Most studies on action mechanisms of TCM in anti-tumour showed that TCM could inhibit tumours though supporting the healthy energy and strengthening the body resistance.

The team led by Prof. Wang from Henan University of China showed that Gecko could not only strengthen the immune response of organism but also induction of tumour cell apoptosis and the suppress protein expression of VEGF and bFGF, which is critical to cancer development.

Chemotherapy, one of the major methods to treat cancer in Western medicine at present, has a poor selectivity and strong toxic and side effects, thus influencing its anticancer effect.

In the past 40 years, Chinese experts have gained remarkable achievements in cancer treatment by integrating TCM with chemotherapy.

Traditional Chinese medicine is considered to require considerable diagnostic skill. A training period of years or decades is said to be necessary for TCM practitioners to understand the full complexity of symptoms and dynamic balances. According to one Chinese saying, A good (TCM) doctor is also qualified to be a good prime minister in a country. Modern practitioners in China often use a traditional system in combination with Western methods.

Techniques

• Palpation of the patient’s radial artery pulse (pulse diagnosis) in six positions
• Observations of patient’s tongue, voice, hair, face, posture, gait, eyes, ears, vein on index finger of small children
• Palpation of the patient’s body (especially the abdomen, chest, back, and lumbar areas) for tenderness or comparison of relative warmth or coolness of different parts of the body
• Observation of the patient’s various odors
• Asking the patient about the effects of their problem.
• Anything else that can be observed without instruments and without harming the patient
• Asking detailed questions about their family, living environment, personal habits, food diet, emotions, menstrual cycle for women, child bearing history, sleep, exercise, and anything that may give insight into the balance or imbalance of an individual.

Methods of treatment

The following methods are considered to be part of Chinese medicine:

1. Acupuncture(针 灸/針灸) (from the Latin word acus, “needle”, and pungere, meaning “prick”) is a technique in which the practitioner inserts fine needles into specific points on the patient’s body. Usually about a dozen acupoints are needled in one session, although the number of needles used may range anywhere from just one or two to 20 or more. The intended effect is to increase circulation and balance energy (Qi) within the body.
2. Auriculotherapy (耳灼疗法/耳燭療法), which comes under the heading of Acupuncture and Moxibustion.
3. Chinese food therapy (食疗/食療): Dietary recommendations are usually made according to the patient’s individual condition in relation to TCM theory. The “five flavors” (an important aspect of Chinese herbalism as well) indicate what function various types of food play in the body. A balanced diet, which leads to health, is when the five functional flavors are in balance. When one is diseased (and therefore unbalanced), certain foods and herbs are prescribed to restore balance to the body.
4. Chinese herbal medicine (中草药/中药/中藥): In China, herbal medicine is considered as the primary therapeutic modality of internal medicine. Of the approximately 500 Chinese herbs that are in use today, 250 or so are very commonly used.Rather than being prescribed individually, single herbs are combined into formulas that are designed to adapt to the specific needs of individual patients. A herbal formula can contain anywhere from 3 to 25 herbs. As with diet therapy, each herb has one or more of the five flavors/functions and one of five “temperatures” (“Qi”) (hot, warm, neutral, cool, cold). After the herbalist determines the energetic temperature and functional state of the patient’s body, he or she prescribes a mixture of herbs tailored to balance disharmony.
5. Cupping (拔罐): A type of Chinese massage, cupping consists of placing several glass “cups” (open spheres) on the body. A match is lit and placed inside the cup and then removed before placing the cup against the skin. As the air in the cup is heated, it expands, and after placing in the skin, cools down, creating a lower pressure inside the cup that allows the cup to stick to the skin via suction. When combined with massage oil, the cups can be slid around the back, offering what some practitioners think of as a reverse-pressure massage.
6. Die-da or Tieh Ta (跌打) is usually practiced by martial artists who know aspects of Chinese medicine that apply to the treatment of trauma and injuries such as bone fractures, sprains, and bruises. Some of these specialists may also use or recommend other disciplines of Chinese medical therapies (or Western medicine in modern times) if serious injury is involved. Such practice of bone-setting (整骨) is not common in the West.
7. Gua Sha (刮痧)
8. Moxibustion: “Moxa,” often used in conjunction with acupuncture, consists in burning of dried Chinese mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) on acupoints. “Direct Moxa” involves the pinching of clumps of the herb into cones that are placed on acupoints and lit until warm. Typically the burning cone is removed before burning the skin and is thought, after repeated use, to warm the body and increase circulation. Moxa can also be rolled into a cigar-shaped tube, lit, and held over an acupuncture point, or rolled into a ball and stuck onto the back end of an inserted needle for warming effect.
9. Physical Qigong exercises such as Tai chi chuan (Taijiquan 太极拳/太極拳), Standing Meditation (站樁功), Yoga, Brocade BaDuanJin exercises (八段锦/八段錦) and other Chinese martial arts.
10. Qigong (气功/氣功) and related breathing and meditation exercise.
11. Tui na (推拿) massage: a form of massage akin to acupressure (from which shiatsu evolved). Oriental massage is typically administered with the patient fully clothed, without the application of grease or oils. Choreography often involves thumb presses, rubbing, percussion, and stretches.
12. Some TCM doctors may also utilize esoteric methods that incorporate or reflect personal beliefs or specializations such as Fengshui (风水/風水) or Bazi (八字).

