Links

23-Nov-2015: Independent: Everything we thought we knew about 'healthy' food could be wrong An example of modern research confirming an ancient theory, that diets are individual and 'one size fits all' advice does not work. Science Daily has a more technical appraisal here and the Original article can be found in Cell, 2015; 163 (5): 1079 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2015.11.001 6-Nov-2015: Huffington Post: Death and the Atheist Mystic: Zhuangzi's Last Words A short piece of writing on Ch. 32 of Zhuangzi, the classical philosopher of the 4th century BC, on life and its limits. The philosophical approach to life and death are bound to influence medical practice. 16-Oct-2015: Huffington Post: Scientists Put Shamanic Medicine Under The Microscope Another story about Amazonian shamans, this time about discoveries being made from their medicines. 6-Oct-2015: The Conversation: Is the 2015 Nobel Prize a turning point for traditional Chinese medicine? Part of the 2015 Nobel Prize for medicine has gone to traditional Chinese medicine researcher Youyou Tu for her discovery of the anti-malarial properties Atemesinin recorded in a 4th Century medical manual. 18-Sep-2015: BBC News: Tai Chi 'could be prescribed' for illnesses See original article in The British Journal of Sports Medicine, published online 17th September 2015. Doi:10.1136/bjsports-2014-094388 19-Aug-2015: The Guardian: Awe: the powerful emotion with strange and beautiful effects A column explaining some recent research on the benefits of being in an awe inspiring natural environment, something the ancient Daoists encouraged. 21-Jul-2015: The Guardian: Rats help scientists get closer to solving the mystery of acupuncture See original paper in Endocrinology, published online 21 July 2015. Doi:10.1210/EN.2015-1018 17-Jul-2015: BBC: The Mysterious Ways Your Body Changes With the Weather A review of the evidence from one of the oldest theories in Chinese medicine. 14-Jul-2015: BBC: Herbal food supplement labels 'can be misleading' Accompanied by an investigation on Trust Me, I'm a Doctor. 9-Jul-2015: Express: Was surgery performed on Egyptians? Prosthetic pin in 3000-year-old mummy discovered Closer examination shows that it was inserted after his death but before burial to keep the body intact as required by Egyptian funeral rites but it builds on the discovery of the world's most ancient prosthetic to show the advanced nature of ancient medicine. 25-Jun-2015: The Mirror: Chris Evans has acupuncture as Top Gear and TFI leave him 'too excited' to sleep 24-Jun-2015: Mongabay: Amazon tribe creates 500-page traditional medicine encyclopedia It is both great that these people are taking steps to preserve their traditions and sad that they have to. The issues around biopiracy makes me realise how lucky we are that China is powerful enough to stand up for its own traditional knowledge and willing to share it with the rest of the world. 13-Jun-2015: The Telegraph: New over-the-counter drugs based on Chinese medicine to hit UK chemists First move by a UK company to create EU approved patent remedies based on Chinese herbs. 10-Jun-2015: Alert and Oriented: Is medicine a scientific enterprise? An interesting discussion on the role of science in medicine in response to the scientism community's criticism of the Mayo clinic for offering Reiki. 12-May-2015: The Guardian: Doctors to withhold treatments in campaign against 'too much medicine' Reducing the culture of over-medicating or a way to cut costs and deprive people of care? Either way it implies practices like acupuncture, massage, mindfulness and talking based therapy may be about to rise. 5-May-2015: Harvard Gazette: Meditation may relieve IBS and IBD Pilot study suggests it may affect the expression genes related to inflammation. Based upon original article in PLOS One, April 30, 2015, Doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0123861 3-May-2015: BBC News: Great Gut Extinction: Has modern life destroyed our health? Not Chinese medicine specifically but about health in traditional cultures, especially how our gut and skin microbiomes may have been changed by modern lifestyle. 21-Apr-2015: The Guardian: Mindfulness as effective as pills for treating recurrent depression. See also an opposing article: Mindfulness: beware the hype, questioning the results and another on how Mindfulness meditation can boost your career and help you get a job with some reference to its eastern origins and the problems of modernising traditional practices. It seems the Guardian had a mindfulness special! The original article that inspired them all can be seen in The Lancet, 20th April 2015. 13-Apr-2015: Daily Mail: GP who swears turmeric helps ease aches: And she's far from the only doctor who relies on rather unorthodox remedies Mentions acupuncture for migraines as well as some Chinese and western herbs, hypnosis, yoga and other 'alternative' remedies that have convinced doctors to advise them to their patients. 2-Apr-2015: Telegraph: Take the test: what your back pain could mean Mentions acupuncture and manual therapies as treatments. Bizarrely it also advises paracetamol which they reported as doing more harm than good just two day before here. 1-Apr-2015: Daily Mail: From tiger paws to bear testicles, the bizarre animal parts on sale in China's 'medicine markets' where the more endangered a species is, the more healing qualities it is believed to have April Fools? Probably not but most of the items here do not appear in any pharmacopoeia that I am aware of and so are part of the shady underworld of "folk medicine" rather than orthodox Chinese medicine. 30-Mar-2015: BBC News: 1,000-year-old onion and garlic eye remedy kills MRSA. Not Chinese medicine but evidence that our ancestors has some quite effective remedies up their sleeves. The New Scientist report also mentions how the modern antimalarial drug artemisinin was discovered by searching ancient Chinese medical texts. 3-Feb-2015: IFL Science: Otzi the 5,300-Year-Old Iceman has 61 Tattoos An update about Otzi's tattoos which are widely thought to be an early form of acupuncture. An article with larger images is available free and the original paper by the Journal of Cultural Heritage available for purchase only. There is also a previous update on the medical forensics of his life available from Inflammopharmacology, 21 Feb 2013: Pp. 11-20 too. 6-Jan-2015: BBC: Managing pain with the power of the mind Article about mindfulness for pain control.