Drug & supplement interaction

Healing Touch + Palifermin

Palifermin brand name: Kepivance.

No Known Interaction
Medically reviewed by · Updated June 2026 · Pair last verified Sep 20, 2026
The bottom line No known interaction

We found no known interaction between Healing Touch and Palifermin in our sources. Absence of a documented interaction is not the same as proven safety, and does not guarantee one does not exist. Do not start, stop, or change a medication or supplement based on this page; confirm with your pharmacist or doctor first.

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Interaction report

Healing Touch and Palifermin

We checked these two against our interaction database. Here is what we found.

No Known Interaction Found

We did not find a documented interaction between Palifermin and Healing Touch in our sources. This does not guarantee that the combination is completely free of risk — research on Healing Touch alongside specific medications may be limited.

Worth understanding: our licensed dataset holds no drug-interaction record for Healing Touch at all — not against Palifermin, and not against any other medication we track. This verdict therefore rests on the absence of any recorded data, not on research that looked at this combination and found nothing. We cannot rule an interaction out.

Healing Touch is a treatment rather than something you take. Tell whoever provides it which medicines you use, and ask your prescriber whether it is appropriate for your health and treatment. Do not stop a prescribed medicine on your own.

Always talk with your pharmacist or doctor before making changes to your medications or supplements, particularly if you take several medications or have an ongoing health condition.

Healing Touch safety at a glance

Healing Touch overall Use caution Generally low-risk as a complementary practice, but it should never replace proven medical treatment.
Pregnancy Use caution No oral product is involved, but discuss any complementary therapy with your prenatal provider first.
Breastfeeding Use caution There is no ingredient to pass into milk, but check with your doctor before relying on it for any health concern.

Safety guidance is general; always confirm with your pharmacist or doctor for your situation.

Still wondering about combining Palifermin and Healing Touch? Ask Dr. Brian Staiger, PharmD, BCPS directly ›
What to actually watch for

What Palifermin’s Own FDA Label Lists

This is not an interaction — none of it involves Healing Touch. These are the most notable effects listed in the ADVERSE REACTIONS section of Palifermin’s own FDA label, for the medication by itself. Knowing the drug’s own list makes it easier to work out the likely cause if something new turns up while you have Healing Touch and take the medicine. One of them is worth acting on rather than waiting out — marked below.

  • A higher chance of infection Worth acting on mentioned in 6.2% of FDA reports for Palifermin
  • Fever mentioned in 16.0% of FDA reports for Palifermin
  • Numbness or tingling
  • Joint pain
  • A skin rash mentioned in 10.1% of FDA reports for Palifermin
  • Itching
  • Swelling

From the ADVERSE REACTIONS section of the FDA label for Palifermin. Read the label on DailyMed › Where a percentage is shown, it is the share of 388 voluntary FDA FAERS reports for Palifermin that mention that effect — a reporting proportion, not an incidence rate and not evidence the drug caused it. Healing Touch’s licensed record lists no adverse effects our clinical vocabulary could match, so there is no Healing Touch side to compare — that is a limit of the record, not a statement that Healing Touch has no side effects.

Everything else you take

See Every Supplement That Interacts With Palifermin

This page covers Healing Touch only. If you take other supplements — a multivitamin, a sleep aid, something for joints — the Palifermin page lists 17 supplements it has a documented interaction with, worst first, each one explained.

The most serious there right now: Activated Charcoal (major), Coffee Charcoal (moderate), European Mandrake (moderate), Glucomannan (moderate) and Guar Gum (moderate).

By severity: 1 major · 7 moderate · 9 minor.

From our pharmacist’s overview on the Palifermin page

“Palifermin (Kepivance) is given by IV to prevent the severe mouth sores that intensive chemotherapy can cause, most often in patients heading into a stem cell transplant, and I read its interaction list with genuine caution because of how fragile those patients already are. All 17 supplements on file act on absorption through the gut,…”

Reviewed by 2 · Jul 18, 2026

Open the Palifermin interaction page

How much people look this up

Where Healing Touch and Palifermin Sit Against Everything Else

Out of every supplement and medication people look up on HelloPharmacist, here is where these two land this week — and which way each has been moving.

Supplement Healing Touch
Steady interest

#981 of 1,452 supplements looked up here in the last 7 days

29 days ago today
Medication Palifermin
Steady interest

#2,477 of 2,830 medications looked up here in the last 7 days

29 days ago today

Position among everything looked up on this site, not a measure of how commonly either one is used or how important it is. A supplement can climb this list because of a news story. It counts every request to the page, automated ones included, and nothing here identifies anyone.

