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Herbs at a Glance Update: Black Cohosh
Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:41:27 -0500
This fact sheet provides basic information about the black cohosh—common names, uses, potential side effects, and resources for more information. Black cohosh, a member of the buttercup family, is a plant native to North America. It was used in Native American medicine and was a home remedy in 19th-century America.What It Is Used ForBlack cohosh has a history of use for rheumatism (arthritis and muscle pain) but has been used more recently to treat hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness, and other symptoms that can occur during menopause.Black cohosh has also been used for menstrual irregularities and premenstrual syndrome, and to induce labor.
December 1 Is World AIDS Day
Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:20:34 -0500
AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. By killing or damaging cells of the body's immune system, HIV progressively destroys the body's ability to fight infections and certain cancers. These infections are caused by viruses or bacteria that usually do not make healthy people sick.Many people infected with HIV or living with AIDS may be considering the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to boost their immune system; treat complications of disease; or cope with side effects of conventional medications.
Ginkgo Evaluation of Memory (GEM) Study Fails To Show Benefit in Preventing Dementia in the Elderly
Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:24:53 -0500
In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, 240 milligrams per day of the dietary supplement Ginkgo biloba was found to be ineffective in reducing the development of dementia and Alzheimer's disease in older people. Researchers led by Steven T. DeKosky, M.D., conducted the trial known as the Ginkgo Evaluation of Memory (GEM) study at four clinical sites over the course of 8 years. GEM is the largest clinical trial ever to evaluate ginkgo's effect on the occurrence of dementia.Press Release—summary of results of the studyQuestions and Answers—detailed background information on the study
Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine - current issue
eCAM: An Emerging Linkage with Ethnopharmacology?
Cooper, E. L. Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0000
Second World Ayurveda Congress (Theme: Ayurveda for the Future)--Inaugural Address: Part III
Mashelkar, R. A. Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0000
A Review of CAM for Procedural Pain in Infancy: Part I. Sucrose and Non-nutritive Sucking
Tsao, J. C. I., Evans, S., Meldrum, M., Altman, T., Zeltzer, L. K. Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0000
There is increasing concern regarding the number of painful medical procedures that infants must undergo and the potential risks of alleviating infant pain with conventional pharmacologic agents. This article is Part I of a two-part series that aims to provide an overview of the literature on complementary and alternative (CAM) approaches for pain and distress related to medical procedures among infants up to six weeks of age. The focus of this article is a review of the empirical literature on sucrose with or without non-nutritive sucking (NNS) for procedural pain in infancy. Computerized databases were searched for relevant studies including prior reviews and primary trials. The most robust evidence was found for the analgesic effects of sucrose with or without NNS on minor procedural pain in healthy full-term infants. Despite some methodological weaknesses, the literature to date supports the use of sucrose, NNS and other sweetened solutions for the management of procedural pain in infancy.
BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine - Latest articles
Petiveria alliacea extracts uses multiple mechanisms to inhibit growth of human and mouse tumoral cells
Claudia P Uruena, Claudia Cifuentes, Diana M Castaneda, Amparo D Arango, Punit Kaur, Alexzander A Asea and Susana Fiorentino Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0000
Background: There is ethnopharmacological evidence that Petiveria alliacea can have antitumor activity; however, the mechanism of its cytotoxic activity is not well understood. We assessed multiple in vitro biological activities of an ethyl acetate soluble plant fraction over several tumor cell lines. Methods: Tumor cell lines were evaluated using the following tests: trypan blue exclusion test, MTT [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide], flow cytometry, cytoskeleton organization analysis, cell cycle, mitochondria membrane depolarization, clonogenicity test, DNA fragmentation test and differential protein expression by HPLC-Chip/MS analysis. F4 fraction characterization was made by HPLC-MS. Results: Petiveria alliacea fraction characterized by de-replication was found to alter actin cytoskeleton organization, induce G2 cell cycle arrest and cause apoptotic cell death in a mitochondria independent way. In addition, we found down regulation of cytoskeleton, chaperone, signal transduction proteins, and proteins involved in metabolic pathways. Finally up regulation of proteins involved in translation and intracellular degradation was also observed. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that Petiveria alliacea exerts multiple biological activities in vitro consistent with cytotoxicity. Further studies in animal models are needed but Petiveria alliacea appears to be a good candidate to be used as an antitumor agent.
