Page 17 - Time Special Edition Alternative Medicine (January 2020)
P. 17
An operating room is a monument been off limits. The problem is, in the Mayo study started out in
to the idea of not messing around. surgery isn’t just about repairing more or less the same range in
When you deliver yourself into the or removing sick tissue—it’s about all three categories. But after just
hands of semi-strangers and give fear, pain, depression and stress, 20 minutes of hands-on attention,
them license—indeed, pay them not to mention the deep existential anxiety, pain and tension levels
money—to knock you out, open terror that comes from walking into for the massage group plunged
you up and manipulate your very a hospital and knowing there’s a relative to the control group. Mayo
innards, you want to know there is risk that you may not walk out again. researchers discovered similar
hard, tested science on your side. That’s not the kind of thing that can results for audio therapy—simply
That’s one reason be diagnosed with a CT scan or be listening to music or recorded
complementary and alternative repaired by microrobotic surgery. nature sounds to reduce post-
medicine (CAM) has had such But it is exactly the kind of thing surgical pain and anxiety. Both
a rough time gaining purchase that can have a significant impact represent further means to achieve
in most pre- and post-surgical on healing. the goal of reducing pain in order to
wards. Even as more than 40% of And yet a wealth of research hasten recovery.
Americans report receiving some shows that what doctors call Agonizing as pain can be, many
kind of CAM treatment in any given “psychosocial factors” and patients coming out of surgery
year, the surgical arena has long everyone else calls “feeling suffer even more from nausea. It’s
lousy and depressed” can have a common side effect of general
a powerful effect on how quickly anesthesia that can be exacerbated
surgical patients recover and how by drugs or even the stress of being
successful their surgery turns hospitalized. In a study in which
out to be. Studies like these have acupuncture was administered
pushed leading medical institutions shortly before surgery, Mayo
to look for new ways to aid recovery. researchers found that patients
More than a decade ago, the Mayo who received acupuncture reported
Clinic made one of the first big feeling nauseous significantly less
pushes into incorporating CAM into frequently than patients who did
its pre- and post-op wards, targeting not receive acupuncture, and their
cardiac patients specifically. Few suffering was significantly less
procedures are as grueling as heart acute when they did feel ill.
surgery. For all the advances made Similar benefits have been seen
in minimally invasive cardiac care, from other, equally nonmainstream
there’s just no other means to treatments. Aromatherapy—with
perform a bypass, for example, than spearmint, peppermint, ginger or
by cutting the sternum, splitting the lavender oils—has been shown
chest and subjecting the patient to ease post-op nausea. Reiki,
to hours of deep anesthesia while a Japanese technique of energy
the heart is manipulated by hand, healing, has reduced stress and
scalpel and suture. sped recovery. Patients in the
All that awfulness makes Mayo network are also offered
feeling better—not to mention meditation, yoga, tai chi and even
actually getting better—difficult. animal therapy, in which companion
Mayo researchers thus decided to dogs visit patients before and
determine whether a bit of massage after surgery.
might help the healing process That number is likely to grow—
along. After recruiting a group of and not just at Mayo. The uniquely
pre-op patients, the researchers violative, uniquely mortal nature
assigned half to receive standard of surgery makes it a feared and
post-surgical care, including pain serious enterprise. But such gravity
medications, plus two 20-minute can open minds and clarify thinking
sessions of massage on the too. Wisdom dictates not accepting
second and fifth days after surgery. just any old nostrum. Wisdom also
The other half received the same dictates embracing ideas you might
care, except that they spent those not ordinarily consider. When your
20 minutes quietly relaxing with health, welfare and life are on the
no massage. line, you’re not likely to be picky
Before and after the sessions, about where legitimate help comes
the patients evaluated their level from. Relief and recovery are what
of pain, anxiety and tension on a count—and, more and more, CAM is
scale from 1 to 10. All the subjects delivering both.
