Tag: Traditional Chinese

Alexandria Alternative Medicine Practitioners

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Traditional practitioners commonly treat pain and other ailments. However, Alexandria alternative medicine practitioners offer more choices for the individual who wishes to take a different path toward wellness. Among the alternatives offered for medical treatments are acupuncture, acupressure, massage, bodywork and therapeutic massage.

Acupuncture is a Chinese medicine practice used to relieve pain. It is alternately used for therapeutic purposes. The procedure consists of inserting thin, disposable, stainless steel needles into specific points of the body in a near-painless experience. The needles are then manipulated to control what is known as “qi” or blood flow. Traditional Chinese medicine is based on treating “patterns of disharmony” instead of biomedical treatments.

Acupressure, on the other hand, can be thought of as a mixture of acupuncture and pressure together. It is another alternative medical technique that is derived from acupuncture, only physical pressure is applied to the points in the body that would normally be treated with needles during acupuncture. In acupressure, these areas are called, “acupoints.”

The practice of acupressure is controversial, as are most alternative treatments. However, many people report to have benefited from the practice.

Massage or massage therapy is another alternative medicine treatment that is used to treat stress, headaches, muscle aches and other pains, as well as for total relaxation. It is also used to alleviate lower back pain, which helps improve range of motion. Pregnant women often use massage therapy to help them during labor to have easier experiences. It also serves the purpose of helping to ease the dependence on addictive medications. The motion of massage therapy is said to enhance immunity by positively affecting the lymph flow. It has also been used to help athletes recover from injuries.

Massage therapy has also been known to help people who suffer from depression and anxiety as well as migraine headaches.

Bodywork is a therapeutic treatment that focuses on manipulating the energy fields that are associated with the body. The therapys practitioners hold the view that a lot of health conditions result from issues with the physical aspects of ones body such as tight muscles, tension or a blockage of some times. Types of bodywork include Rolfing, lymph massage, Shiatsu, lomi-lomi and other deep tissue massage techniques. This method of treatment is being used more and more in mainstream sports medicine.

Therapeutic massage is used in the same way as bodywork, but does not always include deep tissue massage. It is used to treat tension, anxiety, stress and any number of other ailments. While used in some mainstream practices, therapeutic massage is ultimately considered an alternative medicine practice.

New Breast Cancer Treatment Chinese Medicine Prevent Breast Cancer Metastasis

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Breast cancer occurs when malignant tumors form in the breast tissue. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. It is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer among women, after skin cancer. Breast cancer surgery is the main treatments, Recent studies show that the breast conservation surgery is the main model for treating stage and of breast cancer. To date, surgical resection and adjuvant radiation therapy hae been considered the traditional treatment methods for these tumors, such as Radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hormonal therapy and immune therapy. These therapies have serious side effects, These therapies damage the patient’s psychological seriously.
Combination therapy is Combined with traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine can effectively prevent the metastasis of breast cancer. Remission, CMP, the use of Chinese medicine can improve the quality of life of patients to delay or prevent the recurrence effectively. The therapeutic mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine is in many ways and also very effective for the breast cancers. TCM has shown prominent effect on treating breast cancer, especially pair herbs has done. there are rich dialectical logic content, which is the methodology basis of birth of TCM. Many concepts of TCM possess dialectical attribute. TCM can better improve the quality life in patients, to prevent breast recurrence and metastasis and prolong survival time. Improve the patients physical before surgery by using Chinese medicine. to treat dysfunction in the organs, Reduce surgical damage, Breast surgery serious harm the physical. Many patients immune system began to decline After surgery.
Traditional Chinese medicine, with a unique system of syndrome differentiation and treatment, has vital and positive roles in controlling tumor metastasis. Chinese medicine has a better regulation to the functional state of the body. Chinese medicine treatment can prevent the toxic side effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Enhance the effectiveness: use of Chinese medicine, such as Ganoderma lucidum, Astragalus, Huang Jing, Codonopsis, Atractylodes, Poria, Citrus, Pinellia clear, Gallus gallus domesticus, wolfberry fruit, Ligustrum lucidum and so on, Can significantly reduce the gastrointestinal toxicity caused by chemotherapy and bone marrow suppression response.

