THE JOURNAL OF ALTERNATIVE AND COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE Volume 18, Number 3, 2012, pp. 221–228 ª Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. DOI: 10.1089/acm.2011.0467
Original Articles
Effect of a Japanese Energy Healing Method Known as Johrei on Viability and Proliferation of Cultured Cancer Cells In Vitro Kazuko Abe, BA,* Rie Ichinomiya, BA,* Tatsue Kanai, BA,* and Kenji Yamamoto, PhD
Abstract
Objectives: The objective was to explore the effect of a Japanese energy healing method known as Johrei on the viability and proliferation of cultured human cancer cells in vitro. Design: A randomly selected 96-well plate or a culture dish of various types of human cancer cell lines in culture were exposed to Johrei treatment. For comparison purpose, an equal number of untreated or volunteer-treated cultures were chosen as the control group. Johrei treatment was repeatedly performed at appropriate time intervals over the course of the experiments. Cell viability was examined by a colorimetric assay with a Cell Counting kit. Morphological changes were analyzed by phase-contrast and time-lapse microscopy. Cell proliferation and early and late stages of cell death were also determined with the use of a bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) cell proliferation assay kit and an Annexin V-FLUOS Staining kit, respectively. Outcome measures: Quantitative data were presented as means – standard deviation. The outcome measures were the differences in viable cell numbers that remained under healing practice versus control conditions, and the statistical significance of differences in their mean values was assessed. Results: The viability loss of cultured human cancer cells in the Johrei group was significantly higher than that of either of the control groups, despite the fact that the responsiveness to Johrei varied with different cancer cell types. The proliferation rate of gastric cancer cells exposed to Johrei treatments for 72 hours was more significantly decreased compared with that of the untreated cells, whereas the extent of dying and/or dead cells in the Johrei group was more profound than that of the untreated cells. Conclusions: These results provide evidence that Johrei treatment induces the viability loss of various cancer cells in vitro, mainly due to the increased cell death and the decreased proliferation.
Introduction
A
lternative energy healing methods including Reiki and Johrei are increasingly popular in the world as a potentially useful intervention to achieve good health.1–13 The Japanese energy healing method known as Johrei was founded by Mokichi Okada (1882–1955) in 1935. According to Okada’ doctrine, Johrei is essentially a method of spiritual purification attained by the transmission of divine energies without touching the recipient through the hand of practitioners, thereby contributing to the achievement or sustenance of a state of health. While the majority of reports suggest beneficial effects of Johrei on various human psychologic and physical conditions,8,9,13–15 only a limited number of studies evidencing such beneficial effects by use of generally accepted scientific
methods are available. In particular, it is not clear whether or to what extent nonspecific factors based on the healer–recipient relationship—including belief, expectation, and other psychologic aspects—affect the results obtained with human subjects. Accordingly, to minimize such psychologic and artificial effects and to verify beneficial effects of Johrei on the health of recipients, various approaches based on generally accepted scientific methods are needed. The in vitro studies with single cell lines have a great advantage over in vivo studies with human subjects and are highly effective for replications and verifications of these experiments, since such studies are able to be performed under tightly controlled experimental conditions that minimize psychologic and artificial aspects. In addition, researchers conducting the biologic assays and statistical analyses could be readily blinded to the experimental conditions.
Proteolysis Research Laboratory, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyushu University, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka, Japan. *These authors contributed equally to this work.
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