Campaign To Raise Awareness Of Traditional Medicine

Heightening consumer awareness about Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) use is the aim of a drive by the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE), the organization said Monday.

A code of practise is needed on the way TCM is promoted in the city-state, said CASE President Yeo Guat Kwang.

CASE plans to work with TCM retailers to raise awareness about the origins of various remedies and their prices.

Lee Tiong Sa, chairman of the Singapore Traditional Medicine Organizations, told The Straits Times that closer cooperation will allow it to respond faster to complaints brought to CASE.

Most TCMs sold in the city-state have undergone checks by authorities, he said, but warned consumers to be wary about drugs sold in makeshift stalls as they may not have passed through proper channels.

Case received 20,000 complaints last year.

Tamworth Acupuncture practitioner shows success with Lichfield, Staffordshire acupuncture patients

Acupuncture is a long establishes method of treating a variety of complaints and disorders. Many medical conditions which are difficult to treat with western medicine seem to respond well to acupuncture treatments.

Acupuncture practitioner Maddy Sharp based at Atlas Pain Relief Centre in Tamworth, Staffordshire has been treating many of these difficult conditions with great success.

Emotional, digestive and hormonal conditions are just some of the conditions that have been helped by receiving acupuncture treatments.

Maddy is available for Lichfield, Tamworth and Sutton Coldfield patients who need help and can be contacted at the Tamworth clinic by telephoning 01827 59943 or visiting the website www.atlaspainrelief.com

Acupuncture success stories are highlighted by testimonials from delighted customers who have received benefit from acupuncture treatments with Maddy Sharp.

Madeleine Sharp

BA (Hons) LicAc MBAcC

Traditional Acupuncture Practitioner

Female aged 36

Presenting condition: Brittle Asthma

My first treatment with Maddy was over three years ago now, I had been diagnosed with Brittle Asthma by my consultant and had suffered several, potentially life threatening, attacks. I was taking the maximum dose of all medication prescribed including steroids which were making me put on vast amounts of weight. I would struggle into the clinic and have to use my inhaler just to enable me to get onto the treatment couch breathless and exhausted.

I understood from Maddy that there was no “quick fix” for my condition but slowly, after weekly treatment for several months my condition certainly did improve along with my general health and state of mind.

I continue to have “top up” treatments once every six weeks or so to maintain my health; I no longer have to take the vast amounts of medication I was on, I lead an active and “normal” life and just use my inhalers very occasionally. I firmly believe that acupuncture turned my life around at a time when my health was deteriorating dramatically.

Male aged 38

Presenting condition: IBS

I knew my diet wasn’t great and the beer and curries at the weekends always made things a lot worse but this irritable bowel thing was beginning to really bug me, my sister was seeing Maddy for her migraines and persuaded me to go along.

I didn’t like the thought of needles at all and some of them certainly give off a “sensation” as Maddy calls it, but I actually began to enjoy the sessions and the acupuncture certainly settled things down, I felt really calm and relaxed after treatment and the IBS was much improved – Maddy encouraged me to look at my diet and life style which has also helped.

I continue to have “seasonal treatments” once every couple of months to keep things in check.

Massage and Acupuncture Reduce Pain After Cancer Surgery

Massage and acupuncture are effective in decreasing pain and depression following surgery in cancer patients, according to a UCSF study.

The findings of the randomized controlled clinical trial are reported in the March 2007 issue of the "Journal of Pain and Symptom Management."

"This pilot study confirmed that pain after surgery decreased when patients underwent a combination of massage and acupuncture. This is a significant finding because there are implications for further study to see if these therapies should be offered to hospitalized patients for symptom management," said Dr. Wolf Mehling, lead author and UCSF assistant professor of family and community medicine.

The study compared the post-operative symptoms of pain, nausea and mood and the cost of symptom-related medications in two groups of hospitalized patients during the first three days after cancer-related surgery. One group underwent a combination of massage and acupuncture in addition to usual care, and one group had usual care alone. Usual care is defined as traditional treatment through medication.

Study results showed a greater decrease in both pain and depressive mood in the group that underwent massage/acupuncture therapy along with usual care. The study was conducted at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine.

According to Mehling, 40 percent of people with cancer are treated with complementary and alternative medicine therapies. Although the measurable benefits of these therapies have been promising, there have been no conclusive results, he said.

"The combination of massage and acupuncture for symptom management in perioperative cancer patients has never been studied," said Mehling. "We know that integration of these therapies has shown short-term benefit on psychological well-being, but there has not been strong evidence to support it until now."

In the study, cancer surgery was characterized as any surgery related to a diagnosis of malignancy: mastectomy or reconstructive surgery for breast cancer; abdominal surgery for intestinal or hepatic malignancies; pelvic surgery for ovarian, uterine or cervical malignancies; urological surgery for testicular, prostate, bladder or renal malignancies; and head and neck cancer surgery.

During the three-day post-operative period, patients used an 11-point (0-10) numeric rating scale to rank severity of current pain and of pain during the previous 24 hours.

"There was quite a variance when it came to level of pain for each patient. Patients who were very well medicated for pain and nausea still experienced dramatic ups and downs during their post-operative days," Mehling said. "Getting up from bed for the first time after abdominal surgery or having a catheter removed probably contributed to the patients pain rating. For patients who received acupuncture and massage its possible that this personal attention contributed to a marked decrease in anxiety."

Patients received Swedish massage, which involves kneading and applying long strokes to soft tissue and muscles, and an acupressure-type (shiatsu) foot massage for 10-30 minutes depending on their clinical needs and condition. Acupuncture treatment was based on the traditional Chinese medicine standardized core set of acupuncture points and was used to treat pain, nausea and anxiety.

"Pain decreased for those in the intervention group more than for those in the control group," said Mehling. "Looking at an average pain baseline score, we found 1.1 point improvement in pain level on the first post-operative day for the group given massage and acupuncture, and only 0.1 point improvement in the control group that did not have intervention. Over the three days of the study, the average scores among patients reporting significant pain improved by 1.8 for the massage and acupuncture group compared to 0.3 in the control group."

Pain ratings also differed according to the type of cancer surgery.

"We found the strongest improvement for pain among patients undergoing either prostate and testicular surgery or gastro-intestinal and gynecological cancer surgery, but therapies were not as beneficial for patients treated for kidney or bladder cancer," he said.

Costs were compared for the entire post-operative hospital stay for all variables except medications, which were compared for the first three post-operative days only.

"Given the limited data, we could not find any cost saving benefits after application of these therapies, except for a reduction in anti-anxiety/sleep medication costs," he said. "This preliminary data suggests looking at this further, with a larger control group and an ability to better assess individual medication usage."

source : http://www.emaxhealth.com/6/10664.html

African Reliance On Traditional Medicine For The Treatment Of HIV/AIDS

A paper by Aceme Nyika, published this week in Developing World Bioethics examines the reliance on traditional medicine by HIV/AIDS sufferers in Africa, due to the affordability of traditional medicine in comparison to orthodox medicine.

Despite recent calls for traditional medicine to be subjected to the same stringent regulations and ethical guidelines as orthodox medicine, traditional medicine is treated with relative laxity especially where ethical and regulatory issues are concerned.

Given that about 80% of Africans rely on traditional medicines, the author of the paper, Dr Aceme Nyika from the South African Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in Southern Africa, warns that 'there are loopholes in the practice of African traditional medicine that have the potential to expose patients to harm.'

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