Traditional Chinese Medical Practice Research Articles

Lipid‐soluble Extracts from Salvia miltiorrhiza Inhibit Production of LPS‐induced Inflammatory Mediators via NF‐κB Modulation in RAW 264.7 Cells and Perform Antiinflammatory Effects In Vivo

Salvia miltiorrhiza, a traditional Chinese herbal medicine, is used to treat various inflammatory diseases. In the present study, the antiinflammatory effects of S. miltiorrhiza lipid-soluble extracts (SMLE) were demonstrated in vitro and in vivo, along with its underlying mechanism of action. SMLE significantly inhibited the production of NO, TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6 in lipopolysaccharides (LPS)-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. SMLE also inhibited the LPS-induced degradation of IκB-α in the cytoplasm and the translocation of p65 to the nucleus in RAW 264.7 cells. In addition, SMLE inhibited the production of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the surface expression of CD14 induced by LPS. In animal models, intraperitoneal administration of SMLE increased the survival rate of endotoxemia and sepsis in mice. The topical administration of SMLE significantly inhibited ear edema induced by PMA. It was found that SMLE inhibits the LPS-induced gene and protein expression of iNOS, TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6 in macrophages by blocking NF-κB activation, and these effects are mediated, at least in part, through the inhibition of intracellular ROS generation and the surface expression of CD14. The results suggest a possible therapeutic application of SMLE in inflammatory diseases and provide scientific evidence in support of the traditional Chinese medical practice of treatment with S. miltiorrhiza.

Developing policy for integrating biomedicine and traditional chinese medical practice using focus groups and the delphi technique.

In Hong Kong, statutory regulation for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioners has been implemented in the past decade. Increasing use of TCM on top of biomedicine (BM) services by the population has been followed; but corresponding policy development to integrate their practices has not yet been discussed. Using focus group methodology, we explore policy ideas for integration by collating views from frontline BM (n = 50) and TCM clinicians (n = 50). Qualitative data were analyzed under the guidance of structuration model of collaboration, a theoretical model for understanding interprofessional collaboration. From focus group findings we generated 28 possible approaches, and subsequently their acceptability was assessed by a two round Delphi survey amongst BM and TCM policy stakeholders (n = 12). Consensus was reached only on 13 statements. Stakeholders agreed that clinicians from both paradigms should share common goals of providing patient-centered care, promoting the development of protocols for shared care and information exchange, as well as strengthening interprofessional connectivity and leadership for integration. On the other hand, attitudes amongst policy stakeholders were split on the possibility of fostering trust and mutual learning, as well as on enhancing innovation and governmental support. Future policy initiatives should focus on these controversial areas.

Integrative medicine — Traditional Chinese medicine, A model ?

The paper explores the concept of integrative medicine (IM) in relation to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). It contrasts IM available in China to its availability in the West. The second part of the paper highlights tools which could facilitate opportunities for IM. The paper concludes with a plea to ensure and maintain the integrity of traditional Chinese medical practice, and to continue to increase developing the evidence base through a funded European Coordination Action between EU member states and China.

Qigong for the treatment of tinnitus: A prospectiverandomized controlled study

Objective Tinnitus is a frequent disorder which is very difficult to treat. Qigong is a mindful exercise and an important constituent of traditional Chinese medical practice. Here we performed a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effect of a Qigong intervention on patients with tinnitus. We hypothesized that especially tinnitus patients with somatosensoric components may benefit from the mind–body technique of Qigong. Methods Eighty patients with tinnitus of at least 3 months duration were randomly assigned to an intervention group ( n=40) consisting of 10 Qigong training sessions in 5 weeks or a waiting-list control group ( n=40). Tinnitus severity was assessed with a visual analogue scale (VAS) and with a tinnitus questionnaire (TBF-12) before treatment, immediately after treatment, and 1 and 3 months after treatment. Results Qigong did not cause any side effects and was completed by 80% of the assigned patients. Compared with the control group, Qigong participants experienced improvement in tinnitus severity, as reflected by a significant reduction in both the VAS and the TBF-12. In the subgroup of patients with somatosensoric tinnitus, Qigong effects were more pronounced, resulting in a highly significant improvement in both scales compared to the waiting-list group. Conclusion These findings suggest that Qigong interventions could be a useful complement to the therapeutic management of patients with tinnitus and especially for those with somatosensoric components. Satisfaction with the intervention, a high degree of completion, and stability of the effects for at least 3 months after the intervention further underscore the potential of Qigong in the treatment of tinnitus.

