimer's or dementia patients.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)