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Research Archive

Welcome to our Chinese medicine and acupuncture research news pages. We add to the content of these pages continuously as more research news comes in. Browse through the complete archive below or use the category links on the right.

Please note that the most twenty recent research archive items are free to view but access to the thousands of items in the archive require a journal subscription.

Benefits of brief meditation training

Categories: Qigong

Just four days of meditation training can improve a person's cognition and mood, according to an American study. After four daily 20-minute sessions of either meditation training or listening to a recorded book (active control), the 69 participants, all of whom had no prior meditation experience were assessed with measures of mood, verbal fluency, visual coding, and working memory. Both interventi ...

The effects of Qigong meditation on the prefrontal cortex

Categories: Qigong

A Canadian study has provided evidence that qigong meditation has a significant effect on the activation of the brain's prefrontal cortex. The effect of qigong meditation on the haemodynamics of the prefrontal cortex was investigated using spectroscopy, during meditation by qigong practitioners, and by non-practitioners instructed in the technique. Practitioners showed a significant increase in pr ...

External qigong can ease chronic pain

Categories: Qigong

External qigong treatment (EQT) can significantly reduce subjective feelings of pain in patients suffering from a variety of chronic pain conditions. Fifty participants were randomised to receive either EQT or equivalent attention time (EAT) in weekly 30-min sessions for four consecutive weeks. Most patients were also receiving other treatments concurrently. Compared to the EAT group, EQT particip ...

Qigong improves addiction treatment outcomes

Categories: Substance abuse, Qigong

A small pilot study from the USA suggests that qigong meditation can contribute positively to addiction treatment outcomes, with results at least as good as those of an established stress management program. 248 participants undergoing residential treatment for substance abuse chose to participate in either meditation or Stress Management and Relaxation Training (SMART) twice a day as part of the ...

Tai chi has multiple benefits in rheumatoid arthritis

Categories: Arthritis , Tai chi

A Norwegian study has used both quantitative and qualitative methods to examine how group tai chi exercise impacted on disease activity, physical function, health status and experience in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Fifteen patients were instructed in TC twice weekly for 12 weeks. TC led to improved lower-limb muscle function at the end of intervention and at 12 weeks follow-up. Qualitativ ...

Tai chi improves psychological well-being

Categories: Psychological / emotional, Tai chi

A systematic review carried out by US researchers has found that tai chi appears to be associated with improvements in many aspects of psychological health. Forty studies totaling 3817 subjects were subjected to meta-analysis. The results showed that regular TC significantly increased psychological well-being, including reduction of stress, anxiety, and depression, enhanced mood and increased self ...

Health benefits of qigong and tai chi

Categories: Qigong, Tai chi

American authors have carried out a comprehensive review of the health benefits of qigong and tai chi. Seventy-seven articles met their inclusion criteria. Nine outcome category groupings emerged: bone density, cardiopulmonary effects, physical function, falls and related risk factors, quality of life, self-efficacy, patient-reported outcomes, psychological symptoms, and immune function. The autho ...

Tai chi benefits women with osteoarthritis

Categories: Arthritis , Tai chi

Korean researchers have shown that tai chi was able to improve bone density and muscle strength and decrease fear of falling, when practised by older women suffering from osteoarthritis. Eighty-two women were randomly assigned to either a TC group or a control group. After a six-month study period, subjects in the TC group had significantly greater knee extensor endurance and significantly greater ...

Tai chi improves physical performance in peripheral neuropathy

Categories: Neurological, Tai chi

American researchers have found that long-term tai chi exercise improves physical performance among people with peripheral neuropathy. Twenty-five patients completed 24 consecutive weeks of modified, group-based TC. After six weeks of TC, participants showed increased six-minute walk, timed up-and-go, and leg strength performance. Continued improvement was observed in the timed up-and-go. Plantar ...

Tai chi leads to better heart disease prognosis

Categories: Heart / Cardiac, Tai chi

Taking part in a six-month tai chi (TC) exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation program may lead to a better prognosis for cardiac events in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Fifty-four Taiwanese patients were randomised to usual care or usual care plus TC (weekly 90 minute sessions of Yang style TC) for six months. A treadmill exercise test was performed to evaluate their exercise test r ...