Chinese medicine treatment of breast cancer have a good anti-tumor effect, especially for physical weakness. The patients use Chinese medicine can achieve the purpose of controlling cancer, preventing recurrence and metastasis in the rest of chemotherapy.

immunological Infertility Looked At From The Viewpoint Of Traditional Chinese Medicine

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It is easier to understand the concept of what has come to be called Immunologic Infertility, when we look at its causes as described in Western Medical Science.

A womans ability to successfully retain the fertilized ovum and allow it to grow, depends upon a complex interplay of sophisticated immunologic adjustments designed to convert her Uterus into a host for the developing embryo and protect the developing fetus and its placenta against rejection.
Sometimes these mechanisms can go wrong; depending upon how and when this happens, the woman might experience recurrent miscarriages, infertility, or failure to conceive even after IVF.

An underlying immunological factor needs to be considered in all those cases of “unexplained infertility”, especially when a “blighted ovum” is repeatedly seen.

Western Science has thrown up a lot of evidence to show that anti-sperm antibodies can occur in both men and women and can lead to infertility. Anti-sperm antibodies are protein molecules that get attached to sperms and interfere with the sperm’s activity in any of several ways. They may immobilize sperm, cause them to clump together, limit their ability to pass through the cervical mucus, or prevent them from binding to and penetrating the egg.

Researchers have classified specific antibodies by (1) type viz. IgA, IgG and IgM and (2) the site at which they get attached to the sperm (its head, midpiece, or tail). It is seen that IgG type antibodies are most common in men while IgA type ate found in women’s cervical mucus and follicular fluid.
Binding to the head of the sperm is believed to interfere with attachment and penetration of the egg, while binding to its tail interferes with motility.

Other immunological causes involve women who produce antibodies that indirectly cause clotting in blood vessels leading to the developing fetus. The fetus is deprived of nutrients and dies in utero, which triggers an abortion.
It is now thought that between 20 and 25 percent of all repeated miscarriages are due to immunological problems.

Although several male as well as female immunological factors have been identified as causing infertility, treatment of this condition is still in its nascent stage in conventional medicine, which tends to look at problems in isolation and then proceed to treat them in similar manner.

Specific immune conditions causing infertility are not as yet adequately defined or understood and conventional treatment in suspected cases of Immune disorders is presently limited to use of Aspirin and Heparin to prevent clotting in fetal blood vessels and IVIg for controlling an immune response, often along with Steroids.

Traditional Chinese medicine, with its holistic viewpoint, though it does not mention “immunologic disorders” of course, covers a host of underlying conditions that result in infertility, and addresses what it calls the ‘imbalance’ that causes ‘disharmony’.

In the course of several years of my practice as a TCM Infertility Specialist, I have successfully tackled hundreds of so-called cases of ‘unexplained infertility’ with my custom-made Chinese herbal formulas and I suspect many of these might well have been cases in which there was a then unknown ‘immunological factor’ at work, a factor that got corrected when the underlying imbalance was removed!

Immune factors do not always manifest as physical symptoms but sometimes the following symptoms may be noticed:

Frequent miscarriages in the very early weeks
Bodyaches, PMS
Irritability and depressive episodes and /or panic attacks
Night sweats with sweating over the breast bone
Insomnia in the early mornings
Hormone levels show a decrease in every mid-cycle
Past history of hives or itchy skin
Thyroid disorders with the presence of anti-thyroid antibodies

These symptoms often translate into liver qi stagnation, and yin deficiency with heat in the heart and liver in TCM. These symptoms are further complicated by irregular menstruation and a saw-toothed, erratic BBT graph.

