Chinese Medicine in the News
Chinese Herbal Medicine May Help Relieve Painful Menstrual Cramps
ScienceDaily (Oct. 17, 2007) — Women with menstrual cramps are often offered either non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or oral contraceptives. Many women, however, find that this treatment does not work or they can not take the drugs, and more women would prefer a non-drug alternative.
Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) has been used for centuries in China, being used in public hospitals to treat unexplained cramps that occur during menstruation (primary dysmenorhea). A team of Cochrane Researchers has found evidence that CHM may provide one possible form of treatment.
This evidence came from studying 39 randomized controlled trials that together involved 3,475 women. CHM gave significant improvements in pain relief when compared to pharmaceutical drugs. It also reduced overall symptoms. The research revealed that CHM was also better at alleviating pain than acupuncture or heat compression.
"All available measures of effectiveness confirmed the overall superiority of Chinese herbal medicine to placebo, no treatment, NSAIDs OCP, acupuncture and heat compression, and, at the same time, there were no indications that CHM caused any adverse events," says lead author Xiaoshu Zhu who works at the Center for Complementary Medicine Research at the University of Western Sydney, Australia.
Adapted from materials provided by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Traditional Chinese Medicinal Herbs May Help Women With Breast Cancer
ScienceDaily (Apr. 18, 2007) — Using Chinese herbs either alone or in conjunction with chemotherapy may help protect a breast cancer patient's bone marrow and immune system, as well as improving the woman's overall quality of life.
Sixty per cent of women undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer experience a range of significant short term side effects. These include nausea, vomiting and fatigue, as well as inflammation of the gut lining, decreased numbers of red and white blood cells and decreased numbers of blood platelets.
Chinese medicinal herbs include mixtures of herbal compounds or extracts from herbs, and they are prescribed to counteract the side effects of chemotherapy. This Cochrane Systematic Review set out to see if there is conventional evidence indicating that these medicines are safe and whether there is evidence that the medicines are effective.
The researchers identified seven randomized studies involving 542 patients with breast cancer. By analyzing these data, the researchers concluded that there was no evidence that the Chinese medicinal herbal treatment caused harm, and some evidence that it might reduce side effects.
"Further trials are needed before the effects of traditional Chinese medicines for people with breast cancer can be evaluated with any real confidence," says Assistant Professor Jing Li, who works at the Chinese Cochrane Centre in Chengdu, China
.
Adapted from materials provided by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Chinese Medicine Compound Has Satisfactory Anti-cancer Effects On Hepatocellular Carcinoma
ScienceDaily (Oct. 16, 2007) — Traditional Chinese medicine is world renowned. It has effects on some diseases, but the reason is still unknown. One such article was recently reported in the November 7 issue of the World Journal of Gastroenterology dealing with the great significance of a Chinese medicinal compound, "delisheng", for the therapy of HCC and its neoteric research method. The research team was led by Dr. Ke-Jun Nan from The First Affiliated Hospital of The School of Medicine of Xi'an Jiaotong University, China. This research will undoubtedly bring comfort to many researchers and patients.
HCC is a highly malignant tumor with a very high morbidity and mortality. Despite extensive efforts by many investigators, systemic chemotherapy for HCC has been quite ineffective. Delisheng is a Chinese medicinal compound and is often used in conjunction with chemotherapy for HCC, with satisfactory results. The researchers tried to establish the mechanisms for these effects of delisheng on HCC.
Three-dimensional cell culture has been widely used for studying the various molecular processes, because spheroids mimic solid tumors more closely than mono-layers. Therefore, the use of three-dimensional culture provides a model for the development of anti-cancer drugs. In this study, cells were cultured with a liquid overlay technique. After the formation of multi-cellular spheroids, they used the model to perform their experiments.
One conclusion reported by the investigators is that three-dimensional cell culture is suitable for the study of a traditional Chinese medicinal compound, and this may help other researchers to find a better model for drug development. Another interesting conclusion is that delisheng had satisfactory anti-cancer effects on HCC, and these were associated with the up-regulation of endostatin. This was made possible by one of delisheng’s components, ginseng, and this may provide a new method of therapy for HCC.
