Has anyone ever used traditional chinese medicine effictively?
Monday, April 12th, 2010 at
12:16 pm
my 22 y.o. sister has rheumatoid arthritis and i can’t bear to see her like this. Western treatment has been unaffective and too expensive for prolonged usage.
Filed under: Traditional Chinese Medicine
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Hi, i’m sorry about your sister.
Yes,TCM herbs can be effective with Rheumatoid arthritis.
There is medical literature showing TCM to be effective in a variety of conditions.
Skepdoc had one thing right in his answer and that was that Alternative Medicine is also cheap neither.
All medicines regardless whether pharmaceuticals or herbs can be costly so thats something to keep in mind.
If your going to see a TCM practitioner make sure that you be prudent and search around for someone knowledgable in treating this area because just like with M.D’s misdiagnosises can happen with TCM practitioners too so its better to choose your practitioner carefully to have better reassurance of getting it right the first time.
http://www.annals.org/content/151/4/229.full
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10680192?dopt=Abstract
http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/272/3/1305.abstract?ijkey=33d6f97d113899e7e2d0a1c24a2bd2d488ad9219&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha
http://www.jrheum.org/content/28/10/2160.abstract?ijkey=81c1c87ee7a83fc3ecf8439718560dcb295780cf&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha
http://ecam.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/6/1/57
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/96515811/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090604144328.htm
http://ecam.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/nem168v1?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=arthritis&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT
http://ecam.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/3/3/359?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=arthritis&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT
Edit.Skepdoc-thanks for your respectful edit without insults.
I acknowledge the relative lack of scientific studies regarding herbs,in this instance TCM herbs.
I also note that there is a very large amount of Chinese studies regarding TCM,however i also aknowledge that some of these studies can be flawed.
At the same time, i dont dismiss altogether the results of these studies and have to consider them carefully.
I also aknowledge that "western" produced studies are flawed too sometimes.
I didn’t mention toxicity issues in general in the scope of this answer but that doesn’t mean that i don’t aknowledge them or that i believe a misconception that all herbs are safe and without side effects or toxicity.
I simply didnt mention it, in the same way that i also didn’t mention issues regarding herbs in pregnancy,issues regarding regulation,combined herbal formulas vs single herbs,the limitations of pharmaceuticals,the limitation of herbs,etc or any other topic not because i dont have an opinion on it but simply it wasn’t what the question was asking directly.
I simply left it out "randomly" sake,randomly didnt cover it like other issues and not because i dont believe in/acknowledge toxicity- i do.
Regarding toxicity specifically for the herb from my first links,i didnt mention this because i havn’t seen the study that you linked so i appreciate you for linking it so i am now aware.
I acknowledge that there is a lack of studies regarding herbs & many herbs are very interesting & promising and many more studies need to be conducted but studies are also hugely expensive so this is a large limitation so at the present time there is an ‘at your own risk" element to taking herbs because well conducted studies are limited.
There are also many anecdotal evidence,while some people dismiss anecdotal evidence altogether,although i dont dismiss it altogether personally and consider it very important & for the most part believe & trust peoples experiences however at the same time too it also has very many problems/drawbacks because anecdotes might say that a group of people found "XYZ’ to work for certain condition however that doesnt tell us anything about any sideeffects that anyone experienced or other issues.Another problem with anecdotes is that sometimes certain herbs are said to be specific for a certain condition which they arn’t in reality and there are other problems with anecdotes too.
TCM,truly can be effective in Rheumatoid Arthritis however currently due to the relative lack of large studies,it does mean that a person has to have some belief of peoples anecdotes and trust in the practitioners studies and clinical experience/observations and take a risk, or the other option is to keep searching for something effective pharmaceutical wise or heating pads etc.
acupuncture seems to have gained a lot of ground since the 70,s. try that.
I know several people of chinese ancestry that swear by it. It can’t hurt to try.
Yes! Western medicine was making my wrist tendinitis worse, but after a couple of months of acupuncture and herbs, TCM fixed me and I’ve had no residual problems
marijuana was actually used in chinese medicine, and i’ve used it succesfully for stress relief, and backpain
Not to my knowledge. I’m not being facetious. All you will get from here are testimonials from people,but if you review the medical literature, there is nothing in TCM shown to be effective. The most plausible aspect of TCM is the herbs, and there are no GOOD studies showing clinical benefit.
RA is a difficult disease to have and manage. Anyone with RA needs to be under the care of a rheumatologist, and there are some new treatments that work better.
If cost is a major factor, it may surprise you to find out how expensive Alt Med can be. It’s not cheap.
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EDIT
Irene. I did read the first 3-4 articles you posted and skimmed the rest. Several were about just one herb and the others mentioned different ones. The trials were all small with high dropout rates and minor positive findings, the other articles are very preliminary plausibility studies from obscure Chinese journals, notorious for biased AM publishing. I note that one has apparently been studied since the 1960′s and still no overwhelming proof that it is superior to standard therapy in any way. Alties would laugh at us if we had been studying penicillin that long without conclusive proof
Please note that I do acknowledge herbals are plausible. Plants contain chemicals that have evolved to serve plants needs, and it is an accident of nature that some of them have "medicinal" properties in humans. It is also accidental that some of them are fatal and some induce pleasure. For all herbs, however promising or plausible, what is lacking is proof of efficacy, safety, superiority and multiple issues around quality control and potency. Furthermore you failed to mention things like its toxicity.
http://molpharm.aspetjournals.org/content/57/3/512.abstract
While I appreciate your efforts to support your claims with evidence , the studies you linked do not convince me to change my original answer. There are no herbs that offer a meaningful alternative to standard therapy. People of course are free to make their own choices.