Friday, October 23, 2009

Hawaii is known for many things: surfing, beautiful beaches, pineapples, and now, cancer research. Michele Carbone, MD, PhD (Human Pathology), has recently been named director of the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii. He began his three-year term September 1, 2009, having previously served as the Center’s interim director since December 2008.

Prior to joining the Center, Dr. Carbone had been a professor at Loyola University Medical Center’s Cardinal Bernadin Cancer Center in Chicago and has spent most of his career researching thoracic cancers. Deemed an authority on malignant mesothelioma, a rare cancer related to asbestos exposure, Dr. Carbone and his research team have studied the impact of genetics, environmental carcinogens and viral infections on mesothelioma development.

“Our goal is to develop novel preventive and therapeutic approaches and bring them to the community and the patient’s bedside,” Carbone says. “We work in synergy with the major hospitals in the State of Hawai‘i, with their physicians, and with other cancer organizations to prevent and , .”

When Carbone first began studying the disease in 1991, little was known about its causes beyond its link to asbestos. During the course of his career, he has uncovered a link between genetics and a U.S. government-mandated vaccine from the 1950s and ’60s that can greatly increase odds of contracting mesothelioma. “I found… that humans had massively been exposed to SV40 (a DNA tumor virus) in the late ’50s and early ’60s through contaminated polio vaccines,” he says, “and that the enormous increase in the incidence of mesothelioma from about zero in 1950 to 2,000 to 3,000 deaths per year presently had occurred after people were exposed to SV40.” Not every dose contained the virus, but it is estimated that 10 million to 30 million Americans were exposed.

Dr. Carbone has received more than half of all federal funding for mesothelioma and approximately 90 percent of the National Cancer Institute’s funding allocated for mesothelioma research. “Funding from the National Institutes of Health is very low because of the whole economy of the United States, so we have gone from a pay line six years ago of about 26 percent to a pay line of 11 percent. Therefore, it’s a difficult time to do research and you need to find additional sources of funding, specifically philanthropy,” he says. “I think it will help Hawaii if people on Mainland do not think of Hawaii only as a vacation place, but also as a place where normal people live normal lives and have normal jobs, for example, medical research.”

Carbone and his research offer hope for a diagnosis that has been nothing but grim in the past. He and his research team have participated in studies that led to the isolation of a new serum marker, osteopontin, which appears useful to identify patients with early mesothelioma. He explains that, “If we can validate prospectively the usefulness of these serological markers, we will be able to monitor cohorts of workers exposed to asbestos for early sign of mesothelioma and for early treatment that is linked to a better survival. I really believe that we can help people and make a difference.”

To learn more about clinical trials, research and education from the Cancer Center of Hawaii, visit their Web site at http://www.crch.org/.

Often called “asbestos cancer,” mesothelioma is highly aggressive and is resistant to many current treatments. The medical community has had difficulty comparing the values and benefits of the different options, and patients are often referred to specialists who work with them and their doctors to determine the best treatment for their case. Currently there is no known cure for mesothelioma, and the average survival time varies from 4 – 18 months after diagnosis.

With such a grim prognosis, mesothelioma patients are not only faced with months of overwhelming medical treatments, but their emotional state becomes fragile as they face the realities of death. Looking for ways to live longer than the typical survival time of people with mesothelioma and to improve their quality of life, many patients are turning to alternative treatments. There are many different types of TCM treaments avaibile.