Thus three-dimensional cell culture has been widely used for studying the various molecular processes and the development of therapy in recent years; this is the first reported finding in which the model can be used for studying traditional Chinese medicine. Furthermore, the view that the satisfactory effects of delisheng were associated with the up-regulation of endostatin made possible by ginseng might inspire other researchers.
The results of this study suggest a promising future for many researchers and HCC patients. First, it provides a new model to study traditional Chinese medicine. Second, it introduces the Chinese medicinal compound delisheng and indicates its further applications.
Reference: Cui J, Nan KJ, Tian T, Guo YH, Zhao N, Wang L. Chinese medicinal compound delisheng has satisfactory anti-tumor activity, and is associated with up-regulation of endostatin in human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HepG2 in three-dimensional culture.
World J Gastroenterol 2007; 13(41): 5432-5439
Adapted from materials provided by World Journal of Gastroenterology.
Acupuncture's Secret: Blood flow to brain study tries to explain how technique works
By: Marilyn Elias
USA TODAY
Acupuncture on pain-relief points cuts blood flow to key areas of the brain within seconds, providing the clearest explanation to date for how the ancient technique might relieve pain and treat addictions, a Harvard scientist reports today.
Although researchers still don't fully understand how acupuncture works, ''our findings may connect the dots, showing how a common pathway in the brain could make acupuncture helpful for a variety of conditions,'' says radiologist Bruce Rosen of Harvard Medical School. He'll release the findings at the American Psychosomatic Society meeting in Orlando.
Rosen's team used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or MRIs, on about 20 healthy volunteers before, during and after acupuncture. This type of brain scan shows changes in blood flow and the amount of oxygen in blood. Researchers applied acupuncture needles to points on the hand linked to pain relief in traditional Chinese medicine. Blood flow decreased in certain areas of the brain within seconds of volunteers reporting a heaviness in their hands, a sign the acupuncture is working correctly, Rosen says. The needle technique is not supposed to hurt if done correctly. When a few subjects reported pain, their scans showed an increase of blood to the same brain areas. ''When there's less blood, the brain isn't working as hard, '' Rosen says. ''In effect, acupuncture is quieting down key regions of the brain.'' The specific brain areas affected are involved in mood, pain and cravings, Rosen says. This could help explain why some studies have found acupuncture helpful in treating depression, eating problems, addictions and pain. The brain regions involved also are loaded with dopamine, a ''reward'' chemical that surges in reaction to everything from cocaine to food, beautiful faces and money. The reduced blood flow could lead to dopamine changes that trigger a ''cascade'' effect, releasing endorphins, the brain's natural pain-relieving and comforting chemicals, Rosen says.
Rosen's study ''is a very exciting first step,'' says neurobiologist Richard Hammerschlag of the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine in Portland, but controlled research on pain and addiction patients will be needed to prove the point. Brain scans should be done on patients getting acupuncture at real and bogus points, he says, and patients shouldn't know which group they're in. The placebo effect is so powerful it could affect blood flow, says UCLA neurobiologist Christopher Evans, a pain expert. There's even some evidence that placebos can increase brain chemicals, such as endorphins, Hammerschlag says.
Acupuncture has numerous potential fertility-boosting benefits according to New York Weill Cornell physician-scientists
New York, NY (April 29, 2003)--physician-scientists at the center for reproductive medicine and infertility (CRMI) at New York Weill Cornell medical center call for a definitive study of acupuncture as a fertility treatment, citing its numerous, promising benefits associated with increasing fertility in women. An article in a recent issue of Fertility and Sterility--co-authored by Dr. Zev Rosenwaks, Dr. Pak H. Chung, and Dr. Raymond Chang of Weill Cornell--provides a summary of current research that supports acupunctures potential benefits for fertility treatment, including the stimulation of increased uterine blood flow and fertility hormones.
"Acupuncture, which is nontoxic and relatively affordable, holds much promise as a complementary or alternative fertility treatment," said Dr. Raymond Chang of New York Weill Cornell Medical Center. "Yet, while there are a great number of biological explanations for acupunctures benefits to fertility, as well as significant anecdotal evidence, there has yet to be a definitive clinical study," added Dr. Rosenwaks, Director of CRMI.
