Herbal medicine research and global health: an ethical analysis

Traditional herbal medicines are naturally occurring, plant-derived substances with minimal or no industrial processing that have been used to treat illness within local or regional healing practices. Traditional herbal medicines are getting significant attention in global health debates. In China, traditional herbal medicine played a prominent role in the strategy to contain and treat severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

iStock. (n.d.). [Manos la protección de las plantas de menta]. iStock. Available here.

Traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of symptoms in patients with advanced cancer

Patients with advanced malignancies are often suffered from deficient vital qi, which is clinically presented as cancer-related pain, anorexia, nausea/vomiting, fatigue, fever, indigestion, and constipation, which severely lower the quality of life and even shorten the survival of these patients. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has a long history and rich experiences in treating malignancies. In addition to surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and other modern therapies, the TCM-based treatment can dramatically alleviate the clinical symptoms and improve the quality of life. This article analyzes the TCM treatment for the cancer pain, nausea/vomiting and cancer-related fatigue in patients with advanced malignancies, and the TCM-based emotional care for these patients are also discussed.

Photo by Shutterstock 100744942. Image of a pulse diagnostic hand on a cushion sourced from Shutterstock. Available here.

Placentophagy and Chinese Medicine

By Sabine Wilms

Chinese medicine practitioners involved in reproductive care often find themselves affected by a fairly recent but rapidly growing trend to encapsulate the woman’s placenta, sometimes with the addition of “traditional” Chinese herbs, and have the woman ingest these after delivery, presumably to treat postpartum exhaustion and depression and improve lactation. This issue comes up frequently when I lecture on postpartum care in classical Chinese medicine.

Henry Vandyke Carter [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Adventures with the San Jiao

As a bodyworker, I nickname San Jiao the traveller's meridian, helping us adapt to changing altitudes, different time and climate zones. And adapt to the changes prompted by Menopause and Andropause. It's also the body's thermostat. Buddy of the immune system. Chief movement navigator of fluids around the body.

Wikimedia Commons. (1817). [The Triple Burner (San Jiao), Chinese woodcut]. Wikimedia Commons. Available here.

Biologists find missing link for the ‘safe’ signal in plants

Once a plant detects an insect or fungus, it begins to produce the hormone jasmonic acid, which initiates an immune response that prevents further damage. After the attack, jasmonic acid is quickly broken down again. This is necessary because the hormone inhibits plant growth and development.

Shutterstock. (n.d.). [Hand protecting mint plant in vegetable garden]. Shutterstock. Available here.

Cold and Flu Season: Expanding the Repertoire

It is commonplace to have patients referred to me by other clinicians due to complications in cold and flu scenarios and in almost all of these cases the respective patient was previously administered the patent medicine Yin Qiao San. Upon questioning if they were experiencing Wind Heat symptoms appropriate to Yin Qiao San, the majority of the patients reply: "I don't remember, I was just told this was a good formula for colds or flu regardless of what I was feeling."

Photo by Shutterstock 78454186. Image of Chinese traditional herbs and medicine sourced from Shutterstock. Available here.

The Nectar of Plants: Essential Oils and Chinese Medicine

Unique in the pantheon of plant medicinal preparations, essential oils capture both the substance, yuan qi and the spirit, wei qi, of a plant. Inherent in plants in the same way that blood is inherent to the human body, oils carry the nutrients and the genetics to every corner of the plant. When we extract oils from plants and plant parts, we change both the concentration and nature of a plant's natural oil content, yielding a compact, powerful, and previously unborn substance.

Vecteezy. (n.d.). [Hierbas frescas y una botella]. Vecteezy. Available here.

The Treatment of Pelvic Pain with Acupuncture: Part 1

According to Weisl (1955), the first medical practitioners to express an interest in the pelvic girdle were Hippocrates (460-377BCE), Vesalius (1543CE) and Pare (1643CE). Research over the last 50 years has revealed significant information pertaining to the anatomy and function of the pelvic girdle.

Henry Gray (1918) Anatomy of the Human Body. Bartleby.com: Gray's Anatomy, Plate 319. Image sourced from Wikimedia Commons. Available here.

“Real-World” Massage for Chronic Low Back Pain

Massage is a common treatment option for chronic lower back pain relief. Massage’s effectiveness at treating this condition is well-known and well-documented; this explains why massage is commonly recommended. However, almost no empirical evidence exists supporting massage as a treatment option in “real world” primary health care. That is, those interested in chronic lower back pain treatment wanted to see more evidence of massage’s effectiveness in “real-world” scenarios.

