Preliminary study of non-touch hand healing on human skin explants

Abstract

Non-Contact Hand-Based Energy Healing (NCH) is a healing practice with deep roots in various cultures. NCH applied to wound healing still remains a controversial topic due to limited scientific evidence. Nevertheless, it has a strong potential for integrative medicine practices and requires further studies like the present one to provide additional results with more precise measurement techniques. This preliminary work was inspired by the experiments of Grad (Grad et al., 1961, 1963, 1965) and Souza (Souza et al., 2017). The primary goal of this study is to replicate and validate previous findings by applying non-touch NCH on human skin explants. This research investigates the biological effects of NCH on scarred skin explants, with the main objective of determining whether NCH influences early-stage wound healing through specific biomarkers linked to inflammation and tissue repair. Human scar-wounded skin explants were selected as the biological model. Based on preliminary tests, key wound repair markers were chosen for analysis, including erythema-like morphological changes, Ki67 protein expression, and IL6 cytokine concentration. This comparative study involved dividing the skin explants into two groups: a treated group exposed to NCH techniques and a control group with no treatment. The process was performed under standardized conditions to ensure comparability between groups. Both groups underwent three analytical methods: macroscopic morphological inspection via photographs, immunohistochemical analysis for Ki67 and K17 proteins, and ELISA tests for cytokine markers, particularly IL6.

The primary outcome measures included the presence of erythema-like changes (indicating inflammation) in the photographs, the expression of Ki67 protein (a marker of cell proliferation), and IL6 cytokine levels (an inflammatory marker). These indicators were selected for their known relevance to early wound healing and inflammatory responses. In the treated group, erythema-like changes were observed, along with low levels of Ki67 and elevated levels of IL6. These responses were absent in the control group. The presence of these markers in the treated group suggests an inflammatory response, indicating the early stages of wound repair. This study supports the hypothesis that hand healing induces a biological response in the treated skin explants, characterized by inflammation and early markers of wound healing. These results align with prior studies and provide a basis for further investigation into the efficacy of traditional hand healing practices.