The Journal of Chinese Medicine back issues from February 2007:
Summary of the randomised controlled trials from the German model projects on acupuncture for chronic pain.
Feb 01, 2007; ... Abstract Three very large research programmes ("model programmes") on acupuncture for chronic pain were conducted in Germany in recent years. They included observational studies as well as various randomised controlled clinical trials (RCTs). The results from the ...
Reflections on the German acupuncture studies.
Feb 01, 2007; ... Abstract The author discusses the recent German acupuncture trials showing how there remain difficulties in understanding their results. Among these are unresolved questions about the acupuncture/sham acupuncture interventions, and the issue of whether their results can be ...
Channel palpation.
Feb 01, 2007; ... Abstract Channel palpation is a classical diagnostic tool infrequently used in modern acupuncture practice. This article outlines the basic theory and techniques of this useful approach. Keywords: Palpation, diagnostic technique, acupuncture, acupuncture technique, ...
Treating paediatric bed-wetting with Chinese medicine.
Feb 01, 2007; ... Abstract Most children achieve night-time dryness by the age of four or five, but it is estimated that 20% of five-year-olds experience nocturnal enuresis (bed-wetting). In addition, 3% of 12-year-olds and 1% of 15+ year olds continue to suffer from bed-wetting. Research shows ...
Abdominal acupuncture: a practical introduction.
Feb 01, 2007; ... Abstract Abdominal acupuncture is a relatively new Chinese microsystem which is increasingly widely practised in China and the West. It involves the gentle, superficial needling of both standard and new acupoints on the abdomen and is thus indicated for cases of extreme ...
Melancholia and the hypochondrium: a curious cultural convergence.
Feb 01, 2007; ... Abstract Depression, or melancholia as it was once called, is one of the more common patient complaints encountered by practitioners of both Oriental and Western medicine. Even if the patient's chief complaint does not centre on his or her mood, many patients are often as sick ...
The Channels of Acupuncture: Clinical Use of The Secondary Channels and Eight Extraordinary Vessels.(Book review)
Feb 01, 2007 ... THE CHANNELS OF ACUPUNCTURE: CLINICAL USE OF THE SECONDARY CHANNELS AND EIGHT EXTRAORDINARY VESSELS by Giovanni Maciocia Churchill Livingstone, hardback, 738 pages, 64.99 [pounds sterling] The channels are one of the unique features of Chinese medicine, the key ...
Acupuncture For Stroke Rehabilitation.(Book review)
Feb 01, 2007; ... ACUPUNCTURE FOR STROKE REHABILITATION Three Decades of Information from China Hoy Ping Yee Chan Blue Poppy Press, softback, 176 pages, $29.95 Specialised books that focus on the treatment of one particular disorder are of immense benefit to practitioners since they can explore ...
Treating Pediatric Bed-Wetting with Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine.(Book review)
Feb 01, 2007; ... TREATING PEDIATRIC BED-WETTING WITH ACUPUNCTURE AND CHINESE MEDICINE Robert Helmer Blue Poppy Press, paperback, 252 pages, $24.95 Robert Helmer has done great work here, pulling together a great deal of information that would have otherwise remained scattered in sources that ...
Some thoughts on fire cupping.
Feb 01, 2007; ... Abstract This article discusses the techniques for safe and effective fire cupping as an important adjunct to acupuncture treatment, including the different applications of cups to suit the individual patient's condition. It also covers moving cups, walking cups, water cups and ...
Huang Qi through the tradition of Zhang Zhong-Jing.
Feb 01, 2007; ... Abstract This article looks at source texts and commentary to dissect how Zhang Ji (Zhang Zhong-Jing) used one medicinal, Huang Qi (Astragali Radix), (1) to not only introduce a style of studying classical texts, but also render fresh clinical choices and perspectives that lie ...
Acupuncture for hip and knee arthritis.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... A large German trial has found that acupuncture is of significant benefit in controlling the pain of osteoarthritis of the hip and knee. Of 3633 patients, 357 were randomised to receive acupuncture (15 treatments over three months), 355 were randomised to a non-acupuncture control group, ...
Acupuncture & rheumatoid arthritis.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... A small study has demonstrated that acupuncture, and particularly electroacupuncture, appears to be effective in reducing joint pain, stiffness and swelling in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). 36 patients, average age 58, suffering from RA that was unresponsive to other therapies, were assigned ...
