In the Media

Highlights of Traditional Chinese Medicine news from around the world.

Over 5,800 AIDS patients in China receive treatment with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)

Currently in China there are more than 5,800 AIDS patients receiving TCM treatment, according to She Jing, the country's high-ranking TCM official. Director of the State Administration of TCM, She Jing said, "It's been proved that TCM can treat some infectious diseases caused by the AIDS virus and improve patients' ability to tolerate pain brought on by Western drugs." Some 3,500 AIDS patients in China are undergoing TCM treatment through government-funded trial programs in 11 provinces and another 2,305 are receiving this type of treatment protocol at 15 institutions in 19 provinces. The administration has plans to extend TCM treatment programs to another 3 provinces in 2006, as it continues to assess the effectiveness of TCM treatment on HIV carriers and AIDS patients in China. Chinese Ministry of Health statistics show that the country has 31,143 AIDS patients and 135,630 HIV infections. —People's Daily Online

Recent studies show that common spices look promising in treating difficult cancers

Researchers have found healing properties in two common spices. Ginger can kill ovarian cancer cells and the compound that puts the "hot" in peppers can shrink pancreatic tumors, according to researchers presenting at a 2006 meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. At the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, a study on the effects of ginger was done using ginger powder dissolved in solution on ovarian cancer cell cultures. Ginger killed the cancer cells in two ways: through apoptosis (a self-destruction process thought to be important in limiting tumors) and autophagy (a process wherein cells digest themselves). "Most ovarian cancer patients develop recurrent disease that eventually becomes resistant to standard chemotherapy, which is associated with resistance to apoptosis," said Dr. Rebecca Liu, a researcher on the study, in a statement. Dr Liu also said, "If ginger can cause autophagic cell death in addition to apoptosis, it may circumvent resistance to conventional chemotherapy." Another study at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine found that capsaicin, the compound that makes peppers hot, caused apoptosis death in pancreatic cancer cells when fed to mice. "Capsaicin triggered the cancerous cells to die off and significantly reduced the size of the tumors," said Sanjay Srivastava, one of the researchers. The spicy compound killed the tumor cells yet did not affect the normal pancreas cells, researchers said. —Acupuncture.com

Acupuncture found to relieve fibromylalgia symptoms, according to Mayo Clinic study

A study at the Mayo Clinic has found that acupuncture reduced symptoms in fibromyalgia patients. In a randomized, controlled trial, 50 patients showed a significant improvement in symptoms as compared with the control group. The acupuncture was well tolerated, with minimal side effects, reducing common fibromyalgia symptoms such as fatigue and anxiety. "The results of the study convince me there is something more than the placebo effect to acupuncture," said David Martin, M.D., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic anesthesiologist and lead author of the acupuncture article in the June 2006 Mayo Clinic Proceedings. —ScienceDaily.com