National Herbal Medicine Week is a chance for the public to find out more about this effective and safe form of medicine that has benefited patients for thousands of years.

National Herbal Medicine Week is an opportunity to encourage dialogue to dispel any misconceptions about herbal medicine as well as explore the many benefits of this time-proven and effective medicine,” stated AAAOM President Michael Jabbour.

 
The National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM®) and the American Association for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (AAAOM) are pleased to join in the promotion of National Herbal Medicine Week from May 1-7, 2012 sponsored by the AAAOM, in recognition of the diversity of all ancient and modern herbal traditions worldwide. National Herbal Medicine Week is a time of year when practitioners, consumers, and organizational leaders join in the opportunity to share their knowledge and highlight the strength of this gentle and effective treatment. As one of the first medicines used to treat ailments, herbal medicine continues to be used safely and effectively by many fully trained practitioners world-wide for a variety of conditions, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Herbal medicine practitioners combine the best of modern science and thousands of years of clinical effectiveness to help patients relieve many health conditions.
 
Thousands of practitioners in the U.S. have invested their talents and expertise to improve their patients’ health through herbal medicine. Many health problems can be effectively treated by using traditional herbal remedies. According to WHO, these include high blood pressure, digestive disorders, gynecological disturbances, fatigue, insomnia, infertility, among other ailments. Herbal medicine is also recognized as being a safe potential adjunctive therapy to help mitigate the side effects of chemotherapy or radiation.
 
Herbal remedies come in a variety of forms and are available from many different vendors; it is crucial that consumers seek the care of a certified and licensed practitioner who has received extensive education and training in the practice of herbal medicine in order to achieve the most optimal results. The AAAOM and NCCAOM recommend seeking the advice of an NCCAOM certified practitioner of Chinese herbology or Oriental medicine or a state licensed practitioner with specialized training in herbal medicine before using Chinese herbs to improve their health.
 
“When prescribed herbs by an NCCAOM certified practitioner, one can be assured that the practitioner has the education and expertise to help you achieve your medical goals safely and effectively,” stated NCCAOM Board Chair David Canzone. NCCAOM Diplomates of Chinese Herbology and Oriental Medicine can be found through the NCCAOM website by going to Find a Practitioner on the home page. National Herbal Medicine Week is an opportunity to encourage dialogue to dispel any misconceptions about herbal medicine as well as explore the many benefits of this time-proven and effective medicine,” stated AAAOM President Michael Jabbour. “National Herbal Medicine Week is a chance for the public to find out more about this important topic directly from the experts.”
 
For additional information see National Herbal Medicine Week, Facebook page. If you would like more information about the AAAOM or NCCAOM, please contact Eric Raymond Buckley, AAAOM Herbal Committee Chair at (505) 231-6234 or Eric(dot)Buckley(at)stvin(dot)org or Mina Larson, Director of Public, Professional, and Regulatory Affairs, NCCAOM® at 703-314-2908 or mlarson(at)thenccaom(dot)org.
 

Courtesy of PRWeb

Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Neuroscience Center have published a new method to eliminate pain using acupuncture point location as a basis for the procedure. It all started when researchers measured that adenosine, an inhibitory neurotransmitter with antinociceptive properties, is produced by acupuncture stimulation. The chief investigator who made the initial discovery at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York stated, “acupuncture releases a natural pain-relieving molecule into the body…. Adenosine is a key to reducing pain during acupuncture treatment.”

Nociceptors, commonly referred to as pain receptors, are blocked by adenosine. Acupuncture stimulates the natural production of adenosine within the body. Even more intriguing is that this research discovered a natural residual pool of an adenosine precursor (adenosine monophosphate, AMP) at the acupuncture point St36 (Zusanli) prior to acupuncture needling. Manual acupuncture stimulation at St36 increases adenosine levels. It is postulated that acupuncture stimulates the conversion of AMP reserves into adenosine thereby reducing pain.

Based on these findings, the researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill decided to inject prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) into UB40 (Weizhong), an acupuncture point located at the back of the knee located in the popliteal fossa. PAP is an ectonucleotidase that converts AMP to adenosine. The results showed a powerful dose dependent antinociceptive response in mice. Antinociception was boosted by adding additional AMP and was blocked with adenosine antagonists. The researchers note that this approach “locally inhibits pain for an extended period of time” and “exploits a molecular mechanism that is common to acupuncture….” The researchers add that this approach to pain management would “bypass side-effects associated with opioid-based analgesics, and hence could provide a novel abuse-resistant way to treat pain.” The researchers also note “our study reveals that key mechanisms associated with Eastern and Western medicine can be merged and exploited to locally inhibit acute and chronic pain for an extended period of time.”

