DAAN Chinese Herbs and Acupuncture

Studies suggest Chinese herbal remedies can be better than drugs for relieving menstrual cramps:

“Australian researchers have found that it is better to take Chinese herbs than drugs, acupuncture, or heat compression for the relief of dysmenorrhea that includes menstrual cramps.

Dysmenorrhea is a condition that causes cramping and/or painful menstruation in women. It involves menstrual periods that consist of intermittent-but-sharp pain or aching-but-dull pain in the lower abdominal and/or pelvic regions of the female body.

Their study (“Chinese herbal medicine for primary dysmenorrhoea”), found in the October 18, 2007 online issue of the journal Cochrane Library, involved 3,475 women in 36 studies in China, and one study, each, in Taiwan, Japan, and the Netherlands.

The results from the researchers, headed by Xiaoshu Zhu from the Center for Complementary Medicine Research (University of Western Sydney, Australia), conclude that Chinese herbal medicines are superior to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), oral contraceptive pills (OCPs), acupuncture therapy, and heat compression with a hot water bottle. ”

DAAN’s staff includes two female practitioners, and we specialize in women’s health. Contact us if you’d like more information on treatment options.

Tags: DAAN, Women's Health, Herbs by DAAN
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Coca-Cola has opened a research center in Beijing to develop new drinks that use Chinese herbs:

“The Coca-Cola Research Center for Chinese Medicine opened within the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. The academy is the national center for research, health care and education in traditional Chinese medicine, the Atlanta soft-drink giant said.
Coke, the world’s largest maker of non-alcoholic beverages, has a long-term collaboration agreement with the academy, which is overseen by the country’s Ministry of Health.
In a statement Sunday, Rhona Applebaum, Coke’s vice president and chief scientific and regulatory officer, and Hongxin Cao, president of the academy, said the move connects Coke’s global reach and marketing with what Cao called Chinese medicine’s “more holistic view on health.” ”

Tags: East and West, Food by DAAN
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Western scientists have created a different method of classifying Chinese herbs, in a bid to make them more relevant and understandable to westerners:

“David J. Barlow, Thomas M. Ehrman, and Peter J. Hylands point out that traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) - regarded by many Western experts as an archaic system doomed to extinction 50 years ago - has undergone a “remarkable renaissance” in recent years.

However, the arcane language used to describe categories of medication in TCM has hindered effective understanding of one of the most developed and mature systems of alternative medicine in existence.

To overcome that barrier, the researchers analyzed patterns among 8411 compounds from 240 Chinese herbs in relation to the categories found in traditional Chinese medicine. Organizing their findings in a kind of herbal “map,” their results reveal that many categories in Chinese medicine are amenable to translation to Western terminology. TCM’s “fire poison” group, for example, is comparable to today’s family of anti-inflammatory medicines.

Now, future researchers will better understand the chemical basis of remedies that have been in use for thousands of years, the study indicated. “

Tags: East and West by DAAN
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Acupuncture is used to relieve pain from surgery
“Doctors at Duke University say they’ve found a new tool to help with pain from surgery and it doesn’t involve painkillers. Researchers say acupuncture can make all the difference.”

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Acupuncture is inscreasingly used as part of stroke therapy
“In recent years, huge advances have been made in the treatment of the most common type of stroke in which a clot blocks the flow of blood to part of the brain.

If a patient gets to a hospital within three hours of the onset of symptoms, doctors can administer a clot-busting drug that quickly restores blood flow and reduces the chances of long-term disability.”

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A company in Emeryville, CA, is conducting a study to see if a drug derived from Chinese herbs can be effective in treating breast cancer:

“The Chinese herb Ban Zhi Lian may not be in everyone’s lexicon, but to the 80 women with stage IV metastatic breast cancer, who are participating in the second phase of the BZL101 clinical trials, it represents hope and life.

For Bionovo, the drug discovery and development company in Emeryville, Calif., that’s behind BZL101, there’s hope too. The trial is the first FDA-validated clinical study of a potential cancer drug derived from a Chinese medicinal herb, says Dr. Mary Tagliaferri, a co-founder of the company, former practicing acupuncturist and a breast-cancer survivor. “Sixty-two percent of chemotherapy drugs come from natural products, and plants have been the basis of almost every new class of medication,” she says. “It makes sense that these plants can act as anticancer agents.”

Tagliaferri’s interest in Ban Zhi Lian, which has traditionally been used to treat swellings, sores and fever, was sparked in 1996 by a fellow acupuncturist, Isaac Cohen, who would later become a co-founder of Bionovo. At that time, Cohen had been treating, for a decade, women who were battling breast cancer with conventional medicines and had run out of treatment options. “In their exhaustion and desperation, they were trying to find an alternative treatment that was not so harsh,” says Cohen, who often prescribed herbs to be prepared as teas to ease the side effects of chemo and hormone therapy. But the patients’ oncologists, says Cohen, discouraged them from trying anything new. “They’d say Chinese medicine was quackery and that there was no evidence it worked,” he says. Still, Cohen observed that many of the women to whom he gave Chinese herbs, including Ban Zhi Lian, responded well to the herbs and even experienced a relatively good quality of life. “At first I chucked it to luck,” he says. “But then you see it’s not just luck. And then you ponder why.”"

Tags: Women's Health, Herbs by DAAN
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Studies have shown that acupuncture is effective for post-surgical pain:

“The use of acupuncture before and during surgery reduces patients’ post-operative pain as well as the need for pain-killing medication, researchers said on Tuesday.

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina analyzed the results of 15 clinical trials on the effectiveness of acupuncture — a practice that originated in China of inserting thin needles into specific body points.

They concluded that it is valuable for pain control in surgery patients.

The 15 trials showed that patients getting acupuncture before or during various types of operations had significantly less pain afterward than patients who did not get acupuncture.

These patients also required less morphine or other opioid pain medication after surgery, which reduced the side effects like nausea and vomiting from these types of drugs, the researchers said.

In terms of pain-drug side effects, the acupuncture patients experienced 1.5 times lower rates of nausea, 1.6 times fewer reports of dizziness and 3.5 times fewer cases of urinary retention compared to the other patients, the study found.

These findings augment a growing body of evidence on the value of acupuncture in improving the surgical experience for patients, the researchers said.

For instance, the National Institutes of Health says that acupuncture has also been shown to reduce nausea after chemotherapy and surgery.”

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Coca-Cola Co (KO.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday it had set up a research centre to develop drinks using traditional Chinese medicine.

“The world’s biggest drinks maker opened the Beijing-based centre at the China Academy of Chinese Medial Sciences, which is affiliated to China’s Ministry of Public Health.

“This is an important step in strengthening our innovation pipeline for beverages that contribute to wellbeing,” said Rhona Applebaum, Coca-Cola’s chief scientist.”

Tags: General by DAAN
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Fresh fruits and vegetables retain antioxidant properties long after purchase
“The next time you think about throwing out those aging strawberries or very ripe grapes, consider this: Belgian scientists report that fruits and vegetables do not lose any antioxidant content in the days after purchase, even as tell-tale signs of spoilage appear. In some cases, antioxidant levels actually rise.”

Tags: Immune system by DAAN
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Acupuncture treatment is added in British Columbia’s Medical Services Plan

“British Columbia Health Minister George Abbott announced Tuesday that low-income B.C. residents on the premium-assistance program– those earning $28,000 a year or less– will be able to see a registered acupuncturist under the Medical Services Plan.

“The evidence was just as compelling for acupuncture as it was for chiropractics, massage therapy and physical therapy,” Abbott told CTV.ca in a telephone interview.” “

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