Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has become increasingly popular and reported for countless benefits in biomedical health care systems. The study assessed the potential impact of The Trivedi Effect® (biofield energy) on Shigella sonnei for changes in antimicrobial sensitivity, biochemical study, and biotype number using MicroScan Walk-Away® system. The cells were obtained from MicroBioLogics Inc., USA bearing the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC 9290) number, and divided into two groups, Group (Gr.) I: control and Gr. II: treated. Gr. II was subjected to Mr. Trivedi’s biofield energy treatment and further subdivided into two sub-groups, Gr. IIA and Gr. IIB. Gr. IIA was analyzed on day 10, while Gr. IIB was stored and analyzed on day 160 (Study I). The Gr. IIB sample was retreated on day 160 (Study II), and was divided into three separate tubes as first, second and third tube, which were analyzed on day 5, 10 and 15, respectively. Results showed that 35% (7 out of 20) antimicrobials were reported with improved sensitivity profile. Moreover, the minimum inhibitory concentration study showed that 56.25% (18 out of 32) tested antimicrobials were reported with decreased concentration by two to four-fold as compared with the control after biofield treatment. The effect was further analyzed and sustained in the biochemical study, where 57.57% (19 out of 33) tested biochemicals showed altered reaction pattern as compared with the control. The biotype study showed an alteration in the biotype number in all the experimental treated groups as compared to the control. Encouraging results suggests that bioenergy healing treatment as an integrative medicine against S. sonnei would be a better and safe treatment approach in near future.
Shigella sonnei (S. sonnei) is a non-motile, rod shape, clinically significant, Gram-negative bacterium. It is commonly associated with dysentery (shigellosis). Recently, resistance to third and fourth generation cephalosporins and fluoroquinolones has been reported in S. sonnei. In the present study, we assessed the effect of biofield treatment on phenotyping and genotyping characteristic of S. sonnei (ATCC 9290). The lyophilized samples of S. sonnei were divided in three groups (G): G-I (control, revived), G-II (treatment, revived), and G-III (treatment, lyophilized). All these groups (control and biofield treated) were analyzed against antimicrobial susceptibility, biochemical reactions, and biotype number. The 16S rDNA sequencing was carried out to establish the phylogenetic relationship of S. sonnei with different bacterial species. The treated cells of S. sonnei exhibited an alteration of 3.33%, 10%, and 23.33% of total 30 tested antimicrobials in susceptibility assay for G-II on day 5 and 10 and G-III on day 10, respectively as compared to control. The treated cells of S. sonnei showed a significant change of about 12.12%, 12.12%, and 57.58% biochemical reactions out of 33 tests in treated groups of G-II on day 5 and 10 and G-III on day 10, respectively. The biotype number was also changed in treated samples of S. sonnei. Based on nucleotide homology sequences and phylogenetic analysis, the nearest homolog species of S. sonnei (GenBank Accession Number: EU009190) was identified as Shigella flexneri (EF643608). These results revealed that biofield treatment can prevent the absolute resistance in microbe against the existing antimicrobials.