Induction of apoptosis of human primary osteoclasts treated with extracts from the medicinal plant Emblica officinalis
Letizia Penolazzi, Ilaria Lampronti, Monica Borgatti, Mahmud Tareq Hassan Khan, Margherita Zennaro, Roberta Piva and Roberto Gambari Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0000
Background: Osteoclasts (OCs) are involved in rheumatoid arthritis and in several pathologies associated with bone loss. Recent results support the concept that some medicinal plants and derived natural products are of great interest for developing therapeutic strategies against bone disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis. In this study we determined whether extracts of Emblica officinalis fruits display activity of possible interest for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis by activating programmed cell death of human primary osteoclasts. Methods: The effects of extracts from Emblica officinalis on differentiation and survival of human primary OCs cultures obtained from peripheral blood were determined by tartrate-acid resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP)-positivity and colorimetric MTT assay. The effects of Emblica officinalis extracts on induction of OCs apoptosis were studied using TUNEL and immunocytochemical analysis of FAS receptor expression. Finally, in vitro effects of Emblica officinalis extracts on NF-kB transcription factor activity were determined by gel shift experiments. Results: Extracts of Emblica officinalis were able to induce programmed cell death of mature OCs, without altering, at the concentrations employed in our study, the process of osteoclastogenesis. Emblica officinalis increased the expression levels of Fas, a critical member of the apoptotic pathway. Gel shift experiments demonstrated that Emblica officinalis extracts act by interfering with NF-kB activity, a transcription factor involved in osteoclast biology. The data obtained demonstrate that Emblica officinalis extracts selectively compete with the binding of transcription factor NF-kB to its specific target DNA sequences. This effect might explain the observed effects of Emblica officinalis on the expression levels of interleukin-6, a NF-kB specific target gene. Conclusion: Induction of apoptosis of osteoclasts could be an important strategy both in interfering with rheumatoid arthritis complications of the bone skeleton leading to joint destruction, and preventing and reducing osteoporosis. Accordingly, we suggest the application of Emblica officinalis extracts as an alternative tool for therapy applied to bone diseases.
TCMGeneDIT: a database for associated traditional Chinese medicine, gene and disease information using text mining
Yu-Ching Fang, Hsuan-Cheng Huang, Hsin-Hsi Chen and Hsueh-Fen Juan Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0000
Background: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), a complementary and alternative medical system in Western countries, has been used to treat various diseases over thousands of years in East Asian countries. In recent years, many herbal medicines were found to exhibit a variety of effects through regulating a wide range of gene expressions or protein activities. As available TCM data continue to accumulate rapidly, an urgent need for exploring these resources systematically is imperative, so as to effectively utilize the large volume of literature. Methods: TCM, gene, disease, biological pathway and protein-protein interaction information were collected from public databases. For association discovery, the TCM names, gene names, disease names, TCM ingredients and effects were used to annotate the literature corpus obtained from PubMed. The concept to mine entity associations was based on hypothesis testing and collocation analysis. The annotated corpus was processed with natural language processing tools and rule-based approaches were applied to the sentences for extracting the relations between TCM effecters and effects. Results: We developed a database, TCMGeneDIT, to provide association information about TCMs, genes, diseases, TCM effects and TCM ingredients mined from vast amount of biomedical literature. Integrated protein-protein interaction and biological pathways information are also available for exploring the regulations of genes associated with TCM curative effects. In addition, the transitive relationships among genes, TCMs and diseases could be inferred through the shared intermediates. Furthermore, TCMGeneDIT is useful in understanding the possible therapeutic mechanisms of TCMs via gene regulations and deducing synergistic or antagonistic contributions of the prescription components to the overall therapeutic effects. The database is now available at http://tcm.lifescience.ntu.edu.tw/. Conclusion: TCMGeneDIT is a unique database that offers diverse association information on TCMs. This database integrates TCMs with biomedical studies that would facilitate clinical research and elucidate the possible therapeutic mechanisms of TCMs and gene regulations.
