May 26

Get Rid of B Cells And Increase Your Lifespan

East and West, Health and fitness, Traditional Chinese Medicine No Comments »

If you get rid of B cells in your body, you can potentially increase your lifespan for years.

Chinese medicine practitioners have known it for centuries, and new diseases like HIV have educated the world on just how important the body’s immune system is for keeping us fit.
esearchers in Israel believe they have found that the immune system also may hold secrets to the fountain of youth. They have discovered a way to reverse the aging process using an existing drug that helps rejuvenate B-lymphocytes — a type of white blood cell.

In lab experiments at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine in Haifa, Prof. Doron Melamed took aging mice and removed their B-lymphocytes, keeping them in a constant state of B-cell deficiency. As a consequence, the mice were forced to create new B-cells in their bone marrow, and did so as though they were young mice.

The researchers found that these “old” mice showed a 400 percent increased response to vaccines, suggesting something remarkable had happened to improve their immune system. The findings were published in the January 2011 issue of the medical journal Blood.

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May 15

Important Difference Between Western And Chinese Medicine

East and West, Traditional Chinese Medicine No Comments »

Chinese medicine is a set of practical skills targeting a full array of diseases, from the common cold to more serious ones, such as tumors and heart disease.

The main difference between Chinese and Western medicine is that the former is rooted in traditional culture, while Western medicine is a branch of modern empirical science.

In today’s society dominated by Western medicine, people tend to doubt the efficacy of Chinese medicine. Even in today’s China, Chinese medicine is often debated.

In fact, in the past 5,000 years, Chinese people have been dependent on Chinese medicine to cure diseases and to protect themselves against epidemics. Consequently, Chinese medicine has contributed to population growth throughout history.

May 01

Tai Chi Can Lift Your Mood

East and West, General, Health and fitness No Comments »

Tai Chi can help you get help you improve your mood and achieve a healthier lifestyle especially for heart patients.

he ancient Chinese exercise tai chi—which blends moderate-intensity aerobics with strength training, breathing techniques, and stress management—could boost heart patients’ quality of life. Researchers split 100 patients with heart failure into two groups: Half participated in a 12-week tai chi program, while the others spent 12 weeks in an educational program learning about heart-related issues, like low-sodium diets and heart-rhythm problems. At the end of the study, the tai chi group reported improvements in mood, less depression, less fatigue, and more energy than the others—and those in the first group were more likely to continue with some type of physical activity, according to findings published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine. “Maintaining an exercise regimen is important in heart failure,” study author Gloria Yeh of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center told HealthDay. “Tai chi may be a suitable alternative or adjunct exercise for these patients.”

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May 20

Integrative medicine – the best of East and West

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Traditional Chinese medicine does not have to be a replacement for Western medicine. Integrative medicine - blending Western and and other types of medicine – can be very effective in treating disease.

his practice combines conventional Western medicine with nontraditional practices–including acupuncture, herbal treatments, massage, mind-body approaches, nutrition, and stress management–to keep patients in good health. And though its advocates are growing (according to the 2007 National Health Interview Survey, 42.8 percent of women, 33.5 percent of men, and nearly 12 percent of children under the age of 18 had used some kind of complementary and alternative medicine), integrative medicine by no means abandons its conventional counterpart.

“Western medicine has many strengths and has made incredible advances,” says Victoria Maizes, executive director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, in Tucson, and a family- and integrative-medicine specialist. “People used to die of infections, and now we have antibiotics. They used to die of heart disease, and now we have bypass surgery.”

An integrative doctor–whether a primary-care physician, an ob-gyn, or an oncologist–enlists Western approaches when appropriate and then complements them with other treatments. An I.M. doctor won’t go as far as taking a picture of your aura, but don’t be surprised if she supplements your medical prescription with one for a daily walk around the neighborhood. Similarly, a cancer patient receiving chemotherapy might also be getting acupuncture, doing yoga, and practicing meditation for stress reduction.

