Chinese therapies

Michael Lemer is keen on vations Chinese therapies, herbal and otherwise, and in particular on what is called qi gong (Lemer, 1994, pp 387-393). Qi gong is a psychophysiological therapy, akin to yoga, which is easier described than explained. The explanation involves the mind-body connection. 

In HBeAg-negative patients, 12 weeks of lamivudine monotherapy followed by 36 months of pegylated lFN-a2b therapy (including 3 months of concomitant administration) has been compared with 48 weeks of lamivudine monotherapy (Vassiliadis et al. 2007). At the end of follow-up, the rate of ALT normalization was significantly higher with the sequential therapy than with lamivudine alone. No difference in the proportion of patients with undetectable HBV DNA was observed. Similar results were obtained in a Chinese cohort study (Shi et al. 2006). 

Lee, S. (1993). Side effect of chronic lithium therapy in Hong Kong Chinese an ethnopsychiatric perspective. Cult. Med. Psychiatry, 17, 301-20. 

Borchardt, J.K. Traditional Chinese drug therapy. Drug News Perspect 16, no. 10 (Dec 2003) 698-702. 

More than 4,000 years old, traditional Chinese medicine continues to be widely practiced in China and in western countries. Traditional Chinese medicine teaches that good health is the result of harmony and balance between five basic elements earth, water, fire, wood and metal. Also important to health are the two types of energy Yin and Yang, constituting a vital substance that circulates through the body. Drug therapy has been one of the means used in Chinese medicine to keep these elements and the flow of energy in balance. Many of the same herbs used thousands of years ago in China could be the source of new pharmaceuticals in Western medicine... 

Approximately 11000 cancer patients with various kinds of tumors have been treated with electrochemical therapy (ECT). This immense task was accomplished by training 2300 medical doctors through more than 150 ECT training courses between 1987-2001. There have been more than 1300 hospital and clinics in China offering ECT treatment over the past fifteen years. Although most of the treated patients were Chinese, a number of them also came from Europe, Australia, U.S.A., and Japan. 

How do traditional remedies fare in such trials Some perform quite well and prove to be highly effective, but others are no better than placebos. One striking success is an extract of sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua), which Chinese physicians have prescribed for the chills and fevers of malaria for more than two thousand years. About twenty-five years ago, Chinese chemists obtained from sweet wormwood its principal active component, a compound now called artemisinin. Clinical trials on malaria patients in Southeast Asia agreed with Chinese tradition on the value of artemisinin and also identified a few even more useful drugs prepared from it in the laboratory. These compounds are effective against the deadliest form of malaria and are now frequently the therapies of choice for treating it. 

Remedies that fail to survive stringent examination are by no means limited to Chinese or other traditional sources. The United States has a long history of unorthodox medications, many of them based on plant extracts. Cancer and rheumatoid arthritis seem to attract especial attention, perhaps because orthodox therapies frequently offer little relief from these afflictions. In controlled testing, many widely touted novel medications perform no better than placebos. Proponents of such alternative treatments have often complained that their medications were unfairly denounced and that they were victimized by the medical establishment. 

More and more Americans are turning to alternative medicine. The ancient art of aromatherapy has gained a tremendous following, particularly on the West Coast. Acupuncture, the traditional Chinese art of needle therapy, has doubled its number of active practitioners in the past decade. And holistic medicine—treating the whole body instead of just one part—is so popular that some HMOs now even pay for holistic care. 

Li WL, Zheng HC, Bnknrn J. De Kimpe N. (2004) Natnral medicines used in the traditional Chinese medical system for therapy of diabetes mellitus. 

A point that is often forgotten in westernized medicine is that of the approximate 7 billion people in the world at this moment, more than 80% of them do not have routine access to drugs as they are defined in Western medicine, but rely upon predominately plant-based therapies as their sources of medicinal agents. Even in areas of the world where single agent drugs are available, traditional therapeutic regimens such as Ayurveda in India, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Japanese and Korean herbals are still the major source of medicinals. 

Skolnick AA, Old herbal Chinese medicine used for fever yields possible nev f Alzheimer disease therapy, JAMA 277 776, 1997. 

Cisplatin was first characterized as a radiation sensitizer using hypoxic Bacillus megaterium spores (53). Radiation sensitization by cisplatin was confirmed in vegetative Escherichia coli with a maximum sensitizer enhancement ratio of 1.77 in anoxic bacteria at a cisplatin concentration of 50 uM (54). Zimbrick et al. (55) extended these studies to other platinum complexes. The earliest studies in mammalian cells used hypoxic V-79 Chinese hamster cells and showed a small radiation sensitization with 8 iM of cisplatin (56). Nias and Szumiel (57) first reported that pretreatment of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells with a platinum complex could sensitize well-oxygenated cells to radiation. Wodinsky etal. (58) showed that cisplatin potentiated the effect of whole-body radiation therapy in mice inoculated intraperitoneally with P388 leukemia compared with either modality alone. Therapeutic potentiation was found in MTG-B subcutaneous tumors and intracerebral RBT when the animals were treated with cisplatin and radiation (59). 

Schramm, G. Plant and animal drugs of the old Chinese material medica in the therapy of pulmonary tuberculosis. Planta Med 1956 4(4) 97-104. 

Camptothecin, an alkaloid isolated from a Chinese tree Camptotheca acuminate), is a potent cytotoxic agent, acting by the inhibition of DNA topoisomerase I. Derivatives that are fluorinated on the aromatic ring A have been studied, leading to two drug candidates for cancer therapies (Figure 8.7) ° exatecan is in Phase IB development,and diflomotecan is an E-homocamptothecin currently in Phase II trials for several solid cancers. 

According to one estimate, the total dose of enzyme needed for each patient requires extraction of material from approximately 50,000 placentae or 100 millions placentae for the 2000 patients currently on enzyme replacement therapy. With the gene cloned and expressed in large quantities in a fully glycosylated human recombinant form in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, the availability of the enzyme is less restricted. However, the cost of manufacturing remains high, partly due to the relatively high dose of enzyme needed to produce therapeutic effects. Annual cost of enzyme replacement therapy may be upward of 80,000 for each patient. 

Shibata, S. 1979. The chemistry of Chinese drugs. Am. J. Chin. Med. 7(2) 103-141. Cheng, J. T. 2000. Review drug therapy in Chinese traditional medicine. J. Clin. Pharmacol. 40 445-450. 

Since the Kidney-Qi and essence are inherited from our parents and do not increase after we are born, tonifying the Kidney cannot be achieved in a short period of time. However, with this idea in mind, we can take steps to conserve our Kidney-Qi and essence throughout our lifetime. There are many ways to tonify and protect the Kidney, such as Chinese herbal therapy, Qi Gong exercise, Chinese dietary therapy and a healthy lifestyle. All of these can prevent disease, maintain health and ensure longevity. By this means, a person with a weak constitution can live a happy and healthy life, and someone with a strong constitution can live longer than average. 

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