Courtesy of HealthCMI

New research concludes that acupuncture treats hearing loss. Researchers measured the effects of acupuncture on patients with sudden sensorineural hearing loss. This type of hearing loss is defined as a loss of 30 dB or more in 3 contiguous frequencies within three days or less. Thirty-six patients of a total of seventy-two “showed improvement” with an average gain of 24.47 dB of hearing restoration. The researchers “demonstrated that favorable prognosis was directly related to the time interval from the onset of hearing loss to the start of AT (acupuncture therapy).” For the patients that showed significant improvement, start of acupuncture treatment was within an average of 51 days from the onset of hearing loss. For the group that did not respond, the average was 167 days between onset of the illness and the beginning of acupuncture care. Variables that did not affect the outcome: vertigo, presence of hypertension, gender.

Acupuncture Treatment
Acupuncture was administered on average of two times per week. The needles were 40mm in length with a 0.25mm diameter.  The needles were inserted to a depth of 10 – 30mm until a needling sensation of soreness, numbness or distention was perceived at the acupuncture point. The acupuncture point selections were made from the following primary points: GV14, GV15, GV16, GB20, GB21, BL10, SI4, SI15. Supplementary points were: TB21, TB22, SI19, GB2, ST7, UB2, LI20, GV20, EX-HN3, KI10, LR8, LU8, LR4, LI4, LR3, and ST36. The needles were retained for 10 minutes. The researchers note “our findings indicate that AT (acupuncture therapies) have some effects on ISSHL (idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss) even for the patients who failed to respond to conventional therapies.”

Courtesy of HealthCMI

A new study concludes that, “Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese medicine modality that can be used in pediatric patients with fibromyalgia.” Fibromyalgia is a disorder involving widespread pain, increased sensation of pain upon pressure and associated symptoms such as exhaustion, insomnia and aching joints. The study followed patients with a history of juvenile fibromyalgia for a period of eight consecutive years. All patients had at least 11 weekly acupuncture sessions and evaluations were conducted before and after the acupuncture sessions. Evaluations measured musculoskeletal pain, VAS (pain visual analog scale), myalgic index and algometry. The result showed that acupuncture is effective for reducing the number of pain sensitive areas, improves the myalgic index and acupuncture demonstrated improvements in the pain visual analog scale. Associated symptoms of headaches, poor sleep and exhaustion also improved in the patients receiving acupuncture. Based on this study, the researchers recommend future controlled studies to confirm these findings.

Courtesy of HealthCMI

New MRI research demonstrates that acupuncture “induce(s) different cerebral glucose metabolism changes in pain-related brain regions and reduce(s) intensity of pain” for patients with migraines. In this randomized-controlled study using PET-CT neuroimaging (positron emission tomography – computed tomography), acupuncture was shown to be effective for migraine pain reduction and acupuncture raised glycometabolism in the middle temporal cortex, orbital front cortex, middle frontal gyrus, angular gyrus, post cingulate cortex, the precuneus and the middle cingulate cortex. Acupuncture simultaneously lowered glycometabolism in the parahippocampus, hippocampus, fusiform, postcentral gyrus, and the cerebellum in migraine patients. The study also showed that the choice of acupuncture points used determined the changes in brain glycometabolism. The researchers note that this measurable phenomenon indicates acupuncture point specificity; specific acupuncture points have specific effects.

Subjects with migraines were separated into three groups: traditional acupuncture group (TAG), controlled acupuncture group (CAG), non-intervention group. The TAG group received acupuncture stimulation at TB5 (Waiguan), GB34 (Yanglingquan) and GB20 (Fengchi). The CAG group received acupuncture at St8 (Touwei), LI6 (Pianli) and St36 (Zusanli). The non-intervention group did not receive treatment.

The TAG group was more effective than the other groups at reducing pain due to migraines. Additionally, the glycometabolism was higher in the TAG group than in the non-intervention group in the middle temporal cortex, orbital frontal cortex, middle frontal gyrus, angular gyrus, post cingulate cortex, precuneus, and the middle cingulate cortex. The TAG group decreased glycometabolism in the parahippocampus, hippocampus, fusiform, postcentral gyrus and cerebellum more than in the non-intervention group. The CAG group more greatly increased glycometabolism in the middle temporal cortex, supratemporal gyrus, supramarginal gyrus and the middle cingulate cortex than was measured in the non-intervention group. The CAG group decreased glycometabolism more greatly than the non-intervention group in the cerebellum.

