DAAN Chinese Herbs and Acupuncture

Some woman suffering from endometriosis have been helped with Chinese herbs. Now a study is being conducted to determine it’s effects:

“Endometriosis, a gynaecological problem affecting between 5 and 15 per cent of women, occurs when cells from the lining of the womb, the endometrium, migrate and grow in other parts of the body, often causing extreme pain, particularly around the time of menstruation. Conventional treatments, such as hormone tablets, tend to bring only short-term relief and can have side-effects such as a temporary menopause.

But now a new research study aims to prove that Chinese herbal medicine can help. People with endometriosis have long criticised doctors’ lack of awareness of the condition. It was diagnosed in Harrison in 1999, two years after she had first complained of pain. After an investigative operation she had laser treatment to burn off the areas of endometrial tissue in her abdomen that were proving troublesome, but the pain continued. The doctors recommended that she take hormone tablets, but she decided against them because they could cause weight gain and mood swings. The pain continued.

Then, five years ago, she found relief. Contacting her local complementary therapy clinic, she asked which treatments might help and she was assigned to Andrew Flower, a practitioner in traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture. “He was brilliant. He accepted that I did have an illness, that I had not imagined it and that it was as debilitating as I said it was,” says Harrison. “Within two weeks of taking the first batch of herbs I felt incredible relief. I could move without pain and do the gardening again. The feeling that my pelvis was solid and blocked disappeared.”

“For the first few months I saw Andrew every few weeks. He tried various mixtures of herbs, which I took in powder form with hot water once or twice a day. Recently I’ve been getting them already made up in liquid form, which makes it much easier. They have a distinctive smell, which I love, but my family find disgusting.”

Many women have reported anecdotally that herbal medicines help their endometriosis, and several trials have taken place in China, but until now there has been little rigorous scientific research. Flower is involved in the first clinical trial of Chinese herbs in the West using boiled herbs and conducted under rigorous Western protocols. These demand that neither patient nor doctor knows which patients are receiving the herbs and which have been given a placebo mix. “I looked at 55 Chinese papers in which herbs had been used to treat endometriosis and spoke to 11 practitioners in this country,” says Flower, who is conducting the trial under the auspices of the complementary medicine research unit at Southampton University.

“The Chinese have been using these treatments for hundreds of years and don’t feel they have to prove that they work, but their research is strongly suggestive that herbs can have an impact on endometriosis. Given that endometriosis is not well treated by Western medicine and that up to 44 per cent of women experience a return of their symptoms within a year of laser surgery, the treatment was worth investigating.” ”

Tags: Women's Health //