Where does our data come from?
  • Source: the Natural Medicines (TRC Healthcare) clinical database — the evidence-graded professional reference for herb & supplement interactions.
  • Citation library: 103,510 references behind our interaction content, 65,311 of them resolved to verified PubMed/DOI sources. See every Healing Touch reference on this page ↓
  • Freshness: we automatically re-check this combination every week — this pair was last verified September 20, 2026. The Healing Touch and Palifermin records this page draws on were last updated June 22, 2026.
  • What “no known interaction” means: no documented interaction in the sources above — not a guarantee of safety. Supplements are studied far less than prescription drugs, so we say exactly what the evidence supports, and nothing more.
Data structure & sourcing designed and verified by .
Treatment approach

About Healing Touch

What is Healing Touch?

  • Stress and relaxation
  • Pain management
  • Anxiety
  • Comfort during illness or cancer care
  • General sense of well-being

Healing Touch is an energy-based therapy in which a trained practitioner uses gentle or near-body hand movements to promote relaxation and well-being—it is not an herb, pill, or supplement. Some people report feeling calmer and less stressed after sessions, but high-quality scientific evidence that it treats any specific medical condition is limited. It is generally considered low-risk when used alongside (not instead of) standard medical care.

Not applicable (an energy-based therapy, not a plant or supplement) · Hands-on or hands-near-body sessions provided by a trained practitioner

An interaction check asks whether these two react with each other — it does not ask whether Healing Touch is a good idea for someone in your situation. Here is what our Healing Touch record says about it on its own.

Healing Touch: dosing

There is no standardized "dose" for Healing Touch because it is a hands-on practice, not a product you take. Session length and frequency vary by practitioner and are often around a half hour to an hour.If you are interested, look for a certified or experienced practitioner, and let your doctor or pharmacist know you are using it so it can be coordinated with your regular care.

From our Healing Touch monograph — the full record covers uses, side effects and every documented interaction.

Read the full Healing Touch monograph & all interactions
Medication

About Palifermin

What Is Palifermin Used For?

Brand name: Kepivance

Kepivance (palifermin) is used to decrease how often and how long severe oral mucositis — painful sores in the mouth and throat — occurs in patients with hematologic malignancies (blood cancers such as lymphoma, leukemia, or multiple myeloma) who are receiving high-dose, cell-damaging (myelotoxic) therapy before an autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant (a transplant using the patient's own stem cells).

Kepivance is specifically indicated when the preparative chemotherapy or radiation regimen is expected to cause severe mucositis in most patients. It is not recommended for use with a high-dose melphalan conditioning regimen, and it was not found to be effective in the setting of allogeneic stem cell transplant (using a donor's cells). Its safety and effectiveness have not been established for patients with non-blood cancers (non-hematologic malignancies).

Most-Reported Side Effects for Palifermin

From FAERS, the FDA’s public side-effect reporting system (388 reports, all brands). Reports are voluntary and are not proof the drug caused the effect.

Mucosal inflammation 56 reports
Febrile neutropenia 39 reports
Rash 39 reports
Stomatitis 34 reports
Erythema 28 reports
See full Palifermin drug information
Keep checking

Other Drugs & Healing Touch

Browse every other medication we’ve checked against Healing Touch — both the ones with a known interaction and the ones without. Select any drug for the full detail.

0Major
0Moderate
0Minor
2,829No known interaction
2,829 No interaction
No interaction 2,829 drugs checked — show the list

We also checked Healing Touch against these medications and found no known interaction in our sources. Open any page to confirm.

Showing the 60 most looked-up of 2,829 medications checked with no known interaction — see the full Healing Touch list.

See the full Healing Touch interactions page
See every supplement checked against Palifermin, ranked by severity
Evidence & sources

Healing Touch References

The 17 references that drive our Healing Touch monograph and interaction data, from the evidence-graded Natural Medicines (TRC Healthcare) database. Citations with a link open the study on PubMed or the publisher’s site.