Similar conclusions were reached in another recent study conducted by researchers at the University of California, School of Medicine in Irvine, California. The researchers concluded, “Recent evidence shows that stimulation of different points on the body causes distinct responses in hemodynamic, MRI and central neural electrophysiological responses.” The investigators reviewed MRI results and noted that “stimulation of different sets of acupoints leads to disease-specific neuronal responses, even when acupoints are located within the same spinal segment.”

Courtesy of HealthCMI

Traditional Chinese Medicine, known for acupuncture and herbal medicine in the USA, enters a new arena of healthy food and beverage production. Tasly Pharmaceuticals (China) and SemBioSys (Canada) have recently teamed to develop and produce healthy living products including nutritionals, beverages and foods made from the oilbodies found in plants. Together, this venture has the capability of extracting and processing the oils and proteins of plants without causing them to denature. This is accomplished with a proprietary system of extraction using a continuous cold system. The cold system creates a more valuable and higher quality state of oils and proteins than is possible using conventional heat and hexane extraction methods.

Tasly Pharmaceuticals, in a joint venture with SemBioSys Genetics Inc., has received all approvals necessary to operate a newly formed company, Tasly-SemBioSys Bio-Pharmaceutical, Technology Co., Ltd. The focus of the joint venture is to develop and produce plant based nutritional and pharmaceutical products. A heavy emphasis is on the research and development of functional foods and beverages based on oilbodies. Oilbodies are structures found in plant cells that contain lipids. Oilboides often contain essential oils, triacylglycerols, phospholipids and the protein oleosin. The following picture is a look at oilbodies in a sample of a plant:

Tasly is a leading Chinese pharmaceutical company and is China’s second largest producer of Traditional Chinese Medicine products. Tasly has a large research institute along with enormous resources in product development, planting and the manufacturing of Traditional Chinese Medicine products and pharmaceuticals. SemBioSys, based in Calgary, Alberta; brings its cold processing capabilities to the venture.

Tasly is known for its ability to produce insulin from plant based products and for producing the first FDA phase-two approved Chinese herbal medicine pill for the treatment of coronary heart disease, DanShen Dripping Pills. The dripping extract process is one of the purest and most exacting methods for isolating active ingredients from herbs thereby ensuring both quality and safety. Tasly also produces an herbal product containing Chuan Xiong, Bai Shao, Dan Gui and other herbals that is used for the treatment of headaches and cerebrovascular disease. Other Tasly products include herbal extracts, teas, cosmetics, hygiene products, medical equipment and pharmaceuticals.

Courtesy of HealthCMI

Research recently published in Focus On Alternative and Complementary Therapies concludes that acupuncture benefits patients with osteoarthritis of the knee. In this single-blinded, randomized, sham-controlled study conducted at the Department of Orthopedics at the Tel Aviv Medical Center in Israel, researchers examined 41 patients over 45 years of age who suffered from osteoarthritis of the knee accompanied by moderate to severe pain. Patients who received corticosteroid injections into the knee within 4 weeks of the study were excluded from the selection process. Participants received either true acupuncture (verum acupuncture) or sham acupuncture in a comparative examination. The style of sham acupuncture was the use of simulated needle stimulation at acupoints with non-insertion of the needle. The sham acupuncture technique of using needles to stimulate non-acupoints was not used in this investigation. All participants received either verum acupuncture or sham acupuncture twice a week for 8 weeks in addition to standard therapeutic care. On week 12 (a 4 week follow-up after treatment), researchers tabulated the results and concluded that, “Adjunctive acupuncture treatment seems to provide added improvement to standard care in elderly patients with OA (osteoarthritis) of the knee.”

Courtesy of HealthCMI

Electroacupuncture stimulation can quickly reduce the severity of depressive symptoms, offering an alternative option for depressed patients, according to researchers at the School of Chinese Medicine at The University of Hong Kong, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine and the Department of Psychiatry in Kowloon Hospital.

The study consisted of a clinical randomized controlled trial using dense cranial electroacupuncture stimulation (DCEAS) on patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). DCEAS is a novel acupuncture treatment, which was developed by Dr. Zhang Zhang-jin, associate professor of the HKU School of Chinese Medicine.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, stimulating acupoints on the head can increase brain power, regulate yin yang and relieve depression.  Traditionally, acupoints called Bai Hui and Yin Tang are the focus when treating depression.

