R Statistical Software

Sara Izadi-Najafabadi et al. (2025) · Integrative cancer therapies

This retrospective study compared 67 people with grade IV glioblastoma (GBM), a fast-growing brain cancer, who received integrative naturopathic care at a Canadian clinic with 243 matched patients from the U.S. SEER cancer registry. The clinic's approach added modulated electro-hyperthermia (mEHT), a radiofrequency treatment that heats tumour tissue, plus high-dose intravenous vitamin C, supplements, acupuncture and diet counselling, on top of standard surgery, radiotherapy and temozolomide chemotherapy. Standard care for GBM extends median survival only to about 14.6 months, so the authors looked for any signal that the extra treatments might add survival time. Patients had at least six mEHT sessions between 2010 and 2024, with a median of 13 sessions of up to 60 minutes each at powers rising from 50 to 140 watts. Controls were matched on age, sex, diagnosis year and whether they had surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. To avoid giving the clinic group credit for the months before they arrived, survival was counted from the start of clinic treatment (or the matched patient's start date for controls) and compared with Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox regression. Median survival from that starting point was 15 months with integrative care versus 11 months in controls, and the hazard ratio of 0.72 (95% CI 0.53-1.00, p = 0.05) sat right at the edge of statistical significance (a 28% lower hazard of death). The difference was concentrated in people who started within 120 days of diagnosis (hazard ratio 0.52, p = 0.006, roughly half the hazard of death) and in those under 50 (0.51, p = 0.009); starting later or being 50 or older showed no difference (0.98 and 0.96). Treatment began a median of 124 days after diagnosis, so these patients had already survived that long. The authors saw no seizures or other side effects. Those subgroup analyses were exploratory, unadjusted for multiple testing, and the matched groups still differed in how many had chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Because treatment was not randomised and many factors that shape GBM survival, such as tumour genetics, extent of surgery and general fitness, were unavailable, the results cannot show that the integrative care caused the longer survival. Clinic patients also paid for their own care, which may favour those with more resources, and the dose and timing of mEHT varied between individuals. The authors describe the findings as hypothesis-generating, a signal rather than an effect estimate, and call for randomised trials.

Suhas Balakrishna et al. (2026) · Journal of lifestyle medicine

This systematic review and meta-analysis pooled 33 controlled studies with 2,651 adults to ask whether pelotherapy, the application of mineral-rich mud, peat or clay as packs, wraps or full baths, eases musculoskeletal disorders. These include osteoarthritis (joint cartilage wear), rheumatoid arthritis (an autoimmune joint disease), fibromyalgia (widespread pain) and chronic low back pain. Pelotherapy is a traditional naturopathic practice used in spas, balneological centres and clinics in at least 40 countries, and the authors set out to test it against modern standards: pre-registration, risk-of-bias rating and GRADE certainty scoring. The team searched eight databases and trial registers up to April 2026. Included trials enrolled adults with a confirmed musculoskeletal diagnosis, applied mud as the main treatment for 10 to 21 sessions over two to three weeks, and compared it with sham treatment, usual care, waiting lists or nothing. Pain was mostly rated on a 0-100 mm visual analogue scale or a 0-10 numeric scale, and function on questionnaires such as the WOMAC. Two reviewers worked independently and combined results with random-effects statistics. Pain dropped clearly after mud treatment (standardised mean difference -0.74, a moderate-to-large effect, roughly 18.5 mm on the 100 mm scale and above the 15 mm threshold for a meaningful change). The effect was still present at 3 months (-0.61) and at 6 months (-0.49, low certainty). Physical function (-0.69) and quality of life (+0.58 on SF-36) improved as well, with osteoarthritis trials using the WOMAC at -0.82 and rheumatoid arthritis trials using the HAQ at -0.58. Morning stiffness (-0.52) and C-reactive protein, a blood marker of inflammation (-0.44), fell modestly, while the erythrocyte sedimentation rate did not change significantly. Knee osteoarthritis showed the biggest benefit (-0.86), and Dead Sea mud the strongest peloid effect (-0.84). Serious adverse events were no more common than in controls (relative risk 0.98); about 6.5% of mud recipients had mild, short-lived skin redness, largely from heat. The authors note several limits: participants cannot be blinded to mud, peloid type, temperature and protocol varied widely, results differed between trials (I2 = 62% for pain), a correction for possible publication bias lowered the pain estimate to -0.66, most trials came from European spa settings, and safety beyond 12 months is unknown. They call for larger blinded trials with standardised peloids and longer follow-up, and frame pelotherapy as an adjunct to, not a replacement for, drug and physiotherapy care.

Tatiana Leite Müller et al. (2026) · International journal of biometeorology

This systematic review of nine studies with 465 adults looked at climatotherapy, the therapeutic use of climate and natural settings, for musculoskeletal and rheumatologic disorders such as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia and ankylosing spondylitis. The settings were the Dead Sea (very salty water, low humidity, distinctive solar radiation and air pressure about 5% above sea level) and coastal sites using thalassotherapy, which means bathing and exercising in seawater, sometimes with marine mud, sun exposure and sea air. Because these programs vary widely, the authors wanted to gather what trials say about pain, physical function, quality of life and safety. The reviewers searched three databases through September 2025 and included eight randomized trials and one non-randomized study from 1995 to 2011, mostly in Israel. Participants were aged 18 to 65 and stayed at a spa or coast for 10 days up to 12 weeks. Comparison groups used freshwater pools, usual care, pool exercise or the same program in Norway. Pain was usually rated on a 0 to 100 visual analog scale, and quality of life was measured with questionnaires such as the SF-36. Most studies reported short-term improvements in pain, stiffness, function and quality of life, mainly within groups. Only two studies could be pooled for pain, giving an inconclusive overall result (SMD -0.47, 95% CI -5.47 to 4.53; an interval too wide to show benefit or no benefit). Split by condition, osteoarthritis showed a large effect (SMD -1.01, meaning pain fell by roughly one standard deviation more than with comparison) while fibromyalgia showed a small non-significant one (SMD -0.18, p = 0.158). In fibromyalgia, single-study estimates showed fewer tender points (SMD -0.50, p = 0.0047) and better physical quality of life (SF-36 physical score 0.36, p = 0.0391), but mood scores (p = 0.5968) and overall fibromyalgia impact (p = 0.0612) did not change significantly. No serious adverse events were reported, though only one study recorded adverse events explicitly. The evidence has important limits: trials were small and published between 1995 and 2011, participants and therapists could not be blinded, safety was inconsistently recorded, and several programs combined many components, so the effect of the climate itself is hard to separate. Only one trial analyzed all participants as randomized, and the pooled estimate rests on two studies. Certainty was judged low. The authors suggest climatotherapy may be a complementary option, particularly for osteoarthritis, and call for multicenter randomized trials with standard outcome sets and systematic safety reporting.