Complementary therapies in medicine
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Complement Ther Med · Jun 2019
A pilot study of mindful walking training on physical activity and health outcomes among adults with inadequate activity.
Mindful walking is a meditation practice that combines physical activity and mindfulness practice. Some mindful walking interventions expect four weeks of attendance (as compared with the traditional 8-week models of mindfulness-based interventions, or MBIs), a practice that could make MBIs more accessible to working-age adults. This study examined whether a 4-week mindful walking intervention increased physical activity and improved mental health outcomes. ⋯ While these adults with inadequate physical activity increased their physical activity, no significant between-group differences in physical activity were identified. Potential reasons for the lack of significant findings could be due to the ceiling effect (the step count device for everyone in both groups might have encouraged more activity in both groups), limited sample size and low-dose 4-week intervention used in this study. On the other hand, it is encouraging to see that this low-dose, short-duration 4-week intervention (as compared with those popular 8-week MBIs) achieved significantly greater stress reduction among the intervention group than among the control group, even though the between-group difference at one-month follow-up was statistically insignificant. Further studies with larger sample sizes and longer follow-up are needed to assess the possible benefits of these short-duration mindful walking interventions.
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Complement Ther Med · Apr 2019
ReviewAcupuncture for treatment of anxiety, an overview of systematic reviews.
To evaluate the methodological quality and summarize evidence of important outcomes of systematic reviews (SRs)/Meta analyses (MAs) of acupuncture for anxiety. ⋯ Although most of the included reviews indicated that acupuncture group was more effective than control group in the treatment of anxiety, more importantly, the methodological quality of the included reviews and the quality of evidence were low. More high-quality evidence is needed to determine whether acupuncture is more effective than other treatments.
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Complement Ther Med · Apr 2019
ReviewComparative efficacy of Chinese herbal injections for angina pectoris: A Bayesian network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
The severity of angina pectoris has been recognized. It is believed that Chinese herbal injections have an outstanding clinical effect on this condition. This network meta-analysis was devised to investigate the comparative efficacy of eight Chinese herbal injections (Ciwujia injection, Dazhuhongjingtan injection, Huangqi injection, Shenfu injection, Shengmai injection, Shenmai injection, Shenqi Fuzheng injection, Yiqifumai injection) in the treatment of angina pectoris. ⋯ Eligible Chinese herbal injections plus western medicine therapy might have a better impact on angina pectoris patients than western medicine therapy alone. While this study had limitations, the findings should be interpreted with caution. In addition, more high-quality randomized controlled trials with a large sample must be conducted to support this study.
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Complement Ther Med · Feb 2019
Randomized Controlled TrialComplementary medicine use and health literacy in older Australians.
to investigate whether complementary medicine (CAM) use is associated with health literacy levels and decision self-efficacy. ⋯ CAM is used by older Australians to maintain their health. Use of CAM was not associated with decision self-efficacy and health literacy. However, CAM users who have less skills with appraising information are possibly more likely to access their CAM from trusted sources such as a CAM practitioners.
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Complement Ther Med · Feb 2019
ReviewShould acupuncture, biofeedback, massage, Qi gong, relaxation therapy, device-guided breathing, yoga and tai chi be used to reduce blood pressure?: Recommendations based on high-quality systematic reviews.
This review aims to rate the quality of evidence and the strength of recommendations in high-quality systematic reviews of non-drug therapies. Hypertensive patients who are resistant or non-adherent to antihypertensive drugs may be easier to manage if they choose alternative non-drug therapies for hypertension, based on this review. ⋯ Many non-drug therapies were excluded due to the low methodological quality of their systematic reviews, and only 14 therapies were evaluated in this review. As no patient-important outcomes were reviewed, surrogate outcomes were used to rate the strength of recommendations. This approach may cause a decrease in evidence quality according to GRADE, but we argue that this is appropriate in the context of this review.