Paul Kraus and James Rhio O’Connor (“Rhio”), both mesothelioma patients, broke new ground by taking control of their treatments and have led the way towards holistic medicine for mesothelioma cancer.

Discipline and Focus Key to Rhio’s Longevity
Mr. O’Connor, who just passed away in July, 2009, lived 7 ½ years beyond his mesothelioma diagnosis. Told by his oncologist that any form of ‘standard’ treatment, i.e., chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery, would make him feel worse, and would not alter his prognosis, Rhio began researching his alternatives.

Following Hippocrates’ wisdom “let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food,” Rhio discovered that the Eastern philosophy to healing (the holistic approach) made sense to him, and he began eagerly researching the therapies that could best work for him. Rhio changed his diet, began taking close to 100 vitamins and supplements daily, practiced mind-body exercises, and turned inward for his strength and to become self-sufficient. Rhio stayed disciplined and focused with his daily regimen and realized a satisfying life.

Finding his course of therapy successful, Rhio penned “They Said Months. I Chose Years! A Mesothelioma Survivor’s Story” to provide other mesothelioma patients with the benefit of his research and philosophy. Rhio took the time to talk to newly diagnosed patients, and he shared his thoughts and experience along with a little humor.

Empowerment Moves Paul Kraus To Survive Mesothelioma
Mr. Kraus, still alive today 12 years after his mesothelioma diagnosis, has also not had any of the standard treatments and is enjoying his life in Australia with his family. Kraus wrote “Surviving Mesothelioma and Other Cancers: A Patient’s Guide,” detailing his journey and holistic approach to healing.

After receiving the shocking news that he had peritoneal (abdominal) mesothelioma and had less than one year to live, Mr. Kraus was faced with the prospect of major surgery with no cure and with a reduced quality of life. Immediately he began reading everything he could find on the disease as well as researching alternative treatments.

Kraus began making radical lifestyle changes by altering his diet, starting a regimen of intravenous and oral vitamins, herbs, amino acids and other immune boosting therapies and supplements, and focusing on the power of the mind-body connection and positive thinking. After attending a retreat for cancer patients, Kraus embraced the philosophy that one can “accept the diagnosis, but reject the prognosis” to empower himself to take control of the illness and his life.

While stressing that each case of cancer is unique, Kraus is a firm believer that each patient should look for that glimmer of hope and to build on that to reaffirm a focus in life and the reason for wanting to live. Through the process of emotional healing, begins the process of physical healing.

What Is Holistic Medicine?
Holistic medicine is an alternative care approach that treats a patient as a “whole” person as opposed to simply treating the symptoms and illness. Holistic care looks at an individual’s physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being in an attempt to improve the health and prevent further illness. The concept follows Aristotle’s theory that “the whole is more than the sum of its parts.” As alternitive medicals like Chinese traditional medicine helps.

Holistic practitioners believe that there is no limit to the range of diseases that can be treated, although alternative medicine does not specifically focus on a disease. For example, cancer is not treated; rather the body and immune system are strengthened allowing the body’s defense mechanisms to heal the cancer. The approach works on balancing the body, mind, spirit, and emotions while improving the immune system as the entire being begins functioning smoothly. An illness, disease, or disorder is seen as an imbalance in the body’s systems.

Alternative medicine and holistic practice have been around for centuries, but only relatively recently has the modern medical field begun to accept it and begin to integrate it into the health care system and treatment for patients. Holistic therapies tend to emphasize proper nutrition, avoidance of chemical substances, use of homeopathic remedies, and meditation techniques. Holistic care techniques are non-invasive.

Some of the major holistic therapies include ayurveda, chiropractic, homeopathy, traditional Chinese medicine, naturopathy, Unani, stress reduction, and reflexology.

Sloan-Kettering Takes Holistic Approach for Mesothelioma Patients
Located in New York, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) is the world’s oldest and largest private cancer center. Sloan-Kettering’s website indicates they have “devoted more than a century to patient care as well as to innovative research, making significant contributions to new and better therapies for the treatment of cancer.”

Following the mind-body connection philosophy, MSKCC has employed a program, introduced by psychiatrist Dr.William Breitbart that focuses on helping men and women with a terminal diagnosis of mesothelioma focus on the spiritual, emotional, and psychological aspects of cancer. Psycho-oncology is an effort to help cancer patients learn to live their lives in the time between their diagnosis and eventual death. Participants are encouraged to develop a legacy project to pass on to their friends and loved ones.