Antifatigue activity of phenylethanoid‐rich extract fromCistanche deserticola

A phenylethanoid-rich extract (ECD) of Cistanche deserticola Y.C. Ma, a holoparasitic plant and a valuable traditional Chinese medicine, was evaluated for antifatigue activity in ICR mice. ECD (0.25, 0.50, 1.00 g/kg) was administered orally to mice for 3 weeks. The swimming time to exhaustion was longer in the treatment groups (0.50, 1.00 g/kg) than in the control group (p < 0.01). The serum creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase and lactic acid levels were decreased significantly in the treatment groups compared with the control group, while the contents of hemoglobin and glucose were increased significantly. In conclusion, ECD appeared to enhance the swimming capacity of mice by decreasing muscle damage, delaying the accumulation of lactic acid and by improving the energy storage. These results provide scientific evidence for the traditional Chinese medical practice of C. deserticola.

Antidepressant effect of three traditional Chinese medicines in the learned helplessness model

Plantago asiatica, Scrophularia ningpoensis and Ilex pubescens are among the traditional Chinese medicines which are more frequently prescribed for treating depression-like ailments in the past and present traditional Chinese medical practice. The present work was therefore conducted to evaluate the presumable antidepressant effects of the extracts derived from the three remedies in mice using the learned helplessness model being used for screening for antidepressant compounds in modern medicinal researches. As a result, the petroleum extracts of Plantago asiatica and Ilex pubescens as well as the EtOAc extract of Scrophularia ningpoensis and the petroleum-soluble fraction of the acidic hydrolysate of the water extract of Ilex pubescens (after petroleum extraction) decreased significantly the number of escape failures relative to the control. The finding rationalized the clinical prescription of the herbs for the treatment of depression, and shined a clue for the characterization of the antidepressant phytochemical(s).

East and west see eye to eye--an elective report.

A summary of personal experiences encountered as a medical student on elective at an eye hospital in China. It bears witness to the possibility of seamless combination of western and traditional Chinese medical practices in the field of ophthalmology. Included are also the acupuncture points used in the treatment of optic atrophy at this particular eye hospital. Address of eye hospital: Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center 54 South Xianlie Road Guangzhou 510060 China Period of elective: 5th January 2001-11th March 2001.

Ping wei san, a Chinese medicine for gastrointestinal disorders.

To describe the dilemma that American pharmacists face when their patient uses a traditional Chinese herbal formula. Ping wei san (PWS), an agent used to treat gastrointestinal disorders, is used to illustrate the problems encountered and to identify resources on Chinese herbal medicines available to pharmacists. In the US, Chinese herbal medicine is making its way into mainstream Western medicine. Patients may discover PWS in their search for a substitute for cisapride, which was partially withdrawn from the US market in July 2000. The pharmacist may be called on to assist in the management of patients who wish to use PWS for treatment of common gastrointestinal disorders like gastritis, esophageal reflux, gastric or duodenal ulcers, and acute or chronic enteritis. As with most other Chinese herbal formulas, English-language literature about PWS is limited and is often difficult to interpret. Pharmacists who are unfamiliar with the basic principles and terminology used in traditional Chinese medical practices will need to identify sources of information about this complementary alternative practice to be able to provide pharmaceutical care for patients taking a Chinese herbal formula like PWS. To develop a pharmaceutical care plan for patients using a Chinese herbal medicine therapy such as PWS, the pharmacist will need to become familiar with traditional Chinese medical practices and terminology describing indications, therapeutic effects, and risks. Fortunately, resources are available to pharmacists who need assistance in interpreting information on Chinese herbal therapies so that they can appropriately manage patients using them.