"One of the biggest obstacles to any study of acupuncture is a single standard of care," said Dr. Pak H. Chung of New York Weill Cornell Medical Center. "Only appropriate training and certification of acupuncture practitioners by state agencies can facilitate the integration of acupuncture into the treatment of female infertility, and health care in general."u
The lead review article reports that acupuncture treatment has the following potential fertility-boosting benefits:
- Increased blood flow to the uterus and therefore uterine wall thickness, an important marker for fertility
- Increased endorphin production, which, in turn, has been shown to effect the release of a gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), a decapeptide involved in regulating reproduction
- Lower stress hormones responsible for infertility
- Impact on plasma levels of the fertility hormones: follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), estradiol (E2), and Progesterone (P)
- Normalization of the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis, a key process in fertility
- A positive effect for women with polycystic ovarian syndrome, a hormonal imbalance present in three percent of adolescents and adults.
Acupuncture is the manipulation of thin metallic needles inserted into anatomically defined locations on the body to affect bodily function. These so-called acupoints correspond to areas on the surface of the body that have been shown to have greater electrical conductance due to the presence of a higher density of gap junctions along cell borders. A greater metabolic rate, temperature, and calcium ion concentration are also observed at these points.
Dr. Rosenwaks, Director of the Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility, and Dr. Chung treat infertility patients at Weill Cornell Medical Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Rosenwaks is the Revlon Professor of Reproductive Medicine in Obstetrics and Gynecology, Co-Director of the Institute for Reproductive Medicine, and Attending Obstetrician and Gynecologist at Weill Cornell. Dr. Chung is Assistant Professor of Reproductive Medicine, Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Assistant Attending Obstetrician and Gynecologist at Weill Cornell. Dr. Chang is Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell, where he teaches courses on alternative and complementary medicine. He is also affiliated with Meridian Medical.
Cornell News: http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/April03/fertility.html
Acupuncture may increase chance of IVF success: study
CBS News: The Associated Press. Last updated: Friday, February 8, 2008.
It sounds far-fetched — sticking needles in women to help them become pregnant — but a scientific review suggests acupuncture might improve the odds of conceiving by in-vitro fertilization if done right before or after embryos are placed in the womb.
The surprising finding is far from proven and there are only theories for why acupuncture might work. However, some U.S. fertility specialists say they are hopeful the relatively inexpensive and simple treatment may ultimately be recognized as a useful addition to traditional methods.
"It is being taken more seriously across our specialty," and more doctors are training in it, said Dr. William Gibbons, who runs a fertility clinic in Baton Rouge, La., and is past president of the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology.
"I have not seen proof ... but we wouldn't mind at all" if it turned out to work, he said.
The analysis was led by Eric Manheimer, a researcher at the University of Maryland school of medicine, and paid for by a U.S. government agency, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Results were published Friday in the British medical journal BMJ.
Conception rates increased 65 per cent
Acupuncture involves placing very thin needles at specific points on the body to try and control pain and reduce stress. In fertility treatment, it is thought to increase blood flow to the uterus, relax the cervix and inhibit "fight or flight" stress hormones that can make it tougher for an embryo to implant, Manheimer said.
The analysis pools results from seven studies on 1,366 women in the United States, Germany, Australia and Denmark who had in-vitro fertilization, or IVF. The procedure involves mixing sperm and eggs in a lab dish to create embryos that are then placed in the womb.
Women were randomly assigned to receive IVF alone, IVF with acupuncture within a day of embryo implantation, or IVF plus sham acupuncture, in which needles were placed too shallowly or in spots not thought to matter.
Individually, only three of the studies found acupuncture beneficial, three found a trend toward benefit and one found no benefit. When results of these smaller studies were pooled, researchers found the odds of conceiving went up about 65 per cent for women given acupuncture.
Experts warn against focusing on that number, because this type of analysis with pooled results is not proof acupuncture helps at all, let alone by how much.
IVF results in pregnancy about 35 per cent of the time. Adding acupuncture might boost that to around 45 per cent, the researchers said.