While individual and group therapy sessions are regular components of cancer treatment at most cancer centers throughout the United States and the world, Dr. Breitbart’s program has found that meaning-centered psychotherapy can elevate the emotional well-being and reduce the levels of anxiety for the patients.

Cancer centers and other medical facilities abroad, encouraged by the positive results at MSKCC, have begun similar programs. Medical professionals worldwide are recognizing the role of meaning-centered programs in cancer treatment and in mesothelioma therapy.

The Future of Holistic Care
According to the Health Education Alliance for Life and Longevity alternative approaches to health and medicine are among the fastest growing aspects of health care. By the year 2010 at least two-thirds of the U.S. population will use some form of alternative approach to health care.

The Institute for Alternative Futures projects that patients will soon experience the customizing or personalization of health care, integrating several approaches based on the unique needs of each individual. The Institute believes these trends will utilize health care professionals far more effectively, leading to “self-managed care.” Consumers will seek prevention and wellness services that go far beyond what today we consider health care.

Therapeutic effect of traditional Chinese medicine on coagulation disorder and accompanying intractable jaundice in hepatitis B virus-related liver cirrhosis patients.
World J Gastroenterol. 2008 Oct 21;14(39):6060-4
Authors: Li YM, Yang HZ, Guan WB, Ke QS, Dai M, Xie HP, Zhang SJ
AIM: To observe the therapeutic effects of new traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) therapy on coagulation disorder and accompanying intractable jaundice in HBV-related liver cirrhosis patients.
METHODS: Using stratified random sampling according to fibrinogen (Fib) levels, 145 liver cirrhosis patients due to hepatitis B complicated by coagulation disorder were treated. Of them, 70 in research group were treated with TCM by “nourishing yin, cooling blood and invigorating blood circulation” and Western medicine, 75 in control group were treated with conventional Western medicine. The indexes of liver function, coagulation function and bleeding events were observed and compared.
RESULTS: The prothrombin time (PT) was shorter and the fibrinogen (Fib) level was higher in the research group than in the control group (Fib = 1.6-2.0 g/L, 1.1-1.5 g/L, and < or = 1.0 g/L). The total bilirubin (TBIL) level was significantly lower in the research group than in the control group, except for the subgroup of FIB < or = 1.0 g/L.
CONCLUSION: TCM therapy can improve coagulation fuction and decrease TBIL.

Acupuncture combined with electronic stimulation can lower high blood pressure, US researchers say.
In tests on rats, the treatment lowered raised blood pressure by as much as 50%, the University of California team at Irvine found.
They are now testing to see whether the technique will have the same effect in people with high blood pressure, also known as hypertension.
Their early findings in animals appear in the Journal of Applied Physiology.
Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese practice that involves inserting needles at specific points on the body to help treat diseases and symptoms such as pain.
Dr John Longhurst and his team applied the acupuncture to specific points on the forelimbs of rats with artificially elevated blood pressure.
The equivalent sites on humans are on the inside of the forearm, slightly above the wrist.
When the acupuncture was applied on its own, it had no effect on blood pressure.
However, when small, low frequency electrical currents were passed through the needles, the blood pressure went down by between 40 and 50%.
A 30-minute session reduced blood pressure in the test rats by 25mmHg, with the effect lasting for almost two hours.
Fruit and vegetables
Dr Longhurst said: “This suggests that acupuncture can be an excellent complement to other medical treatments, especially for those treating the cardiac system.”
But he added: “This type of electro acupuncture is only effective on elevated blood pressure levels, such as those present in hypertension, and the treatment has no impact on standing blood pressure rates.”
He said that acupuncture triggered the release of chemicals in the brain that in turn dampened the response of the cardiovascular system.
This decreased the heart’s activity and its need for oxygen, which in turn could lower blood pressure, and promoted healing for a number of heart conditions including heart attacks and hypertension.
Belinda Linden, of the British Heart Foundation, said the research would need to be supported by controlled clinical trials before being applied as an accepted form of blood pressure control for humans.
“So our message remains the same – high blood pressure is best controlled by keeping your weight down, eating plenty of fruit and vegetables, cutting your salt intake, increasing physical activity and if needed, taking appropriate medications.”
Dr Mike Cummings, medical director of the British Medical Acupuncture Society, said the study was interesting, but he would not recommend patients sought acupuncture treatment for high blood pressure “at this stage”.