Acupuncture & hypertension.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... In a trial of 192 subjects with hypertension (between 140/90 and 179/109 mmHg), given up to twelve acupuncture treatments over six to eight weeks, no difference in effect was found between standardised (formula) acupuncture, individualised ...
Acupuncture & hot flushes.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... In a study of 29 postmenopausal women who experienced at least seven moderate to severe hot flushes a day, active acupuncture was found to significantly decrease the severity of nocturnal flushes (by 28%) compared to 6% in women given sham acupuncture. The frequency of flushes was ...
Acupuncture & endometrial pain.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... A study of 101 women (aged 20 to 40), of whom 83 completed the trial, with laparoscopic-proofed endometriosis, randomised them to one of two groups. The first received specific acupuncture for the condition while the other were treated at non-specific points (points with no relation to the ...
Acupuncture & breech presentation.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... A study of the effectiveness and cost of moxibustion for breech presentation compared to standard care found that the percentage of breech presentations after moxibustion was 24.5% compared to 42% for standard care, and that if only 10% of women opted ...
Acupuncture & depression.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Previous studies have shown acupuncture at depression specific points to be superior to acupuncture at points not specific to depression (see NEWS 78 and 59). In a recent study, however, it appears that the non specific acupuncture was superior to the specific acupuncture. Study ...
Acupuncture & labour pain.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... A meta-analysis of three trials (496 women) into the use of acupuncture to relieve pain in labour suggests that women receiving acupuncture required less analgesia, including the need for ...
Acupuncture & allergic asthma.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... In a randomised controlled study, patients of 18 years or older with allergic asthma were assigned to either routine care plus acupuncture (15 sessions over three months, 184 patients) or routine care alone (173 patients). Patients who did not consent to randomisation also received ...
Acupressure helps elders with hip fracture.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Elderly patients with fractured hips who were being taken by ambulance to hospital were randomly given either true or sham auricular acupressure by paramedics who were blinded to which they were giving (they were trained in both techniques but not told which was true). Patients in the ...
Chinese herbs for asthmatic children.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... The Chinese herbal formula Ding Chuan Tang, given to 28 stablilised, mild to moderate persistent asthmatic children, aged 8-15, for 12 weeks significantly improved airway hyper-responsiveness compared to 24 children ...
Chinese herbs for summer heat in cows.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Shanghai cows were given herbs to help them counter a summer heat wave and milk yields rose by 20% as a result. The cows had previously suffered from heatstroke, anaemia, ...
Merck goes herbal.(NEWS)(agreement between Merck and Company Inc and Chi-Med)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Merck, one of the five largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, has signed a collaborative agreement with Chi-Med, a Chinese producer of botanical medicines. Merck will outsource part of its cancer drug research to Chi-Med, who will draw from its library of ...
Making the point.(NEWS)(pressure points for acupuncture finalised)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... An international conference held under the auspices of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has finalised the formal locations of the acupuncture points. Delegates from China, Japan and Korea resolved the location of the last ...
Chinese doctor stirs up storm.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Professor Zhang Gongyao stirred up a hornets' nest when he started a petition calling on the government to stop supporting Chinese medicine. He said that TCM had no rational foundation, was unscientific, used poisons and wastes in its treatments and posed a threat to biodiversity and ...
Steroids fail the tennis elbow test.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Corticosteroid injections for tennis elbow were found to be less effective at a one-year follow-up than either physiotherapy or no treatment (wait and see). Three groups of patients with tennis elbow were assigned to receive either local steroid injections or eight physiotherapy sessions ...
Do influenza vaccines work?(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Doubt has been cast on whether flu vaccines are effective. Inactivated flu vaccines are produced in vast numbers each year in an attempt to prevent or reduce flu transmission and severity. However evidence from systematic reviews suggests that they have ...
Vegetarianism is an intelligent choice.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... It is known that children who score higher in intelligence tests have a lower risk of coronary heart disease in later life. It now appears that these children are also more likely to be vegetarian as adults, a dietary choice that is associated with lower cholesterol levels and a reduced ...
