April Fools ;)

China Gives Limited Approval to Western Medicine

China Gives Limited Approval to Western Medicine
(humor, fictitious, April Fools!, author unknown)
Sin Hua, China News Agency, April 1, 2001

At the conclusion of a 3-day meeting held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, March 28-30, an elite panel of 12 Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioners declared, "There is sufficient evidence of Western Medicine's effectiveness to expand its use into TCM and to encourage further studies of its physiology and clinical value". "In particular", the panel's report stated, "Western Medicine shows promise as adjunctive treatment to TCM. As a stand-alone medicine, however, its efficacy is mainly in the areas of acute and catastrophic care that comprise a relatively minor percentage of total patient complaints."

The consensus report was particularly critical of biomedical research design, since the panel had based their assessments solely on data from randomized controlled trials. Key points of the critique were:

Biomedical trials are designed to determine the mean response to treatment. This outcome is of limited value to TCM practitioners who are trained to devise individualized treatment protocols. Biomedical trials test one drug at a time. This approach is bound to reveal unwanted side effects. In contrast, TCM seeks combinations of herbs to balance out adverse effects of individual herbs.

Diseases chosen for study in biomedical research are, too often, imprecise collections of symptoms, such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. These categorizations lump together different conditions that are readily distinguishable by TCM diagnosis.

"It is also our impression", the report continued, "that Western Medicine is based in a belief system that is powerfully reinforced by the large sums of money patients and insurance companies are willing to pay for treatment."

"We strongly recommend", the panel concluded, "that patients should be treated with Western Medicine only on a referral basis from a practitioner of TCM".

The most significant recommendation of this group is that only qualified TCM practitioners should be allowed to practice conventional medicine. There should, in effect, be no 'lay' doctors. In light of this, T.C.M. practitioners are advised to acquire at least 200 hours training in order to competently practice conventional medicine.

The Vulcan Mind Meld

As some of you may know I write for the blog Hopefulparents once a month. This is a great blog dedicated to parents of children with special needs. This was my latest post for the site and I thought my readers here might enjoy it.

Are there any Star Trek fans out there? Well, I am one, of both the original and The Next Generation. Going back decades (but that’s why reruns are a wonderful

Acupuncture Can Cool Down Hot Flashes

A new study shows the benefits of acupuncture for relieving menopausal symptoms. The report, published in the journal Acupuncture in Medicine, found that acupuncture reduced the psychological and physical effects of menopause.

The research included 53 postmenopausal women and assigned 27 of them to a five-week course of acupuncture, twice a week. The rest of the women got sham treatments.

Sleep Tight!: New Study Shows Chinese Herbal Medicine Works for Sleep Difficulty

A prospective follow-up study evaluating the efficacy and safety of the popular Chinese herbal preparation Suan Zao Ren Tang (SZRT) found a significant reduction of sleep disturbances and daytime dysfunction in women undergoing climacteric change (aka: the menopausal era) after four weeks of therapy. Several self-report scales were used to measure outcomes including the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL) assessment, and the Menopause Rating Scale (MRS). Results indicate that the more severe the symptoms, the more noticeable the alleviation o disturbance. Out of the 67 patients who began the study, 3 withdrew after reporting stomachache, diarrhea, or dizziness. These side effects may have been avoided by simultaneous administration with food or with dose adjustment. This is an excellent indication that SZRT, which has been used clinically for over a millennium, has a measurable and statistically significant benefit. Further large scale double-blind, randomized-controled studies may be developed based on this research to compare the efficacy of SZRT to placebo or other pharmaceutical or medicinal therapies.

Suan Zao Ren Tang as an original treatment for sleep difficulty in climacteric women: a prospective clinical observation by Chia-Hao Yeh, Christof K. Arnold,Yen-Hui Chen, and Jung-Nein Lai was published in the March 2011 issue of Evidenced-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Acupuncture With Jenny Dubowsky, A Massage Therapist’s Perspective

By Sue Shekut, Licensed Massage Therapist, Owner, Working Well Massage  ACSM Personal Trainer, Certified Wellness Coach

By the time I met Jennifer Dubowsky, I had already been happily receiving acupuncture for many years. Jenny joined our River North  Wellness Center group 10 years ago, right around the time I was opening up my own massage therapy practice. I received some treatments from

Treat Yourself, Help Others

  Join Us on Thursday, March 24th, from 10am - 4 pm at 325 W. Huron Street. We will be happy to provide and demonstrate some of our services as we raise money for The Greater Chicago Food Depository.    
River North Wellness Center is offering a day of free services and, in return, is asking for a monetary donation to the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Just like the need for good health is

Celebrity Chinese Medicine Enthusiasts

When you and I have a great acupuncture treatment, we tell a couple of friends or family members. When celebrities have success with this ancient technique, their publicists tweet thousands of fans and the media writes article about it. Just to keep you up to date, here are some of the celebrity enthusiasts.

On 8/27/10, the Associated Press reported that Kim Clijsters, the former No. 1 ranked

Prevent Flu & Fever in a simple way

Some friends from the net wish to know how they can prevent themselves from being attack by flu or fever viruses. I can fully understand the need of many working people for maintaining a strong immune system while coping with the work loads they have in office.

