DAAN Chinese Herbs and Acupuncture

Psychiatrists in Taiwan are working to bridge the gap between western and traditional Chinese medicine

“The Taipei City Chinese Medicine Association, in association with the department of psychiatry at National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH), held a conference in Taipei yesterday on psychiatric medicine designed to give Chinese medicine practitioners a Western perspective on mental illnesses.

The conference is the first in a series to “build bridges” between traditional and Western medicine, the conference’s organizers said.

Western medical diagnoses of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, oppressive-compulsive disorder and anorexia nervosa do not have equivalents in Chinese medicine. However, it is important for practitioners of Chinese medicine to know and recognize the disorders, psychiatrists who spoke at the conference told an audience of Chinese medicine practitioners, who also gained some education credits necessary for them to be able renew their licenses with the Department of Health.”

Tags: Uncategorized, General, East and West by DAAN
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Couples trying to conceive are looking to Chinese medicine in addition to western methods to help them in their quest:

“Acupuncture, improved diets, herbal supplements and lifestyle changes associated with traditional Chinese medicine have increased the probability of pregnancy for many infertile couples.

Amy Teeters, 33, believes it is not only a key factor in her getting pregnant and carrying the baby, but also in her body being able to function normally.

When she and her husband, Chuck, decided to have a baby about five years ago, her doctor found her hormone levels were so low she could not produce eggs. As a teenager, she had suffered with anorexia that stopped her menstrual cycles, unless she took birth control pills.

Teeters, who is now almost 30 weeks pregnant, spent five years trying to conceive. Her journey led to several miscarriages and failed IVF attempts, emergency hospitalization from side effects of

hormone treatments and incredible emotional anguish.

At the suggestion of a friend, she went to see Dr. Judi Harrick of Acupuncture Healing Arts Medical Group. Harrick, a former critical care nurse, has extensive training in oriental medicine, including a doctoral degree from Samra University of Oriental Medicine in Los Angeles.

While in Harrick’s care, Teeters continues seeing her obstetrician, who prescribed the drug heparin to counteract her tendency to miscarry due to clotting in the placenta.

But she credits Harrick with getting her healthy enough to have her first nondrug-induced menstrual cycle in 16 years last summer.

Harrick uses acupuncture to restore the flow of “Qi,” (pronounced “chee”), which is your body’s essence and energy. Needles are placed at key points practitioners say are linked to reproductive and other organs.

Although they are not sure how it happens, many doctors of Western medicine now believe acupuncture increases blood flow to the uterus and ovaries and also stimulate hormones involved in conception.”

Tags: Acupuncture, Women's Health, East and West by DAAN
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A fun article about losing the extra weight you might have put on during the holidays. I especially like ‘C’:

“. . . and CINNAMON: In Chinese medicine cinnamon is one of the herbs most widely used to aid circulation and digestion.

There is evidence that it can lower levels of cholesterol and blood sugar, and relieves gas. Celebrities often sprinkle some in their tea. ”

and ‘M’:

“M IS FOR MATCHA GREEN TEA: This is a concentrated form of tea in which one cup is the equivalent of eight to ten cups of green tea. It boosts your metabolism and also cuts sweet cravings.”

DAAN has some good tips for weight loss from a traditional Chinese medicine perspective.

Tags: General by DAAN
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A skeptic considers whether alternative therapies (including acupuncture) “work:”

“I suggested an article on alternative medicine because academic medical centers all over the country—venerable altars of clinical research and practice like Mayo and Duke, top-ranked cancer centers, and even children’s hospitals—are scrambling to roll out therapies that five or 10 years ago most regarded as dubious at best, crackpot at worst. Acupuncture, homeopathy, herbs, traditional Chinese medicine. It’s a fascinating development. And I vowed to report it with an open mind.

When I began my reporting, one of the first things that struck me was that not a single researcher or clinician bothered arguing that the evidence for any of the alternative therapies they were testing and using on patients was persuasive. To the contrary, all agreed that almost none of the studies that show positive results have been designed or run very well.

If I wanted an evidence base, I was out of luck. But absence of evidence, as the late astronomer Carl Sagan said, is not evidence of absence. And if we lack an understanding of or explanation for how something works (as was the case for decades for how an airplane could stay airborne), that doesn’t give us the ammunition to state that it doesn’t work. In philosophy, that kind of reasoning is called argument by ignorance. Heaven forbid I should be guilty of a sin with “ignorance” in its name.

Some of these therapies, maybe most, do indeed work. The patients I spoke with told me how acupuncture had made their allergies go away, how they were able to avoid painkillers after major surgery because of hypnosis or visualization or other mind-body techniques, how a homeopathic remedy that science would regard simply as water reduced swelling and pain within hours after an injury. I heard many such anecdotes, along with candid appraisals of treatments that seemed to be effective only for a short time or not at all. These people were not all true believers.

It may be that the placebo effect is behind most of the successes claimed for alternative therapies. I suspect it probably is—it can be quite powerful. Suppose we could tap into that power. Maybe we’d need to redefine our thinking about a therapy’s ability to work. What does “work” mean, anyway?

I wrestled with the story for weeks, because those patients made a considerable impact on me. Yes, I’m still an evidence guy. I still want well-done clinical trials to be the foundation for care. I still want researchers to set high standards and to meet them before claiming success. But we’ve been learning some amazing things in recent years about the way the mind affects the body and the body affects the mind, discovering a relationship far more dynamic and interlocked than anyone previously believed. It seems as though many alternative therapies may exploit this relationship. If there’s little risk, why not exploit the therapy?”

Tags: Acupuncture, East and West, Disease by DAAN
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A recent study suggests that cancer patients’ energy levels may be increased by ginseng:

“Doctors said fatigue is a major problem for cancer patients.