Phytochemical Investigation Of Some Traditional Chinese Medicines And Endophyte Cultures

For many social and environmental reasons, over the last few decades, there has been an increase in chronic and life-threatening diseases including mycoses, hyperuricemia-related disorders and some mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety and Parkinson’s disease. In order to fight these diseases, compounds acting on various biological targets, including enzymes such as xanthine oxidase or monoamine oxidase, have to be screened. The enzyme xanthine oxidase catalyses the oxidation of hypoxanthine to xanthine and then to uric acid, which plays a crucial role in hyperuricemiarelated disorders such as gout and renal stones. One of the therapeutic approaches to treat these diseases is the use of xanthine oxidase inhibitors that block the production of uric acid. Monoamine oxidases (E.C.1.4.3.4) A and B catalyse the oxidative deamination of monoamines in the central nervous system and peripheral tissues. Inhibitors of MAO A are clinically useful to treat anxiety and depression since they are expected to increase both noradrenalin and serotonin levels in the brain. On the other hand, inhibition of MAO B appears to be an effective approach for the prevention and adjunct treatment of Parkinson’s disease. In traditional Chinese medical practice, many medicinal herbs have been used to treat chronic diseases such as fungal infections, hyperuricemia-based disorders and mental illnesses. This usage is indicative for the presumable presence of antifungal phytochemicals and inhibitors of xanthine and monoamine oxidases. Plants do not represent the only source for interesting natural products; some endophytes (‘special’ microorganisms living inside the healthy host plant) are also known to produce secondary metabolites of promising pharmaceutical and/or agricultural potential. The above observations prompted us to search for natural antifungal compounds and inhibitors of xanthine and monoamine oxidases in different Chinese plants and endophyte cultures. The active constituents isolated were mainly mono-, sesqui-, di-, and triterpenes, sterols, coumarins, flavonoids, phenylethanoids, stilbenoids, alkaloids and alcohols.

Chinese traditional medicine and abnormal sex ratio at birth in China.

A study of the abnormal sex ratio at birth in China reveals that it is not an entirely new phenomenon that emerged since the 1980s, but is simply more visible at present. Deliberate intervention to determine the sex of children has existed in the past few decades, at least in certain groups. Apart from modern medical methods, traditional Chinese medical practice is shown to be highly accurate in identifying the sex of a fetus. This may lead to sex-selective abortion and an abnormal sex ratio at birth. The possible causes of the abnormal sex ratio at birth include not only the real imbalance due to the disturbance of social factors, but also a spurious one attributable to the undercounting of female births. The real magnitude of the imbalance has been exaggerated by statistical error. The phenomenon is a complicated one reflecting the comprehensive socioeconomic setting. Among these factors, the stage of the fertility transition is one of the most decisive.