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Herbs at a Glance Update: Black Cohosh
Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:41:27 -0500
This fact sheet provides basic information about the black cohosh—common names, uses, potential side effects, and resources for more information. Black cohosh, a member of the buttercup family, is a plant native to North America. It was used in Native American medicine and was a home remedy in 19th-century America.What It Is Used ForBlack cohosh has a history of use for rheumatism (arthritis and muscle pain) but has been used more recently to treat hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness, and other symptoms that can occur during menopause.Black cohosh has also been used for menstrual irregularities and premenstrual syndrome, and to induce labor.
December 1 Is World AIDS Day
Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:20:34 -0500
AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. By killing or damaging cells of the body's immune system, HIV progressively destroys the body's ability to fight infections and certain cancers. These infections are caused by viruses or bacteria that usually do not make healthy people sick.Many people infected with HIV or living with AIDS may be considering the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to boost their immune system; treat complications of disease; or cope with side effects of conventional medications.
Ginkgo Evaluation of Memory (GEM) Study Fails To Show Benefit in Preventing Dementia in the Elderly
Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:24:53 -0500
In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, 240 milligrams per day of the dietary supplement Ginkgo biloba was found to be ineffective in reducing the development of dementia and Alzheimer's disease in older people. Researchers led by Steven T. DeKosky, M.D., conducted the trial known as the Ginkgo Evaluation of Memory (GEM) study at four clinical sites over the course of 8 years. GEM is the largest clinical trial ever to evaluate ginkgo's effect on the occurrence of dementia.Press Release—summary of results of the studyQuestions and Answers—detailed background information on the study
Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine - current issue
eCAM: An Emerging Linkage with Ethnopharmacology?
Cooper, E. L. Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0000
Second World Ayurveda Congress (Theme: Ayurveda for the Future)--Inaugural Address: Part III
Mashelkar, R. A. Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0000
A Review of CAM for Procedural Pain in Infancy: Part I. Sucrose and Non-nutritive Sucking
Tsao, J. C. I., Evans, S., Meldrum, M., Altman, T., Zeltzer, L. K. Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0000
There is increasing concern regarding the number of painful medical procedures that infants must undergo and the potential risks of alleviating infant pain with conventional pharmacologic agents. This article is Part I of a two-part series that aims to provide an overview of the literature on complementary and alternative (CAM) approaches for pain and distress related to medical procedures among infants up to six weeks of age. The focus of this article is a review of the empirical literature on sucrose with or without non-nutritive sucking (NNS) for procedural pain in infancy. Computerized databases were searched for relevant studies including prior reviews and primary trials. The most robust evidence was found for the analgesic effects of sucrose with or without NNS on minor procedural pain in healthy full-term infants. Despite some methodological weaknesses, the literature to date supports the use of sucrose, NNS and other sweetened solutions for the management of procedural pain in infancy.
BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine - Latest articles
Petiveria alliacea extracts uses multiple mechanisms to inhibit growth of human and mouse tumoral cells
Claudia P Uruena, Claudia Cifuentes, Diana M Castaneda, Amparo D Arango, Punit Kaur, Alexzander A Asea and Susana Fiorentino Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0000
Background: There is ethnopharmacological evidence that Petiveria alliacea can have antitumor activity; however, the mechanism of its cytotoxic activity is not well understood. We assessed multiple in vitro biological activities of an ethyl acetate soluble plant fraction over several tumor cell lines. Methods: Tumor cell lines were evaluated using the following tests: trypan blue exclusion test, MTT [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide], flow cytometry, cytoskeleton organization analysis, cell cycle, mitochondria membrane depolarization, clonogenicity test, DNA fragmentation test and differential protein expression by HPLC-Chip/MS analysis. F4 fraction characterization was made by HPLC-MS. Results: Petiveria alliacea fraction characterized by de-replication was found to alter actin cytoskeleton organization, induce G2 cell cycle arrest and cause apoptotic cell death in a mitochondria independent way. In addition, we found down regulation of cytoskeleton, chaperone, signal transduction proteins, and proteins involved in metabolic pathways. Finally up regulation of proteins involved in translation and intracellular degradation was also observed. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that Petiveria alliacea exerts multiple biological activities in vitro consistent with cytotoxicity. Further studies in animal models are needed but Petiveria alliacea appears to be a good candidate to be used as an antitumor agent.