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/02/08/acupuncture-fertility.html
Infertility & Reproduction Health Center @ WebMD
Acupuncture for In Vitro Fertilization?
Getting Acupuncture May Improve the Odds of IVF Success
By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Medical News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
Feb. 7, 2008 -- The odds of getting pregnant and having a baby through in vitro fertilization (IVF) may be higher if women get acupuncture right before or after IVF.
That's the bottom line from a new review of seven studies on the topic.
The findings are "significant and clinically relevant" but "still somewhat preliminary," write the reviewers, who can't promise IVF success from acupuncture.
Together, the reviewed studies included 1,366 women in four Western countries.
In all of the studies, some women got traditional acupuncture right before and/or right after receiving the IVF embryo transfer. For comparison, other women got sham acupuncture or no acupuncture.
Among women who got acupuncture and IVF, the rates of getting pregnant were 65% higher and the rates of live births were nearly twice as high than among women who got IVF with sham acupuncture or no acupuncture.
But keep those numbers in perspective. The reviewers estimate that 10 IVF patients would need to be treated with acupuncture to bring about one additional pregnancy.
However, the reviewers note that in vitro fertilization is expensive and can be stressful, and that serious side effects from acupuncture are rare.
The reviewers included Eric Manheimer, MS, a research associate at the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Maryland's medical school.
The review appears in the "online first" edition of BMJ, formerly called the British Medical Journal.
http://www.webmd.com/infertility-and-reproduction/news/20080207/acupuncture-for-in-vitro-fertilization
Acupuncture might help with fertility
By Judith Graham | TRIBUNE REPORTER
February 8, 2008
Acupuncture appears to be a useful fertility aid, according to a new report in the British Medical Journal that found pairing acupuncture with in-vitro fertilization can raise a couple's odds of getting pregnant by 65 percent.
In absolute terms, the report found that for every 10 women who supplement IVF with acupuncture, one extra pregnancy will occur.
Although that's a "modest" effect, it's important given the emotions and considerable expenses associated with assisted reproduction, said Eric Manheimer, the lead author and a research associate at the University of Maryland Medical School.
The new report -- a synthesis of seven previously published studies involving 1,366 patients -- doesn't address why acupuncture promotes fertility, which patients benefit or what protocol is optimal.
But experts have several ideas. They suggest that the ancient Chinese practice -- which involves inserting needles at strategic locations on a person's body -- might enhance blood flow to the uterus, improving the chance that an embryo will successfully implant. Also, it's thought that acupuncture might stimulate the production of hormones that regulate ovulation and fertility and regulate stress, which can interfere with a pregnancy.
Some fertility centers have responded with enthusiasm. "We offer acupuncture to all our IVF patients" and between 10 and 20 percent elect to use it, said Dr. Brian Kaplan, a fertility specialist at Fertility Centers of Illinois.
Kaplan cautioned, however, that he couldn't recommend acupuncture as a stand-alone fertility treatment, without IVF.
Other scientists are skeptical. Dr. Norbert Gleicher, president of the Center for Human Reproduction, said he didn't find the scientific literature convincing.
Gleicher's fertility centers will arrange for acupuncture occasionally, when patients indicate they want it, he said.
"None of the studies, including this new one, are definitive," agreed Dr. Ralph Kazer, chief of reproductive endocrinology at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.
Two years ago, Northwestern launched a study of up to 220 women in which half get "sham" acupuncture, with needles placed in the wrong locations, and half get the real thing.
The goal is to determine whether the placement of needles makes a difference or whether the therapy works because women believe it does, Kazer said.
- - -
Summing it up
The study: A review of existing research has found that acupuncture can boost a woman's odds of conceiving.
The caveats: The results apply only when acupuncture is used with in-vitro fertilization. And not all experts are convinced that it helps.
Local angle: Fertility centers across Chicago are touting acupuncture as a way to help women get pregnant.
Drawbacks? There are no harmful effects associated with acupuncture, which calls for needles to be inserted across a woman's body.
Nation
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/health/chi-acupuncture_08feb08,1,7564638.story