在技術烏托邦的彼岸: 中西醫學再評價

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.本文試圖綜合本期各篇文章的主要觀點，依據“目的”、“體驗”和“價值”三條線索來對傳統中醫和現代西醫做一初步的評價。由於醫學的內在目的在於防治疾病、維護健康，而不是追求真理、認識世界，因而中醫與西醫都可以發揮作用，現代化研究與傳統式探索也可以並行不諱，只要有助於醫學的目的即可。此外，西方醫學從傳統走向現代的過程，乃是從重視病人的親身感受轉向注重病理解剖事實的過程，而中醫學體系提供了一種不同的臨床現象學。最後，醫學是負荷看價值和意識形態的人類活動，應當超越當前的技術烏托邦傾向，成為良好生活方式的一個和諧部分。The contemporary world is characteristic of science-fetishism and technological utopia. Every social issue is explored in the name of science, and all difficult problems are to be resolved by renovated technologies. This is even more so in modern China than in the West. The people attempt to modernize their lives in all respects. For many of them, everything old needs to be weighed on a modern scientific scale and anything unscientific must be rejected. This constitutes the context in which traditional Chinese medicine is generally evaluated. This essay argues that this context is misleading. It intends to reevaluate traditional Chinese versus modern Western medicine in consideration of the internal aim of medicine, patients, experiences, and ideologies and values.There has been a long-standing debate in China in this century regarding whether or not traditional Chinese medicine is a science. Both sides of the debate, ironically, agree that if traditional Chinese medicine is not a science, it should be abandoned. However, this debate is non-sensical. Medicine as medicine, whether it is a traditional medicine or a modern medicine, is not a science. Medicine is not a science because its internal aim differs from the aim of science. While the internal aim of science can be identified as pursuing truth and knowing the world, the internal aim of medicine consists in maintaining health as well as treating and preventing diseases. Undoubtedly, modern Western medicine is scientific. Its theories and practices are based upon typical modern sciences such as physics, chemistry and biology. But medicine as medicine does not have to be scientific. Given the internal aim of medicine, as long as a practice or method contributes to the treatment of disease or the promotion of health, it is legitimate. The existence of varieties of non-scientific alternative medicine and faith medicine in the US where modern science and technology are most advanced, is a good example of this. To put it in a famous Chinese saying, "whether it is a white cat or a black cat, as long as it catchesthe mouse, it is a good cat."No one can deny the tremendous achievements that modern scientific medicine has made in fighting diseases. However, focused on a technologized anatomico-pathologic view of the body and diseases, contemporary medicine discounts the significance of patient complaints and it is naturally easy to lose sight of the non-technological aspects of medical practice, especially the experience of the sick person. Traditional Chinese medical theory and practice provide a heuristic alternative. By viewing the essence of illness as symptom-complex rather than anatomico-pathological lesion, by identifying imbalanced climate and emotional factors rather than disease entities as the sources of illnesses, by using ordinary contacts rather than complicated lab and mechanical investigations as medical examining tools, by focusing on the experience of being sick rather than on pathological anatomy, by following balancing rather than curing as the treatment principle, and by emphasizing prevention rather than treatment, traditionalChinese medicine offers a systematic medical phenomenological system in which a patient’s life experience and intuitive knowledge of the body is the center of clinical practice.Finally, medical theory and practice are value-laden. "Our ideologies and expectations concerning the world move us to select certain states as illnesses because of our judgment as to what is dysfunctional or a deformity and to select certain causal sequences,etiological patterns, as being of interest to us because they are bound to groups of phenomena we identify as illnesses" (Engelhardt). Our ideologies and expectations also move us to select certain modes of medicine and therapeutic methods as most useful and promising because of our judgments about the appropriateness and efficacy of practical instruments. Accordingly, practicing and accepting medicine is part of a way of life. As people accept different value systems and life expectations, they must be careful about what medicine and technology they want to accept and develop. We must reflect on the contemporary ideology of technological utopia that intends to resolve all problems by newly developed complicated technologies. Not all conflicts and tensions of life can be resolved by technologies. What is worse, the overwhelmingly powerful incentive to develop high tech medicine in the third-world countries would drain on their scarce health care resources, which would significantly harm most people in those countries.DOWNLOAD HISTORY | This article has been downloaded 15 times in Digital Commons before migrating into this platform.

