Avaliação do efeito do Reiki no controle do estresse em camundongos e revisão sobre o toque terapêutico na função emocional cerebral

Abstract

Therapeutic touch is a complementary treatment to balance the energetic and vibrational field that surrounds living beings. Among the diseases, anxiety and stress stand out, which induce disturbances in concentration, memory and other cognitive aspects, impacting people's quality of life, being predominant in the world population with an estimate of 28%. Reiki (rei means universal, and ki, vital energy), a complementary therapy, was introduced by Mikao Usui into Sanskrit texts in the late 19th century and was later put into practice by Hawayo Taka. In Reiki, everything in the universe consists of energy, including the human body, and changes in this energy can lead to pathologies. In this context, our objective was to review the effects of therapeutic touch on behavioral factors, brain dysfunctions, including quality of life, in patients with anxiety and stress, as well as to evaluate the effect of reiki on stress in mice induced by paw shocks, observing the behavioral part and the inflammatory and antioxidant response in the hippocampus. A literature search was conducted in PubMed/MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, Scielo, Google Scholar, and Web of Science. Search terms included the keywords: ‘‘therapeutic touch and/or reiki associated with brain, anxiety, stress, quality of life’’. The second product of this thesis evaluated the effect of reiki in mice, examining the possible alterations in the gene expression of inflammasome, receptor protein Nod 3 (NLRP3) and catalase (CAT), along with stress tolerance. Five groups of 12-week-old male SWISS mice were used in the experiment: control, reiki control, stress, glove control, reiki, stress. Therapeutic touch can increase trust, conformity, and generosity; in the same way that it decreases anxiety and threatening negative emotions. Further studies are needed to contribute to the optimization of therapeutic touch, such as time and application techniques, in order to verify the benefits in different health conditions, positively impacting the individual's quality of life. Reiki-treated animals showed behavioral improvement, improved mobility, and decreased stress when compared to untreated mice. These findings may be due to modulation of the hippocampal brain inflammasome pathway, in which NRLP3 genes and antioxidant catalase were evaluated. The present study indicates that stressed mice treated with reiki showed increased locomotor activity. In addition, reiki modulated inflammation-related gene expression by inhibiting the assembly of the NLRP3 inflammasome and reducing the action of catalase that may be linked to the improvement of the antioxidant system in the hippocampus.