But not breastfeeding?(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... The largest study yet conducted on the relationship between breastfeeding and intelligence suggests that it confers no significant advantage, compared to cows' milk or formula, and that previous studies that have found an apparent association have ignored the fact that breastfeeding ...
Weight & miscarriage risk.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Women with a low body mass index before pregnancy are 72% more likely to miscarry in the first three months. However they can reduce the risk significantly by eating fresh fruit and vegetables and taking nutritional supplements. The same study also found that women who suffered from nausea ...
Tai chi.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... A small study has compared the benefits of short form tai chi against either brisk walking or sedentary controls in elderly women. Nineteen women were randomly assigned to one of the two exercise groups who met for one hour on three days a week for 12 weeks. A further group of eight women ...
Waltzing helps heart failure.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Waltzing is as effective as bicycle and treadmill training for improving exercise capacity in patients with heart failure. And waltzers reported slightly more improvement in sleep, mood, and the ability to do ...
Tai chi versus balance training.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Another study has found that Combined Balance and Stepping Training (CBST), which involves increasing step length and speed, is modestly more effective at improving balance and mobility than tai chi training. Eight-one older adults (65 years +) in the CBST group and 81 in the ...
Rise in rate of falls.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... There was a significant (55%) increase in the deaths from falls among US adults aged 65 and over between 1993 and 2003. Deaths from falling account for 46.2% of injury-related deaths among older men and 31.1% among women, although the female rate of nonfatal falls was higher. In 2003, ...
Exercise prevents common cold.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... In a study of the effects of exercising on incidence of the common cold, 115 overweight, sedentary postmenopausal women were assigned to either a moderate intensity exercise group (45 minutes five times a week, most commonly walking) or a control group (one 45 minute ...
Child obesity & exercise.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Increased physical exercise does not seem to reduce body mass index in children, suggesting that it is dietary habits rather than lack of exercise that is responsible for obesity. Five hundred and forty-five children (mean age 4.2 years) were given three 30 minute exercise sessions a week ...
Drink to live.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Moderate consumption of alcohol appears to be linked to living longer, according to a meta-analysis of 34 large studies involving more than one million people. Drinking a moderate amount of alcohol (up to four drinks a day in men and two drinks a day in women) appears to ...
But avoid alcohol in pregnancy.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... A ten-year study tracking pregnant women in Denmark and Finland has identified the consumption of five or more alcoholic drinks per week by pregnant women as tripling the risk of cryptorchidism (failure of the testicles to descend at birth) in their baby sons. Cryptorchidism is associated ...
Antidepressants & male fertility.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Men who take selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are being urged to consult their doctors in the light of a new study which suggests they might damage sperm counts. The announcement was based on observation of men taking either citalopram (Cipramil) or ...
Children, in moderation, good for health.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Childless women have a greater risk of dying earlier and suffering poor health in later life than women who have two to four children. However women who have five or more children, teenage mothers and women whose children are spaced less than eighteen months apart also show greater risk of ...
Red meat, dietary fat, soya & breast cancer.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... The more red meat a woman eats in her 20s, 30s and 40s, the greater the risk of developing oestrogen and progesterone positive breast cancer. In a study of over 90,000 women it was found that those who ate the most red meat had twice the risk of breast cancer compared to those who ate the ...
Dramatic drop in breast cancer.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... There was a 7.2% decline in US breast cancer rates between 2002 and 2003, rising to 12% in women aged between 50 and 69 with oestrogen receptor positive breast cancer ....
Turmeric & rheumatoid arthritis.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... A version of turmeric extract similar to the kind found in commercial supplements has been found to be effective in preventing rheumatoid arthritis in animals. The turmeric appears to inhibit the proteins ...
Antibiotics for acute bronchitis.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... A research analysis has suggested that antibiotics are of negligible clinical benefit for patients suffering from acute bronchitis, ...
IVF risks.(NEWS)(In Vitro Fertilization)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... A study of 4000 mothers has revealed that children born to couples who have undergone fertility treatment are more likely to be diagnosed with autism, leukaemia, brain tumours, cerebral palsy, attention deficit disorder, disorders of sight and hearing and mental retardation. It is not ...
Loss of height and heart disease.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Men who lose more than three centimetres in height with age have a 64% increased risk of heart attack and death compared to men who lose less than one ...