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May 17

Studying Chinese medicine for new cancer cures

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Researchers are studying traditional Chinese medicine in order to develop western-style treatments for cancer patients.

TOAD venom is probably the last thing a Western researcher would think of in the past to treat an ailment. While the Chinese have been using this centuries-old treatment for deadly diseases, Westerners used to scoff at such “primitive” cures.

Not anymore. A leading cancer care hospital in the US, looking East for answers to cancer treatment, has been researching the use of natural resources to complement conventional medicine.

Researchers from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Centre have found that Huachansu, which comes from the dried venom secreted by the skin glands of toads, may slow disease progression in some cancer patients.

The centre’s Integrative Medicine Program-me director Prof Lorenzo Cohen acknowledged that “there is much that cancer experts in China and the US can learn from one another”.

The centre treats and provides cancer care to about 70,000 patients annually. More than 11,500 patients at the centre are participating in therapeutic clinical research exploring complementary treatments, making it the largest such programme in the US.

For almost a decade, Anderson Cancer Centre’s researchers and those of the Cancer Hospital, Fudan University in Shanghai, China, have been working together to study the benefits of some traditional Chinese medicines for cancer patients at the International Centre for Traditional Chinese Medicine funded by the US National Cancer Institute.

“Studying traditional Chinese medicine such as Huachansu is new to American research institutions, which have been sceptical and slow to adopt these complementary treatments. However, it is important to understand their potential role in treating cancer,” Prof Cohen said at a briefing for the foreign media in Manhattan.

“We wanted to apply a Western medicine-based approach to explore the role of the toad venom compound in cancer patients and test if it is possible to deliver a more potent dose without raising toxicities or side effects.”

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May 10

Does acupuncture work?

Acupuncture, East and West No Comments »

A short, but interesting article on the whether acupuncture works.

At your first evaluation, a practitioner will examine your tongue for clues like cracks and discolorations, take your pulse and ask numerous questions to determine what might be causing your symptoms.

The practitioner will then insert fine needles at specific points to unblock the flow of qi, or energy, in your body. Sound like hocus pocus?

Many Western doctors think not.

“Acupuncture is a system of correspondences,” said Vitaly Napadow, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, who conducts research on how acupuncture affects the brain. “Different ailments or diseases can be explained through traditional Chinese medical theory or through modern biomedical physiology, with sometimes interesting correspondence between the two,” said Dr. Napadow, who has a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering and is also a licensed acupuncturist.

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May 10

Insights from Chinese medicine used to develop new drugs

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Using insights derived from traditional Chinese medicine, researchers are developing new drugs and treatments.


Work a little magic with something called Pharmaceutical Platform Technology (PPT), and you have Pearlium, the world’s most advanced formula for bone health, according to Yun Tam, president and chief scientific officer at SinoVeda.

The key to the effectiveness of Pearlium and SinoVeda’s other natural-health products is the extraction process developed by Tam, a former University of Alberta pharmaceutical science professor, that guarantees consistent quality and superior absorption by the body.

It’s particularly important with calcium, which is not absorbed well and has to be taken in large doses to be effective, he says.

Tam’s process is so efficient that a much greater percentage of calcium reaches the bones than in current supplements, which have to be given in large doses.

Women on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) after menopause always have to take calcium supplements.

“It’s all about understanding why Chinese medicine uses groups of herbs, and how the ingredients in them interact to be effective,” says Hong Kong-born Tam, who credits Dr. Jack Tuszynski at the Cross Cancer Institute with a big assist in developing PPT.

“The Chinese paradigm is that when you are ill, many parts of the body are suffering and you need a group of ingredients to make the treatment more effective.

“What I’ve done is use pharma technology to understand eastern culture.”

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Mar 21

Chinese herb in your cocktail

East and West, Food, Herbs No Comments »

There’s a new trend in the world of cocktail, and that new trend is to add Chinese herbs according to a bar manager in Vancouver, British Columbia.

There’s nothing like a spring tonic to get you energized. And it’s all the better when that tonic comes in the form of a cocktail based on ancient Chinese herbal medicine.