“As their cancer progresses, patients can get tired, but patients can also get tired because of the treatments,” said Dr. Peter Todd Silberstein, one of the study’s doctors. “The chemotherapy or the radiation or the surgery can make people tired.”

Gale had endured all three.

“It was hard for me to make it through a whole day of work,” Gale said.

She said she was quick to agree when Silberstein suggested she take part in a clinical trial to relieve fatigue.

The Missouri Valley Cancer Consortium was testing an old herbal remedy found at any natural foods store: ginseng, particularly American ginseng. It is a root people have touted for its energy-boosting effects for thousands of years.

“More and more, we’re trying to do trials, because some of these herbal remedies may be helpful,” Silberstein said.

The local study included 282 participants who took a high dose of ginseng, a small dose or a placebo. Silberstein said the results are promising.

“It actually showed that the patients who got ginseng, on the average, felt less fatigued,” the doctor said.

Gale was in the highest dosage group of 2,000 milligrams a day.

“I could get through the day much easier,” Gale said. “I didn’t fall asleep as often during meetings and things, which I used to do. I could do my walks after work. I wasn’t so tired from work that I couldn’t do something else.”

Doctors said they still have a lot of testing to do to measure the impact of ginseng on fatigue. But from the first tests, they see the potential for ginseng to be a cheaper, more natural alternative to prescription pain drugs.

“This may be a major advance in helping fatigue in cancer patients,” Silberstein said.

The study showed that one out of four patients on ginseng recorded a significant improvement from the ginseng, and one out of 10 recorded an improvement from just a placebo. Species of ginseng other than American ginseng were not tested.”

DAAN carries many different types of ginseng. We’ve also compiled some background information about ginseng.

Tags: Ginseng by DAAN
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As more species of plants become endangered, many traditional Chinese remedies that rely on those plants may be lost:

“xperts have warned hundreds of plants used in the preparation of medicine could be facing extinction.

Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) said as many as 400 plants were at risk from over-collection and deforestation.

More than 50% of drugs prescribed by doctors are derived from chemicals first identified in plants.

BGCI researchers now fear cures of killer diseases including HIV and cancer may never be found.

The BGCI - which represents botanic gardens in 120 countries and is based in Richmond, Surrey - surveyed its members and leading university experts who named 400 plants at risk of extinction.

At risk plants include: yew trees, the bark of which is used in cancer drug paclitaxel; hoodia, which drug firms are looking into to develop weight loss drugs; half of the world’s species of magnolias, which contain the chemical honokiol, used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat cancers and heart disease; autumn crocus, a natural treatment for gout and linked to helping fight leukaemia.

The report also outlines concerns for the five billion people worldwide who still rely on traditional plant-based medicine as their primary form of healthcare rather than the chemical substitutes which much of the developed world uses.”

Tags: General, Herbs by DAAN
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Acupuncture can be effective for chronic pain suffers:

“Acupuncture is one of the oldest medical therapies in the world, developed thousands of years ago by the Chinese. Traditional acupuncture uses super-fine needles inserted into specific points on the body in a bid to restore the flow of energy, called qi, or chi.

The theory is that manipulating these acupoints frees up blocks in energy along pathways called meridian throughout the body.

While researchers have known for decades that acupuncture causes the release of natural painkilling endorphins from the brain, it’s still not fully understood how the therapy works.

But for many people, it clearly does, says Toronto pain specialist Dr. Linda Rapson, chair of complementary medicine for the Ontario Medical Association, who has been practising acupuncture since 1975.

“In terms of the energy issues, what’s going on in terms of the model the Chinese developed, where the meridian are named after the organs and so on, that stuff is harder to measure,” Rapson says.

“What is being measured now is brain activity as you do acupuncture.”

She says research using functional MRIs shows which areas of the brain are engaged when an acupuncture needle is placed in a particular point on the body.

So, for instance, a needle put in a spot on the foot that is related to pain in the eye will clearly show activity in the visual cortex, “the same as if you’d flashed a light in front of the eye,” she says.”

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We’ve added the following new products to our site recently:

Wuchaseng Infusion Tea

Wuchaseng Infusion Tea is a kidney and liver tonic, good for arthritic aches and pains and to strengthen the sinews. Wuchaseng is also know as Siberian ginseng.

Essence of Tienchi Flowers Tea

Essence of Tienchi Flowers Tea cools the liver heat (which can cause you to get flustered easily).

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“Four Traditional Chinese Medicine students at St Sheelan’s College in Templemore are currently fundraising to travel to Beijing as part of their training.

Natasha Stone (Portroe and Killaloe), Sinéad Tynan (Nenagh), Marian Egan (Whitefield) and Sinéad Diggins (Thurles) are nearing the end of their two-year course in Traditional Chinese Medicine at St Sheelan’s College. Already qualified in a variety of complimentary therapies, the four women have been training in ‘Tuina’, an ancient Chinese therapy used to promote health and treat wide ranging conditions, including digestive disorders (for example IBS, constipation, abdominal pain, etc), musculo-skeletal pain syndromes, menstrual and reproductive problems, and also mental and physical conditions (including stress, psychosomatic, and addictions).”

Tags: Acupuncture, East and West by DAAN
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“Acupuncture and trigger point therapy may be effective treatments for people suffering from tinnitus — a ringing in the ears — a U.S. study found.

Susan Shore of the University of Michigan’s Kresge Hearing Research Institute said nerves that “sense touch” in the face and neck may be behind the ringing that people with tinnitus hear.

The study, published online in the European Journal of Neuroscience, said touch-sensing nerve cells step up their activity in the brain after hearing cells are damaged, and hyperactivity of these touch-sensing neurons likely plays an important role in tinnitus.”

Tags: Acupuncture by DAAN
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