Journal of Complementary and Alternative Medical Research

Effect of Yoga and Naturopathy Intervention on Thyroid Profile, Quality of Life and Sleep in an Overt Hyperthyroidism Patient: A Case study

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Background: Hyperthyroidism is a prevalent thyroid condition characterised by excess thyroid hormone production. Low or suppressed thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), combined with elevated triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4), is characteristic of overt hyperthyroidism. This condition is associated with a range of comorbidities, including gastrointestinal symptoms and insomnia. Yoga and naturopathy interventions, including yoga therapy, hydrotherapy packs, acupuncture, and reflexology, may be beneficial for improving sleep quality, quality of life, and gastrointestinal symptoms in patients with overt hyperthyroidism. This paper assesses the effect of a yoga and naturopathy intervention on the thyroid profile, quality of life, and sleep using a case-study methodology.

Case description: A 20-year-old unmarried woman presented to our outpatient department with a history of hyperthyroidism associated with gastrointestinal symptoms, including indigestion, bloating, and mild spasmodic abdominal pain, which had persisted for the previous 2 years. She had been taking allopathic medication for hyperthyroidism irregularly for the past 4 years and had not taken any medication for her gastrointestinal symptoms. The patient was prescribed a 4-week yoga and naturopathy intervention. Pre-test data were collected before the intervention, post-test data were collected at the end of the intervention, and a 1-month post-intervention follow-up was conducted for a routine check-up.

Result: Thyroid function tests (TFTs), the Short Form Health Survey (SF-12), Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale (GSRS), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) were assessed before and after the intervention. Results showed an increase in the SF-12 physical health component from 21.88 to 55.91, a decrease in T3 from >32.55 pg/mL to 24.23 pg/mL, a decrease in PSQI from 17 to 4, and a decrease in GSRS from 50 to 24, together with an improvement in quality of life after 4 weeks of intervention; a 1-month post-intervention follow-up was subsequently conducted.

Conclusion: The integrated yoga and naturopathy intervention may be beneficial for improving sleep quality, quality of life, and gastrointestinal symptoms in patients with overt hyperthyroidism.

Association of Neutrophil Lymphocyte Ratio and Mean Platelet Volume (MPV) on Arteriovenous Fistula Malfunction in Hemodialysis Patients at Prof. Dr. I.G.N.G. Ngoerah Hospital, Indonesia

Jessica Benedick, Dewa Ayu Made Adnya Swari, Ketut Putu Yasa, I Ketut Sudartana — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Background: Chronic kidney disease patients receiving maintenance haemodialysis depend on reliable vascular access; however, arteriovenous fistula (AVF) malfunction remains an important clinical problem.

Aims: This study aimed to evaluate the association of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and mean platelet volume (MPV) with AVF malfunction within three months among patients undergoing maintenance haemodialysis at Prof. Dr. I.G.N.G. Ngoerah Hospital.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Surgery, Medical Faculty of Udayana University, Prof Dr. IGNG Ngoerah Hospital, between January 2023 and December 2024.

Methodology: A retrospective cohort study was conducted among 72 patients with stage V chronic kidney disease who underwent AVF surgery at Prof. Dr. I.G.N.G. Ngoerah Hospital between January 2023 and December 2024. Pre-operative NLR and MPV were categorised as high or normal using cut-off values of 2.925 and 9.75 fL, respectively.

Results: Thirty-six patients experienced AVF malfunction, while 36 had normal AVF function. High NLR was observed in 29 of 36 patients with AVF malfunction and 1 of 36 patients with normal AVF function. High NLR was significantly associated with AVF malfunction (P = 0.000; RR = 5.800; 95% CI: 2.940–11.443). High MPV was present in 25 of 36 patients with AVF malfunction and 14 of 36 patients with normal AVF function and was also significantly associated with malfunction (P = 0.009; RR = 1.923; 95% CI: 1.124–3.289). Age, sex, nutritional status, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and haemoglobin category were not significantly associated with AVF malfunction.

Discussion: The findings indicate that elevated pre-operative NLR and MPV were associated with a higher occurrence of AVF malfunction in the study population, whereas the evaluated demographic and clinical factors showed no significant associations.