Smells like good medicine

Categories: Herb research

Beany flavour is a traditional sensory indicator for evaluating the quality of Huang Qi (Astragali Radix). A root with a strong beany flavour is considered to be of good quality in Chinese medicine. A new study from China has linked the beany flavour to the volatile component hexanal. In addition, the level of hexanal was positively associated with the concentration of astragaloside IV and total p ...

Ancient methods lead to more effective malaria medicines

Categories: Herb research, Fever/infectious diseases

Ancient Chinese preparation methods, that involved either soaking and wringing, or pounding and squeezing the fresh herb Qing Hao (Artemesiae Annuaeare Herba) are more effective than the current method of preparing herbal teas from the dried herb for producing artemisinin-rich extracts. A study by UK investigators has show that concentrations of artemisinin (the active anti-malarial component) in ...

Anti-inflammatory effect of salvia extract protects neurons

Categories: Herb research, Spinal cord

Salvianolic acid B (Sal B), a major active component of Dan Shen (Salviae miltiorrhizae Radix) may exert a neuroprotective effect by activating anti-inflammatory pathways in microglia (the resident macrophages of the brain and spinal cord). The results of the Chinese study showed that Sal B significantly reduced the production of inflammatory mediators - nitric oxide (NO), tumor necrosis factor-al ...

Antimicrobial effect of Chinese herbs against oral bacteria

Categories: Herb research

A Hong Kong team has evaluated Twenty Chinese herbs for their antimicrobial activity against four common oral bacteria, using an in vitro assay. Thirteen herbs demonstrated activity against Porphyromonas gingivalis, including Hou Po (Magnoliae Cortex) Huang Bai (Phellodendri Cortex), Ding Xiang (Caryophylli Flos), Jin Yin Hua (Flos Lonicerae Japonicae), Wu Mei (Mume Fructus), Lian Qiao (Forsythiae ...

Berberine for diabetes and herpes

Categories: Diabetes, Skin / dermatology, Herb research

Chinese scientists recently performed a comprehensive metabonomic analysis to reveal potential mechanisms of berberine action in the treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes and dyslipidemia. Berberine is an alkaloid with a bright yellow color whose primary sources among Chinese herbs are Huang Bai (Phellodendri Cortex) and Huang Lian (Coptidis Rhizoma). Serum samples were collected from 60 pati ...

Metabonomics for screening herb effects

Categories: Herb research

Metabonomics is an emerging technology that enables rapid in vivo screening of the metabolic responses of living systems to pathophysiological stimuli. It combines the power of high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy with multivariate statistical analysis methods to rapidly provide a comprehensive metabolic profile of an organism. It can therefore provide extensive systems-le ...

Worms reveal secrets of herbal medicines

Categories: Herb research

American scientists have developed a biological method of testing the effects of herbal formulae using a laboratory model based on the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. This worm shares genes for aging and other traits with humans and other organisms. The researchers tested Shi Quan Da Bu Tang (SQDB), a mixture of ten herbs used to combat fatigue, and an 11-herb formula, Huo Luo Xiao Ling Dan (HLXL ...

Huang Qin's antibiotic and anti-cancer activity

Categories: Cancer, Herb research

Baicalein is a flavonoid extracted from Huang Qin (Scutellariae Radix) and is found in a wide range of Chinese herbal medicines that have been used historically for their anti-inflammatory, antibiotic and anti-tumor action. Recent Chinese studies are revealing the molecular mechanisms responsible for these activities. In one study, baicalin was found to have an inhibitory activity on chlamydia inf ...

Bi-Qi capsules prevent inflammation

Categories: Herb research

Bi-Qi capsules, which are prescribed for rheumatoid arthritis and other osteoarticular diseases, have been found to suppress inflammation via several molecular pathways. The capsules contents include Ma Qian Zi (Strychni Semen), Dang Shen (Codonopsis Radix) Fu Ling (Poriae Cocos Sclerotium), Bai Zhu (Atractylodes Macrocephalae Radix), Gan Cao (Glycyrrhizae Radix), Chuan Xiong (Chuanxiong Rhizoma) ...

Chinese herbs for diabetic ulcers

Categories: Diabetes

A systematic review carried out in China has concluded that Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) may be effective and safe as an adjunctive therapy for treating diabetic foot ulcers (DFU). Six trials were included in the meta-analysis. Compared to standard therapy alone, CHM combined with standard therapy significantly increased the number of patients whose ulcers healed, as well as the number of patient ...