Chapter 32: Complementary and Alternative Therapies – Flashcards

ANS: C This is an analogy that compares different therapies within specific categories. Both yoga and breath work are mind-body therapies, whereas both Reiki and therapeutic touch therapies are energy field therapies. The other options have different design structures; thus, they do not fit the analogy.

ANS: C By using electromechanical instruments, a person can receive information or feedback on his or her stress level. Having this knowledge allows the patient to develop awareness and voluntary control over his or her physiological symptoms. Biofeedback does not address energy fields. Directing energies is therapeutic touch. Manipulation of body alignment and joints is done by a chiropractor.

ANS: B Warfarin and blood thinners interact with ginkgo biloba as designed to improve memory. All herbal supplements should be evaluated with current pharmacological medications. The other options do not have drug interactions with each other.

ANS: A Meditation is indicated for stress-related illness. A person can learn to calm down and cope with stress through the use of meditation. Ayurvedic herbs have been used for centuries to treat illness. Acupuncture focuses on redirecting Qi via the body's meridian energy lines to influence deeper internal organs. Chiropractic therapy involves manipulation of the spinal column and includes physiotherapy and diet therapy.

ANS: A Allopathic medicine is synonymous with traditional Western medicine, which is highly effective in treating numerous physical ailments, but it is in general less effective in preventing disease, decreasing stress-induced illness, managing chronic disease, and caring for the emotional and spiritual needs of individuals. Complementary, alternative, and mind-body types of medicine can be used in tandem with allopathic medicine but are distinctly different.

ANS: D Receptivity is defined as the ability to tolerate and accept experiences that are uncertain, unfamiliar, or paradoxical. Passivity is the ability to stop unnecessary goal-directed and analytical activity. Focusing is the ability to identify, differentiate, maintain attention on, and return attention to simple stimuli for an extended period. Mindfulness is not a cognitive skill needed in relaxation therapy.

ANS: A An integrative medical program allows health care consumers to be treated by a team of providers consisting of both allopathic and complementary practitioners. The other options are solely complementary clinics.

ANS: B Progressive relaxation training teaches the individual how to effectively rest and reduces tension in the body. The technique used in this scenario involves the use of slow, deep abdominal breathing while tightening and relaxing an ordered succession of muscle groups. Although meditation does include abdominal breathing, along with psychotherapy and biofeedback, it does not include tightening and relaxing of muscle groups in an ordered succession.

ANS: B The therapeutic touch practitioner scans the body to identify areas of accumulated tension. The practitioner will then attempt to redirect these accumulated energies back into balance. Chiropractic therapy involves balancing structural and functional imbalance through spinal manipulation. Qi is involved in traditional Chinese medicine. Chakras are involved in Reiki therapy.

ANS: A Electro-acupuncture can be described as percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation. Individuals with a pacemaker or with cardiac arrhythmias or epilepsy, or who are pregnant, should not use electro-acupuncture because the electrical current can impair functioning. Traditional acupuncture is not contraindicated in these patient groups. Needles are inserted at specific acupoints along identified meridians. Whether or not an infection is present, electro-acupuncture should not be used if the patient experiences cardiac dysrhythmias.

ANS: A Chiropractors use their hands as instruments to restore structural and functional balance. Practitioners of chiropractic care believe that general health is affected via the nervous system. Chiropractic care is not risk free, just as allopathic medical care is not risk free. Subluxation eventually can cause permanently restricted joint movement, but this is not a basic foundational principle of chiropractic care. Although hands-on care is used in chiropractic care, a natural diet and regular exercise are critical components for the body to function properly.

ANS: B Mind-body-spirit is important to a nurse with a holistic style of nursing. Nursing involves caring for the entire patient. A vegan diet is an aspect of dietary treatment, but it does not allow for alternative viewpoints or well-rounded care. Spiritual literature and knowing about resources are excellent alternative aspects of allopathic medicine, but they are not specific to holistic nurses.

ANS: C Allopathic medical providers are not formally trained in complementary and alternative therapies. These providers often feel uncomfortable recommending CAM because of that lack of knowledge and training. In addition, research on CAM is limited, making guidelines difficult to create—another barrier for providers who use CAM.