Declining testosterone.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Testosterone levels in men (45 to 79 years old) in Massachusetts have shown a steady decline of around 1.2% a year between 1987 and 2004, declining by 17% overall with similar declines across all ages. This finding matches observed international decreases in sperm quality and increases in ...
Circumcision cuts HIV risk.(NEWS)(Human Immunodeficiency Virus)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has announced the premature end of two clinical trials of adult male circumcision because an interim review of trial data has revealed that circumcision significantly reduces ...
Mobile phones & fruit & veg & male fertility.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... A study of 364 Indian men who were being treated at Indian fertility clinics, found that those who used mobile phones for four or more hours a day suffered from the lowest sperm counts and their sperm demonstrated poorer motility and morphology. Those who used phones for two to four hours ...
Juice and Alzheimer's.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... A long-term study of nearly two thousand Seattle adults found that consumption of three or more servings of fruit and vegetable juices a week was associated with a 76% reduced risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, compared to those who drank juice less than once a week. (Fruit and ...
Irregular work & prostate cancer.(NEWS)(working in shifts)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... It is already known that shift workers are at a higher risk of developing some cancers, including breast and colorectal. Now a new study has uncovered a significant increased risk of prostate cancer among rotating shift-workers. The researchers believe that the cause may be disturbance of ...
Life expectancy on the rise.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Life expectancy at birth in the UK has hit a record high, according to figures for 2003-2005 published by the Office for National Statistics. The figures are 76.6 years for men and 81 years for women, compared to 71.5 and 77.4 in 1983-85. However the study also found major ...
Aspirin or chocolate.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... A small amount of dark chocolate (as close to pure cocoa as possible) appears to have the same benefit as aspirin in reducing blood clotting and preventing heart attacks. It has been known for some time that the flavonoids in chocolate can benefit blood flow but it had been thought that ...
Anger and the heart.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Acute anger can precipitate potentially fatal disturbances of heart rhythm according to a study of over eleven hundred patients who wore implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs). They were asked to record their emotional state before any occasion when the ICD delivered a ...
Leave the milk out.(NEWS)(milk in tea negates benefits in preventing cardiovascular disease)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... It appears that adding milk to tea negates its benefits in preventing cardiovascular disease. The caseins (proteins) in the milk interact with the catechins in the tea which are responsible for its protective effects. Sixteen postmenopausal women were asked to drink half a litre of tea ...
New green tea medicine.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... The first prescription botanical drug for half a century has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Veregen, a special extract made from green tea, has been approved for the treatment of genital warts caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV). In two prospective, randomised, ...
Diet and leg pain in women.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Women athletes who diet excessively or suffer from anorexia nervosa or bulimia are at greater risk of developing leg pain and stress fractures due to decreased ...
Pain.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... One in four adults suffered pain lasting a whole day during a single month according to a study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Health ...
Cancer of the colon & lung.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Exercising for an hour a day, six days a week, is associated with a significant reduction in abnormal cell growth in colon tissue in men. No such reduction however was observed in female exercisers. (Effect of a 12-Month Exercise Intervention on Patterns of Cellular Proliferation in ...
Polonium 210.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Most of us had never heard of Polonium 210 until the extraordinary story of how Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned with it in a London sushi bar. In fact Polonium 210 is everywhere as it is inhaled from cigarette smoke both by smokers and by passive smokers. The radioactivity in cigarettes ...
Black cohosh root and menopausal hot flushes.(NEWS)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Black Cohosh root, which is popularly used to treat menopausal hot flushes, failed--whether prescribed alone or in combination--to reduce flushes any more than placebo in a study funded by the US ...
I want to hold your hand.(NEWS)(Stress management in women)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... MRI scans showed that marred women in a stressful situation experienced significant stress reduction if they held their husband's hand (the happier the marriage was rated, the higher the reduction) and a lesser reduction when they held a (male) ...
Human hedgehog.(NEWS)(Guinness World Record)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Chinese acupuncturist Wei Shengchu had 1200 acupuncture needles inserted in his head in a ...
Dressing to pull.(NEWS)(females behavior during ovulation)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Around ovulation women wear more jewellery and more revealing and fashionable clothes. The findings came from a study which invited 30 female university students (age 18-37) to a laboratory several times a month for an undefined experiment,. They were asked to give urine samples and were ...