Conclusion: Pre-operative NLR and MPV may have potential value as readily available markers associated with AVF malfunction. However, prospective multicentre studies are required before these parameters can be regarded as definitive predictive markers.

Personal Hygiene Knowledge and Practices among Secondary School Students in Umunneochi Lga, Abia State, Nigeria

Elekeh, Rosemary Icita, Iheme, Emmanuel Chijioke, Sunday Ihuoma Felicia — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Background: Personal hygiene is an important component of disease prevention and health promotion, particularly among adolescents. However, students’ hygiene practices may be influenced by their level of knowledge, family support, access to hygiene materials, health education, and the availability of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities in schools. Aim: This study examined personal hygiene practices among secondary school students in Umunneochi Local Government Area, Abia State, Nigeria. The study was guided by four specific objectives: to determine the level of knowledge of personal hygiene among the students; to assess their personal hygiene practices; to identify the factors influencing these practices; and to examine the influence of school WASH facilities on students' hygiene behaviours.

Methods: A descriptive survey research design was adopted, and data were collected from 422 secondary school students using a structured questionnaire. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, including frequencies, percentages, mean scores, and Likert scale analysis, with a benchmark mean of 2.50 used for decision-making on Likert scale items.

Results: The findings revealed that the majority of respondents were adolescents aged 13–15 years (39.10%), with a relatively balanced gender distribution (52.80% male, 47.20% female), and most attended public secondary schools (61.40%). The study found that the students possessed an excellent level of knowledge regarding personal hygiene, with 100% of respondents correctly identifying basic hygiene principles such as handwashing, oral hygiene, and menstrual hygiene, while 98.10% acknowledged the importance of clean water for maintaining hygiene. The results on personal hygiene practices indicated that students generally demonstrated good hygiene behaviours, with a grand mean score of 3.13 exceeding the benchmark. The highest-rated practices were wearing clean clothes to school regularly (Mean = 3.37), keeping fingernails clean and trimmed (Mean = 3.36), and practising proper menstrual hygiene (Mean = 3.24). Parental encouragement (Mean = 3.32) emerged as the most influential factor, followed by knowledge of diseases (Mean = 3.23) and health education received in school (Mean = 3.12). Additionally, school WASH facilities positively influenced hygiene practices, with regular hygiene education (Mean = 3.18) and a clean school environment (Mean = 3.09) ranking highest among the facility-related factors.

Conclusion: The study concluded that secondary school students in Umunneochi Local Government Area possess high knowledge levels and demonstrate good personal hygiene practices, which are significantly influenced by parental support, health education, and the availability of school WASH facilities. It is recommended that government and school authorities should strengthen health education programmes, improve the availability and affordability of hygiene materials, and enhance school WASH infrastructure, particularly the provision of functional handwashing facilities with soap, adequate water supply, and clean toilets, to sustain and improve students' hygiene behaviours. Furthermore, parents and community stakeholders should be engaged in hygiene promotion initiatives to reinforce positive practices at home and in schools.

Massage Therapy in Naturopathic Practice: A Critical Narrative Review of Mechanistic Rationale, Clinical Evidence and Conceptual Coherence

B. V. Bhoomika, Siddappa Naragatti — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Massage is among the oldest and most widely recognised components of naturopathic physical medicine, yet its position within the discipline has become unsettled. Naturopathic philosophy justifies manual therapy through claims about circulation, elimination, nervous regulation and the stimulation of self-healing capacity, whereas the contemporary evidence base evaluates massage as an isolated modality tested against pain, anxiety and function in narrowly defined populations. This review examines that divergence. Its purpose is to assess how far the mechanistic rationale offered for massage within naturopathy survives critical scrutiny, what the clinical literature can and cannot support, and where the methodological architecture of the field constrains further progress. Literature was identified through scholarly indexes and citation registries accessible during the review, supplemented by backward and forward citation searching, with the final search conducted on 9 June 2026. Four findings dominate the synthesis. Mechanotransduction in skeletal muscle has emerged as the most biologically credible mechanism, supported by human biopsy work and animal models, although the translational distance between molecular signalling and patient-reported benefit remains large. The cortisol hypothesis, long central to naturopathic and popular accounts of massage, is not supported by rigorous between-group analysis and should be retired as a primary explanatory device. Affective touch mediated by C-tactile afferents offers a more coherent account of the affective and analgesic responses observed in practice, though it has rarely been tested using recognisable massage protocols. Clinical benefit is most defensible for short-term pain and anxiety reduction in palliative, perioperative and musculoskeletal contexts, but certainty of evidence is consistently low, effect durability is poorly characterised, and expectancy appears to contribute substantially to observed outcomes. Progress requires adequately dosed, longer trials with credible comparators, standardised intervention reporting, and mechanistic work that connects tissue-level responses to symptoms patients care about. The naturopathic claim for massage remains plausible but is presently underdetermined by evidence.

