Holistic medicine can treat addiction, spiritualist says
An Indian spiritual leader known for creating a breathing technique designed to relieve stress and depression urged doctors meeting in Columbus on Friday to consider holistic medicine as a way of treating opioid addiction.
“If you look within and meditate,” Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said, “you can get relief from negative emotions that cling to us.”
Shankar was a keynote speaker for the Opiate Summit at the 36th annual American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin convention at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. The association helps Indian-American physicians excel in teaching, patient care and research.
Shankar is best known for creating and developing a breathing technique called Sudarshan Kriya (SKY) through his Happiness Program. The program is designed to alleviate stress, depression and anxiety and is part of Shankar’s vision of a stress-free and violencefree world through various courses and tools he created.
More than 70 studies have been conducted on Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, an Indian spiritual leader best known for developing the SKY breathing technique, speaks during an interview between appearances Thursday and Friday during the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin’s annual convention in Downtown Columbus. SKY, including its health benefits in such areas as improved life satisfaction and immunity.
Now, researchers from Ohio State University are looking to test Shankar’s breathing program to combat the opioid crisis in Ohio.
The Ohio State University College of Nursing received a $10,000 grant through the Ohio State Opioid Innovation Fund to conduct a small pilot study at Signature Health Clinics in Ashtabula County. Researchers will test the usefulness and initial results of using the SKY program as part of addiction treatment.
“Out of all counties in Ohio, Ashtabula is getting hit the hardest with the opioid crisis,” said Jill Klimpel, the project’s co-investigator and SKY teacher.
There were 17 drugrelated deaths in Ashtabula County in 2015, 35 in 2016 and 27 during the first six months of 2017, according to the Ashtabula County Prevention Coalition.
Beginning in October this year, 10 participants will attend a three-day breathing training program, followed by 10 weekly follow-ups. Researchers will measure how long participants avoid using opioids after the program. They also will measure depression, anxiety and stress (through hair cortical cells) before and after the intervention. Researchers have six months to complete the project.
“This is a great opportunity to combine non-traditional therapy with traditional treatment,” said Kathy Wright, the project’s primary investigator.
Wright hopes to do a longer project with her team to demonstrate the effectiveness of the SKY program and encourage its adoption as a strategy to fight opioid addiction.
Ronnie Newman, director of research and health promotion for Art of Living, a foundation founded by Shankar, says the program helped her get out of a dark time in her life years ago.
“This breathing technique gave me my life back,” Newman said.