History
Antiquity
Acupuncture’s origins in China are uncertain. One explanation is that some soldiers wounded in battle by arrows were cured of chronic afflictions that were otherwise untreated, and there are variations on this idea.[ In China, the practice of acupuncture can perhaps be traced as far back as the Stone Age, with the Bian shi, or sharpened stones. In 1963 a bian stone was found in Duolon County, Mongolia, pushing the origins of acupuncture into the Neolithic age.[ Heiroglyphs and pictographshave been found dating from the Shang Dynasty (1600-1100 BCE) which suggest that acupuncture was practiced along with moxibustion. Despite improvements in metallurgy over centuries, it was not until the 2nd century BCE during the Han Dynasty that stone and bone needles were replaced with metal.[ The earliest Chinese medical text that first describes acupuncture is the Huangdi Neijing, the legendary Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine (History of Acupuncture)which was compiled around 305–204 B.C. However, the Mawangdui texts from the second century BC, which antedate the Huangdi Neijing, mention the use of pointed stones to open abscesses and moxibustion but not acupuncture.
In Europe, examinations of the 5,000-year-old mummified body of Ötzi the Iceman have identified 15 groups of tattoos on his body, some of which are located on what are now seen as contemporary acupuncture points. This has been cited as evidence that practices similar to acupuncture may have been practiced elsewhere in Eurasia during the early Bronze Age.
Middle history
Acupuncture spread from China to Korea, Japan and Vietnam and elsewhere in East Asia. Portuguese missionaries in the 16th century were among the first to bring reports of acupuncture to the West.
Modern era
In the 1970s, acupuncture became better known in the United States after an article appeared in The New York Times by James Reston, who underwent an emergency appendectomy while visiting China. While standard anesthesia was used for the actual surgery, Mr. Reston was treated with acupuncture for post-operative discomfort. The National Acupuncture Association (NAA), the first national association of acupuncture in the US, introduced acupuncture to the West through seminars and research presentations. The NAA created and staffed the UCLA Acupuncture Pain clinic in 1972. This was the first legal clinic in a medical school setting in the US. The first acupuncture clinic in the United States is claimed to have been opened by Dr. Yao Wu Lee in Washington, D.C. on July 9, 1972.The Internal Revenue Service allowed acupuncture to be deducted as a medical expense beginning in 1973.

Much of the scientific research on TCM has focused on acupuncture. The effectiveness of acupuncture remains controversial in the scientific community, and a review by Edzard Ernst and colleagues in 2007 found that the body of evidence was growing, research is active, and that the “emerging clinical evidence seems to imply that acupuncture is effective for some but not all conditions”. Researchers using the protocols of evidence-based medicine have found good evidence that acupuncture is moderately effective in preventing nausea. A 2008 study suggest that combining acupuncture with conventional infertility treatments such as IVF greatly improves the success rates of such medical interventions. There is conflicting evidence that it can treat chronic low back pain, and moderate evidence of efficacy for neck pain and headache. For most other conditions reviewers have found either a lack of efficacy (e.g., help in quitting smoking) or have concluded that there is insufficient evidence to determine if acupuncture is effective (e.g., treating shoulder pain). While little is known about the mechanisms by which acupuncture may act, a review of neuroimaging research suggests that specific acupuncture points have distinct effects on cerebral activity in specific areas that are not otherwise predictable anatomically.

The World Health Organization (WHO), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the American Medical Association (AMA) have also commented on acupuncture^. Though these groups disagree on the standards and interpretation of the evidence for acupuncture, there is general agreement that it is relatively safe, and that further investigation is warranted. The 1997 NIH Consensus Development Conference Statement on acupuncture concluded:

…promising results have emerged, for example, showing efficacy of acupuncture in adult postoperative and chemotherapy nausea and vomiting and in postoperative dental pain. There are other situations such as addiction, stroke rehabilitation, headache, menstrual cramps, tennis elbow, fibromyalgia, myofascial pain, osteoarthritis, low back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and asthma, in which acupuncture may be useful as an adjunct treatment or an acceptable alternative or be included in a comprehensive management program. Further research is likely to uncover additional areas where acupuncture interventions will be useful.