Glycaemic Effects of Hibiscus sabdariffa Supplementation in Adults with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Metabolic Syndrome: A Critical Narrative Review of Trials and Mechanism

Raphael Nyarkotey Obu — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Preparations of the calyces of Hibiscus sabdariffa L. are consumed widely as beverages and are marketed increasingly as supplements for cardiometabolic risk reduction. Interest in their glycaemic actions has grown because the plant is inexpensive, culturally familiar across tropical and subtropical regions, and rich in anthocyanins and phenolic acids with demonstrable activity against carbohydrate-digesting enzymes. Enthusiasm in the secondary literature has outpaced the primary evidence. Pooled analyses report small reductions in fasting plasma glucose, yet the trials contributing to those estimates were designed principally to test blood pressure or lipid endpoints, rarely enrolled populations defined by glycaemic criteria, and seldom measured glycated haemoglobin or validated indices of insulin sensitivity. This critical narrative review evaluates the strength, coherence and translational relevance of evidence on H. sabdariffa supplementation and glycaemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus or the metabolic syndrome. Literature was identified through structured searching of scholarly databases and citation tracking, appraised against design-specific criteria, and synthesised thematically around botanical and compositional heterogeneity, mechanistic plausibility, trial-level internal validity, quantitative pooling, and safety. The mechanistic case for an acute postprandial effect through inhibition of alpha-glucosidase and alpha-amylase is reasonably well supported, whereas the case for sustained improvement in chronic glycaemic control rests largely on small, short, heterogeneous trials with inconsistent findings and on rodent models that use exposures far exceeding realistic human intake. The most rigorously conducted syntheses reach markedly more cautious conclusions than less stringently appraised ones, and the largest recent placebo-controlled trial in metabolic syndrome found no effect on insulin resistance or glycaemic markers. Product characterisation is rarely adequate to permit replication or dose inference. Priorities for future work include adequately powered trials in glycaemically defined populations, with glycated haemoglobin or continuous glucose monitoring as primary outcomes, chemically standardised interventions, and pre-registered analysis plans. On present evidence, H. sabdariffa cannot be recommended as a glucose-lowering intervention, although its potential as an adjunct within multifactorial risk management remains open.

Laboratory Biomarker Changes Following Extracorporeal Blood Oxygenation and Ozonation (EBOO): A Retrospective Eight-Patient Case Series

Abhinit Gupta — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Background: Extracorporeal blood oxygenation and ozonation (EBOO) is an extracorporeal procedure involving oxygen-ozone exposure and blood filtration. Clinical evidence remains limited, and EBOO is investigational in many settings.

Objective: To describe paired laboratory changes available before and after EBOO in eight adults treated during routine clinical care.

Methods: This uncontrolled retrospective case series included eight heterogeneous patients with comparable pre- and post-procedure laboratory reports.

Results: Triglycerides decreased in all six patients with paired values, LDL cholesterol decreased in all four, total cholesterol decreased in four of five, HDL increased in all three, non-HDL cholesterol decreased in all three, and VLDL decreased in both patients with paired measurements. hsCRP decreased in four of five patients but increased in one; CRP decreased in the single patient with paired CRP values. TSH decreased in Cases 1–3 but increased from 30.2 to 48.7 mIU/L in Case 4, where haemoglobin decreased from 11.4 to 10.3 g/dL. In Case 7, ALT increased from 41.8 to 151.4 U/L and fasting glucose from 110.1 to 135 mg/dL.

Conclusion: These observations are uncontrolled temporal associations and do not establish efficacy, safety, treatment effect, or causality. Prospective controlled studies using standardised protocols, follow-up, and predefined safety monitoring are required.