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Building Relationships and Referral Networks with Allopathic Practitioners

Dr. Doug, an orthopedist of 20 years, had heard stories from patients who tried acupuncture. While he was able to address many of their complaints effectively, some appeared to gain additional benefit when their care included TCM.

He couldn't give a recommendation based on anything other than hearsay from patients and was not comfortable referring to acupuncture. But he was curious.

Wikimedia Commons. (n.d.). [Doctor examines patient]. Wikimedia Commons. Available here.

Filling the Gap: The Role of Alternative Practitioners in a Broken Health Care System

Some of the physicians I know are overwhelmed and stressed. They are working with a broken system and they have very limited options to offer their patients. One could argue that they could do something to change it. While I don't know what it's like to be in their position, I do know that most of the patients that come to see me are not getting the care they need, and that sometimes I'm able to help and make a huge difference.

See page for author [CC BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Identifying Chinese herbal medicine for premenstrual syndrome: implications from a nationwide database

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) occurs in women during their reproductive age with a quite negative impact on their daily lives. Women with PMS experience a wide range of physical or psychological symptoms and seek treatment for them. Chinese herb medicine (CHM) is commonly used for PMS and the goal of this study is to investigate the prescription patterns of CHM for PMS by using a nationwide database.

Acupuncture for Spiritual Growth

The concept of Demonology and disincarnate spirits dates back to the Shang dynasty, and was a major branch of Chinese medicine that evolved with the rest of Chinese medicine. The concept that one might become possessed might be too much for the average person to think about.

Photo by Shutterstock 291691319. Image of a close portrait of a young woman during a Reiki session sourced from Shutterstock. Available here.

Length of Acupuncture Training and Structural Plastic Brain Changes in Professional Acupuncturists

The research on brain plasticity has fascinated researchers for decades. Use/training serves as an instrumental factor to influence brain neuroplasticity. Parallel to acquisition of behavioral expertise, extensive use/training is concomitant with substantial changes of cortical structure. Acupuncturists, serving as a model par excellence to study tactile-motor and emotional regulation plasticity, receive intensive training in national medical schools following standardized training protocol. Moreover, their behavioral expertise is corroborated during long-term clinical practice. 

Acupuncture as a primary and independent treatment in the acute phases of sudden sensorineural hearing loss

Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL) is an otological emergency defined as a rapid hearing loss, seriously affects patient's social life. To data, no study has reported the treatment by acupuncture alone in the acute phase. In this report, Acupuncture and Moxibustion therapy of excitation-focus transfer is outlined.

Autorretrato con la oreja vendada (1889) by Van Gogh. En la Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery, obra elegida por Veronica Toniolli. Image sourced from Flickr. Available here.

Practitioner shares experiences as first emergency room licensed acupuncturist

Reinstein began his practice as part of a pilot project. He shared in an interview that his integration into the ER was made easier by the presence of PGI. “They were shifting the culture of the whole organization,” he said, toward openness to complementary and alternative medicine practices.

By U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 2nd Class Nathanael T. Miller [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Acupuncture for Disorders of the Mind & Brain

Acupuncturists know that a calming effect can often be obtained by simple acupuncture techniques. It is less well-known to what extent acupuncture can affect other aspects of mental function, including serious disorders that involve brain damage, such as stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, ALS, mental retardation, attention deficit disorder, Tourette’s syndrome, manic-depressive syndrome, cerebral palsy, and schizophrenia. Research into these areas has been ongoing in China and the claimed results are often quite good. However, there are so many acupuncture points and herbs that are said to be of some benefit that design of definitive research projects and treatment protocols becomes difficult and practitioners are left with relatively limited guidance. This article is aimed at drawing attention to the main acupuncture points used in the treatments for disorders that involve the brain and mental functions.

By yumikrum (cocktail hour) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

An Overview of Electro-Acupuncture

Electro-acupuncture, the application of a pulsating electrical current to acupuncture needles as a means of stimulating the acupoints, was developed in China as an extension of hand manipulation of acupuncture needles around 1934.

Figure 2: Samples of wave forms produced by electro-acupuncture devices.
ITM Online. (n.d.). [Image of electro-acupuncture treatment]. ITM Online. Available here.