Several studies are now emerging about the use of Chinese herbs in this type of infertility.
www.pubmed.gov (a service of the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health) quotes the following article about the Chinese herb Ziyin jianghuo:
“According to the microcosmic Syndrome Differentiation, immunological infertility is recognised as Kidney Yin Deficiency-Hyperactivity of Fire Syndrome. Zhibai Dihuang Pills, a recipe of Chinese medicinal herbs, was used to treat the infertile couples with antisperm and/or antizona pellucida antibodies in their blood serum. It was found that after the treatment, the antibodies were converted to negative in 81.3% of immunological infertile couples. All 8 cases of successful pregnancy occurred in 1-9 months after antibodies negative conversion and the negative status was maintained throughout the course of pregnancy.”

The Ministry of Health of Chinas published Materia medica now documents over ten thousand herbal substances, most of which have been found through years of usage and experimentation in specific conditions.

Chinese herbs are mostly used in combinations of 8 or more herbs (often upto 20 herbs) and are customized into formulas for individual patients. It is therefore usual to have different herbal formulas for patients in the same clinical setting. These herbs can be dispensed in various forms. Raw herbs are mostly used in infertility conditions and taken in the form of brewed teas.

A study of immunological male infertility by Chen Xiaoping used the traditional remedy Zhibai Dihuang Wan. A control group received cortisone and vitamin C. In the herbal treatment group, autoimmunity measures decreased, sperm became more viable, and 80 percent of wives became pregnant within six months. In the control group, 46 percent of wives became pregnant.

Each herb has distinct properties regarding its energy, flavor and movement in the body. It is related to different meridians of the body, too.

Four types of energies described in TCM are cold, cool, warm and hot and the five flavors or herbs are pungent, sweet, sour, salty and bitter.

Recent studies have demonstrated that traditional Chinese medicine could regulate the gonadotropin-releasing hormone to induce ovulation and improve the uterus blood flow and menstrual changes of endometrium. In addition, it also has impacts on patients with infertility resulting from polycystic ovarian syndrome, anxiety, stress and immunological disorders. Ref. Current Opinion in Obstetrics and Gynecology: June 2008 – Volume 20 – Issue 3 – p 211-215

Western medicine often makes use of the corticosteroid group of drugs, with all there attendant dangers and disadvantages, to treat immunologic infertility.
This alone, apart from several other reasons, should encourage the use of Traditional Chinese herbal medicine, to treat such Cases and I am sure that with increased awareness about this, more and more men and women facing infertility will opt for this line of treatment, in the not-too-distant future!

Patricia Karnowski, M.S.O.M
Fertility Herbalist

Integrative Medicine and Biomedicine Whats the Difference

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What is Integrative Medicine and how does it compare to Biomedicine? Integrative Medicine and Biomedicine are both relatively new terms within the field of health and healing; however, Biomedicine appears to be a more recently evolved term, used loosely to describe medical doctors who take nutritional and even naturopathic approaches to treating patients.

Integrative Medicine is a similar, though more established term within medical science, used to describe doctors who are trained in multiple healing modalities, such as Traditional Chinese, Naturopathic, Holistic, Homeopathic, and Western Allopathic. Both Integrative and Biomedical doctors look at the larger picture of external causes when diagnosing and treating illness, but Integrative healers may take into account mental, emotional and spiritual influences, and take a more widely integrated yet individualized approach to treatment.

Many people view Integrative Medicine as the incorporation of multiple systems and practices of healing, rather than utilizing just one course of treatment, to fight a disease. But the true definition of Integrative Medicine goes much deeper than that. One aspect of Integrative Medicine does indeed include the combination of different therapies for maximum benefit. For a deeper understanding of Integrative Medicine, watch my video at www.dreliaz.org/what-is-integrative-medicine.

But rather than just incorporating an arsenal of separate and non-contraindicated medical systems such as Allopathic, Traditional Chinese, Naturopathic, etc. to work side-by-side in a patient to fight their illness, a successful integrative protocol strategically combines specific healing systems, treatment modalities and philosophies to function synergistically together on various levels. This multi-dimensional approach can truly work wonders. It enhances the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health of a patient while simultaneously fighting the disease from multiple angles, thereby providing the patient with greater opportunities for a positive clinical outcome. The use of multiple modalities, targeted herbs and supplements that have been proven to work synergistically within this holistic framework of increased health versus decreased disease, form a key cornerstone of successful Integrative Medicine.

