Friday, October 22, 2010

Victoria Falls in Zambia Reduces Cancer Pain

I was reading this article and I thought it was a bit interesting, I've heard of nature healing but this one was extreme, Cancer patients who have to endure excruciating procedures on a daily basis may be able to lessen their pain,by being transported to Zambia and the patient  doesnt even need to leave their bed.According to Researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, United States.
They set up a series of tests analysing patients undergoing bone marrow aspiration and biopsy (BMAB),known to be a particularly painful form of cancer treatment.
"We wanted to find a way to improve their experience," explained Noah Lechtzin from the department of medicine at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
"So we did a study in which patients were assigned to either standard care, to have the procedure done with a nature scene and accompanying nature sounds, or a city scene and city sounds."We measured pain during the procedure."
"Our scene was a very open picture that had running water, the sounds had birds chirping and wind rustling through trees”
Noah Lechtzin From Johns Hopkins University "The nature scene consisted of typically relaxing images, such as Victoria Falls in Zambia, painted onto bed curtains surrounding the patient as he or she is being treated.

To add to the atmosphere and help with the process, the nature scene added sounds of birds chirping and wind rustling through trees was played to the patient through headphones.
For the city scene, the noise of traffic was played instead.
The found these two simple additions to the hospital environment changed the way patients reacted to the invasive treatment.
Pain Scale
The severity of pain was measured using a ten point scale known as the Hopkins Pain Rating Instrument. Before and after a procedure, patients are asked to indicate how uncomfortable they felt.Anything above a four is classed as moderate to severe pain.
A control group - which had neither nature nor city scenes - on average marked BMAB as 5.7 on the pain scale.But, those patients exposed to the nature sounds and images recorded an average of 3.9 on the pain scale - a significant reduction.
The city scene had no significant effect on the ranking - patients found the treatment just as painful.This, Mr Lechtzin says, shows that the reduction in pain is not simply just a case of distracting the patient.
Fascinating, lets get more  patients to Zambia Why dont we? Winks

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