Much less scientific research has been done on Chinese herbal medicines, which comprise much of TCM. Some doubts about the efficacy of many TCM treatments are based on their apparent basis in (causation due to analogy or similarity) — for example, that plants with heart-shaped leaves will help the heart. While the doctrine of signatures does underlie the selection of many of the ingredients of herbal medicines, this does not necessarily mean that some substances may not (perhaps by coincidence) possess attributed medicinal properties. For example, it is possible that while herbs may have been originally selected on erroneous grounds, only those that were deemed effective have remained in use. Potential barriers to scientific research include the substantial cost and expertise required to conduct double-blind clinical trials, and the lack of financial incentive from the ability to obtain patents. Traditional practitioners usually have no philosophical objections to scientific studies on the effectiveness of treatments.

Pharmacological compounds have been isolated from some Chinese herbal medicines; Chinese wormwood (qinghao) was the source for the discovery of artemisinin, which is now used worldwide to treat multi-drug resistant strains of falciparum malaria, and is also under investigation as an anti-cancer agent. It was one of many candidates then tested by Chinese scientists from a list of nearly 200 traditional Chinese medicines for treating malaria. It was the only one that was effective. Many Chinese herbal medicines are marketed as dietary supplement in the West, and there is considerable controversy over their effectiveness.

Safety

In Practice

Acupressure and acupuncture are largely accepted to be safe from results gained through medical studies. Several cases of pneumothorax, nerve damage and infection have been reported as resulting from acupuncture treatments. These adverse events are extremely rare especially when compared to other medical interventions, and were found to be due to practitioner negligence. Dizziness and bruising will sometimes result from acupuncture treatment.

Some governments have decided that Chinese acupuncture and herbal treatments should be administered by persons who have been educated to apply them safely. One Australian report said in 2006, “A key finding is that the risk of adverse events is linked to the length of education of the practitioner, with practitioners graduating from extended traditional Chinese medicine education programs experiencing about half the adverse event rate of those practitioners who have graduated from short training programs.”

Allergy

Certain Chinese herbal medicines involve a risk of allergic reaction and in rare cases involve a risk of poisoning. Cases of acute and chronic poisoning due to treatment through ingested Chinese medicines are found in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, with a few deaths occurring each year. Many of these deaths do occur however, when patients self prescribe herbs or take unprocessed versions of toxic herbs. The raw and unprocessed form of aconite, or fuzi is the most common cause of poisoning. The use of aconite in Chinese herbal medicine is usually limited to processed aconite, in which the toxicity is denatured by heat treatment.

Toxins and contaminants

Potentially toxic and carcinogenic compounds such as arsenic trioxide (三氧化二砷) and cinnabar (called zhūshā, 朱砂) are sometimes prescribed as part of a medicinal mixture, in a sense “using poison to cure poison“. Unprocessed herbals are sometimes adulterated with chemicals that may alter the intended effect of an herbal preparation or prescription. As with the 2008 Chinese milk scandal, tampering with food and medicine to boost profit is rampant despite knowledge of the dangers and strict regulations in place that are circumvented often due to corruption and profit motive. However, knowledge of processing is being improved with more empirical studies of Chinese herbals and tighter regulations are being put in place, whether heeded to or not, regarding the growing, processing, and prescription of various herbals.

A medicine called Fufang Luhui Jiaonang (复方芦荟胶囊) was taken off shelves in UK in July 2004 when it found to contain 11-13% mercury.

In the United States, the Chinese herb má huáng (麻黄; lit. “Hemp yellow”) — known commonly in the West by its Latin name Ephedra — was banned in 2004 by the FDA, although the FDA’s final ruling exempted traditional Asian preparations of Ephedra from the ban. The Ephedra ban was meant to combat the use of this herb in Western weight loss products, a highly modern phenomenon and well removed from traditional Asian uses of the herb. There were no cases of Ephedra based fatalities with patients using traditional Asian preparations of the herb for its traditionally intended uses. This ban was ordered lifted in April 2005 by a Utah federal court judge. However, the ruling was appealed and on August 17, 2006, the Appeals Court upheld the FDA’s ban of ephedra, finding that the 133,000-page administrative record compiled by the FDA supported the agency’s finding that ephedra posed an unreasonable risk to consumers.

Lack of standardization

Chinese herbals are often not standardized from one pill to the next or from one brand to the next, and can be reformulated, remixed, or otherwise altered by any company. To avoid such issues, standardized Japanese Kampo medicine for sale worldwide is a safer alternative based on classical Chinese traditional medicine and strict enforced regulations and is regulated as pharmaceuticals coupled with extensive after-market testing and monitoring.