ANS: A Pupils dilate during stressful situations to increase visual capacity and sight, especially in darkened conditions; this is a survival mechanism. The physiological cascade of changes associated with the stress response includes increased heart and respiratory rates, muscle tightening, increased metabolic rate, a sense of foreboding, fear, nervousness, irritability, and a negative mood. Also included is elevated blood pressure.

ANS: A Long-term relaxation therapy focuses on active recognition and release of stress. It is not realistic to expect a tension-free life. Delta brain waves are high-amplitude brain waves associated with the deepest stages of sleep. The outcome of relaxation therapy is not to put a person to sleep or to increase the focus on self.

ANS: C Meditation involves relaxing the body and stilling the mind, which anyone can do through a variety of measures. Meditation does not improve a person's communication skills, cure any illness, or balance any bodily hormones.

ANS: B The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 allowed companies to sell herbs as dietary supplements as long as no health claims are written on their labels. Herbal medicines do not undergo the same rigorous research as pharmaceuticals, so most have not received approval for use as drugs and are not regulated. Therefore, they cannot be labeled as "safe." Herbs do not come with classification systems. Herbal supplements come in a variety of packages, elixirs, pills, salves, and tinctures, and being labeled a dietary supplement does not necessarily imply that the supplement is a food product.

ANS: C Chamomile is known to cause drowsiness. Other herbal supplements can affect serotonin levels in the brain and can affect antidepressant medication. A patient should check with a provider before combining herbal supplements with medications. Antidepressants do not interact with digoxin, aspirin, or ginger.

ANS: A The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine was created in 1998. It is a part of the National Institute of Medicine. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The American Holistic Nurses Association (AHNA) is a nonprofit membership association for nurses and other holistic health care professionals.

ANS: B Imagery and visualization techniques have a powerful psychophysiological response. Imagery is commonly used in cancer patients to improve their immune system despite radical treatments such as chemotherapy. Biofeedback teaches the patient to analyze triggers of stress. Acupuncture punctures the skin and may increase risk of infection and should be used with caution in someone who is immunocompromised. Breath work involves using a variety of breathing patterns to relax, invigorate, or open emotional channels.

ANS: D Both yoga and breathwork are mind-body therapies, whereas both reiki and therapeutic touch therapies are energy field therapies. Tai chi is mind-body intervention. Acupressure and massage are body-based methods. Ayurvedic is a type of whole medical system.

ANS: A By using electromechanical instruments, a person can receive information or feedback on his or her stress level. Having this knowledge allows the patient to develop awareness and voluntary control over his or her physiological symptoms. Biofeedback does not address energy fields; healing touch, reiki, and therapeutic touch are energy fields. Directing energies is therapeutic touch. Manipulation of body alignment and joints is done by a chiropractor.

ANS: C The practitioner scans the body of the patient with the palms (roughly 2 to 6 inches [5 to 15 cm] from the body) from head to toe. While assessing the energetic biofield of the patient, the practitioner focuses on the quality of the qi and areas of energy obstructions, redirecting the energy to harmonize and move. Chiropractic therapy involves balancing structural and functional imbalance through spinal manipulation. Moxibustion is a traditional Chinese medicine technique that involves burning moxa, a cone or stick of dried herbs that have healing properties, on or near the skin. Reiki therapy transfers "universal life energy.

ANS: A Acupuncture regulates or realigns the vital energy (qi), which flows like a river through the body in channels that form a system of 20 pathways called meridians. Naturopathic therapeutics include herbal medicine, nutritional supplementation, physical medicine, homeopathy, lifestyle counseling, and mind-body therapies with an orientation toward assisting the person's internal capacity for self-healing (vitalism). Tribal traditions are individualistic, but similarities across traditions include the use of sweating and purging, herbal remedies, and ceremonies in which a shaman (a spiritual healer) makes contact with spirits to ask their direction in bringing healing to people to promote wholeness and healing. Curanderismo is a Latin American traditional healing system that includes a humoral model for classifying food, activity, drugs, and illnesses and a series of folk illnesses. The goal is to create a balance between the patient and his or her environment, thereby sustaining health.

