October 2, 2010

Last Sunday, SPARK volunteers were in Manhattan’s Seward Park providing free reiki, a form of energy work, to the Chinese community. Visitors asked questions such as, “What does reiki help?” and more personally, “Can it help me?”

Reiki and other forms of energy work are still relatively new in the United States and research is being conducted to determine their medical benefits. A recent study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) by researchers at Yale-New Haven Hospital showed that reiki treatment can benefit patients who have recently suffered a heart attack.

Following the stress and damage of a heart attack, the human body has an increased risk of a second attack. Doctors are aware of this risk, and helping the body recover its resilience is a primary goal in cardiac care. Cardiac risk is commonly measured using Heart Rate Variability (HRV). A low HRV is associated with an increased risk of a heart attack, and a high HRV is associated with a more resilient body and a lower risk. To help increase HRV following heart attacks, doctors may sometimes prescribe drugs called beta-blockers that reduce strain on the heart and lower blood pressure.

The Yale researchers explored non-traditional treatments and compared the short-term effects of three options for heart attack recovery -- reiki, music and pure rest. The study measured both HRV and emotional state.

The results showed that a simple 20-minute reiki session improved HRV. The HRV benefit was comparable to that seen in a study of the beta-blocker propranolol. Reiki also improved all emotional states, and of the three alternatives, reiki had the most positive changes in emotional state. According to the researchers, the study also demonstrates that reiki treatment is safe and feasible in the acute care setting.

Study: Effects of Reiki on Autonomic Activity Early After Acute Coronary Syndrome. Rachel S.C. Friedman, Matthew M. Burg, Pamela Miles, Forrester Lee, and Rachel Lampert J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 2010;56;995-996.

Dave Gorczynski is president of SPARK, a non-profit organization that has provided free energy work sessions and workshops across New York City since 2002. He writes a regular column about energy work and meditation for the Compact News in New York City's Chinatown. E-mail him at dave@sparkenergy.org.