[Vague naming

Many Chinese medicines have different names for the same ingredient depending on location and time; ingredients with different medical properties have shared similar names. For example, there was a report that mirabilite/sodium sulphate decahydrate (芒硝) was misrecognized as sodium nitrite (牙硝)^], resulting in a poisoned victim. In some Chinese medical texts, both names are interchangeable. The Chinese Medicine Registration Board of the Australian state of Victoria issued a report in 2004 which noted this was a problem that needed to be addressed.

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Following a macro philosophy of disease, traditional Chinese diagnostics are based on overall observation of human symptoms rather than “micro” level laboratory tests. There are four types of TCM diagnostic methods: observe (望 wàng), hear and smell (闻/聞 wén), ask about background (问/問 wèn) and touching (切 qiè). The pulse-reading component of the touching examination is so important that Chinese patients may refer to going to the doctor as “Going to have my pulse felt.

Traditional Chinese medicine is considered to require considerable diagnostic skill. A training period of years or decades is said to be necessary for TCM practitioners to understand the full complexity of symptoms and dynamic balances. According to one Chinese saying, A good (TCM) doctor is also qualified to be a good prime minister in a country. Modern practitioners in China often use a traditional system in combination with Western methods.

Techniques

• Palpation of the patient’s radial artery pulse (pulse diagnosis) in six positions
• Observations of patient’s tongue, voice, hair, face, posture, gait, eyes, ears, vein on index finger of small children
• Palpation of the patient’s body (especially the abdomen, chest, back, and lumbar areas) for tenderness or comparison of relative warmth or coolness of different parts of the body
• Observation of the patient’s various odors
• Asking the patient about the effects of their problem.
• Anything else that can be observed without instruments and without harming the patient
• Asking detailed questions about their family, living environment, personal habits, food diet, emotions, menstrual cycle for women, child bearing history, sleep, exercise, and anything that may give insight into the balance or imbalance of an individual.

Methods of treatment

The following methods are considered to be part of Chinese medicine:

1. Acupuncture(针 灸/針灸) (from the Latin word acus, “needle”, and pungere, meaning “prick”) is a technique in which the practitioner inserts fine needles into specific points on the patient’s body. Usually about a dozen acupoints are needled in one session, although the number of needles used may range anywhere from just one or two to 20 or more. The intended effect is to increase circulation and balance energy (Qi) within the body.
2. Auriculotherapy (耳灼疗法/耳燭療法), which comes under the heading of Acupuncture and Moxibustion.
3. Chinese food therapy (食疗/食療): Dietary recommendations are usually made according to the patient’s individual condition in relation to TCM theory. The “five flavors” (an important aspect of Chinese herbalism as well) indicate what function various types of food play in the body. A balanced diet, which leads to health, is when the five functional flavors are in balance. When one is diseased (and therefore unbalanced), certain foods and herbs are prescribed to restore balance to the body.
4. Chinese herbal medicine (中草药/中药/中藥): In China, herbal medicine is considered as the primary therapeutic modality of internal medicine. Of the approximately 500 Chinese herbs that are in use today, 250 or so are very commonly used.Rather than being prescribed individually, single herbs are combined into formulas that are designed to adapt to the specific needs of individual patients. A herbal formula can contain anywhere from 3 to 25 herbs. As with diet therapy, each herb has one or more of the five flavors/functions and one of five “temperatures” (“Qi”) (hot, warm, neutral, cool, cold). After the herbalist determines the energetic temperature and functional state of the patient’s body, he or she prescribes a mixture of herbs tailored to balance disharmony.
5. Cupping (拔罐): A type of Chinese massage, cupping consists of placing several glass “cups” (open spheres) on the body. A match is lit and placed inside the cup and then removed before placing the cup against the skin. As the air in the cup is heated, it expands, and after placing in the skin, cools down, creating a lower pressure inside the cup that allows the cup to stick to the skin via suction. When combined with massage oil, the cups can be slid around the back, offering what some practitioners think of as a reverse-pressure massage.
6. Die-da or Tieh Ta (跌打) is usually practiced by martial artists who know aspects of Chinese medicine that apply to the treatment of trauma and injuries such as bone fractures, sprains, and bruises. Some of these specialists may also use or recommend other disciplines of Chinese medical therapies (or Western medicine in modern times) if serious injury is involved. Such practice of bone-setting (整骨) is not common in the West.
7. Gua Sha (刮痧)
8. Moxibustion: “Moxa,” often used in conjunction with acupuncture, consists in burning of dried Chinese mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) on acupoints. “Direct Moxa” involves the pinching of clumps of the herb into cones that are placed on acupoints and lit until warm. Typically the burning cone is removed before burning the skin and is thought, after repeated use, to warm the body and increase circulation. Moxa can also be rolled into a cigar-shaped tube, lit, and held over an acupuncture point, or rolled into a ball and stuck onto the back end of an inserted needle for warming effect.
9. Physical Qigong exercises such as Tai chi chuan (Taijiquan 太极拳/太極拳), Standing Meditation (站樁功), Yoga, Brocade BaDuanJin exercises (八段锦/八段錦) and other Chinese martial arts.
10. Qigong (气功/氣功) and related breathing and meditation exercise.
11. Tui na (推拿) massage: a form of massage akin to acupressure (from which shiatsu evolved). Oriental massage is typically administered with the patient fully clothed, without the application of grease or oils. Choreography often involves thumb presses, rubbing, percussion, and stretches.
12. Some TCM doctors may also utilize esoteric methods that incorporate or reflect personal beliefs or specializations such as Fengshui (风水/風水) or Bazi (八字).