Induction of apoptosis of human primary osteoclasts treated with extracts from the medicinal plant Emblica officinalis
Letizia Penolazzi, Ilaria Lampronti, Monica Borgatti, Mahmud Tareq Hassan Khan, Margherita Zennaro, Roberta Piva and Roberto Gambari Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0000
Background: Osteoclasts (OCs) are involved in rheumatoid arthritis and in several pathologies associated with bone loss. Recent results support the concept that some medicinal plants and derived natural products are of great interest for developing therapeutic strategies against bone disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis. In this study we determined whether extracts of Emblica officinalis fruits display activity of possible interest for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis by activating programmed cell death of human primary osteoclasts. Methods: The effects of extracts from Emblica officinalis on differentiation and survival of human primary OCs cultures obtained from peripheral blood were determined by tartrate-acid resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP)-positivity and colorimetric MTT assay. The effects of Emblica officinalis extracts on induction of OCs apoptosis were studied using TUNEL and immunocytochemical analysis of FAS receptor expression. Finally, in vitro effects of Emblica officinalis extracts on NF-kB transcription factor activity were determined by gel shift experiments. Results: Extracts of Emblica officinalis were able to induce programmed cell death of mature OCs, without altering, at the concentrations employed in our study, the process of osteoclastogenesis. Emblica officinalis increased the expression levels of Fas, a critical member of the apoptotic pathway. Gel shift experiments demonstrated that Emblica officinalis extracts act by interfering with NF-kB activity, a transcription factor involved in osteoclast biology. The data obtained demonstrate that Emblica officinalis extracts selectively compete with the binding of transcription factor NF-kB to its specific target DNA sequences. This effect might explain the observed effects of Emblica officinalis on the expression levels of interleukin-6, a NF-kB specific target gene. Conclusion: Induction of apoptosis of osteoclasts could be an important strategy both in interfering with rheumatoid arthritis complications of the bone skeleton leading to joint destruction, and preventing and reducing osteoporosis. Accordingly, we suggest the application of Emblica officinalis extracts as an alternative tool for therapy applied to bone diseases.
TCMGeneDIT: a database for associated traditional Chinese medicine, gene and disease information using text mining
Yu-Ching Fang, Hsuan-Cheng Huang, Hsin-Hsi Chen and Hsueh-Fen Juan Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0000
Background: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), a complementary and alternative medical system in Western countries, has been used to treat various diseases over thousands of years in East Asian countries. In recent years, many herbal medicines were found to exhibit a variety of effects through regulating a wide range of gene expressions or protein activities. As available TCM data continue to accumulate rapidly, an urgent need for exploring these resources systematically is imperative, so as to effectively utilize the large volume of literature. Methods: TCM, gene, disease, biological pathway and protein-protein interaction information were collected from public databases. For association discovery, the TCM names, gene names, disease names, TCM ingredients and effects were used to annotate the literature corpus obtained from PubMed. The concept to mine entity associations was based on hypothesis testing and collocation analysis. The annotated corpus was processed with natural language processing tools and rule-based approaches were applied to the sentences for extracting the relations between TCM effecters and effects. Results: We developed a database, TCMGeneDIT, to provide association information about TCMs, genes, diseases, TCM effects and TCM ingredients mined from vast amount of biomedical literature. Integrated protein-protein interaction and biological pathways information are also available for exploring the regulations of genes associated with TCM curative effects. In addition, the transitive relationships among genes, TCMs and diseases could be inferred through the shared intermediates. Furthermore, TCMGeneDIT is useful in understanding the possible therapeutic mechanisms of TCMs via gene regulations and deducing synergistic or antagonistic contributions of the prescription components to the overall therapeutic effects. The database is now available at http://tcm.lifescience.ntu.edu.tw/. Conclusion: TCMGeneDIT is a unique database that offers diverse association information on TCMs. This database integrates TCMs with biomedical studies that would facilitate clinical research and elucidate the possible therapeutic mechanisms of TCMs and gene regulations.
Sites:
Internal Gym: Location, schedule, and cost of the mindfulness meditation classes in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States.Mindfulness in the Workplace: About the risks of mindlessness and its benefits at the workplace.(in PDF format)
University of Massachusetts Medical School: Center for Mindfulness: The programs and activities of the center including the stress reduction program, professional training programs and corporate workshops, courses, and retreats.
University of Missouri-Columbia: Mindfulness Practice Center: Offering Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Programs, Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy for Depression Groups, Yoga, Mindfulness retreats, and more.
This directory is based on the Open Directory and may have been modified