That’s just what bar manger Danielle Tatarin is shaking up at the stylish cocktail lounge and Asian tapas bar at the new chic-boutique Keefer Hotel in Chinatown, which opened just before the Olympics started.

“Chinatown has elements of rawness, realism and history all wrapped into one,” says Tatarin. “I think the Keefer Bar squeezes in quite nicely.”

The neighbourhood’s traditions were also an inspiration when it came to creating her drinks list. In her past gigs — most recently at DB Bistro Moderne — the talented Tatarin has developed an expertise in classic cocktails and played with trends like molecular mixology. But the Keefer gave her an opportunity to try something completely fresh.

“Incorporating Chinese medicine into cocktails is pretty out there and some people are, like, really?” Tatarin says. “But to me it was a no-brainer. I found that the herbs used in Chinese medicine are often incorporated into teas and tinctures and that made it easy for me to work with in my cocktail formulas.”

While it may seem unusual to mix health and alcohol, in fact, that’s exactly how the original cocktails came about.

Mar 17

Portrait of a Chinese doctor

East and West, Traditional Chinese Medicine No Comments »

Interesting profile of Dr. Hong Hai, and the differences between Eastern and Western medicine.

Chinese medicine places emphasis on prevention of illnesses and treatment of imbalances in the body before they develop into diseases with clinical symptoms.

Do consult a TCM practitioner even if you are not clearly ill, but do not feel in the best of health and wish to improve your levels of fitness and well-being.

Western medicine has powerful tools for dealing with acute conditions that require synthetic medications like antibiotics and special procedures like surgery, and for handling life-threatening conditions like advanced
coronary heart disease, severe hypertension and cancers.

For such severe conditions, I would advise seeing a Western doctor in the first instance and using Chinese medicine only under proper medical advice.

As for common everyday conditions like coughs and colds, digestive, skin, sleep and menstrual problems, both systems of medicine have useful methods of treatment and it is up to you to find out which kinds of treatment are more suitable for you.

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Feb 18

Acupuncture can help young patients with chronic illnesses

Acupuncture, East and West No Comments »

Researchers at Rush University Medical Center have found acupuncture to be an effective tool in relieving pain for children who suffer from chronic illnesses.

Doctors at Rush University Medical Center are offering pediatric patients diagnosed with chronic illnesses acupuncture therapy to help ease the pain and negative side effects like nausea, fatigue, and vomiting caused by chronic health conditions and intensive treatments. The confluence of Chinese and Western medicine at Rush Children’s Hospital is part of a study to analyze and document how acupuncture might help in reducing pain in children and increase quality of life.

“Treating children with acupuncture is a new frontier,” said Dr. Paul Kent, pediatric hematology and oncology expert, Rush Children’s Hospital. “We are looking to see if there is an effective pain management therapy we can offer that does not have the serious side effects that can be caused by narcotics and other serious pain medications.”

The lack of options for pain management in children has been reported as one of the most difficult aspects of providing care to pediatric patients. Research indicates that up to 70 percent of pediatric patients experience pain and those with chronic illnesses often do not have adequate relief or prevention of pain.

“Acupuncture could be a potential solution to this dilemma of controlling pain in pediatric patients,” said Angela Johnson, Chinese medicine practitioner at Rush.

Acupuncture is the use of tiny, hair-thin needles which are gently inserted along various parts of the body. The therapy is based on the premise that patterns of energy flowing through the body are essential for health. This energy, called Qi, flows along certain pathways. It is believed that placing the tiny needles at points along the pathways reduce pain and improve the healing process.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) has published a statement concluding that acupuncture is effective for treating adults for nausea following chemotherapy and for pain after dental surgery. The agency also said that the therapy might be useful in treating other health issues such as addiction, migraines, headaches, menstrual cramps, abdominal pain, tennis elbow, fibromyalgia, arthritis, low-back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome and asthma. In some pediatric studies, both patients and parents have stated that acupuncture treatments were both helpful and relaxing.

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