ANS: A Tribal traditions are individualistic, but similarities across traditions include the use of sweating and purging, herbal remedies, and ceremonies in which a shaman (a spiritual healer) makes contact with spirits to ask their direction in bringing healing to people to promote wholeness and healing. Naturopathic therapeutics include herbal medicine, nutritional supplementation, physical medicine, homeopathy, lifestyle counseling, and mindbody therapies with an orientation toward assisting the person's internal capacity for self-healing (vitalism). One of the oldest systems of medicine (Ayurvedic) has been practiced in India since the first century AD. Curanderismo is a Latin American traditional healing system that includes a humoral model for classifying food, activity, drugs, and illnesses and a series of folk illnesses

ANS: B Grounded in six principles, integrative nursing is defined as "a way of being-knowing-doing that advances the health and well-being of persons, families, and communities through caring-healing relationships." Integrative nurses use evidence to inform traditional and emerging interventions that support whole person/whole systems healing. Holistic nursing treats the mind-body-spirit of the patient, using interventions such as relaxation therapy, music therapy, touch therapies, and guided imagery. Integrative health care, a strategy that is gaining popularity, involves interprofessional group practices where patients receive care simultaneously from more than one type of practitioner; nurses must interact with other health care professionals for any type of nursing. An integrative nurse will use complementary and alternative therapies to provide integrative nursing.

ANS: C Decreased heart and respiratory rates, blood pressure, and oxygen consumption and increased alpha brain activity and peripheral skin temperature characterize the relaxation response. The physiological cascade of changes associated with the stress response includes increased heart and respiratory rates, muscle tightening, increased metabolic rate, a sense of foreboding, fear, nervousness, irritability, and a negative mood. Other physiological responses include elevated blood pressure; dilated pupils; stronger cardiac contractions; and increased levels of blood glucose, serum cholesterol, circulating free fatty acids, and triglycerides.

ANS: D The nurse manager needs to intervene if the nurse uses active progressive relaxation. Active progressive relaxation is not appropriate for patients with advanced disease or decreased energy reserves. Passive relaxation or guided imagery or meditation is more appropriate for these individuals.

ANS: D Touch is a primal need, as necessary as food, growth, or shelter. Touch is like a nutrient transmitted through the skin, and "skin hunger" is like a form of malnutrition that has reached epidemic proportions in the United States, especially among older adults. While infants, children, and middle age may be affected, it is the older adult who is most affected.

ANS: A Prolonged practice of meditation techniques sometimes reduces the need for antihypertensive, thyroid-regulating, and psychotropic medications (e.g., antidepressants and antianxiety agents). In these cases, adjustment of the medication is necessary. Corticosteroid, loop diuretic, and anticoagulant medications are not affected by meditation.

ANS: C Potential drug interactions with chamomile include drugs that cause drowsiness like antidepressants. Aloe, garlic, and saw palmetto do not interfere with antidepressants.

ANS: D Biofeedback is a process providing a person with visual or auditory information about autonomic physiological functions of the body such as muscle tension, skin temperature, and brain wave activity through the use of instruments. Breathwork can open emotional channels. Music therapy uses music to address physical, psychological, cognitive, and social needs of certain individuals. Yoga focuses on body musculature, holding of postures, and proper breathing mechanisms.

ANS: A You need to exercise caution when using acupuncture with pregnant patients and those who have a history of seizures, are carriers of hepatitis, or are immune compromised (AIDS). Acupuncture is a safe therapy for low back pain, migraine headaches, and osteoarthritis.

ANS: A, B, D Imagery helps control or relieve pain, decrease nightmares, and improve sleep. It also aids in the treatment of chronic conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome. Increased anxiety and fear sometimes occur when imagery is used to treat post-traumatic stress disorders and social anxiety disorders. Meditation successfully reduces relapses in alcohol treatment programs.

1.Aloe- d. Skin inflammation 2. Garlic- a. Elevated cholesterol levels 3. Valerian- e. Mild anxiety 4. Ginger-b. Nausea and vomiting 5. Saw palmetto- c. Benign prostatic hyperplasia6. Chaparral-f. Unsafe and should not be used