In DCEAS, Zhang believes that stimulating Bai Hui and Yin Tang, as well as other acupoints including Si Shen Cong, Tou Lin Qi, Tai Yang, Shuai Gu and Tou Wei, triggers the release of serotonin (5-HT) and other chemicals in the brain more efficiently, resulting in better treatment outcomes.

For the study, 73 participants, ages 25 to 65 years, had been diagnosed with MDD and had suffered with the disorder from several months to several years.

The volunteers continued taking their prescribed antidepressant medications (fluoxetine), and were randomly selected to be in the DCEAS group or the control group.  Participants in the DCEAS group received dense cranial electroacupuncture stimulation, while the control group received noninvasive electroacupuncture (placebo acupuncture) for 9 sessions in 3 weeks. Each session lasted 45 minutes.

Assessments given by both physicians and the patients themselves revealed that the DCEAS group had greater improvement in depressive symptoms.

On day 21 after receiving treatment, the DCEAS group had a greater improvement in both the clinical depression assessment and the self-rating depression scale.  Furthermore, strong improvements were observed in the DCEAS patients as early as at day 3, and this continued until the end of the treatment.

The findings suggest that DCEAS may be considered as an additional treatment for depressed individuals to achieve better clinical effects.

The study is published in the free-access Journal PloS ONE.

Source:  University of Hong Kong

Courtesy of PsychCentral

Herbal remedies could be the most naturally effective way to treat acne, suggests new research from Leeds Metropolitan University.

Student Kimberley Sanderson and supervisor, Dr Margarita Gomez Escalada, a Senior Lecturer in Microbiology and Genetics at Leeds Metropolitan, found that a solution using the common herb thyme (known as a tincture) was more effective in killing the acne bacterium than traditional chemical-based creams. The research has been presented at the Society for General Microbiology’s Spring Conference in Dublin this week.

Acne is caused by a bacterium called Propionibacterium acnes which infects the skin pore and then forms a pimple. Currently, the most common treatments for acne are antibiotics or a topical cream or wash containing the chemical benzoyl peroxide. These treatments are often associated with side-effects, for example benzoyl peroxide often causes a burning sensation on the skin and irritation.

A solution, known as a tincture, can be made using plants and herbs, where the plant is steeped in alcohol for days or weeks. This extracts the different compounds from the plant. The research team tested the effectiveness of thyme, myrrh and marigold tinctures in killing the acne bacterium using a test commonly used to test disinfectants. The activity of the tinctures was also compared to that of the benzoyl peroxide used in acne creams.

Dr Gomez Escalada commented: “What makes the project so amazing is that all the practical work was done by one of our undergraduate students as part of her final year project. We found that all the preparations tested were able to kill a number of bacteria. The preparation that was found the most effective was thyme tincture, even better than benzoyl peroxide. This shows the potential of thyme tincture for treating acne. We now need to carry out further tests in conditions that mimic the skin to confirm the effectiveness in practical use. If thyme tincture is proven to be effective for the treatment of acne, it will provide a natural alternative to current treatments.”

Thyme, marigold and myrrh tinctures are commonly used by herbalists as well as other alternative medicine practitioners to treat acne and other skin conditions. However, little research has been done into their effectiveness and they have never before been tested against the bacterium that causes acne to see if they have any effect on its growth.

Courtesy of Leeds Metropolitan University

Researchers conclude that acupuncture is beneficial for the treatment of vascular dementia. Vascular dementia is caused by brain damage due to impaired blood flow to the brain. This is common after a stroke or a series of mini-strokes. Any condition that damages blood vessels that feed oxygen and nutrients to the brain may cause vascular dementia.

The study compared scalp acupuncture with standard body acupuncture. In this multi-center randomized controlled clinical trial, 184 subjects with vascular dementia due to Liver and Kidney deficiency received either scalp acupuncture or body acupuncture. The scalp acupuncture group showed significantly greater improvements in cognition than the body style acupuncture group. Social behavior scores improved significantly in both the body style and scalp acupuncture groups. TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) differential diagnostic conditions improved significantly in both acupuncture groups as did the ADL (Activities of Daily Living) score. Overall, scalp acupuncture received higher improvement scores due to its ability to improve cognition. The researchers concluded that scalp acupuncture substantially improves the overall condition of patients with vascular dementia including cognition, activities of daily living, TCM signs and symptoms, mental state and social behavior.

Courtesy of HealthCMI