Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39027544›Full record

ReviewHeliyon2024

Animal healer for refractory diseases: Myth or reality?

Mingzhi Song, Changru Zhang, Simengge Yang, Jialin Lu, Tianze Sun, Heyue Li, Liang Tang, Kerong Dai, Chaozong Liu, He Meng and 1 more

Abstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Heliyon, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

11 authors.

Mingzhi SongDepartment of Orthopaedic Surgery, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital Affiliated Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Changru ZhangDepartment of Orthopaedic Surgery, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital Affiliated Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Simengge YangDepartment of Orthopedics, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China.
Jialin LuCollege of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China.
Tianze SunDepartment of Orthopaedics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China.
Heyue LiDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Shanghai Seventh People's Hospital, Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Liang TangDepartment of Orthopedic Surgery, Tongren Hospital Affiliated Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Kerong DaiDepartment of Orthopaedic Surgery, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital Affiliated Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Chaozong LiuInstitute of Orthopaedic & Musculoskeletal Science, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
He MengSchool of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China.
Jinwu WangDepartment of Orthopaedic Surgery, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital Affiliated Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

A vast amount of knowledge has been acquired through human activities such as farming, hunting, and fishing. Throughout history, humans have utilized living creatures for disease treatment, relying on the natural world's healing powers. The special "healers" may be able to treat patients via the power of nature. However, there was no systematic introduction or summary of these treatments. Therefore, we conducted a literature review based on PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science, Scopus, CNKI and WanFang DATA. Here, we defined this unique method as "animal healer" and six common kinds of animal healers were reviewed. These are fish therapy, pet therapy, worm therapy, leech therapy, maggot therapy, and bee therapy. According to the different characteristics of healers, treatment methods mainly included bite, parasitism, contact and communication. With the advantages of green and effectiveness, animal healers have great therapy potential against a variety of refractory diseases. The main purpose of this review is to draw people's attention to animal healer, promote it to become a possible clinical treatment strategy, and make further exploration in species cultivation, mechanism research, animal welfare, standard setting, safety evaluation and other aspects. In the future, animal healers will play an increasingly important role in medicine and hopefully solve more medical problems and dilemmas.

Indexed as

Animal healerLiving creaturesNatureRefractory diseasesTherapy

Identifiers

PMID39027544
PMCPMC11255451

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.