TRADITIONAL PLANT MEDICINE

  A contagious illness called coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The majority of virus-infected individuals will experience a mild to severe respiratory disease and will recover without the need for special care. However, some people will get serious illnesses and need to see a doctor. Serious sickness is more likely to strike older persons and those with underlying medical illnesses including cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or chronic respiratory diseases. COVID-19 can cause anyone to become very ill or pass away at any age. There isn't a specific treatment for COVID-19 at the moment. Additionally, community members and experts are looking for the best way to treat or prevent the illness, including employing herbal remedies. An herbal remedy with an immunomodulatory impact may have potential as a preventive strategy or possibly a therapeutic agent for patients with COVID-19 infection because the immunological status of patients plays a ...

Among patients with chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), acupuncture enhanced structural regeneration of the sural nerve, according to study findings published in the journal  Phytomedicine . Chemotherapeutic agents cause cellular and DNA damage and inflammation which evoke peripheral nerve degeneration and small fiber neuropathy. Previous research has indicated that acupuncture may be beneficial among patients with neuropathy. To evaluate whether acupuncture may improve symptoms of CIPN, the Acupuncture for Chemotherapy-Induced Neuropathy (ACICIN) study was conducted between 2012 and 2015 at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany. This prospective, controlled, randomized, 2-armed, cross-over study recruited 60 patients with CIPN. Patients received weekly acupuncture for 10 weeks before or after a 10-week waiting period. Patients were evaluated for change in sural sensory nerve action potential (SNAP), sural sensory nerve conduction velocity (...

Acupuncture was first introduced to America in 1971 after President Richard Nixon visited China. James Reston was a New York Times journalist who suffered appendicitis during his trip with Nixon to China. Reston had a typical appendectomy, but the only difference was he did not receive anesthesia. Instead, Reston received a few acupuncture needles which kept him painless during the surgery. After he returned to the U.S., Reston wrote an article in  The New York Times  about his experience with acupuncture, which triggered a broad interest in acupuncture in the U.S. since. Over the past 50 years, we have learned much more about acupuncture. Acupuncture is a medical approach that treats disease at the energy level. Currently, modern medical technology does not have a reliable treatment protocol to treat energy, which has increased interest in acupuncture in recent years. The energy of our body is invisible and hard to quantify, but we can feel its existence. Like our physical an...

Anecdotal evidence and some research suggest acupuncture can effectively treat insomnia. If you’re one of the tens of millions of people in the U.S. who suffer from insomnia – which is difficulty falling and/or staying asleep – could acupuncture be an effective treatment? Overall, 50 to 70 million U.S. adults have a sleep disorder, according to the American Sleep Association. Thirty percent of U.S. adults suffer from short-term insomnia, which is typically defined as a condition that lasts three months or less, while 10% of adults have chronic insomnia, which lasts longer. There’s anecdotal evidence – and some research – that suggests that acupuncture can help with insomnia and achieving better sleep, says Gracia Tharp, lead acupuncturist and teaching associate at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Washington. Acupuncture is a component of traditional Chinese medicine that involves the insertion of very thin needles through the skin at specific poin...

Mistletoe’s medicinal quality depends on the environment of its host plant, discover researchers from China and the UK. Asian Scientist Magazine (Jun. 29, 2022) —  Imagine a dull joint soreness when you wake up in the morning or a feeling that your knees ache right before it rains. For many, this is what  arthralgia  (joint pain) feels like. Globally, more than 6 billion people turn to traditional medicine for common ailments like arthralgia. Recognizing the importance of traditional medicine, the World Health Organization (WHO) established a  global center for traditional medicine  this year in India. Taking the traditional medicine research forward in Asia, a team of scientists studied a plant  Viscum coloratum  or mistletoe, which is popular in Traditional Chinese Medicine. The team led by researcher Dr. Yun-Li Zhao discovered that  Viscum coloratum ’s medicinal properties are affected by the environment and its host plant. The study ...

Medicines have been extracted from plants for thousands of years and new ones are still being discovered. Here are several plant extracts with robust medical benefits.  Humans have been extracting the healing properties of plants for thousands of years. Although herbal  remedies  are often discounted as unscientific, more than one-third of modern drugs are derived either directly or indirectly from natural products, such as plants, microorganisms and animals. Now, researchers from the Scripps Research Institute in the US state of California have found that a  chemical extracted  from the bark of the Galbulimima belgraveana tree has psychotropic effects that could help treat depression and anxiety. The tree is found only in remote rainforests of Papua New Guinea and northern Australia and has long been used by indigenous people as a healing remedy against  pain and fever . Anyone interested in the development of traditional and plant medicines should not mis...