中西醫結合述評

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.中西醫結合包含中醫和西醫之間的團結合作，但更重要的是中醫學和西醫學之間的互相結合。在世界上對傳統醫學曾有過三種方針，即“否定”，“容忍”和“平行”的方針，均不能充分發揮傳統醫學的作用和潛力。中國採取“結合”的方針，較好地解決了這一問題，不僅滿足當前醫療工作的需要，更重要的是在科學研究中，強調創新，兩種醫學的觀點、方法、優勢互補，獲得大量新的研究成果，如針刺原理和針麻研究，青萬素的發現，瘀血證研究等。雖然現代醫學是主流醫學，但尚不足以解決所有問題，如慢性病，老年病等。用結合的思想可以更好地解決各種難題，使醫學科學更快地向前發展，造福於人民。What attitude should we take toward traditional medicine? There have been three types of policies in this regard all over the world. First, the excluding policy prohibits practicing any traditional medicine. Traditional physicians are not qualified to possess the title of physician, and their practice is illegal. Second, the tolerating policy does not make illegal traditional medical practice, but it does not formally affirm the practice. Third, the paralleling policy allows both traditional and modem medical practices, but their use may not overlap. For example, traditional physicians may not use modem medical facilities.Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, a unique policy of integration has been adopted in China. This policy assumes that both traditional Chinese medicine and modern Western medicine have strengths and weaknesses. It requires that both types of medicine be integrated so as to develop more effective methods in treating diseases and preserving health.There are two senses of the integration of traditional Chinese and modern Western medicine. The first sense refers to the integration of the two types of the physicians, i.e., the cooperation between traditional Chinese practitioners and modern Western medical professionals. The second sense refers to the integration of the two disciplines; i.e., to use both traditional Chinese and modern Western medical theories and practices to create new forms of diagnostic and therapeutic approaches and means. The hope was to have the perspectives, methods, and solutions of both types of medicine complement each other.Under the integrating policy, traditional Chinese medicine has been developed tremendously in mainland China. 30 traditional Chinese medical colleges, 2457 traditional Chinese medical hospitals, and 170 traditional Chinese medical research institutions have been established. A number of well-known medical achievements, such as acupunctural analgesia and anesthesia, the discovery of a new type of anti-malaria drug - Qinghaosu (artemisinin), and the study of blood stasis syndrome, have been made by following the integrating strategy.With the rapid growth and development of the diagnostic and therapeutic technologies in modern Western medicine, some individuals are doubtful of the prospect of traditional Chinese medicine and of the necessity of China’s integrating strategy. However, no matter how advanced modern Western medicine as a form of medicine has become, it will not be able to handle all diseases or medical problems effectively and appropriately. The human body and medical reality are too complicated to be fixed by modern medicine once and for all. For instance, in the present time, chronic and geriatric diseases pose perplexing challenges to modern medicine. Possibilities are always open for traditional Chinese medicine as well as the integrated traditional Chinese and modern medicine to make their valuable contributions.DOWNLOAD HISTORY | This article has been downloaded 69 times in Digital Commons before migrating into this platform.

Chinese medicine in Malaysia and Singapore: the business of healing.

Traditional Chinese medicine as it persists in several East and Southeast Asian countries, has undergone major changes. Such changes have reinforced the trading aspects of traditional Chinese medical practice with relatively little advantage for the medical care component. This paper examines the nature of changes in contemporary ethnic Chinese medical practice in Malaysia and Singapore with the aim of understanding their implications for the persistence of this medical tradition.

The persistence of Chinese medicine: Adjustment and diversity

Chinese medicine persists in many parts of East and Southeast Asia. This persistence has meant the re-organisation of traditional Chinese medical practice. Institutional developments and adjustments observed among the traditional Chinese medical practitioners, the chung-i, have created diversity. Such diversity among the chung-i is evident by comparing not only the practices which are based in shops and those which are clinic-based but also the newer and older practices.

The Chinese Art of Healing

This remarkably timely book was not written to exploit the current vogue of interest in Chinese medicine, but it is a new English translation of the original German and Hungarian editions which were simultaneously published in 1963. The book reflects the unusual background of its Hungarian-born author who had elected to lead the life of a Buddhist monk in a Tibetan monastery and even joined it in its eventual exile in Switzerland. The author's long and thorough exposure to Far Eastern life and medical practices has endowed the book with considerable depth and authenticity. The work deals clearly and succinctly with the archaic theories underlying the traditional Chinese medical practices, some of which are now so prominently featured by the recent visitors to China and the Western news media. In this connection it is important to note that even as recently as 1963, acupuncture, although widely used as analgesic for