  1. Ostuni, E. and Pietro, M. J. Effects of healing touch on nursing home residents in later stages of Alzheimer disease. Healing Touch International, 5th Annual Conference, Denver, CO 2001.
  2. Wang, K. and Hermann, C. Healing touch on agitation levels in dementia. Healing Touch Newsletter 1999;9(3):3.
  3. Weymouth, K. and Sandberg-Lewis, S. Comparing the efficacy of healing touch and chiropractic adjustment in treating chronic low back pain: A pilot study. Healing Touch Newsletter 2000;00(3):7-8.
  4. Guerrerio, J., Slater, V., and Cook, C. The effect of healing touch on radiation-induced fatigue in women receiving radiation therapy in women with gynecological or breast cancer. Healing Touch Newsletter 2001;01(3):5.
  5. Silva MA. The effects of relaxation touch on the recovery level of postanesthesia abdominal hysterectomy patients. Alternative Therapies Health Med 1996;2(4):94.
  6. Post-White J, Kinney ME, Savik K, et al. Therapeutic massage and healing touch improve symptoms in cancer. Integr Cancer Ther 2003;2(4):332-44. PubMed
  7. FitzHenry F, Wells N, Slater V, Dietrich MS, Wisawatapnimit P, Chakravarthy AB. A randomized placebo-controlled pilot study of the impact of healing touch on fatigue in breast cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy. Integr Cancer Ther. 2014;13(2):10 PubMed
  8. Gentile D, Boselli D, O'Neill G, Yaguda S, Bailey-Dorton C, Eaton TA. Cancer Pain Relief After Healing Touch and Massage. J Altern Complement Med. 2018;24(9-10):968-973. PubMed
  9. Hardwick ME, Pulido PA, Adelson WS. Nursing intervention using healing touch in bilateral total knee arthroplasty. Orthop Nurs. 2012;31(1):5-11. PubMed
  10. Lu DF, Hart LK, Lutgendorf SK, Oh H, Silverman M. Effects of Healing Touch and Relaxation Therapy on Adult Patients Undergoing Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant: A Feasibility Pilot Study. Cancer Nurs. 2016;39(3):E1-E11. PubMed
  11. Lu DF, Hart LK, Lutgendorf SK, Perkhounkova Y. The effect of healing touch on the pain and mobility of persons with osteoarthritis: a feasibility study. Geriatr Nurs. 2013;34(4):314-22. PubMed
  12. Lutgendorf SK, Mullen-Houser E, Russell D, et al. Preservation of immune function in cervical cancer patients during chemoradiation using a novel integrative approach. Brain Behav Immun. 2010;24(8):1231-40. PubMed
  13. MacIntyre B, Hamilton J, Fricke T, Ma W, Mehle S, Michel M. The efficacy of healing touch in coronary artery bypass surgery recovery: a randomized clinical trial. Altern Ther Health Med. 2008;14(4):24-32.
  14. Pedersen CG, Johannessen H, Hjelmborg JV, Zachariae R. Effectiveness of energy healing on Quality of Life: a pragmatic intervention trial in colorectal cancer patients. Complement Ther Med. 2014;22(3):463-72. PubMed
  15. Gentile D, Boselli D, Yaguda S, Greiner R, Bailey-Dorton C. Pain Improvement After Healing Touch and Massage in Breast Cancer: an Observational Retrospective Study. Int J Ther Massage Bodywork 2021;14(1):12-20.

Medication overviews come from MedlinePlus (NIH); supplement label data from the NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database. Content is written and reviewed by licensed HelloPharmacist pharmacists — see our data sources and editorial standards.

Pharmacist Counseling Corner

Having Healing Touch While Taking Palifermin: Common Questions

Is it safe to have Healing Touch while taking Palifermin?
We do not list a known interaction between Healing Touch and Palifermin. That does not guarantee the combination is risk-free, so confirm with your pharmacist or doctor — especially if you take other medications or have a health condition.
Does Palifermin interact with any supplements?
Yes. Palifermin has documented interactions with 17 supplements in our database — Healing Touch is not one of them. The Palifermin interaction page linked on this page lists every one, ranked by severity.

Written and reviewed by the HelloPharmacist editorial staff. Our editorial policy

Where next

Keep Exploring

Healing Touch monograph Uses, safety profile, and every drug interaction in one place Palifermin drug information The full plain-English guide to this medication Palifermin supplement interactions Every supplement checked against Palifermin, ranked by severity Supplement interaction checker Check any supplement or product against your medications Browse medications A–Z Every drug we’ve checked against herbs & supplements References The 17 citations behind this page Ask a pharmacist Free, personal answer from our licensed team

Still Have a Question About Palifermin and Healing Touch?

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This information is for education only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always check with your pharmacist or doctor before starting, stopping, or combining supplements and medications.