As you work in the office where the central Air condition system keep on ventilating the "old" air, it is possible when one of your colleague caught a cold, then the viruses can widely spread out to every corner of your office. As a result of that, sooner you will notice many of your colleagues finally become a loser in the battle of flu.

One patient came to my clinic, he had been very sick since last month he caught a cold. He visited a Chinese Medicine Sensei (master) 2 weeks ago. According to this Sensei's prescription, he need to take Propolis (蜂胶) to enhance the natural immunity,Cordyeps sinensis (冬虫夏草) to consolidate and restore the weak body, and not to forget to drink Bird Nest soup (燕窝) for 7 days.

I ask him, how much did this Sensei ask for those Medicine? He finally told me that medicine cost him Rm2000!

In my opinion, the medicine is too expensive. If we can use cheaper herbs to heal our patients effectively, why we have to use Propolis (蜂胶), Cordyeps sinensis (冬虫夏草) and Bird Nest(燕窝)?

Since everyone want to know how to boost up immune system, to prevent ourselves from getting flu or fever. I will give you a Chinese Medicine formula that can give you better effect yet not that cosy.

Anti-Flu & Fever Chinese Medicine soup:

Cinnamomum cassia Pres (桂枝) 10g
Schizonepeta tenuifolia Briq.(荆芥) 10g
Saposhnikovia divaricata(Turez.)Schischk. (防风) 10g
Pueraria thomsonii Benth.(葛根) 15g
Bupleurum chinensis DC.(柴胡) 6g
Raeonia lactiflora pall.(芍药) 6g
Angelica dahurica (Fisch.ex Hoffm.)Benth.et Hook.f. (白芷) 10g
Notopterygium incisum Tncisum Ting ex H.Chang (羌活) 10g
Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch (甘草) 6g
Zingiber officinale Rosc. (生姜) 9g
Ziziphus jujuba Mill. (大枣) 6 units

This Chinese Medicine soup suitable for people to prevent Flu & Fever. Consume this soup when you feel dizzy, tired, shoulder pain or back ache, afraid of cold wind, starting to sneeze, or any abnormal signs of you might fall in sick. You can buy this from the local Chinese Medicine shop, 1 packet is around Rm5-7, each day take 1 packet. For prevention, you can have 3 packets for 3 days in a row. For those who find boiling herbal soup is a bit of inconvenience, you can buy the above Chinese Medicine soup in concentrated pills from me, 1 bottle is Rm20 (for at least 10 days). This is more easy for you to take your medicine any occasion, any time as you like. Like I say, you don't need to drive out to seek for Chinese Medicine shop just to buy those Chinese herbs, and not to mention the waste of time and efforts you spend on boiling the soup.

If you wish to know more about your body types or have a more detailed health diagnosis from me, I welcome you to my clinic, and we will discuss further more on how to improve your health better by personalized Traditional Chinese Medicine program.


From,
Alexander Ho

Relationships That Go Bad, Slowly

By Dr. Linda Edelstein, who has a wonderful blog, Life Ain't For Sissies.
Remember the story about the frog in the pot of water? No? Here it is…Put a frog in a pot of water on the stove – if the water is hot, the frog will jump out. Put a frog in a cool pot of water, heat it by degrees, and you get boiled frog. I use the story to talk about relationships –  ah, there was a connection.

If

Take A Moment To Be Grateful For Your Friends

 
"A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out."~ Walter Winchell

The Gardacil Debate

As a Western and Eastern medicine provider that focuses on health promotion and disease prevention, I strongly hope for that the quest for the ultimate cancer vaccine will end for the good and we will all get our shot, go home, and be healthy. I also strongly advocate for due diligence in researching any substance you plan to put into your body rather than succumbing to emotional fear tactics used to convince you that taking, or not taking, a particular regimen makes you ignorant and irresponsible.

Vaccination for HPV and cervical cancer is something parents and individuals need to decide in partnership with their provider. However, I have to voice my own irritability at the manner in with Merck initially used their "One Less" campaign to insinuate getting the vaccine for your daughter made you a responsible parent because it would prevent her from contracting HPV or cervical cancer ever . . . mostly. I found it interesting that, unlike commercials for other pharmaceutical products where use in conjunction with lifestyle recommendations are made, this one left out safe sexual practices as a means of prevention. I am also piqued that even though Garacil has been approved for use in males, it is not getting the same goose-for-gander recommendation for vaccination (it reminds me of the very old condom commercials that told young men not to let the women stop you from using one . . . as if women are the ultimate apple-wielding culprits of STIs!).

For those who are or have children ages 9-26 who want to look at both sides of the propaganda campaigns, here are some resources.

CDC Information on Gardacil

Merck's Gardacil Page (remember Vioxx?)

Truth About Gardacil (remember when the MMR caused Autism?)

One More Girl Pledge Page

My First Experiences With Acupuncture~From Disbeliever to Passionate Convert

By Sue Shekut, Licensed Massage Therapist, Owner Working Well Massage,  ACSM Personal Trainer, Certified Wellness Coach.

I admit, I was skeptical of Acupuncture at first. I grew up in a very Western medical household and wasn’t sure if it was a legitimate treatment. (My mom was a nurse and my brother is a doctor.) I’d already had good experience with chiropractic though and I was desperate for