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NCCAM Featured Content
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
Massage Therapy May Ease Pain and Improve Mood in Advanced Cancer Patients
Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:34:20 -0500
People with advanced cancer often experience pain that causes physical and emotional distress, which leads to a decrease in functional ability and quality of life. Symptom relief is an important part of end-of-life care, and small studies have suggested that massage therapy may benefit people with advanced cancer.In a study funded in part by NCCAM, researchers investigated the benefits of massage versus simple touch therapy (placing both hands on specific body sites) in patients with advanced cancer. This multisite study—conducted at 15 U.S. hospices in the Population-based Palliative Care Research Network—included 380 participants with advanced cancer who were experiencing moderate-to-severe pain. Participants were randomly assigned to receive six 30-minute treatment sessions of either massage or simple touch therapy over a 2-week period.
CAM and Hepatitis C: A Focus on Herbal Supplements
Tue, 04 Nov 2008 11:16:44 -0500
Hepatitis C, a liver disease caused by a virus, is usually chronic (long-lasting), with symptoms ranging from mild (or even none) to severe. Conventional medical treatments are available for hepatitis C; however, some people also try complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies, especially herbal supplements. This fact sheet provides basic information on hepatitis C, summarizes scientific research on the effectiveness and safety of selected supplements, and suggests sources for additional information.Key Points No CAM treatment has yet been proven effective for treating hepatitis C or its complications. It is important not to replace conventional medical therapy for hepatitis C with an unproven CAM therapy. Tell your health care providers about any complementary and alternative practices you use. Give them a full picture of what you do to manage your health. This will help ensure coordinated and safe care.
Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine - current issue
eCAM: Early Harvest
Cooper, E. L. Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0000
Second World Ayurveda Congress (Theme: Ayurveda for the Future)--Inaugural Address: Part II
Mashelkar, R. A. Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0000
Can Vitex Agnus Castus be Used for the Treatment of Mastalgia? What is the Current Evidence?
Carmichael, A.R. Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0000
There have been many treatments suggested for the management of mastalgia; one of these is the fruit extract of Vitex Agnus castus L. commonly known as Agnus castus, an extract of a deciduous shrub native to Mediterranean Europe and Central Asia. It is postulated that A. castus suppresses the stress-induced latent hyperprolactinemia which is a release of supra-physiological levels of prolactin in some patients in response to stressful stimuli. It is postulated that A. castus could be effective in the treatment of cyclical mastalgia by inhibiting the release of excess prolactin by blocking Dopamine-2 receptor type on pituitary. The adverse events following A. castus treatment are mild and reversible. The aim of this review is assess the efficacy of A. castus in the treatment of mastalgia. Data from randomized and non-randomized studies regarding the efficacy and safety of A. castus is reviewed in a systematic fashion. It is concluded that A. castus can be considered as an efficient alternative phytotherapeutic agent in the treatment of mastalgia.
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. Conclusions: 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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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
Massage Therapy May Ease Pain and Improve Mood in Advanced Cancer Patients
Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:34:20 -0500
People with advanced cancer often experience pain that causes physical and emotional distress, which leads to a decrease in functional ability and quality of life. Symptom relief is an important part of end-of-life care, and small studies have suggested that massage therapy may benefit people with advanced cancer.In a study funded in part by NCCAM, researchers investigated the benefits of massage versus simple touch therapy (placing both hands on specific body sites) in patients with advanced cancer. This multisite study—conducted at 15 U.S. hospices in the Population-based Palliative Care Research Network—included 380 participants with advanced cancer who were experiencing moderate-to-severe pain. Participants were randomly assigned to receive six 30-minute treatment sessions of either massage or simple touch therapy over a 2-week period.
CAM and Hepatitis C: A Focus on Herbal Supplements
Tue, 04 Nov 2008 11:16:44 -0500
Hepatitis C, a liver disease caused by a virus, is usually chronic (long-lasting), with symptoms ranging from mild (or even none) to severe. Conventional medical treatments are available for hepatitis C; however, some people also try complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies, especially herbal supplements. This fact sheet provides basic information on hepatitis C, summarizes scientific research on the effectiveness and safety of selected supplements, and suggests sources for additional information.Key Points No CAM treatment has yet been proven effective for treating hepatitis C or its complications. It is important not to replace conventional medical therapy for hepatitis C with an unproven CAM therapy. Tell your health care providers about any complementary and alternative practices you use. Give them a full picture of what you do to manage your health. This will help ensure coordinated and safe care.
Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine - current issue
eCAM: Early Harvest
Cooper, E. L. Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0000
Second World Ayurveda Congress (Theme: Ayurveda for the Future)--Inaugural Address: Part II
Mashelkar, R. A. Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0000
Can Vitex Agnus Castus be Used for the Treatment of Mastalgia? What is the Current Evidence?
Carmichael, A.R. Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0000
There have been many treatments suggested for the management of mastalgia; one of these is the fruit extract of Vitex Agnus castus L. commonly known as Agnus castus, an extract of a deciduous shrub native to Mediterranean Europe and Central Asia. It is postulated that A. castus suppresses the stress-induced latent hyperprolactinemia which is a release of supra-physiological levels of prolactin in some patients in response to stressful stimuli. It is postulated that A. castus could be effective in the treatment of cyclical mastalgia by inhibiting the release of excess prolactin by blocking Dopamine-2 receptor type on pituitary. The adverse events following A. castus treatment are mild and reversible. The aim of this review is assess the efficacy of A. castus in the treatment of mastalgia. Data from randomized and non-randomized studies regarding the efficacy and safety of A. castus is reviewed in a systematic fashion. It is concluded that A. castus can be considered as an efficient alternative phytotherapeutic agent in the treatment of mastalgia.
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. Conclusions: 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:
Centers for Gayatri Reiki: Become a Gayatri Reiki practitioner and substantially increase your healing power. Learn how to manifest any desire while you positively rewrite the destinies of millions of people as well as your own.Healing thru Spirit: Beverly Chapman, Reiki Master Teacher, Intuitive, Life's Purpose Coach, Aromatherapist, Healing with stones, color, sound movement, Clearing areas, people of heavy energies, Creating Healing Vortex's, Communication with all life forms
International Directory of Reiki Practitioners and Therapists: International resource list of reiki trainers, educators, health professionals, social workers, therapists, counselors.
International Reiki Learning Center: Reiki is a powerful method of balancing body, mind, and spirit. The International Reiki Learning Center, based in New York City, offers healing Reiki treatments and training throughout the world.
Michael Reiki: Provides the basic information, use, and what a treatment session involves.
Reikivivo.com: Practioners, classes and treatments in Napoli, Italy; London, England; Boulder, Colorado; and New York. Multilingual site.
Sacred Moon Reiki: A new form of Reiki that honors the moon as a vitial sourse of energy and healing for women. For Reiki Master, One level Mastership.
Spirit Teaching: Classes in all levels of Reiki as well as classes to help develop your intuition. Flower essence formulas are available as well.
The International Association of Reiki: Information on educational programs and retreats worldwide. Founded by Mari Hall, in the Czech Republic. Multilingual site.
The NRG Association: Reiki and energy therapy courses offered online or through distance learning.
This directory is based on the Open Directory and may have been modified