Herbal medicine, along with other forms of traditional medical practice, is increasing in prominence in the western developed countries. Traditional Chinese medicine, which includes herbal medicine and acupuncture, seems to be particularly popular.
In Melbourne Australia, RMIT University’s Chinese medicine program has just been designated a World Health Organisation (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Traditional Medicine. It is only the second such centre in the English-speaking world.
Director of the center and head of Chinese Medicine at RMIT, Professor Charlie Xue said its mission will be to improve quality control, increase research and clinical trials, determine better ways to regulate traditional medicine and provide education and technical support to doctors and the public.
Some traditional Chinese herbs are having a major impact on world health. The herb artemisia has been used to treat skin diseases and malaria in China for more than 1000 years and has been recommended by the WHO as a treatment for malaria in the developing world. It is currently being used in combination with Western drugs, to combat rising drug resistance in Vietnam, China and other countries. Other herbs are being considered for help managing chronic diseases such as cancer, arthritis and diabetes.
Chinese medicine considers health to involve a state of balance within the body. Herbs are used ideally in a preventative role to correct states of disequilibrium by stimulating the body in the ways required for it to correct itself and thereby head off the disease process or stop the condition. For example, Chinese herbs may be used to stimulate the immune system to kill an invading organism rather than using antibiotics.
As ideal as it might be that no one consumed pharmaceutical drugs, the fact is that very large numbers of people use such medication. It is very important to recognize that some herbal medicines interact with pharmaceuticals. Always tell your prescribing doctor about any herbal medicines you are taking or have recently used. Unfortunately your doctor may fail to ask so be sure you remember.
The Herb Health Guide provides further details about safe use of herbal medicines.
Today 10 per cent of Australians use acupuncture, and one in five GPs administers it, according to Marc Cohen, president of the Australasian Integrative Medicine Association and a professor at Melbourne’s RMIT.
Well there is a step in the right direction, lets see a few more.
Go RMIT. I look forward to some sensible research results coming from the clinical trials within the Chinese medical program.
Bart.
Absolutely Bart. I look forward to seeing their research findings too. They won’t be the only people busy researching the efficacy of herbal medicine. I think we’ll see some useful studies from Sydney University too. They offer a master’s degree course in herbal medicine there now. Keep it in mind for your gradute studies!
Peter
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Dr Peter Tylee
Editor
I was amused to notice the tentative reporting by Reuters Health on studies reported by The Cochrane Library. Notice their emphatic “may” in their lead paragraph.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Some traditional herbal medicines may — stress “may” — relieve the abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, and constipation that are the hallmarks of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), according to a comprehensive review of published studies on the topic.
There is evidence that some Chinese, Tibetan and Indian herbal medicines “improve global symptoms of IBS,” investigators write in the report, published by The Cochrane Library. However, “it is premature to recommend herbal medicines for routine use in IBS,” Dr. Jianping Liu and colleagues conclude, because many of the published studies are small and most are of generally poor quality.
There is no cure for IBS, leading many sufferers to try herbal remedies to find relief. To gauge the effectiveness of herbal medicines for IBS, Liu and colleagues identified and systematically reviewed 75 published studies evaluating the effects of 71 different herbal preparations including single herbs or standard herb mixtures. These studies included more than 7,900 IBS patients.
Compared to treatment with an inactive placebo, several herbal medicines produced significant improvement in global IBS symptoms, the authors report. These include a standard Chinese herbal formula and individualized Chinese herbal medicines, STW 5 and STW 5-II; the Tibetan herbal medicine Padma Lax; the traditional Chinese formula Tongxie Yaofang; and the Indian Ayurvedic preparation of two herbs.
In six small trials, a combination herbal medicine and conventional medicine produced greater benefits than conventional therapies alone. Studies are needed to confirm this observation, Liu and colleagues caution.
While none of the trials reported serious side effects with the use of herbal medicines for IBS, more research is needed to determine the safety of herbal medicines in IBS patients, the authors warn.
“There is a great need for further rigorously conducted trials that look to see whether it is possible to replicate these positive effects,” said Liu, who works both at the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine and at the National Research Center in Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the University of Tromso, Norway.
SOURCE: The Cochrane Library 2006.
Peter
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Dr Peter Tylee
Editor