Conventional medicine often focuses on destroying the disease, but at the same time, it may also damage the health of the patient. The main strategic goal of Integrative Medicine is to support a persons health and vitality while simultaneously fighting the disease. In Integrative Medicine, the focus is on combining the most appropriate treatments for each individual, taking into account the various environmental, physical and psycho-spiritual factors which need to be addressed. Many times, therapies will include dietary recommendations with focus on additional nutritional supplementation specific to the needs of the patient. These recommendations, based on the overarching principles of proper nutritional support for detoxification, healing and prevention, link Biomedicine and Integrative Medicine together as cutting edge, scientifically-validated branches of medicine and healing. As research continues on the importance of healthy, balanced nutrition and the benefits offered by specific dietary supplements, Biomedicine and Integrative Medicine will expand the scope and influence of their comprehensive, safe and effective strategies for healing and wellness. For more valuable health information, visit www.dreliaz.org.

Breakthrough Technology Helps Chiropractors And Other Health Providers Bring Chinese Medicine Into

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Every day thousands of people head to their chiropractor’s office for an adjustment. They have a variety of complaints and ailments and the chiropractor is there to assist them in feeling better. But what if chiropractic could be combined with other alternative therapies to assist these patients to obtain optimum health and wellness?

That’s the question that chief medical officer of Intemedica, John Diamond, is answering. Dr. Diamond, a physician trained as a pathologist, got into alternative healing almost twenty years ago as a result of his own health crises. “As far as I’m concerned, complementary and alternative medicine takes care of 80% of health issues in the general population.”

Diamond believes the medical field is about to undergo an amazing transformation in the way it operates and delivers healing to patients. He believes primary care physicians will become obsolete by the year 2015 and in their place will spring alternative healing concepts such as chiropractors, Chinese medicine practitioners, acupuncturists and naturopaths. This is in reaction to the insurance crises going on in our country today. “The way medicine is going right now we’re moving away from the disease model. We’re moving to what we call the stress and coping model.” Diamond believes that alternative and natural healing methods will best complement these changing models.

Dr. Diamond, working with other individuals, has come up with a new and fascinating way to utilize this stress and coping model with what he calls GSR biofeedback, a process similar to electro acupuncture. By simply placing a hand in an electrical cradle, the machine interrogates the patient’s body and provides a wealth of information about where the stresses are occurring in the body. Connected to a computer program, information is also compiled regarding which specific formulas of Chinese herbs would best be suited to help the patient with whatever their specific needs are – and all in about three and a half minutes.

How can chiropractors utilize this technology in their offices and how can it help them not only increase value for their patients but also increase their bottom line? According to Diamond it’s simple. “We have a whole system that is very easily put into anybody’s office with minimal outlay,” says Diamond.

Once doctors have this equipment and stock in their offices, it takes only about thirty minutes to learn how to use it. All it takes is the ability to point and click the mouse. All updates to the software are done via the internet, as well as anything that’s added to the program.

But can this program really add value to the chiropractic practice? Do alternative healing methods really work? According to Diamond the answer to both questions is a resounding yes. Any staff member, such as a chiropractic assistant, can operate the equipment, which leaves the chiropractor free to do adjustments. Also, Diamond has had independent data taken on the effectiveness of his healing methods and found that out of 100,000 patient visits over the last eighteen years, the average efficacy of his formulas was 86% – some formulas were as high as 97%. He’s also found that with the minimum outlay of investment, the average practice can see anywhere between $5-8000 a month in extra income while providing added value for their patients.

Concerning any negative side effects, Diamond also has found there are fairly few. With sensitive patients the Chinese herbs can cause gastric irritation and in some patients there may be a problem with over detoxification, but these negatives are easily resolved. Says Diamond, “Traditional Chinese medicine is easily adapted to our physiology because it’s plant based. Anything plant based we’re very used to responding to. It’s not really an issue.”

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