]]> http://www.ddsclub.com/wordpress/2009/03/chinese-traditional-medicine-tcm-diagnostics/feed/ 2 http://www.ddsclub.com/wordpress/2009/03/theory-behind-chinese-traditional-medicine/ http://www.ddsclub.com/wordpress/2009/03/theory-behind-chinese-traditional-medicine/#comments Sun, 01 Mar 2009 13:04:11 +0000 admin http://www.chou.cn/?p=1248

The foundation principles of Chinese medicine are not necessarily uniform, and are based on several schools of thought. Received TCM can be shown to be influenced by Taoism, Buddhism, and Neo-Confucianism.

Since 1200 BC, Chinese academics of various schools have focused on the observable natural laws of the universe and their implications for the practical characterization of humanity’s place in the universe. In the I Ching and other Chinese literary and philosophical classics, Chinese writers described general principles and their applications to health and healing.

Porkert, a Western medical doctor, placed Chinese medical theory in context as:

Chinese medicine, like many other Chinese sciences, defines data on the basis of the inductive and synthetic mode of cognition. Inductivity corresponds to a logical link between two effective positions existing at the same time in different places in space. (Conversely, causality is the logical link between two effective positions given at different times at the same place in space.) In other words, effects based on positions that are separate in space yet simultaneous in time are mutually inductive and thus are called inductive effects. In Western science prior to the development of electrodynamics and nuclear physics (which are founded essentially on inductivity), the inductive nexus was limited to subordinate uses in protosciences such as astrology. Now Western man, as a consequence of two thousand years of intellectual tradition, persists in the habit of making causal connections first and inductive links, if at all, only as an afterthought. This habit must still be considered the biggest obstacle to an adequate appreciation of Chinese science in general and Chinese medicine in particular. Given such different cognitive bases, many of the apparent similarities between traditional Chinese and European science which attract the attention of positivists turn out to be spurious.

Basic theory and model of the body

Traditional Chinese medicine is largely based on the philosophical concept that the human body is a small universe with a set of complete and sophisticated interconnected systems, and that those systems usually work in balance to maintain the healthy function of the human body. The balance of yin and yang is considered with respect to qi (“breath”, “life force”, or “spiritual energy”), blood, jing (“kidney essence”, including “semen”), other bodily fluids, the Wu Xing, emotions, and the soul or spirit (shen). TCM has a unique model of the body, notably concerned with the meridian system. Unlike the Western anatomical model which divides the physical body into parts, the Chinese model is more concerned with function. Thus, the TCM spleen is not a specific piece of flesh, but an aspect of function related to transformation and transportation within the body, and of the mental functions of thinking and studying.

There are significant regional and philosophical differences between practitioners and schools which in turn can lead to differences in practice and theory.

Theories invoked to describe the human body in TCM include:

• Channels, also known as “meridians”
• Wu Xing
• Qi
• Three jiaos also known as the Triple Burner, the Triple Warmer or the Triple Energiser
• Yin and Yang
• Zang and Fu

The Yin/Yang and five element theories may be applied to a variety of systems other than the human body, whereas Zang Fu theory, meridian theory and three-jiao (Triple warmer) theories are more specific.

There are also separate models that apply to specific pathological influences, such as the four stages theory of the progression of warm diseases, the six levels theory of the penetration of cold diseases, and the eight principles system of disease classification.